hrone at twenty, had conquered the known world before dying at
thirty-three. Julius Caesar captured eight hundred cities, conquered
three hundred nations, defeated three million men, became a great
orator and one of the greatest statesmen known, and still was a young
man. Washington was appointed adjutant-general at nineteen, was sent
at twenty-one as an ambassador to treat with the French, and won his
first battle as a colonel at twenty-two. Lafayette was made general of
the whole French Army at twenty. Charlemagne was master of France and
Germany at thirty. Galileo was but eighteen when he saw the principle
of the pendulum in the swing lamp in the cathedral at Pisa. Peel was
in Parliament at twenty-one. Gladstone was in Parliament before he was
twenty-two, and at twenty-four he was Lord of the Treasury. Elizabeth
Barrett Browning was proficient in Greek and Latin at twelve; De
Quincey at eleven. Robert Browning wrote at eleven poetry of no mean
order. Cowley, who sleeps in Westminster Abbey, published a volume of
poems at fifteen. Luther was but twenty-nine when he nailed his famous
thesis to the door of the bishop and defied the pope. Nelson was a
lieutenant in the British Navy before he was twenty. He was but
forty-seven when he received his death wound at Trafalgar. At
thirty-six, Cortez was the conqueror of Mexico; at thirty-two, Clive
had established the British power in India. Hannibal, the greatest of
military commanders, was only thirty when, at Cannae, he dealt an
almost annihilating blow at the republic of Rome, and Napoleon was only
twenty-seven when, on the plains of Italy, he outgeneraled and
defeated, one after another, the veteran marshals of Austria.

Equal courage and resolution are often shown by men who have passed the
allotted limit of life. Victor Hugo and Wellington were both in their
prime after they had reached the age of threescore years and ten.
Gladstone ruled England with a strong hand at eighty-four, and was a
marvel of literary and scholarly ability.

Shakespeare says: "He is not worthy of the honeycomb that shuns the
hive because the bees have stings."

"The brave man is not he who feels no fear,
For that were stupid and irrational;
But he whose noble soul its fear subdues
And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from."

Many a bright youth has accomplished nothing of worth to himself or the
world simply because he did not dare to commence things.