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JANUARY
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There is no moment like the present; not only so, but, moreover, there is no moment at all, that is, no instant force and energy, but in the present. The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards: they will be dissipated, lost, and perish in the hurry and skurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence.
—Maria Edgeworth.
Maria Edgeworth, a noted English novelist, was born in Black Bourton, Oxfordshire, January 1, 1767, and died in Edgeworthstown, Ireland, May, 1849. She wrote: “Early Lessons,” “Castle Rackrent,” “Tales of Fashionable Life,” “Belinda,” “Leonora,” “Moral Tales,” “The Modern Griselda,” “Helen,” “Ormond,” and “Patronage.”
’Tis always morning somewhere in the world.
“Orion,” Book iii, Canto ii (1843).—Richard Henry Horne.
Richard Henry Horne, a famous English miscellaneous writer, was born January 1, 1803, and died March 13, 1884. His principal works are: “The Dreamer and the Worker,” “Cosmo de’ Medici,” “Orion,” “A New Spirit of the Age,” “The Death of Marlowe,” “Judas Iscariot, A Miracle Play,” “Australian Facts and Prospects,” and “Exposition of the False Medium, and Barriers Excluding Men of Genius from the Public.”
Ah, the key of your life, that passes all wards, opens all locks,
Is not I will, but I must, I must, I must,—and I do it.
—A. H. Clough.
Arthur Hugh Clough, an English poet of great renown, was born in Liverpool, January 1, 1819; and died at Florence, Italy, November 13, 1861. Among his noted works may be mentioned: “Ambarvalia: Poems by Thomas Burbidge and A. H. Clough,” “Poems and Prose Remains,” “Plutarch’s Lives: the Translation called Dryden’s Corrected,” etc.
And what is sorrow? ’Tis a boundless sea.
And what is joy?
A little pearl in that deep ocean’s bed;
I sought it—found it—held it o’er my head,
And to my soul’s annoy,
It fell into the ocean’s depth again,
And now I look and long for it in vain.
“Sorrow and Joy,”—Alexander Petöfi.
Alexander Petöfi, a celebrated Hungarian poet, was born at Kis-Koros, near Pesth, January 1, 1823, and died July 31, 1849. His chief works are: “The Wine-Bibbers,” “Coriolanus” (a drama), and his famous song “Talpra Magyar” (Up, Magyar), the Hungarian Marseillaise.
I think, ofttimes, that lives of men may be
Likened to wandering winds that come and go
Not knowing whence they rise, whither they blow
O’er the vast globe, voiceful of grief or glee.
“A Comparison,”—Paul Hamilton Hayne.
Paul Hamilton Hayne, a distinguished American poet, was born in Charleston, S. C., January 1, 1830, and died at Augusta, Ga., July 6, 1886. He has written: “Sonnets and Other Poems,” “Avolio, a Legend of the Island of Cos,” “Legends and Lyrics,” “The Mountain of the Lovers,” etc.
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, but left the shield.
“To the Memory of the Americans who fell at Eutaw,”—Philip Freneau.
Philip Freneau, a noted American poet, was born in New York City, January 2, 1752, and died near Freehold, N. J., December 18, 1832. He wrote: “Eutaw Springs,” “The College Examination,” “The Home of Night,” “The Indian Student,” and “Lines to a Wild Honeysuckle.”
Men of letters and great artists are the lights of a nation; they are what make it great; they are what give it a place in history.
“Advance of the English Novel,”—William Lyon Phelps.
William Lyon Phelps, a celebrated university professor and literary critic, was born at New Haven, Connecticut, January 2, 1865. He has written “Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray,” “Irving’s Sketch Book,” “The Best Plays of Chapman,” “The Novels of Samuel Richardson,” (20 vols.), “The Works of Jane Austen” (12 vols.), “Stevenson’s Essays,” “The Pure Gold of Nineteenth Century Literature,” “Essays on Modern Novelists,” “Essays on Russian Novelists,” “Essays on Books,” “The Advance of the English Novel,” “The Advance of English Poetry,” “Reading the Bible,” “Essays on Modern Dramatists.”
He is one of those wise philanthropists who in a time of famine would vote for nothing but a supply of toothpicks.
—Douglas Jerrold.
