212 



TABLE-TALK AND VARIETIES. 



creative genius even to extreme 

 old age : there is a device said to 

 be invented by him of an old man 

 represented in a go-cart, with an 

 hour-glass 'upon it ; the inscription 

 Ancora impara ! YET I AM LEARN- 

 ING ! 



Sir Christopher Wren retired 

 from public life at eighty-six ; and 

 after that he spent five years in 

 literary, astronomical, and religious 

 engagements. 



Dr. Franklin exhibited a striking 

 instance of the influence of reading, 

 writing, and conversation, in pro- 

 longing a sound and active state of 

 all the faculties of the mind. In 

 his eighty-fourth year he discovered 

 no one mark in any of them of the 

 weakness of decay usually observed 

 in the minds of persons at that ad- 

 vanced period of life. 



Accorso, a great lawyer, being 

 asked why he began the study of 

 the law so late, answered, that in- 

 deed he began it late, but should 

 therefore master it the sooner. 



KECKEE AND LE VEGER. 



Necker offers a beautiful instance 

 of the influence of late studies in 

 life ; for he tells us, that " the era 

 of threescore and ten is an agree- 

 able age for writing : your mind 

 has not lost its vigour, and envy 

 leaves you in peace." 



The opening of one of La Mothe 

 le Veger's Treatises is striking : u I 



should but ill return the favours 

 God has granted me in the eightieth 

 year of my age, should I allow my- 

 self to give way to that shameless 

 want of occupation which I have 

 condemned all my life :" and the 

 old man proceeds with his " observa- 

 tions on the composition and read- 

 ing of books." 



WALTON AND REID. 



Izaak Walton still glowed while 

 writing some of the most interesting 

 biographies in his eighty-fifth year, 

 and in his ninetieth enriched the 

 poetical world with the first publi- 

 cation of a romantic tale by Chalk- 

 hill, " the friend of Spenser." 



The revelations of modern che- 

 mistry kindled the curiosity of Dr. 

 Reid to his latest days. 



ADAM SMITH. 



Professor Dugald Stewart says, 

 that Adam Smith observed to him 

 that " of all the amusements of old 

 age, the most grateful and soothing 

 is a renewal of acquaintance with 

 the favourite studies and favourite 

 authors of youth a remark which 

 in his own case seemed to be more 

 particularly exemplified while he 

 was reperusing, with the enthu- 

 siasm of a student, the tragic poets 

 of ancient Greece. I heard him 

 repeat the observation more than, 

 once while Sophocles and Euripides 

 lay open on his table." 



TABLE-TALK AND YAEIETIES, 



SPEAKING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. 



Miss Selina Bunbury, the writer 

 of a Tour in Norway and Sweden, 

 relates some amusing blunders com- 

 mitted in the course of her attempts 

 to secure the services of a travelling 

 companion who could drive her into 

 the country. After sundry failures, 

 a Scandinavian professor succeeded 

 in finding a collector of i'airv legends 



who was desirous of making a tour 

 in quest of the lore of faeryland, 

 and consented to take the whip and 

 reins in Miss Bunbury 's carriole : 

 " The Professor had told me (she 

 writes) that the fairy -legend hun- 

 ter spoke English ; a delightful 

 knowledge this was to me, for I am 

 by no means strong in northern 

 tongues. Thus, in the hope of us- 

 ing and hearing my own, I was 



