Part 12

JOHN GALSWORTHY, a famous English author, was born at Combe in Surrey, August 14, 1867. His publications include: "The Man of Property," "A Motley," "Moods, Songs and Doggerels," "The Inn of Tranquillity," "A Sheaf," Vol. I; "Beyond," "A Sheaf," Vol. II; "Saint's Progress," "In Chancery," "Awakening," "To Let," etc. Plays: "The Silver Box," "The Pigeon," "The Eldest Son," "The Skin Game," "A Family Man," etc.

The sun reflecting upon the mud of strands and shores is unpolluted in his beam.

"Holy Living," Chap. i, 3,--_Jeremy Taylor_.

JEREMY TAYLOR, a renowned English theological writer, was born August 15, 1613, at Cambridge, and died at Lisburn, Ireland, August 13, 1667. His most celebrated works are: "The Great Exemplar of Sanctity and Holy Life," "Discourse on the Liberty of Prophesying," "The Rule and Exercise of Holy Living," and "The Rule and Exercise of Holy Dying."

The rose is fairest when 't is budding new, And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears, The rose is sweetest wash'd with morning dew, And love is loveliest when embalm'd in tears.

"Lady of the Lake," Canto iv, Stanza 1.--_Walter Scott_.

SIR WALTER SCOTT, a Scotch novelist and poet of great fame, was born in Edinburgh, August 15, 1771, and died at Abbotsford, September 21, 1832. Among his many works may be mentioned: "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," "Ballads and Lyrical Pieces," "Rokeby," "Marmion," "The Lady of the Lake," "Waverley," "Guy Mannering," "The Field of Waterloo," "The Lord of the Isles," "Rob Roy," "Harold the Dauntless," "Ivanhoe," "The Bride of Lammermoor: A Legend of Montrose," "Kenilworth," "The Abbot," "The Monastery," "The Pirate," "Tales of the Crusaders: The Betrothed, The Talisman," "History of Scotland," "Tales of a Grandfather," "Essays on Ballad Poetry," "The Eve of St. John: A Border Ballad," "Life of Dryden," "Life of Swift," etc., etc.

Shakespeare--that is, English tragedy--postulates the intense life of flesh and blood, of animal sensibility, of man and woman--breathing, waking, stirring, palpitating with the pulses of hope and fear. In Greek tragedy the very masks show the utter impossibility to these contests or conflicts.

"Leaders in Literature,"--_De Quincey_.

THOMAS DE QUINCEY, a celebrated English author, was born in Manchester, August 15, 1785, and died December 8, 1859. Besides his numerous essays and papers on historical literary and miscellaneous topics, he wrote: "Confessions of an English Opium Eater," "Letters to a Young Man Whose Education Has Been Neglected," "Logic of Political Economy," "Klosterheim," "Leaders in Literature," "Suspiria de Profundis: Essays on Style and Rhetoric," "Joan of Arc," "Autobiographic Sketches," "Literary Reminiscences," etc., etc.

Wee Willie Winkie rins through the toun, Upstairs and dounstairs, in his nicht-goun, Tirlin' at the window, cryin' at the lock, "Are the weans in their bed? for it's nou ten o'clock."

"Wee Willie Winkie,"--_William Miller_.

WILLIAM MILLER, a noted Scotch poet, was born in Bridgegate, Glasgow, August 16, 1810, and died at Glasgow, August 20, 1872. He wrote: "Scottish Nursery Songs and Other Poems," his best known poem being "Wee Willie Winkie."

Be sure you are right, then go ahead.

--_David Crockett_.

DAVID CROCKETT, a celebrated American politician, hunter and humorist, was born at Limestone, Tenn., August 17, 1786, and was killed at Fort Alamo, San Antonio, Texas, March 16, 1836. He wrote: "Sketches and Eccentricities," "Tour to the North and Down East," his "Autobiography," etc.

The greatest thing a man can do for his Heavenly Father is to be kind to some of His other children.

--_Henry Drummond_.

HENRY DRUMMOND, a distinguished Scotch geologist and religious writer, was born at Stirling, August 17, 1851, and died at Tunbridge Wells, England, March 11, 1897. His most famous works are: "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," "The Ascent of Man," "Tropical Africa," "Pax Vobiscum," "The Greatest Thing in the World," "The Programme of Christianity."

A proverb is one man's wit and all men's wisdom.

Quoted in "Memoirs of Mackintosh," Vol. II, p. 473,--_Lord John Russell_.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL, a famous English statesman, was born in London, August 18, 1792, and died at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park, May 28, 1878. He is best remembered by his historical works, "Life of William Lord Russell," "Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe" (2 vols.) "Correspondence of John, 4th Duke of Bedford," etc.

