RECORDED FACTS

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXI, Issue 2781, 28 November 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

RECORDED FACTS

DUNCES TO GENIUSES. Charles Darwin never could learn a language. Napoleon was No. 42 in his class; yet we do not know the name of even one of the 41 who were ahead of aim. Sir Isaac Newton was next to lowest in his form. He failed in his geometry because he did not do his pro<blems the ’ way the book said they should be done. Alexander von Humboldt’s teachers were doubtful whether he possessed even ordinary powers of intelligence.

George Eliot learned to read with very great difficulty. She gave no promise of brilliance in youth. Sir Walter Scott was never brilliant in his school work.

James Russell Lowell was suspended from Harvai’d for complete indolence.

Oliver Goldsmith was at the very bottom of his class. Emerson was a helpless dunce in mathematics.

James Watt, inventor of the steam engine, was the butt of his playmates at Mr McAdam’s school. G. Bemont, co-diseoverer of radium, was so stupid in school that his parents took him away.