Translations:Victor of Aveyron/87/en

As yet little progress has been made destined for his subsistence, as soon as a bunch of dried pods was brought to him, he used to go for a kettle, and establish the scene of this operation in the middle of his apartment. There he arranged his materials in the most commodious manner possible. The pot was placed on his right hand, and the beans on his left; he opened the shells one after the other with an inimitable suppleness of fingers; he put into the kettle the good grains, and threw away those which were unfit for use; if, by chance, at ) grain escaped him, he took it up and placed it with the other*. As he emptied the shells, he added them beside him in exact order, and when his work was finished, he took up the kettle, and after having filled it with water, placed it on the fire, r ' 1c ^ 1C3t °* which he increased through the? \ shells, winch lie had put in a separate heap with regard to the sense of hearing, in this respect, the Savage of Aveyron was merely upon a level with one of the deaf and dumb. This consideration induced me to try the method of instruction that has been adopted by Citizen Sicard. I began by the first steps usual in that celebrated school, and drew, upon a blackboard, the lineal figure of certain objects, which a simple design was sufficient to represent; such as a key, scissors, and a hammer. I repeatedly placed, at those moments when I saw that I was observed, each of the objects]; and when I was satisfied by this, of his having perceived the relations that they bore to each other, I wished him to bring me them in succession, making by my finger the figure of that which I asked for. I obtained nothing by this; I returned to the experiment a great many times, and always with as little success: he either refused, from obstinacy, to bring me that of the three things that I marked out, or with this he brought the two others, and presented them all to me at the same time. I was myself convinced that this was merely to be attributed to his indolence, by which he was prevented from doing, at different times, what he perceived might as well be done at once. I then thought; it was right to make use of a method that forced him to direct his attention to each of these objects separately. I had observed, even for some months past, that he had a remarkable taste for order; it was on this account that he sometimes got out of his bed in order to arrange any piece of furniture or utensil which happened to be out of it proper place. r l his propensity still more decidedly showed itself concerning those things which were suspended on the wall; each had its particular nail and hook; and when any change was made in their situation, he was not at rest ’till he replaced them himself. I had then only to arrange, in the same manner, the things on which I wished to exercise his attention. I suspended, by a nail, each of the objects below the figure which rèjn'eséfi^éllHhem, and left them for some time. When afterward I took them away and gave them to Victor, they were immediately replaced in their proper order. I recommenced the experiment a great many times, and always with the same result: I was far, however, from attributing it to his discernment; this classification might simply be an act of the memory. To satisfy me with regard to this point, I changed the respective position of the figures, and I then saw him, without any regard to this transposition, arrange the objects in the same order as before. In fact, nothing was so easy as to teach him the new classification forced upon him by this new change, but nothing more difficult than to make him reason about it. His memory had all the merit of each arrangement. I then contrived to deprive him, in some measure, of the assistance which he drew from this source. This I did by continually fatiguing his memory, by increasing the number of figures and with the frequency of their inversions. In that case, the faculty of recollection would become an insufficient guide to the methodical arrangement of all these numerous bodies, and therefore the understanding must have recourse to a comparison of the design with the thing. What an important point should I then have achieved! Of this I had no longer doubt when I saw young Victor attach his looks in succession to each of the objects, to choose one of them, and then to seek the figure to which it belonged; and of this, I had very soon a more substantial proof, by trying the inversion of the figures, which was followed, on his part, by the inversion of the objects themselves.