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PRINTED BY J. SMITH, 16, RUE MONTMORENCY.

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SOLD ALSO BY AMYOT, RUE DE LA PAIX; TRUCHY, BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS;
THEOPHILE BARROIS, JUN., RUE RICHELIEU; LIBRAIRIE DES ETRANGERS,
RUE NEUVE-SAINT-AUGUSTIN; AND FRENCH AND ENGLISH LIBRARY,
RUE VIVIENNE.

1835.

MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR,

BY HIS FATHER.

THE writer of this volume was born on the twenty-eighth of March, 1803. He was my only son. He had from nature, and he early discovered, great clearness and precision of understanding. He had much quickness of study. What he set himself to learn scarcely cost him any labour in acquiring. I was desirous of giving him the best education that my means would afford,' I sent him at eight years of age a day-scholar to the Charterhouse. He continued there for three or four years; but he was of an impatient temper, and could not brook the disdain with which the boarders at the school were accustomed to look down upon the day-scholar. To humour his disposition in that respect, I sent him in September, 1814, to the school kept by the younger Dr. Burney, at Greenwich. Here he continued again for three or four years, to the end of the year 1817.

It seems to me that it is at a later period than is usually imagined, that a youth for the most part manifests original powers of mind. Not having remarked indications of this kind, I therefore destined my son to some mercantile or mechanical profession. I placed him in the beginning of the year 1818 at a celebrated school for preparing youth for the pursuits of commerce at Woodford. Early in the next year, he having professed a fondness for mathematical studies, I put him under Mr. Peter Nicholson, in London Street, Fitzroy Square.

It has always been my opinion that the partialities and propensities of young persons deserve great attention in choosing for them a destination in life. My son, at this period (early in 1820), professed a considerable inclination for engineering. I consulted Mr. Rennie; I tried Mr. Donkin; and finally fixed him upon probation with Mr. Maudslay at Lambeth.. Here he early met with an accident (the loss of a finger) which seemed to put an end to his views in that direction.

He then spoke of architecture; and I consulted Mr. Telford

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