My excellence in these respects, however, gave a turn to my meditations.

I delighted to read of feats of activity, and was particularly interested by tales in which corporeal ingenuity or strength are the means resorted to for supplying resources and conquering difficulties.

I inured myself to mechanical pursuits, and devoted much of my time to an endeavour after mechanical invention.
The spring of action which, perhaps more than any other, characterised the whole train of my life, was curiosity.

It was this that gave me my mechanical turn; I was desirous of tracing the variety of effects which might be produced from given causes.

It was this that made me a sort of natural philosopher; I could not rest till I had acquainted myself with the solutions that had been invented for the phenomena of the universe.
In fine, this produced in me an invincible attachment to books of narrative and romance.