The Percy Anecdotes: |
Come hither, boy, and clear thy open brow;
Yon summer clouds now like the Alps, and now
A ship, a whale, change not so fast as thou.' ROGERS.
ASTYAGES, King of the Medes, dreamed that while he was yet alive, the child of which his daughter Mandane was then pregnant, was raised to a throne; this so troubled him with fears for the safety of his crown, that he caused the infant as soon as born to be delivered to Harpagus, with strict orders to have it destroyed. Harpagus, willing to shift the sin of so cruel a deed from himself, entrusted the execution of it to the herdsman of Astyages; but the herdsman's wife happening at the very time to be delivered of a still-born child, she prevailed on her husband to substitute the living for the dead infant When Cyrus (for such was the boy's name) grew up, he was particularly distinguished among his playmates, for his boldness and intelligence, and as an honour justly due to super-eminent merit, they conferred on him the title of KING. Cyrus put the rush crown on his head with all the confidence of one who was entitled to a real one. He proceeded to appoint one playmate to be his prime minister; another to be his chamberlain; a third to be his sword-bearer; so many to be of his privy council; and so many to be his guards. One of these boy subjects, the son of a nobleman, called Artembaris, happening to disobey some of the royal commands, Cyrus ordered him to be seized by his guards, and soundly flogged. The lad, as soon as at liberty, ran home to his father, and complained bitterly of the treatment he had received. The father repaired to Astyages and showing him the bruised shoulders of his son, 'Is it thus, O King!' said he 'that we are treated by the son of thy bondsman and slave?' Astyages sent for the herdsman, and his supposed son; and addressing the latter, sternly said, 'How darest thou, being the son of such a father as this, treat in so vile a manner the son of one of my court?' 'Sire,' answered Cyrus, with firmness, 'I have done nothing unto him but what was fit. The country lads (of whom he was one) chose me for their King in play, because I seemed the most worthy of that dignity, but when all the rest obeyed my commands, this boy alone regarded not what I said. For this was he punished; and if on this account I have merited to suffer any punishment, I am here ready to suffer it.' While Cyrus spoke, Astyages was so struck with the family resemblance of the boy's features, that he was tempted to make some particular enquiries of the herdsman; and pressed him so hard, that he at last extorted from him a confession of the truth. Dismissing them for the present Astyages went and consulted the Magi on the discovery he had made, revealing to them at the same time the purport of the dream which had given such trouble to his mind. The Magi, ingenious in behalf of humanity declared that in their opinion, all that the dream imported had been already realized, by the circumstance of Cyrus having played the King in sport. This interpretation hilled the fears of Astyages, he became reconciled to the boy's existence, and after acknowledging him as his grandson, sent him into Persia to his father.
But mark the sequel! Ere many years had elapsed, Cyrus stimulated the Persians to revolt, overcame Astyages, his grandfather, and united the empire of the Medes to that of the Persians.
In a visit which Cyrus made to his grandfather, shortly after his royal descent was recognised, Astyages was much charmed with his sprightliness and wit, and gave a sumptuous entertainment on his account, at which there was a profusion of everything that was nice and delicate. All this exquisite cheer and magnificent preparation, Cyrus looked upon with great indifference. 'The Persians,' said he to the [king, 'have a much shorter way to appease their hunger; a little bread and a few cresses with them answers the purpose.' Sacras, the king's cupbearer, displeased Cyrus; and Astyages praising him on account of the wonderful dexterity with which he served him, 'is that all, sir?' replied Cyrus: 'if that be sufficient to merit your favour, you shall see I will quickly obtain it, for I will take upon me to serve you better than he.' Immediately Cyrus was equipped as a cupbearer, and very gracefully presented the cup to the king, who embraced him with great fondness, saying, 'I am mightily well pleased, my son; nobody can serve with a better grace; but you have forgot one essential ceremony, which is that of tasting.' 'No,' replied Cyrus, 'it was not through forgetfulness that I omitted that ceremony.' 'Why, then,' said Astyages, 'for what reason did you omit it?' 'Because I apprehended there was poison in the liquor.' 'Poison, child! how could you think so?' 'Yes, poison, sir; for not long ago, at an entertainment you gave to the lords of your court, after the guests had drank a little of that liquor, I perceived all their heads were turned; they sung, made a noise, and talked they did not know what, you yourself seemed to have forgot that you were a king; and they that they were subjects; and when you would have danced, you were unable to stand.' 'Why,' says Astyages, 'have you never seen the same thing happen to your father?' 'No, never,' says Cyrus. 'What then? how is it with him when he drinks?' 'Why, when he has drank, his thirst is quenched; and that is all.'
The celebrated quarrel between Macedon and Persia, we are told, originated in Alexander's refusing to pay the tribute of golden eggs, to which his father had agreed. 'The bird that laid the eggs has flown to the other world,' is reported to have been the laconic answer of the Macedonian prince to the Persian envoy, who demanded the tribute. After this, Darab (Darius) sent another ambassador to the court of the Grecian monarch whom he charged to deliver to him a bat, a tall, and a bag of very small seed, called Gunjad. The bat and ball were meant to throw a ridicule on Alexander's youth, being fit amusement for his age; the bag of seed was intended as an emblem of the Persian army, being innumerable. Alexander took the bat and ball into his hand, and said, 'This is the emblem of my power, with which I strike the ball of your monarch's dominion and this fowl (he had ordered one to be brought) will soon show you what a morsel your numerous army will prove to mine. The grain was instantly eat up; and Alexander gave a wild melon to the envoy, desiring him to tell his sovereign what he had heard and seen, and to give him that fruit, the taste of which would enable him to judge of the bitter fare which awaited him.
Plutarch mentions a singular instance of the early manifestation of that bold and fearless spirit which distinguished this illustrious Roman. The Italian allies of Rome having demanded admission to the privilege of citizenship, Pompedius Silo, one of their deputies for urging this claim, was a guest at the house of Drusus, the maternal uncle of Cato; and in a jocose manner asked young Cato to recommend his suit to his uncle. The child was silent, but expressed by his looks that he had no inclination to comply with the request. Pompedius renewed his solicitations, but was unable to prevail. At length he took up the infant Cato in his arms, and carrying him to the window, threatened to throw him over ii he persisted in his refusal. But fear was as unavailing as entreaty. Pompedius, on letting him down in the room, exclaimed, 'What an happiness it is for Italy that thou art but a child! for if thou wert of age, we should not have a single vote.'
At the age of fourteen, Cato was introduced by his tutor, Sarpedon; to the house of Sylla, the Dictator, which on account of the proscriptions and cruelties of that tyrant, was a scene of torture and of blood. When the youth observed the heads of several noble victims who had been murdered, carried out, and the by standers secretly sighing at the horrid spectacle, he asked his tutor, 'Why nobody killed such a tyrant?' 'It is,' replied he, 'because he is still more feared than hated.' Cato exclaimed, 'Oh that I had a sword that I might kill him, and deliver my country from slavery!'
Notwithstanding the youthful sternness of Cato's character, he was not unsusceptible of tender emotions, nor destitute of kind affections. Never was fraternal love stronger than that which he bore to his brother Caepio.
When anyone asked him whom he loved best he would answer, 'My brother Caepio.' And when farther asked whom next he most loved he would repeat, 'Caepio;' and so to each successive question of the same sort, till his interrogators ceased to inquire any farther. As he grew to manhood he gave many strong confirmations of his brotherly attachment. He never supped without Caepio; never went any journey without him; never even walked in the market-place without him.
'And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans,
Still we went coupled, and inseparable.'
SHAKESPEARE.
When Caepio was at length cut off by death, grief seemed to triumph over all Cato's philosophy. Tears flowed profusely down his cheeks, while he embraced the dead body, and he fell into a state of dejection and melancholy, from which it was a long time ere he recovered.
The Emperor Augustus having taken Adiatoriges, a Prince of Cappadocia, together with his wife and children, in war, and led them to Rome in triumph, gave orders that the father and the elder of the brothers should be slain. The ministers of execution on coming to the place of confinement, inquired which was the eldest? On this there arose an earnest contention between the two young princes, each of them affirming himself to be the elder that by his own death he might preserve the life of his brother. When they had continued this heroic and fraternal emulation for some time, the afflicted mother with much difficulty prevailed on her son Dytentus that he would permit his younger brother to die in his stead, hoping that by him she might still be sustained. When Augustus was told of this example of brotherly love, he regretted his severity, and gave an honourable support to the mother and her surviving son.
'I have seen
When after execution, judgment hath
Repented o'er his doom.'
SHAKSPEARE.
When Cicero and his brother Quintus were proscribed by the second triumvirate of Rome, they endeavoured to make their escape to Brutus in Macedon. They travelled together some time, when they recollected that they were not furnished with the money necessary for the voyage; it was therefore agreed that Cicero should hasten to the coast to secure their passage, while Quintus returned home to make more ample provision. The return of Quintus was soon known, and his house filled with soldiers and assassins; but he so effectually concealed himself that the soldiers could not find him. Enraged at their disappointment, they put his son to the torture, in order to make him discover the place of his father's concealment; but the young Roman was proof against the most dreadful torments. A sigh, and sometimes a groan, escaped him; and in proportion as his agonies increased was his fortitude strengthened. Quintus was not far off, and heard the stifled sighs and groans of his son expiring in tortures to save his father's life. He could bear no longer; but rushing from his concealment, presented himself to the assassins, and with tears entreated that they would put him to death, but spare the innocent child, whose generous conduct would meet with the highest approbation and reward from the triumvirate. But the monsters in whose breasts pity or a generous feeling had never entered, answered that they both must die - the father because he was proscribed, and the son for concealing his father. A contest now arose between the father and his son, who should suffer first. The misery of surviving each other even for a single moment was however spared them, and they were both beheaded at the same instant.
When Alexander the Great was on one occasion sacrificing to the gods, one of the noble youths who waited upon him was so severely burnt by a piece of hot coal which fell upon his arm from the censor he carried, that the smell of the scorched flesh affected all who stood by. Yet the boy shrunk not; he exhibited no symptom of pain, but kept his arm immovable, lest by shaking the censer he should interrupt the sacrifice, or by his groaning should give Alexander any disturbance.
A Campanian lady, who was very rich, and fond of pomp and show, being on a visit to Cornelia, the illustrious mother of the Gracchi displayed her diamonds and jewels somewhat ostentatiously, and requested that Cornelia would let her see her jewels also. Cornelia dexterously turned the conversation to another subject, to wait the return of her sons, who were gone to the public schools. When they returned, and had entered their mother's apartment, she, pointing to them, said to the lady, 'These are my jewels; the only ornaments I admire.'
When Themistocles was a boy, he was once on returning from school met by Pisistratus. 'Stand out of the way,' said the master of Themistocles, 'and give place to the prince.' 'What!' replied the boy boldly, 'has he not room enough?'
A youth named Eretrius was for a considerable time a follower of Zeno. On his return home, his father asked him what he had learned? The boy replied, that would hereafter appear. On this, the father being enraged, beat his son; who bearing it patiently, and without complaining, said, This have I learned - to endure a parent's anger.'
