Omaha daily bee., 1906-12-16
PRoDIGIES OF THE CRADLE
Boy of Six Becomes n Mathematical
WOnder-sOnne other PrOcO-
ciOus Children.

Ihe story of the precocious youth, which,
ike the Phoenix, alternately dies and re-
wives, Is again enjoying a brief existence
in the newspapers. This time 1t tells Of a
New England baby who can sneak the
classic tongues and solve the problems in
| the calculus, to say nothing of a facile
| acquaintance with Herbert Spencer and
Emanuel Kant. To this gifted but apocry-
phal youth Newton's "Principia" is but
! jest and HegeTs philosophy the pastime OF
an idle hour. He lisps Plato and goo-goos
the Vedas.
His earliest toy was a table of logarithms.
When his mother takes him to the bargain
! counter in perambulator she gives him
copy Of the Sans1irt grammar to keep him
quiet. His unparalleled intellectual feats
recall the accounts which abound in biog-
! raphy or others less amazing, but also, one
may guess, less imaginary.
Zerah Colburn, who was born in Vermont
In 1904, is perhaps the most noted genuine
prodigy who has ever appeared in America.
AT the age Of Zerah could multiply nine
figures by nine others in his head and re-
cite the correct answers instantly and so
rapidly that expert writer's could scarcely
take 1t down.
THOSE who know how painful It is to null
| uply one figure by another and get the
this accomplishment of the infantile Zerah.
out II was by no means his greatest. He
would come downstairs in the morning in
his nightgown, computing an eclipse on his
slate He calculated table Of logarithms
and evolved problems in his head so com
plicated and difficult that the most expert
mathematician would give them up
zerah Colburn's gift never actually de-
| serted him, but II gradually faded. as Il
were, when he approached manhood, and
in spite Of the wonderful things he could
| do with figures as an infant, he accom-
plished nothing worth while in mathemat-
les. He died at almost the same age as
Byron, a pitiful confirmation Of the COM
mon belief that precocty is the usher Of
death. still, the belief is sometimes mis-
taken
The poet Bryant in some respects the
best Of all the singers in our somewhat In
harmonious national choir, could read the
classics at 9, and he wrote '"Thanatopsis"
! ten years later From almost every point
Of view 'Thanatopsis" is a great poem.
The thought is stately and profound. with
a deep religious import. The music OF the
lines approaches the best in Milton. The
conclusion is a grand burst OF the highest
optimism! Bryant never afterward equaled
this precocious effort. though 1.-The Melan-
choly Days Are Come is a pastoral lyric
which expresses the sweet sorrow Of au-
tumn as no other poem ever did.
Certainly Bryant's precocity was no pre-
monition of early decay. He lived to n
good old age and kept his powers unim-
paired to the end. The poet Pope wrote
divine verse at 10 years OF age-at least,
as divine as he ever wrote afterward. Per-
haps the adjective divine" is a trife out
OF place applied TO Pope, who had little
kinship with celestial AFFAIRS and whose
poetry is more like college rhetoric and
plaster Of paris birthday cake than any
thing else.
Precocity is not confined TO intellectual
matters. Cecil, Lord Burleigh Queen Ellz-
abeth's great counselor, whose mind was
deep enough to bafie Philip OF Spain and
the inquisition, was a father at Il His ex-
perience is altogether In favor OF early
marriages and leads one 20 question the
wisdom OF those statutes which interpose
obstacles in the path Of youthful love II
may plausibly be surmised that such laws
perceptibly augment the sum total OF evil
in the world and increase the difficulty OF
solving some perplexed social questions.
At any rate his premature parenthood
aid Cecil no harm and the family which he
first distinguished las hourished and ruled
in England TO this day and Is likely to