Devoted to the adquisition of knowledge, he cultivated retirement as a means of facilitating the attainment of his object. His thirst for learning was so intense, that it held him under absolute sway, and he found it necessary at a later period to offer a systematic resistance to its exclusive demands. [...] In taking up a work, he first looked at the table of contents, and when it suggested an idea or fact which seemed to open before him a new path, he read that part of the volume which developed this idea or fact; the rest was overlooked. In this way, he accumulated a rich store of varied erudition.
(from the "Notice of the Author" in Jaime Balme's European civilization : Protestantism and Catholicity compared in their effects on the civilization of Europe [1844])
That kind of impatient, voracious scanning for relevant information while disregarding everything else in the text sounds surprisingly modern. I bet Balmes would have a ball browsing Wikipedia.
Here's an image of the guy:
He looks like a nerd. A Nerd of God, if you will. Drop those clerical garments, give him a t-shirt featuring some hilarious internet catchphrase, and he could pass a a hacker, a proponent of open source, or something of the sort.
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