From early youth he devoted himself with great diligence and application to the study of eloquence, and the other liberal arts. In the war of Mutina, notwithstanding the weighty affairs in which he was engaged, he is said to have read, written, and declaimed every day. He never addressed the senate, people, or soldiery but in a premeditated speech, though he was not destitute of the talent of speaking extempore. And lest his memory should fail him, as well as to prevent the loss of time in getting his speeches by heart, he resolved to read them all. In his intercourse with individuals, and even with his wife Livia, upon a subject of importance, he had all he would say down in writing, lest, if he spoke extempore, he should say more or less than was proper. He delivered himself in a sweet and peculiar tone, in which he was diligently instructed by a master. But when he had a cold, he sometimes made use of a crier for the delivery of his speeches to the people.[c] In his literary qualifications, without at all rivalling the attainments of Cæsar, he was on a level with most Romans of distinction of his time; and it is said that both in speaking and writing his style was eminent for its perfect plainness and propriety. His speeches on any public occasion were composed beforehand, and recited from memory; nay, so careful was he not to commit himself by any inconsiderate expression, that even when discussing any important subject with his own wife, he wrote down what he had to say, and read it before her. Like his uncle, he was strongly tinged with superstition; he was very much afraid of thunder and lightning, and always carried about with him a sealskin, as a charm against its power; notwithstanding which, in any severe storm, he was accustomed to hide himself in a chamber in the centre of his house, to be as much out of the way of it as possible; add to which, he was a great observer of dreams, and of lucky and unlucky days.[d]