Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1853-07-20
Dull Children.

is impossible to Judge correctly Of the ge-
mus or intellectual ability of the future
man, by the indications of childhood. Some
of the most eminent men of all ages were
remarkable only for dullness in their youth.
Sir Isaac Newton in his boyhood was mat
tentive to study, and ranked very low in
school until the age of twelve. When Sam
uel Wythe, the Dublin schoolmaster, at
tempted to educate Richard Brinsley Sher-
idan, he pronounced the boy an "incorrigi-
Bile Ounce" The mother of Sheridan fully
concurred in this verdict, and declared him
the most stupid of her sons. Goldsmith
was dull, in his youth, and Shakespeare,
Gibbon, Davy and Dryden do not appear
to have exhibited in their childhood even
the common element of future success
When Berzelius, the eminent Swedish
chemist, left school for the University, the
words, indifferent in behavior, and of
doubtful hope" were scored against his
name and after he entered the University,
he narrowly escaped being "turned back" !"
On one of his first visits tothe laboratory,
when nineteen years old, he was taunted
with the inquiry, whether he understood
the difference between laboratory and a
kitchen" Walter Scott had the credit OF
having "the thickest skull in the school, %
though DR.. Blair told the teacher he could
discover many brghtrays Of future genius,
shining through that same "thicE skull. =
Milton and Swift were justly celebrated for
their stupidity in childhood. The great l.
saac Barrow,s father used to say, that if it
pleased God to take from him any of his
children, he hoped itmight be Isaac, as the
least promising. Clauvius, the first math-
ematiclan of his age, was so stupid in his
boyhood that his teacher could make moth
ing Of him till they tried him in geometry.
Carracci, the celebrated painter, was so in
apt in his youth, that his master advised
HIM to restrict his ambition to the granting
of colours. Zone of the most popular au-
thoresses of the present day." says an Eng
lish writer, "could not read when she was
seven. Her mother was rather uncomforta-
BILE about it, but said that as everybody did
learn with opportunity, she supposed her
child would do so at last. By eighteen,
this apparently slow genius paid the heavy
but inevitable debts of her father from the
profits of her first work, and before thirty,
had published thirty volumes" DIR. Scott,
the commentator, could not compose a
theme when twelve years old and even at
a later age. Dr. Adam Clarke after lncred-
ible effort, failed to commit to memory a
poem of few stanzas only. At nine years
Of ace, one who afterwards became chief
Justice in this country, was during whole
winter unable to commit to memory the
little poem found in one ofour school books.
Labor and patience are the wonder-work-
ers of man-the wand with whose magic
touch he changes dross into gold, deforml-
ty into beauty the desert into a garden
and the ignorant child into the venerable
age. Let no youth be given up as an m
corrlgible dolt, victim fit only to be laid
upon the altar of stupidity, until labor and
patience have struggled with him long e.
nough to ascertain whether he is indeed a
"natural FOOL" or whether his mind is mere
" enclosed in a harder she'll than common,
requiring only little outward aid to escape
from its prison, into vigorous and SYM
metrical life.