Douglas William Jerrold, a noted English humorist, was born in London, England, January 3, 1803, and died there June 8, 1857. Some of his well-known works are: “The Rent Day,” “Retired from Business,” “Story of a Feather,” “Nell Gwynne,” “The Bubbles of the Day.”
You can’t expect anything from a pig but a grunt.
“Fairy Tales,”—Grimm.
Jacob Grimm, a famous philologist, archæologist, and folklorist, was born at Hanau, January 4, 1785, and died at Berlin, September 20, 1863. He wrote: “The Poetry of the Meistersingers,” “German Mythology,” “History of the German Language,” “German Grammar,” etc. His fame rests, however, upon his celebrated work, “Fables for Children,” written in collaboration with his brother Wilhelm, and best-known as, “Grimm’s Fairy Tales.”
I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Brewster’s “Memoirs of Newton,” Vol. ii, Chap. xxvii.—Isaac Newton.
Sir Isaac Newton, the renowned English philosopher and mathematician, was born at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, January 5, 1643, and died at Kensington, March 31, 1727. Among his works are: “Principia,” “Theory of Light and Colors,” “Optical Readings,” “On Motion,” “Opticks,” etc.
The phrase, “public office is a public trust,” has of late become common property.
—Charles Sumner (May 31, 1872).
Charles Sumner, a distinguished American statesman, was born in Boston, January 6, 1811, and died in Washington, D. C., March 11, 1874. His speeches, orations, etc., were collected and published (1870-83) in a 15-vol. edition.
There are many moments in friendship as in love, when silence is beyond words. The faults of our friends may be clear to us, but it is well to seem to shut our eyes to them.
—Ouida.
Louise de la Ramée (Ouida), a famous English novelist of French extraction, was born at Bury St. Edmunds, January 7, 1839, and died January 25, 1908. Among her numerous works are: “Held in Bondage,” “Strathmore,” “Chandos,” “Idalia,” “Under Two Flags,” “A Leaf in the Storm,” “Pascarel,” “In a Winter City,” “Friendship,” “A Village Commune,” “Wanda,” “A House Party,” “Guilderoy,” “Moths,” “A Rainy June,” “Views and Opinions,” etc.
The Darwinian theory, even when carried out to its extreme logical conclusion, not only does not oppose, but lends a decided support to, a belief in the spiritual nature of man. It shows us how man’s body may have been developed from that of a lower animal form under the law of natural selection; but it also teaches us that we possess intellectual and moral faculties which could not have been so developed, but must have had another origin; and for this origin we can only find an adequate cause in the unseen universe of Spirit.
“Darwinism,”—A. R. Wallace.
Alfred Russel Wallace, a renowned English naturalist, was born at Usk in Monmouthshire, January 8, 1822, and died November 7, 1913. He wrote: “Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro,” “The Malay Archipelago,” “On the Geographical Distribution of Animals,” “Tropical Nature,” “Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection,” “Man’s Place in the Universe,” “My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions,” “Is Mars Habitable?” “The World of Life,” “Social Environment and Moral Progress,” “The Revolt of Democracy,” etc.
I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of a work of fiction should be to tell a story.
—William Wilkie Collins.
William Wilkie Collins, a celebrated English novelist, was born in London, January 8, 1824, and died there September 23, 1889. He wrote: “The New Magdalen,” “No Name,” “Antonia,” “Basil,” “The Dead Secret,” “Armadale,” “Man and Wife,” “Poor Miss Finch,” “Miss or Mrs.?” “The Law and the Lady,” “The Two Destinies,” “Heart and Science,” “I Say No,” “The Legacy of Cain,” “The Moonstone,” and “The Woman in White,” his greatest novel.
The all-pervading greatness of Shakespeare lies in his comprehension of the ethical order of the world; [his dramas are] the truest literary product of the time, because the most perfect and concrete presentation of realized rationality.
—D. J. Snider.
Denton Jaques Snider, a distinguished American author, was born in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, January 9, 1841. He is best known by his famous work, “A Walk in Hellas.” His other works include: “Homer in Chios,” “Johnny Appleseed’s Rhymes,” “Ancient European Philosophy,” “Modern European Philosophy,” “Architecture,” “World’s Fair Studies,” “Commentaries on Froebel’s Play Songs,” “The Will and Its World,” “The Life of Frederick Froebel,” “The Father of History,” “Herodotus,” “Social Institutions,” “The State,” “A Tour in Europe,” “Cosmos and Diacosmos,” etc.
