Translations:Victor of Aveyron/68/en

Section 4

My fourth object was, to lead him to the use of speech, by subjecting him to the necessity of imitation. If I had wished to have published only successful experiments, I should have suppressed this fourth section from my work, as well as the means which I made use of in order to accomplish my object, as well as the little advantage which I derived from them. But my intention is not to give the history of my own labors, but merely that of the progressive developments which appeared in the mind of the Savage of Aveyron; and, of course, I ought not to omit anything»»; that can throw light on his moral history. I shall, he even obliged to advance, on this occasion, some theoretical ideas; and I hope I shall be pardoned for doing so when it is considered what attention I have paid, that they should be supported upon facts, as well as the necessity under. which I felt myself of answering such inquiries as these: “Does the savage speak?” “ If he is not deaf, why does he not speak?” It may easily be conceived, that, in the bosom of forests, and far from the society of every rational being, the ear of our savage was not in the way of experiencing any other impression than those which were made upon it by a very small number of sounds, which were in general connected with his physical wants. It was not, in such a situation, an organ that discriminates the various articulate modifications of the human voice: it was there simply an instrument of self-preservation, which informed him of the approach of a dangerous animal, or of the fall of some wild fruit. It is evident, that the car is confined to certain offices, when we consider the little or no impression which was produced upon this organ, for a whole year, by all the sounds and noises which did not interest his own particular wants; and, on the other hands, the exquisite irritability which this sense exhibited concerning those things that had any relation to his necessities. When, without his knowledge of it, I plucked, most cautiously and gently, chestnut or walnut: — when I only touched the key of the door which held him captive, he never failed instantly to turn back, and run towards the place whence the noise arose. If the hearing did not express the same susceptibility for the sounds of the human voice, for the explosion even of firearms, it may be accounted for from that organ being little sensible and attentive to any impressions except those to which it had been long and exclusively accustomed*.