Han betyder att grevets minne inte överlevde helt sin död; han utvecklar fortfarande ", vilket barnet skulle vara (betona min):
"Well, in him the brain powers survived the physical death. Though it would seem that memory was not all complete. In some faculties of mind he has been, and is, only a child.
Dracula Chapter 23
Detta har vissa konsekvenser för våra hjältar, vilket ger dem en liten fördel över honom:
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Han är inte - åtminstone inte ursprungligen - lika mycket av en storbildstänkare; han tenderar att fokusera på de kortsiktiga målen (betona min):
Well for us, it is as yet a child-brain. For had he dared, at the first, to attempt certain things he would long ago have been beyond our power.
Dracula Chapter 23
[D]oubtless, he had made preparation for escaping from us. But his child mind only saw so far.
Dracula Chapter 25
I have hope that our man brains that have been of man so long and that have not lost the grace of God, will come higher than his child-brain that lie in his tomb for centuries, that grow not yet to our stature, and that do only work selfish and therefore small.
Dracula Chapter 25
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I stället för att ändra sitt beteende som svar på orsaken, fortsätter han att upprepa åtgärder så länge han inte får negativ feedback (eller tills han kommer ihåg):
The little bird, the little fish, the little animal learn not by principle, but empirically. [...] [U]ntil he have the purpose to do more, he continue to do the same again every time, just as he have done before!
Dracula Chapter 25
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Vidare lär han sig genom experiment-och-fel-experiment snarare än att räkna med sin väg mot "optimala" resultat:
Do we not see how at the first all these so great boxes were moved by others. He knew not then but that must be so. But all the time that so great child-brain of his was growing, and he began to consider whether he might not himself move the box. So he began to help. And then, when he found that this be all right, he try to move them all alone. And so he progress, and he scatter these graves of him.
Dracula Chapter 23
Van Hellsing är dock snabbt påpekad att Dracula är , och har varit sedan dess odöda, så denna fördel är tillfällig i bästa fall:
But he is growing, and some things that were childish at the first are now of man's stature.
Dracula Chapter 23