Part 7

ANNE REEVE ALDRICH, a noted American poet and novelist, was born in New York, April 25, 1866, and died there June 22, 1892. She wrote: "The Rose of Flame," "The Feet of Love," "Songs About Life, Love and Death," etc.

Take, O boatman, thrice thy fee,-- Take, I give it willingly; For, invisible to thee, Spirits twain have, crossed with me.

"The Passage," _Edinburgh Review_, Oct., 1832,--_Johann L. Uhland_.

JOHANN L. UHLAND, an eminent German poet, was born at Tubingen, April 26, 1787, and died November 13, 1862. He wrote: "Walther von der Vogelweide," "The Old French Epos," "The Myth of Thor, according to Norse Tradition," etc. Also two dramas: "Ludwig the Bavarian," and "Ernest, Duke of Suabia." His ballads and songs also won for him great renown.

Even bear-baiting was esteemed heathenish and unchristian: the sport of it, not the inhumanity, gave offence.

"History of England," Vol. i, Chap. lxii,--_David Hume_.

DAVID HUME, a famous British philosopher and historian, was born in Edinburgh, April 26, 1711, and died there August 25, 1776. Among his works may be mentioned: "Political Discourses," "An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals," "Four Dissertations," "A Treatise on Human Nature," "History of England," "Two Essays," "Natural History of Religion," "Essays, Moral and Political," etc.

Let us all be happy and live within our means, even if we have to borrow the money to do it with.

"Natural History,"--_Charles Farrar Browne_.

CHARLES FARRAR BROWNE ("ARTEMUS WARD"), a noted American humorist, was born at Waterford, Me., April 26, 1834, and died at Southampton, England, March 6, 1867. He wrote: "Artemus Ward, His Book," and "Artemus Ward, His Travels."

On the approach of spring, I withdraw without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure.

"Memoirs," Vol. i, p. 116,--_Edward Gibbon_.

EDWARD GIBBON, a renowned English historian, was born at Putney, Surrey, April 27, 1737, and died at London, January 15, 1794. His notable works are: "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," "Critical Observations," "Essay on the Study of Literature," and "Miscellaneous Works, with Memoir Composed by Himself."

Volumes might be written upon the impiety of the pious.

"First Principles,"--_Herbert Spencer_.

HERBERT SPENCER, the celebrated English philosopher, was born at Derby, April 27, 1820, and died December 8, 1903. Among his noted works are: "Principles of Psychology," "Classification of the Sciences," "Education," "Essays," "The Study of Sociology," "Data of Ethics," "Principles of Sociology," "Political Institutions," etc.

Let us have peace.

Accepting a Nomination for the Presidency, May 29, 1868.--_Ulysses Simpson Grant_.

ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, the greatest of American generals, and eighteenth President of the United States, was born at Point Pleasant, Ohio, April 27, 1822, and died at Mt. McGregor near Saratoga Springs, N. Y., July 23, 1885. His "Personal Memoirs," won for him everlasting literary fame.

Have you sent to the apothecary for a sufficient quantity of cream of tartar to make lemonade? You know I die if I have not everything in the highest style.

"Man and Wife," iii,--_Colman_.

GEORGE COLMAN, the Elder, a celebrated English dramatist, was born in Florence, Italy, April 28, 1733, and died in London, August 14, 1794. Among his comedies are: "The Deuce Is in Him," "New Brooms," "Man and Wife," "The Separate Maintenance."

Injuries from friends fret and gall more, and the memory of them is not so easily obliterated.

--_John Arbuthnot_.

JOHN ARBUTHNOT, a famous Scottish humorist, was born near Arbuthnot Castle, Kincardineshire, Scotland, April 29, 1667, and died in London, February 27, 1735. His most celebrated work was, "The History of John Bull."

Life is a game the soul can play With fewer pieces than men say.

"Field-Notes,"--_Edward Rowland Sill_.

EDWARD ROWLAND SILL, a distinguished American poet, was born in Windsor, Conn., April 29, 1841, and died in Cleveland, O., February 27, 1887. His poetical works include: "The Venus of Milo, and Other Poems," "The Hermitage, and Other Poems," and "Poems," published after his death.

To be bright and cheerful often requires an effort; there is a certain art in keeping ourselves happy; in this respect, as in others, we require to watch over and manage ourselves almost as if we were somebody else.

--_Sir John Lubbock_.

