Эндрю Тэйлор – The Silent Boy (страница 21)

‘What course of treatment would you recommend?’

The doctor’s lips moved silently as he considered the question. ‘If I were all-powerful, I should wish to know a great deal about the boy and his upbringing. Have you read Dr Gregory’s Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with Those of the Animal World? It is most instructive. I wonder, for example, whether Charles was fed at his mother’s breast or whether his parents hired a wet nurse.’

‘I cannot understand why that should be of any importance,’ Savill said.

‘That is because you are a layman, sir. A mother’s milk does more than nourish the body of an infant. It also imparts sentiments of virtue, even morality. If a woman feeds another’s child purely for mercenary reasons, then what nourishes the body does not nourish the soul as well, or not in the same way.’

‘His mother’s milk won’t cure him now.’ Savill spoke roughly, the toothache affecting his manners. ‘The boy has been mute for nearly two months.’

‘I agree, sir, it is very curious.’ The doctor was unruffled by Savill’s tone. ‘It’s a most unusual case, quite fascinating. And I believe our best chance of curing the patient is to rely not on the nostrums of the past, but on the philosophy of the future. Tell me, are you aware of the work of Karl Philipp Moritz? He edits a journal on what we physicians call Erfahrungsseelenkunde.’

‘And what does that mean?’

‘I suppose one might translate the term as the empirical science of the soul. It is an inductive science above all. Facts should be the building blocks for theory, not the other way round. Moritz encourages his readers to write down their childhood memories, and to use them for self-analysis.’

‘Ow!’ said Savill. ‘I – I beg your pardon, Doctor.’

‘Not at all. My own view, sir, is this: the human mind is a complicated matter but there are always causes for any effects we perceive. Reason tells us that and natural philosophy confirms it at every turn. Somewhere there is a key to Charles’s silence. If we can find that key we may turn the lock and he will speak again.’

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