282 THOMAS YOUNG. 
diate circle. Moreover, I hope that after what I shall 
be able to adduce, even in a few minutes, no one will be 
able to deny that the man of universal science whose life 
Iam about to describe, and whose labours I shall ana- 
lyze, has some real claims to preference. 
BIRTH OF YOUNG.—HIS CHILDHOOD.—FIRST EN- 
TRANCE ON HIS SCIENTIFIC CAREER. 
Thomas Young was born at Milverton in the county 
of Somerset, June 13, 1773, of parents who belonged to 
the Society of Friends. He passed his earliest years at 
the house of his maternal grandfather, Mr. Robert 
Davies, of Minehead, whom the active business of com- 
merce had not been able to divert from the cultivation of 
classical literature. Young could read fluently at the 
age of two years. His memory was extraordinary. In 
the intervals of his attendance at the house of a village 
schoolmistress in the neighbourhood of Minehead, at 
four years old, he had learned by heart a number of 
English authors, and even several Latin poems, which 
he could repeat from beginning to end, although he did 
not understand a word of the language. The example 
of Young, like many others of celebrity recorded by 
biographers, may then contribute to keep up the com- 
mon prepossession of so many good fathers of families, 
who see in certain lessons according as they may be 
recited without faults, on the one hand, or are badly 
learnt on the other, infallible indications of an eternal 
mediocrity in the one case, or the beginning of a glorious 
career in the other. It would indeed be far from our 
object if these historical notices should tend to strengthen 
such prejudices. Thus, without wishing to weaken the 
vivid and pure emotions which every year the distribu- 
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