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  • Aug. 1, 1795
  • Page 44
  • ACCOUNT OF AN EXTRAORDINARY NATURAL GENIUS,
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The Freemasons' Magazine, Aug. 1, 1795: Page 44

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    Article ACCOUNT OF AN EXTRAORDINARY NATURAL GENIUS, ← Page 3 of 6 →
Page 44

Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Account Of An Extraordinary Natural Genius,

In the month of March 173 6 , he was employed to receive the excise of the little district in which he lived , and he found that in order to discharge this office , is was necessary for him not onby to write , but to be master of the two first rules of arithmetic , addition and subtraction . His ambition had now an object , -and a desire to keep the accounts of the tax he was to gather , better than others of his stationdetermined him once more to applto arithmetichowever

hate-, y , ful the task , and whatever labour it mi ght require . Pie now regretted that he was without an instructor , and would have been glad at any rate to have practised the rules without first knowing the rationale . Plis mind was continually upon the stretch to find out some way of supplying this want , and at last he recollected that one of his schoolfellows had a book from which examples of several rules were taken

by the master to exercise the scholars . He therefore went immedi-r ately in search of this school-fellow , and was overjoyed to find upon enquiry , that the book was still in his possession . Having borrowed this important volume , he returned home with it , and beginning his studies as he went along , he pursued them with such application , that in about six months he was master of the rule of three with

fractions . The reluctance with which he began . to learn the powers and pro- ? perties of figures was now at an end ; he knew enough to make him earnestly desirous of knowing more ; he was therefore impatient to proceed from this book to one that was more difficult , and having at length found means to procure one that treated of more intricate and complicated calculationshe made himself master of that also before

, the end of the year 1739 . He had the good fortune soon after to meet with a treatise of geometry , written by Pachek , the same author whose arithmetic he had been studying ; and finding that this science was in some measure founded on that which he had learnt , he applied to his new book with great assiduity for some time , but at length , not being able perfectly to comprehend the theory as he went

on , nor yet to discover the utility of the practice , he laid it aside , to which he was also induced by the necessity of his immediate atten * dance to his field and his vines . The severe winter which happened in the year 1740 , obliged him to keep long within his cottage , and having there no employment either for his body or his mind , he had once more recourse to his book

of geometry ; and having at length comprehended some of the leading principles , he procured a little box ruler and an old pair of compasses , , on one point of which he mounted the end of a quill cut into a pen . With these instruments he employed himself incessantl y in making various geometrical figures on paper , to illustrate the theory by a solution of the problems . He was thus busied in his cot till March

, and the joy arising from the knowledge he had acquired was exceeded only by his desire of knowing more . He was now necessaril y recalled to that labour by which alone he could procure himself food , and was besides without money to pro-

“The Freemasons' Magazine: 1795-08-01, Page 44” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 12 June 2025, django:8000/periodicals/fmm/issues/fmm_01081795/page/44/.
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Title Category Page
Untitled Article 1
LONDON: Article 1
TO OUR READERS, CORRESPONDENTS, &c. Article 2
PRICES OF BINDING PER VOLUME. Article 2
Untitled Article 3
THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE, OR GENERAL AND COMPLETE LIBRARY . Article 4
ON THE PRESENT STATE OF FREEMASONRY. Article 7
HISTORY OF MASONRY. Article 10
CHARACTER OF BERNARD GILPIN, Article 14
THE KHALIF AND HIS VISIER, AN ORIENTAL APOLOGUE. Article 18
ANECDOTES OF HENRI DUC DE MONTMORENCI. Article 20
EXTRAORDINARY INSTANCES OF GRATITUDE. Article 24
EXTRACTS FROM A CURIOUS MANUSCRIPT, CONTAINING DIRECTIONS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD OF HENRY VIII. Article 25
BON MOT. Article 27
THE STAGE. Article 28
CHARACTER OF LOUIS THE SIXTEENTH. Article 29
A THIEF RESCUED BY AN ELEPHANT. AN AUTHENTIC ANECDOTE. Article 31
ANECDOTES OF THE LIFE OF THEODORE, KING OF CORSICA*. Article 32
ORIGIN OF ST. JAMES'S PALACE. Article 33
THE UNION OF LOVE TO GOD AND LOVE TO MAN, A SERMON, Preached in St. Andrew's Church, New Town, Edinburgh, Article 34
ACCOUNT OF AN EXTRAORDINARY NATURAL GENIUS, Article 42
PHYSIOGNOMICAL SKETCHES. Article 47
CURIOUS METHOD OF PROTECTING CORN. Article 50
ON COMPASSION. Article 50
ON MODESTY, AS A MASCULINE VIRTUE. Article 53
SOME ACCOUNT OF BOTANY BAY, Article 55
TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE . Article 56
TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE. Article 58
ON POVERTY. Article 60
DISSERTATIONS ON THE POLITE ARTS. Article 61
POETRY. Article 64
THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE, A SKETCH. Article 67
TO INDUSTRY. Article 67
WRITTEN IN MEMORY OF MY FATHER, Article 68
PORTRAIT OF AN HYPOCRITE. Article 68
MASONIC INTELLIGENCE. Article 69
MONTHLY CHRONICLE. Article 69
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Page 44

Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Account Of An Extraordinary Natural Genius,

In the month of March 173 6 , he was employed to receive the excise of the little district in which he lived , and he found that in order to discharge this office , is was necessary for him not onby to write , but to be master of the two first rules of arithmetic , addition and subtraction . His ambition had now an object , -and a desire to keep the accounts of the tax he was to gather , better than others of his stationdetermined him once more to applto arithmetichowever

hate-, y , ful the task , and whatever labour it mi ght require . Pie now regretted that he was without an instructor , and would have been glad at any rate to have practised the rules without first knowing the rationale . Plis mind was continually upon the stretch to find out some way of supplying this want , and at last he recollected that one of his schoolfellows had a book from which examples of several rules were taken

by the master to exercise the scholars . He therefore went immedi-r ately in search of this school-fellow , and was overjoyed to find upon enquiry , that the book was still in his possession . Having borrowed this important volume , he returned home with it , and beginning his studies as he went along , he pursued them with such application , that in about six months he was master of the rule of three with

fractions . The reluctance with which he began . to learn the powers and pro- ? perties of figures was now at an end ; he knew enough to make him earnestly desirous of knowing more ; he was therefore impatient to proceed from this book to one that was more difficult , and having at length found means to procure one that treated of more intricate and complicated calculationshe made himself master of that also before

, the end of the year 1739 . He had the good fortune soon after to meet with a treatise of geometry , written by Pachek , the same author whose arithmetic he had been studying ; and finding that this science was in some measure founded on that which he had learnt , he applied to his new book with great assiduity for some time , but at length , not being able perfectly to comprehend the theory as he went

on , nor yet to discover the utility of the practice , he laid it aside , to which he was also induced by the necessity of his immediate atten * dance to his field and his vines . The severe winter which happened in the year 1740 , obliged him to keep long within his cottage , and having there no employment either for his body or his mind , he had once more recourse to his book

of geometry ; and having at length comprehended some of the leading principles , he procured a little box ruler and an old pair of compasses , , on one point of which he mounted the end of a quill cut into a pen . With these instruments he employed himself incessantl y in making various geometrical figures on paper , to illustrate the theory by a solution of the problems . He was thus busied in his cot till March

, and the joy arising from the knowledge he had acquired was exceeded only by his desire of knowing more . He was now necessaril y recalled to that labour by which alone he could procure himself food , and was besides without money to pro-

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