The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-02-20
AUTHORS AGES
AND THEIR WORK
No Certain Test of The Time OF Their
Maturity Of Power.
BOTH LONG AND SHORT CAREERS
George Eliot and George Sand Dill
cred by Twenty-Five Xcars--Mac-
auIay's Essays Done i'll Twenty
Xcnrs--Somc Remarkable Instan-
ces of Longevity and the Power of
Work.
From the Philadelphia Times.

FROM the InllaQelpnla llmeS.
A. Conan Doyle, who commenced
writing a II and Is now 81, says he eX-
poets to do his best work before he is
so years old. And even that age gives
him a good long stretch. George Eliot
began nineteen years later than Doyle
and continued twenty-four years. At
40 she had done "Silas Mariner" and at
Sc Daniel Deronda,' "Theophrastus
Such" representing the last four years
of her life. At about so, in Middle
march," She REACHED her greatest
popularity, realizing $4,000 from that
book. There is certainly no diminution
of intellectual force six years later in
"Deronda." though possibly a lessen-
ing of interest George Sand, who
took to writing ten years earlier than
George Eliot and kept it up twelve
years later, also lost her fascination
toward the end though she could do
as much and as good work intellectu-
ally at 70 as at 40. Her mind was as
strong as ever, but the power to en-
tertain was wanting. She was thor
oughly conscious of this and discloses
the secret. Il have pressed my imagi-
nation to produce" she says, "without
seeking the concurrence of my reason.
Instead of coming to me smiling and
crowned with flowers my muse has met
me cold, reluctant. indignant" James
Fenimore Cooper had three periods of
novel writing. The first lasted five
years and ended at 81, about the time
George Eliot began. What is consid-
cred his masterpiece closes this period
At SO he returned to fiction and wrote
'"The Deerslayer," which made a deep
impression. After lapse of six years
he again took up novelwritng at 5S,
but seems to have been unable to
duplicate his earlier successes. He
pushed his work on by force of will till
62 and died year later of dropsy.
Thirty years embrace Cooper's labor,
with the cream of il put into seven.
| Samuel Richardson finished "Clarissa
! Harlowe" at the age when Cooper died,
and in the following year supplement-
ed it with his next best book in six
volumes. He did practically nothing
| before so.
Histories, it seems, may be post
| poned and done last of all. GuizOt was
busy at his work on Spain when he
died in the SOS; George Buchanan
wrote a tremendous volume besides an
autobiography in Latin when some
people thought him in his dotage
Bancroft only finished up at IA; Carlyle
did his last work in this department
and Macaulay died worn out though
not old, writing his history of England
Hazlitt, Tom Moore and Hume also
finished with histories.
MACAULAY'S WORK.
Macaulay's essays We're done in the
hptwppn
and 46. Rich as they are, and great
as was his absorption in them, he was
more devoted to his history and was
prepared to lavish upon it all his time
and all the power of his faculties He
sacrificed both political and social dis
tnction for this history, which he had
not done for the essays. In writing the
first two volumes he made the start
ling discovery that his heart was weak
and by way of respite took office for g
year. When on the third volume the
heart malady was so decisively mani.
fest that he could not doubt his early
doom, Macaulay was we'll past 80 Wher
the first two volumes We're done anC
there is no evidence in them of weak.
ness. The deterioration of his work be
gins with the third volume, and Wher
he finished it with the death of William
III, he could do no more. Macaulay'.
collapse at So, however was physica
rather than mental He lived but ont
year longer having been born with the
century. Guizot's life of 81 years GOV
ers 65 of activity, and there is no tim,
in this long span where his intellec
seems to lose it's strength or liveliness
He took uD literature as a vocation
when he was o. and after some inter
ruption resumed it at "a. Again politics
nterfered, and as with Bacon in Eng
land ne abandoned the seclusion of hi
study for office. Guizot had not seri
ously entered upon his work before 6S
and the last decade of his life was pos
sibly his most fruitful period. At 7
he began to learn the Spanish languag
and mastered it in order that he Nigh
write a comprehensive history of Spain
At 81, when he died, he was working
at it. So the half-century mark cuts n
tgure whatever in the life of Guizot.
AS to whether George Buchanan, VIII
was both scholar and poet, gathered tn
bulk of his knowledge and did his bes
. writing within the first fifty years i
both claimed and questioned. At an
rate, his big History of Scotland" wa
begun at 60 and continued till his deaf
at "a. Buchanan's enemies say he die
! in his dotage and that the last part O
his book is but the drivel of an imbecilt
Yet it is no small matter that he shoul
have taken up this task at 60 an
! completed it at "A on his deathbet
And only two years before the histor
was done and in connection with
! buchanan wrote his own life in Latir
E Just one year younger than Buchana
when he began to write of Scotland an
2 nine years past so.
. Carlyle, never robust, entered upo
the work of his life 1t was then, wit
faculties strong and elastic, that h
, commenced the Life of Frederick / [.
Fifteen years without intermission h
labored on this book. AT 70 it was fir
ished. There" said he, I'm done.
This was about literally true. He live
. sixteen years longer, but physically wa
. | broken down, His mind, too, of sue
. den lost its capacity for long exertio
an occasional article for a magazir
being as much a she could do. Fl
: remarked it was we'll for his reputatio
that he began the life of Frederick n
later than he did, else he would hay
been unable to complete it. He an
n Guizot We're engaged the same lengt
! of time on their last two works, Macal
u lay would have finished his in jul
= about this time had he lived and Bl
+ chanan did his in but one year les
: which iS twice as long as David Hun