British philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) once penned a history of Rome. What was unusual about this?
Answer: Mill was six years old at the time. Mill’s incredible development as a child, aided by tutoring from his father, is legendary. By seven he was reading Plato in Greek; at eight soaking up Sophocles, Thucydides and Demosthenes and at nine enjoying The Iliad “twenty or thirty times”.
Source: John Stuart Mill – Victorian Firebrand by Richard Reeves
More at: History
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