Socrates in his old age, learned to play upon a musical instrument.
Cato, aged 80, began to learn Greek; and Plutarch, in his old age,
acquired Latin. John Gelida, of Valentia, in Spain, did not begin the
study of _belles-lettres_, until he was 40 years old.
Henry Spelman, having in his youth neglected the sciences, resumed them
at the age of 50, with extraordinary success.
Fairfax, after having been the general of the parliamentary army in
England, went to Oxford, and took his degree as Doctor-of-Law. Colbert,
when minister, and almost 60 years of age, returned to his Latin and his
law, in a situation where the neglect of one, if not both, might have
been thought excusable; and Mons. Le Tellier, chancellor of France,
reverted to the learning of logic that he might dispute with his
grand-children.
Sir John Davies, at the age of 25, produced a poem on "The Immortality
of the Soul," and in his 62nd year, as Mr. Thomas Campbell facetiously
observes, when a judge and a statesman, another on _dancing_.
* * * * *