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far from the totality) being schoolboys, with a sharp-set appetite for a display of ciphering skill. The hero of the night was standing in the midst, in the attitude common to blind people and extremely absent and thoughtful persons. He requested silence to be kept while he was making his calculations, which he did walking backwards and forwards, with a sort of short, quarterdeck step.

"What shall we begin with?" was a natural inquiry.

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Suppose we take addition first, and mount gradually through the rules. Will any one name any sums they think fit to be added together?” Hereupon various individuals dictated items of hundreds of thousands, a million and odd, a few hundreds, and even units, to render the task the more puzzling, till some ten or twelve lines of figures were taken down by the gentleman who acted as secretary. Before he could finish the addition on the paper, the phenomenon gave the total accurately. I began to tremble for my questions, fearing that they would not prove posers.

Next was proposed a sum of subtraction, in which trillions were to be deducted from trillions. The remainder was given as easily as an answer to What o'clock is it? Certainly my questions would turn out no posers at all.

"Can you extract cube roots mentally?" I asked.

"Yes, give me one." "What is the cube root of nineteen thousand six hundred and eighty-three ?"

"Oh, that is too easy. It is twenty-seven.'

Later in the evening he extracted a cube root of four figures. The schoolboys were delighted and astonished. If they had not applauded heartily, as they did, they would not have been schoolboys.

"I have a little calculation to propose," I said, "which involves mul

tiplication principally. A fleet of seventy-three fishing-boats start from Dunkirk on the first of April to catch cod in the North Sea. They return on the thirty-first of July; that is, they are absent four months.

"I understand; they are out at sea a hundred and twenty-two days."

"Each boat carries nineteen men. How many men are there in the whole fleet ?"

"One thousand three hundred and eighty-seven."

"And if each man eats four pounds of bread per day, how much bread per day is eaten on board all the boats?"

"Of course, five thousand five hundred and forty-eight pounds.

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"With how much bread, then, must the fleet be provisioned to supply it during the whole of its four months' voyage?"

In a

The calculator, who had stood still during the previous questions, resumed his quarter-deck pacing to and fro, and put on, as country-people say, his considering-cap. few instants he stopped short, and said, "They must take out with them six hundred and seventy-six thousand, eight hundred and fifty-six pounds of bread."

"Perfectly correct! Quite right!" The boys were in ecstasies, which found vent in another round of applause.

"But these hard-working fishermen," I continued, "keep up their strength with something else besides bread. Each man drinks a glass of gin every morning; how many drams are drunk during the course of the four months ?"

Another short promenade, and then the answer: "One hundred and sixty-nine thousand, two hundred and fourteen.”

"But that is not all; the gin is kept in bottles, and each bottle holds thirty-seven petits verres or drams. How many bottles must the fleet carry out?"

"It must take out-let us see-it

must take out four thousand five hundred and seventy-three bottles, and a fraction consisting of thirteen drams over."

And so ended my question number one; no poser, nor ass's bridge at all. The interest of the audience was highly excited. To give a short repose to the calculator's brain, a young lady treated us to a charming divertisement on the piano. "Are you tired?"

"Oh, no; not at all."

nineteen thousand, eight hundred and forty."

"Right. But I observe, on watching them, that each large animalcule eats, per day, one middle-sized, and three little animalcules. How many animalcules shall I have left at the end of a couple of days?"

"There will be, altogether, sixteen millions, one hundred and eleven thousand, four hundred and eight survivors."

After a few other arithmetical lu

"Shall we try something with a cubrations, the calculating performer greater number of figures ?"

"If you please."

"Listen, then. I have a bottle of ditch-water, the contents of which, as near as I can estimate, amount to eighty-seven thousand, five hundred and sixty-two drops. In every drop, on examining it with the microscope, I find three species of animalcules-large, middle-sized, and small, namely, seventeen large ones, thirty-nine middle-sized, and two hundred and sixty-four small. First, tell me how many large animalcules I have in my bottle.'

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made a proposition which not a little startled his auditors.

"Dictate to me," he said, "from a written paper, a hundred and fifty figures, any you please, in any order, and I will repeat them to you by heart. Read them aloud to me, by sixes."

A gentleman present took pencil and paper, and wrote down a string of figures as they came into his head, by chance. "Seven, nought, nine,

five, three, one." "Yes," said the phenomenon, "go on."

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Nought, five, seven, six, two,

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The wonder resumed his pacing step, and with half-shut eyes and forefinger vibrating by the side of his forehead, close to the phrenological organ of number (a favorite action with him), commenced his repetition: "" Seven, nought, nine, five, three, one; nought, five, seven, six, two, three," etc.; until the hundred and fifty figures were run off the rollcall, in much the same tone as a little child recites "How doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour." There were only one or two errors, owing, he said, to the treacherous zeros; and on the admonition "False," they were corrected without aid. And then he repeated the list backwards, with the same monotonous ease. And then he offered to name any one given figure on the list.

"What is the forty-fifth figure, counting from the end ?"

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"A seven, between a one on the right hand, and a nine on the left.' "What is the twenty-first figure from the beginning?"