Chevalier Boucicaut the younger, a native of Toledo, when not seventeen years old, was at the battle of Rosbecque with Charles VI.; and having presented himself to engage a Fleming of extraordinary stature, the latter contemptuously struck his battle-axe from his hand, saying, 'Go suck, child! the French are in great want of men, since they send children to battle.' On which, young Boucicaut drawing his dagger, and nimbly rushing under his adversary's arm, stabbed him through his cuirass, exclaiming at the same time, 'So, do the children of your country play in this fashion?'
'I'll not disgrace my innocence by fear,
Lest I the saving of my life repent;
I'll rather bear than merit punishment.'
EARL OF ORRERY'S MUSTAPHA. There is a northern tradition that Harold, King of Denmark, founded a city which he called Iomsburg, and sent thither a colony of young Danes, under the command of Palinatokes. This leader forbade his followers, even in the most imminent danger, to pronounce the word fear, he would have his people fight and die without yielding. Some youths from Iomsburg having attacked a Norwegian lord, were, after a very obstinate contest, made prisoners, and condemned to death. Far from dreading it, they contemplated it with joy, and the first of them said with all unmoved countenance, 'Why should I not share the same fate as my father? he died, and so must I.' A warrior, named Thorkill, asked the second what he thought? He answered that he knew the laws of Iomsburg too well, to speak a word at which his enemies might rejoice.' A third gave for answer to the same question, 'That he rejoiced at his honourable death, and infinitely preferred it to a shameful life like that of Thorkill.' The fourth spoke still more plainly; 'I suffer death with pleasure, and the hour is agreeable to me.' The fifth and sixth died while bidding their enemies defiance. At last came the seventh, who was a youth of great beauty. When Thorkill asked him if he feared death, he answered, "No: I suffer it willingly, because I have fulfilled the highest duties in life and have seen all those die before me, whom I would have been sorry to survive.'
This prince was only ten years of age when he was crowned. His mother, Catherine de Medicis, mentioning her apprehension that the fatigue of the ceremony might be perhaps too much for him, he replied, 'Madam, I will very willingly undergo as much fatigue, as often as you have a crown to bestow upon me.' When the Constable de Montmorenci died, the young prince, then only seventeen, did not immediately name another person to that high office, saying, I will carry my own sword in future.' And to his mother, who wished to keep him under her own direction he said, 'That he would no longer be kept in a box, like the old jewels of the crown.'
In one of the journeys of Louis XI. of France, he went into the kitchen of an inn where he was not known, and observing a lad turning a spit, asked his name, and what he was. The lad, with great simplicity, answered, that his name was Berringer; that he was not indeed a very great man, but that still he got as much as the King of France. 'And what my lad, does the King of France get?' said Louis. 'His wages,' replied the boy, 'which he holds from God, and I hold mine from the king.' Louis was so pleased with this answer, that he took the boy with him, and gave him a situation to attend on his person.
Kang Hi was one of the most illustrious princes that ever sat on the throne of China. He came to the throne in 1661, and from his earliest life exhibited that ardour of mind so well suited to the difficult task of governing. When the Emperor Cham-Chi, his father, was on his death bed, he assembled his children together to fix upon a successor to the throne. On asking his eldest son if he should like to be emperor, he answered, that he was too weak to support so great a burden. The second made a similar answer. But when he put the question to young Kang Hi, who was not quite seven years of age, he replied, Give me the empire to govern, and you shall see how I will acquit myself.' The emperor was much pleased with this bold and simple answer. 'He is a boy of courage,' said Cham-Chi. 'Let him be emperor.'
Philip Thicknesse tells the following amusing story of a little negro boy in the West Indies. His master finding him a child of good parts, often conversed familiarly with him; but whenever he committed a fault, gave him a note to carry to the overseer of the plantation, in which he directed that he should be whipped. The boy perceiving the constant and unpleasant consequence of carrying a bit of paper to the overseer, took a favourable occasion to question his master about it, asking him why at such times, and such only the overseer should beat him with so much severity? The master informed him that the paper talked so and so to the overseer, because he was idle, and neglected to work. 'Why, masse,' said the boy, 'I never see you work.' 'Not with my hands, 'tis true,' replied the master; 'but I work with my head, which is a much greater labour than yours.' The next time the boy was sent with a note to the overseer, he threw it away: and on his master enquiring of him what the other had said, 'Nothing at all,' rejoined the boy; 'I did not go to him, having this time worked with my head too.'
The great Turenne, in his youth, was much pleased with the character of Alexander, as delineated by Quintus Curtius. His ambition was fired by the heroic actions of that conqueror; and he took particular pleasure in reading and relating them to others. On these occasions, his whole gesture became more animated than usual; his eyes sparkled, and his imagination being inflamed, he overcame the natural difficulty he had in speaking. An officer one day took the liberty to tell him, that his favourite historian was no better than a writer of romances, which touched the young viscount to the quick. The duchess, his mother, made a sign to the officer to persist: the dispute grew warm; Turenne fell into a passion; left the company abruptly; and privately sent the officer a challenge, which, in order to divert the duchess, was accepted. The next day the young viscount went out of town, under the presence of hunting; and Turenne arriving at the spot of rendezvous, there found a table ready spread. As he stood wondering what this preparation could mean, his mother appeared, accompanied by the officer, and told her son she was come to be second to the gentleman with whom he was to fight. The sportsmen came up, breakfast was served, peace concluded, and the duel changed into a hunting match.
When Turenne was only ten years old, his governor missed him, and after seeking some time, length found him asleep on a carmon, which he seemed to embrace with his little arms as far as he could reach. When he was asked why he had chosen such a couch, he answered, 'That he intended to have slept there all night, to convince his father that he was hardy enough to undergo the fatigues of war; though the old duke had often persuaded him to the contrary.'
A Quaker residing at Paris, was waited on by four of his workmen in order to make their compliments, and ask for their usual new year's gifts. 'Well, my friends,' said the Quaker, 'here are your gifts; choose fifteen francs or the bible.' 'I don't know how to read,' said the first, 'so I take the fifteen francs.' 'I can read,' said the second, 'but I have pressing wants.' He took the fifteen francs. The third also made the same choice. He now came to the fourth, a young lad of about thirteen or fourteen. The Quaker looked at him with an air of goodness. 'Will you too take these three pieces, which you may obtain at any time by your labour and industry?' 'As you say the book is good, I will take it, and read from it to my mother,' replied the boy. He took the bible opened it, and found between the leaves a gold piece of forty francs. 'The others hung down their heads, and the Quaker told them he was sorry they had not made a better choice.
Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, when scarce seven years old, being at dinner with the queen, his mother, was handing a bit of bread to his favourite dog, when the hungry animal snapping at it too greedily, bit his hand in a dreadful manner. The wound bled copiously; but our young hero, without crying, or appearing to take any notice of what had happened, wrapped his hand in the napkin to conceal his misfortune. The queen perceiving that he did not eat, asked him the reason; he thanked her, and replied, that he was not hungry. The party thought he was ill, and repeated their solicitations, but all in vain although he was now grown pale with loss of blood. An officer who attended at table at last perceived the cause, for Charles would sooner have died than betrayed his dog; which he knew intended no injury.
Quintus Curtius was one of the first books put into Charles's hands: and on being asked what he thought of its hero, Alexander the Great, he replied' 'Oh, how I wish to be like him!' 'Why, sir,' replied his tutor, 'your majesty forgets then, that he died at thirty-two years of age.' 'Well, surely he lived long enough, when he had conquered so many kingdoms.'
Hooker says of this prince, 'that though he died young, he lived long, for life ifs action;' and Cardan, in his once celebrated work, 'De Genituris,' thus describes the youthful Edward, with whom he had several conversations upon the subject of some of his works, particularly on that, 'De Rerum Vanitate.'
'The child was wonderful in this respect that at the age of fifteen he had learned, as I was told, seven different languages. In that of his own country, that of France, and the Latin language, he was perfect; so much so, that when only seven years old, he wrote two letters in the latter language to his godfather, Archbishop Cranmer. In the conversations that I had with him (when he was only fifteen years of age) he spoke Latin with as much readiness and elegance as myself. He was a pretty good logician, he understood natural philosophy and music, and played upon the lute. The good end the [earned had formed the highest expectations of him, from the sweetness of his disposition and the excellence of his talents. He had began to favour learning before he was a great scholar himself, and to be acquainted with it before he could make use of it.'
In the British Museum there is a book of Exercises made by this prince, in English, Latin, and Greek, with the name of King Edward subscribed to each of them, in the language in which it was written. And Bishop Burnet has preserved in his History of the Reformation, a diary of his life, which this prince kept, and a discourse about the Reformation of Abuses, which would have done no discredit to an old statesman. He always had a particular regard for the Holy Scriptures, and was much offended when he saw one of his attendants place a bible on the floor and step upon it, for something that was out of his reach.
While this extraordinary personage was a boy at school, he was much subject to fits of hypochondria. One day, when lying melancholy upon his back in bed, a spectre, as he thought, approached him, and told him that he would live to be the greatest man in the kingdom. Old Mr. Cromwell, when informed of this phantasy of his son's, was very- angry, and desired his master to correct him severely. This however produced no effect. Oliver persisted in the truth of his story, and would often mention it, though his uncle told him 'it was too traitorous a thing to be repeated.'
From school he was sent to Sidney College, Cambridge, where Winstanley tells us he met with an incident which gave great strength to his boyish prepossession. The play of Lingua, by Anthony Brewer, happened to be acted, and Oliver performed a part in it. The substance of the piece is a contention among the Senses for a crown which Lingua had concealed, in order that they may exercise their respective powers in finding it. The part allotted to young Cromwell was that of Tactus, or Touch; who having obtained the contested coronet, makes this spirited speech:-
'Roses and bays, pack hence! this crown and robe
My brows and body circles and invests;
How gallantly it fits me! Sure the slave
Measur'd my head who wrought this coronet!
They lie that say complexions cannot change!
My blood's ennobled, and I am transform'd
Into the sacred temper of a king!-
Methinks I hear my noble parasites
Styling me Caesar or Great Alexander.
Licking my feet,' &c.
Cromwell is said to have felt the whole part so warmly, and more especially the speech now quoted, that it was the first thing which really fired his soul with ambition, and excited him from the possession of an imaginary throne, to stretch his views to the conquest of a real one.
As Henry II. of France was making a progress through his kingdom, he stopped at a small inn in Berri to sup. After supper, a youth sent in to his majesty a copy of Greek verses. The king being no scholar, gave them to his chancellor to read, who was so pleased with them, that he desired the boy who wrote them to be brought in. On enquiry, he found him to be one Amyott, the son of a mercer in the town. The chancellor recommended to his majesty to take the lad to Paris, he did so, and made him tutor to his children. Charles IX. to whom Amyott had been preceptor, having read that Charles V. had made his tutor, Adrian, a Pope, said that he would do as much for his tutor, and the post of Great Almoner of France being vacant, he gave him that honourable office. He afterwards conferred on him the bishopric of Auxerre.
