Curiosities of Human Nature

Long before the term 'prodigy' became common, Samuel G. Goodrich assembled this remarkable cabinet of human wonders. The book opens with the astonishing case of Zerah Colburn, a Vermont farm boy who could factor enormous numbers in his head, perform calculations that baffled educated adults, and was paraded across America and Europe as a living计算机. But this is no mere collection of tricks. Goodrich uses these extraordinary lives to grapple with questions that still haunt us: What makes a genius? Are these gifts from God, nature, or something stranger? And what becomes of children whose entire childhoods become public performances? Ranging across inventors, artists, fools, and savants, this 19th-century text captures a world before psychology, when AmericansExplained the inexplicable through biography and wonder. The prose feels dated, but the hunger to understand human potential feels startlingly modern.