508 Mental Precocity. [November, 



and the exhibitions of intellectual power or activity are but hot- 

 house productions, exhausting the feeble stock that gives these blos- 

 soms of precocious genius birth. Indeed almost all experience shows 

 that all the infantile wonders of the world have never been wonder- 

 ful beyond the years of their infancy ; while many, whose early child- 

 hood was marked by slow and toilsome progress in the attainment of 

 ordinary learning, have honored their names and blessed the world 

 with the munificent gifts of hallowed genius. We do not presume 

 to aver that such is the rule without its exceptions; but w^e would 

 rather look upon a child of ours without this prematurity of mental 

 development than with it; we would rather see childhood child-like 

 than man-like, trusting to the maturity of years to bring about the 

 maturity of mind. True, the tumultuous ardor of youth has given 

 birth to some of the noblest productions in music, poetry, and paint- 

 ing; but productions no less wonderful have sprung up from the 

 ripeness of years. Chatterton wrote all his beautiful things, exhaust- 

 ed all hopes of life, and saw nothing better than death before him at 

 the youthful age of eighteen. Both Burns and Byron died at the 

 early age of thirty-seven years, and every thing indicated that the 

 strength and grandeur of their genius was even then upon the wane. 

 Eaph^lle, after filling the world with his fame as the delineator of 

 Divine Beauty, perished also at thirty-seven : Mozart died younger, 

 though not too young, for his achievement of lasting renown. On the 

 other hand, Handel was forty-eight before he gave the world assur- 

 ance of such a man. Dryden first went up to London, dressed in his 

 provincial suit of Norwich drugget, at the age of thirty, and did not 

 know that he could write a line of poetry. Milton had indeed written 

 his " Comus" at twenty-six ; but blind, and "fallen on evil days and 

 evil tongues," he had passed his fiftieth year when he began his great 

 epic work. Cowper knew nought of his own capacity till he was be- 

 yond the years of Byron's life, and when his last great work was writ- 

 ten, he could score his full half century. Sir Walter Scott was up- 

 wards of thirty before he wrote his Minstrelsy; and even then, all his 

 greatness was yet to come. 



A Witty lawyer once jocosely asked a boarding house keeper the 

 following question : 



Mr. , if a man gives you S500 to keep for him, and dies, what 



do you do? — do you pray for him? " 



"No, sir," replied Mr. , "I pray for another like him." 



