When he begins to perceive distances then you must change your plan, and only carry him when you please, not when he pleases; for as soon as he is no longer deceived by his senses, there is another motive for his effort.  This change is remarkable and calls for explanation.

The discomfort caused by real needs is shown by signs, when the help of others is required.  Hence the cries of children; they often cry; it must be so.  Since they are only conscious of feelings, when those feelings are pleasant they enjoy them in silence; when they are painful they say so in their own way and demand relief.  Now when they are awake they can scarcely be in a state of indifference, either they are asleep or else they are feeling something.

All our languages are the result of art.  It has long been a subject of inquiry whether there ever was a natural language common to all; no doubt there is, and it is the language of children before they begin to speak.  This language is inarticulate, but it has tone, stress, and meaning.  The use of our own language has led us to neglect it so far as to forget it altogether.  Let us study children and we shall soon learn it afresh from them.  Nurses can teach us this language; they understand all their nurslings say to them, they answer them, and keep up long conversations with them; and though they use words, these words are quite useless.  It is not the hearing of the word, but its accompanying intonation that is understood.

To the language of intonation is added the no less forcible language of gesture.  The child uses, not its weak hands, but its face.  The amount of expression in these undeveloped faces is extraordinary; their features change from one moment to another with incredible speed.  You see smiles, desires, terror, come and go like lightning; every time the face seems different.  The muscles of the face are undoubtedly more mobile than our own.  On the other hand the eyes are almost expressionless.  Such must be the sort of signs they use at an age when their only needs are those of the body.  Grimaces are the sign of sensation, the glance expresses sentiment.

As man’s first state is one of want and weakness, his first sounds are cries and tears.  The child feels his needs and cannot satisfy them, he begs for help by his cries.  Is he hungry or thirsty? there are tears; is he too cold or too hot? more tears; he needs movement and is kept quiet, more tears; he wants to sleep and is disturbed, he weeps.  The less comfortable he is, the more he demands change.  He has only one language because he has, so to say, only one kind of discomfort.  In the imperfect state of his sense organs he does not distinguish their several impressions; all ills produce one feeling of sorrow.

These tears, which you think so little worthy of your attention, give rise to the first relation between man and his environment; here is forged the first link in the long chain of social order.