Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

JOHN BURROUGHS, a famous American essayist, was born in Roxbury, N. Y., April 3, 1837, and died in 1921. He has written: "Winter Sunshine," "Fresh Fields," "Wake-Robin," "Birds and Poets," "Locusts and Wild Honey," "Sharp Eyes," "Signs and Seasons," "Riverely," "The Light of Day," "Ways of Nature," "Camping and Tramping with Roosevelt," "Under the Apple Trees," etc.

There must always be, we presume, however age and experience may
modify nature, a certain inability on the part of a woman to
appreciate the more riotous forms of mirth, and that robust
freedom in morals which bolder minds admire. It is a disability
which nothing can abolish.

--_Mrs. Oliphant_.

MARGARET WILSON OLIPHANT, a well-known Scotch novelist, was born April 4, 1828, and died in 1897. Among her numerous works may be mentioned: "Zaidee," "The Story of Valentine and His Brother," "In Trust," "A House Divided Against Itself," "Sir Tom," "The Cuckoo in the Nest," "English Literature at the End of the Eighteenth and Beginning of the Nineteenth Century," "Victorian Age of English Literature," "Makers of Florence, Venice, and Rome," "The Reign of Queen Anne," "The Makers of Modern Rome," "William Blackwood and His Sons," etc.

For words are wise men's counters,--they do but reckon by them;
but they are the money of fools.

"The Leviathan," Part i, Chap. iv,--_Thomas Hobbes_.

THOMAS HOBBES, a renowned English philosopher, was born in Malmesbury, April 5, 1588, and died at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, December 4, 1679. A few of his many works are: "De Cive," "Human Nature," "De Corpore Politico," and "Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth," considered his masterpiece.

For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,
And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.

"The Mourning Bride," Act V, Sc. xii.--_Congreve_.

WILLIAM CONGREVE, an eminent English dramatist, was born in Bardsley, near Leeds, April 5, 1670, and died at London, January 19, 1729. Among his comedies are: "The Double Dealer," "The Mourning Bride," "The Old Bachelor," and "Love for Love."

It is a zealot's faith that blasts the shrines of the false god,
but builds no temple to the true.

--_Sydney Dobell_.

SYDNEY THOMPSON DOBELL, a famous English poet, was born at Cranbrook, in Kent, April 5, 1824, and died in 1874. He wrote: "England in Time of War," and two noted poems, "The Roman" and "Balder." "Thoughts on Art, Philosophy and Religion," appeared after his death.

I think it will be generally conceded that, at the time of his
death, Mr. Lowell occupied the position of the foremost American
citizen. In public regard, at home and abroad, his name naturally
headed the list of prominent Americans. Looked upon as a man of
letters, as a representative of our country in foreign lands, or
in any of the various positions in which he appeared before the
public, there was no one to whom it was the custom to name James
Russell Lowell as second. Without occupying the highest rank in
any of his vocations, he stood in front of his fellow-citizens,
because he held so high a rank in so many of them.

"Personal Tributes to Lowell, the Writer," Vol. 5,
p. 187,--_Frank R. Stockton_.

FRANK RICHARD STOCKTON, a celebrated American author, was born in Philadelphia, April 5, 1834, and died April 20, 1902. Among his popular works may be mentioned: "Rudder Grange," "The Lady or the Tiger," "The Casting Away of Mrs. Leeks and Mrs. Aleshine," "The Dusantes," "Tales Out of School," "Adventures of Captain Horn," "The Great Stone of Sardis," "The Watchmaker's Wife and Other Stories," "Pomona's Travels," "Mrs. Cliff's Yacht," "Kate Bonnett," etc.

Pleasure with pain for leaven,
Summer with flowers that fell,
Remembrance fallen from heaven,
And Madness risen from hell,
Strength without hands to smite,
Love that endures for a breath;
Night, the shadow of light,
And Life, the shadow of death.

"Atalanta in Calydon," Chorus,--_Swinburne_.

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE, an eminent English poet, was born in London, April 5, 1837; and died April 10, 1909. His publications include: "Poems and Ballads," "The Queen Mother and Rosamond," "Bothwell," "Songs of the Springtides," "A Century of Roundels," "The Sisters," "Studies in Song," "Songs of Two Nations," "Chastelard," "Ode on the Proclamation of the French Republic," "Songs Before Sunrise," "Atalanta in Calydon," "Under the Microscope," "Tristram of Lyonesse and Other Poems," "Marino Faliero," "A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems," "Locrine," a tragedy, a third series of "Poems and Ballads," "Astrophel and Other Poems," "The Tale of Balen," "Rosamund, Queen of the Lombards," a tragedy, etc.

