Morning journal and courier., 1880-10-09
Age and Intellect.
The Age at Which Great Minds Reach
 Maturity.
 From inc Rostop Courier


 Maturity.
 From the Boston Courier,l
 ''The richer the nation,'' says Carlyle the harder and slower it's development , Two boys were once of a class in the Edin- burgh grammar school; John, ever trim. pre- else and dux; Walter, ever slovenly con- fused and dolt. In due time John became Baillie John of Hunter Square, and Walter became Sir Walter Scott of the universe. The quickest and completest of all vegeta- bles is the cabbage This slowly developed Sir Walter Scott of the universe" was 34 when he made his first draft of ''Waverly,'' D and 43 when he re-wrote and published it. Nearly every one of those tales which con- ferred immortality upon him was composed after he had reached the age of 46. He wrote 1.-The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' at 47; the Bride of Lammermoor," a Legend of Montrose" and "Ivanhoe" at AS; the 'ePi- rate" and "Peveril of the Peak at 50 the ''Tales of the Crusaders at 54 and the Chronicles of the Canongate'' at 57.
 Carlyle was 42 when he published the ''French Revolution,' the first work of his to which he formally put his name. The publication of this work was, it is true, de- layed, owing to the burning of the manu- script of one volume through the careless ness of Mrs. Taylor, to whom it had been loaned by John Stuart Mill; but, 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 50; the first two volumes of his Frederick the Great" when he was 63, another when he was 67, and the last two when he was 69. Swift 59 when be published ''Gulliver's Trav- els, and certainly did no work on 1t before he 57. Tennyson had reached 50 when his first idyls, ''Enid, Elaine" ''Vivien' and ''Guinevere, " were published, and was about @ when he completed the series with nd f&o when he issued the first and second volumes of his History of England" and the third and fourth did not appear till he was 55. Good as are the essays of his early manhood, they pale when compared with this work of his mature years.
 John Stuart Mill was 5 when his essay ''On Liberty" was published, and 56 when he gave us that on "Utilitarianism." Milton was certainly more than 54 when he began to compose his Paradise Lost" He was 59 when he sold it to Simmons, the bookseller. George Eliot composed ''Middlemarch'' be- tween the ages of 46 and 51, and since then "Daniel Deronda." Bacon was 59 before he published his great work, ''The Novum Or ganum." Cowper was over 50 when he wrote ''John Gilpin" and the "Task;'' and Defoe 5S when he published Robinson Crusoe." Darwin published his ''Origin of Species'' when 59, and his Descent of Man' when 62 Grote wrote the largest half of his "History of Greece between the ages of 52 and 62 and Hallam occupied nearly the same period of life with his ''Introduction to the Literature of Europe" The two works by which Thomas Hood has survived the grave, ''The Bridge of Sighs'' and 1.-The Song of the Shirt, were composed when he was 46, and on sick bed from which he never rose.
 Longfellow gave us 'Hiawatha" when IS, ''Ta1es of a Wayside Inn" when 56, and since then has been prolific he has been ex- cellent. We need only to mention his trans z1-. ~ exquisite poem ''Morituri Salutamus" ''The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" was pub lished when Holmes was 4S, and Songs in Many Keys'' when 55. Washington Irving completed 'Tales of the Alhambra'' at 49, published ''Mahomet" at CT, and the Life of George Washington" after that age. Prescott wrote, we believe, the Conquest of Mexico'' between the ages of fl and A. and the Conquest of Peru'' between 47 and 51. Motley completed the History of the United Netherlands'' at 53, and after that began the history of 'John Barnveld," which he pub- lished when he was O.
 Frenchmen have produced very remarka- ble books long after the monday of life. Laplace did extraordinary amount of mathematical work after three-score and ten, and Victor Hugo scarcely "got under way'' before he was 50. He published Napoleon the Little'' at 50; 'ELes Chatiments" at 51 Lies Miserables'' at 57 i; the ''Toilers of the Sea" at 64; "The Man Who Laughs" at 67, and 1.-The Annals of Terrible Year" at 70. The great physicist and mathema- tician, Ampere, did not begin to devote his attention to the phenomena of electro magnetism till he was 45, and it was from 51 to 5 that he published his observations, 3 work characterized, as has been said, by profound thought and extraor- dinary philosophical sagacity." Racine was 50 when he wrote his drama of Esther" and 52 that of "Athalia,' the finest produc- tion of his genius, and a masterpiece of dra- matic eloquence. Thiers was 65 when he completed his Consulate and Empire" and Chateaubriand 63 when he published his ''Etudes.' D
 Cervantes had passed his 5Sth year before he published the first part of ''Don Quixote," and was 68 when he issued the second part. He and Shakespeare died on the same day.
 Cicero composed most of his philosophical treatises between the ages of 5S and 62. Calico published his Dialogue the Two Principal Systems of the World" at 6S the Dialogue on Local Notion at "A, the age at which he discovered the moons diurnal i- bratiOn