A Memoir of Zerah Colburn; written by himself. Containing an Account of the first Discovery of his remarkable Powers; his Travels in America and Residence in Europe; a History of the various Plans devised for his Patronage; his Return to this Country, and the Causes which led him to his present Profession; with his peculiar Methods of Calculation.
We consider this one of the most extraordinary works which has ever emanated from the American press. Possessed in extreme youth of great mathematical powers, Zerah Colburn excited, from his really wonderful calculations, a great degree of interest. Twenty years ago, he was considered the most remarkable phenomenon of the age - an eighth wonder of the world. Carried round the country by his father for exhibition, he received a great deal of attention; men of worth and character were desirous that his talents, improved by education, should be of some use to the world. But he left this country for a number of years, and was forgotten. Unmindful that he is not still the wonderful boy that he was twenty years ago - that many of those, who then were willing to assist him, have left this world for another - puffed up with overmuch vanity, from the notice then taken of him, he has written his life. He seems to have imagined that the public were actually in a state of excitement on his account; and though he frankly acknowledges, at the end of his book, that a desire of making money prompted him to write his life, yet he talks all the way through the work, as if he did it only to confer an obligation on others, and to relieve the anxiety, which, in his opinion, they have felt. We must confess that we think he has made a mistake in saying that he does not "imagine himself to be the first of the manifestations of the power of the Deity"; after reading his Life, we should never have imagined that he had any doubt of it.
Zerah Colburn was born in the town of Cabot, Vermont, on the 1st day of September, 1804. When about six years of age, his remarkable faculty first began to develope itself. As he was playing among the chips in the shop of his father, (who was a joiner,) he was suddenly heard to say to himself - 5 times 7 are 35 - 6 times 8 are 48, & c. Upon this, his father wisely "concluded that something unusual had actually taken place"; and, as appears from the facts, thence resolved that this faculty of multiplication should be of some use to him. He immediately carried Zerah round for exhibition and patronage. After going to different places in Vermont and New-Hampshire, he proceeded to Boston, where the boy soon attracted much notice. Mr. Colburn appears to have been always trying to make the best bargain for himself. Many persons offered to bring up and educate his son free of expense, but this did not suit his purposes. "The friends of science, connected with Dartmouth College, desired to retain the boy and educate him. Dr. Wheelock, President of that Institution, made a very generous offer, intending to take upon himself the care and expense of his studies; and", continues our author, "it may be no more than a reasonable supposition that, if Mr. Colburn had acceded to these kind overtures, his wishes would have been eventually fulfilled." If we may judge from his actions, what his wishes were, we do not believe that, by taking such a course, they would have been fulfilled. A foolish desire of displaying his really wonderful son, - as if it were by any merit of his, that he was so, - and a wish to make money, were evidently his ruling motives. He was possessed of an idea that it was the absolute duty of others to support the boy, because he had a genius; - not that talents were given him for the good of mankind, but to increase their burdens. If we knew nothing about him except from his sons account, we should judge him to have been, in plain terms, the most impudent beggar of whom we have ever heard; - that is, if he may be called a beggar who makes a demand and not a request. Several liberal gentlemen, in Boston, thinking that the boys mathematical talent might, if properly cultivated, become of great benefit, and understanding the disposition of the father "to feather his own nest", offered to raise $5,000, either by exhibition or subscription; - $2,500 to be given to the father, if he would relinquish all claim to the boy, and $2,500 to be applied to the education of the latter, under their own direction.* This offer was, most unaccountably, not acceded to; and after neglecting similar ones from other quarters, thus exciting much anger at his impudence and foolishness, he embarked for England; - not forgetting, before he went, to demand assistance again, from those very gentlemen, whose liberality he had once refused. They landed at Liverpool May 11, 1812, and proceeded immediately to London. The fame of the boy, though not the character of the father, had preceded them; and they found here, - as they did every where else before they became known, - friends exceedingly liberal. Many projects were started by men, by no means of little note, such as Davy, Mackintosh, & c. - and as promptly rejected, for no assignable cause. We will here remark, that there is an evident desire, on the part of the author, to throw the blame of all his fathers foolish conduct on his advisers and friends - preferring to have him stupid by other peoples advice, rather than his own will - a species of ingratitude which we cannot sufficiently blame; and a statement which we do not believe. Expensive rooms were hired, and an exhibition opened in London. Not succeeding according to his wish, he event to Dublin, Edinburgh, & c.; but without any better success. We find him continually complaining of those, who interested themselves for him, because they did not accomplish more. A portrait of the boy was taken, and many copies sold at a guinea each. He acknowledges that money was made by this; and it is the only occasion, on which he does not complain of ill success and poverty; though continually boasting of such visiters as would not be likely to see him want. Encouraged by the success of this enterprise, a committee was appointed to obtain subscriptions for a memoir; though, as the author wisely and modestly remarks, it must take a genius indeed to write a memoir of three years of a boys life, which should be worth eight dollars, even if that boy was Zerah Colburn. Concluding, after this unavailing attempt, that no efficient patronage was to be expected, they left London for