Your Friend,
Has Had Many Distinguished Predecessors--Mozart Played the Piano at
Three, and Grotius Was a Poet at Eight.

There are few men and women in the United States who do not at least once
a year suddenly find themselves confronted by what fond fathers and doting
mothers describe as the most remarkable child in the world.

But there have been others.

Several years ago the newspapers of Europe were heralding the marvelous
achievements of a boy in Berlin, who, though only two years old, was said
to read in a most surprising manner.

* * * * *

The "learned child of Luebeck" was another of these precocious infants, but
he is credited with having such extraordinary talents that one can almost
be forgiven for doubting the veracity of the chronicler.

Tasso was another smart child, for he spoke plainly, it is said, when only
six months old. When seven years old he understood Latin and Greek, and
even composed verses, and before he was twelve, when studying law, he had
completed his course of rhetoric, poetry, logic, and ethics.

Lope de Vega was also fortunate when a boy. At five he could read Latin
and Spanish fluently, and at twelve he was master of the Latin tongue and
of rhetoric, while at fifteen he had written several pastorals and a
comedy. He is stated to have produced about eighteen hundred comedies
during his life, so perhaps it was necessary to begin when very young.

Grotius was another good poet at the age of eight; at fifteen,
accomplished in philosophy, mathematics, and jurisprudence, and at
twenty-four he was appointed advocate-general of Rotterdam.

Barretier, at the age of nine, was master of five languages, while in his
eleventh year he made a translation from the Hebrew to the French and
added notes such as would be expected from a man of considerable
erudition.

Gustavus Vasa was another boy of excellent brain-power, for at the age of
twelve he was able to speak and write Latin, French, German, Italian,
Dutch, and Swedish, and he also understood Polish and Russian.

Pascal, at twelve, had completely mastered Euclid's Elements without any
assistance, and at sixteen he published a work on conic sections, which
Descartes was reluctant to believe had been produced by a boy.

The "Great Conde" was a boy with brains, and he made good use of them. At
eight he understood Latin, and at eleven he wrote a treatise on rhetoric.
Three years later he was thoroughl