He was to be instantaneously obeyed, especially by my mother, whom he very benevolently married for love; but took care to remind her of the obligation, when she dared, in the slightest instance, to question his absolute authority.

My eldest brother, it is true, as he grew up, was treated with more respect by my father; and became in due form the deputy-tyrant of the house.

The representative of my father, a being privileged by nature--a boy, and the darling of my mother, he did not fail to act like an heir apparent.
Such indeed was my mother's extravagant partiality, that, in comparison with her affection for him, she might be said not to love the rest of her children.

Yet none of the children seemed to have so little affection for her.

Extreme indulgence had rendered him so selfish, that he only thought of himself; and from tormenting insects and animals, he became the despot of his brothers, and still more of his sisters.
"It is perhaps difficult to give you an idea of the petty cares which obscured the morning of my life; continual restraint in the most trivial matters; unconditional submission to orders, which, as a mere child, I soon discovered to be unreasonable, because inconsistent and contradictory.