P

i

ES
P
&
=
£
5
-
£
L
i
2
E
b
i
F
2
H
S
§

134 THE FASCINATION OF NUMBERS

of mental calculation and the example just quoted is typical
of many. At a public performance a boy of ten years of age
was given a number which was read backwards to him. He
immediately repeated it in its proper order and was able to
repeat it correctly an hour later. The number contained 43
digits. The reader is invited to test his own memory in the
same way, and then to remember that, whatever the degree
of success he achieves, the feat of memorizing is but the first
step and that the true prodigy is able to memorize numbers
instantly.

It is a consoling thought for the vast majority of us that
these wonder men of numbers have been extremely rare
and of a race apart, and that despite their remarkable powers
they have often proved to be uneducated in other arts. Some
of them, indeed, could neither read nor write.