his life. As long as the deprivation of sight
continued, his great amusement was to calculate
problems in his head. Eyesight returned
gradually, as it had departed, but only partially.
Medical men promise him its complete
restoration, if he would renounce mental
mathematics; but the propensity is too
strong. He performs in his head all sorts of
calculations in spherical trigonometry, curves,
and other branches of high-science. But, for
himself, the most difficult operation is simple
multiplication on a somewhat extended scale,
say the multiplication of twenty figures by a
multiplier consisting of fifteen or twenty. A
sum like this takes him ten or twelve
minutes to work mentally—the only way
possible; for he cannot see clearly enough
even to sign his name without having his
hand guided.

Contrary to most of the calculators hitherto
exhibited to the public, and who, like Mondeux,
are mathematicians by instinct, and
cannot explain how they arrive at their
results, M. Winkler is perfectly acquainted
with the theory of numbers, and arrives
at the solution of the strangest problems by
means of a methodical mental operation.
He has formulæ of his own for the extraction
of cube roots, for instance, and short cuts for
trigonometry. A power consisting of thirty
figures takes him four or five minutes to
extract its cube root mentally—an astounding
feat; for a good arithmetician will require
three-quarters of an hour to do the
same thing with pencil and slate. He has
projected a mathematical book, to facilitate
and shorten intricate operations of the kind,
but has hitherto been prevented by the
difficulty of producing in writing his imagined
symbols.

In many respects M. Winkler differs much
from ordinary men. He is of middle stature,
with straight black hair, but little beard,
and a countenance which would be agreeable
but for its wan and faded look, and the sadness
impressed upon it by a pair of sunken
lack-lustre eyes. He is far from being sad,
nevertheless. He is, he says, passionless,
and altogether elastic as to his everyday
requirements. He can live on one slight
meal a day, and take to his bed and sleep or
doze for any given time. He eats almost no
bread, and quite no potatoes, declaring that
the latter article of diet only makes people
phlegmatic and stupid. He loves strong tea,
without milk, saturated with as much sugar
as it will hold in solution. He is indifferent
to flowers and gardens, or rather has a dislike
to them, and thinks taking a walk one of the
most irksome ways of wasting time. He is
exceedingly fond of music, plays the piano
fairly, and sings in a steady bass voice that
descends to an unusual depth. Being as
nearly as may be blind, he has acquired a
great power of observation by the sense of
hearing. He forms his opinion of the persons
with whom he is brought into contact by the
tone and inflexions of their voices. In the
course of his adventurous and cosmopolite
existence, he has always had recourse to this
method of appreciating his connections, and
he is never, he asserts, deceived in the
estimate of character to which it leads him.
German is his native language; French he
speaks neither with ease nor accuracy;
English, still more imperfectly. The exhibition
described in this article was spoken out
in French; the calculations and the exercise
of memory were carried on in German (sometimes
whispered audibly), which increased
the difficulty of the performance. People
given to entertain doubts may ascribe the
above peculiarities partly to charlatanism or
trick, and partly to eccentricity; but it is
impossible that any deception should exist in
respect to the extraordinary talent for
calculation.

It seems a pity that such exceptional
powers should not be turned to some account,
as those of our own George Bidder have
been. The misfortune of blindness is a great
impediment. He has refused, by his own
statement, offers of engagement, for fear of
the responsibility; his defective sight not
enabling him to verify the exactness of the
figures given him to work with, and thus
placing him at the mercy of designing persons
to produce false results of the most serious
importance and gravity.

Travelling, or, really, vagabonding, without
method or plan, quite alone and unaided, he
does not even derive the profit he might
from the proceeds of public séances as a
show. An arrangement with a clever leader
might prove a good speculation for both, if
he is not fixedly wedded to gypsy-like habits,
—restless, roving, impatient of all control.
Brussels is likely to be his whereabouts from
this time to the end of August; but the
frequent fate of these erratic phenomena is,
to sink suddenly to the lowest depths of
want and obscurity, and there to remain, to
return to the surface never more.

Now ready, price Five Shillings and Sixpence, neatly
bound in cloth,
              THE FIFTEENTH VOLUME
                               OF
                  HOUSEHOLD WORDS,
Containing the Numbers issued between the Third of
January and the Twenty-seventh of June of the present
year.

Just published, in Two Volumes, post Svo, price One
                             Guinea,
                   THE DEAD SECRET.
                    BY WILKIE COLLINS.
           Bradbury and Evans, Whitefriars.