INFLUENCE OF AGE UPON THE POWER OF RESEARCH. 277 



every respect one of the greatest natural philosophers of 

 his time, after the world had lost the illustrious Galileo, 

 died at the age of thirty-nine. Pascal, who first showed 

 the true use and value of Torricelli's discovery, and who 

 has ever been accounted, for his eminence both in science 

 and in literature, one of the chief glories of France, as he 

 would have been of any country in which he had appeared, 

 was cut off at the same early age. Nay, in his case, the 

 wonder is greater still, for he passed the last eight years 

 of his life, as is well known, in almost uninterrupted 

 abstinence from his wonted intellectual pursuits.' 1 Many 

 instances might, however, be quoted of eminent investi- 

 gators who continued to make discoveries until an ad- 

 vanced period of their lives. 



With regard to the influence of marriage upon the 

 intellectual life of a discoverer, I make the following quo- 

 tations : ' I believe that for an intellectual man only two 

 courses are open ; either he ought to marry some simple 

 dutiful woman who will bear him children and see to the 

 household matters, and love him in a trustful spirit with- 

 out jealousy of his occupations ; or else, on the other hand, 

 he ought to marry some highly intelligent lady, able to 

 carry her education far beyond school experiences, and 

 willing to become his companion in the arduous paths of 

 intellectual labour.' 



With women, ' there is hardly any task too hard for 

 them if they believe it essential to the conjugal life. I 

 could give you the name and address of one who mastered 

 Greek in order not to be excluded from her husband's 

 favourite pursuit ; others have mastered other languages 

 for the same object, and even some branch of science, for 



1 Craik, Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties, p. 72. 



