Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1854-02-22
miscellaneous.
DULL CHILDREN,

DULL CHILDREN,
No fac. can be palmer than tile: 1t Is
impossible to judge correctly Of the genius or
intellectual ability Of the future man by the
indications Of childhood Some Of the most
eminent men ot allages where remarkable only
for dulpess 10 their youth. Sir Isaac Newton
IN his bay hood was iuattentire 10 his study.
and ranked very low in school until the age
,ftwclve. When Samuel wythe. the Dublin
schoolnastcr, attempted to educate Richard
Brinsley Sheridan, be pronounced the boy an
'.incorrigible Ounce The mother Of Sheri
dan fully concurred in this verdict, and de.
elared him the most stupid Of her sons. Gold
smitI: was dull il his youth. and Shakespeare.
Gibbou. Davy and dryden do not appear to
have exhibited in their cildhefd even the
common elements Of tu use ateess.
When Beizelus. the eminent Swedish
chemist, left school Cor the university, the
words; Indifferent in behavior and Of DOUBT
full hope.' were scored against is name and
after he entered the university, he narrowly
est apej being turned back. On one of bis
first visits to the laboratory. when nineteen
years old, he was tainted with the inquiry
whether he understood the difference between
laboratory and Kitchen" Walter Scott
had the credit Of having the thickest skull
in the school" though DR.. Blair told the teach
er that many bright rays Of future genius
shone through that same "thick skull
Milton and Swift were justly celebrated for
stupidity in childhood. The great Isaac Bar
rows father used to say that. if it pleased
God to take from him any Of bis children, be
hoped it might b, Isaac, as the least promising.
Clavius, the great mathematician Of his age,
was SO stupid in his boyhood. that his teacher
could make uothing Of him till they tried him
in geometry. Carraci. the celebrated painter,
was so inapt in his youth, that his masters
advised | I'M 10 restrict bis ambition to the
grinding of colors
"One Of the most popular anthoressca Of
the present day. says an English writer.
could not read when she was seven. Her
mother was rather uncomfortable about It,
hut said. as every body did learn, with orpor-
tunity, she supposed her child would do so at
last. by eighteen the apparently slow &C.
MUS paid the heavy but inevitable debts of
her father from the profits Of her frst work.
and, before thirty, had published thirty vol
umes 7 DR.. Scott, the commentator, could
not compose shcmc when twelve years old ;
ard even at a later age. DR.. Adam Clark, af-
ter incredible effort, failed to commit to men,
DRY poem Of u few stanzas only At aine
years Of age, one who afterwards became
Chief Justice in this country. was. during a
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 ward by whose magic touch he
changes dross into gold. deformiry iuto beauty.
the desert into garden. and the ignorant
child into the venerable sage. Let 10 youth
be given up us an incorli sible dolt. victim
only to be laid upon the alter of stupidity
until labor and patience have struggled with
him long enough to ascertain whether lie is
natural fool. or whether his mind is merely
enclosed in harder shell than comm, n, re-
curing only a little outward aid to escape 10
to vigorous and symmetrical li.e.- Journal
Of Education