The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-12-03

early. Mozart, who could write tunes
when years old was the despair OF
his instructors, would could teach him
nothing. At the age of he astonished
the Parsians by his performance on
the organ, and by his improvisation,
and published two of his own musical
compositions. Schuberts instructor
complained that he was always max
ing the mortifying discovery that he
could tell his pupil nothing which he
did not know beforehand Beethoven
was a standing puzzle to his profess
sors, and chtNked over the difficulties
which they could not explain by refer
ence to any authoritative work on
thorough bass.
Mendelssohn by his eighth year had
acquired such mastery over the piano
that he played 1t with wonderful fin
ish. and in the theory of music he had
made such progress that he had de-
;ecteu in a concerto of Bach six OF
those dread otfenses against the gram
mar OF music consecutive tifths.
When. at the age of "A. he was placed
under Moschelles. the latter wrote in
his diary: This afternoon I gave
Felix Mendelssohn his first lesson,
without losing sight for single mo-
nent of the fact that I was sitting
next a master. not a pupil AT 16
the youth read Weiand's Shakc-
speare. and with all the vigor Of the
eagle summing his newly perfected pin
ions. threw off the immortal overture
to the midsummer Nights Dream"
When the boy. Nicoo Pagnini. was
sent to Parma to study under Alessan-
dro Rolla. the great musician. on hear
ing him play. told him to go home: he
could teach him nothing. The result
was the same when young Turner. des-
tined to such elninence as Il painter
was sent to school to learn drawing. \
short time ago the first prize at the
Paris Conservatory of Music was won
by a girl named Renie. who was but 10
years old. and was SO small that the
pedals of the piano had TO be raised to
enable her to reach them.
One of the chief combatants in the
famous ancient and modern learning
controversy which ragged about two
centuries ago in England was William
Wotton. p. d.. who had been gradual
Ell at Cambridge at the age of Is. and
afterward distinguished himself by his
attainments in Latin. Greek. and
other Oriental angua ges. At Is Alex
ander Hamilton was found competent
to take charge of a mercantile estab-
lishment: at Is he wrote papers which
We're attributed to several deading men
of the nation; ut 20 he was the conf
'dant of Washington. and at u he had
mastered the intricate subject of fin
ance.
In our day Sir William Rowan Ham
iton. whom Wordsworth declared to
be one of the two most wonderful men
he had ever known (the other was
Coleridge). was "a still greater marvel
of precocity When but 4 years and >
months old he read Latin. Greek and
Hebrew, the last with the points: at S
he had acquired French and Italian,
and could eXtempOrZe in Latin rHs-
cription of Il landscape through which
he walked; at . he had a fair know
ledge of Arabic. and was eagerly be-
ginning Sanscrit Before he had COM
pleted his 10th year he was grounded
in the Chadee, Syriac. Hindustani,
Malay, Mahrati. Bangali. and other
languages, and was about to begin
Chinese. To have acquired even
Smattering of all these tongues would
have been extraordinary enough; but
that his knowledge was very much
more than u smattering has been
shown.