The Lives of Celebrated Travellers, Vol. 3

PETER SIMON PALLAS: This traveller, whose works are comparatively little known in England, was born at Berlin, September 22, 1741. His father, who was an able surgeon, entertained the design of educating him for his own profession; and at the same time caused him to learn several languages. At a very early age he was able, therefore, to write the Latin, the English, the French, and the German. His retentive memory rendered these acquirements so easy, that his great success in this department of knowledge scarcely at all interfered with his progress in others; so that he is said to have likewise maintained among his schoolfellows the pre-eminence in all their various studies. He was, in fact, by no means satisfied with what was taught him by his different masters, but employed his leisure hours in the study of natural history; and at the age of fifteen he had already imagined ingenious divisions of several classes of animals.