" She adds that she often kept herself awake in order to
listen to their animating remarks, feeling inexpressibly happy in
_their_ happiness,--an indication of that devoted and unselfish
affection which afterwards consecrated her whole life. But, generally,
their conversation branched out into philosophical subjects; and
father and son argued with so much fervour, that the fond mother's
interference became necessary,--the immortal names of Leibnitz, Newton,
and Euler ringing with a clarion-like peal that boded ill for the repose
of the younger members of the family. "But it seems," says Caroline,
"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 a reply,
he found his hearer had 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.
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