Part 13

GIOVANNI DOMENICO RUFFINI, a distinguished Italian littérateur, was born at Genoa, September 6, 1807, and died at Taggia, November 2, 1881. He published: "Lorenzo Benoni" (a romance), "Lavinia," etc.; also, "Doctor Antonio," his most famous book.

Le style est l'homme même.[2]

"Discours de Réception,"--_Buffon_.

GEORGE LOUIS LE CLERC, COMTE DE BUFFON, a famous French naturalist, was born at Montbard, September 7, 1707, and died April 16, 1788. His "Natural History," won for him world-wide fame.

Natura il fece, e poi ruppe la stampa.[3]

"Orlando Furioso," Canto x, Stanza 84,--_Ludovico Ariosto_.

LUDOVICO ARIOSTO, an illustrious Italian poet, was born at Reggio, September 8, 1474, and died at Ferrara, June 6, 1533. His most famous work is: "Orlando Furioso."

None but God can satisfy the longings of an immortal soul; that as the heart was made for Him, so He only can fill it.

--_Trench_.

RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, a noted Anglican archbishop and poet, was born at Dublin on September 9, 1807, and died March 28, 1886. He wrote: "The Story of Justin Martyr, and Other Poems," "Sabbation," "Honor Neale, and Other Poems," "Poems from Eastern Sources," "The Study of Words," "English Past and Present," "A Select Glossary of English Words," "Notes on the Parables," "Notes on the Miracles," etc.

The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people.

"What is to be done?" Chap. xl. Note,--_Tolstoi_.

COUNT LYOF ALEKSÉEVICH TOLSTOI, the great Russian novelist, was born on the family estate of Yasnaya Polyana in the government of Tula, Russia, September 9, 1828, and died in 1910. His most celebrated works are: "In What My Faith Consists," "Cossacks," "Sevastopol," "War and Peace," "Master and Man," "My Confession," "The Kreutzer Sonata," and "Anna Karénina."

A language cannot be thoroughly learned by an adult without five years' residence in the country where it is spoken; and without habits of close observation, a residence of twenty years is insufficient.

--_P. G. Hamerton_.

PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON, a distinguished English artist and art-writer, was born at Laneside, Lancashire, September 10, 1834; and died near Boulogne, France, November 5, 1894. Among his works are: "Etching and Etchers," "Thoughts About Art," "Painting in France," "The Quest of Happiness," "The Graphic Arts," "Contemporary French Painters," "Human Intercourse," "The Intellectual Life," and "A Painter's Camp in the Highlands."

A pleasing land of drowsyhead it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye; And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, Forever flushing round a summer sky; There eke the soft delights that witchingly Instil a wanton sweetness through the breast, And the calm pleasures always hover'd nigh; But whate'er smack'd of noyance or unrest Was far, far off expell'd from this delicious nest.

"The Castle of Indolence," Canto i, Stanza 6.--_James Thomson_.

JAMES THOMSON, a famous Scotch poet, was born at Ednam, September 11, 1700, and died August 27, 1748. His most celebrated poems are: "The Seasons," and "The Castle of Indolence."

Woman's grief is like a summer storm, Short as it is violent.

"Basil," Act V, Sc. 3,--_Joanna Baillie_.

JOANNA BAILLIE, a celebrated Scottish poet, was born in Bothwell, Lanarkshire, September 11, 1762, and died at Hampstead, England, February 23, 1851. She wrote: "Plays on the Passions," and numerous poems and songs.

Blessed be agriculture! If one does not have too much of it.

"My Summer in a Garden: Preliminary."--_Chas. Dudley Warner_.

CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER, an eminent American journalist and miscellaneous writer, was born at Plainfield, Mass., September 12, 1829, and died in 1900. Among his noted works are: "My Summer in a Garden," "Backlog Studies," "My Winter on the Nile," "Life of Captain John Smith," "Washington Irving," "A Roundabout Journey," "Their Pilgrimage," "Book of Eloquence," "A Little Journey in the World," "As We Were Saying," "The Golden House," "The Relation of Literature to Life," "Studies in the South and West, with Comments on Canada," "That Fortune," etc. In collaboration with Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) he wrote: "The Gilded Age." He was editor of the "American Men of Letters" series, and of "The Library of the World's Best Literature."

The desire of love, Joy; The desire of life, Peace: The desire of the soul, Heaven: The desire of God ... a flame-white secret forever.

"Desire,"--_William Sharp_.

