Translations:Victor of Aveyron/41/en

The suddenness of the change in his manner of life, the frequent import unities of the curious, some had treatment, and the inevitable effects of his living with children of his own age seemed to have extinguished all hopes of his civilization. His petulant activity of mind had insensibly degenerated into a dull apathy, which produced habits still more solitary. Thus, excepting those moments in which hunger led him to the kitchen, he was almost always to be found squatting in a corner of the garden or concealed in the second story of some ruinous buildings. In this deplorable situation lie was seen by some people from Paris, who, after a very short examination, adjudged him to be only lit to be sent to Bedlam; as if society had a right to take a child from a free and innocent life, and dismiss him to die of melancholy in a mad-house, that he might, thus expiate the misfortune of disappointed public curiosity. I thought that a more simple, and, what is of still greater importance, a much more humane course should be taken, which was to treat him kindly and to yield ready compliance with his taste and inclinations. Madame Guérin, to whose particular care the administration had entrusted this child, acquitted herself, and still discharges this arduous task, with all the patience of a mother, and the intelligence of an enlightened instructor. So far from directly opposing his habits, she knew how, in some measure, to comply with them, and thus to answer the object proposed in our first general head.