It would be superfluous in me to point out to your Lordship that this is war.

"Despatch to Earl Russell," Sept. 5, 1863.--_Charles Francis Adams_.

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, an eminent American statesman, publicist, and miscellaneous writer, was born at Boston, August 18, 1807, and died at Boston, November 21, 1886. His best known work was: "Life and Works of John Adams."

Sorrow and scarlet leaf, Sad thoughts and sunny weather: Ah me, this glory and this grief Agree not well together!

"A Song for September,"--_Thomas William Parsons_.

THOMAS WILLIAM PARSONS, a distinguished American poet, was born at Boston, August 18, 1819, and died September 3, 1892. Among his writings are: "The Old House at Sudbury," "Ghetto di Roma," "The Magnolia," "The Shadow of the Obelisk," etc. He also made a metrical translation of Dante's "Inferno."

All that is beautiful shall abide, All that is base shall die.

"Balder the Beautiful,"--_Robert W. Buchanan_.

ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN, a celebrated English author, was born in Warwickshire, August 18, 1841, and died in 1901. He wrote: "Idylls and Legends of Inverburn," "Undertones," "London Poems," "North Coast Poems," "Ballads of Love, Life and Humor," "The City of Dreams," "A Child of Nature," "The Shadow of the Sword," "Foxglove Manor," etc.

Let's learn to temper our desires, Not harshly to constrain; And since excess makes pleasure less, Why, so much more refrain. Small table, cozy corner--here We well may be beguiled; Our worthy host old wine can boast; Drink, drink--but draw it mild!

"Les Petits Coups,"--translation of William Young,--_Pierre Jean de Béranger_.

PIERRE JEAN DE BÉRANGER, a famous French poet, was born in Paris, August 19, 1780, and died there July 16, 1857. Some of his noted songs are: "The Old Flag," "Les Petits Coups," "The Old Corporal," "Roger Bontemps," "Little Red Man," "Little Gray Man," "King of Yvetot," "My Grandmother," "The Marquis of Carabas," and his "Autobiography."

Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; Nothing's so hard but search will find it out.

"Seek and Find,"--_Robert Herrick_.

ROBERT HERRICK, a renowned English poet and royalist clergyman, was born in London, August 20, 1591, and died at Dean Prior, Devonshire, October 15, 1674. He wrote: "Noble Numbers," and "Hesperides."

In the Confessions of St. Augustine, passion, nature, individuality only appear in order to be immolated to Divine grace. They are a history of a crisis of the soul, of a new birth, of a _Vita Nuova_; the Saint would have blushed to relate more than he has done of the life of the man, which he had quitted. With Rousseau the case is precisely the reverse; here grace is nothing, nature everything; nature dominant, triumphant, displaying herself with a daring freedom, which at times amounts to the distasteful--nay, to the disgusting.

"Life of Luther," (translation),--_Michelet_.

JULES MICHELET, a famous French historian, was born in Paris, August 21, 1798, and died at Hyères, February 9, 1874. His principal works are: "History of France," "History of the Revolution," "Abridgment of Modern History," "Of the Jesuits," "Of the Priest, the Wife, and the Family," "Of the People," "Poland and Russia," etc.

Who can blame me if I cherish the belief that the world is still young--that there are great possibilities in store for it?

--_John Tyndall_.

JOHN TYNDALL, an eminent British physicist and writer on science, was born at Leighlin Bridge, near Carlow, Ireland, August 21, 1820, and died at Haslemere, Surrey, England, December 4, 1893. He has written: "Philosophical Transactions in Glaciers of the Alps," "Mountaineering in 1861," "Dust and Disease," "Hours of Exercise in the Alps," "Sound: A Course of Eight Lectures," "Nine Lectures on Light," "Essays on the Use and Limit of the Imagination in Science," "The Forms of Water in Clouds and Rivers, Ice and Glaciers," "Essays on the Floating Matter of the Air," "New Fragments," etc.

Equality is one of the most consummate scoundrels that ever crept from the brain of a political juggler--a fellow who thrusts his hand into the pocket of honest industry or enterprising talent, and squanders their hard-earned profits on profligate idleness or indolent stupidity.

--_James Kirke Paulding_.

JAMES KIRKE PAULDING, a distinguished American novelist, was born in Dutchess County, N. Y., August 22, 1779, and died at Hyde Park, N. Y., April 6, 1860. Among his famous works may be mentioned: "The United States and England," "Lay of a Scotch Fiddle," "Letters on Slavery," "The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan," "Koningsmarke," "John Bull in America," "Westward Ho!" "The Dutchman's Fireside," "Life of George Washington," etc.