Jean Baptiste Lully, the celebrated musician, was born of obscure parents at Florence but discovering in his infancy a propensity to music, a Cordelier undertook to teach him to play on the guitar, an instrument then much in use in Italy and France. When only ten years of age, young Lully became page to Mademoiselle de Montpensier: but this lady taking a dislike to his appearance, which was far from promising, assigned him a situation in her kitchen, as under scullion. The genius of Lully was not thus to be subdued, and in the moments of his leisure from the kitchen he used to scrape on a wretched violin which he had been able to procure. This became known to the princess, and he was soon restored to that character, as a musician, from which his figure had a short time before banished him as a page.
Charles II. who was very fond of music, perceiving genius in many of the children of the Chapel Royal, encouraged them to try to compose pieces by themselves. Many of the children composed anthems and services which would do honour to mature age, particularly John Blow, afterwards Doctor in Music, who attracted the notice of the king by his talents and was asked by him if he could imitate a little duet of Carissimi to the words 'Dite 0 Cieli.' Blow modestly answered he would try, and composed in the same measure, and the same key, that fine song, 'Go, perjured Man;' and afterwards he composed another little inferior, to the words, 'Go, perjured Maid.'
It has often been said, that the Members of the Society of Friends are possessed from their youth of more than an ordinary share of acuteness. The following fact may serve as a proof of this assertion:- Some time ago, Mr. ---, a most respectable ironfounder, of Birmingham, discovered that his son, a boy of five years of age, was accustomed to ask those gentlemen who came to his house, to give him money; and immediately extorted a promise from him, under a threat of correction, that he would not do so any more. The next day Mr., his father's partner, called, and the boy evaded a breach of his promise by saying, 'Friend, cost thou know any one who would lend me a penny, and not require it of me again?'
The Abbe de Rance, afterwards a celebrated monk of La Trappe, made such a rapid proficiency in Greek, that at the age of twelve he translated Anacreon, and published it with learned notes. He was very little older when he was appointed to a considerable benefice. Some persons at court murmuring at the advancement of so young an Abbe, Caussin, the Jesuit, was directed by the king to examine him. When the little Abbe came to court Caussin had Homer lying before him, and desired De Rance to read a passage which casually presented itself. The boy read it immediately in French; the Jesuit could not credit such an extraordinary facility, but thought he had looked at the Latin version printed in the same page, and covering the Latin with his gloves, was surprised to hear the lad explain the Greek as before. The Jesuit astonished, exclaimed, 'Habeos lynceos oculos:' 'You have lynx eyes, my son, for you can see through a pair of gloves.'
In the insurrection headed by Wat Tyler, Richard the Second owed the preservation of his life to his intrepidity and presence of mind. In the meeting at Smithfield, when the insurgents saw their leader fall by the sword of the Lord Mayor Walworth, they drew their bows to revenge his fall. Richard, then only fourteen years of age, galloped up to the archers, and exclaimed, 'What are you doing, my lieges? Tyler was a traitor; come with me, and I will be your leader.' Wavering and disconcerted, they followed him into the fields at Islington, and falling on their knees, begged (or mercy. This monarch gave several other proofs of his courage at an early age.
In a German work published some years ago at Lubeck and Gottingen, there is the following singular, we may almost say incredible, account of a child, whose precocity of talents exceeds anything of the kind we have met with.
Christian Henry Heinksen was born at Lubeck, February 6, 1721. He had completed his first year, when he already knew and recited the principal facts contained in the five books of Moses, with a number of verses on the creation. In his fourteenth month he knew all the history of the Bible, in his thirtieth month, the history of the nations of antiquity, geography, anatomy, the use of maps, and nearly eight thousand Latin words before the end of his third year, the history of Denmark, and the genealogy of the crowned heads of Europe. In his fourth year, he acquired the doctrine of divinity, with the proofs from the Bible, ecclesiastical history; the institutions; two hundred hymns, with their tunes; eighty psalms; entire chapters of the Old and New Testaments; fifteen hundred verses and sentences from the ancient Latin classics; almost the whole Orbis Pictus of Comnenius, from which he had derived all his knowledge of the Latin tongue; arithmetic, and history of the European empires and kingdoms. He could point out in the maps whatever place he was asked for, or had passed through in his journeys, and relate all the ancient and modern historical anecdotes relating to it. His stupendous memory caught and retained every word he was told, his ever active imagination used, at whatever he saw or heard, instantly to apply, according to the laws of association of ideas, some examples or sentences from the Bible, geography, profane or ecclesiastical history, the Orbis Pictus, or from the ancient classics. At the court of Denmark, he delivered twelve speeches, and underwent public examination on a variety of subjects, especially the history of Denmark. He spoke German, Latin, French, and Low Dutch, and was exceedingly good-natured and well-behaved, but of a most tender and delicate constitution, never ate any solid food, but chiefly subsisted on nurse's milk. He was celebrated, says this account, all over Europe, under the name of the Learned Child of Lubeck, and died June 27, 1725, aged four years, four months, twenty days, and twenty-one hours, after having displayed the most amazing proofs of intellectual talent.
'When I was yet a child, no childish play
To me was pleasing; all my mind was set
Serious to learn and know, and thence to do
What might be public good: myself I thought
Born to that end, born to promote all truth,
All righteous things.'
PARADISE REGAINED.
Sir Philip Sydney was one of the brightest ornaments of Queen Elizabeth's court. In early youth, he discovered the strongest marks of genius and understanding. Sir Fulk Greville, Lord Brook, who was his intimate friend, says of him, 'though I lived with him, and knew him from a child, yet I never knew him other than a man, with such steadiness of mind, lovely and familiar gravity, as-carried grace and reverence above greater years. His talk was ever of knowledge; and his very play tended to enrich his mind.'
The Archduke Charles was originally destined by his family- to the ecclesiastical state. Joseph II. being in Italy in 1776, went to visit his brother Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany. To flatter the warlike spirit of the emperor, the attendants of the young princes augmented their playthings with a complete military equipment. The prince, who was most pleased with these toys, was the Archduke Charles, then five years of age. On the second day after the arrival of the emperor, the grand master found the young prince at the door of the illustrious traveller with a sword on his side, and a fusil on his shoulder, standing in the ranks of the body guard. 'What are you doing there, my prince?' said the grand master. 'I am guarding my uncle,' calmly replied the archduke. The emperor, coming out of his cabinet, took his nephew in his arms, and said, in embracing him, 'Very well, my young friend, I cannot be guarded better than by my own people; in the mean time I wish to recompence your zeal; and in the hope of making you one day a great general, I now appoint you Colonel Proprietor of the Regiment of Lorraine.' This regiment has ever since belonged to him: it has given proofs of the greatest attachment, and received marks of solicitude and kindness.
When the frigate La Tribune was wrecked off Halifax, in November, 1798, the whole ship's crew perished, with the exception of four men, who escaped in the jolly boat, and eight others, who clung to the main and foretops, The inhabitants of the place came down in the night opposite to the point where the ship struck, and approached so near as to converse with the people on the wreck. The first exertion which was made for their relief, was by a boy of no more than thirteen years of age, from Herring Cove, who ventured off in a small skiff by himself, about eleven o'clock the next day. With great exertions, and at extreme risk to himself, he ventured to approach the wreck, and backed in his little boat so near to the fore-top as to take off two of the men, for the boat could not with safety hold any more. He rowed them triumphantly to the Cove, and had them instantly conveyed to a comfortable habitation. After shaming, by his example, older persons, who had larger boats, the manly boy put off again in his little skiff; but with all his efforts he was unable to reach the wreck a second time. His example, however, was soon followed by other boats of the Cove, and by their joint exertions the whole of the remaining survivors were saved.
Admiral Drake, when a young midshipman, on the eve of an engagement, was observed to shake and tremble very much: and being asked the cause, he replied, 'My flesh trembles at the anticipation of the many and great dangers into which my resolute and undaunted heart will lead me.'
In the year 1538, there were born, at Basil twin brothers, who proved so like to each other, that it was extremely difficult, even to those who knew them best, to distinguish between them. Nor was the resemblance greater externally, than it was in regard to their inward dispositions. If one fell sick, the other was so too; if one began to have a pain in the head, the other would presently feel the like; if one was asleep or sad, the other could not hold up his head or be merry; and so many other things.
A similar extraordinary affinity is related by Zuingerus to have occurred in the case of twin-brothers, the sons of Petrus Apostolius, a senator of Mechlin. Even the mother of these boys often erred in distinguishing between them.
Fulgosius records an instance of resemblance which, though it did not include the outward appearance, is even more remarkable than either of the cases now mentioned. It is that of Medardus and Gerardus, twin-brothers and Frenchmen. They were born on the same day, both of them were preferred to the Episcopal dignity, the one to the See of Rhotomage, and the other to that of Noviodunum, on the same day; and they both died on the same day.
We are told by Pliny, that a merchant slave-seller sold to Marcus Antonius, the triumvir two very beautiful boys as twins, such was their great resemblance to each other, although the one was born in Asia, and the other beyond the Alps. When the fraud was soon afterwards betrayed by the difference in the language of the boys, Antonius was angry at the slave-seller, and sending for him, demanded why he had made him pay two hundred sesterces for twins, when they were not so? The dealer answered that, that was the very reason why he had sold them at so dear a rate. 'For,' said he, 'it is no wonder if twin-brothers, the offspring of the same parents, should resemble one another, but that there should be any found born as these were, in distant countries, so like in all respects as they are, is indeed a rare and wonderful thing.'
An eminent preacher of the present day, when a boy, committed some offense, for which his father decreed as a punishment, that he should be excluded from the family table on Christmas-day. When the young delinquent saw the vast culinary preparations made for the feast from which he was debarred, he was moved less with envy, than with a contempt for the sort of punishment which had been imposed on him; but mixing in his disposition a good deal of the satiric with the serious, he resolved not to be without his joke on the occasion. He contrived to obtain secret access to a veal pasty, on which the cook had exhausted all her skill, and carefully taking off the cover, so as to avoid any mark of fracture or disturbance, he took out the greater part of the meat, and filling up the dish with a quantity of grass, replaced the cover as it was.
The company met, and the dish was served up to them in this state; it fell to the lot of the young wag's father to break up the pie, and his surprise on doing so may be more easily conceived than described. Stirring the grass about in a fit of rising indignation, his fork encountered a small slip of paper, on taking out which, he read on it these words: 'All flesh is grass.'
It was originally customary for the senators of Rome to take their sons along with them into the senate. On one occasion Papyrius Praetextatus having accompanied his father thither, heard an affair of great importance discussed the determination of which was deferred till the following day, the strictest injunctions being given, that in the meantime no one should divulge a syllable of the matter in hand. When young Papyrius went home his mother asked him, 'What the fathers had done that day in the senate?' He answered, 'that it was a secret which he could not disclose.' The curiosity of the lady was only the more stimulated by this denial, and she pressed the boy so hard, that to get rid of her importunities, he was driven to make use of the following pleasant fiction. 'It was,' said he, 'debated in the senate, which would be more advantageous to the commonwealth, man should have two wives, or that one woman should have two husbands?' The lady, wonderfully stirred by this singular piece of information, instantly left the house, and told what she had discovered to a number of ladies, among whom the projected change in their condition was discussed with no small degree of vehemence and alarm.