Softly, O midnight hours,
Move softly o’er the bowers
Where lies in happy sleep a girl so fair:
For ye have power, men say,
Our hearts in sleep to sway
And cage cold fancies in a moonlight snare.
“Softly, O Midnight Hours,”—Aubrey Thomas de Vere.
Aubrey Thomas De Vere, a famous Irish poet and descriptive and political essayist, son of Sir Aubrey De Vere, was born January 10, 1814, and died in 1902. Among his works are: “Poems,” “Irish Odes,” “Alexander the Great,” “Picturesque Sketches of Greece and Turkey,” “Constitutional and Unconstitutional Political Action,” “The Foray of Queen Meave and Other Legends of Ireland’s Heroic Age,” “The Sisters,” “Legends of the Saxon Saints,” “St. Peter’s Chains,” “Essays Chiefly on Poetry,” “Essays Chiefly Literary and Ethical,” “Recollections,” etc.
I know of no other English-speaking poet of the day who can turn a song so gracefully and easily as Mr. Stoddard can. Certain of his lyrics are, to my mind, unsurpassed for haunting charm of cadence. He has also written several odes of admirable nobility and stateliness.
“Poems of Wild Life,”—Charles G. D. Roberts.
Charles George Douglas Roberts, a celebrated Canadian poet, was born in Douglas, N. B., January 10, 1860. Among his publications are: “Orion and Other Poems,” “In Divers Tones,” “Canterbury Poets,” “History of Canada,” “A Sister to Evangeline,” “The Heart of the Ancient Wood,” “The Kindred of the Wild,” “Barbara Ladd,” “The Watchers of the Trails,” “The Heart that Knows,” “The House in the Water,” “Neighbours Unknown,” “The Feet of the Furtive,” “Babes of the Wild,” “The Ledge on Bald Face,” “In the Morning of Time,” etc.
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.
—Alexander Hamilton.
Alexander Hamilton, an illustrious American statesman, was born in the Island of Nevis, West Indies, January 11, 1757, and died near New York, July 12, 1804. His “Collected Works,” appeared in 1851.
The effect of every burden laid down is to leave us relieved; and when the soul has laid down that of its faults at the feet of God, it feels as though it had wings.
—Eugénie de Guérin.
Eugénie de Guérin, a famous French diarist and prose-writer, was born January 11, 1805, and died May 31, 1848. Jointly with her brother Maurice, she wrote the “Journals,” and “Letters.”
I feel the rush of waves that round me rise,
The tossing of my boat upon the sea;
Few sunbeams linger in the stormy skies,
And youth’s bright shore is lessening on the lee!
—Bayard Taylor.
Bayard Taylor, an eminent American poet, and novelist, was born at Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, January 11, 1825, and died at Berlin, Germany, December 19, 1878. His noted works are: “Views Afoot,” “The American Legend,” “Poems and Ballads,” “Poems of the Orient,” “Travels in Greece and Russia,” “Poems of Home and Travel,” “At Home and Abroad,” “Hannah Thurston,” “The Story of Kennett,” “By-Ways of Europe,” “The Masque of the Gods,” “Egypt and Iceland,” “Home Pastorals, Ballads, and Lyrics,” “Dramatic Works,” “Critical Essays and Literary Notes,” etc.
A liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest.
“Life and Letters,” Vol. ii, p. 341,—John Winthrop.
Governor John Winthrop, first Colonial governor of Massachusetts, and a distinguished writer, was born near Groton, Suffolk, England, January 12, 1587, and died at Boston, March 26, 1649. He wrote: “A Modell of Christian Charity,” “Arbitrary Government Described,” and a “History of New England from 1630 to 1649,” which was left by him in MS., and found in his “Life and Letters,” by Robert C. Winthrop.
People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.
“Reflections on the Revolution in France,” Vol. iii, p. 274—Edmund Burke.
Edmund Burke, an eminent British statesman and orator, was born in Dublin, January 12, 1729, and died in Beaconsfield, England, July 9, 1797. He wrote: “A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful,” “Reflections on the French Revolution,” “Letters on a Regicide Peace,” “Works and Correspondence.”
