Chapter 31
Section 31 of Curiosities of Literature, Volume 1. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Curiosities of Literature, Volume 1 by Isaac Disraeli. The Progress of Old Age in New Studies Of the pleasures derivable from the cultivation of the arts, sciences, and literature, time will not abate the growing passion, for all men still cherish an affection and feel a youthful enthusiasm in those pursuits when all others have ceased to interest.
Dr. Reed, to his last day, retained a most active curiosity in his various studies, and particularly in the revolutions of modern chemistry. In advanced life we may resume our former studies with a new pleasure, and in old age we may enjoy them with the same relish with which more youthful students commence. Adam Smith observed to Dugald Stewart that of all the amusements of old age, the most grateful and soothing is a renewal of acquaintance with the favorite studies and favorite authors of youth. A remark, adds Stewart, which in his own case seemed to be more particularly exemplified while he was re-perusing with the enthusiasm of a student the tragic poets of ancient Greece. I have heard him repeat the observation more than once, while Sophocles and Euripides lay open on
his table. Socrates learnt to play on musical instruments in his old age. Cato, at eighty, thought proper to learn Greek, and Plutarch, almost as late in his life, Latin. Theophrastus began his admirable work on the characters of men at the extreme age of ninety. He only terminated his literary labors by his death. Rensard, one of the fathers of French poetry, applied himself late to study. His acute genius and ardent application rivaled those poetic models which
he admired. And Boccaccio was 35 years of age when he commenced his studies in polite literature. The great Arnaud retained the vigor of his genius and the command of his pen to the age of 82 and was still the great Arnaud. Sir Henry Spellman neglected the sciences in his youth, but cultivated them at fifty years of age. His early years were chiefly passed in farming, which greatly diverted him from his studies, but a remarkable disappointment respecting a contested estate disgusted him
with these rustic occupations. Resolved to attach himself to regular studies and literary society, he sold his farms and became the most learned antiquary and lawyer. Colbert, the famous French minister, almost at 60, returned to his Latin and law studies. Dr. Johnson applied himself to the Dutch language, but a few years before his death, the Marquis de Saint-Olaire, at the age of 70, began to court the muses,
and they crowned him with their freshest flowers. The verses of this French anacreon are full of fire, delicacy, and sweetness. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were the composition of his latest years. They were begun in his 54th year and finished in his 61st. Ludovico Monaldesco, at the extraordinary age of 115, wrote the memoirs of his times,
a singular exertion noticed by Voltaire, who himself is one of the most remarkable instances of the progress of age in new studies. The most delightful of autobiographies for artists is that of Benvenuto Cellini, a work of great originality which was not begun till the clock of his age had struck 58. Kuhn Hurt began at 40 to learn the Latin and Greek languages, of which he became a master. Several students, who afterwards distinguished themselves,
have commenced as late in life their literary pursuits. Ogilby, the translator of Homer and Virgil, knew little of Latin or Greek till he was past fifty, and Franklin's philosophical pursuits began when he had nearly reached his fiftieth year. Our Corso, a great lawyer, being asked why he began the study of the law so late, answered, beginning it late, he should master it the sooner. Dryden's complete works formed the largest body of poetry from the
pen of a single writer in the English language, yet he gave no public testimony of poetic abilities till his 27th year. In his 68th year, he proposed to translate the whole Iliad, and his most pleasing productions were written in his old age. Michelangelo preserved his creative genius even in extreme old age, there is a device said to be invented by him of an old man represented in a go-cart with an hourglass upon it, the inscription Ancora Emparo, yet I am learning. We have a literary
curiosity in a favorite treatise with Erasmus and men of letters of that period, De Ratione Studii, by Joachim Sterk, otherwise Fortius de Ringelberg. The enthusiasm of the writer often carries him to the verge of ridicule, but something must be conceded to his peculiar situation and feelings, for Bayer tells us that this method of studying had been formed entirely from his own practical knowledge and hard experience. At a late period of life he had commenced his studies, and at length
he imagined that he had discovered a more perpendicular mode of ascending the hill of science than by its usual circuitous windings. His work has been compared to the sounding of a trumpet. Menage, in his Antiballe, has a very curious apology for writing verses in his old age by showing how many poets amused themselves notwithstanding their gray hairs, and wrote sonnets or epigrams at ninety. La Casa, in one of his letters, humorously said,
I think I may make sonnets 25 or perhaps 30 years after I shall be dead. Patau tells us that he wrote verses to solace the evils of old age. Patauius Iger, Cantabat Weteris, Queren, Solatia Morbi. Malerbe declares the honors of genius were his. yet young je les possédé gens et les possède encore à la fin de mes jours
