I grew up a rather precocious child, which did not always tend to my good. If my parents wouldn’t have wisely thought the better of it, I probably would have graduated high-school at the age of twelve. But instead of advancing my grade as the teachers suggested, they had me do extra-credit science work at home and make weekly trips to the public library. There, I was free to read up on advanced mathematical hypotheses, check out books on the stock market, and peruse as many history works in the reference section as I wished. I read Lost Horizon in the third gr more...