Genre:

Extract, Recollections

Publications extracted:

New Monthly Magazine

Subjects:

Education, Electricity, Mathematics, Insanity

    The narrator recalls that Parr on one occasion made his pupils rise at 2am during a 'tremendous thunder-storm' and gave them 'a most interesting account of the facts and discoveries connected with electricity, Dr. Franklin's invention of conductors, &c., interspersed with amusing anecdotes, having reference to the same subject [...]. It was like listening to a disquisition upon lava, near the crater of Mount Vesuvius' (171). On another occasion, Parr dissuaded a friend from his intention of studying mathematics, advising him in the 'kindest tone' that he was 'almost an idiot' and that, if he were to study mathematics, he would consequently become 'a madman' (173).