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, a renowned English naturalist and paleontologist, was born in London, April 30, 1834, and died in 1913. Among his many works are: "Prehistoric Times as Illustrated by Ancient Remains," "The Origin of Civilization and the Primitive Condition of Man," "Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects," "Ants, Bees, and Wasps," "On the Senses, Instincts and Intelligence of Animals," "The Beauties of Nature and the Wonders of the World," "Flowers, Fruits and Leaves," "The Pleasures of Life," "The Use of Life," "The Scenery of Switzerland and the Causes to Which It Is Due," "The Scenery of England," "Essays and Addresses," "Free Trade," "Notes on the Life History of the British Flowering Plants," "Marriage, Totemism, and Religion," "Peace and Happiness," etc.

From our Dominion never Take thy protecting hand! United, Lord, forever, Keep thou our father's land!

--_John Campbell, Duke of Argyll_.

GEORGE JOHN DOUGLAS CAMPBELL, eighth Duke of Argyll, a noted English philosophical, scientific, and political writer, and statesman, was born in Ardencaple, Castle Dumbartonshire, April 30, 1823, and died in 1900. Among his notable works are: "The Reign of Law," "Primeval Man," "Iona," "The Eastern Question," "The Unity of Nature," "The Unseen Foundations of Society."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.

[2] We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world.

[3] The king reigns but does not govern.

MAY

MAY

It must be so,--Plato, thou reasonest well! Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality? Or whence this secret dread and inward horror Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought.

"Cato," Act V. Sc. I.--_Joseph Addison_.

JOSEPH ADDISON, a famous English essayist and poet, was born at Milston, Wiltshire, May 1, 1672, and died in London, June 17, 1719. He wrote 41 original papers in the "Tattler," and 34 with Steele; 274 in the "Spectator," 24 to a revived "Spectator," and 2 to Steele's "Lover." His other works include: "Letters from Italy" (a poem), "The Campaign" (a poem), "Fair Rosamond" (an opera), "Remarks on Several Parts of Italy," and "Cato" (a tragedy).

As an orator, Webster has been compared in simplicity to Demosthenes and in profundity to Burke.

"Daniel Webster; History of the United States,"--_James Ford Rhodes_.

JAMES FORD RHODES, a distinguished American historian, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, May 1, 1848. He is best known by his noted work in two volumes, "History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850." His other works include, "Historical Essays," "Lectures on the American Civil War Delivered at Oxford," "History of the Civil War," "History of the United States from Hayes to McKinley," etc.

All power appears only in transition. Permanent power is stuff.

--_Novalis_.

NOVALIS, the _nom de plume_ of FRIEDRICH VON HARDENBURG, a noted German philosopher and mystic, was born in Saxony, May 2, 1772, and died, 1801. Among his writings are: "Hymns to the Night," "Disciples at Sais," and "Heinrich von Ofterdingen."

The people of Massachusetts in the seventeenth century, like all other Christian people at that time and later,--at least, with extremely rare individual exceptions,--believed in the reality of a hideous crime called witchcraft. They thought they had Scripture for that belief, and they knew they had law for it, explicit and abundant; and with them law and Scripture were absolute authorities for the regulation of opinion and of conduct.

"History of New England."--_J. G. Palfrey_.

JOHN GORHAM PALFREY, a distinguished American clergyman and author, was born in Boston, May 2, 1796, and died in Cambridge, Mass., April 26, 1881. He published numerous sermons, lectures, addresses, etc., but "The History of New England," won for him world-wide fame.

I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart.

"Three Men in a Boat," Chap. 15,--_J. K. Jerome_.

JEROME K. JEROME, a famous English writer, was born at Walsall, May 2, 1861. Among his works are: "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow," "Three Men in a Boat," "Novel Notes," "John Ingerfield," "Fennel," "Ruth," "Passing of the Third Floor Back," "Esther Castways," "Malvina of Brittany," "All Roads Lead to Calvary," etc.

Bisogna che i giudici siano assai perché pochi sempre fanno a modo de'pochi.[1]

"Dei Discorsi," I, 7,--_Machiavelli_.

NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, a renowned Italian statesman and political and historical writer was born at Florence, May 3, 1469, and died there, June 22, 1527. He wrote: "Mandragola," "The Prince," "Florentine History," "Discourses," "Art of War," etc.

There is another and a better world.

"The Stranger," Act. i, Sc. 1,--_A. F. Kotzebue_.

AUGUST FRIEDRICH FERDINAND VON KOTZEBUE, a famous German dramatist, was born at Weimar, May 3, 1761, and died at Mannheim, March 23, 1819. His best known works are: "The Spaniards in Peru," "The Stranger," "Misanthropy and Repentance," "German Provincials," "The Indians in England," and his noted novel, "Sorrows of the Ortenberg Family."

The Doctrine of Stoicism modified by a doctrine of culture is nobly preached in Matthew Arnold's verse.

