The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-01-26

Declares you ran for sheriff. and little
else beside:
The stone that is erected within year or
Declares that it is sacred to the memory
of you.
Fourth Dimension.
The fourth dimension may be quite
as mythical as Santa Claus. There are
some skeptics even among the higher
something akin to the philosophers
stone. The fashion among learned men
once was to hunt for the formula that
would transmute base metals into gold
and silver.
Whatever the real value of the search
for the fourth dimension, there is some
thing more than an alchemist of math
ematics in William James Sidis, who
bowed by the weight of his ten long
years. stood before an audience of Har-
ward professors and Familiarity dis
cussed Observation-Disclosures It sounds
suspiciously like perpetual motion.
Young Mr.. Sidis is not a candidate
for the football team, and he probably
is too light for place as coxswain of
the crew. A 10-year-old boy could not
Of steering a shell in an intercollegiate
race. Even If he were strong enough
to keep the helm steady. his Judgment
might be at. fault.
But this little man can hold the at
tention of grave and reverend profess
sors while in his childish. piping voice
he explains new and startling theories
about space that old Euclid never sus-
pected of existing.
William James Sidis entered Harvard
last September. He was far and away
the youngest student ever matriculated
at that ancient university. He has al
ready passed through the highest
course in mathematics in the Harvard
curriculum. The gray-haired teachers
listen to his lectures and follow the
faltering diagrams. lettered in boyish
handwriting. with which he illustrates
theories that are neither boyish nor
faltering.
It really seems a little uncanny, and
its place might we'll be IN the
psychological clinic. 1t belongs there
child. for backward children are COM
mon enough. 1t isn't often that the
psychologist has chance to analyze
the forwards.
Youthful prodigies are always inter
esting studies. It is a curious fact that
few, except those whose precocity has
been exhibited in music, have fulfilled
the promise of their childhood. Mozart
was skilIful pianist at 8 years and
wrote operas at s. Other noted must
clans have shown similar early genius.
1t was said of Horace Greeley that he
could spell every word in the English
language at 8, but there Is some doubt
that he ever spelled hecatonicocehed-
rigons. Even in his old age he probably
would have disguised his faulty orthog-
raphy under his illegible handwriting
and put the burden Of proof on the
typesetter.
Most of us would rather have our 10
year-old boys practicing vulgar frac-
lions and inshootS than explaining the
fourth dimension to Harvard profess
sors. But the fact that a boy at 10 has
so completely mastered the known field
of abstract mathematics that he is
seeking to discover the unknown is sig
nificant of the possibilities of the hui
man mind.
William James Sidis is phe-
nomenon. and his marvellous develop
ment is altogether one-sided. But if his
mind can make such excursions at TO-
| the time will come when the field will
| be familiar to the average mind Of ma
ture years, because the development IN
| all directions will have been equally
great.
After thousands of years the human
| intellect is still at the threshold. The
| William James Sidises are flashes
which penetrate the future. Let us
| hope that this particular William
JamC will grow up to be something
more useful than a lightning calculator
in dime museum.-Philadelph NORTH
| American