onment answer the requirements. Some other factor
is there--is it Reincarnation?

Allied to this phenomena is that of "youthful genius"--in fact, genius
of any age, for that matter, for genius itself seems to be out of the
category of the ordinary cause of heredity and environment, and to have
its roots in some deeper, richer soil. It is a well-known fact that now
and then a child is born which at a very early age shows an acquaintance
with certain arts, or other branches of mental work, which is usually
looked for only from those of advanced years, and after years of
training. In many cases these children are born of parents and
grandparents deficient in the particular branches of knowledge evidenced
by the child. Babes scarcely able to sit on the piano stool, or to hold
the violin, have begun to play in a way that certainly indicated
previous knowledge and technique, often composing original productions
in an amazing manner. Other young children have begun to draw and design
without any instruction whatever. Others have shown wonderful
mathematical ability, there being several cases on record where such
children have performed feats in mathematics impossible to advanced
adults teaching the same lines. What are the cause of these phenomena?
Is it Reincarnation?

As Figuier said, years ago: "We hear it said every day that one child
has a mathematical, another a musical, another an artistic turn. In
others we notice savage, violent, even criminal instincts. After the
first years of life these dispositions break out. When these natural
aptitudes are pushed beyond the usual limit, we find famous examples
that history has cherished, and that we love to recall. There is Pascal,
mastering at the age of twelve years the greater part of Plane Geometry
without any instruction, and not a figment of Calculus, drawing on the
floor of his chamber all the figures in the first book of Euclid,
estimating accurately the mathematical relations of them all--that is,
reconstructing for himself a part of descriptive Geometry; the herdsman
Mangia Melo, manipulating figures, when five years old, as rapidly as a
calculating machine; Mozart, executing a sonata on the pianoforte with
four-years-old fingers, and composing an opera at the age of eight;
Theresa Milanollo, playing the violin at four years, with such eminent
skill that Baillot said she must have played it before she was born;
Rembrandt, drawing with masterly power before he could re