WILLIAM SHARP, a distinguished British critic and man of letters, was born September 12, 1856, and died in 1905. Among his works are: "Humanity and Man," "The Conqueror's Dream, and Other Poems," "Dante Gabriel Rossetti," "Shakespeare's Songs, Poems, and Sonnets," "Sonnets of this Century," "Shelley," "Romantic Ballads," "Sospiri di Roma," "Flower o' the Vine," "Sospiri d' Italia," etc.

Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.

"Guesses at Truth."--_J. C. and A. W. Hare_.

JULIUS CHARLES HARE, a famous English divine and theological writer, was born at Valdagno, Italy, September 13, 1795, and died in England, January 23, 1855. He wrote: "Mission of the Comforter," "The Contest with Rome," "Vindication of Luther," and conjointly with A. W. Hare, "Guesses at Truth."

True resignation, which always brings with it the confidence that unchangeable goodness will make even the disappointment of our hopes, and the contradictions of life, conducive to some benefit, casts a grave but tranquil light over the prospect of even a toilsome and troubled life.

--_Humboldt_.

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT, a renowned German scientist, was born in Berlin, September 14, 1769, and died there May 6, 1859. He wrote: "Voyages to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent," "Observations on Zoölogy and Comparative Anatomy," "View of the Cordilleras and of the Monuments of the Indigenous Races of America," and "Cosmos," his most celebrated work.

O years, gone down into the past, What pleasant memories come to me Of your untroubled days of peace, And hours of almost ecstasy.

"_Reconciled_,"--Phoebe Cary.

PHOEBE CARY, a noted American poetess and prose-writer, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 14, 1824, and died in Newport, Rhode Island, July 31, 1871. With her sister, she published many books, among them, "Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love," and "Poems and Parodies."

We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.

"Maxim 294,"--_Rochefoucauld_.

FRANÇOIS, DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, an illustrious French classicist and philosopher, was born at Paris, September 15, 1613, and died there March 17, 1680. His most celebrated works were: "Reflections, or Moral Sentences and Maxims," better known as "Maxims," and his "Memoirs."

Those families, you know, are our upper-crust,--not upper ten thousand.

"The Ways of the Hour," Chap. VI,--_Cooper_.

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, a famous American novelist, and historian, was born in Burlington, N. J., September 15, 1789, and died at Cooperstown, N. Y., September 14, 1851. A few of his celebrated novels are: "The Spy," "The Pilot," "Precaution," "The Pioneers," "The Last of the Mohicans," "The Prairie," "The Red Rover," "The Water-Witch," "Homeward Bound," "The Pathfinder," "The Deerslayer," "The Redskins," "The Ways of the Hour," etc.

I would not live alway: I ask not to stay Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way.

"I would not live alway,"--_William Augustus Muhlenberg_.

WILLIAM AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG, a noted American philanthropist and Protestant Episcopal clergyman, was born in Philadelphia, Penn., September 16, 1796, and died in New York, April, 1877. He wrote: "A Plea for Christian Hymns," and many well-known hymns, among them: "Saviour Who Thy Flock Art Feeding," "Shout the Glad Tidings," and "I Would Not Live Alway."

We all know Mr. Lowell's brilliant qualities as a poet, critic, scholar, and man of the world; but that in him which touches me most strongly belongs to his relations to his country--his keen and subtle yet kindly recognition of her virtues and her faults, and the sympathetic power with which in the day of her melancholy triumph, after the Civil War, he gave such noble expression to her self-devotion, sorrows, and hopes.

"James Russell Lowell, The Critic,"--_Francis Parkman_.

FRANCIS PARKMAN, an eminent American historian, was born at Boston, September 16, 1823, and died at Jamaica Plain, Mass., November 8, 1893. He wrote: "The Oregon Trail: Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life," "History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac," "The Pioneers of France in the New World," "The Jesuits in North America," "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West," "The Old Régime in Canada," "Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV," "Montcalm and Wolfe," and "A Half-Century of Conflict."

The essayist rises higher than the poet--witty, tender; wise in human frailty, but never bitter.

"Personal Tributes to Dr. Holmes, the Writer," Vol. 7, p. 167 (1894),--_Hamlin Garland_.

HAMLIN GARLAND, a celebrated American story writer, was born in La Crosse, Wis., September 16, 1860. His works include: "Main Traveled Roads," "A Spoil of Office," "Prairie Folks," "Prairie Songs," "Crumbling Idols," "A Little Norsk," "Rose of Dutcher's Coolly," "Jason Edwards," "The Eagle's Heart," "Her Mountain Lover," "Hesper," "The Light of the Star," "The Long Trail," "Money Magic," "The Shadow World," "Victor Olnee's Discipline," "Other Main Traveled Roads," "A Son of the Middle Border," etc.

