﻿THE YOUNG MATHEMATICIAN. 301 



One day he went to his father and said : 



" Father, I want to calculate eclipses and to make an alma- 

 nac ! But I need some books and instruments. Will you get them 

 for me ? ' 



His father, hardly knowing what to do with such a request, put 

 him off. But Henry persisted, and followed his father into the fields, 

 begging affectionately and earnestly to have his wishes gratified. 

 His perseverance won the victory. His indulgent father took him 

 to Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, to obtain the required 

 books and instruments, if possible. 



On arriving in sight of the college, young Henry's heart beat high 

 with enthusiasm and hope. His eyes glistened with excitement, 

 and he cried out : 



" O there is the college ! There are the books ! There are the 

 instruments ! ' 



Having secured the much desired books and instruments at Dart- 

 mouth and elsewhere, our little mathematician returned home, and 

 proceeded to calculate eclipses with all the skill and correctness of a 

 learned astronomer. 



In 1845, before he was ten years of age, he did what no child 

 had ever done before him. He prepared an almanac ! How sur- 

 prising ! A boy only nine years and a half old making an almanac ! 

 The next year he calculated four more, for Vermont, Boston, Phila- 

 delphia, and Cincinnati. They were done with remarkable accu- 

 racy. LIEUT. MAURY, to whom a copy was sent, wrote that his 

 " almanac would not do discredit to a mathematician of mature years. 

 Young Safford is a prodigy; I have never heard of his equal." 



There is one very striking fact about these almanac cumulations. 

 He did not confine himself to the old rules for making them ; but he 

 made new rules for himself by which he very materially abridged the 

 labor of difficult calculations. He was several days in making one of 

 these rules, and seemed to be "in a sort of trance." But one 

 morning he flew down stairs in his night dress, seized his slate, and 

 exclaimed in a voice of ecstasy 



" O father, I have got it I have got it ! It comes it comes ! " 



I have not space to write you all the details of Henry's progress. 

 But his rare powers continued to improve, and the attention of learned 



