Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-04-13
AGE AND THE INTELLECT.
The Time of Life at Which the Best
Work Has Been Done.


Work Has Been Done.
From the Boston Courier.
THE richer a nature" says Carlyle,
'the harderand slower itsdevelopment.
Two boys were once of o class in the
Edinburg Grammar School-John ever
trim, pTacise and dux; Walter ever
%slovenly, confused and dolt. In due
time John became Bailie John ofHunter
Square, and Walter became Sir Walter
Scott ofthe university. The quickestand
completest OF all the vegetables is the
cabbage" This slowly developed "Sir
Walter Scott of the university" was "a
when he made his first draft of "Waver-
~" and was 43 when he rewrote and
published it. Nearly every one Of those
tales, which conferred immortality upon
him, was composedafter he had reached
the age of 46. He wrote the "Heart of
Midlothian at AZ; the Bride of Lam
mermoor," GA Legend of Montrose"
and "Ivanhoen at IS; the pirate" and
"Peveril of the Peak" at so; the s'Tales
Of the Crusaders at 81, at the "Chroni-
cles of the Canongate' at 81.
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 manuscript Of one
volume through the carelessness 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 40 when his work could have APP
peared. His Cromwell" was published
when he VASTLY, the first two volumes
of his Frederick the Great when he
was 63, another two when he was 81,
and the last two when he was SO. Swift
was SO when he published "Gul-
liver's Travels, and certainly no work
on it before he was 81. Tennyson was
SO when his idyls elaine" "Vivien,"
and "Guinivere' were published, and
was about 50 when be completed the
series with "Gareth and Lynette." Ma
cauley was As when he issued the first
and second volumes of his History Of
England" and the third and fourth did
the essays of his early manhood, they
pale when compared with this work Of
his mature years.
John Stuart Mill was So when his es-
say "On Liberty" was published, and Sc
when he gave us that on "Utilitarian-
ism" Milton was certainly more than
54 when he began to compose his "Para-
disc Lost" He was SO when he sold it
to Simmons, the bookseller. George
Eliot composed "Middlemarch" between
the ages of 46 and 81, and after that
HDaniel Deronda." Bacon wa SO be-
fore he published his great work, "The
Novum Organum." Cowper was over
so when he wrote "John Gilpin" and
lished Robinson Cru soc" Darwin pub
lished his "Origin Of Species" when so,
and his Descent of Man. when 50.
Grote wrote the larger port of his ellis
tory Of Greece" between the ages of 50
and 60, and Hallam occupied nearly the
same period of life with his "%Introduc-
ton to the Literature Of Europe" The
two works by which Thomas Hood has
survived the grave, "Tlle Bridge of
Signs" and 1.-THE Song of the Shirt"
were composed when he was 46, and on
a sick bed from which he never rose.
Longfellow gave us "Hiawatha' when
4s, "Iales ofa Wayside Inn" when IS,
and after that was as prolific as he was
excellent. We need: only mention his
translation of Dante's "Divina Come
turf salutamus." "The Autocrat
of the Breakfast Table, was published
when Holmes was As, and "Tongs in
Many Keys" when he was So. Wash
ington Irving completed 'sTales of Al
hambra" at As, published "Mahomet" at
81 and ''The Life of George Washington"
after that age. Prescott wrote. we be-
lieve, "The Conquest of Mexico" be-
tween the ages of 45 and As, and "The
Conquest Of Peru" between AZ and ii.
Motley completed "The History OF the
United Netherland" at SO, and after that
began the history of "John of Barne-
xoIl - r,L;nl 10 -,,I1;,LoI .ln,, L.
was go.
Frenchmen have produced very re-
markable books long after the mondays
of life. Laplace did an extraordinary
amount of mathematical work after
three score and ten, and Victor Hugo
scarcely 'sgot under way" before he was
so. He published Napoleon the
Little" at TO, lies Chalimentso at 81,
Lies M~iserables" at 81, The Tollers of
the Sea" at 54, "The Man Who Laughs
at 81, and The Annals of a Terrib e
Year, at 20. The great physicist and
mathematician Ampere did not begin to
devote his attention 10 the phenomena
of electromagnetic till he was 46, and
published his "Observations,' a work
characterized as has been said, by pro-
found Thought and extraordinary
philosophical sagacity." Racine was so
when he wrote his drama of Esther, 50
that of Athalie, the finest production OF
his genius, and q masterpiece Of drama
tic %eloquence. Theirs was 65 when he
completed hiss"Consulate and EMPIRE"
and Chateaubriand SO when he published
his "Etuces."
Cervantes had passed his 5Sth year
before he published the first part Of
"Don Quixote," and was 70 when he
issued the second pert. He and Shakes
peare died on the same day.
Small Farming.
Hayseed in the hair is supposed to be