Peter Ronsard, one of the fathers of French poetry, applied himself late to study. His acute genius, and ardent application, rivalled those poetic models which he admired.
The great Arnauld retained the vigour of his genius, and the command of his pen, to his last day; and at the age of eighty-two was still the great Arnauld.
Sir Henry Spelman neglected the sciences in his youth, but cultivated them at fifty years of age, and produced good fruit. 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, and resolving to attach himself to regular studies and literary society, he sold his farms, and became a most learned antiquary and lawyer.
Colbert, the famous French minister, almost at sixty returned to his Latin and law studies.
Tellier, the chancellor of France, learnt logic, merely for an amusement, to dispute with his grandchildren.
Dr. Johnson applied himself to the Dutch language but a few years before his death. But on this head the Marquis de Saint Anlaire may be regarded as a prodigy; at the age of seventy he began to court the Muses, and they crowned him with their freshest flowers. His verses are full of fire, delicacy, and sweetness. Voltaire says, that Anacreon, less old, produced less charming compositions.
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales were the composition of his latest years: they were begun in his fifty-fourth year, and finished in his sixty-first: it is on these works his fame is established, at least they are those which are most adapted to attract all classes of poetical readers.
The celebrated Boccacio was thirty-five years of age when he began his studies in polite literature. He has, however, excelled many whose whole life has been devoted to this branch of letters. Such is the privilege of genius.
Ludovico Monaldesco, at the extraordinary age of 115, wrote the memoirs of his time: a singular exertion, noticed by Voltaire, who himself is one of the most remarkable instances of the progress of age in new studies.
Koonhert began at forty 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.