Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1858-11-13
NO 46.

I"'~'"+
readers will find to contain some
excellent advice, is going t1e rounds
Of the papers without credit:
No fact can be palmer than this,
| it is impossible 10 judge correctly
Of the genius Or intellectual ability
Of the future man by the indica-
tions Of childhood, Some Of the
most eminent men Of all ages were
remarkable only for ~dullness in
their youth. Sir Isaac 1Tewton, in
his boyhood, was inattentive to. his
his study, and ranged very low in
school until the age Of twelve
When Samuel Wythe, the Dublin
schooImaster, attempted to educate
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, he pro-
nouneed the boy an S:incorrig bic
Ounce" The mother Of Sheridan
fully concurred. j. this verdict, and
declared hin1tln most stupid Of
her sons, Goolasnith was dnll in
bis yontb, andShakspeare, Gibbon;
Davy, and Dryden do not appear
to have exhibited in childhood even
the common elements Of future sue
cess. j.
When Berzelius, the eminent
Swedish chemist, left school for tie
university, the words indifferent in
behavior and Of doubtful hope,
were scored against his name J: and
after he entered the university he
narrowly escaped being turned
back. On one Of his first visits to
the laboratory, when nineteen years
old he was taunted with the inqni-
ry whether he understood the DIFF
ference between a. laboratory and a
Kitchen Walter Scott had the
credit Of having the 'thickest skull
in the school, though DR.. Blair
told the teacher that many bright
days Of, future glory shone through
that same thick skull. Milton and
Swift were justly celebrated forstu-
pidity in childhood. The great
Isaac Barrow's father used to say,
that if it pleased Godto take sway
from him any of his children, he
hoped it mi ght be Isaac, as the least
promising. C]avius, the great
mathematician OF his age, was SO
stupid in his boyhood, that bis tea
cher could make nothing Of him,till
they tried him in geometry. .Qaa1rao-
ci, the celebrated painter, was. so
inapt in his youth thpt his masters
advised him to restrict his ambition
to the grinding Of: colors..]r ri ..s~s
'One Of the most popular author
esses Of the present day. says au
English writer, could not read when
she was seven. Her mother was
rather uncomfortable about it, 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
f;tther from the profits of her first
work ; and before thirty, had pub
lished thirty volunes.' DR.. Scott,
the commentator, could not COM
pose 8 theme when twelve years old;:
and even at q later age, Dr.. Adam
Clark; after Incredible effort. failed
to commit to memory q poem Of a
few stanzas only. ,Atnineyears of
age; one who afterwards became a
chief Justice. in#this country, was,
during q whole winter, unable to-
commit to memory the. little poem
found i1ro17e Of orr school books. =
Labor and patience arc the Won
der-Workers Of lnan-the wand by
magic touch he changes dross
into gold, deformity into beauty,the
desert into a garden, and the igno-
rant child INTO the venerable sage.
Let no youth be given up as an in.
corrigible dolt, a victim only to be-
laid upon the altar Of stupidity, un-z
til labor and patience have strug-
gled with him long enough to aacer-o
tain whether he is natural fooI,7
or whether his mind is merely en-
closed III q harder she'll than com
mon, requiring only q little. ont
ward aid to escape into vigorous and
symmetrical life. @.' .'7=2' =
"Jack, said onesailor to another,
II don't want to hurt your feelings,
but shiver my timbers 1T don't be-