"New Studios in Literature," p. 37,--_Edward Dowden_.

EDWARD DOWDEN, a distinguished Irish poet and historian of literature, was born at Cork, May 3, 1843, and died in 1913. He has written: "Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley," "Primer of French Literature," "Studies in Literature," "Poems," "Southey," "Shakespeare, His Mind and Art," "Introduction to Shakespeare," "Wordsworth," "New Studies in Literature," "The French Revolution and English Literature," "A History of French Literature," "Robert Browning," "Michel de Montaigne," "Essays: Modern and Elizabethan," "Poetical Works" (2 vols.). His "Letters" appeared in 1914.

The triumphs of the warrior are bounded by the narrow theatre of his own age, but those of a Scott or a Shakespeare will be renewed with greater luster in ages yet unborn, when the victorious chieftain shall be forgotten, or shall live only in the song of the minstrel and the page of the chronicler.

--_Prescott_.

WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, a famous American historian, was born at Salem, Mass., May 4, 1796, and died in New York, January 28, 1859. He wrote: "History of Ferdinand and Isabella," "History of the Conquest of Mexico," "History of the Conquest of Peru," "Critical Essays," "History of the Reign of Philip II of Spain," etc.

It is well to think well: it is divine to act well.

--_Horace Mann_.

HORACE MANN, a noted American educator and educational writer was born in Franklin, Mass., May 4, 1796, and died in Yellow Springs, Ohio, August 2, 1859. He published: "A Few Thoughts for a Young Man," "Slavery: Letters and Speeches," "Powers and Duties of Woman," etc.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

"Technical Education,"--_Thomas Henry Huxley_.

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY, a renowned English scientist, was born in Ealing, May 4, 1825, and died June 29, 1895. Among his famous works are: "Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature," "On the Educational Value of the Natural-History Sciences," "Lectures on the Elements of Comparative Anatomy," "Lessons in Elementary Physiology," "On the Physical Basis of Life," "Half Hours with Modern Scientists," "American Addresses," "An Introduction to the Classification of Animals," "Science and Culture, and Other Essays," etc., etc.

Time, to the nation as to the individual, is nothing absolute; its duration depends on the rate of thought and feeling.

--_John W. Draper_.

JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER, a famous physiologist, historical and miscellaneous prose-writer, was born near Liverpool, England, May 5, 1811, and died at Hastings-on-the-Hudson, N. Y., January 4, 1882. He has written: "Human Physiology," "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe," "History of the American Civil War," and his most celebrated work, "History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science."

In La Fontaine there is an affluence of poetry which is found in no other French author.

"Literary Judgments,"--_Joseph Joubert_.

JOSEPH JOUBERT, an eminent French moralist and writer of aphorisms, was born in Montignac, Périgord, May 6, 1754, and died at Paris in 1824. Most of his epigrammatic work was published after his death, the titles of the volumes being, "Thoughts," and "Thoughts, Essays, Maxims, and Correspondence."

I feel the breath of the summer night, Aromatic fire; The trees, the vines the flowers are astir With tender desire.

"A Summer Night,"--_Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard_.

ELIZABETH DREW (BARSTOW) STODDARD, a noted American novelist and poet, was born in Mattapoisett, Mass., May 6, 1823, and died in 1902. Among her works are: "Temple House," "Two Men," "The Morgesons," and "Poems," collected and published in 1895, etc.

I trust in Nature for the stable laws Of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant And Autumn garner to the end of time. I trust in God,--the right shall be the right And other than the wrong, while he endures. I trust in my own soul, that can perceive The outward and the inward,--Nature's good And God's.

"A Soul's Tragedy," Act i,--_Robert Browning_.

ROBERT BROWNING, the renowned English poet, was born in Camberwell, May 7, 1812, and died in Venice, December 12, 1889. Among his poetical works are: "A Soul's Tragedy," "The Return of the Druses," "Colombe's Birthday," "Strafford," "Pauline," "Christmas Eve and Easter Day," "Fifine at the Fair," "Men and Women," "King Victor and King Charles," "Jocoseria," "Red-Cotton Nightcap Country," "Dramatic Idylls," "Pippa Passes," etc.

Facts are stubborn things.

"Gil Blas," Book x, Chap. i,--_Le Sage_.

ALAIN RENÉ LE SAGE, a famous French novelist and dramatist, was born at Sarzeau, near Cannes, May 8, 1668, and died at Boulogne-sur-Mer, November 17, 1747. His greatest works were: "The Bachelor of Salamanca," "Gil Blas," "The Life and Adventures of M. de Beauchène," "The Devil on Two Sticks," and two well-known comedies, "Crispin His Master's Rival," and "Turcaret."

