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pugners-their peaceful slumbers will probably be too profound to be incommoded by the resurgam of the opinion they opposed. Perhaps when Davy propounded it, he might have thought like Kepler, " My theory may not be received at present, but posterity will adopt it. I can afford to wait thirty or forty years for the world's justice, since nature has waited three thousand years for an observer;" for Davy like Kepler, had his moments of "glorious egotism," but like the astronomer, he had genius to redeem his vanity.

CHAPTER VI.

INFLUENCE OF STUDIOUS HABITS ON THE DURATION OF LIFE.

It is a question whether different kinds of literary pursuits do not produce different diseases, or at least dif ferent modifications of disease; but there is very little doubt, that a vast difference in the duration of life is to be observed in the various learned professions, and the several directions given to mental application, whether by the cultivation of poetry, the study of the law, the labours of miscellaneous composition, or the abstraction of philosophical enquiries. "Every class of genius," says D'Israeli, "has distinct habits; all poets resemble one another, as all painters, and all mathematicians. There is a conformity in the cast of their minds, and the quality of each is distinct from the other; the very faculty which

fits them for one particular pursuit is just the reverse required for the other."

men.

An excellent old author, who wrote on the diseases of particular avocations about two centuries ago, has spoken in the following terms of the diseases of literary "Above all the retainers to learning, the bad influence of study and fatigue falls heaviest upon the writers to books for the public, who seek to immortalise their names: by writers I mean authors of merit, for there are many, from an insatiable itch for notoriety, who patch up indigested medleys, and make abortive rather than mature productions, like those poets who will throw you off a hundred verses, 'Stantes in pede uno,' as Horace has it. It is your wise and grave authors, day and night, who work for posterity, who wear themselves out with labour. But they are not so much injured by study who only covet to know what others knew before them, and reckon it the best way to make use of other people's madness, as Pliny says of those who do not take the trouble to build new houses, but rather buy and live in those that are built by other people. Many of these professors of learning are subject to diseases peculiar to their respective callings, as your eminent jurists, preachers and philosophers, who spend their lives in public schools."

For the purpose of ascertaining the influence of different studies on the longevity of authors, the tables which follow have been constructed, in which the names and ages of the most celebrated authors in the various departments of literature and science are set down, each list containing twenty names of those individuals who have devoted their lives to a particular pursuit, and excelled in it. No other attention has been given to the selection than that which eminence suggested without

any regard to the ages of those who presented themselves to notice. The object was to give a fair view of the subject, whether it told for or against the opinions that have been expressed in the preceding pages. It must, however, be taken into account, that as we have only given the names of the most celebrated authors, and in the last table those of artists in their different departments, a greater longevity in each pursuit might be inferred from the aggregate of the ages than properly may belong to the general range of life in each pursuit. For example, in moral or natural philosophy, a long life of labour is necessary to enable posterity to judge of the merits of an author; and these are ascertained not only by the value, but also by the amount of his compositions. It is by a series of researches, and re-casts of opinion, that profound truths are arrived at, and by numerous publications that such truths are forced on the public attention. For this a long life is necessary, and it certainly appears from the list that is subjoined, that the vigour of a great intellect is favourable to longevity in every literary pursuit, wherein imagination is seldom called on.

There is another point to be taken into consideration, that the early years of genius are not so often remarkable for precocity, as is commonly supposed, and where it is otherwise, it would seem that the earlier the mental faculties are developed, the sooner the bodily powers begin to fail. It is still the old proverb with such prodigies, "So wise, so young, they say do ne'er live long." Moore says, "the five most remarkable instances of early authorship, are those of Pope, Congreve, Churchill, Chatterton, and Byron." The first of these died in his fiftysixth year, the second in his fifty-eighth, the third in his

thirty-fourth, "the sleepless boy" committed suicide in his eighteenth, and Byron died in his thirty-seventh year. Mozart, at the age of three years, began to display astonishing abilities for music, and in the two following years composed some trifling pieces, which his father carefully preserved, and like all prodigies, his career was a short one-he died at thirty-six, Tasso from infancy exhibited such quickness of understanding, that at the age of five he was sent to a Jesuit academy, and two years afterwards recited verses and orations of his own composition; he died at fifty-one. Dermody was employed by his father, who was a schoolmaster, as an assistant in teaching the Latin and Greek languages in his ninth year; he died at twenty-seven. The American prodigy, Lucretia Davidson, was another melancholy instance of precocious genius, and early death. Keats wrote several pieces before he was fifteen, and only reached his twenty-fifth year. The ardour of Dante's temperament, we are told, was manifested in his childhood. The lady he celebrated in his poems under the name of Beatrice, he fell in love with at the age of ten, and his enthusiasm terminated with a life at fifty-six. Schiller, at the age of fourteen, was the author of an epic poem; he died at forty-six. Cowley published a collection of his juvenile poems, called "Poetical Blossoms" at sixteen, and died at sixty-nine.

But it would be useless to enumerate instances in proof of the assertion, that the earlier the developement of the mental faculties, the more speedy the decay of the bodily

powers.

CHAPTER VII.

3

PRECOCIOUS TALENTS.

No common error is attended with worse consequences to the children of genius than the practice of dragging precocious talent into early notice, of encouraging its growth in the hot-bed of parental approbation, and of endeavouring to give the dawning intellect the precocious maturity of that fruit which ripens and rots almost simultaneously. Tissot has admirably pointed out the evils which attend the practice of forcing the youthful intellect. "The effects of study vary," says this author, "according to the age at which it is commenced; longcontinued application kills the youthful energies. I have seen children full of spirit attacked by this literary mania beyond their years, and I have foreseen with grief the lot which awaited them; they commenced by being prodigies, and they ended by becoming stupid. The season of youth is consecrated to the exercise of the body, which strengthens it, and not to study, which debilitates and prevents its growth. Nature can never successfully carry on two rapid developements at the same time. When the growth of intellect is too prompt, its faculties are too early developed, and mental application is permitted proportioned to this developement; the body receives no part of it, because the nerves cease to contribute to its energies; the victim becomes exhausted, and eventually dies of some insidious malady. The parents and guardians who encourage or require this forced