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.

"To R. T. H. B."--_William Ernest Henley_.

WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY, a noted British poet, critic, and editor, was born at Gloucester, August 23, 1849, and died July 11, 1903. Among his works are: "Views and Reviews," "Poems," "London Voluntaries," "Hawthorn and Lavender," etc.

There is what I call the American idea.... This idea demands, as the proximate organization thereof, a democracy--that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God: for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.

"Speech at the N. E. Anti-slavery Convention, Boston," May 29, 1850.--_Theodore Parker_.

THEODORE PARKER, an American preacher and reformer of great celebrity, was born at Lexington, Mass., August 24, 1810, and died at Florence, May 10, 1860. He wrote: "Ten Sermons on Religion," "Theism, Atheism and the Popular Theology," and his most celebrated work: "Discourse on Matters Pertaining to Religion."

With the greatest possible solicitude avoid authorship. Too early or immoderately employed it makes the head waste and the heart empty.

Tr. by S. T. Coleridge.--_Herder_.

JOHN GOTTFRIED VON HERDER, a distinguished German philosopher and historian of literature, was born at Mohrungen, August 25, 1744, and died at Weimar, December 18, 1803. Among his works are: "Voices of Nations in Song," "Fragments on Recent German Literature," "The Cid," "Ideas for a Philosophy of the History of Mankind," "Spirit of Hebrew Poetry," etc.

Which I wish to remark,-- And my language is plain,-- That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar.

"Plain Language from Truthful James,"--_Francis Bret Harte_.

FRANCIS BRET HARTE, a celebrated American poet and short-story writer, was born in Albany, N. Y., August 25, 1839, and died in 1902. Among his many works are: "The Luck of Roaring Camp, and Other Sketches," "The Heathen Chinee," "Plain Language from Truthful James," "Poems," "East and West Poems," "Echoes of the Foot-Hills," "Poetical Works," "Thankful Blossom," "Drift from Two Shores," "Flip and Other Stories," "By Shore and Sedge," "The Queen of the Pirate Isle," "On the Frontier," "Snow Bound at Eagle's," "Tales of the Argonauts and Other Sketches," "A Waif of the Plains," "Three Partners," and "In the Hollow of the Hills."

It is even at the present day important to direct careful attention to an erroneous conception of wealth, which was universal until the appearance of Adam Smith's great work, in 1775.

"Manual of Political Economy,"--_Henry Fawcett_.

HENRY FAWCETT, a famous English political economist, was born at Salisbury, August 26, 1833, and died in Cambridge, November 6, 1884. His publications include: "Free Trade and Protection," "Indian Finance," etc. His celebrated work, "Manual of Political Economy," won for him great fame.

Roger Bacon treated more especially of physics, but remained without influence.

"Lectures on the History of Philosophy," tr., Haldane and Simpson, Vol. III. p. 92,--_Hegel_.

GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL, an eminent German philosopher, was born at Stuttgart, August 27, 1770, and died at Berlin, November 14, 1831. Among his writings are: "On the Difference Between the Fichtean and Schellingian Systems," "The Orbits of the Planets," "Phenomenology of the Human Mind," "System of Science," "Principles of the Philosophy of Law, or the Law of Nature and Political Science," "Encyclopædia of the Philosophical Sciences," etc.

If we compare Daudet with Zola, we shall see that it is Daudet who is the naturalist novelist, not Zola. It is the author of Le Nabob who begins with observation of reality, and who is possessed by it, while the author of "L'Assommoir" only consults it when his seige is finished and then summarily with preconceived ideas.

"Les Contemporains,"--_Jules Lemaître_.

FRANÇOIS ELIE JULES LEMAÎTRE, a famous French literary critic and dramatist, was born in Vennecy (Loiret), August 27, 1853, and died in 1914. He is the author of five volumes of literary biographies, "Contemporaries: Being Literary Studies and Portraits." Among his plays are: "La Revoltée," "Deputy Leveau," "The Kings," "The Pardon," etc. Also: "Médallions" (poems), "Petites Orientales" (poems), "Corneille and Aristotle's Poetics," "Myrrha Stories."

The old prose writers wrote as if they were speaking to an audience; while, among us, prose is invariably written for the eye alone.

--_Niebuhr_.

BARTHOLD GEORG NIEBUHR, a great German historian, was born at Copenhagen, August 27, 1776, and died at Bonn, January 2, 1831. His writings include: "Roman History," "Lectures on the History of Rome," "Lectures on Ancient History," "Grecian Heroic History," "Minor Historical and Philological Writings," etc.