La crainte fit les dieux; l’audace a fait les rois.[1]
—Crébillon.
Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, a celebrated French dramatist, was born at Dijon, January 13, 1674, and died at Paris, June 14, 1762. His plays include; “The Death of Brutus’s Children,” “Idomeneus,” “Atreus and Thyestes,” “Electra,” “Rhadamistus and Zénobia,” “Xerxes,” “Semiramis,” “Pyrrhus,” and “Catalina.”
How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood,
When fond recollection presents them to view.
“The Old Oaken Bucket,”—Samuel Woodworth.
Samuel Woodworth, a noted American poet and journalist, was born at Scituate, Mass., January 13, 1785, and died in New York City, December 9, 1842. His poem, “The Old Oaken Bucket,” won for him great fame.
All quiet along the Potomac to-night,
No sound save the rush of the river,
While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead—
The picket’s off duty forever.
“All quiet along the Potomac,”—Ethel L. Beers.
Ethel Lynn Beers, a well-known American poet, was born in Goshen, N. Y., January 13, 1827, and died in Orange, N. J., October 10, 1879. She is the author of “All Quiet Along the Potomac, and Other Poems.”
Oh, meet is the reverence unto Bacchus paid!
We will praise him still in the songs of our fatherland,
We will pour the sacred wine, the chargers lade,
And the victim kid shall unresisting stand,
Led by his horns to the altar, where we turn
The hazel spits while the dripping entrails burn.
“Georgics,” Bk. ii, St. 17, L. 31 (H. W. Preston’s Translation).—Vergil.
Harriet Waters Preston, a distinguished American scholar, translator, and writer, was born in Danvers, Mass., January 14 (?), 1836, and died in 1911. Besides her translations of Mistral’s “Mireio,” Virgil’s “Georgics,” etc., she has published: “Aspendale,” “Troubadours and Trouvéres,” “Love in the Nineteenth Century,” “A Year in Eden,” etc.
Although I am a pious man, I am not the less a man.
“Le Tartuffe,” Act. iii, Scene 3,—Molière.
Jean Baptiste Poquelin (Molière), the greatest of French dramatists, was born in Paris, January 15 (?), 1622, and died there, February 17, 1673. Among his famous works are: “The Misanthrope,” “The Learned Ladies,” “The School for Wives,” “The Imaginary Invalid,” “The Miser,” “Don Juan,” “The School for Husbands,” and “Tartuffe,” which is considered by many to be his masterpiece.
Die Thränen sind des Schmerzes heilig Recht![2]
“Sappho, III, 5,”—Fr. Grillparzer.
Franz Grillparzer, a renowned Austrian poet and dramatist, was born in Vienna, January 15, 1791, and died there January 21, 1872. Among his noted works are: “Blanche of Castile,” “The Ancestress,” “Sappho,” “The Jewess of Toledo,” “The Poor Minstrel,” etc., also two famous poems, “Waves of Ocean; Thrills of Love,” and “In Thy Camp is Austria.”
The pure, the beautiful, the bright,
That stirred our hearts in youth,
The impulse to a wordless prayer,
The dreams of love and truth,
The longings after something lost,
The spirit’s yearning cry,
The strivings after better hopes,
These things can never die.
“Things that Never Die,”—Sarah Doudney.
Sarah Doudney, a noted English writer of fiction, was born near Portsmouth, England, January 15, 1843. She has written: “Under Grey Walls,” “The Pilot’s Daughters,” “Nothing But Leaves,” “Under False Colours,” “The Lesson of the Water Mill,” “The Missing Rubies,” “When We Two Parted,” “Through Pain to Peace,” “Pilgrims of the Night,” “A Cluster of Roses,” “Silent Strings,” “One of the Few,” “Shadow and Shine,” etc.
Tant la plume a eu sous le roi d’avantage sur l’epée.[3]
“Mémoires,” Vol. iii, p. 517 (1702), Ed. 1856.—Saint-Simon.
Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon, the great French annalist, was born January 16, 1675, and died March 2, 1755. His notable works are: His famous “Memoirs,” published in twenty volumes.
Early to bed and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
—Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin, the renowned American philosopher and statesman, was born in Boston, January 16, 1706, and died in Philadelphia, April 17, 1790. He wrote his own “Autobiography,” and other important works.
