The Hawaiian gazette., 1885-04-15
IIIustrious Ounces.

An interesting chapter, says DR.. Smiles
in Self Help, might be written on the sub
ject of illustriOus ounces dull boys, but
brilliant men We have room, however,
for only few instances Pietro iii Cor
tOna, the painter, was thought so stupid
that he was nicknamed Ass Head when
boy; and Tomaso Guidi was generally
known as Heavy Tom (AIassaccio Tom
asaccio), though by diligence he after
wards raised himself to the highest emf
hence. Newton, when at school, stood at
the bottom of the lowest form but one.
The boy above Newton having kicked him,
the Ounce showed his pluck by challeng
ing him to a fight, and beat him. Then
he set to work with a will and determined
also TO yanquish his antagonist as a scholar,
which he did, rising TO the top of his
class. Many Of our greatest divines have
been anything but precOciOus. Isaac Bar
row, when a boy at the CharterhOuse
School, was notorious chiefly for his strong
temper, pugnacious habits, and proverbial
idleness as a scholar; and he caused such
grief to his parents that his father used to
say that if it pleased God to take from
him any of his children, he hoped it might
be Isaac, the least promising Of them all
Adam Clarke, when boy, was proclaimed
by his father TO be "a grievOus Ounce"
though he could roll large stones about.
Dean Swift was 'plUckedT at Dublin
University, and only obtained his recon-
mendatiOn to Oxford .sDCcidli grutir." The
well known DR. Chalmers and DIR, Cook
were boys together at the parish school of
St Andrews, and they were found so
stupid and mischievous that the master,
irritated beyond measure, dismissed them
both rs incOrrigible ounces The brilliant
Sheridan showed such little capacity as a
boy that he was presented to a tutor by
his mother with the complimentary accom-
paniment that he was an incoTigiblc
Ounce. Walter Scott was all but Ounce
when boy, always much reader for
"bicker' than apt at his lesson. At the
Edinburgh University Professor Dalzcll
pronounced the sentence that Ounce he
was, and Ounce he would remain" Chat.
tertOn was returned on his mothers hands
as "a fool. of whom nothing could be
made Burns was dull boy, good only
at athletic exercises. Goldsmith spoke Of
himself as u plant that lowered late.
Altieri left college no wiser than he enter
ed it, and did not begin the studies by
which he distinguished himself until he
had run half over Europe. Robert Give
was Ounce, if not reprObate when a
youth, but always full of energy, even III
badness. His family, glad to get nd Of
him, shipped him of TO Madras; and he
lived to lay the foundations Of the British
power in India. Napoleon and Yelling
ton were both dull boys, not distinguishing
themselves in any way at school. OF the
former the Duchess d'Abrantes says, He
was in good health, but was in otherrespects
like other boys Ulysses Grant, the Com
manderi in Chief Of the United States, was
called Useless Grant" by his mother. he
was so dull and unhandy when a boy;
and StOnewall jackson, Lees great lieu
tenant, was il his youth chiefly noted for
his slOwness. While apupil at West Point
military academy he was, however, equal
ly remarkable for his interchangeable appli
cation and perseverance. When a task
was set him he never left il until he had
mastered it; nor did he ever feign to pos
sess knowledge which he had not entirely
acquired. Again and again wrote one
who knew him, when called upon to
answer questions in the recitation Of the
day, he would reply, Ihave not yet looked
at 1t; have been engaged in mastering
the recitation Of yesterday or the day be
fore The result was that he graduated
seventeenth in a class of seventy. There
was probably in the whole class not boy
TO whom Jackson at the outset was not