Volume 8

Natural history, general and particular / by the Count de Buffon, translated into English. Illustrated with above 300 copper-plates, and occasional notes and observations. By William Smellie.

  • Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de, 1707-1788.
Date:
1785
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Natural history, general and particular / by the Count de Buffon, translated into English. Illustrated with above 300 copper-plates, and occasional notes and observations. By William Smellie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    84/462 (page 68)
    rents can perform, ‘To an infant, feveral years are neceflary before it acquires this degree of perfection ; becaufe, when brought forth, it is incomparably lefs advanced, weaker, and more ~ imperfe@ly formed, than the fmaller animals, In early infancy, the ATH is nothing, when com- pared to the powers it will afterwards acquire, In receiving individual education, therefore, the infant is ce flower than the bistitel’ ;: but, for this very reafon, it becomes fufceptible of that of the fpecies. The multiplicity of fuccours, the continual cares, which the flate of imbecillity for a long time requires, cherifh and augment the attachment of the parents. In training the body, they cultivate the mind. The time employed’ in ftrengthening the former gives an advantage to the latter. The bodily powers of moft ani- mals are more advanced in two months than thofe of the infant in two years. Hence the | time employed in beflowing on the infant its individual education, is as twelve to one, without eftimating the fruits of what follows after this period, without confidering that animals fepa- rate from their parents as foon as they can pro- vide for themfelves, and that, not long after this feparation, they know each other no more, All education ceafes the moment that the aid of the parents becomes unneceflary. This time of edu- cation being fo fhort, its effets muft be very li- mited : It is even aftonifhing that the animals equines in two months, all that is neceflary for. them