Dicen, que el primer consejo
Ha de ser de la muger.[4]
“El Medico de su. Houra,” I, 2.—Calderon.
Pedro Calderon de la Barca, the great Spanish dramatist, was born at Madrid, January 17, 1600, and died May 25, 1681. Among his dramas may be mentioned: “The Wonder-Working Magician,” “The Schism of England,” “The Alcalde of Zalamea,” “No Magic Like Love,” “The Divine Orpheus.”
Ove son leggi,
Tremar non dee chi leggi non infranse.[5]
“Virginia,” II., i.,—Alfieri.
Count Vittorio Alfieri, a celebrated Italian dramatist, was born at Asti in Piedmont, January 17, 1749, and died at Florence, October 8, 1803. Among his many works may be mentioned: “Cleopatra,” “Polinice,” “Antigone,” “Agide,” “Bruto,” “Saul,” “Filippo,” etc. He also wrote: “Tyranny,” “Essays on Literature and Government,” odes on “American Independence,” and “Memoirs of His Life.”
A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.
—Montesquieu.
Charles de Secondant, Baron de Montesquieu, a famous French historian and political philosopher, was born near Bordeaux, January 18, 1689, and died in Paris, February 10, 1755. He wrote: “Persian Letters,” “The Temple of Cnidus,” “Causes of Roman Greatness and Decline,” “Dialogue of Sylla Eucrates and Lysimachus,” “Works,” etc. Also his renowned work, “Spirit of Laws,” his masterpiece.
Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.
“Speech at Plymouth,” Dec. 22, 1820. Vol. i, p. 44.—Daniel Webster.
Daniel Webster, the illustrious American statesman and orator, was born in Salisbury, N. H., January 18, 1782, and died in Marshfield, Mass., October 24, 1852.
Truth is like a pearl: he alone possesses it who has plunged into the depths of life and torn his hands on the rocks of Time.
—Laboulaye.
Edouard René Lefèbvre de Laboulaye, a distinguished French jurist, historian, and writer of tales, was born at Paris, January 18, 1811, and died there May 25, 1883. His greatest work is a “Political History of the United States, 1620-1789,” (3 vols.) 1856-66. His other works are: “The United States and France,” “Paris in America,” and a novel “Prince Caniche.” His best known works of fiction are the three series of “Blue Stories.”
The despot’s heel is on thy shore,
Maryland!
His torch is at thy temple-door,
Maryland!
Avenge the patriotic gore
That flecked the streets of Baltimore,
And be the battle queen of yore,
Maryland, my Maryland!
“My Maryland.”—James Rider Randall.
James Ryder Randall, a celebrated American song-writer, was born in Baltimore, Md., January 18, 1839, and died in 1908. His poems include: “The Sole Entry,” “Arlington,” “The Cameo Bracelet,” “The Battle Cry of the South,” and his famous poem, “My Maryland!”
“Why wait,” he said, “why wait for May,
When love can warm a winter’s day?”
“Vignettes in Rhyme, Love in Winter.”—Austin Dobson.
Henry Austin Dobson, a famous English poet and man of letters, was born at Plymouth, January 18, 1840, and died April 1, 1921. He has written: “Proverbs in Porcelain,” “Old-World Idyls,” “Eighteenth-Century Vignettes,” “Vignettes in Rhyme and Vers de Société,” “Four French Women,” “The Paladin of Philanthropy,” “Side-Walk Studies,” “De Libris,” “Old Kensington Palace,” “At Prior Park,” “Rosalba’s Journal and Other Papers”; also “Lives of Fielding, Steele, Goldsmith,” “William Hogarth,” “Horace Walpole,” “Richardson,” “Fanny Burney,” etc.
Literature is the daughter of heaven, who has descended upon earth to soften and charm all human ills.
—Bernardin de Saint-Pierre.
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, the renowned French author was born in Havre, January 19, 1737, and died at Eragny-sur-Oise, January 21, 1814. His works include: “Voyage to the Isle of France,” “Studies of Nature,” “The Indian Cottage,” “Vows of a Solitary,” “Harmonies of Nature,” “On Nature and Morality,” “Voyage to Silesia,” “Stories of Travel,” “The Death of Socrates,” and his most famous work, “Paul and Virginia.”
