The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1915-02-04
Wisdom in the Cradle.

IL. F." MEDICINE CO., Portland. Me.
Wisdom in the Cradle.
Children With Big Minds and Bigger Men,
cries.
There are certain stock instances of
remarkable precocity upon which 1t is
not worth our while to dwell. The mar
vellous things related of Christian Helm
ecker, born at Lubec, 1871, and confirm
ed. we are told, by respectable authori-
ties," are open to suspicion. If, indeed,
in his second year he learned the greater
part of the history of the Bible, and in
his third year learned to speak Latin and
French and could answer most questions
on universal history and geography, it is
not strange that he died before attaining
the age of five years. There is no doubt,
however, as to his remarkable precocity,
for he was taken to Copenhagen and ex-
amined there before the king ard court
of Denmark and proclaimed a prodigy
indeed.
Mozart is a familiar instance of pre-
cocious musical genius. Less familiar
are the brothers Wesley, Samuel and
Charles, nepheWs of the great founder
of Methodism, whose performances on
their mothers harpsichord, before they
were three years old. seem well attested
and astonishing. One of these brothers,
at the age of eight years. surprised the
musical world by an oratorio of his own
composition. Dr.. William Crotch is an
other instance OF precocious musical
achievements. He become a respectable
organist and mediocre composer of
church music.
The melancholy case of Chatter ton
need not detain US, but that of the gen.
tie, pure, lovely and unfortunate Ladye
Jane Grey is especially interesting. At
the age of fifteen she could write and
speak Latin, Greek, Italian and French,
and knew something of Hebrew and
Arabic. Sir Walter Lander has repro
duced the conversations between her and
Roger Ascham, and told of her delight
in reading Plato in the original, much
preferring that to pastimes in the park
or to Boccaccio's merry tales. At the
age of fourteen she wrote letter in
Latin to Henry Bullinger at Zurich, in
which she mentions her progress in
Hebraic studies. She was revered by
scholarly persons like Ascham and Ayl-
mer for her remarkable proficiency in
learning, as for her character.
But here in Connecticut may be found
several interesting instances of preco-
cious minds.
John Trumbull, poet. patriot and law
yer, born 1850, graduated at Yale in class
of 1857, and who died in 1881, is an ex-
ample. The following facts regarding
him seem almost incredible but are well
attested. The son OF a Connecticut
minister, and a delicate child, before
reaching his second birthday he could re.
peat from memory Watts "Dlvine
Songs for Children and the verses in
the New England Primer. In the course
of his third year he learned to read, and
before he was four years old had read
the Bible from beginning to end. Seven
months before he was eight years old he
passed his examination for admission to
Yale College, but did not enter there un-
til six years later. Professor Park says
that while examined by the tutors. the
child sat in the lap of Nathaniel EN-
mons, his future cassmate, who was
older than he by five years. Before
reaching the age of nine years he had
versified one-half the Psalter. This
work he afterwards prudertly destroyed.
In the third volume OF the diary of Ezra
Stiles, page 103, one may read the fol-
lowing entry Of the president of Yale
College,:
II examined Miss Lucinda, Foot act
IL, Daugh. of the Revd Mr.. Foot of
Cnesire. She has learned the orat.
agt. Gaia line, the four first books of the
Eneid, and st. Johns Gospel in Greek
| examined her not only where she had
b,,t al -.
Virgil, Tully, and the Greek Testament,
and found her well fitted to be admitted
into the Freshman Class. She was born
May 10, 1772."
The entry was under date of 1888. On
the next page of the Diary is printed the
Certificate or Diploma, in Latin, signed
by President Stiles and given to the girl.
Though she received the diploma or
certificate in due form, she did not
probably was not permitted to-enter
college. DR.. Dexter's annals of early
Yale graduates show that the following
persons entered Yale at the age of
twelve years, one of them, probably, at
eleven years: Daniel Brown, class of
1714; Gurdon Saltonstall, class of 1925;
Bennett, class of 1926; Samuel Whittle-
sey, class of 1923, and the brothers
Abraham and James Davenport, class of
| 1892. What the later annals of Yale
would disclose of this sort, or those,
earlier or later, of Harvard, we do not
know. The common notion that preco-
cious children either die prematurely or
exhaust their faculties in early years
and sink into mediocrity is not supported
by the cases above cited. The Optimist
has long been familiar with and much in
terested in two cases infinitely and at
length described in Evelyn's diary.
Pepys and Evelyn, both of whose diaries,
Of practically the same period, have
been preserved for US, were men of un-
like natures and characters. Pepys's
diary is n UGH the better known, and de-
servedly, peIhaps, because he, with lit
tie refinement or delicacy, is an incom-
parable chronicler of current events
mingled with personal affairs and public
gossip, utterly unconscious both of his
conceit and humor. Evelyn was grave,
refined and deeply religious gentleman,
and his diary reflects his culture and his
character, and deserves to be better
known. Under date of July 6, 1879, he
writes:
''There was now brought up to London
child (son of Rev. Henry Wotton in
Suffolk who both read and perfectly
understood Hebrew, Greek, Latin. Arabic
and Syriac, and most of the modern
languages: disputed in Divinity, Law and