The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1890-06-26
PRECOCIOUS BOYS.


1t has been observed that most pre-
cocious boys have from their infancy
been associated chiefly with persons of
mature age, says the New York Ledger.
When such boys get inro tho company
of other boys they usually lose their
remarkable talents and in few years
they are not moro advanced than other
boys who did not promise so we'll in
carly youth. This would almost cause
one to believe that q home education is
the best, and that great deal Of genius
is wasted by allowing boys to go to
school; but a few examples will show
that most young prodigies failed to full
eli the bright hopes entertained for
them.
Connop Thirlwall, afterward Bishop
of st. Davids, could read Latin when
tarec years old. and at the age OF fcnr
read Greek with an case that astonished
eli who heard him. At seven he com
posed an essay "On the Uncertainty OF
Human Life" which was afterward
printed in his "PrimitiW" or "F:rst
Fruits" published when the boy was
only eleven years old. Tho history Of
literature perhaps does not contain
the namo Of another whose first book
was published when the writer was not
yet in his teens. This book contains
about forty sermons, together with sew
eral essays and poems.
John stuart Mill Is another remarla-
bic example OF prccocity. He began
Greek at the age Of tarcc, and by tho,
time he was eight years old he had read
far moro Greek than most college gradu-
ates, besides all tho works Of Hume,
Gibbon, Robertson, Rollin and many
When twelve years old, he read "Aris-
totle's Logic" in tho 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 ago Of seven, he asSonished all Paris
by his compositions Us we'll as by his
performances on various instruments.
At this time he published somo sopatuS
for piano and violin, and in tho follow
ing year he composed his first symptom
les. At the ago OF twelve he composed
an opera. He became o very great mu-
sician, 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 ne was twenty.
Our own country has also produced at
least one example OF precocity that was
Of no valuc to It's possessor in after life.
This was Zerah Colburn, born in Cabot,
VT, in 1904. His powers lay chiefly in
the line of mathematics Before he was
six years old, nc displayed an astonish-
ing readiness in solving arithmetical
problems, especially in multiplication.
At the age OF eight, he was taken to
London and his skill tested In the pres
ence Of eminent mathematicians. On
being asked what number multiplied
into itself gave 100000, before the fg-
ures could be written down he replied
327; when asked the cube root of S8s,-
330, 1875, ho answered with equal readi-
ness, 6io. He was asked how many
minutes there are in As years and before
the question could be written down he
said 25,22S, 500, which is correct II no al.
lowance 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
later years he taught school in various
places; was for time an itinorant
Methodist preacher, and in 1885 was
mado professor, not of mathematics but
Of languages, in the university at Nor
wich, Vt. He died in ls40, leaving be-
hind him no works worthy of mention.