This important observation may be verified by some striking facts.

A most curious one will be found in Lord BACON'S letter to Father Fulgentio, where he gives an account of his projecting his philosophy thirty years before, during his youth.

MILTON from early youth mused on the composition of an epic.

DE THOU has himself told us, that from his tender youth his mind was full of the idea of composing a history of his own times; and his whole life was passed in preparation, and in a continued accession of materials for a future period.

From the age of twenty, MONTESQUIEU was preparing the materials of _L'Esprit des Loix_, by extracts from the immense volumes of civil law.