II + 

When my father had danced his white bear backwards and forwards through half a dozen pages, he closed the book for good anвАЩ all,вБ†вАФand in a kind of triumph redelivered it into TrimвАЩs hand, with a nod to lay it upon the вАЩscrutoire, where he found it.вБ†вЄЇвБ†Tristram, said he, shall be made to conjugate every word in the dictionary, backwards and forwards the same way;вБ†вЄЇвБ†every word, Yorick, by this means, you see, is converted into a thesis or an hypothesis;вБ†вАФevery thesis and hypothesis have an offspring of propositions;вБ†вАФand each proposition has its own consequences and conclusions; every one of which leads the mind on again, into fresh tracks of enquiries and doubtings.вБ†вЄЇвБ†The force of this engine, added my father, is incredible in opening a childвАЩs head.вБ†вЄЇвАЩTis enough, brother Shandy, cried my uncle Toby, to burst it into a thousand splinters.вБ†вЄЇвБ† + 

I presume, said Yorick, smiling,вБ†вАФit must be owing to this,вБ†вЄЇ(for let logicians say what they will, it is not to be accounted for sufficiently from the bare use of the ten predicaments)вБ†вЄЇвБ†That the famous Vincent Quirino, amongst the many other astonishing feats of his childhood, of which the Cardinal Bembo has given the world so exact a story,вБ†вАФshould be able to paste up in the public schools at Rome, so early as in the eighth year of his age, no less than four thousand five hundred and fifty different theses, upon the most abstruse points of the most abstruse theology;вБ†вАФand to defend and maintain them in such sort, as to cramp and dumbfound his opponents.вБ†вЄЇвБ†What is that, cried my father, to what is told us of Alphonsus Tostatus, who, almost in his nurseвАЩs arms, learned all the sciences and liberal arts without being taught any one of them?вБ†вЄЇвБ†What shall we say of the great Piereskius?вБ†вАФThatвАЩs the very man, cried my uncle Toby, I once told you of, brother Shandy, who walked a matter of five hundred miles, reckoning from Paris to Shevling, and from Shevling back again, merely to see StevinusвАЩs flying chariot.вБ†вЄЇвБ†He was a very great man! added my uncle Toby (meaning Stevinus)вБ†вАФHe was so, brother Toby, said my father (meaning Piereskius)вБ†вЄЇвБ†and had multiplied his ideas so fast, and increased his knowledge to such a prodigious stock, that, if we may give credit to an anecdote concerning him, which we cannot withhold here, without shaking the authority of all anecdotes whateverвБ†вАФat seven years of age, his father committed entirely to his care the education of his younger brother, a boy of five years old,вБ†вАФwith the sole management of all his concerns.вБ†вАФWas the father as wise as the son? quoth my uncle Toby:вБ†вАФI should think not, said Yorick:вБ†вАФBut what are these, continued my fatherвБ†вАФ(breaking out in a kind of enthusiasm)вБ†вАФwhat are these, to those prodigies of childhood in Grotius, Scioppius, Heinsius, Politian, Pascal, Joseph Scaliger, Ferdinand de Cordou√®, and othersвБ†вАФsome of which left off their substantial forms at nine years old, or sooner, and went on reasoning without them;вБ†вАФothers went through their classics at seven;вБ†вАФwrote tragedies at eight;вБ†вАФFerdinand de Cordou√® was so wise at nine,вБ†вАФвАЩtwas thought the Devil was in him;вБ†вАФand at Venice gave such proofs of his knowledge and goodness, that the monks imagined he was Antichrist, or nothing.вБ†вЄЇвБ†Others were masters of fourteen languages at ten,вБ†вАФfinished the course of their rhetoric, poetry, logic, and ethics, at eleven,вБ†вАФput forth their commentaries upon Servius and Martianus Capella at twelve,вБ†вАФand at thirteen received their degrees in philosophy, laws, and divinity:вБ†вЄЇвБ†But you forget the great Lipsius, quoth Yorick, who composed a work the day he was born:вБ†вЄЇвБ†They should have wiped it up, said my uncle Toby, and said no more about it. + 