Woman’s mission is a striking illustration of the truth that happiness consists in doing the work for which we are naturally fitted. Their mission is always the same; it is summed up in one word,—Love.
“Positive Polity”—Auguste Comte.
Auguste Comte, the great French philosopher, was born at Montpellier, January 19, 1798, and died in Paris, September 5, 1857. His most celebrated works are: “Positive Philosophy,” and “Positive Polity.”
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
“A Dream within a Dream,”—Edgar Allan Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe, a celebrated American poet and story-writer, was born in Boston, January 19, 1809, and died in Baltimore, Maryland, October 7, 1849. His poems include: “The Raven, and Other Poems,” “Tamerlane and Other Poems,” “Eureka, a Prose Poem,” “Poems,” etc.
It would hardly be safe to name Miss Austen, Miss Brontë, and George Eliot as the three greatest women novelists the United Kingdom can boast, and were one to go on and say that the alphabetical order of their names is also their order of merit, it would be necessary to seek police protection, and yet surely it is so.
“Life of C. Brontë,”—Augustine Birrell.
Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, a distinguished English essayist, was born in Wavertree, near Liverpool, January 19, 1850. He has written: “Obiter Dicta,” “Res Judicatæ,” “Life of Charlotte Brontë,” “Men, Women and Books,” “Collected Essays,” “William Hazlitt,” “Andrew Marvell,” “Miscellanies,” “In the Name of the Bodleian,” “Frederick Locker Lampson,” etc.
For it stirs the blood in an old man’s heart,
And makes his pulses fly,
To catch the thrill of a happy voice,
And the light of a pleasant eye.
“Saturday Afternoon,”—Nathaniel P. Willis.
Nathaniel Parker Willis, a celebrated American journalist and poet, was born at Portland, Maine, January 20, 1806, and died at Idlewild on the Hudson, New York, January 20, 1867. Some of his writings are: “People I Have Met,” “Inklings of Adventure,” “Letters from Under a Bridge,” “Famous Persons and Places,” “Poems,” etc.
Time’s horses gallop down the lessening hill.
“Time Flies,”—Richard Le Gallienne.
Richard Le Gallienne, a noted English author, was born in Liverpool, January 20, 1866. He has written: “The Religion of a Literary Man,” “My Lady’s Sonnets,” “Prose Fancies,” “Sleeping Beauty and other Prose Fancies,” “The Quest of the Golden Girl,” “The Life Romantic,” “Pieces of Eight,” etc.
Gray found very little gratification at Cambridge in the society and manners of the young university men who were his contemporaries. They ridiculed his sensitive temper and retired habits, and gave him the nickname of “Miss Gray,” for his supposed effeminacy. Nor does Gray seem to have lived on much better terms with his academic superiors. He abhorred mathematics, with the same cordiality of hatred which Pope professed towards them, and at that time concurred with Pope in thinking that the best recipe for dullness was to
“Full in the midst of Euclid plunge at once,
And petrify a genius to a dunce.”
“Memoirs of Eminent Etonians,”—Sir Edward Creasy.
Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy, a famous English historian was born at Bexley in Kent, January 21, 1812, and died January 27, 1878. He wrote: “Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World,” “The History of the Ottoman Turks,” “History of England,” “Rise and Progress of the English Constitution,” “Historical and Critical Account of the Several Invasions of England,” etc.
The father’s love is greater than the mother’s, as his strength is greater than hers. Christ, not Mary, is the embodiment of parental love.
“The Betrayal,”—Walter Neale.
Walter Neale, a noted American author and man of letters, was born at Eastville, Va., January 21, 1873. Among his works are: “The Betrayal” (a novel), “The Sovereignty of the States,” and numerous essays, poems, addresses, etc.
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel.
“Of Travel,”—Francis Bacon.
Francis Bacon, the great English philosopher, was born in London, January 22, 1561, and died April 9, 1626. Some of his works are: “The Advancement of Learning,” “On the Colors of Good and Evil,” “Novum Organum,” his immortal “Essays,” and many histories, among them “Elizabeth,” “Henry VII” and “Henry VIII.”
For the will and not the gift makes the giver.
—Lessing.
