is another prodigy, called particularly the Young
One-- Pliny the Young One-- who not only wrote
a Greek Play, but also took a wife when he was
but a bit of a boy. Marcus Aurelius, when he
was heir-apparent of the Roman Empire, knew,
at the age of twelve, all that was in the heads of
all the philosophers, and set up for a wise child
himself by putting on the philosopher's gown,
which he took off at night with his other clothes,
when, to air his philosophy, he went to bed on
the ground out of doors, with no sort of gown
on him or nightcap either. As this young
gentleman was heir-apparent, the Police, I
suppose, had orders not to tuck him up.

In the year fourteen hundred and forty-five
there was a young gentleman without a name
exhibited at Paris, who was master of all the
arts and sciences, though only just out of his
teens. He was a match for all the learned in
all forms of lore. It seems to have occurred
to his parents that he was as good a monster as
a ram with six legs, for which reason they put
him in a caravan. At any rate, he was
exhibited in Paris, and drew well. Indeed, he
became quite fashionable, because it was
maintained that he was Antichrist, whom it was
worth while to see at any rate, and to pay one's
half-crown for the chance of putting down.

Pico della Mirandola made a digest of the
canon law at ten years old; and my belief is
that, if ever there is to be a digest of the
statutes of Great Britain, we had better advertise
for able-minded boys of ten, and get the
work done in little by sages who themselves are
little. Somebody says that Master Pico, by the
time he was eighteen, spoke two-and-twenty
languages. Michel Verin produced, at the age
of fourteen or fifteen, a book of Proverbs in
verse. It has gone through various editions,
and has had old men for commentators. Christofle
de Longueil, from his infancy, read without
skipping. He finished honestly every book
that he began; however dull, however useless
it might prove to be. The prize the boy got
for his diligence was that at the age of eighteen
he became Privy Councillor and Minister of
State to the King of Spain.

In the Netherlands there was a Mynheer
Canteres, who had four children, three boys
and a girl, each of whom knew everything at
the age of ten. As there were not people
enough in their own country to pay them all
the admiration they deserved, they were taken,
as a performing band of brothers, through
Germany, France, and Italy, astonishing the learned
everywhere. Why not produce a troupe of
such erudite babes at the Egyptian Hall, fetching
out the wisdom of the stalls, and getting
our friends Doodle and Foozle to employ
themselves upon the testing of their erudition?

Of the Admirable Crichton I say nothing,
except that M. Baillet calls him Critton. But
what of that? Did not the great French
republic record its admiration of the genius of
Schiller by enrolling him among its citizens as
Monsieur Gilles? Louis Stella was at the
University of Orleans professor of Greek at the
age of fifteen, and drew a large concourse of
students to hear his elucidations of Greek
authors, especially of Lucian and Aristophanes.
The university and city of Paris received, in
the sixteenth century, an electric shock from a
tragedy and two comedies in French,
produced by little Jacques Grevin at the age of
thirteen or fourteen. He followed them up
with such pastorals, such hymns, such sonnets,
that Ronsard lost appetite through jealousy.
Nicodemus Fischlin was both a Greek and a
Latin poet when thirteen years old. Homer
was only a Greek poet. Virgil was only a
Latin poet. Fischlin was both. Jerome de la
Rovère, at the age of ten, collected and
published his " Poetical Works." From which we
are told we must infer that he had begun as
poet when seven or eight years old, and must
have been by that time master of Latin, have
studied the art of poetry, and formed his taste
by a careful reading of the best authors. But
what of that? Thomas Zamoyski was not
thirteen years old when he thoroughly understood
and spoke fluently and correctly the Greek,
Latin, Turkish, German, Sclave, and Tartar
languages, and was far gone in Arabic. The
Spanish dramatist, Lope de Vega, was most
anxious to give poems to the world before he
could speak. He was griped visibly by the
Muses, and before he was strong enough to hold
a pen, and learn to write, we are told that he
dictated to others verses of his own composition.
Monsieur de Peiresc, as soon as he
began to speak, was so urgent upon every one
for answers to profound inquiries into the cause
of everything, that his father found it useless
to have any servant in the house-- cook, valet,
or footman—who was not versed in Latin and
Greek, who could not draw, engrave, bind books,
describe and illustrate by drawings or plans
everything that was likely to be asked after in
geology, zoology, and botany. Little Peiresc,
at the age of seven, asked for and obtained of
his father the sole charge of the education of a
little brother two years younger than himself,
taking the direction, not only of his studies,
but also of the general formation of his mind
and morals.

Hugo Grotius was a Latin poet at the age
of eight. His friend, Denis Petou, in his
infancy did nothing but read books, and was a
master of versification at the age of nine. Milton's
antagonist, Salmasius, when ten years old,
translated the whole of Pindar into verse. Thomas
Hobbes at the age of eleven turned a play of
Euripides into Latin verse; and Gasper Barthius
at the age of twelve translated the Psalms of
David into Latin verse of every form.
Bonthillier de Rance at the age of thirteen published
a new edition of the poems of Anacreon, with
notes of his own in Greek; and before he was
quite fourteen, Gabriel de Burta published a
Latin folio of Universal History, Sacred and
Profane.

Fortunio Liceti was no bigger than the palm
of a hand when prematurely born at sea. But
his father, being a physician, put him in a