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Untitled Article
discordant reports . All is instinct , says one , and the instincts increase in number and in power , according to our wants at different periods of our lives . No , says another , we are like white paper , and receive our impressions from external objects ; our
bodily and mental state are equally formed by circumstances . A third party steps in with another doctrine , new in language , if not in sense ; then comes a fourth ; and after talking , and writing , and disputing , and mutually proving , or rather asserting , each other to be in the wrong , some one , more adventurous than the throng , betakes himself to observation . He examines himself on various
occasions , at different ages , and in different states of body and mind . He examines others , differing in age , sex , temperament , and condition , and compares them with himself . He then finds that he and others have learnt to see , but long before they were able to explain the process , and that now they have forgotten every thing about this process . He cannot interrogate infants ; so he reasons upon the subject , makes up his theory , and avails himself of the rare occurrence of an adult , blind from birth , but
successfully operated upon , and receiving sight , whom he may interrogate ; for in respect to vision , this adult is as yet an infant . The deaf acquiring the sense of hearing , afford him new experiments on another sense . He then inquires into the condition of the blind generally , with and without that education which we are now able to give to them ; also into the condition of the deaf and dumb , under both circumstances : and of those unfortunate
beings , like James Mitchell , ( so interestingl y described by Dugald Stewart , ) who being deaf , dumb , and blind , show no traces of mental imbecility that may not be accounted for by the absence of these senses . Savages , and human beings brought up alone , like Peter the wild boy , have also been examined , as
exemplifications of man under extraordinary circumstances . But favourable specimens of human nature , under rnost of these circumstances , are so rare ; and when they do occur , it is so seldom competent observers are at hand , that the most valuable opportunities are too frequently partially , ifnot wholly lost . Such a case is that of Caspar Hauser .
Let it not be supposed that these intricate studies are idle or worthless . Is it nothing to learn as much of human nature as our faculties and opportunities permit ? Are stones , and plants , and animals to be studied , while man is neglected ? Our senses and faculties , bodily and mental , may be greatly improved b y education ; we have yet very much to learn of this first of studies ,
almost every thing to learn ; and our only chance of making progress , is to interrogate ourselves and others , in varied circumstances . The more striking and novel the circumstances of rnind , or body , or situation , the more clearly is some portion of body or mind exhibited . * Caspar Hauser ' is the story of the condition and education
Untitled Article
518 Caspar Hauser .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1833, page 518, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2620/page/6/
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