There's a magic in the distance, where the sea-line meets the sky.

"Forty Singing Seamen,"--_Alfred Noyes_.

ALFRED NOYES, a noted English writer, was born at Staffordshire, September 16, 1880. He has written, "Robin Hood," "Tales of the Mermaid Tavern," "The Winepress," "The Sea in English Poetry," "A Salute from the Fleet," "The Flower of Old Japan," "Poems," "Forty Singing Seamen," "Walking Shadows," "The Elfin Artist," (New Poems).

All reasoning is retrospect; it consists in the application of facts and principles previously known. This will show the very great importance of knowledge, especially of that kind called Experience.

"Knowledge,"--_John Foster_.

JOHN FOSTER, a famous English author, and dissenting minister, best known as the "Essayist," was born near Halifax, Yorkshire, September 17, 1770, and died October 15, 1843. His fame rests chiefly on his celebrated "Essays." He also wrote: "Essay on Popular Ignorance," "Discourse on Missions," etc.

Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

"Life of Addison,"--_Samuel Johnson_.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, a renowned English critic, essayist, lexicographer, and poet, was born in Lichfield, September 18, 1709, and died in London, December 13, 1784. Among his many works may be mentioned: "Life of Richard Savage," "The Vanity of Human Wishes," "Life of Dryden," "Plan for a Dictionary," "The Rambler," "Irene," "The Idler," "Shakespeare with Notes," "The False Alarm," "Taxation no Tyranny," "Rasselas," "English Poets," etc.

Men are polished, through act and speech, Each by each, As pebbles are smoothed on the rolling beach.

"A Home Idyl,"--_John Townsend Trowbridge_.

JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE, a celebrated American poet, novelist and general writer, was born in Ogden, N. Y., September 18, 1827, and died in 1916. He has written: "Martin Merrivale," "Neighbor Jackwood," "The Old Battle Ground," "The Drummer Boy," "The Three Scouts," "Coupon Bonds," "The Story of Columbus," "The Jack Hazard Series," "The Silver Medal Series," "The Emigrant's Story, and Other Poems," "At Sea," "The Pewee," "Hearts and Faces," "The Vagabonds," "The Book of Gold, and Other Poems," "The Start in Life Series," "The Tide Mill Series," "Poetical Works," "My Own Story," etc.

O Traveller who hast wandered far 'Neath southern sun and northern star, Say where the fairest regions are! Friend, underneath whatever skies Love looks in love-returning eyes, There are the bowers of paradise.

"The Bowers of Paradise,"--_Clinton Scollard_.

CLINTON SCOLLARD, a popular American poet and author, was born in New York, September 18, 1860. He has published: "Pictures in Song," "Old and New World Lyrics," "Under Summer Skies," "Lyrics and Legends of Christmastide," "Odes and Elegies," "From the Lips of the Sea," "Poems--A Selection from the Harvest of Thirty Years of Song," "A Christmas Garland," "A Knight of the Highway," "A Son of a Tory," "The Lutes of Morn," "Lyrics of the Dawn," "Footfaring," etc.

Let the soldier be abroad if he will, he can do nothing in this age. There is another personage,--a personage less imposing in the eyes of some, perhaps insignificant. The schoolmaster is abroad, and I trust to him, armed with his primer, against the soldier in full military array.

"Speech," January 29, 1828,--_Lord Brougham_.

HENRY PETER BROUGHAM, LORD BROUGHAM, a distinguished British statesman and author, was born in Edinburgh, September 19, 1778, and died at Cannes, France, May 7, 1868. His most important works are: "Lives of Men of Letters and Science," "Speeches," and "Sketches of the Statesmen of the Time of George III."

The soul of man is larger than the sky, Deeper than ocean, or the abysmal dark Of the unfathomed center.

"To Shakespeare,"--_Hartley Coleridge_.

HARTLEY COLERIDGE, a celebrated English poet, and man of letters, (son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge), was born at Bristol, September 19, 1796, and died in 1849. His writings include: "Biographia Borealis," "The Worthies of Yorkshire and Lancashire," "Essays and Marginalia," and some exquisite sonnets, published in the _London Magazine_.

When change itself can give no more 'Tis easy to be true.

"Reasons for Constancy,"--_Sir Charles Sedley_.

SIR CHARLES SEDLEY, a noted English dramatist, was born at Aylesford in Kent, September 20, 1639, and died August 20, 1701. Besides his tragedies and comedies, he wrote a famous song, "Phyllis."

In the first days Of my distracting grief, I found myself As women wish to be who love their lords.

