Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1845-09-18

TIC P'eSence vi solne superior DelhS' III
some instances puzzled him, bu, never
did he appear fretlul, and when told him
any thing he did not already know, he
always repaid it with a smile.
asked HIM, 1.-TWO equul circles cut
each other to the extent Of l-l2 their di-
ameter what area would be thus cut away
-quc ker than could think, he said the
l44lh part | then asked him, if 3.l2 or
digis, were thus cut, and he instantly
said I-l6.' asked him how he knew,
and he said '3.l2=1-4 and IA squared
is l-l6.' | asked him why he squared 1t,
he said 1t is so in semicircle and must
be so in circle then told him the
rule of homologous sides, and he smiled
and said he understood it. | then asked
him, if two legs of a right angled triangle
were given, one l2 and the other l6,
what the hypothenuse would be, and he
instantly replied go, wouldn't it?-Yes"
| then said, suppose the legs were 8 and
lG, then what; In half a minute, aud
without any pencil, he replied, 17,8335. ,
| then asked if the legs were 7 and Is,
then WHAT lie was rather longer in an
swering, but took no pencil, and replied,
1853. | asked him why he carried
thisI asst to three decimals when he had car
ried the oiher to four? He said the other
was easier, and tried 10 tell why it was
so. | asked him if he could carry that to
any further decimals with pencll' He
said he thought he could and taking the
pencil, in, say three minutes, returned
the following, l6 ,552944l49.' | believe
there is an error in about the 18th decimal,
although neither OF us went over it again
to find it, He could have detected it as
quck as thought, had he tried
| asked him the product ofl-I4X 1864;
he instantly replied l-l306 | asked him
the square root of 5; he instantly re-
piled e.2360G7, saying he had 'ot' of
them in his memory aud did not have to
cast them.
/ gave him the following qucstions;-
The square of 1862 lie said '2l6225.
The cube of &c? He answered 17576.-
| asked him i'll might try him on the
fourth power. He said yes, i'll would not
90 beyond two figures. | asked him the
fourth power of 10. His eye whirlcd, and
he sprang like an arov to the door,
hung by one hand to the door post,
and came, in say Sd of minute, and re-
piled, 'Thirty-one millions six bundled
and forty thousand six hundred and
twenty-five, [3l $40, 625 His falhe:
asked him to verify that with a pencil
He replied 1T is just as well to take the
cube offs from the book and multiply it
by 70, and IS is ga of 100, add two cy-
piers, multiply by 3 and divide by d. all
(which was done as quickly as have
written it, and with the same result as
before. | asked him what were the fac
tors of 1910? lie instantly said '4Ox 1911,
or COX $50, or 2 X $500, or ) Y 1928
asked him the factors of the decimal,
07S54 he immediately said 1t is not rcgu-
ar,it will take double factor III 4 Y.
0.6 Y o. which as | wrote down. omit
ted the points before and I and he instant
ly took the pencil and made them himself
AS he had performed all these in hi
head, was DESTROYS Of knowing what hi
process was. therefore gave him ;
sum of four figures lobe multiplied b!
another of four figures, on the slate. lit
took the first figure and run it through a
we do from rig Int to left, and then wrot'
the second line back again from left t
r right and so on. lie did not multiply on
figure of the multipicand by itself, Blu
always wo;.-e.g, In the case | gSv
INN, the mul,ipicand was 5642, and tn
left hand figure of the muItipIier was 3
and instead of saying 8 times 2 are
and setting it under the Q, he said time
&c is 1863, which he wrote in its propc
place, but recorded it 1863, because tn
next figure being 4 he knew there must b
one to carry; he then said times 42
1876, and the having already been RI
corded, he wrote the &c at the right
, of the other, thus, 1926. His caIcnl
tons entirely ou,strip the capobili'y of h
pencil to record them.
q tried to make his parents feel that |
4 was a treasure lent. The mother evlder
=, ly felt it so, but the father seemed UNIV
ling TO yield the fond belief that be mig
become as wonderful a man as he sure
is child. At all events canno, but le
:, as if have seen something Of what ,
- yet may be when mortality shall ha
~ been swallowed up Of life.