The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-14
NrARvELs OF PRECOclrY.
YOungster of Four Years and Five
Months Who Read Latin, Greek
and Hebrew.

A Youngster of Four Years and Five
Months who Read Latin, Greek
and Hebrew.
From the Philadelphia Saturday Evening
Pest.
The stories told in biographies of the
precocity of many eminent men almost
stagger belief. Yet no fact regarding great
men is better atttested than that the men
tai faculties of a large proportion of
them-especially great artists, poets and
scholars-were developed early. Mozart,
who could write tunes when 4 years old.
was the despair of his instructors, who
could teach him nothing. AZ the age of
he astonished the Parlsians by his per-
Torrance on the organ, and by his inn
proNisation, and published two of his own
musical compositions. Schubert's instruc-
tor complained that he was always MAX
ing the Notifying discovery that he could
tell his pupil nothing which he did not
know beforehand Beethoven was a stand
ing puzzle to his prof ss9rs, and chuckled
over the difficulties which they could not
explain by reference to any authoritative
work on thorough-bass.
Mendelssohn by his eighth year had ac-
qulrea such mastery over the piano that
he played IL with wonderful finish, and
In tks theory of music he had made such
PObIeSS lndL ne Ubu ueteCtcl IN a con-
ceIto of Bach six of those dread offenses
against the grammar of music. consecu-
tive flfths. When, at the age of IA. he
was placed under Moscheles, the latter
wrote in his dairy; "This afternoon i
gave Felix Mendelssohn his first lesson,
without losing sight for single moment
of the fact that l was sitting next a mas
ter, not a pupil" AZ l6 the youth read
Wieland's Shakespeare, and with all the
vigor of the eagle summing his newly-per-
fected pinions, threw off the immortal
overture to the Midsummer Night s
Dream" When the boy, Ncoio Paganini,
was sent to Parma 40 study under Ales-
sandro Rolla, the great musician, on
hearing him play, told him to go home;
he could teach him nothing. The result
was the same when young Turner, des-
tined TO such eminence as painter, was
sent to school to learn drawing. A short
time ago the first prize at the Paris con-
servatory of music was won by a girl
named Renie, who was but 10 years old,
and was so small that the pedals of the
plano had to be raised to enable her to
reach them.
Ope of the chief combatants ia the fam
Gus ancient and modern learning contro-
versey which ragedl about two centuries
ago In England was William Wotton d.
D., who had been graduated at Cam
bridge at the age of 10, and afterward dis
tinguished himself by his attachments in
Latin, Greek and other oriental languages.
At - Alexander Hamilton was found COM
petent to take charge of a mercantile es-
tabiishment, at is he wrote papers which
were attributed to several leading men of
the nation; at 20 he was the conhdant of
Washington, and at q he had mastered the
intricate subject of finance
In our day Sir William Rowan Hamil-
ton, whom Wordsworth declared to be one
of the two most wonderful men he had
ever known Cthe other was Coleridge), was
a still greater marvel of precocity. When
but years and months old he read
Latin, Greek and Hebrew, the last with
the points; at he had acquired French
and italian, and could extemporize in
Latin a description of landscape through
which he walked; at 8 he had a fair knowl-
edge of Arabic, and was eagerly begin
ming SanEcriL Before he had completed
his 10th year he was grounded in the
Chaldee, Syriac, Hindustani, Malay, Nah
rati, Bangali, and other languages, and
was about 10 begin the Chinese. To have
acquired evrn a smattering of all these
tongues would have been extraordinary
enough; but that his knowledge was very
much more than a smattering has been
shown.