Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1854-12-21
Dull Children,

The following, the last PARAGRAPH Of which
our readers will find to contain some excellent
advice, is going the rounds Of the papers with
out credit -
NO fact can be palmer than this, it il i'm.
possible to judge correctly of the genius or in
tellectual ability Of the future man by the in
dications of childhood. Some of the most EN-
inent men Of all ages were remarkable only
for dullness in their youth. Sir Isacc New
ton, in his boyhood, was inattentive to his
study, and ranged very low in school until the
age Of twelve. When Samuel Wythe, the
Dublin schoolmaster, attempted 10 educats
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, he pronounced the
boy an incorrigible 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 Shak-
speare, Gibboh, Davy, and Dryden do not Ap.
pear to have exhibited in childhood even the
common elements Of future success.
When Berzelius, the eminent Swedish
chemist, left school for the university, the
words indifferent behavior and Of doubtful
hope, were scored against his name and
after he entered the university he narrowly es-
capped being turned back On one of his first
visits to the laboratory, when nineteen years
old, he was taunted with the inquiry whether
he understood the difference between a labor
atory and Kitchen Walter Scott had the
credit Of having the thickcst skull in the
school,, though DIR. Blair told the teacher that
many bright days of future glory shone through
that same thick skull. Milton and Swift were
justly celebrated for stupidity in childhood.
The great Isaac Barrow's father used to say,
that, If 1t pleased Gud to take away from him
any OF his children, he hoped 1t might be
Isaac, as the least promising. Clavius, the
great mathematician Of his age, was SO stupid
in his bOyhood, that his teacher could make
nothing of him, till they tried him in geome.
try. Caracci, the celebrated painter, was so
inapt in his youth that his masters advised him
to restrict his ambition to the grinding Of
colors.
One of the most popular authoresses Of the
present day. says an English writer, could
not read when she was seven. Her mother
was rather uncomfortable about il, but said as
everybody did learn with opportunity, she
supposed her child would do SO at last. BY
eighteen, the apparently slow genius paid the
heavy but inevitable debts of her father from
the profits of her first work; and before thir-
ty, had published thirty volumes DR.. Scott,
the commentator, could not compose theme
when twelve years old and even at a later
age DIR. Adam Clark, after incredible effort,
failed to commit to memory poem of a few
stanras only. AT nine years Of age, one who
afterwards became chief Justice in this coun-
try, was, during whole winter, unable to
commit to memory, the little poem found in
one of our school books.
Labor and patience are the wonder-wOrkers
Of man---the wand by whose magic touch he
changes dross into gold, deformity into beauty
the desert into garden, and the ignorant child
into the venerable sage. Let no youth be Civ
en- up as an incorrigable dolt, victim only to
be laid upon the altar Of stupidity, until labor
and patience have struggled with him long
enough to ascertain whether he is natural
fool or whether his mind is merely enclosed
in a harder shell than common, requiring only
little outward aid to escape into vigorous
and symmetrical life.