"A five, with a zero to the right, and a three to the left."

And then he sat down, amidst crowning applause, wiping the perspiration from his brow, as well he might. And then he rose and gave a detailed summing up (with the figures) of all the problems he had gone through during the evening.

Jean Jacques Winkler, the person who executes these prodigies of mental gymnastics, according to his own account, was born at Zurich, in 1831. He was one of a family of eight-four sons and four daughters. His father was a retired bill-broker, living on his income a sort of animal life (the son's expression), and wishing to keep the wanderer at home. Jean Jacques, from his earliest childhood, studied all sorts of subjects by night and by day, possessing a peculiar aptitude for calculation, combined with a prodigious memory. He studied in various places, and under various instructors, even under Arago, amongst others. This hard

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study gradually weakened his eyesight till he became quite blind, and continued so for two years and a half, until he was twenty-five years of age. The blindness came on "comically," he said, without headache or pain in the eyes; in short, he had never been ill in his life. As long as the deprivation of sight continued, his great amusement was to calculate problems in his head. Eyesight returned gradually, as it had departed, but only partially. Medical men promised him its complete restoration if he would renounce mental mathematics; but the propensity was too strong. He performed in his head all sorts of calculations in spherical trigonometry, curves, and other branches of high science. But, for himself, the most difficult operation was simple multiplication on a somewhat extended scale, say the multiplication of twenty figures by a multiplier consisting of fifteen or twenty. A sum like this took him ten or twelve minutes to work mentally-the only way possible; for he could not see clearly enough even to sign his own name without having his hand guided.

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Contrary to most of the calculators hitherto exhibited to the public, and who, like Mondeux, were mathematicians by instinct, and could not explain how they arrived at their results, M. Winkler was perfectly acquainted with the theory of numbers, and arrived at the solution of the strongest problems by means of a methodical mental operation. had formulæ of his own for the extraction of cube roots, for instance, and short-cuts for trigonometry. A power consisting of thirty figures. took him four or five minutes to extract its cube root mentally-an astounding feat; for a good arithmetician will require three-quarters of an hour to do the same thing with pencil and slate. He had projected a mathematical book to facilitate and shorten intricate operations of the kind, but was prevented by the difficulty of producing in writing his imagined symbols.

EDITORIAL NOTES.

ANOTHER of the persecutors of the Church has been called to render his account before the tribunal of God. On the 9th of January Victor Emanuel died. He is a striking instance how men failing to correspond with divine grace, and giving loose reins to their passions, break through the restraints of conscience and known duty, fall constantly deeper and deeper into the abysses of sin, until at last they yield unhesitatingly to every temptation that presents itself, and commit sacrilege and other enormities without hesitation or seeming compunctions of conscience.

Victor Emanuel's crimes are not chargeable to want of knowledge or misdirected education. He was taught the principles of our holy religion in youth; he was acquainted with its truths. But he possessed violent passions, and allowed them to acquire the mastery over him until he became their slave. He indulged in personality until it became a second nature to him, and he gratified its base desires to such extent that he became in that respect a beast rather than a man. His ambition was allowed in like manner to rule him, so that he became the willing slave of men more astute than himself, of Cavour as long as he lived, and after his death, of others who adopted the worst of his ideas, and who developed them into consequences from which, we believe, Cavour would have shrunk.

How Victor Emanuel despoiled and persecuted the Church, plundered and suppressed its religious, desecrated its sacred shrines and sanctuaries, stabled his horses in convents, and perpetrated other sacrileges, is too well known to need repetition.

Had all that he has done been foretold him in his youth, he would have probably answered in the words of Hazael, who became king of Syria, to the prophet Eliseus, Is thy servant a dog that he should do this great sin? And yet as Hazael did all the enormities predicted of him, so Victor Emanuel went on, step by step, until he came to be as cruel a persecutor of the Church as was Hazael of the children of Israel.

He has been buried with pomp and ceremony, has been freely forgiven for the offences he did to him personally by the Holy Father, but what judgment God, who alone knows the disposition in which the usurper of Italy died, will pronounce upon him, because of his sins, it is not for us to determine.

His son, Humbert, has ascended the usurped throne, and according to his pub. lished address, proposes to follow the

example set him by his wicked father. How far he will be permitted by God, whose power is almighty, and how far he will be held back by him, no one can foresee. One thing is certain, the Church is imperishable, and those who persecute her are always in the end made to pay the penalty of their wickedness, while the Church survives, and comes forth from persecution with renewed power and beauty.

DR. THOMAS W. M. MARSHALL, one of the ablest Catholic journalists in the English language, died on the 14th of December last, at his residence, at Surhiton, Surrey County, England, after a long and painful illness, borne with great patience and perfect resignation to the will of God.

Dr. Marshall was almost as well known in the United States as in England, by his copious and at the same time trenchant journalistic writings, and also through the valuable books of which he was author. He visited this country twice in the course of his life, and wherever he went he won the respect and esteem of those he met, by his geniality, humility, and unaffected piety. During his visit in 1871, he lectured to large audiences in Philadelphia and other cities, on subjects connected with Catholicity, with universal acceptance.

