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his own, he seldom suffered even errors of the press, so trifling as those of punctuation, to pass without being marked by a pencil he kept for the purpose. His books engaged his earliest attention in the morning; and it was rarely that the allurements of the breakfast-table could prevail with him to leave unfinished a story in which he was interested, or a lesson in which he was not perfect.
It may be necessary, after these statements, to repeat the remark, that notwithstanding these studious inclinations and habits, he was still a child of a manly corporeal structure, of buoyant spirits, with a degree of activity sufficiently suited to his years. When engaged in play, he was as much a child as other children; and derived as much pleasure from his diversions, as if his thoughts had never expatiated beyond them. But as soon as he was weary of his sports, he generally returned, with increased avidity, to his books, his maps, or his pencil. Lounging was altogether excluded from
