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 

 I am 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, 1778, of parents who belonged to 

 the Society of Friends. He passed his earliest years at 

 the house of his maternal grandfather, Mr. Roberi 

 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- 



