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Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay - Volume 1 by Sir George Otto Trevelyan
page 40 of 538 (07%)
that in the interval between the conception and the execution the
boy happened to light upon a copy of the Rolliad. If such was the
case, he already had too fine a sense of humour to have
persevered in his original plan after reading that masterpiece of
drollery. It is worthy of note that the voluminous writings of
his childhood, dashed off at headlong speed in the odds and ends
of leisure from school-study and nursery routine, are not only
perfectly correct in spelling and grammar, but display the same
lucidity of meaning, and scrupulous accuracy in punctuation and
the other minor details of the literary art, which characterise
his mature works.

Nothing could be more judicious than the treatment that Mr. and
Mrs. Macaulay adopted towards their boy. They never handed his
productions about, or encouraged him to parade his powers of
conversation or memory. They abstained from any word or act
which might foster in him a perception of his own genius with as
much care as a wise millionaire expends on keeping his son
ignorant of the fact that he is destined to be richer than his
comrades. "It was scarcely ever," writes one who knew him well
from the very first, "that the consciousness was expressed by
either of his parents of the superiority of their son over other
children. Indeed, with his father I never remember any such
expression. What I most observed myself was his extraordinary
command of language. When he came to describe to his mother any
childish play, I took care to be present, when I could, that I
might listen to the way in which he expressed himself, often
scarcely exceeded in his later years. Except this trifle, I
remember him only as a good-tempered boy, always occupied,
playing with his sisters without assumption of any kind." One
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