"He (Peabody) was able to read when he was three years old, and he learned his letters from a book which inadvertently was placed before him upside down, so that it was always a matter of indifference to him how a book was put before his eyes. On one occasion, when he was riding in a stage-coach, and was turning the leaves of a volume printed in German characters, one of the passengers remarked that this young man pretended to have a knowledge of German, but he could know nothing about it, for he was holding his book upside down. The ancient languages he could read in the same manner; and when a pupil stood before him with a copy of Homer or Virgil, he could from his seat overlook the top of the page and follow the lesson as readily as if he had the copy in his own hand. For a considerable time he preferred this way of reading; but when he saw that it attracted attention, he discontinued it, although he retained his power of so doing as long as he lived."
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