GENIUS AND PRECOCITY. 471 



Within the boundaries thus drawn there appear to be seven groups 

 sufficiently distinct and important to require separate examination. 

 These are 1, musicians ; 2, painters ; 3, poets ; 4, novelists ; 5, schol- 

 ars, including historians and critics ; 6, men of science ; and, 7, phi- 

 losophers. These classes are marked off from one another partly by 

 differences in the materials and the form of the production, and partly 

 by differences in the intellectual implements employed, such as obser- 

 vation and sensuous imagination. 



As indications of precocity we shall select, first of all, any mani- 

 festations in childhood or youth of an exceptional aptitude and bent 

 corresponding to the special direction of the later development of the 

 genius. Thus, in the case of the poet, we must note such boyish char- 

 acteristics as an exceptional love of poetry, a disposition to dreamy 

 abstraction, etc. With respect to evidences of general intellectual 

 ability, such as a high place at school or college, these will have a 

 very different value in different domains. In the case of the musician, 

 for example, they would have little relevance except, indeed, so far 

 as want of application to the prescribed course of studies might serve 

 as negative evidence of an absorbing interest in the self -chosen 

 study. On the other hand, in judging of the precocity of the 

 scholar the school reputation becomes an important ingredient of 

 the case. 



In looking out for evidence of special talent we may, in certain 

 cases, find a number of data ready to hand. Thus, in dealing with a 

 musician, we may consider the age at which executive skill was shown, 

 the date of the first original composition, and, as a valuable supple- 

 ment to these, the time at which music was seriously taken up as a 

 profession. In the case of other sorts of talent such a variety of data 

 may not be accessible. 



Finally, after chronicling all indications of childish and youthful 

 precocity, we have to record the age at which the first great work 

 was achieved, a work that either at the time or later on came to be 

 regarded as a title to fame. 



In conclusion, I may say that I have confined the inquiry to mod- 

 ern celebrities. Our knowledge of the lives of ancient writers and art- 

 ists is, as a rule, too scanty to yield the required data. And, even in 

 the case of some modern men of mark, the want of a record of early 

 years has compelled me to omit the names from my list. I have ab- 

 stained, too, for obvious reasons, from including the names of living 

 celebrities. 



Taking the groups in the order indicated above, we shall, in the 

 case of each class, look first of all for instances of remarkable precocity. 

 We may then go on to inquire into the proportion of precocious to 

 non-precocious members of the class. 



Musicians. The stories of the more remarkable instances of boy- 

 ish musical talent, alike in execution and in composition, are prob- 