From every place below the skies
The grateful song, the fervent prayer,--
The incense of the heart,--may rise
To heaven, and find acceptance there.

"Every Place a Temple,"--_John Pierpont_.

JOHN PIERPONT, a well-known American clergyman and poet, was born in Litchfield, Conn., April 6, 1785, and died in Medford, Mass., August 27, 1866. He wrote: "Airs of Palestine, and Other Poems," also, his famous poem "Warren's Address at the Battle of Bunker Hill."

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold:
"Peace on the earth, good-will to men,
From Heaven's all-gracious King!"
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.

"The Angels' Song,"--_Edmund Hamilton Sears_.

EDMUND HAMILTON SEARS, a noted American clergyman, religious writer and poet was born in Sandisfield, Mass., April 6, 1810, and died at Weston, Mass., January 14, 1876. He wrote: "Regeneration," "Pictures of the Olden Time," "Athanasia," "Christian Lyrics," "The Fourth Gospel: the Heart of Christ," "Sermons and Songs of the Christian Life," "Christ in the Life," etc.

Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good.
Bound these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.

"Personal Talk," Stanza 3,--_William Wordsworth_.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, the great English poet, was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, April 7, 1770, and died at Rydal Mount, April 23, 1850. Among his noted works are: "The Excursion," "Lyrical Ballads," "The Prelude," "Peter Bell," "The Waggoner," "Sonnets," "Yarrow Revisited and Other Poems," "Poems," "An Evening Walk," etc.

I sing New England, as she lights her fire
In every Prairie's midst; and where the bright
Enchanting stars shine pure through Southern night,
She still is there, the guardian on the tower,
To open for the world a purer hour.

"New England,"--_William E. Channing_.

WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING, a distinguished American theologian, was born at Newport, R. I.; April 7, 1780, and died at Bennington, Vt.; April, 1842. His works were published in 1848, and comprise the following: "Youth of the Poet and Painter," "Thoreau the Poet-Naturalist," "Conversation in Rome Between an Artist and Catholic, and a Critic," etc.

There came a new poet who, to the science of rhythm, the resources
of expression, the gift of epic narration, the deep feeling for
nature, to all the caprices of a delightful fancy, to all the
favorite ideas, noble or morbid, of modern thought, knew how to
join the language of manly passion. Thus, as it were summing up in
himself all his forerunners, he touched all hearts; he linked
together all admirations; he has remained the true representative,
the last expression and final, of the poetic period to which he
belongs. Tennyson reigns to-day almost alone in increasing and
uncontested glory.

"Taine's History of English Literature," _Essays on English
Literature_, tr. Saintsbury, p. 87,--_Edmond Scherer_.

EDMOND SCHERER, a celebrated French essayist and critic, was born in Paris, April 8, 1815, and died at Versailles, March 16, 1889. Among his writings are: "Miscellanies of Religious Criticism," "Letters to my Pastor," "Criticism and Belief," "Miscellanies of Religious History," etc.

I consider biennial elections as a security that the sober second
thought of the people shall be law.

"On Biennial Elections," 1788,--_Fisher Ames_.

FISHER AMES, a famous American statesman and orator, was born at Dedham, Mass., April 9, 1758, and died there, July 4, 1808. He wrote many essays and orations.

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears
from the eyes of woman.

--_Beethoven_.

LUDWIG VON BEETHOVEN, a renowned German composer, was born at Bonn, April 9, 1770, and died at Vienna, in 1827. Besides his numerous musical productions, he won literary fame by his "Correspondence" and "Brentano Letters."

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing
something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to
the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

--_Hazlitt_.

WILLIAM HAZLITT, a celebrated English prose-writer and critic, was born in Maidstone, Kent, April 10, 1778, and died in London, September 18, 1830. He wrote: "The Spirit of the Age," "Characters of Shakespeare's Plays," "Lectures on English Poets," etc.

Riches take wings, comforts vanish, hope withers away, but love
stays with us. Love is God.

--_Lew Wallace_.

LEWIS WALLACE ("LEW WALLACE"), a famous American general, lawyer, and novelist, was born at Brookville, Ind., April 10, 1827, and died in 1905. Among his notable works are: "The Fair God," "Ben Hur," "The Life of Gen. Benjamin Harrison," "Commodus: a Tragedy," "The Boyhood of Christ," "The Prince of India," etc.

Bend low, O dusky Night,
And give my spirit rest,
Hold me to your deep breast,
And put old cares to flight.
Give back the lost delight
That once my soul possest,
When Love was loveliest.

"To-night,"--_Louise Chandler Moulton_.