Having so deep an interest in the decision of the question, they thought it but right that the senate should know their feelings respecting it, and next day accordingly they went in e' body, and surrounding the doors of the senate, cried out with vast clamour, 'That rather than one man should marry two women, one woman should marry two men.' The senators were in great astonishment at this strange cry, and sent out to know what the women meant? On this, young Papyrius stepped forth, and told them what his mother had desired to know, and how he had contrived to answer her. The senators were much amused with the youth's explanation; and after sending away the women, with an assurance that nothing was at present intended to be done in the affair to which they alluded, they marked their sense of young Papyrius's wit and secrecy, by passing an order, that in future no son of a senator should be admitted to their meetings, Papyrius excepted.
The first among the Romans who was honoured with the mural crown, was Manlius Capitolinus. When he was as yet not more than sixteen years of age, he had won the spoils of two enemies; and he lived to gain no less than thirteen civic garlands, and thirty other military rewards. It was this Manlius who defended and preserved the capitol, when the Gauls had almost become the masters of it; and hence it was he received the surname of Capitolinus.
Prince Henry the son of James I. (of England), who perished in his eighteenth year, possessed all the elements of an heroic and military character. Had he lived to ascend the throne, the days of Agincourt and Cressy would have revived, and Henry IX. have rivalled Henry V., whom he resembled in his features. This youth has furnished the subject of an interesting volume: and in the British Museum there is a MS. narrative, written by one who was an attendant on the prince's person from the age of three to thirteen years, a time of life when but few children can furnish anything worth relating about themselves.
The first time he went to the town of Stirling to meet the king, observing on the road a stack of corn, it fancifully struck him as similar in shape to the top he used to play with. 'That's a good top,' said he. 'Why do you not then play with it?' answered one of his attendants. 'Set you it up for me and I will play with it.' This is just the fancy we might expect in a lively child, with a shrewdness in the retort above its years.
Being questioned by a nobleman whether after his father, he had rather be King of England or Scotland, he asked which of them was best. Being answered 'England,' 'Then,' said the Scottish-born prince, 'would I have both.' At another time on reading this verse in Virgil:-
'Tros Tyriusve mihi nullo discrimine agetur,'
the boy said he would use that verse for himself, with a slight alteration, thus:
'Anglus Scotusve mihi nullo discrimine agetur'
Even in the most trivial circumstances his bold and martial character displayed itself. Eating in the king's presence a dish of milk, the king asked him why he ate so much child's meat? 'Sir, it is also man's meat.'
Once taking up strawberries with two spoons when one might have sufficed, he gaily exclaimed, 'The one I use as a rapier, and the other as a dagger.'
The bickerings between the prince and his tutor, Adam Newton, are amusing. When Newton, wishing to set an example to the prince of heroic exercises one day practiced the pike, but with little skill, the prince taunted him on his failure. Newton obviously lost his temper, and observed 'that to find fault was an evil humour.' 'Master, I take the humour of you.' 'It becomes not a prince,' observed Newton. 'Then,' retorted the young prince, 'cloth it worse become a master.'
The tutor once irritated at losing a game at which he was playing with the prince said, 'I am meet for whipping boys.' 'You vaunt then,' retorted the prince, 'that which a ploughman or cart-driver can do better than you.' 'I can do more,' said the tutor, 'for I can govern foolish children' On this the prince who in respect for his tutor would not carry the jest further, rose from the table, and in a low voice said to these near him, 'He had need be a wise man that could do that.'
A musician having played a voluntary in presence of the prince, was requested to play the same again. 'I could not for the kingdom of Spain,' said the musician; 'for this were harder than for a preacher to repeat, word by word, a sermon that he had not learned by rote.' A clergyman standing by observed that he thought a preacher might do that. 'Perhaps, rejoined the young prince, 'for a bishopric.'
One of his servants having cut the prince's finger, and sucking out the blood with his mouth, the young prince said to him pleasantly, 'If, which God forbid! my father, myself, and the rest of his kindred, should fail, you might claim the crown, for you have now in you the blood royal.'
In one of the prince's excursions into the country, having stopped at a nobleman's house, the prince's servants complained that they had been obliged to go to bed supperless, through the parsimony of the house, which the little prince at the time of hearing seemed not to notice. The next morning, the lady of the house coming to pay her respects to him, found him turning a volume that had many pictures in it, one of which was a painting of a company sitting at a banquet; this he shewed her. 'I invite you madam, to a feast.' 'To what feast?' she asked. 'To this feast,' said the boy. 'What, would your highness give me but a painted piece?' Fixing his eye on her, he said, 'No better, madam, is found in this house.' There was a point in this ingenious reprimand, far excelling the wit of a child.
Such are a few of the anecdotes of a prince who died in early youth, gleaned from a contemporary manuscript, written by an eye and ear witness. They are trifles, but trifles consecrated by their genuineness, and by the rank of the individual to whom they relate.
'Unus Pellaeon juveni non sufficit orbis,
Estuat infelicae angusto limitie mundi.'
JUVENAL.
Alexander the Great hearing Anaxarchus, the philosopher, discoursing, and showing that, according to the sense of his master, Democritus, there were innumerable worlds. 'Alas!' exclaimed he, 'what a miserable one am I, that I have not subdued so much as one of all these!'
'Altho' to write be lesser than to do,
It is the next deed, and a great one too.'
JOHNSON.
While Thucydides was yet a boy, he heard Herodotus recite his histories at the Olympic Games, and is said to have wept exceedingly. The 'Father of Historians,' observing how much the boy was moved, congratulated his father, Clorus, on having a child of such promise, and advised him to spare no pains in his education. The result showed how just Herodotus was in his anticipations. The young Thucydides lived to be one of the best historians Greece ever had.
'Hush, pretty boy, thy hopes might have been better
'Tis lost at dice what ancient velour won
Hard, when the father plays away the son!' YORKSHIRE TRAGEDY.
Joannes Gonzaga having lost at dice a large sum of money, his son Alexander, who was present, could not help heaving a deep sigh. Gonzaga observing this, said to the byestanders, 'Alexander the Great hearing of a victory that his father had gained, is reported to have shown himself very sad at the news as fearing that there would be nothing left for him to conquer, but my son Alexander is afflicted at my loss, as fearing that there will be nothing left for him to lose.' 'Yes,' replied the youth, smartly, 'and had Philip lost his all, Alexander would never have had the means of conquering anything.'
'It is the curse of kings to be attended
By slaves that take their humours for a warrant
To break into the bloody house of life
And on the winking of authority
To understand a law, to know the meaning
Of dang'rous majesty; when perchance it frowns
More upon humour than advis'd respect.
SHAKSPEARE.
The King of Ashantee having in the midst of a number of his courtiers expressed a strong dislike to a wealthy captain of his nation, the elder of his linguists, or counsellors, always responsive to the nod of their master, said 'If you wish to take his stool from him, we will make the palaver' (i.e. pick a quarrel with him). But Agay, a young lad, who on account of his extraordinary sagacity, or mother-wit and a fearless promptness in saying whatever he thought, had been recently added to the number of these linguists, instantly sprang up, exclaiming, 'No, king, that is not good; that man never did you any wrong; you know all the gold of your subjects is yours at their death, but if you get all now, strangers will go away and say, only the king has gold, and that will not be good. Let them say, the king has gold, all his captains have gold, and all his people have gold. Then your country will look handsome, and the bush people (people of the woods) will fear you.'
The youth of the most prolific writer that ever existed, could scarcely fail to be distinguished by much that is remarkable. At five years of age Lopez could read Spanish and Latin fluently;, and even make verses which he exchanged with his schoolfellows for pictures and other trifles. At the age of twelve, he was master of the Latin tongue, and of the art of rhetoric, could dance and fence with ease and dexterity, and before he had reached his fifteenth year, he had written several pastorals, and made his first dramatic essay with a comedy entitled, 'La Pastoral de Jacinto. He continued to the end of his life to cultivate poetry with such an inconceivable facility, that a play of more than two thousand verses, intermixed with sonnets, tercites, and octaves, often cost him no more than one day's labour. He is said to have actually produced the amazing number of eighteen hundred comedies, and four hundred autos sacramentales; in all, two thousand two hundred pieces! Of these about three hundred have been published, in twenty-five quarto volumes. No poet during his lifetime ever enjoyed so much glory. Whenever he appeared In the streets, the people assembled round him in crowds, and hailed him by the title of the Prodigy of Nature.
Mr. Ireland has furnished a striking instance of the misapplication of youthful talents, and certainly never did any man suffer more severely for his duplicity. This young man whose literary fraud furnished the counterpart to that of Chatterton, when only sixteen years of age forged a series of papers which he ascribed to the immortal Shakespeare; and so successfully managed was the imposition, that he nor only imposed upon his own father, but on several literary gentlemen, who prided themselves much on their critical acumen, as will appear by the following certificate.
'We, whose names are hereunto subscribed have, in the presence, and by the favour of Mr. Ireland, inspected the Shakspeare papers, and are convinced of their authenticity.
| Samuel Parr | Rev. I. Scott |
| John Tweddell | Kinnaird |
| Thomas Burgess | John Pinkerton |
| John Byng Thomas | Hunt |
| James Bindley Henry | James Pye |
| Herbert Croft | Rev. N. Thornbury |
| Somerset | Jonn. Hewlett, Translator of old Records |
| Isaac Heard, King of Arms | Garter, Common Pleas Office Temple |
| T. Webb | |
| R. Valpy | Mat. Wyatt |
| James Boswell John | Frank Newton.' |
| Lauderdale |
After fabricating a great number of papers, which he attributed to Shakspeare and his contemporaries, Ireland presumed so far as to write a tragedy, which he said was by the great dramatist, and even succeeded in having it represented at Drury Lane Theatre. It was called Vortigern and Rowena, and was condemned. To Mr. Malone, who had always denied the authenticity of the papers, the public were principally indebted for the detection of the fraud; and Ireland afterwards acknowledged it in a curious work, entitled, 'Confessions of W. H. Ireland.'
