The author cannot get through a discussion of Einstein's special theory of relativity without a reference to his own precocity.

ECONOMIST: Modern physics

He had shown precocity as a child, when he and his sister used to try to outdo each other by declaiming from memory grand speeches from Corneille and Racine, and he was fluent in Latin and had taught himself Greek before he was 12.

ECONOMIST: Andr�� Weil