What One Man Had Done, Another Man Could Also Do

Thomas has a belief in individual genius. He believed if you started something you had to become dedicated to it, there was no such thing as backing down or shying away. He proved this one day on a horseback ride one day in Youngsbury. It was Thomas's first time riding a horse, he tried to follow someone over a six-bar gate and was thrown heavily to the rock hard ground. But without even speaking a single word Thomas got back up and mounted the horse, not once loosing his temper. He then made a second attempt at the gate this time he managed to actually stay on the horse. So he went around for a third shot, this time Thomas had cleared it with no problems. This had started his fascination in horsed and in Thomas's later years he would become a great horseman and show "all sorts of feats of personal agility."

Education Time!

Ironically schooling did not stimulate the young Mr. Thomas Young. Before he even turned six years old he was sent daily to a clergyman whom as he stated had no talent nor a temper to teach anything well. For a year and half Thomas attended a boarding school where arithmetic was taught. However, Thomas had reached the end of their text book on his own before his professor reached the middle with the entire class. By the age of nine he had transferred to a school in Dorsetshire that was run by Mr. Thompson. Here he was happy because he was able to have some freedom in the ways he spent his down time. It was at this school that Thomas had learned to read Greek and Latin classics. These included, Virgil, Horace, Xenophon, and Homer. He also learned some elementary mathematics as well as learning some French and Italian. Later Thomas expanded his foreign language by learning Hebrew. By age thirteen he read through 30 chapters of the Hebrew bible (I say Dedicated!). It may have seemed at the time that Thomas was neglecting science however the truth is, he wasn't. Thomas had been making microscopes and telescopes as well as creating various kinds of colors experimentally. He also did many chemical experiments and learned how to use mathematical and philosophical instruments. Thomas had also become passionate about studying botany. Throughout his experimental ages he was inspired by Newton, Boyle, and Hooke but he mainly liked to use his own mind. He came up with his own individual experiments because he was a see it to believe it type of guy, just like Einstein. Later on in Thomas's life he would become a Medical student where things would get to be a little rocky.

It's Background Time!

Lets get into some background information about Thomas Young. He was born in Milverton on June 13, 1773! He was the first of ten! Thomas young didn't have a great connection with his parents. His father, Thomas senior, was a mercer or in today's terms a cloth merchant and a banker from the village of Milverton. Thomas Youngs' mother, Sarah, was an only child of a very well respected merchant. Thomas only lived with them for periods at a time which would at the longest be a couple months. Which means he moved around a lot due to the lack of space and most likely due to the bad connection with his parents.  His parents were also Quakers, which in plain terms mean they lead a very boring non fun life. They would wear plain black and broad hats. Noted to be "of the strictest of a sect, whose fundamental principle it is, that the perception of what is right or wrong, to its minutest ramifications, is to be looked for in the immediate influence of a supreme intelligence, and that therefore the individual is to act upon this, and lead where it may, and compromise nothing."- Gurney (A Quaker who knew the Young's personally). Since, Thomas Young didn't like being a Quaker he stopped being one in his mid twenties and married a non Quaker and joined the Church of England. Through out Thomas Youngs' childhood, there was only one person who Thomas noted, Dr Richard Brocklesby. He was his mothers uncle and he was a well connected London physician who indeed would have a huge effect on his nephews life.

Child Prodigy!

Today i got my book in the mail! I started reading Chapter One entitled, Child Prodigy.
Within the first page it tells of how Thomas Young, a genius, wrote his autobiography two or three years before his death but it had disappeared until the 1970's mixed in with the papers of Sir Francis Galton in a black folder. Thus, beginning the tale of the last man who knew everything!