John Philip Barretier, was born at Schwabach, January 19, 1721. At the age of nine years he was master of five languages. The French, German, and Latin, he learned almost at the same time, by conversing in them indifferently with his father, who was a Calvinistic minister. The Greek and Hebrew he acquired by reading the holy scriptures in their original languages, accompanied with a translation. In his eleventh year he not only published a learned letter in Latin? but also translated the Travels of Rabbi Benjamin from the Hebrew into the French, and added notes and remarks so replete with judgment and penetration, that they seem the work of a man long accustomed to study and reflection, rather than the production of a child. At fifteen, the fame of his learning and writings attracted the notice of the King of Prussia, who sent for him to court. In his journey thither he passed through Halle, where he so distinguished himself in his conversation with the professors of the University, that they offered him the degree of Doctor in Philosophy. He drew up on the same evening some positions in philosophy and mathematics, which next day he defended with so much wit, spirit, and strength of reason, to a crowded auditory, that the whole University was delighted and amazed. On his arrival at Berlin, the king honoured him with peculiar marks of distinction. He sent for him every day during his stay there, and recommended to him the study of modern history, and those parts of learning which are of use in public transactions and civil employments, declaring that such abilities, properly cultivated, might exalt him in ten years to be the greatest minister of state in Europe. The young philosopher, not dazzled with the prospect of such high promotion, answered, 'That he was too much pleased with science and quiet, to leave them for such inextricable studies, or such harassing fatigues.' The king, though not pleased with his declaration, presented him on his departure with two hundred crowns.
From Berlin, Barretier went back to Halle where he pursued his studies with his usual application and success, till his nineteenth year? when his health began to decline, and continued to waste away for eighteen months and ten days, when he lost the use of his limbs. He then prepared for death without fear or emotion, and on the 5th of October, 1740, resigned his soul into the hands of his Creator with confidence and tranquillity.
'O what a noble mind was here o'erthrown!'
The wayward, neglected, and unfortunate Thomas Chatterton, whose premature talents and attainments, whose boundless invention and invincible industry, enabled him to rush naked into the amphitheatre of life, and sustain a brilliant part, though his spectators were contemptuous and cold, did not give very early promise of great talents. Until he was five years old, he was considered a dull child, incapable of improvement, but a singular circumstance gave him the first impulse His eye was caught by the animated capitals of an old folio music book that lay in the room. He delighted to gaze on these letters; and the mother watching the concurrence of opportunity, took advantage of this passion to initiate him in his alphabet. It is more than probable that this circumstance, together with his being taught to read out of a black letter bible, had great influence in giving that peculiar turn to the imitation of antiquities which he afterwards displayed.
Chatterton's first poetical production was at the age of eleven years. It was a satire directed against a man who turned methodist preacher from mercenary motives; it displays a considerable degree of humour and facility of versification. At twelve years of age he paraphrased the ninth chapter of Job, together with some chapters of Isaiah, and wrote a satire on his upper master. At the age of fourteen he was articled to an attorney; and it was while he was in this situation that he fabricated those poems of Rowley, which excited so warm a controversy in the literary world for a period of more than thirty years. He had not reached his sixteenth year, when he first commenced this literary fraud by writing poems on slips of old parchment, which he found at the office, in the style of the fifteenth century, and so successful was his imitation, that the literati and the antiquaries were long divided in opinion as to their being genuine or spurious. About this time he wrote other poems, which would not disgrace poets of a more mature age.
At the age of-seventeen, Chatterton ventured to London; and in one month his literary contributions were so ingenious and ample, that he sustained the reputation of five periodical works the London, Gospel, Town and Country, and Court and City, Magazines, and the Political Register; and yet with industry like this, poverty pressed hard upon him, his load of misery became every day less tolerable, and at last triumphed over his fortitude. Many a day did he fast, and often had no other meal than a halfpenny roll and water. At length he drank the fatal cup, and perished in his eighteenth year:
'No brother, sister, friend, no parent nigh,
To soothe his pangs, or catch his parting sigh;
Alone, unknown, the Muses' darling dies,
And with the vulgar dead unnoted lies.'
Sigismund Maxim. Wilh. Otto von Praun, the son of a captain of cavalry in the Austrian service, was born at Tyrnau in Hungary, on the 1st of June, 1811. When but an infant, he showed a singular desire for instruction, and in his second year he had acquired such a readiness in the knowledge of his letters, in reading, and in deciphering prints of subjects from general and natural history, that on the first of November, 1813, when but two years and five months old, he was deemed qualified to enter the second form of the principal national school of Tyrnau. Having attended the school about ten months, on the 26th of August, 1814, he was examined with the rest of the pupils; and bore away the highest prize from seventy of his juvenile competitors, in reading and writing German, in Hungarian orthography, his catechism, and drawing. On the examination of the I7th of March, 1815, this child, who had then attained the age of three years and three quarters, was again pronounced the greatest proficient among the one hundred and twenty-four pupils of his form, in reading the German, Hungarian, and Latin languages, in arithmetic, and his catechism. This infant prodigy has excited still greater attention, from the extraordinary and more rapid progress he ha, made in music. From his second year he had studied the violin with so much success, that after the examination of the I7th of March, he astonished those who were assembled to hear him, namely, the magistracy, all the teachers of the principal national schools, and a number of amateurs of music, with taking the leading part in a duet and trio of Pleyel's. This he repeated on the 13th of April following, at a party given by Prince Schwartzenburgh at Tyrnau, before a numerous circle of nobility. Nor is the progress he has made in acquiring foreign languages, fencing, and drawing, inferior to his other advancements. During the summer of 1815, this boy gave a public concert at Vienna, where the astonishment and admiration of all present were unbounded; the produce of it he bestowed on the Invalid Fund.
The widow of a clergyman who kept the grammar school at Plympton, on the decease of her husband, opened a boardingschool for young ladies, but having few friends, was unable to make a sufficiently reputable appearance at their accustomed balls. The daughter of a neighbour, an only child, and then a very young girl, felt for the poor governess's pitiable insufficiency in the-article of finery, and being unable to help her from her own resources, devised the means by which it might be done. Having heard of the great fame of Sir Joshua Reynolds, his character for generosity and charity, and recollecting that he had formerly belonged to the Plympton school, she, without mentioning it to her companions, addressed a letter to Sir Joshua whom she had never seen, stating the forlorn condition of the poor governess's wardrobe, and begged the gift of a silk gown for her. Very shortly after, silks of different patterns, sufficient for two dresses, reached the astonished governess, who was wholly unacquainted with the compassionate means that had procured her so welcome a present.
At the height of the revolutionary mania in France, there was one spectacle which, if it did not exceed all the other spectacles of that era of horror in atrocity, exceeded them all in singularity. It has not, we believe, obtained a place in history, but it is due to the history of human nature, that it should be rescued from among the mass of useless fragments which are hurrying down the stream of time. Troops of boys were to be seen in different parts, in regular martial array, they were armed, some with small firelocks, and others with pistols and swords; they were divided, after the manner of their seniors, into opposite parties, whose bone of contention was seldom anything more than the ordinary school one, 'Of which is the stronger?' They had a great many skirmishes, fought several pitched battles, and not a few of them were dangerously wounded. The mimic strife would, however, have been incomplete without one more exalted characteristic. They paraded the streets, bearing the heads of cats, &c., upon long poles; and to such a pitch did they carry their emulation of the transactions of the great world around them, that they actually hung up of their companions, who was accused of stealing fruit from a woman of the Halle du Ble. He was cut down by some passengers in time to save his life. The Committee of Police published an ordnance on the subject, directed to the fathers of families, but the sanguinary mania of the boys did not entirely abate, till the fathers themselves returned to reason and to moderation.
It was so natural for Dr. Watts, when a child, to speak in rhyme, that even at the very time he wished to avoid it, he could not. His father was displeased at this propensity, and threatened to whip him If he did not leave off making verses. One day, when he was about to put his threat in execution, the child burst out into tears, and on his knees said-
'Pray, father, do some pity take,
And I will no more verses make.'
Florian's earliest years were passed in shooting birds all day, and reading every evening an old translation of the I lied; whenever he got a bird remarkable for Its size of plumage, he personified It by one of the names of his heroes, and raising a funeral pyre, consumed the body; collecting the ashes in an urn, he presented them to his grandfather, with a narrative of his Patroclus or Sarpedon.
Admiral Earl Howe, when a youth, served on board the Burford, Captain Lushington. This vessel made an unsuccessful attack on the town of La Guita, in which the captain was killed. The attempt having failed, a court-martial was held relative to the conduct of the Burford. Young Howe was particularly called upon for his evidence. He gave it in a clear and collected manner, till he came to relate the death of his captain. He could then proceed no further; but burst into tears, and retired.
Mr. Park, in his 'Travels through Africa,' relates that a party of armed Moors having made a predatory attack on the flocks of a village at which he was stopping, a youth of the place was mortally wounded in the affray.
The natives placed him on horseback, and conducted him home, while his mother preceded the mournful group, proclaiming all the excellent qualities of her boy, and by her clasped hands and streaming eyes, discovered the inward bitterness of her soul. The quality for which she chiefly praised the boy formed of itself an epitaph so noble, that even civilized life could not aspire to a higher. 'He never,' said she with pathetic energy' 'never, never, told a lie.'
When the Robbers of Schiller was first performed at Fribourg, in the Brisgaw, the youth of that city, moved almost to madness by the ardent and awful scenes which it pourtrayed, formed the wild design of imitating the hero of the play and his companions. They bound themselves in a confederacy, by the most solemn oaths, to betake themselves to the woods, and live by rapine and plunder, or, as they termed it, to become the exterminating angels of heaven. Fortunately, the plot was discovered by one of the tutors finding a copy of the confederacy, written, it is said, with blood. The parties were all secured, and the future representation of The Robbers was prohibited in Fribourg. Such terrible impressions are a wonderful tribute to the energy of Schiller's pen, which, like Rousseau's, may be said to burn the paper.
Hogarth's youth was rather unpromising. He was bound apprentice to a mean engraver of arms on plate; but did not remain long in this occupation, before an accidental circumstance discovered the impulse of his genius, and that it was directed to painting. One Sunday he set out with two or three companions on an excursion to Highgate. The weather being hot, they went into a public house, where they had not been long before a quarrel arose between two persons in the room, one of whom struck the other with a quart pot, and cut him very much. Hogarth drew out his pencil, and produced an extremely ludicrous picture of the scene. What rendered this piece the more pleasing was, that it exhibited an exact likeness of the man, with the portrait of his antagonist, and the figures in caricature of the persons gathered round him.
'From the gay sire, whose trembling hand
Could hardly buckle on his brand;
To the raw boy, whose shaft and bow
Were yet scarce terror to the crow:
Each valley, each sequester'd glen,
Muster'd his little horde of men.'
SCOTT.
This poetical description, given by Mr. Scott, of the gathering of the Clan Alpin, in Balquhidder, by the order of Roderick Dhu, was realized on a far greater scale, and in the prosecution of a nobler purpose, in the Tyrol, during the late war' Not only the women engaged in the great cause, and guarded the prisoners that were taken, but the little children, whose age would not permit them to bear arms, still lingered about the ranks of their &there, and sought by any little offices to render themselves useful in the common cause. One of these, a son of Speckbacher, a Tyrolese leader, and the companion of Hofer, a boy of ten years of age, followed his father into the battle, and continued by his side in the hottest fire. He was several times desired by his father to retire: at length, when he was obliged to obey, he ascended a little rising ground, where the balls from the French struck, and gathering them in his hat, carried them to such of his countrymen as he understood were in want of ammunition.
