ealth, leaves no reason to suppose that Oscar's
extravagant memory depends upon disease any more than we can suspect
all giants of being sickly, though the anomaly is doubtless due to
pathologic conditions. Of course, there is no predicting what may
develop later in his life, but in any event science will be benefited.

"It is a popular idea that great vigor of memory is often associated
with low-grade intelligence, and cases such as Blind Tom and other
'idiot savants,' who could repeat the contents of a newspaper after a
single reading, justify the supposition. Fearon, on 'Mental Vigor,'
tells of a man who could remember the day that every person had been
buried in the parish for thirty-five years, and could repeat with
unvarying accuracy the name and age of the deceased and the mourners at
the funeral. But he was a complete fool. Out of the line of burials he
had not one idea, could not give an intelligible reply to a single
question, nor be trusted even to feed himself. While memory-development
is thus apparent in some otherwise defective intellects, it has
probably as often or oftener been observed to occur in connection with
full or great intelligence. Edmund Burke, Clarendon, John Locke,
Archbishop Tillotson, and Dr. Johnson were all distinguished for having
great strength of memory. Sir W. Hamilton observed that Grotius,
Pascal, Leibnitz, and Euler were not less celebrated for their
intelligence than for their memory. Ben Jonson could repeat all that
he had written and whole books he had read. Themistocles could call by
name the 20,000 citizens of Athens. Cyrus is said to have known the
name of every soldier in his army. Hortensius, a great Roman orator,
and Seneca had also great memories. Niebuhr, the Danish historian, was
remarkable for his acuteness of memory. Sir James Mackintosh, Dugald
Stewart, and Dr. Gregory had similar reputations.

"Nor does great mental endowment entail physical enfeeblement; for,
with temperance, literary men have reached extreme old age, as in the
cases of Klopstock, Goethe, Chaucer, and the average age attained by
all the signers of the American Declaration of Independence was
sixty-four years, many of them being highly gifted men intellectually.
Thus, in the case of the phenomenal Oscar it cannot be predicted that
he will not develop, as he now promises to do, equal and extraordinary
powers of mind, even though it would be rare in one of his racial
descent, and in the face of t