Who never ate his bread in sorrow, Who never spent the darksome hours Weeping, and watching for the morrow,-- He knows ye not, ye gloomy Powers.

"Wilhelm Meister," Book ii, Chap, xiii,--_Goethe_.

JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE, one of the greatest poets the world has ever known, was born at Frankfort on the Main, August 28, 1749, and died at Weimar, March 22, 1832. His most famous works are: "Sorrows of Young Werther," "Erwin and Elmira," "Stella," "Prometheus," "Iphigenia," "Tasso," "Wilhelm Meister," and his greatest work, "Faust." He also wrote: "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship," "Fiction and Truth," "Hermann and Dorothea," "Elective Affinities," "Wilhelm Meister's Years of Travel," etc.

Man should be ever better than he seems.

"The Song of Faith,"--_Sir Aubrey De Vere_.

SIR AUBREY DE VERE, a famous Irish poet, was born August 28, 1788, and died in 1846. Among his works are: "Julian, the Apostate: A Dramatic Poem," "The Duke of Mercia: an Historical Drama," "The Song of Faith, Devout Exercises and Sonnets," "Mary Tudor: an Historical Drama," was published after his death in 1847.

The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable we have, and therefore should be secured, because they seldom return again.

--_John Locke_.

JOHN LOCKE, an eminent English philosopher, was born at Wrington, near Bristol, August 29, 1632, and died at Oates (Essex), October 28, 1704. His philosophical writings include: "An Epistle on Tolerance," "Essay Concerning Human Understanding," "Two Treatises on Government," etc. He also wrote: "Some Thoughts Concerning Reading and Study," "Some Thoughts on Education," "Elements of Natural Philosophy," and many other works.

I do not know anyone who makes us feel more than Milton does the grandeur of the ends which we ought to keep always before us, and therefore our own pettiness and want of courage and nobleness in pursuing them. I believe he failed to discern many of the intermediate relations which God has established between Himself and us; but I know no one who teaches us more habitually that disobedience to the Divine will is the seat of all misery to men.

"The Friendship of Books,"--_D. Maurice_.

FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE, a celebrated English divine and theological and philosophical writer, was born near Lowestoft, Suffolk, August 29, 1805, and died in London, April 1, 1872. Among his works are: "Ancient Philosophy," "Theological Essays," "Modern Philosophy," "Mediæval Philosophy," "The Friendship of Books," etc., and a novel, "Eustace Conway."

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

"The Chambered Nautilus,"--_Oliver Wendell Holmes_.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, a distinguished American man of letters, was born at Cambridge, Mass., August 29, 1809, and died at Boston, October 7, 1894. The most important of his works are: "Urania," "The Iron Gate," "Songs in Many Keys," "Poems," "Songs of Many Seasons," "Elsie Venner," "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," "The Professor at the Breakfast Table," "The Poet at the Breakfast Table," "Soundings from the Atlantic," "Our Hundred Days in Europe," "John Lothrop Motley," "A Mortal Antipathy," "Ralph Waldo Emerson," "Over the Teacups," etc.

Men's weaknesses are often necessary to the purposes of life.

"Joyzelle," Act ii.--_Maurice Maeterlinck_.

MAURICE MAETERLINCK, a celebrated Belgian poet, was born in Flanders, August 29, 1864. Among his works are: "The Seven Princesses," "The Blind," "The Intruder," "The Treasure of the Humble," "Hot-House Blooms," "La Princesse Maleine," "Alladine et Palomides," "Douze Chansons," "La Sagesse et la Destinée," "Le Temple Enseveli," "The Double Garden," "The Blue Bird," "La Mort," "The Light Beyond," etc.

It is very foolish, and betrays what a small mind we have, to allow fashion to sway us in everything that regards taste; in our way of living, our health, and our conscience.

"The Characters,"--_Jean de La Bruyère_.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE, a famous French moralist and satirist, was born in Paris, August 30 (?), 1645, and died at Versailles, May 10, 1696. His fame rests on his great work, "The Characters of Theophrastus, Translated from the Greek, with the Characters or Manners of this Century."

If for widows you die, Learn to _kiss_ not to sigh.

"Widow Malone," II, 33-4,--_Charles James Lever_.