The two Princes of Brunswick (sons of the late duke) were from their earliest years, boys of what the French call tres grande esperance. They were resident in England from the age of eight to twelve years.
After the battle of Leipsic, a subscription was set on foot throughout England, for the benefit of the suffering widows and orphans. It was no sooner known to the princes, then living at Vauxhall, than they agreed between themselves unknown to their preceptor, to give all their pocket money, and a hoard of old foreign coin, which they had been some time in accumulating, in aid of the fund. This resolved upon, they requested their tutor to take a ride to Mr. Ackermann's, where the subscriptions were deposited; and upon their arrival there, to his no small astonishment and admiration, they pulled out the bag in which the treasure had been kept, and requested it might be conveyed to Mr. Ackermann, with the observation, 'that it was all they had to give.' So singular a mark of generosity and patriotism in children, both under twelve years of age, has perhaps been seldom equalled.
'Fate can strike but one;
Reproach cloth reach whole families.'
CARTWRIGHT.
When the universal resentment against Mrs. Brownrigg, of infamous memory, was at its height, and her two younger children were doomed to feel their parent's guilt in the destitute state in which they were left, the eldest, a dejected, modest, and pretty boy, under fourteen years of age, applied to Mr. Lacy, a painter, of Fetter Lane, to entreat that he would employ him; pleading, with artless eloquence, the ruin his little sister of five years of age was doomed to, if he could not, by his labour and industry, support and keep her out of the workhouse, promising at the same time the utmost diligence and good behaviour, if he would be so good as to employ him Mr. Lacy, moved with compassion and the lad's generous motives, immediately took him into his service, strictly forbidding all his servants on pain of dismissal, to reproach the boy on account of his family.
Frederick the Great one day ringing his bell, but nobody coming, he opened the door of the ante-chamber, and found his page sleeping on a chair. In going to awaken him, he saw a written paper hanging out of his pocket. This excited the king's curiosity and attention: he drew it out, and found it to be a letter from the page's mother, wherein she thanked her son for his kind assistance in sending part of his wages; for which heaven would certainly reward him, if he continued faithful to his majesty. The king immediately fetched a rouleau of ducats, and slipped it with the letter, into the page's pocket. Soon after he rang the bell and awoke the page, who made his appearance. 'Surely you have been asleep,' said the king. The boy stammered part of an excuse, and part of a confession, and putting his hand in his pocket found, to his surprise, the roll of ducats. He drew it out, pale and trembling, but unable to speak a syllable. 'What is the matter?' said the king. 'Alas! your majesty,' said the page, falling on his knees, 'my ruin is intended: I know nothing of this money.' 'Why,' said the king, 'whenever fortune does come she comes sleeping; you may send it to your mother with my compliments, and assure her I will provide for you both.' This scene has produced a comedy by Professor Engle, entitled, 'The Noble Youth.'
The father of Handel had destined him to the study of the law, but he evinced very early a propensity to music, which nothing could restrain. He was strictly forbidden to touch any musical instrument; but notwithstanding this injunction he found means to get a clarichord privately conveyed to a room at the top of the house, to which he constantly stole when the family were asleep. While he was yet under seven years of age, he went with his father to the Court of Saxe-Weisenfels, to the prince of which his half-brother was valet-de-chambre. His father had refused to let young Handel accompany him, but he followed the chaise on foot, and by his entreaties was taken into the chaise and carried to court. Here, playing one day on the organ in the church after the service was over, he attracted the notice of the duke, who induced the father to suffer him to study music. At the age of nine years he began to compose the church service for voices and instruments, and from that time actually composed a service every week, for three years successively. When only fourteen he went to Berlin, where Buononcini, a leading composer attached to the Opera, affected a contempt for so mere a child as Handel; and to put his talents to the test, composed a cantata in the chromatic style difficult in every respect, and such as he thought would puzzle even a master; but Handel treated the composition as a trifle, and executed it at once with a truth and accuracy that was astonishing. Before he had reached his fifteenth year Handel had composed three operas, the first Almeria, which was performed at Hamburgh thirty nights successively; Florinda and Nerone, the other two, were equally successful. He now by his talents and industry was enabled to yield some assistance to his mother, who was left a widow. By the persuasions of the Prince of Tuscany, he was induced to go to Florence, where he was received with the most marked attention by the court. Here, when still only eighteen years of age, he composed the opera of Rodrigo, for which he received one hundred sequins and a service of plate. The following year he went to Venice, where he was first discovered at a masquerade, while playing on a harpsichord in his visor. Scarlatri was there, and affirmed, 'it was either the little Saxon, or the devil.' While at Venice he composed, in three weeks, the opera of Agrippa, which was played twentyseven nights without interruption. The theatre almost at every pause resounded with shouts and acclamations Vive il caro Sassone. Such was the early success of this immortal composer, who died possessed of an ample fortune, acquired solely by his talents.
It is related of Torquato Tasso, the immortal author of 'Jerusalem Delivered,' that he spoke plain when only SIX months old. At the age of seven years he understood Latin and Greek, and composed several verses. At the age of nine he was condemned to death by Charles the Fifth, as was also his father, who was secretary to the Prince of Salerno, but both saved themselves by flight. The infant poet wrote a poem on their disgrace, in which he compared himself and his father to Ascanius flying with AEneas. Tasso was now sent to Padua to study law: and before he had attained his twelfth year, he had finished his course of rhetoric, poetry, logic, and ethics. At the age of seventeen he had received his degrees in philosophy, law, and divinity, and published his poem of Rinaldo, which was the precursor of the work which has rendered him immortal. His 'Jerusalem Delivered' was commenced at the age of twenty two.
Like Mozart, Haydn gave strong manifestations of his taste for music, even in infancy. His father, who had some knowledge of music, used to play the harp to his wife's singing, while the infant Haydn imitated a violin and bow with two pieces of wood, and thus took part in this quiet family concert.
When of sufficient age, he was placed among the choir boys in the cathedral of Vienna. His duties as a singer occupied only two hours in the day, but Haydn practiced in general sixteen, and sometimes eighteen hours. He was wont to speak in rapturous-terms of the delight he received from the combinations of sound; even when he was playing with his companions, he was never able to resist the harmony of the organ in the cathedral. Haydn now began to think of composition, but could not obtain lessons from any of the able professors of Vienna. He was thus thrown on his own resources, yet still despaired not. He bought an old treatise on harmony at a stall; and, devoting himself to the study of it with all the zeal of genius, speedily acquired a mastery of the principles of the art, and ere long became one of its brightest ornaments.
Hugo Grotius, at the age of eight years, is said to have composed verses which an old poet would not have disavowed. At the age of fifteen he maintained theses in philosophy, mathematics, and jurisprudence with great applause. The following year he went to France, where he attracted the notice of Henry IV. On his return to his own country, he pleaded his first cause at the age of seventeen, having previously published Commentaries on Capella and Aratus. When only twenty-four years of age, he was made Advocate-General of Rotterdam.
In September, 1789, a little boy, about five years old, the son of a man named Freemantle, in St. Thomas's Church-yard, Salisbury, being at play by the dam of the town mill, fell into the water; his sister, a child of nine years of age, with an affection that would have done honour to riper years, instantly plunged in to his assistance. They both sunk, and in sight of their mother! The poor woman, distracted with horror at the prospect of instant death to her children, braved the flood to save them: she rose with one under each arm, and by her cries happily brought her husband, who instantly swam to their assistance, and brought them all three safe ashore.
The accounts of this admirable composer's early proficiency in music are almost incredible. He began the piano at three years of age, his first delight was almost scientific; he used to spend his first hours in looking for thirds, and felt charmed with their harmony. At five years old he began to invent little pieces of such ingenuity that his father used to write them down. He was a creature of universal sensibility, a natural enthusiast, from his infancy fond, melancholy, and tearful. When scarcely able to walk, his first question to the friends who took him on their knee was, whether they loved him, and a negative always made him weep. His mind was all alive; and whatever touched it made it palpitate throughout. When he was taught the rudiments of arithmetic, the walls and tables of his bed-chamber were found covered with figures. But the piano was the grand object of his devotion. At six years old this singular child commenced with his father and sister (two years older than himself) one of those musical tours common in Germany, and performed at Munich before the Elector, to the great admiration of the most musical court on the continent. His ear now signalized itself by detecting the most minute irregularities in the orchestra; but its refinement was almost a disease: a discord tortured him; he conceived a horror of the trumpet, except as a simple accompaniment; and suffered from it so keenly that his father, to correct what he looked on as the effect of ignorant terror, one day desired a trumpet to be blown in his apartment. The child entreated him not to make the experiment, but the trumpet sounded. Mozart suddenly turned pale, fell on the floor, and was going into convulsions, when the trumpeter was sent out of the room.
When only seven years old he taught himself the violin; and thus, by the united effort of genius and industry, mastered the most difficult of all instruments. From Munich, he went to Vienna, Paris, and London. His reception in the British metropolis was such as the curious give to novelty, the scientific to intelligence,, and the great to what administers to stately pleasure. He was flattered, honoured, and rewarded. Handel had then made the organ popular, and Mozart took the way of popularity. His execution, which on the piano had astonished the English musicians was, on the organ, brought in aid of his genius, and he overcame all rivalry. On his departure from England, he gave a farewell concert, of which all the symphonies were composed by himself This was the career of a child nine years old! With the strengthening of his frame, the acuteness of his ear became less painful; the trumpet had lost its terrors for him at ten years old; and before he had completed that period, he distinguished the dedication of the Church of the Orphans at Vienna by the composition of a mass, motets, and a trumpet duet, and acted as director of the concert. This detail of years is minute; but who will object to reckoning the steps by which genius climbs to fame' Mozart had now traversed the great kingdoms of the earth, and seen all that could be strewn to him of European wealth and regal grandeur. He had yet to see the kingdom of European genius. Italy was an untried land, and he went at once to its capital. He was present at the Miserere, which seems to have been then performed with an effect unequalled since. The singers had been forbidden to give a copy of the score. Mozart bore it away in his memory, and wrote it down. This is still quoted among musicians as a miracle of remembrance; but it may be more truly quoted as an evidence of the power which diligence and determination give to the mind Mozart was not remarkable for memory what he did, all men may do: but the same triumph is to be purchased only by the same exertion. The impression of this day lasted during life; his style was changed, he at once adopted a solemn reverence for Handel, whom he called 'The Thunderbolt,' and softened the fury of his inspiration by the taste of Boccherini. He now made a grand advance in his profession, and composed an opera, Mithridates, which was played twenty nights at Milan.
