INFANT PRODIGIES.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume VII, Issue 67, 12 September 1901, Page 2

INFANT PRODIGIES.

Professor Carl Stumpf has discovered an infant prodigy, and the “Vossiache Zeitung ” commends his appeal to Teutomc benevolence for means to cultivate it. This is all very well, but persous who remember the historic instances of the phenomenon are not much impressed by the report of little Otto Poplir’s achievements. Shorn of embroidery, the. list is brief and vague, He taught himself to read at two years old. At his present age—four—he recites the birth and death of “ msDy German Emperors, from Charlemagne downwards.” The names of most capitals of the world are familisr to him, and the dates of the chief battles in ancient and modern wars. And he loves to read the inscriptions on monuments

Wo are told no more, though doubtless there is more to tell. On the other hand, ho does not know any Latin, much less Greek ; for this incapacity circumstances may be responsible. But he is taught with difficulty to write the first letters of his chiistiau name, and he does not seem to wish to write at all.’’ To claim the title of “ iufant prodigy ’ for a four-year-old upon such grounds shows a strange ignorance of the class.

There is no need to cite ancient instances of dubious authorities. Hear what the rigid Dugald Stewart said of his nephew’s manuscripts in a private letter after the boy’s death. We put these general remaiks first, and then descend to particulars. “ I have never seen anything which at so early an age ” twelve apparently—“ afforded such splendid promise of mathematical genius ; and yet 1 am not sure that they convey to me a higher idea of his philosophical turn of thinking than some of his speculatious on the metaphysical principles of the modern calculus,” &c. New for some independent evidence. Mr. Lemaislre oame ocross the boy iu Germany, at the age of five—mark that ! and mentioned him in bis “ Travels.” He sits on a carpet surrounded with his books, which dealt with various sciences, history, music, and especially geography. . . . “.I begged Lim to tell me bow 1 could return to England without touching on the Hanoverian, Preßcb, or Dutch territories, aud he instantly traced on the globe the only remaining road.” Having taught himself to write from books, he used printed characters, beginuing at the right hand instead of the left—an interesting peculiarity. He “ knew ” Latin, he had bfgun Greek, and he spoke English, Germau, and French. Mr. Lemaistre was bo judge, perhaps, ef the mathematical and philosophical and metaphysical powers which amazed Dugald Stewart. At twelve or thirteen years of age the prodigy broke down, and died, worn out, at nineteen.

No reasoning mortal would believe that .John Evelyn told a wilful falsehood, but it is in his secret diary while the corpse of his little son still lay in the house, that ho recorded the child’s “ perfections.” At two and a half years he could read '* any of the English, Latine, French, or Gothic letters, pronouncing the first three languages exactly ” —Latine was not pronounced as English then, In his fifth year he declined all the nouns, conjugated the verbs regular and most of the irregular, turned English into Latin aud vice versa, “ began to write legibly, and had a wonderful passion for Greeke. He had a wonderful disposition to methematics, having by heart divers propositions of Euclid which had been read to him in play, and he would make lines aud demonstrate them. ... He had learned by heart diver 3 sentences in Latiue and Greeke which on occaiion ho would produce even to wonder. ... He was all life, all preltinesse, far from morose, sullen or childish in everything he did. But on January 27th, 1 58, died my deare sou Richard to our inexpressible grief aud affliction, aged 5 years and three days old onely-i-’

One might think this prodigy could not bo surpassed. But mark a letter from Sir Philip Skippon to Mir. John Ray, September 18tb, 1671. “ I shall somewhat surprize you with what I have seen in a little boy, William Wotton, five years old last month, son of Mr. Wotlou, minister of this parish, who hath instructed his child within the last three-quarters of a year in the reading of tbe Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, which he can read almost as well as English.” This is eur first peep of the renowued William Wotton. He did not die or break down, and we have many witnesses to his attainments—not too many, however, for such a marvsl. At nine years “and some months” he martriculated at Catherine Hall, Cambridge, and took his degree at 12 years five months. His father brought him to Loudon when eleven years old, and the learned unamimously pronounced him “ a miracle ’’—with good reason. "He read and perfectly understood Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Syriac, and most of the modern languages ; disputed in divinity, law, and all the sciences ; was skilful in history, both ecclesiastical and profane, and in politics. He was also dexterous in chronology and antiquities.” This case ia peculiarly interesting, because William Wolton lived to the age of 61, in good health, too, so far as appears ; thus the iufant prodigy had ample time to mature. But we seek his name vainly in tho list of eminent Englishmen, even of English scholars. Yet his brain did not give way. Bentley, the great and scornful, respected him, and he took a creditable part in the Phalaris controversy. But all these wonderful powers and attainments came to nothing. Burnet recommended him to the Bishop of Bt. Asaph as librarian, aud the Bishop gave him a Welsh living. That- is all. But there was a greater than Wotton at the same period,the son of Dr. Clench. Evelyn knew the former and marvelled at him,buthedeclared the latter, not yet twelve years old. the more astonishing—“ of the most prodigious maturity of knowledge, for I cannot call "it altogether memory, hut something more extraordinary.” Evelyn bad the advantage of Mr. Pepys’ assistance in examining the bay. It is to be regretted hat Pepys made no note of the interview.for one might almost venture to say that little Clench was the Prodigy of Prodigies, a being unique among his olass. Perhaps we may recognise the Secretary of the Admiralty in a series of questions dealing with “ Geography,” the several systems of Astronomy, Courses of the Stars, longitude, latitude, Doctrine of the Spheres, Courses and Sources of Rivers, Creeks, Harbours, eminent Cities, Boundaries and Countries . . . . which he did readily resolve aud demonstrate his knowledge of, readily drawingoub with a pen anything he could not describe.” Thence they proceeded to history, and the boy enumerated “ all the Lower Emperors, Popes, Hereaiarchs, and Councils.” Concerning these latter—a favourite study with Evelyn—he told “ what they were called about,what they determined, the controversy about Easter, the tenets of the Gnostics, Sabellians, Ariaos, Nestorians, and the Schisms.” They did not throttle the small monster, but “ leaped to other things totally different to Olympic years and Synoebroniams ; nay, to seme particulars of ervie law, of “ The Digest and Code.” “ Stupendous ” was his account of “Philosophy and Metaphysics.” The examiners—men of notable learning and skill—were stumped, as we should put it; they confessed themselves “ exhausted ” ; but all the while the child had been playing about the room and “ toying with a parrot,” always smiling beautiful, as an angel. Finally, he was “ perfect in Latin and arithmetic, and now nowly entered into Greek.” Evelyn pathetically recalled his own most dear Richard, and adjured Dr. Clench not to set his heart too much upon this jewel. Probably the boy died yoang; we have not noticed any further allusion to him. This is commonly the fate of iufant prodigies. But it does not appear that little Otto Poplsr has any special reason to dread it.