. The
household life seems to have been active, harmonious, and intelligent,
especially during the presence of the father, who took a great delight
in the rapid progress of all his sons in music, and who encouraged them
with his companionship in their studies and in their reading on all
intellectual subjects.

From the _Memoir_ of CAROLINA, on which we must depend for our
knowledge of this early life, we take the following paragraph:

"My brothers were often introduced as solo performers and assistants
in the orchestra of the court, and I remember that I was frequently
prevented from going to sleep by the lively criticism on music on
coming from a concert, or by 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 philosophical subjects, when my brother WILLIAM and my
father often argued with such warmth that my mother's interference
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 say; 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 interrupted in his
philosophical pursuits, we should have had much earlier proofs of
his inventive genius. My father was a great admirer of astronomy,
and had some knowledge of that science; for I remember his taking
me, on a clear frosty night, into the street, to make me acquainted
with several of the most beautiful constellations, after we had been
gazing at a comet which was then visible. And I well remember with
what delight he used to assist my brother WILLIAM in his various
contrivances in the pursuit of his philosophical studies, among
w