The impression made during his visit to Philadelphia was such that he was offered a professorship in the Diocesan Theological Seminary, and was also solicited to become editor of the Catholic Standard, and the clergy and laity of the city united in making up a considerable sum of money, which was presented to him as a mark of their high esteem.

Dr. Marshall was a convert from Anglicanism. He was born in 1815, graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1838, received Anglican "ordination" from the Bishop of Salisbury," and held the living of Swallowcliff as long as he remained an Anglican minister.

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About the year 1843 he published a voluminous work, entitled Notes on the Catholic Episcopate, in which he clearly showed that the Episcopal form of Church government was the only one in the early ages of the Church. The investigations and studies necessary for preparing this work were instrumental in bringing Dr. Marshall in the Catholic Church.

On his conversion to Catholicity Dr. Marshall gave up the living of Swallowcliff, and was compelled to rely entirely on his pen for support. He was poor, and the

sacrifice he made in relinquishing his position as an Anglican minister was very great, but it was made unhesitatingly and cheerfully.

After Dr. Marshall became a Catholic he wrote and published a number of valuable works. Chief among these is his Christian Missions. This is a work of wonderful research. It is said that in preparing it the learned writer examined and consulted nearly five thousand different volumes. It shows, with a clearness that is transparent and an array of evidence that is invincible, the beneficial results of Catholic missions, and the utter failure of Protestant missions to elevate and Christianize the inhabitants of heathen countries. In addition to this work, which lived and long subserved an important purpose, Dr. Marshall subsequently wrote My Clerical Friends, Church Defence, Protestant Journalism, and several other books. They are specimens as regards style of pure vigorous English, are replete with thought, and enlivened with flashes of the keenest wit. At the same time Dr. Marshall was engaged in furnishing leading editorials to the London Tablet and the Catholic Times and Opinions. His journalistic articles as well as his books were always thoughtful, direct, lucid, and vigorous. He wielded a trenchant pen, pointed often with the keenest irony, yet his wit and sarcasm were never illnatured or malicious. No one had a quicker eye to detect the weak points in his adversaries' armor, or a surer and more vigorous hand to drive the dart straight through them with unerring aim.

As a controversialist Dr. Marshall was unequalled among English writers of his time. He was thoroughly in earnest, yet never unfair. His memory was of the most tenacious grasp, and his knowledge both of men and books accurate and extensive.

As a Catholic, Dr. Marshall was sincere, devout, and zealous, and in matters of faith as single-minded as a child. In honor of his services to religion, the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius IX, bestowed on him the Cross of St. Gregory, and Georgetown College, D. C., the title of LL.D. His funeral took place at Mortlake, on Thursday, December 20th, when a Requiem Mass was said by Rev. E. F. Murnane, and the prayers at the grave by the Very Rev. Canon Wenham.

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monials presented to the Sovereign Pontiff during his late Episcopal Jubilee, there is one from the Roman Academy of Fine Arts that is specially interesting, as recounting the history of his many acts of munificence and generosity for the promotion of the fine arts, though the number of these acts is so great that mention of many of them, as is stated in the preface of the work, is necessarily omitted.

The chief works noted in the volume referred to, are:

The great improvements in the Insane Asylum under the architect Azurri; the enlargement and improvement of the hospital of Santa Spirito in Sossia, and the addition of a very beautiful and highly decorated façade; restoration and embellishment of the Church of St. Maria in Via Lota, attached to the Borghese Palace; the establishment of schools for poor children in the Borgo, in the Pazza Pia, in the Via degli Ombrellari, in the new quarter Mastai; the construction of habitations for the poor in the Trastevere region; the splendid new fountain, surrounded by a garden, in the Piazza Mastai; the erection of a house for the use of the Apostolic College of the Missions, of many houses for the poor, and of an additional school for poor children, all in this same quarter. Then there is the restoration to its primitive splendor of the Basilica and Canonica of St. Agnes on the Nomentan Way; the enriching of the University of the Sapienza with museums of zoology and mineralogy, and the erection of edifices to contain these museums; the restoration of the Palace of Dotaria; the repairing and adornment of the ancient historical Church of St. Lorenzo in Lucina; and the restoration and adornment of the splendid new church in the town of Porto d'Anzio, dedicated to SS. Pius V and Anthony. Then there is the spacious library with which His Holiness generously endowed the Seminario Pio; the fountain built on Monte Maria, for the benefit of the people in that vicinity; the erection of great buildings for the manufacture of tobacco; the restoration of the Porta Pia, and the Porta San Pancrosio; the chapel erected in the garden of the night schools outside the Porta Cozaglieri; the systematizing of the Capitoline Observatory; of the new heating apparatus in the Botanic Garden; the anatomical theatre; the archæological museum in the Roman University; the new wing of the monastery of the Buon Pastore; the new establishment for the beneficed servants of the Vatican; the great washing establishment near the Convent of St. Clements; the great cemetery (Campo Santo) extended and embellished; the plans for the new front and portico before the Ostian Basilica; the preparation of the cloister and the court of the

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