Note 1 — Chapter I
William Blackley Drummond translation
It is common to cite with respect the names of one's predecessors, and Séguin's portrait may justly hang in such a gallery of one's ancestors. But Séguin's work must not be examined too closely; those who praise it have certainly not read it. Séguin impresses us as an empiric, endowed with great personal talent, which he has not succeeded in embodying clearly in his works. These contain some pages of good sense, with many obscurities, and many absurdities. We refer the curious reader to his chief work, Traitement Moral, Hygiène, et Education des Idiots et des autres Enfants Arriérés, published in 1846. One might make many criticisms on the writings of alienists; but to what end? We prefer to say of such predecessors what Ingres said to his pupils in the Rubens gallery at the Louvre, "Salute them, but pay no attention to them!"