CHARLES (JAMES) LEVER, a noted Irish novelist, was born at Dublin, August 31, 1806, and died at Trieste, June 1, 1872. He wrote: "Confessions of Harry Lorrequer," "Charles O'Malley," "Arthur O'Leary," "Jack Hinton the Guardsman," "Tom Burke of Ours," "The O'Donoghue," "Con Cregan," "Roland Cashel," "The Daltons, or Three Roads in Life," "Luttrell of Arran," "The Fortunes of Glencore," "Davenport Dunn," "Sir Brooke Fosbrooke," "The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly," "Lord Kilgobbin," etc.

Ils sont si transparents qu'ils laissent voir votre âme.[2]

"The Two Beautiful Eyes,"--_Théophile Gautier_.

THÉOPHILE GAUTIER, a renowned French poet and novelist, was born in Tarbes, Hautes Pyrenees, August 31, 1811, and died near Paris, in 1872. Among his famous works may be mentioned: "Young France," "Albertus," "Poems," "History of Romanticism," "A Journey in Spain," "Italy," "Constantinople," "Miltona," "The Golden Fleece," "Arria Marcella," "Mademoiselle Dafne," "The Nest of Nightingales," "The Loving Dead," "The Chain of Gold," "Jean and Jeannette," "The Tiger Skin," "Spirite," "Modern Art," "The Arts in Europe," etc., etc.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] He adorned whatever he touched.

[2] Eyes so transparent that through them the soul is seen.

SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER

Talent, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be obscure and unostentatious.

--_Lady Blessington_.

MARGUERITE, COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON, a distinguished Irish descriptive writer and novelist, was born in Knockbrit, Tipperary, September 1, 1789, and died in Paris, June 4, 1849. Among her works are: "The Idler in Italy," "The Idler in France," "Conversations with Lord Byron," etc.

The glorified spirit of the infant is as a star to guide the mother to its own blissful clime.

"Monody on Mrs. Hemans,"--_Lydia H. Sigourney_.

LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY, a noted American author, was born in Norwich, Conn., September 1, 1791, and died in Hartford, Conn., June 10, 1865. She wrote: "Letters to Young Ladies," "Letters to Mothers," "Scenes in My Native Land," "Voice of Flowers," "Letters to My Pupils," "The Daily Councelor," "Gleanings," (poetry), "The Man of Uz, and Other Poems," etc.

Socrates, like Solon, thought that no man is too old to learn; that to learn and to know is not a schooling for life, but life itself, and that which alone gives to life its value. To become by knowledge better from day to day, and to make others better, appeared to both to be the real duty of man.

"History of Greece,"--_Ernst Curtius_.

ERNST CURTIUS, a renowned German archæologist and historian, was born at Lubeck, September 2, 1814, and died in 1896. He wrote: "Peloponnesus," and his famous, "History of Greece."

The fire upon the hearth is low, And there is stillness everywhere, And, like winged spirits, here and there The firelight shadows fluttering go.

"In the Firelight,"--_Eugene Field_.

EUGENE FIELD, a noted poet and humorous journalist, was born at St. Louis, Mo., September 2, 1850, and died November 4, 1895. He wrote: "The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac," "The Holy Cross, and Other Tales," "Love Songs of Childhood," "A Little Book of Western Verse," and "A Second Book of Verse."

Nothing can make a man happy but that which shall last as long as he lasts; for an immortal soul shall persist in being, not only when profit, pleasure, and honour, but when time itself shall cease.

--_South_.

ROBERT SOUTH, a famous English divine, was born at Hackney, Middlesex, September 3, 1634, and died July 8, 1716. A collection of his sermons was published in 1692 in six volumes.

The Grecian history is a poem, Latin history a picture, modern history a chronicle.

--_Chateaubriand_.

FRANÇOIS RENÉ AUGUSTE, VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND, a renowned French statesman, traveler, novelist and historical writer, was born at St. Malo, September 4, 1768, and died at Paris, July 4, 1848. Among his works are: "The Genius of Christianity" (his most famous work), "Atala," "René," and "The Natchez," also "The Martyrs, or Triumph of the Christian Religion," "A Journey from Paris to Jerusalem," "An Essay on English Literature," and translated Milton's "Paradise Lost."

Da dacht ich oft: schwatzt noch so hoch gelehrt, Man weiss doch nichts, als was man selbst erfährt.[1]

"Oberon," II. 24,--_Wieland_.

CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND, a celebrated German poet and prose-writer, was born in Oberholzheim, Suabia, September 5, 1733, and died January 20, 1813. He wrote: "Agathon," "The New Amadis," "The Golden Mirror," and "Oberon," his most famous work. He also translated the greater part of Shakespeare into German.

Husband and wife--so much in common, how different in type! Such a contrast, and yet such harmony, strength and weakness blended together!

--_Ruffini_.