MISCELLANIES. 



5\l 



He had always accustomed himself 

 to that exercise ; and, having- prac- 

 tised it with assiduity (even before 

 the loss of sight, which afterwards 

 rendered it a matter of necessity), 

 he is an instance to what an asto- 

 nishing degree it may be acquired, 

 and how much it improves the in- 

 tellectual powers. No other disci- 

 pline is so effectual in strengthen- 

 ing the faculty of attention : it 

 gives a facility of apprehension, an 

 accuracy and steadiness to the con- 

 ceptions; and (what is a still more 

 valuable acquisition) it habituates 

 the mind to arrangement in its 

 reasonings and reflections." 



It is not intended to draw a 

 comparison betweeen the humble, 

 though astonishing, efforts of this 

 infant prodigj'^ and ihe gigantic 

 powers of that illustrious character 

 to whom a reference has just been 

 made: yet we may be permitted 

 to hope and expect that those won- 

 derful talents, which are so con- 

 spicuous at this early age, may, by 

 a suitable education, be consider- 

 ably improved and extended ; and 

 that some new light will eventually 

 be thrown upon those subjects, for 

 the elucidation of which his mind 

 appears to be peculiarly formed by 

 nature, since he enters into the 

 world with all those powers and 

 faculties which are not even at- 

 tainable by the most eminent at a 

 more advanced period of life. 

 Every mathematician must be 

 aware of the important advantages 

 which have sometimes been deriv- 

 ed from the most simple and tri- 

 fling circumstances ; the full effect 

 of which has not always been evi- 

 dent at first sight. To mention 

 one singular instance of this kind. 

 The very simple improvement of 

 expressing the powers and roots of 



quantities by means of indices, in- 

 troduced a new and general arith- 

 metic of exponents: and this al- 

 gorithm of powers led the way to 

 the invention of logarithms, by 

 means of which, all arithmetical 

 computations are so much facili- 

 tated and abridged. Perhaps this 

 child possesses a knowledge of 

 some more important properties 

 connected with this subject; and 

 although he is incapable at pre- 

 sent of giving any satisfactory ac- 

 count of the state of his mind, or 

 of communicating to others the 

 knowledge which it is so evident 

 he does possess, yet there is every 

 reason to believe that, when his 

 mind is more cultivated, and his 

 ideas more expanded, he will be 

 able not only to divulge the mode 

 by which he at present operates, but 

 also point out some new sources of 

 information on this interesting sub- 



The case is certainly one of 

 great novelty and importance: and 

 every literary character, and every 

 friend to science, mu^-t be anxious 

 to see the experiment fairly tried, 

 as to the effect which a -suitable 

 education may produce on a mind 

 constituted as his appears to be. 

 With this view a number of gen- 

 tlemen have taken the child under 

 their patronage, and have formed 

 themselves into a committee for 

 the purpose of superintending his 

 education. Application has been 

 made to a gentleman of science, 

 well known for his mathematical 

 abilities, who has consented to 

 take the child under his immediate 

 tuition : the committee, therefore, 

 propose to withdraw him, for the 

 present, from public exhibition, in 

 order that he may fully devote 

 himself to his studies. But whe- 

 ther 



