The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-03-29
OUR LITERARY BUDGET.
Contributions FROM THE FIELD
OF LITERATURE.
The Long Life of Distinguished Authors
French Literature IL Remarkable In the
Respects OF Longevity of Famous Writer'S
Literary History Furnishes instances.


Or is his flesh heir to fewer ills than that OF
ordinary mortals? Account for it as we may,
the fact is that authors are apt to live long.
Every student of biography is astonished to
find how many of those whose names are
written high on the walls of literary fame
have reached the prescribed three score years
and ten. and how many even have lived be-
You'd it.
From the very earliest times Of which we
have any record the author seems to have
been one especially marked for a good old
ace. Confucius. the Chinese sage. was past
seventy when he died in 47S b. c. The Greek
historian and general. Xenophon. survived
several wars and died at ninety. Plato lived
10 be eighty-one: Pinder, supreme IN lyric
poetry. reached eighty-two. and Sophocles Is
recorded as dying at eighty-nne. The pm;
losopher PvthagOras. was eighty years Oh
when de died. Cicero, though he took an ac-
tive part in the stormy history OF ms time.
lived long pas sixty, as did also BOccac 10. the
earliest Of Italian nOyellsts. CerNantes
author Of Don Quixote. was sixty-nlne, and
Calico. prosecuted and imprisoned several
times. survived until seventy-eight.
French literature is u remarkable one IN the
respect Of authors longevity. frolssart, poet
and historian WAS seventy-three; La Roche
foucauld lived 10 be siXty-seven; Corneile;
writer Of tragedies died at seventy-eight. ana
Fontanelle lived a full century. Massillon
was nearly eighty. and Noltaire and Victor
Hugo were several years beyond that age;
the historian Theirs died in 1877 at eighty. and
Amantine Dudevant George Sand. died IN
her seyenty-second year. Jules Verne. VINO
was born in 1898. is still living.
Germany has given Us Goethe, living eighty
three wears: klopstock. author Of The Mes
siah -" seventy-nine: and Arndt, popular yrist'
aud writer Of "Whnt is the Germans Father
landyn who was ninety-one. Wleland, VINO
won for his city the title of Athens of Ger
many" lived to be eighty; 1ieck liVod 70 the
same age. and the poet INLAND. greatest OF the
romsncers. was seventy years old Inc
Grimm brothers. whose fairy tales have made
their name a household word all over the
world we're sevcnty-three and seyenty-elght:
and Baron Munchausen. the sturdlest and
most famous of all fanciful literateurs. lived
TO seyenty-seyen-sev years longer than
the French fable writer, La Fontaine.
SchlOsser the historian. reached eighty-uYe.
The literary history Of England ls full OF III
stances From quaint old Ike" walton, VINO
WAS ninety years old in 1888. down to Lord
Tennyson. still Poet Laureate at eighty,one. IS
an almost unbroken line of eminent and long
lived authors Among poets Walter Savage
Lander. with q record Of eighty-nine years.
seems TO be first but Young. Peacock. Words
worth and Montgomery were ali over elghtY.
Waller vns eighty-two, Horne eighty-nve aod
Proctor and Barnes elghty-seven. William ana
and Mary Hewitt lived 10 the same age
eightv-four. Moore died at seveniy-three,
Southev at sixty-nine. Charles Wesley. writer
of HYMNS AT eighty and browning az seventy
seven. The dramatists. Sheridan and Jonson,
were both over sixty, and Cooley Cibber !lNed
10 be eiehty-six. Dean Swift was seventy,
eight John Wesley. writer and reformer. bad
l.. ,~.t.t .T.rh I'd d "a
Newman's useful life has recently ended at
the advanced age of eighty-nne.