Suffering is the surest means of making us truthful to ourselves.

--_Sismondi_.

JEAN CHARLES LÉONARD SIMON DE SISMONDI, an illustrious Swiss historian, was born at Geneva, May 9, 1773, and died there, June 25, 1842. His most noted works are: "History of the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages," "History of the New Birth of Liberty in Italy," "History of the Fall of the Roman Empire," "History of the French," "Julia Severa: or, the Year 492," and "Literature of the South of Europe."

Life is a long lesson in humility.

"The Little Minister," Chap. 3,--_J. M. Barrie_.

JAMES MATTHEW BARRIE, a noted Scottish author, was born in Kirriemuir, Forfarshire, May 9, 1860. He has written: "When a Man's Single," "Better Dead," "Auld Licht Idylls," "A Window in Thrums," "My Lady Nicotine," "Sentimental Tommy," "Margaret Ogilvy," "The Little Minister," "Tommy and Grizel," "The Little White Bird," "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens," "Peter and Wendy," Dramatic works are: "The Professor's Love Story," "The Wedding Guest," "Little Mary," "Peter Pan," "Alice-Sit-by-the-Fire," "What Every Woman Knows," "The Legend of Leonora," "The Will," "The Adored One," "Half an Hour," "Der Tag," "Rosy Rapture," "A Kiss for Cinderella," "Seven Women," "Dear Brutus," "Echoes of the War," etc.

No country seems to owe more to its women than America does, nor to owe to them so much of what is best in social institutions and in the beliefs that govern conduct.

"The American Commonwealth,"--_James Bryce_.

JAMES BRYCE, a noted British statesman, diplomat, and historian, was born in Belfast, May 10, 1838, and died Jan. 22, 1922. His most important works are: "The Holy Roman Empire" and "The American Commonwealth."

By the waters of Life we sat together, Hand in hand, in the golden days Of the beautiful early summer weather, When skies were purple and breath was praise.

"An Old Man's Idyll,"--_Thomas Noel_.

THOMAS NOEL, a noted English poet, was born May 11, 1799, and died in 1861. Among his volumes of verse are: "Rhymes and Roundelayes," etc.

The congress of Vienna does not walk, but it dances.

--_Prince de Ligne_.

CHARLES JOSEPH, PRINCE DE LIGNE, a distinguished Belgian soldier and miscellaneous writer, was born at Brussels, May 12, 1735, and died December 13, 1814. He wrote: "Military, Literary and Sentimental Miscellanies," "Life of Prince Eugene of Savoy," etc.

Molto sa chi non sa, se tacer sa.[2]

"Gingillino," Part II,--_Giusti_.

GIUSEPPI GIUSTI, a notable Italian poet and political satirist, was born in Monsummano, May 12, 1809, and died in Florence, March 31, 1850. His first masterpiece was the poem "Dies Iræ," other pieces are: "The Boot," "The Crowned," "The Investiture of a Knight," and the satires written from 1847 to 1849.

Each hour until we meet is as a bird That wings from far his gradual way along The rustling covert of my soul--his song Still loudlier trilled through leaves more deeply stirr'd: But at the hour of meeting, a clear word Is every note he sings, in Love's own tongue.

"Winged Hours," Sonnet xv,--_Dante Gabriel Rossetti_.

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI, the renowned English painter and poet, was born in London, May 12, 1828, and died at Birchington, Kent, April 9, 1882. Among his poetical works are: "Blessed Damozel," "Sister Helen," "The White Ship," "The House of Life," "The King's Tragedy," "Hand and Soul," and "Rose Mary." Also: translations of "Early Italian Poets."

To tremble, when I touch her hands, With awe that no man understands; To feel soft reverence arise When, lover-sweet, I meet her eyes; To see her beauty grow and shine When most I feel this awe divine,-- Whate'er befall me, this is mine; And whereabout the room she moves, My spirit follows her, and loves.

"Divine Awe,"--_George Edward Woodberry_.

GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY, a famous American poet and miscellaneous writer, was born at Beverly, Mass., May 12, 1855. He has written: "The North Shore Watch, and Other Poems," "History of Wood Engraving," "Life of Edgar Allan Poe," "The Flight and Other Poems," "North Africa and the Desert," "Shakespeare: An Address," "Great Writers," "Poems," "The Inspiration of Poetry," "Wendell Phillips," "Two Phases of Criticism," "Ideal Passion" (sonnets).

Work, and thou wilt bless the day Ere the toil be done; They that work not, can not pray, Can not feel the sun. God is living, working still, All things work and move; Work, or lose the power to will, Lose the power to love.

