S——. "What does foster nursling mean?"
M——. "It here means a bird that is nursed along with another, but that has not the same parents."
S——. "Then, does it not mean that the sparrows learn from their foster sister, the cuckoo, to say Cuckoo!"
M——. "No; the sparrow don't learn to say cuckoo, but they learn to understand what he means by that cry; 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.