CHAP. I.] Early Recollections. 7 



his two eldest sons was a growing source of delight 



o o o 



to the father, whose utmost ambition was to see them 

 become accomplished musicians ; while the wider 

 flights of William met with his most cordial sym- 

 pathy. The following passage is one of the very 

 few which reflect the brighter side of the picture : 



" My brothers were often introduced as solo performers 

 and assistants in the orchestra of the court, and I re- 

 member that I was frequently prevented from going to 

 sleep by the livery criticism on music on coming from a 

 concert, or conversations on philosophical subjects which 

 lasted frequently till morning, in which my father was a 

 lively partaker and assistant of my brother William by 



contriving self-made instruments Often I would 



keep myself awake that I might listen to their animating 

 remarks, for it made me so happy to see them so happy. But 

 generally their conversation would branch out on philo- 

 sophical subjects, when my brother William and my father 

 often argued with such warmth, that my mother's in- 

 terference became necessary, when the names Leibnitz, 

 Newton, and Euler sounded rather too loud for the repose 

 of her little ones, who ought to be in school by seven in 

 the morning. But it seems that on the brothers retiring 

 to their own room, where they shared the same bed, my 

 brother William had still a great deal to saj r ; and frequently 

 it happened that when he stopped for an assent or reply, he 

 found his hearer was gone to sleep, and I suppose it was 

 not till then that he bethought himself to do the same. 



" The recollection of these happy scenes confirms me in 

 the belief, that had my brother William not then been inter- 

 rupted in his philosophical pursuits, we should have had 

 much earlier proofs of his inventive genius. My father 



