In the world of music, too, both in our own times and in the past, we find many instances of boys giving an early indication of a remarkable career.
Handel and Mozart each showed a liking for music when young in years, and soon made their mark.
Handel began composing a church service for voices and instruments when only nine years old, and before he was fifteen he had composed three operas.
Mozart began to play the piano when he was three years old, and at seven he had taught himself the violin. At nine years of age he visited England, and when departing gave a farewell concert at which all the symphonies were composed by himself.
Several years ago attention was drawn to a little Polish boy who at eight years of age could play from memory some of the most intricate compositions of such composers as Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Rubinstein, and others. This precocious youth, Ignace Jan Paderewski, is now the most famous of all living pianists.
Some remarkable preachers have also started very early.
The Abbé de Rancé, founder of the monastic order of the Trappists, was a splendid Greek scholar at twelve, and shortly afterward was appointed to an important benefice.
Bossuet preached before a brilliant Parisian assembly at the age of fifteen; and Fénelon, who afterward became an archbishop, also preached an extraordinary sermon at the same age.