"Working,"--_John Sullivan Dwight_.

JOHN SULLIVAN DWIGHT, a noted American musical critic, was born at Boston, May 13, 1813, and died September 5, 1893. His noted poem is, "God Save the State."

Children are like grown people; the experience of others is never of any use to them.

--_Alphonse Daudet_.

ALPHONSE DAUDET, a distinguished French novelist, was born at Nîmes, May 13, 1840, and died December 16, 1897. He wrote: "The Little Thing: Story of a Child," "Letters from My Mill," "Monday Tales," "Fromont, Jr. and Risler, Sr.," "The Nabob," "Kings in Exile," "Numa Roumestan," "The Gospeller," "Sappho," "Tartarin," "Prodigious Adventures of Tartarin," "Tartarin in the Alps," "Port Tarascon," "Thirty Years of Paris," "Recollections of a Man of Letters," etc.

Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, The queen of the world and the child of the skies! Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold, While ages on ages thy splendors unfold.

"Columbia,"--_Timothy Dwight_.

TIMOTHY DWIGHT, a celebrated American Congregational clergyman, was born in Northampton, Mass., May 14, 1752, and died in New Haven, Conn., January 11, 1817. He wrote: "Observations on Language," "Essay on Light," "Greenfield Hill" "Travels in New England and New York," "Theology Explained and Defended," etc.

"You can never say too much about Coleridge to me," Rossetti would write, "for I worship him on the right side of idolatry, and I perceive you know him well." Upon this one of my first remarks was that there was much in Coleridge's higher descriptive verse equivalent to the landscape art of Turner. The critical parallel Rossetti warmly approved of, adding however, that Coleridge, at his best as a pictorial artist, was a spiritualised Turner.

"Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti,"--_Hall Caine_.

SIR THOMAS HENRY HALL CAINE, an eminent English novelist, was born at Runcorn, Cheshire, May 14, 1853. His most noted works are: "The Deemster," "A Son of Hagar," "Recollections of Rossetti," "The Scapegoat," "The Shadow of a Crime," "The Manxman," "The Christian," "The White Prophet," "The Prodigal Son," "The Woman Thou Gavest Me," etc. Also: "The Drama of 365 Days," "Scenes in the Great War," "Britain's Daughters," etc.

Sooth 'twere a pleasant life to lead, With nothing in the world to do But just to blow a shepherd's reed, The silent season thro' And just to drive a flock to feed,-- Sheep, quiet, fond and few!

"Dolce far Niente," Stanza I,--_Laman Blanchard_.

SAMUEL LAMAN BLANCHARD, a noted British author and journalist, was born May 15, 1804, and died February 15, 1845. He published "Lyric Offerings," etc.; and edited numerous magazine journals.

The deeper the feeling the less demonstrative will be the expression of it.

--_Balzac_.

HONORÉ DE BALZAC, the greatest of French novelists, was born in Tours, May 16, 1799, and died in Paris, August 18, 1850. He wrote in all about 97 celebrated novels. Among them: "Le Vieille Fille," "Contrat De Marriage," "Le Colonel Chabert," "Les Chouans," "Pierrette," "Seraphita," "Les Employés," "Modeste Mignon," "Histoire Des Treize," "Début Dans La Vie," "Ursule Mirouet," "Eugène Grandet," "Cousin Pons," "Le Père Goriot," "Les Paysans," "Cousine Bette," etc., etc.

Les grandes ne sont grands que parceque nous sommes à genoux; Relevons nous.[3]

"Revolutions de Paris," Motto.--_Prudhomme_.

RENÉ FRANÇOIS ARMAND SULLY-PRUDHOMME, a famous French poet, was born at Paris, May 16, 1839, and died in 1907. He has written: "The Broken Vase," "Stanzas and Poems," "The Stables of Augeas," "The Wildernesses," "Revolt of the Flowers," "Reflections on the Art of Versification," etc.

To think, and to feel, constitute the two grand divisions of men of genius--the men of reasoning and the men of imagination.

"Literary Character of Men of Genius," Ch. II,--_Isaac Disraeli_.

ISAAC DISRAELI, a distinguished English literary essayist, compiler and historian, was born at Enfield in Middlesex, May 17, 1766, and died January 9, 1848. Among his writings are: "Curiosities of Literature," "Calamities of Authors," "Quarrels of Authors," "Miscellanies, or Literary Recollections," etc. Also: "Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I."

A monument to Newton! a monument to Shakespeare! Look up to Heaven--look into the Human Heart. Till the planets and the passions--the affections and the fixed stars are extinguished--their names cannot die.