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Article ACCOUNT OF AN EXTRAORDINARY NATURAL GENIUS, ← Page 5 of 6 →
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Account Of An Extraordinary Natural Genius,
was obliged to content himself with his author ' s morality , politics , and remarks on metaphysics , which employed him till July 174 6 , by which time he had scraped together a sum sufficient to buy the physics which he had so earnestly desired , and this work he read twice within the year . About this time a dealer in old books sold him a volume of Wolfius ' s Mathematical Princiles at largeand the spherical
trigop , nometry which he found in this hook was a new treasure , which he was very desirous to make his own . This however cost him incredible labour , and filled every moment that he could spare from his business and his sleep for something more than a year . He proceeded to the study of the Law of Nature and Nations , and at the same time procured a little book on the terrestrial and
celestial g lobes . These books with a few that he borrowed were the sources from which he derived such a stock of knowledge , as is seldom found even among those who have associated with the inhabitants of a university , ancl had perpetual access to public libraries . Mr . Hoffman , during Ludwig ' s residence , at his house , dressed him in his own gownwith other proper habilimentsand he observes
, , that this alteration of his dress had such an effect that Hoffman could not conceive the man ' s accent or dialect to be the same , and he felt himself secretly inclined to treat him with more deference than when he was in his peasant ' s dress , though the alteration was made in his presence , and with his own apparel . ' y
It happened also that before Ludwig went home' there was an eclipse of the sun , and Mr . Hoffman proposed to his guest that he should observe this phenomenon as an astronomer , and for that purpose furnished him with proper instruments . The impatience of Ludwig till the time of the eclipse is not to be expressed , he had hitherto been acquainted with the planetary world only by books , and a view of the heavens with the naked eyehe had never yet looked through
, a telescope , and the anticipation of the pleasure which the new observation would yield him scarce suffered him either . to eat or sleep ; but it unfortunately happened , that just before the . eclipse came on the sky became cloudy , and continued so during the whole time of its continuance ; this misfortune was more than the philosophy even of Ludwig could bear ; as the cloud came on he looked up at it with the
agony of a man that expected the dissolution of nature to follow ; when it came over the sun , he stood fixed in a consternation not to be described , and when he knew the eclipse was past , his disappointment and grief were little short of distraction . Mr . Hoffman soon after went in his turn to visit Mr . Ludwig , and take a view of his dwellinghis libraryhis study and his instruments .
, , He found an old crazy cottage , the inside of which had been longblacked with smoke ; the walls were covered with propositions and diagrams written with chalk . In one corner was a bed , in another a cradle , and under a little window af the side , three pieces of board laid side by side , over two trussels made a writing table for the phi-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Account Of An Extraordinary Natural Genius,
was obliged to content himself with his author ' s morality , politics , and remarks on metaphysics , which employed him till July 174 6 , by which time he had scraped together a sum sufficient to buy the physics which he had so earnestly desired , and this work he read twice within the year . About this time a dealer in old books sold him a volume of Wolfius ' s Mathematical Princiles at largeand the spherical
trigop , nometry which he found in this hook was a new treasure , which he was very desirous to make his own . This however cost him incredible labour , and filled every moment that he could spare from his business and his sleep for something more than a year . He proceeded to the study of the Law of Nature and Nations , and at the same time procured a little book on the terrestrial and
celestial g lobes . These books with a few that he borrowed were the sources from which he derived such a stock of knowledge , as is seldom found even among those who have associated with the inhabitants of a university , ancl had perpetual access to public libraries . Mr . Hoffman , during Ludwig ' s residence , at his house , dressed him in his own gownwith other proper habilimentsand he observes
, , that this alteration of his dress had such an effect that Hoffman could not conceive the man ' s accent or dialect to be the same , and he felt himself secretly inclined to treat him with more deference than when he was in his peasant ' s dress , though the alteration was made in his presence , and with his own apparel . ' y
It happened also that before Ludwig went home' there was an eclipse of the sun , and Mr . Hoffman proposed to his guest that he should observe this phenomenon as an astronomer , and for that purpose furnished him with proper instruments . The impatience of Ludwig till the time of the eclipse is not to be expressed , he had hitherto been acquainted with the planetary world only by books , and a view of the heavens with the naked eyehe had never yet looked through
, a telescope , and the anticipation of the pleasure which the new observation would yield him scarce suffered him either . to eat or sleep ; but it unfortunately happened , that just before the . eclipse came on the sky became cloudy , and continued so during the whole time of its continuance ; this misfortune was more than the philosophy even of Ludwig could bear ; as the cloud came on he looked up at it with the
agony of a man that expected the dissolution of nature to follow ; when it came over the sun , he stood fixed in a consternation not to be described , and when he knew the eclipse was past , his disappointment and grief were little short of distraction . Mr . Hoffman soon after went in his turn to visit Mr . Ludwig , and take a view of his dwellinghis libraryhis study and his instruments .
, , He found an old crazy cottage , the inside of which had been longblacked with smoke ; the walls were covered with propositions and diagrams written with chalk . In one corner was a bed , in another a cradle , and under a little window af the side , three pieces of board laid side by side , over two trussels made a writing table for the phi-