"Douglas," Act I, Sc. i,--_John Home_.

JOHN HOME, a well-known Scotch dramatist, was born in Leith, near Edinburgh, September 21, 1722, and died at Merchiston near Edinburgh, September 5, 1808. His most celebrated plays are: "Alfred," "The Fatal Discovery," "Agis," and his tragedy, "Douglas." He also wrote, "History of the Rebellion in Scotland in 1755-56."

Where are the cities of old time?

"The Ballade of Dead Cities,"--_Edmund William Gosse_.

EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE, a famous English poet, essayist, and critic, was born in London, September 21, 1849. He has written: "On Viol and Flute," "The Unknown Lover," "Madrigals, Songs, and Sonnets," "Life of Jeremy Taylor," "French Profiles," "Coventry Patmore," "Life of Sir Thomas Browne," "Father and Son," "Henrik Ibsen," "Two Visits to Denmark," "Portraits and Studies," "Collected Essays" (5 vols.), "Life of Swinburne," "Lord Redesdale's Further Memories," "Three French Moralists," "Diversions of a Man of Letters," "Malherbe," etc.

How few take time for friendship! How few plan for it! It is treated as a haphazard, fortuitous thing. May good luck send us friends; we will not go after them. May favoring fortune bind our friendships; we will take no stitches ourselves. Yet friendship requires painstaking. No art is so difficult, no craft so arduous. Roll a ball of clay and expect it to become a rose in your hand, but never expect an acquaintanceship, without care and thought, to blossom into friendship.

--_Wells_.

HERBERT GEORGE WELLS, a distinguished English author, was born at Bromley, Kent, September 21, 1868. Among his many works may be mentioned: "The Wheels of Chance," "Certain Personal Matters," (essays), "The War of the Worlds," "The Sleeper Awakes," "Love and Mr. Lewisham," "Anticipations," "The Sea Lady," "Mankind in the Making," "The Food of the Gods," "A Modern Utopia," "The War in the Air," "Ann Veronica," "The New Machiavelli," "Marriage," "The Passionate Friends," "An Englishman Looks at the World," "The World Set Free," "The Peace of the World," "The Research Magnificent," "What is Coming?" "Mr. Britling Sees it Through," "The Soul of a Bishop," "Joan and Peter," "The Come Back," etc.

Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value.

"Letter," July 1, 1748,--_Earl of Chesterfield_.

PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD, a famous English man of affairs and of the world, was born in London, September 22, 1694, and died March 24, 1773. His "Letters to His Son" won for him everlasting literary fame.

A reply to a newspaper attack resembles very much the attempt of Hercules to crop the Hydra, without the slightest chance of ultimate success.

"Gilbert Gurney," Vol. II, Chap. I, _Theodore M. Hook_.

THEODORE EDWARD HOOK, a famous English wit and novelist, was born in London, September 22, 1788, and died August 24, 1841. He wrote: "Macwell," "Gilbert Gurney," "Gurney Married," "Births, Deaths and Marriages." "His Sayings and Doings," were published in 1824, 1825 and in 1828.

I never yet heard man or woman much abused, that I was not inclined to think the better of them; and to transfer any suspicion or dislike to the person who appeared to take delight in pointing out the defects of a fellow-creature.

--_Jane Porter_.

JANE PORTER, a distinguished English novelist, was born at Durham, September 23, 1776, and died at Bristol, May 24, 1850. Among her stories are: "Thaddeus of Warsaw," "The Scottish Chiefs," "The Pastor's Fireside," etc.

Within the rose I found a trembling tear, Close curtained in a gloom of crimson night, By tender petals from the outer light.

"Within the Rose I found a Trembling Tear,"--_Boyesen_.

HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN, a celebrated American novelist, was born at Frederiksvarn, Norway, September 23, 1848, and died in New York, October 4, 1895. He has written: "Idyls of Norway and Other Poems," "Tales from Two Hemispheres," "Ilka on the Hilltop and Other Stories," "A Norseman's Pilgrimage," "Gunnar," and "A Daughter of the Philistines."

When he writes of himself, how supremely excellent is the reading. It is good even when he does it intentionally, as in "Portraits and Memories." It is better still when he sings it, as in his "Child's Garden." He is irresistible to every lonely child who reads and thrills, and reads again to find his past recovered for him with effortless ease. It is a book never long out of my hands, for only in it and in my dreams when I am touched with fever, do I grasp the long, long thoughts of a lonely child and a hill-wandering boy-thoughts I never told to any; yet which Mr. Stevenson tells over again to me as if he read them off a printed page.