Paris, in the month of July, 1814. Here, after exhibition, the like proposals were made for publishing his life, with like encouragement. The failure of it is attributed, by the author, only to the frivolity of the French people, as gravely as if any one ever weighed the matter a moment before refusing. Mr. Colburn, with his characteristic want of judgement, engaged a dwelling at the rent of 2,000 francs per annum, and purchased furniture to the amount of 1600 more. With the author, we are at a loss to discover the meaning of this expenditure. After being examined before the Institute, through the interest of Washington Irving, he was placed, at the expense of the government, at the Royal College, founded by Napoleon, and formerly called after him. The prospect was now more flattering than it had ever been before, for Zerah Colburn to receive such an education as would qualify him, if education could do it, to be useful in the scientific world. Yet, after staying here less than a year, his father removed him again to England, where he expected to have a more advantageous offer. In this, however, he was mistaken. He repeated, therefore, the begging course, and obtained patronage from the Earl of Bristol, who, at his own expense, placed Zerah at the Westminster School. The son being thus provided for, the father began to look out for himself; and we have an evidence how soon an honest man may become degraded to a knave, by following a degrading profession. Being in pecuniary difficulty, Mr. Colburn scrupled not to inform the old subscribers to the memoir of his son, that it was already in press, when not a line of it was yet in manuscript. Failing of obtaining, by this means, the support in idleness which he wished, he withdrew his son, as a whole boarder, from Westminster, and was thus able to appropriate a part of the money to his own use. The Earl of Bristol having done every thing, which a father could have done for a child, for the support of Zerah, even to providing a place for his residence during the vacations, had left the country for Germany. Dreading, probably, the influence of Mr. Colburn over his son, and not well pleased at the distribution made of his bounty, he wrote over to England to have Zerah taken from Westminster and placed under a private instructer, offering to Mr. Colburn, who complained of this new arrangement, £50 a year for his own support. This, however, he would not accept, but removed his son from Westminster, and was thrown upon the world again. Imagining that his son had a taste for the stage, though there is no evidence that he had ever displayed any talent for such a pursuit, he engaged a tutor for him in this profession. As might have been expected, he had no success. The son then turned author, and began to write dramatic pieces; - of five, which he composed, none were ever either acted or printed. After lingering in extreme poverty for two years, "the boy", - as he continues to call himself through the work, - began to be a schoolmaster. In the course of these two years, Zerah was sent on some message, - he does not tell what, but probably some impudent demand, - to Basil Montague, Esq. who had assisted them with money to a great extent. Whatever it may have been, it was evidently displeasing to his former friend, who, to use the phrase of the author, formally ejected him from his tenement; or, in other words, as may he supposed, kicked him out. We can only wonder that the same exemplary punishment was not bestowed on both father and son, in numberless other instances. In December, l822, Mr. Colburn died; and it would have been a happy circumstance for the son, if this had happened many, years before. The son soon returned to America, where he has since remained, - teaching and preaching.
We should have some compunction at expressing ourselves as we feel, after having read this Life, had it been written by any one but the hero of it. As it is, we consider ourselves perfectly authorized to say what we please, and to signify our indignation. From his own account, Zerah Colburn has lost all the talent which he ever had. He shows himself to be ungrateful for the efforts of his friends, by the complaints which he is continually urging upon them for not doing more. He seems to have followed his fathers practice; and, after receiving money several times from the Earl of Bristol, complains of not having had answers to two or three letters to him, which, we think ourselves authorized in concluding, were applications of the same sort. He is now a Methodist minister, and if his sermons are written in no better style than his book, we pity his parishioners. His father, in order to make a fortune by the exhibition of one son, left a wife and five other children, for ten years, without contributing in the least to their support. He was, therefore, by his own sons account, a bad husband and a bad father. The circumstances related of him, show him to have been a beggar of the most impudent character - wanting in judgment - always a fool - and, finally, a knave. And all these terms - except the last, of which we cannot accuse him - apply equally well to the son.
At the close of the volume, the author explains the mode of mental operation, by which he answered the questions in mathematics, when a child. The process is simple, but the disclosure will not, probably, enable others to carry on the operations in the same manner and with like facility. The power of calculation with such rapidity is a peculiar gift, or talent, which has been rarely bestowed; we should more properly say the power in question was a gift - for it seems that even Zerah Colburn has lost the possession, or, at least, the capacity to apply it to any useful purpose. There are, also, at the end of the book, "a few pieces in rhyme", but they will not gain immortality for their author.
On the whole, we are sorry that Zerah Colburn has published his Life. For him, we feel less respect than before we read it, and for his father, unutterable contempt.
*For the information of our readers, we must state that the story, as here told, though bad enough, is much more favorable to Mr. Colburn than any which we have before heard. We do not suppose the Autobiographer to be guilty of an intentional misrepresentation; he probably tells it as it was told to him; but common report at the time, 1811, attributed conduct to his father with reference to this transaction, for which he would find it much more difficult to make an excuse.