In January, 1760, some gentlemen, who had been out shooting, on their return to Stirling, shot a bird near the bridge, which fell upon a sheet of Ice in the river, a short distance from the bank. Two boys, one sixteen and the other fourteen years of age, saw the bird fall, and the eldest attempted to get it, but the ice broke under him, and he went to the bottom before he had time to implore the assistance of his companion. The youngest boy no sooner saw his comrade's danger, than without waiting to strip off his clothes, he plunged into the river, dived to the bottom, and got hold of him, but encumbered by his clothes was unable to bring him up. Determined however, to save his companion if possible he immediately came out, stripped off his clothes, and went in a second time; but in this attempt he was equally unsuccessful, as the other boy was by this time so fixed in the mud, that all his strength was insufficient to disengage him; and benumbed with cold, it was with difficulty he saved himself. When he got out he had part of his companion's hair in his mouth, having, among other efforts, thus endeavoured to save him. What a noble instance of heroic perseverance!
A little girl, of five years of age, was equally fond of her mother and grandmother. On the birthday of the latter, her mother said to her 'My dear, you must pray to God to bless your grandmamma, and that she may live to be very old.' The child looked with some surprise at her mother, who perceiving it, said, 'Well, will you not pray to God to bless your grandmamma, that she may become very old?' 'Ah, mamma!' said the child, 'she is very old already, I will rather pray, that she may become young.'
Dr. Goldsmith was always plain in his appearance; but when a boy he had suffered so much from the small-pox, that he was considered particularly ugly. When he was about seven years old, a fiddler, who reckoned himself a wit, happened to be playing in Mr. Goldsmith's house. During a pause between two sets of country dances, little Oliver surprised the party by jumping up suddenly, and dancing round the room. Struck with the grotesque appearance of the ill-favoured child, the fiddler exclaimed, 'AEsop!' and the company burst into laughter; when Oliver turned to them with a smile, and repeated the following couplet:
'Heralds proclaim aloud, all saying
See AEsop dancing, and his monkey playing.'
In the year 1757, the Antelope, commanded by Captain Hood, engaged two French men-of-war off Brest. During the engagement, a young gentleman on board the Antelope, only sixteen years of age, while gallantly assisting on the quarter-deck, had both his legs shot off, and was carried below to the surgeon. Hearing the ship's crew cheering, he flourished his hand over his head, and with his latest breath uttered an huzza to the honour of the British navy.
This celebrated painter was indebted to Dr. Walcott (Peter Pindar), who found him labouring in a saw-pit, for first bringing him forward. When he was first heard of, his fame rested on a very humble foundation. He was asked what he had painted to acquire him the village reputation he enjoyed? His answer was, '1 ha' painted Duke William from the signs; and stars, and sich like things, for the boys' kites.' Walcott told him, some time after,, that he should paint portraits as the most profitable employment. 'So I ha'; I ha' painted farmer so and so, and neighbour such a one, &c., wi' their wives, and their eight or ten children.' 'And how much do you receive?' 'Why farmer so and so, said it were but right to encourage genus, and so he 8a' me half-a-guinea!' 'Why, sir, you should get at least half-a-guinea for every head.' Oh, na'! that winna do; it would ruin the country.' So strikingly humble and characteristic were the first steps of Opie.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan gave almost no promise in his childhood of those splendid talents by which he was afterwards distinguished. When about seven years of age, he was committed, along with his brother, to the care of Mr. Samuel Whyte, who with these two boys commenced an academy which afterwards became celebrated. When Mrs. Sheridan carried the boys to the house of Mr. Whyte, she took occasion to advert to the necessity of patience in the arduous profession which he had embraced; adding, 'these boys will be your tutors in that respect; I have hitherto been their only instructor, and they have sufficiently exercised mine; for two such impenetrable dunces I never met with.'
It was the illustrious Samuel Parr who, when under twenty years of age, and an undermaster at Harrow school, first discovered the latent genius of Sheridan, and by judicious cultivation, ripened it into maturity.
Cowper, in his 'Memoirs of his Early Life,' gives an affecting instance of that mental enthralment which boys of sensitive parts are too often doomed to suffer in public schools, from the arrogance and cruelty of their senior schoolmates. 'My chief affliction,' he says, 'consisted in my being singled out from all the other boys, by a lad about fifteen years of age, as a proper object upon whom he might let loose the cruelty of his temper. One day, as I was sitting alone on a bench in the school, melancholy, and almost ready to weep at the recollection of what I had already suffered, and expecting at the same time my tormentor every moment, these words of the Psalmist came into my mind: "I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me." I applied this to my own case, with a decree of trust and confidence in God that would have been no disgrace to a much more experienced christian. Instantly I perceived in myself a briskness of spirits and a cheerfulness which I had never before experienced, and took several paces up and down the room with joyful alacrity - His gift in whom I trusted. Happy would it have been for me, if this early effort towards the blessed God had been frequently repeated by me, but, alas! it was the first and last instance of the kind between infancy and manhood. The cruelty of this boy, which he had long practiced in so secret a manner that no person suspected it was at length discovered. He was expelled from the school, and I was taken from it.'
James Hogg, popularly known by the name of the Ettrick Shepherd, one of the greatest peasant poets that Scotland ever produced, could neither read nor write at the age of twenty. He passed a youth of poverty and hardship, but it was the youth of a lonely shepherd, among the most beautiful pastoral valley in the world. His haunts were among scenes
'The most remote and inaccessible By shepherds trod.'
Living for years in this solitude, he unconsciously formed friendships with the springs, the brooks, the caves, the hills, and with all the more fleeting and faithless pageantry of the sky, that to him came in the place of those human affections, from whose indulgence he was debarred by the necessities that kept him aloof from the cottage fire, and up among the mists on the mountain top. For many years, he seldom saw 'the human face divine,' except on the Sabbath morn, when he came down from the mountains to renew his weekly store of provender.
To this youth of romantic seclusion, we may ascribe the fertility of his mind in images of external nature, images which are dear to him for the recollections which they bring, for the restoration of his early life. These images he has at all times a delight in pouring out, and in all his descriptions they are lines of light or strokes of darkness, that at once captivate the imagination, and convince US that the sunshine, or the shadow, had travelled before the poet's eye.
During the middle ages superstition was so prevalent, that many charters began with these words: 'As the world is now drawing near to a close.' And an army marching under the Emperor Otho I. was so terrified by an eclipse of the sun, which they conceived announced this consummation, that they dispersed hastily on all sides. The religious ignorance of the middle ages sometimes burst out in ebullitions of epidemical enthusiasm still more remarkable. In 1211, a multitude, amounting as some say, to ninety thousand, chiefly composed of children, and commanded by a child, set out for the purpose of recovering the Holy Land. They came for the most part from Germany, and reached Genoa without harm. But finding there the sea, an obstacle which their imperfect knowledge of geography had not anticipated, they soon dispersed in various directions. Thirty thousand arrived at Marseilles, where part were murdered, many starved, and the rest sold to the Saracens.
A boy, of the name of John Young, now (1819) residing at Newton-upon-Ayr, in Scotland, constructed a singular piece of mechanism, which attracted much notice among the ingenious and scientific. A box, about three feet long by two broad, and six or eight inches deep, had a frame and paper covering erected on it, in the form of a house. On the upper part of the box are a number of wooden figures, about two or three inches high, representing people employed in those trades or sciences with which the boy is familiar. The whole are put in motion at the same time by machinery within the box, acted upon by a handle like that of a hand organ. A weaver upon his loom, with a fly-shuttle, uses his hands and feet, and keeps his eye upon the shuttle, as it passes across the web. A soldier sitting with a sailor at a public-house table, fills a glass, drinks it off, then knocks upon the table, upon which an old woman opens a door, makes her appearance, and they retire. Two shoemakers upon their stools are seen the one beating leather, and the other stitching a shoe. A clothdresser, a stone-cutter, a cooper, a tailor, a woman churning, and one teasing wool, are all et' work. There is also a carpenter sawing a piece of wood, and two blacksmiths beating a piece of iron the one using a sledge, and the other a small hammer; a boy turning a grindstone, while a man grinds an instrument upon it; and a barber shaving a man, whom he holds fast by the nose with one hand.
The boy was only about seventeen years of age when he completed this curious work; and since the bent of his mind could be first marked, his only amusement was that of working with a knife, and making little mechanical figures, this is the more extraordinary as he had no opportunity whatever of seeing any person employed in a similar way. He was bred a weaver, with his father; and since he could be employed at the trade, has had no time for his favourite study, except after the work ceased, or during the intervals, and the only tool he ever had to assist him was a pocket knife. In his earlier years he produced several curiosities on a similar scale, but the one now described is his greatest work, to which he devoted all his spare time during two years.
Almost all the distinguishing features of Franklin's character in life may be traced to his childhood. He was in his earliest days shrewd and artful, industrious and persevering, and of habits most economical. The stories of his recommending his father to say grace over a whole barrel of beef at once, and of his disgust with a favourite whistle, the moment he found he had paid too dear for it, are well known. When at school (which was only between the age of eight and ten years), Franklin soon distinguished himself among his playfellows by his strength and address, and he was generally the leader in all their schemes. Their great delight was fishing for minnows; and as their constant trampling had made the edge of the pond a quagmire, Franklin's active mind suggested the idea of building a little wharf for them to stand upon. Unluckily a heap of stones was collected, at no great distance, for building a new house; and one evening Franklin proposed to his companions to make free with them after the workmen were gone home. The project was approved, and executed with great industry; but the next morning the stones were missed and inquiry was made, and the consequence was a complaint against the boys. Franklin pleaded, in excuse, the utility of the work, but his father wisely took the opportunity of inculcating the excellent maxim, that what is not honest, cannot be useful.
'All may have.
If they dare try, a glorious life or grave.'
HERBERT.
When the Dutch West India Company attempted to gain a footing in the Brazils they committed all those cruelties which have ever marked their progress when they have commenced a new colony. Among those who opposed them, Alaria de Souza, one of the noblest women of the provinces, distinguished herself. In the action before Nazareth, her son Estevam Velho, fell. Already in this war she had lost two other sons, and her daughter's husband; when the tidings of the fresh calamity arrived, she called her two remaining sons, one of whom was fourteen years of age, the other a year younger, and said to them, 'Your brother Estevam has been killed by the Dutch today; you must now, in your turn, do what is the duty of honourable men in a war wherein they are required to serve God, and their King, and their country. Gird on your swords, and when you remember the sad day in which you girt them on, let it not be for sorrow, but for vengeance; and whether you revenge your brethren, or fall like them, you will not degenerate from them nor from your mother.' 'Give us our swords,' exclaimed the heroic youths, 'we will revenge the death of our brothers, or perish like them.' Maria de Souza then sent her sons to Mathias, the governor of the fort, requesting that he would rate them as soldiers. The children of such a stock could not degenerate, and they lived to prove themselves the worthy inheritors of its heroism and renown.
Among the American Indians, one of the first lessons they inculcate on their children, is duty to their parents and respect for old age; and there is not among the most civilized nations any people who more strictly observe the duty of filial obedience. A father need only to say, in the presence of his children, ' I want such a thing done; I want one of my children to go on such an errand; let me see who is the good child that will do it.' This word good operates as it were by magic, and the children immediately vie with each other to comply with the wishes of their parent. If a father sees an old decrepid man or woman pass by' led along by a child, he will draw the attention of his own children to the object by saying, 'what a good child that must be, which pays such attention to the aged! That child indeed looks forward to the time when it will likewise be old!' Or he will say, 'May the Great Spirit who looks upon him, grant this good child a long life!'
