----Five years with a bib under his chin;
Four years in travelling from Christ-cross-row to _Malachi_;
A year and a half in learning to write his own name;
Seven long years and more -ing it, at Greek and Latin;
Four years at his _probations_ and his _negations_--the fine statue still lying in the middle of the marble block, --and nothing done, but his tools sharpened to hew it out! --'Tis a piteous delay! --Was not the great _Julius Scaliger_ within an ace of never getting his tools sharpened at all? ------Forty-four years old was he before he could manage his Greek; --and _Peter Damianus_, lord bishop of _Ostia_, as all the world knows, could not so much as read, when he was of man's estate. --And _Baldus_ himself, as eminent as he turned out after, entered upon the law so late in life, that everybody imagined he intended to be an advocate in the other world: no wonder, when _Eudamidas_, the son of _Archidamas_, heard _Xenocrates_ at seventy-five disputing about _wisdom_, that he asked gravely, --_If the old man be yet disputing and enquiring concerning wisdom, --what time will he have to make use of it?_
_Yorick_ listened to my father with great attention; there was a seasoning of wisdom unaccountably mixed up with his strangest whims, and he had sometimes such illuminations in the darkest of his eclipses, as almost atoned for them: --be wary, Sir, when you imitate him.

'- Five years with a bib under his chin;
'Four years in learning the alphabet;
'A year and a half in learning to write his own name;
'Seven long years working at Greek and Latin;
'Four years at his probations and negations - with the fine statue still lying in the middle of the marble block, and nothing done, except his tools sharpened to hew it out! 'Tis a piteous delay! Was not the great Julius Scaliger within an ace of never getting his tools sharpened at all? Forty-four years old was he before he could manage Greek; and Peter Damianus, bishop of Ostia, as all the world knows, could not read even when he was full-grown. Baldus entered the law so late in life, that everybody imagined he intended to be an advocate in the other world.
'No wonder that, when Eudamidas heard Xenocrates at seventy-five discussing wisdom, he asked gravely, "If the old man is still disputing wisdom, what time will he have to make use of it?"'
Yorick listened to my father with great attention; there was a seasoning of wisdom mixed up with his strangest whims, and he had sometimes such illuminations in the darkest of his eclipses, as almost atoned for them.
