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racter of Spectator, who "threw away his rattle before he was two months old, and would not make use of his coral until they had taken away the bells from it." Neither would it be consistent with the respect due to the public, to expatiate on every trifling instance of infantine shrewdness, and thus to follow the example of an orator called a Gossip in the same work, who "entertains her company a whole afternoon together with the wit of her little boy, before he is able to speak." It is sufficient to say, that the animal powers of this child, while an infant, were acute, active, and robust. Yet he was by no means forward in speaking. It was not till he was full two years old, that he began to talk; but he was familiar with the alphabet almost half a year sooner. He not only knew the letters, when given to him as toys on sets of counters, but as expressed in books, to which, from seeing them constantly about him, he directed his notice at a very early period. Before he could articulate, when a letter was named, he immediately pointed
