CHAPTER XVI.
The history of the wise man.
"I now returned to Rome, but in a very different character.

Fortune had now allotted me a serious part to act.

I had even in my infancy a grave disposition, nor was I ever seen to smile, which infused an opinion into all about me that I was a child of great solidity; some foreseeing that I should be a judge, and others a bishop.

At two years old my father presented me with a rattle, which I broke to pieces with great indignation.

This the good parent, being extremely wise, regarded as an eminent symptom of my wisdom, and cried out in a kind of ecstasy, 'Well said, boy! I warrant thou makest a great man.' "At school I could never be persuaded to play with my mates; not that I spent my hours in learning, to which I was not in the least addicted, nor indeed had I any talents for it.