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in diſpoſition or taſte. In this I only confirmed an idea very generally allowed, that children are often more obſerving than they appear to be. Of this, curioſity is probably in then the only cauſe, being more eager in youth than advanced age; and a young perſon, without troubling himſelf about the reaſon, which his faculties are not yet able to reach, has his attention attracted and fixed only by that which ſtrikes him. Bonaparte, with inclinations different from his companions, ſeparated himſelf from us, and therefore became, naturally enough, the object of our obſervation.
I do not recollect, that he ever ſhewed the ſlighteſt partiality in favour of any of his comrades; gloomy and fierce to exceſs, almoſt always by himſelf, one might ſay, that, newly iſſued from a foreſt, and, till then, withdrawn from the fight of men, he now began, for the firſt time, to feel the impreſſions of ſurprise and of ſuſpicion. Continually alone, averſe likewiſe to all that is called children's plays and amuſements, he never was ſeen to ſhare in the noiſy mirth of his ſchool-fellows! very far from that, if ſometimes he came among then it was only to find fault, notwithſtanding the known danger to which a boy-pedagogue inevitably espoſes himſelf, by reprimanding his young companions; a danger of which his growing courage had early taught him not to be afraid; for, when attacked by a number of our ſchool-fellows, whom his
