582 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



and to accustom him to contem- 

 plate and to know mankind as 

 they appeared in society. In these 

 conversations his mind continued 

 to make a perceptible progress 

 upon questions of literature and 

 politics, and even of metaphysics. 

 All the evidences of religion were 

 also made to form a part, by a 

 natural and easy transitioH. His 

 character was meliorated by these 

 conversations : he became tran- 

 quil, affable, gay, and interesting ; 

 every one was delighted with him ; 

 he had no haughtiness, and he 

 was more entertained than with 

 his own childish amusements, for, 

 during them, he was often angry 

 without a cause." 



It was during the pleasing fa- 

 miliarity of these conversations 

 that he used sometimes to say, 

 *« I have left the duke of Bur- 

 gundy behind the door, and now 

 I am only little Louis with you." 

 These were remarkable words in 

 the mouth of a child only nine 

 years of age ; they showed how 

 sensible he was of the rank to 

 which he was born, even at the 

 very moment when he wished it 

 to be forgotten. 



•' He has frequently said to us," 

 adds Fenelon, " that he should 

 never forget the delight which he 

 felt in being permitted to study 

 without constraint. He has often 

 desired to be read to during his 

 meals, such was his fondness for 

 whatever he needed to learn. I 

 never knew a child who under- 

 stood with such celerity, and with 

 so much propriety, the most re- 

 fined parts of poetry and elo- 

 quence. He conceived, without 

 any difficulty, the most abstract 

 principles : whenever he saw me 

 doing any thing for him, he al-« 



ways began to do the same, and 

 continued at it without being bid- 

 den so to do." 



This young prince entered with 

 such enthusiasm into thesituations 

 and feelings of those persons with 

 whom he became acquainted in 

 the course of his reading, that Fe- 

 nelon delighted to recall, after the 

 death of his pupil, the first emo- 

 tions that had agitated his youth- 

 ful bosom. " I have seen," says 

 he, in his letter to the French 

 Academy, " I have seen a young 

 prince, of eight years old, filled 

 with terror as he contemplated 

 the danger of Joas ; I have seen 

 him angry because the high priest 

 concealed from him his name and 

 his birth ; I have seen him weep 

 bitterly as he heard these lines : — 



Ah ! miseram Eurydicen anima fugiente 



vocabat, 

 Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripse. 



When we consider the prema- 

 ture intellectual powers of the 

 duke of Burgundy, we shall not 

 be surprised to learn, that in his 

 tenth year he was able to write 

 elegantly in Latin, to translate the 

 most ditficult authors with a preci- 

 sion and with a felicity of style 

 which astonished every one ; that 

 he could explain Horace, Virgil, 

 and the Metamorphoses of Ovid, 

 and feel all the beauties of Cicero's 

 Orations. At eleven years, he had 

 read the whole of Livy ; he had 

 translated the Commentaries of 

 Cassar, and begun a translation of 

 Tacitus, which he afterwards fi- 

 nished, but which was subse- 

 quently lost. 



It would be difficult to believe 

 an account which appears to be so 

 exaggerated, if the abbe Fleury, 

 whose candour and simplicity are 



I 



