What is a good first language?

My 20 year old brother wants to get into programming.  I want to set him up with a language that has these features:

1. Easy to learn, must have simple syntax
2. Immediate results, easy to make graphical and text outputs.
3. Fully featured language(I want him to be able to easily progress into more advanced stuff and not be limited by the language)
4. Fast(So he gets the idea of how powerful computers are)

>>71
Starting at the top is better. Starting at the bottom entails learning habits and skills that don't apply to actual development. The student is then left cold by (relatively) complicated languages, reasoning that they were doing just fine in assembly/C/Sepples. Learning only high-level languages is problematic as well, but in this case low-level knowledge comes as an answer to the inevitable question, "How do I make this efficient enough for my purposes?" Now the student understands and values both ends of the spectrum.

>>71

After learning both the circuitry and architecture of microprocessors and computers, and high level languages, I don't agree with this sentiment.  When working with a language such as C, it can be useful to understand what is actually happening as it goes from C to Assembly to machine code to the microprocessor, but it isn't necessary for many projects.  Also, Assembly Language doesn't have much use when working with computers except for specific tasks.  Also, most compilers will take your C code and make it faster than anything you could ever write in assembly.

I think for someone who is doing it out of mere interest it would be better to understand a lower level language such as C and then moving to a higher level language such as C#.  Once you understand these two languages it is easy to pickup an imperative language as you need it, and with these two languages you can manage to do a lot.