Case of Thomas Gasking. 63 
by his uncommon proficiency in mental arithmetic. These in- 
stances of premature genius aré surprising; but they are ex- 
amples of practical knowledge, with which the reasoning faculty 
has little to do. Experience seems to show, that this distin- 
guishing property of the mind requires time to unfold itself; and 
that it is as unreasonable to expect fruit from a tree before it has 
blossomed, as to look for a correct judgement in an infant. The 
maxim is admitted to be general, but it isnot without exception; 
for a child nine years old is at present in Kendal, who has, by 
his progress in mathematics, united reason to practice. ‘Thomas 
Gasking is the son of an industrious and ingenious journeyman 
shoemaker, of Penrith; and I now proceed to notice his literary 
attainments, which he has acquired in the course of two years. 
He has learned to read correctly and gracefully; he writes a good 
hand with surprising expedition ;'‘and he has made some pro- 
gress in the English grammar. The boy went through this part 
of his ‘education in a day-school at Penrith; but he is indebted 
for his mathematical knowledge to the tuition of his father, who, 
though in low circumstances, has laudably dedicated his hours 
of leisure to scientific pursuits, as 1 am informed. Little Gas- 
king seems well acquainted with the leading propositions. in 
Euclid; he reads and works algebra with the greatest facility, 
and has entered upon the study of fluxions. I am aware that 
this report will appear incredible to those who are acquainted 
with the different subjects which have been enumerated ; but 
the following instance of his wonderful proficiency will, in all pro- 
bability, remove any doubts that competent judges may enter- 
tain. A stranger gentleman, who was invited, with myself, to 
examine the boy, requested him to demonstrate the thirteenth 
proposition of the first book of Euclid; which he did immediately. 
The demonstration of the twentieth proposition of the same 
book was next proposed: he drew out the figure ; and though 
he failed in his first attempt, he soon recovered the train of 
reasoning, and went through the demonstration correctly. Being 
‘asked, if he had two sides of a triangle and the angle included 
given, how he would proceed to find the third side? the process 
appeared quite familiar to him, and we found, upon inquiry, he 
was acquainted with logarithms, and was able to use them. In 
spherical trigonometry, he solved two cases of right-angled tri- 
angles by Lord Napier’s rules. His skill, and the rapidity-of his 
‘operations, in algebra, created more surprise than his knowledge 
‘of geometry;—he solved a number of quadratic equations -with 
‘the greatest ease, and extracted the square roots of the numbers 
which resulted from his operations. Several qnestions were put 
‘to him which contained two unknown quantities ; these he also 
answered without difficulty, Being asked if he had been taught 
the 
