Translations:Victor of Aveyron/104/en

In the meantime, it may be desirable to state some of the most important inferences relative to the philosophical and natural history of man, that may be already deduced from this first series of observations! Let them be collected; let them be classed with speaking of a similar case of being assisted by signs, “ would permit us to remark everything which we owe to them, we should have nothing to do, but to place ourselves in the situation of this young man, m order to understand the reason why he was so slow in acquiring knowledge; but the fact is, that we always draw our inferences from our own circumstances. It is likewise necessary, to form a sound judgment, in the case of this child, not to be satisfied with a single examination, but to observe it and study it repeatedly; at every moment of its excursions, during every one of its amusements, during its little exercises; all this is absolutely necessary. They are not even sufficient, if, to form an exact comparison between the present and the past, we have not seen with our own eyes, the Savage of Aveyron during method; let them be reduced to their exact value, and we shall see in them a material proof of the most important truths; of those truths, for the discovery of which Locke and Condillac were indebted merely to the force of their genius, and the depth of their reflections. It seems to me, at least, that the followin'»’ conclusions may be drawn: the first months of his residence in Paris. Those who have not observed him at that period, and who see him at the present instant, would perceive in him only a child, that is nearly like other children, except that he does not speak; they could not be duly sensible of the important distance which exists between this being and the Savage of Ai>eyroii y just after he had been introduced into society, at a distance, in appearance, trifling, but in fact immense, when we properly reflect upon it and calculate through what a series of new reasons and acquired ideas he must have gone in ©rder to have arrived at these last results.