Gotthold Ephraim Von Lessing, a famous German poet, was born at Kamenz, in Upper Lusatia, January 22, 1729, and died at Brunswick, February 15, 1781. Among his writings are: “Letters on Literature,” “Nathan the Wise,” “Philotas,” “The Woman-Hater,” “The Jews,” “Trifles,” (a collection of poems), “The Free-Thinker,” “Education of the Human Race,” etc.
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar;
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
“Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” Canto iv, Stanza 178.—Byron.
George Noel Gordon, Lord Byron, the renowned English poet, was born in London, January 22, 1788, and died at Missolonghi, Greece, April 19, 1824. Some of his celebrated works are: “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,” “Hours of Idleness,” “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” “The Corsair,” “Hebrew Melodies,” “Lara,” “Manfred,” “The Prisoner of Chillon,” “The Lament of Tasso,” “Don Juan,” etc.
Blandishments will not fascinate us, nor will threats of a “halter” intimidate. For, under God, we are determined that wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die free men.
“Observations on the Boston Port Bill,” 1774—Josiah Quincy.
Josiah Quincy, a distinguished American lawyer, was born in Boston, January 23, 1744, and died April 26, 1775. His important works are: “Observations on the Boston Port Bill,” and “An Address of the Merchants, Traders, and Freeholders of Boston.”
We love because we get pleasure from loving. When the pleasure palls, love dies a natural death; and the love that survives should not hope for resurrection, but abide in patience a new birth.
“Love,”—Marie Henri Beyle.
Marie Henri Beyle, a famous French novelist and critic, was born in Grenoble, January 23, 1783, and died in Paris, March 23, 1842. He has written, “History of Painting in Italy,” “Rome, Naples, and Florence in 1817,” “About Love,” and his celebrated work, “The Chartreuse (Carthusian Nun) of Parma.”
Tout finit par des chansons.[6]
“Mariage de Figaro.”—Beaumarchais.
Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, a renowned French dramatist, was born in Paris, January 24, 1732, and died there, May 18, 1799. His greatest plays are: “The Barber of Seville,” and “The Marriage of Figaro.”
But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or, like the snow-fall in the river,
A moment white, then melts forever.
“Tam O’Shanter,”—Robert Burns.
Robert Burns, a Scotch poet of world-wide fame, was born in Alloway, January 25, 1759, and died in Dumfries, July 21,1796. His most famous poems are: “Hallowe’en,” “The Cotter’s Saturday Night,” “To a Mountain Daisy,” “Twa Dogs,” “Tam O’Shanter,” and “Highland Mary.”
’Tis a little thing
To give a cup of water; yet its draught
Of cool refreshment, drained by fevered lips,
May give a shock of pleasure to the frame
More exquisite than when nectarean juice
Renews the life of joy in happiest hours.
“Ion,” Act. i, Sc. 2,—Thomas Noon Talfourd.
Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, an eminent English author and statesman, was born at Doxey, near Stafford, January 26, 1795, and died at Stafford, March 13, 1854. His works include: “An Attempt to Estimate the Poetical Talent of the Present Age,” “Poems on Various Subjects,” “History of the Roman Republic,” “History of Greece,” “Final Memorials of Charles Lamb,” “Critical and Miscellaneous Essays,” etc.
“Whatever is, is not,” is the maxim of the anarchist, as often as anything comes across him in the shape of a law which he happens not to like.
“Declaration of Rights,”—Richard Bentley.
Richard Bentley, a celebrated English critic and essayist, was born in Oulton, Yorkshire, January 27, 1662, and died July, 1742. His important works are: “Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris,” and “Latin Epistle to John Mill, Containing Critical Observations on the Chronicle of Joannes Malala.”
There is in every man a certain feeling that he has been what he is from all eternity, and by no means become such in time.
—Schelling.
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von Schelling, an eminent German thinker and philosopher, was born at Leonberg, Wurtemberg, January 27, 1775, and died at the Ragaz baths, Switzerland, August 28, 1854. Among his many works are: “On the Possibility of a Form of philosophy,” “Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature,” “On the Soul of the World,” “Philosophy and Religion,” etc. Four posthumous volumes are: “Introduction to the Philosophy of Mythology,” “Philosophy of Mythology,” and “Philosophy of Revelation,” in two separate volumes.
