that he is hungry."

_S----._ "Well, but then I think this is a proof against what Dr.
Darwin means about instinct."

_M----._ "Why? How?"

_S----._ "Because the young cuckoo does say cuckoo! without being
taught, it does not learn from the sparrows. How comes it to say
cuckoo at all, if it is not by instinct? It does not see its own
father and mother."

We give this conversation as a proof that our young pupils were
accustomed to _think_ about every thing that they read.

(Nov. 8th, 1796.) The following are the "_Curiosities of Literature_,"
which were promised to the reader in the chapter upon Grammar and
Classical Literature.

Translation from Ovid. The Cave of Sleep, _first_ edition.

"No watchful cock Aurora's beams invite;
No dog nor goose, the guardians of the night."

_Dog_ and _goose_ were objected to, and the young author changed them
into dogs and geese.

"No herds nor flocks, nor human voice is heard;
But nigh the cave a _rustling_ spring appear'd."

When this line was read to S----, he changed the epithet _rustling_
into _gliding_.

"And with soft murmurs faithless sleep invites,
And there the flying past again delights;
And near the door the noxious poppy grows,
And spreads his sleepy milk at daylight's close."

S---- was now requested to translate the beginning of the sentence,
and he produced these lines:

"Far from the sun there lies a cave forlorn,
Which Sol's bright beams _can't_ enter eve nor morn."

_Can't_ was objected to. Mr. ---- asked S---- what was the literal
English. S---- first said _not_, and then _nor_; and he corrected his
line, and made it

"Which Sol's bright beams _nor_ visit eve nor morn."

Afterwards:

"Far in a vale there lies a cave forlorn,
Which Phoebus never enters eve nor morn."

After an interval of a few days, the lines were all read to the boy,
to try whether he could farther correct them; he desired to have the
two following lines left out:

"No herds, nor flocks, nor human voice is heard,
But nigh the cave a gliding spring appeared."

And in the place of them he wrote,

"No flocks nor herds disturb the silent plains:
Within the sacred walls mute quiet reigns."

Instead of the two following:

"And with soft murmurs faithless sleep invites,
And there the flying past again delights."

S---- desired his _secretary_ to write,

"But murmuring Lethe soothing sleep