OF nOvelsts Charles Reade and Bulwer
Lytton both died at seventy: Wilkie Collins
at sixty-four. and Anthony Irollope at sixty
seven while De Quincy. IN spite OF his OPIUM
habit, lived until seveuty-four. Nearly All the
modern Englshmen who have made lasting
impression upon the thought of the world
have lived TO a ripe old age Sir Isaac Newton
died at eighty-fye: Adam Smiths Wealth
of Nations" appeared when he was fitty-three.
and he lived fourteen years afterwards. John
Stuart Mil was sixty-seven: Darwin was
seventy-three. and Carlyle eighty-six. Among
the English women writers who have lived
long are Harriet Martineau. seventy -seven;
Jane Porter. seventy-f0ur Amelia Opie,
eighty-fOur. Maria Edgeworth. eighty-twO:
and Frances Burneyn died at lightweight.
The most celebrated of living English au-
thors are well past midde-age. The poets
more than completed their half century. and
Coventry PatmOre Is sixty-seven. Matthew
Arnold was sixty-seyen at his death, and Her
bert Spencer ~ three years Older. The his
tOrian Froude il still living at seventy-iwO.
Professor Tyndall has not given up his writ
inc. though he Is now siXty-seyen wears OF age;
George Rawlinson. the eminent scholar, bias
attained his seyentv-fifth year, Gladstone has
passed his eishty-iirst birthday and Is stIll
marvel of intellectual strength. and Miss
longe and Mrs. Ohphant are still workers,
although one Is sixty seven aud the other
seventy. respectively.
Our own country furnishes quite ~ many
notable instances as any other. with perhaps
the single exception Of England. The list Of
poets seems the most remarkable. Beginning
with Richard Henry Dana. who was born in
1851 and lived until 1879. and coming down 10
John q. Whittier. now past cighty-three, At
least q dozen famous names might be men,
toned Ftz-Greenc Halleck. for instance.
was seventy-seven. LongfellOw, seveuty-tve.
Boxer. siXty-six Nathaniel b. Willis sixty.
and William Cullen Bryant eighty-fOur aud
there are still living besides Whittier. Par
sons, Walt Whitman and Lowell. who are all
seventy-One. and Oliver Wendell Holmes. who
is almost as young nj eighty-one as he was at
nifty. Prescott. the historian. lived 10 be sixty
three; Thomas Wentworth Higgnson IS still
writing. well and constantly. NJ the age OF
siXty-seven: Francis Parkman bids fair 10 add
several years more 20 his siXty-seyen. while
veteran George Bancroft has Just died at
ninty-one
American literature has seen a number 4
women who have had long lives. Abigail
Adams. wife Of the second President Of the
United States. was perhaps one of the earliest
of these she lived 20 be seventy-four and
left behind her letters and otner writings
which still have q distinct literary and his
torical value Lydia Maria Child died at
seventy-eight. and Maria Mitchell. famous
among modern astronomers and writers. lived
70 be seventy-two. OF the living writer's Har-
riet Beecher Stowe. whose Uncle Toms
Cabin" was published when she was forty. is
now seventv-eight Mrs. Whitney is sixty-siX.
Abbey Morton DiaZ. author OF the once ia
nous William Henry Letters Is writing
and lecturng at sixty-nlne: Julia Ward
Howe has seen seycnty-One years, and Mrs.
Southw0rth seyenty-twO.
Prominent among essayists and moralists
are the names of Henry Ward Brecher. who
died at seventy-fOur; Ralph Waldo Emerson
who was seyenty-nne and the economist.
Carey, who lived 10 be eghty--ix: Edward
Everett Hale Is now siXtv-eight, and the
eminent Biblical scholar. Thomas jefferson
Conant. IS hale and hearty at lightweight.
Washington Irving finished his greatest work,
the Life of Washington" when he was
seventy-six, and died within year after
ward.
Murat Halstead is as active q journalist at
sl1ty-One as TrOwbridge is a story-writer at
considerably over sixty-eght when he dies.
while George William Curtis and Charles
Dudley Warner. now sixty-six and sxty-one,
will in all probabil ccntinue In la our