Pascal when only eleven years of age, wrote a treatise on sounds. At twelve, he had made himself master of Euclid's Elements without the aid of a teacher. When only sixteen, he published a treatise on Conic Sections, which Descartes was unwilling to believe could have been produced by a boy of his age. When only nineteen, he invented the arithmetical instrument or scale for making calculations.
The French newspapers of August, 1760, gave an account of a boy only five years of age, whose precocity of talent exceeded even that of Pascal himself. He was introduced to the assembly of the Academy of Montpelier, where a great number of questions were put to him on the Latin language, on sacred and profane history, ancient and modern, on mythology, geography, chronology, and even philosophy, and the elements of the mathematics; all which he answered with so much accuracy, that the academy gave him a most honourable certificate.
One day when Gustavus was only between five and six years of age, he was running among bushes, his preceptor, to deter him, told him to beware of some large snakes which infested them. He unconcernedly answered 'Then give me a stick, and I will kill them. His courage was tempered with the most noble generosity. A peasant bringing him a small pony, the young prince said to him, 'I will pay you immediately, for you must want money,' and pulling out a little purse of ducats, he emptied it into the peasant's hand.
At twelve, he spoke and wrote Latin, German, Dutch, French, and Italian, with the same fluency and correctness as the Swedish, besides understanding Polish and Russian.
Cowley losing his father at an early age, was left to the care of his mother. In the window of their apartment lay Spenser's 'Fairy Queen' in which he very early took delight to read till, by feeling the charms of verse, he became as he relates, irrecoverably a poet. 'Such,' says Dr. Johnson, 'are accidents which sometimes remembered, and perhaps sometimes forgotten, produce that particular designation of mind, and propensity for some certain science or employment, which is commonly called Genius.' Cowley might be said to 'lisp in numbers,' and gave such early proofs, not only of powers of language, but of comprehension of things, as to more tardy minds seem scarcely credible. When only in his thirteenth year, a volume of his poems was printed, containing, with other poetical compositions, 'The Tragical History of Pyramus and Thisbe,' written when he was ten years old, and 'Constantia and Philetus,' written two years after. And while still at school, he produced a comedy, of a pastoral kind, called 'Love's Riddle,' though it was not published till he had been some time at Cambridge.
Henry IV. of France was educated in a very different manner from the princes of the present age. He was brought up in a castle at Beam, which was situated among the mountains; his father would not suffer him to be clothed differently from other children of the country, and accustomed him to climb the rugged rocks, nourished him with brown bread, beef, cheese, and ale, and often made him walk out with his head and feet bare even in the severest seasons. Henry, by being thus early inured to hardships, was enabled to go into the army at an age that few other princes quit the nursery. Before he was sixteen, he was at a battle of the Huguenots, where he betrayed the utmost impatience to be in the midst of the action, and to signalize himself; but he was only permitted to be a spectator on account of his youth. In the next engagement, his intrepidity and courage could not be restrained, and scarcely equalled; in spite of the prayers and entreaties of his officers, he exposed his person to as much danger as the common soldier. By this means he not only inspired his men with admiration and love for his person, but was the means of infusing courage throughout the whole army, who were animated by his example.
In the neighbourhood of Hoddam Castle, Dumfriesshire, there is a tower called Repentance. A pleasant answer of a shepherd's boy to Sir Richard Steele, found on the name of this tower, is related. Sir Richard having observed a boy lying on the ground, and very attentively reading his Bible, asked if he could tell him the way to Heaven? 'Yes sir,' answered the boy, 'you must go by that tower.'
This great man from his infancy exhibited a strong inclination for painting, and made so rapid a progress in it, that he is said, at the age of fourteen, to have been able to correct the drawings of his masters, Domenichino and Ghirlandajo. When he was an old man, one of these drawings being strewn to him, he modestly said, 'In my youth I was a better artist than I am now.'
Christina, daughter of the great Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and of Maria Eleonora, of Brandenburg, was born on the 18th of December, 1626. During the pregnancy of the queen, her mother, it was predicted by the astrologers, whose pretensions were at that time held in high estimation, that to Gustavus a son was about to be born, destined to maintain the glory of his father This prediction, added to some other circumstances, misled the women who attended the queen on her delivery, to misrepresent the sex of the child. Gustavus, on being informed of the mistake by Catherine, his sister, smilingly replied, 'to us, however, thank God, this girl I trust will prove not less valuable than a boy. She has already, by deceiving us; given a presage of her ingenuity.'
Gustavus attached himself to the child, which he carried about with him in all his journeys. Christina, when about two years of age, was taken by her father to Calmar, the governor of which hesitated whether to give the king the usual salute, lest the infant should be terrified by the noise of the cannon. Gustavus being consulted, exclaimed, after a moment's pause, 'Fire! the girl is the daughter of a soldier, and should be accustomed to it betimes.' The salute being given, the princess clapped her hands, and in her infantine language cried, 'More! more!' Delighted with her courage, Gustavus afterwards caused her to be present at a review. 'Very well,' said he, perceiving the pleasure she took in the military show, 'you shall go, I am resolved, where you shall have enough of this diversion.' Gustavus was prevented by death from fulfilling his promise. Christina laments in her memoirs, that she had not the happiness of learning the art of war under so great a master.
The tears which she shed at parting with her father, when about to proceed on his German expedition, were regarded by the superstitious as omens of misfortune. She had been taught a complimentary address which she was to repeat to Gustavus at parting. Absorbed in thought, the monarch appeared abstracted while his daughter performed her lesson; the child observing his inattention, pulled him by the sleeve, and began again to repeat the address. The king, affected by her perseverance, burst into tears caught her in his arms, and after holding her in silence some moments to his breast, delivered her to an attendant.
After the death of Gustavus, the states of Sweden assembled, where the marshal of the diet proposed the coronation of Christina, in conformity to a decree, by which the female posterity of Charles IX., the father of Gustavus, were declared capable of succeeding to the throne 'Who is this Christina?' exclaimed Lacken, a member of the order of peasants. 'Let us see her; let her be brought to us.' The marshal retiring, returned with the young princess in his arms. The peasant coming up to her, considered her attentively. 'Yes,' cried he aloud; 'this is she herself she has the nose, the eyes, and the forehead of Gustavus: we will have her for our queen.' Christina, who was immediately seated upon the throne and proclaimed queen, appeared from that moment to take a pleasure in the royal dignity.
Although the progress of Crichton in his studies during the early period of his youth cannot now be very satisfactorily traced, yet to prove that it must have been of unequalled rapidity, it is only necessary to state his attainments before he had reached his twentieth year. He had gone through the whole circle of the sciences, and could speak and write to perfection in twelve different languages. Nor had he neglected the ornamental branches of education; for he had likewise improved himself in riding, dancing, and singing, and was a skilful performer on all sorts of instruments. He appears to have first visited Paris when about the age of eighteen, and of his transactions at that place the following account is given. He caused six placards to be fixed on all the gates of the schools, halls, and colleges of the university, and on all the entrances to the houses of the most renowned literary characters in that city, inviting all those who were well versed in any art or science to dispute with him in the college of Navarre that day six weeks, when he would meet them, and be ready to answer in any art or science, and in any of these twelve languages, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French Italian, English, Dutch, Flemish, and Sclavonian; and this either in verse or prose, at the discretion of the disputant.
Crichton, during the intermediate time, appeared to devote his whole attention to feats of arms, field sports, or domestic games, but when the day appointed arrived, he appeared in the college of Navarre, and acquitted himself most successfully in the disputation, which lasted from nine o'clock in the morning till six at night. At length the president, after extolling him highly for the many rare and excellent endowments which God and nature had bestowed upon him, rose from his chair and accompanied by four of the most eminent professors of the university, gave him a diamond ring and a purse full of gold, as a testimony of their respect and admiration. The whole exhibition ended with repeated acclamations and cheers from the spectators. The young disputant was henceforward called the 'Admirable Crichton.'
Catherine Cockburn, whose poetical productions procured her the name of the Scotch Sappho, but who is better known to posterity by her able 'Defence of the Essay on the Human Understanding,' and other metaphysical lucubrations, was the youngest daughter of Captain David Trotter, a native of Scotland, and a naval officer in the reign of Charles 11. On the death of her father, who fell a victim to the plague at Scanderoon, she was still a child. She had given an early indication of genius by some extempore verses on an accident which, passing in the street, excited her attention. Several of her relations and friends happened to be present upon the occasion, among whom was her uncle, a naval commander. This gentleman, greatly struck by such a proof of observation, facility, and talent, in a child, observed with pleasure the father of Catherine (who possessed a peculiar taste for poetry) would have witnessed, had he been living, this unpremeditated effusion. Catherine, by application and industry, made herself mistress of the French language without any instructor, she also taught herself to write. In the study of the Latin grammar and logic, she had some assistance; of the latter she drew up an abstract for her own use. In 1693, being then only fourteen ears of age, she addressed some lines to Mr. Devil Higgons, on his recovery from sickness. In her seventeenth year she produced a tragedy entitled Agnes de Castro, which was acted with applause at the Theatre Royal in 1696; and published, but without her name, the following year, with a dedication to the Earl of Dorset; and when she wrote her 'Defence of the Essay on the Human Understanding,' she was no more than twenty-two years of age. Mr. Locke himself was pleased to say of this defence, in a letter to the fair author, 'You have hereby not only vanquished my adversary, but reduced me also absolutely under your power, and left no desire more strong in me than that of meeting with some opportunity to assure you with what respect and submission I am,' &c.
At the battle of Camperdown, a gallant little midshipman on board the admiral's ship, went below to be dressed for a wound he had received in the cheek. Finding one of the sailors under the hands of the surgeon, 'Pray go on with that poor man's dressing, sir,' said the youthful hero; 'he has lost a limb; I have only got a slap in the face.' The gash was deep, and the blood was gushing from it in torrents into the poor boy's mouth while he spoke.
Mr. Harriott, late magistrate of the Thames Police, was in his youth midshipman on board a ship of war lying at New York. A poor girl, whose mother kept a tavern at St. John's, Newfoundland, had been enticed away by an officer who brought her to England, and then deserted her. She passed over to Ireland, where she had some relations, but determined to return to America, and went in a brig filled with Redemptioners, that is, persons who redeem the price of their passage by the sale of their services for a certain term of years. This poor girl came to market for sale, when Mr. Harriott was there; and relating her unhappy tale, he purchased her from the captain, and sent her in a schooner to Newfoundland, where he afterwards went himself, and was welcomed with tears of gratitude by the mother and the daughter.
It has been remarked that most great generals have become so by degrees, but that the Prince of Conde was born a general, and that the art of war in him appeared to be a natural instinct. His inclination for the profession of arms showed itself from his childhood, and his favourite authors were Caesar, Plutarch and Polybius. At eight years old