H. Taine

“ She does not yet pronounce any word to which she attaches a meaning, but there are two or three words to which she attaches a meaning on hearing them uttered. She daily sees her grandfather, whose portrait, far less than life-size, but a very good likeness, has often been shown to her. ”

“ Among animals, man is, what some great and ingenious poet is among laborers and peasants: in a word, he is cognizant of a multitude of shades and tints, even to a whole class of shades, which are unnoticed by them. ”

“ This is simple curiosity; the child's physical wants, its desire of food, have nothing to do with the matter. It would seem as though already in its little brain each group of perceptions tends to complete itself, as in the brain of a child that possesses language. ”

“ In my opinion, out of this enormous multiplicity of movements, continually repeated, will be separated, by gradual selection, intentional movements having an object and attaining it. During the last fifteen days (age, two and a half months) I have observed one movement which is plainly an acquired one: on hearing its grandmother's voice, the infant turns its head in the direction from which the sound proceeds.
There is the same spontaneous training for the use of the voice as for movements. The vocal organ acquires dexterity just as the limbs do. ”

“ She soon uttered this sound at will, with easy, unerring execution (though without understanding what it meant) , as simple prattle. In short, example and education have served only to call the child's attention to sounds which she herself was already attempting to make; to direct her preference to these, to make them uppermost among the host of similar sounds. But the initiative all came from herself; and the same is to be said with respect to gesture. For months she of her own accord attempted all the movements of the arms, flexion of the hand at the wrist, bringing the hands together, etc. ”

“ And an infant scarcely employs a single word that is not destined later to receive a more restricted meaning. Like primitive peoples, infants incline to conceive large and general ideas. The child presents, in the transitional state, mental characters which we find in the fixed state in primitive civilizations, just as the human embryo presents in the transitional state physical characters which are found in the fixed state in certain lower classes of animals. ”

“ Now let us suppose a people to stop at this idea, and to have no other definition of death than this. For them the Beyond will be the Sheol of the Hebrews—the place where the motionless dead live a vague sort of life. ”

“ If we speak to the child of an object at some little distance, but which she can represent to herself definitely enough, having seen the object itself or something like it, her first question always is: "What does it say? ”

“ The infant is pleased with its prattle, like a bird; one can see that she is happy—that she smiles with pleasure—yet it is nothing better than the chirruping of a bird as yet, for the child does not attach any meaning to the sounds she utters. (Age, twelve months) .
She has acquired thus much, in great measure, by her own endeavors and unassisted, but she has gained a little by the aid of others and by imitation. First, of her own accord she produced the sound mm ”

“ On summing up the facts already stated we reach the following conclusions; it remains for others to modify them by observing other infants:
At first the infant cries, and employs its vocal organ in the same way as its limbs, spontaneously and after the manner of reflex action. Spontaneously, too, and because it finds pleasure in being active, the infant later exercises its vocal organs in the same way it exercises its limbs, gaining the perfect use of them by repeated essays and by a process of selection. ”

“ Then, after instruction and repeated effort, she learned to clap hands, to hold up the two hands, as in the gesture of astonishment, etc. Example, instruction, and education, are only channels in the bed of which the stream flows; its source lies higher. ”

“ She is beginning to distinguish between the tone of anger and that of pleasure; she quits doing anything forbidden with severe countenance, or with voice expressive of disapproval; of her own accord she frequently shows a desire of being fondled. But she has learned or invented but few new words recently. Her chief new words are Pa (Paul) , Babert (Gilbert) , bébé (baby) , bééé (nanny-goat) , cola (chocolate) , oua-oua (anything good to eat) , ham (eating, I want to eat) . There are a number of other words which she understands, but is unable to pronounce, such as grandfather, grandmother. ”