HIS EARLY LIFE. 2838 
tion of prizes excites, we may remind some, in order that 
they may not abandon themselves to dreams which they 
will not realize, and others, in order to fortify them 
against discouragement, that Picus de Mirandola, the 
phoenix of learners of all ages and countries, became in 
mature age an insignificant writer ; that Newton—that 
powerful intellect of whom Voltaire, in some well known 
lines, asks the angels whether they are not jealous,—the 
great Newton, we observe, made but indifferent progress 
in the classes of his school; that study had for him no 
attractions ; that the first time he felt the wish to labour 
it was merely to take the place of a turbulent school- 
fellow, who, by reason of his rank in the school was 
seated on a form above him and annoyed him by kicks ; 
that at the age of twenty-two he was a candidate for a 
fellowship at Cambridge, and was beaten by one Robert 
Uvedale, whose name but for this circumstance, would 
have remained to this day perfectly unknown; that 
Fontenelle, lastly, was more ingenious than exact when 
he applied to Newton the words of Lucan, “It is not 
given to men to see the Nile feeble and at its source.” 
At the age of six years, Young entered under a teacher 
at Bristol,* whose mediocrity was a fortunate circum- 
stance for him. This, Gentlemen, is no paradox; the 
pupil, not being able to accommodate himself to the slow 
and limited steps which his master took, became his own 
instructor. It is thus that those brilliant qualities de- 
veloped themselves which too much aid would certainly 
have enervated. 
* The master, whose name was King, at first kept school at Sta- 
pleton, and thence removed to Townend, both near Bristol. Young’s 
acquaintance with the surveyor commenced after he quitted that 
school. See Peacock’s Life, p. 5.—Translator. 
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