How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He [Mr. Gitney] did not see my instruction directly, but required that the others spend some hours a day teaching me my Latin and Greek, my mathematics, scraps of botany, and the science of music, which grew to be my first love. (1.2.4)
Now that is some serious book-learnin'.
Quote #2
The men of the house feared that too much interaction with the world would corrupt me, and so I was, in the main, hidden away for my earliest years, as the infant Jove, snatched out of the gullet of Time, was reared by his horned nurse on Mount Ida in profoundest secrecy. (1.2.9)
Reading about Octavian's education is an education in itself, isn't it? Basically, Octavian's comparing his upbringing to that of the "infant Jove," a.k.a. Jupiter a.k.a. Zeus—yes, that Zeus, the god of Greek gods. Octavian as narrator? Not exactly the most humble guy around.
Quote #3
Above all, brought up among the experiments and assays of these artists and philosophers, I was taught the importance of observation. They showed me how to be precise in notation, acute in investigation, and rational in inference….or, yea, after I saw the philosophers of this college acquire a docile child deprived of reason and speech, and, when she could not master the use of verbs, beat her to the point of gagging and swooning; after such experiments as these, I became most wondrous observant, and often stared unmoving at a wall for some hours together. (1.2.19)
Did you pick up on that subtle hint of sarcasm? "Most wondrous observant"… of a wall? We're guessing Octavian's not just being sarcastic—he's also leaving something out of his account, something having to do with his "observations" of all these cruel acts and his final "unmoving" "observation" of a wall. Did he do something? Yell? Cry? Rebel? Because the last time we were put in a corner, staring at a wall, it wasn't because we were being good. Just saying…