Delayed Development followed by Precocity 553 



SLOW INFANTILE DEVELOPMENT SUDDENLY 

 FOLLOWED BY PRECOCITY. 



The Rev. Robert Hall's biography affords some very 

 remarkable facts in reference to infantile development and 

 precocity. He was the youngest of fourteen children and his 

 parents must have therefore been in middle age. In early 

 infancy he was very backward. His father was a Baptist 

 minister. He did not walk until two years old, nor had he 

 then acquired the faculty of articulate speech. His expression 

 and gestures, however, indicated quick intelligence. It is 

 said that he even learned to read before he could speak. His 

 nurse had taught him his letters and the construction of words 

 from the inscriptions on tombstones, in a churchyard which 

 adjoined his father's house. His interest in these exercises 

 finally loosened his tongue, and his progress was so rapid 

 that before he was three he spoke fluently. As a mere child 

 he engaged in hard study, was fond of metaphysics, and 

 before the age of nine had read and re-read "Edwards' 

 Treatise on the Will " and " Butler's Analogy." At eleven he 

 was encouraged to give addresses at prayer meetings. Sub- 

 sequently, at the University of Aberdeen, he was without 

 a rival of his own standing, and distinguished himself alike in 

 classics, philosophy and mathematics. 



The following brief statements as to Hall's subsequent 

 development may not be without their interest. He was an 

 intimate friend of John Foster, whose character we have con- 

 sidered in reference to his physiognomy at p. 263. Hall's 

 heavy face is well known. 



Robert Hall was born 1764 and died 1831. He was a 

 year older than his fellow student and attached friend, Sir 

 James Mackintosh, and six years older than John Foster. 



Mr. Henderson states that he was so far a materialist as to 

 hold that man's thinking powers and faculties are the result of 



