GENIUS AND PRECOCITY. 597 



Among foreign metaphysicians, the two who come nearest to the 

 above are Leibnitz and Schelling. Leibnitz was, like Mill, a prodigy 

 of youthful learning, and began from the age of seventeen to write on 

 a variety of subjects. His bent to philosophical reflection betrayed 

 itself at the age of fifteen, when, at the University of Leipsic, he was 

 entertaining the idea of rejecting the scholastic doctrine of " substan- 

 tial forms." His first philosophical publication was the " Bachelor's 

 Dissertation," which falls in the eighteenth year. But, after this, Leib- 

 nitz abandoned philosophy in favor of politics ; so that he did not 

 attain the rank of a great philosophical teacher till the age of forty- 

 four. Schelling, if a less remarkable example of omnivorous learning 

 than Leibnitz, is a more signal instance of precocious metaphysical 

 constructiveness. He graduated at the early age of sixteen, taking 

 " Myths " as the theme of his dissertation. He had written three 

 philosophical works before the completion of his twentieth year. 



Following the same plan as before, I have tried to determine the 

 proportion of the precocious to the non-precocious among thinkers. 

 Taking thirty-seven eminent representatives, I find that twenty-five, 

 or about two thirds, appear to have shown a marked philosophical in- 

 quisitiveness before the age of twenty. 



If now we go on to ask at what age philosophic production begins, 

 we arrive at the following results : Among thirty-six, two wrote on 

 philosophical subjects before the age of twenty ; eighteen between 

 twenty and thirty ; eight between thirty and forty ; and eight after 

 forty. 



Finally, with respect to the age at which greatness reveals itself in 

 a remarkable achievement, we gather the following data : Out of 

 thirty- five, three distinguished themselves before twenty-five ; four 

 between this date and thirty ; fourteen between thirty and forty ; six 

 between forty and fifty ; and eight after fifty. 



Of those who achieved philosophic distinction after fifty we have 

 no less illustrious names than Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, and Leibnitz. 

 It may be added that Kant very nearly falls into this category, his 

 first independent treatise appearing at the age of forty-six. The late- 

 ness of achievement in many cases is connected with the circumstance 

 that other subjects, as mathematics, have been taken up before phi- 

 losophy. 



In presenting these statistics of genius, I am not unmindful of the 

 defects of the evidence. Thus, for example, there are the gaps in the 

 record of the childhood of great men which all the industry of recent 

 biographical research has not been able to fill up.* Even where we 

 do know something of the early life, we can not be sure that we have 



* I have found the determination of dates in the case of the Italian painters particu- 

 larly difficult for this reason. Old Vasari, in his " Lives," is very chary of figures, and, 

 when he does venture on a date, he is very far from trustworthy. 



