Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-10-02
NO. 233.
miscellaneous.
AGE AND THE INTELLECT.

| iWo ttNs Wtfc titC VI ~ CtstSS III ttic rIu-
inburgh Grammar School; John, ever
trim, precise and dux; Walter. ever SLOW
enly, confused and dolt In due time
John became Baltic John of Hunter
square, and Walter became Sir Walter
Scott of the Universe. The quickest and
completest of all vegetables is the cab
bage." This slowly-developed "Sir Wal.
ter Scott of the Universe" was thirty-four
when he made his first draft of ''Waverly,"
and forty-three when he re-wrote and pub
lished it. Nearly every one of those tales
which conferred Immortality upon him
was composed after he had reached the
age of torty-siN. He wrote the Heart of
Midlothian" at forty-seven; the bride
of Lammermoor," "A Legend of Mont
rose" and "lvanhoe" at forty-eight, the
Pirate" and the "peveril of tho Peak" at
fifty; the Tales of the Crusaders" at
fifty-four. and the CHRONICLES OF the Cam
ongate at tifty-seven.
Carlyle was forty-two when he pub
lished the French Revolution" the first
work of his to which he formally put his
name The publication of this work was.
it is true, delayed, owing to the burning
of the MS. of one volume through the
carelessness of Mrs. Taylor, to whom it
if that mishap had not occurred. Carlyle
would have been over forty before his
work could have appeared His "Crom-
well" was published when he was fifty;
the first two volumes of his Frederick
the Great when he was sixty three, an
other two when he was sixty-seven. and
the last two when he was sixty-nine.
Swift was fittv-nine when he published
~ G,,1l T,ax-o1c ~ aud ,arfaso1,. a
no work on il before he was fifty-seyen.
idyls, Enid" Elaine" .Vivicn" and
"Guineverc" were published, and was
about sixty-two when he completed the
series with "Gareth aud Lynette." Ma
caulay was forty-eight when he issued the
first and second volumes of his "llistory
of England and the third and fourth did
not appear till he was fiity-tive. Good as
are the essays of his early manhood they
pale when compared with this work of his
mature years.
his essay "On Liberty was published,
"Utilitarianism Milton was certainly
more than fifty when he began to
compose his PARADISE Lost lie was
HItN -UlUc w Htil Spiu IL W ,NlfilIilOIlS IIle
bookseller George Eliot composed
''Middlemarch' between the age of iorty-
six and fifty one, and since then "Daniel
Deronda." Bacon was fifly-nine before
he published his great work 1.-The Novum
Organum." Cowper was over fifty when
he wrote John Gilpin." and the Task -
and Defoe fiity-eight when he published
Robinson Crusoe." Darwin published
4. an. - O. 4
his descent of Man. when sixty-two.
Grotc wrote the larger part of his His
tory of Greece between the ages of fifty
two and sixty-two, and IIallam occupied
nearly the same period of his life with his
Introduction to the Literature of Europe"
The two works by which Thomas Hood
has survived the grave, "Thc Bridge of
Signs" and the 1.-The Song of the Shirt"
were composed when he was iorty-slx,
and on a sick bed from which he never
rose.
Longfellow gave us "IIiawatha" when
forty y-eight; Tales of the Wayside Inn"
when forty-six. and since then has been as
prolific as he has been excellent. We
need only mention his translation of
Dante's ''Divina Commedia," and his ex-
quisite poem, "Morituri Salutamus"
| Ut AulbtTdt vi t1lt DTeikIdSG lHDIt
was published when Holmes was forty
eight, and Songs in Many Keys when
ftty-five. Washington Irving completed
''Tales of the Alhambra" at forty-nine,
published "Mahomet" at sixty seven, and
the Life of George Washington after
that age. Prescott wrote, we believe, the
| Conquest OF Mexico between the ages
of fcrty-onc and forty-scven, and the
Conquest of Peru between forty-seven
and fifty-one. Motley completed the
History of the United Netherlands at
forty-three, and after that began the his
tory of John of Barneveldn which he
published when he was sixty.
Frenchmen have produced very remark
able books long after the noon-day of life.
Laplace did an extraordinary amount OF
mathematical work after three score and
ten. and Victor Hugo scarcely "got under
way" before he was fifty. lie published
Napoleon tine Little" at fifty; Lies Chat
imentsr at fifty-one; "Les Miscrables" at
fifty-seven the .'Toilers of the Sea" at
sixty -four; "The Man Who Laughs" at
sixty-seven, and the ANNALS of Terri
BILE Year at seventy. The great physi-
cst and mathematician, Ampere, did not
begin to devote his attention to the phe-
| nOmena oil eiectrO-ma9netlsm tlll ne was
forty five, and it was from fifty-one to fif-
ty-three that he published his ''Observa-
tions,' work characterized, as has been
said, by profound thought and extraordi.
nary philosophical sagacity." Racine wa,
fifty when he wrote his drama of Esther -
and fifty-two, that Of "Athalie," the finest
production of his genius, and master
piece of dramatic eloquence. Theirs was
sixty-five wheu he completed his "Consu.
late and empire,'' and Chateaubriand
sixty-three, when he published his '.Et
udes''
Cervantes had passed his fifty-eightl
year before he published the first part o.
'.Don Quixote," and was sixty EIGHT wher
he issued the second part. He and Shake
speare died on the same day.
Cicero composed most OF his philosoph
ical treatises between the ages OF fifty
eight and sixty-two. Calico published
his Dialogue on the Two Principa
Systems OF the World at sixty-eight; thu
dialogue on Local Motion" at seventy
four, the age al which he discovered th,
moons diurnal libration.
Goethe and Kant, two of the creates