"Mr. Stevenson's Books," _McClure's Magazine_, Vol. 4, p. 289 1895,--_S. R. Crockett_.

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD CROCKETT, a distinguished Scotch novelist, was born in Little Duchrae, Galloway, September 24, 1862, and died in 1914. He has written "The Stickit Minister," "The Lilac Sun-Bonnet," "Lad's Love," "Joan of the Sword Hand," "The Dark o' the Moon," "The Banner of Blue," "An Adventure in Spain," "Maid Margaret," "Cherry Riband," "Flower o' the Corn," "Kit Kennedy," "The Red Axe," "The Bloom of the Heather," "The White Plume of Navarre," "Anne of the Barricades," "Patsy," "Sandy," etc.

The breaking waves dashed high On a stern and rock-bound coast, And the woods against a stormy sky Their giant branches tossed.

"Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers,"--_Felicia Hemans_.

FELICIA DOROTHEA BROWNE HEMANS, a noted English-Irish poet, was born in Liverpool, September 25, 1793, and died at Redesdale, near Dublin, May 16, 1835. Her most famous works are: "Tales and Historic Scenes in Verse," "Songs of the Cid," "Lays of Many Lands," "The Siege of Valencia, the Last Constantine," and "Domestic Affections."

We can do without any article of luxury we have never had; but when once obtained, it is not in human nature to surrender it voluntarily.

"The Clockmaker,"--_Thomas Chandler Haliburton_.

THOMAS CHANDLER HALIBURTON (SAM SLICK), a famous Canadian author, was born at Windsor, Nova Scotia, September 26 (?), 1796, and died near London, August 27, 1865. He is best known by his famous "Sam Slick" papers.

Honor is like the eye, which cannot suffer the least injury without damage; it is a precious stone, the price of which is lessened by the least flaw.

--_Bossuet_.

JACQUES BÉNIGNE BOSSUET, a renowned French theologian, was born at Dijon, September 27, 1627, and died April 12, 1704. He wrote: "Discourse upon Universal History Down to the Empire of Charlemagne," "History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches," and the "Defense of the Famous Declaration Which the Gallican Clergy Approved Regarding the Power of the Church." His "Complete Works," in 46 volumes, were published 1815-19.

A life on the ocean wave! A home on the rolling deep, Where the scattered waters rave, And the winds their revels keep! Like an eagle caged I pine On this dull unchanging shore: O give me the flashing brine, The spray and the tempest's roar!

"A Life on the Ocean Wave,"--_Epes Sargent_.

EPES SARGENT, a celebrated American journalist, author and dramatist, was born in Gloucester, Mass., September 27, 1813, and died in Boston, December 31, 1880. His works include: "Change Makes Change," "The Priestess," "Wealth and Worth," "Peculiar: A Tale of the Great Transition," "Songs of the Sea," "Life of Henry Clay," "A Life on the Ocean Wave," etc.

Logic makes only one demand, that of science. But life makes a thousand. The body wants health; the imagination cries out for beauty; and the heart for love. Pride asks for consideration; the soul yearns for peace; the conscience for holiness; our whole being is athirst for happiness and for perfection.

--_Amiel_.

HENRI FRÉDÉRIC AMIEL, an eminent Swiss essayist, poet, and philosophical critic, was born at Geneva, September 27, 1821, and died there, March 11, 1881. His writings include: "Millet Grains," "Study on Mme. de Staël," "The Literary Movement in Romanish Switzerland," etc. His famous "Journal" appeared after his death.

The dews of summer nights did fall, The moon, sweet regent of the sky, Silvered the walls of Cumnor Hall And many an oak that grew thereby.

"Cumnor Hall,"--_William J. Mickle_.

WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE, a noted Scottish poet, was born at Langholm, Dumfriesshire, September 28, 1735, and died at Forest Hill, October 28, 1788. He wrote: "Syr Martyn," "Almada Hill," "Cumnor Hall," etc.

Cobden is a man of an extremely interesting mind; quite the opposite of an Englishman in this respect, that you never hear him talk commonplaces, and that he has few prejudices.

"Correspondence,"--_Prosper Mérimée_.

PROSPER MÉRIMÉE, a renowned French essayist and litterateur, was born at Paris, September 28, 1803, and died at Cannes, September 23, 1870. He wrote: "Historic Monuments," "Historic and Literary Medleys," "Mateo Falcone," "Guzla," "Plays of Clara Gazul," and his most celebrated works: "Colomba" and "Carmen."

Time's corrosive dewdrop eats The giant warrior to a crust Of earth in earth and rust in rust.

"A Danish Barrow,"--_Francis T. Palgrave_.