256 THE YOUTH'S CABINET.

productions of the time. At thirty-two
he penned the old constitution of New
York, and in the same year was ap-
pointed minister to Spain.
Milton, at the age of twenty, had
written his finest miscellaneous poems,
including L’ Allegro, Il Penseroso, Co-
mus, and the most beautiful part of
Monodois.

Lord Byron, at the age of twenty,
published his celebrated satire upon
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers ;
at twenty-four, the two first cantos of
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage..

Mozart, the German musician, com-
pleted all his noble compositions before
he was thirty-four years old, and died
at thirty-five.

Pope wrote many of his published
poems by the time he was sixteen years
old; at twenty, his essay on Criticism ;
at twenty-one, the Rape of the Lock ;
at twenty-five, his great work, the trans-
lation of the Iliad. |

Sir Isaac Newton had mastered the
highest elements of mathematics, and
the analytical method of Des Cartes,
before he was twenty; and discovered
the new method of infinite series, of the
new telescope, the laws of gravitation,
and the planetary system.

Dr. Dwight’s Conquest of Canaan was
commenced at the age of sixteen, and
was finished at the age of twenty-two.
At the latter age, he composed his cele-
brated dissertation on the History, Elo-
quence and Poetry of the Bible, which
was immediately published, and repub-
lished in Europe.

Charles XII. of Sweden, was declared
of age by the states, and succeeded his
father at the age of fifteen. At eight-
een he headed the expedition against

nine years of age, when, in defiance of
the British soldiers stationed at the door
of the church, he pronounced the cele-
brated oration which aroused the spirit
of liberty and patriotism that termi-
nated in the achievement of indepen-
dence. At thirty-four he gloriously
fell, gallantly fighting in the cause of
freedom on Bunker Hill.

Alexander Hamilton was a lieutenant-
colonel in the army of the American
revolution, and aid-de-camp to Wash-
ington, at the age of twenty. At twen-
ty-five he was a member of congress
from New York; and at thirty he was
one of the members of the convention
that formed the constitution of the
United States. At thirty-one he was a
member of the New York convention,
and joint author of the work entitled the
“Federalist.” At thirty-two he was
secretary of the treasury of the United
States.

Thomas Haywood, of South Caro-
lina, was but thirty years of age when
he signed the glorious record of the
nation’s birth, the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. Eldridge Gerry of Massa-
chusetts, Benjamin Rush and James
Wilson of Pennsylvania, were but thirty-
one years of age: Matthew Thornton
of New Hampshire, Thomas Jefferson
of Virginia, Arthur Middleton of South
Carolina, and Thomas Stone of Mary-
land, thirty-three ; and William Hooper
of North Carolina, but thirty-four.

- John Jay, at twenty-nine years old,
was a member of the revolutionary con-
"gress, being associated with Lee Living-
ston on the committee for drafting an
address to the people of Great Britain,
drew up that paper himself, which was
considered one of the most eloquent