The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-04

This would almost cause one to believe tnat
a home education is the best, and that
great deal of genius is wasted by allowing
bows to 60 to school; but a few examples
will show that most young prodigies failed
to fulfil the bright hopes entertained for
them.
Connop Thirwall, afterward bishop of st.
Davids, could read Latin when three years
old, and at the age of four, read Greek with
an ease that astonished all who heard him.
At seven he composed an essay ION the
Uncertainty of Human Life" which was
afterward printed in his Printing or
First Fruits,'' published when the boy was
only eleven years old. The history OF liter
allure, perhaps, does not contain the name
of another whose first book was published
when the writer was not yet in his teens.
This book contains about forty sermons, to-
cether with several essays and poems.
John Stuart Mill is another remarkable
example of precocity. He began Greek at
the age of three, and by the time ne was
eight years old, he had read far more Greek
than most college graduates, besides all
the works of Hume, Gibbon, Robertson.
| character. When twelve years old, he read
| "Aristotle's Logic i'll the original. work
of great difficulty even for an accomplished
scholar.
Another example of precocity in diff
ferent line was the composer Mozart. In
his fourth year he played the piano we'll.
| In his fifth year he composed several pieces.
When he was six years old, his father took
him on concert tours, when he astonished
| all who heard him by his skill on the piano
and the violin. At the age of seven, he as
| tonished all Paris by his compositions as
we'll as by his performances on various in
struments. At this time he published SON.
atlas for piano and violin, and in the fol-
lowing year he composed his first sym
phonies. At the age of twelve he composed
an opera. He became a very great musl-
clan, but, after all, he is not generally rated
| higher by the musical world than Richard
Wagner, who did not devote himself to
music until he was sixteen, and composed
nothing worth speaking of until he was
| twenty.
Our own country has also produced at
least one example of precocity that was of
no value to its possessor in after life. This
was Zerah Colburn, born in Cabot, Yer
mos, in 1904. His powers lay chiefly in
the line of mathematics. Before he was
six years old he displayed an astonishing
especially in multiplication. At the age OF
eight he was taken to London and his skill
tested in the presence of eminent mathe-
maticians. On being asked what number
being multiplied into itself gave lO6.a29, be-
fore the figures could be written down he
replied SCI; when asked the cube root OF
a6S. $50 125. he answered with equal readi
ness, Gas. He was asked how many minutes
there are in As years and before the ques
ton could bs written down he said 25,22S,
500, which is correct if no allowance is made
for leap year.
Unfortunately, at least for the science Of
mathematics, Colburn's remarkable
,, talent left him as soon as he began to train
his mind in a systematic way. In latel
, years he taught school in various places
was for time an itinerant Methodist min
lister, and in 1895 was made professor, no
of mathematics, but of languages, In tn
university at Norwich. Vermont. he dlee
in 1910, leaving behind him no works
, worthy of mention.