LOUISE (CHANDLER) MOULTON, a noted American poet, story-writer, and critic, was born in Pomfret, Conn., April 10, 1835, and died August 10, 1908. She wrote: "The True Flag," "This, That and the Other," "Juno Clifford," "Bed-Time Stories," "Firelight Stories," "Stories Told at Twilight," "In the Garden of Dreams," "Poems," etc.; also, "Miss Eyre from Boston and Other Stories," "Lazy Tours in Spain," etc.

Thus, when a barber and a collier fight, the barber beats the
luckless collier-white; the dusty collier heaves his ponderous
sack, and big with vengeance, beats the barber-black. In comes the
brick dust man, with grime o'er spread, and beats the collier and
the barber-red; black, red, and white, in various clouds are tost,
and in the dust they raise the combatants are lost.

"The Trip to Cambridge" in "Campbell's Specimens of the British
Poets," Vol. vi, p. 185,--_Christopher Smart_.

CHRISTOPHER SMART, a famous English poet, was born at Shipbourne, Kent, April 11, 1722, and died May 21, 1771. His works include: "Translation of the Psalms of David," "The Hilliad: An Epic Poem," "Song to David," "Power of the Supreme Being," "Poems," "Poems on Several Occasions," etc.

Give me the avowed, the erect, the manly foe,
Bold I can meet,--perhaps may turn his blow!
But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send,
Save, save, oh save me from the _candid friend_!

"New Morality,"--_George Canning_.

GEORGE CANNING, an English statesman, orator, and writer of great distinction, was born in London, April 11, 1770, and died at Chiswick, August 8, 1827. He wrote: "The Needy Knife-Grinder," "The Rovers," etc.

When I am dead, no pageant train
Shall waste their sorrows at my bier,
Nor worthless pomp of homage vain.
Stain it with hypocritic tear.

"Alaric the Visigoth,"--_Edward Everett_.

EDWARD EVERETT, a famous American statesman, was born at Dorchester, Mass., April 11, 1794, and died January 15, 1865. Among his writings were: "Mount Vernon Papers," "Defense of Christianity," "Orations and Speeches," etc.

The gentleman [Josiah Quincy] cannot have forgotten his own
sentiment, uttered even on the floor of this House, "Peaceably if
we can, forcibly if we must."

"Speech," Jan. 8, 1813.--_Henry Clay_.

HENRY CLAY, an eminent American orator and statesman, was born in Hanover, Va., April 12, 1777, and died at Washington, D. C., June 29, 1852. His "Complete Works," were edited in 1857.

Coquetry whets the appetite; flirtation depraves it. Coquetry is
the thorn that guards the rose,--easily trimmed off when once
plucked. Flirtation is like the slime on water-plants, making them
hard to handle, and when caught, only to be cherished in slimy
waters.

"Reveries of a Bachelor,"--_Ik Marvel_.

DONALD GRANT MITCHELL ("IK MARVEL"), a famous American novelist and essayist, was born at Norwich, Conn., April 12, 1822, and died in 1908. He wrote: "Dream Life," "My Farm of Edgewood," "Doctor Johns," "Bound Together," "Wet Days at Edgewood," "English Lands, Letters and Kings," and his most noted work, "Reveries of a Bachelor."

Every white will have its blacke,
And every sweet its soure.

"Sir Cauline," from "Reliques of Ancient Poetry,"--_Thomas
Percy_.

THOMAS PERCY, a noted English poet, was born at Bridgenorth in Shropshire, April 13, 1728 or 1729, and died at Dromore, Ireland, September 30, 1811. He wrote: "The Hermit of Warkworth," the song, "O Nanny, Wilt Thou Gang Wi' Me?" and published a collection of old ballads and songs under the title "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry."

No creature lives that must not work and may not play.

"Work and Play,"--_Horace Bushnell_.

HORACE BUSHNELL, an eminent American clergyman, was born near Litchfield, Connecticut, April 14, 1802, and died at Hartford, Conn., in 1876. Among his numerous works may be mentioned: "Christian Nurture," "God in Christ," "Christ in Theology," "The Vicarious Sacrifice," "Nature and the Supernatural," "Moral Uses of Dark Things," "The Age of Homespun," "Forgiveness and Law," "Work and Play," "The Character of Jesus," "Christ and His Salvation," etc.

Monuments! What are they? The very pyramids have forgotten their
builders, or to whom they were dedicated. Deeds, not stones, are
the true monuments of the great.

--_Motley_.

JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, a famous American historian and diplomatist, was born at Dorchester, Mass., April 15, 1814, and died in Dorsetshire, England, May 29, 1877. Among his works are: "Rise of the Dutch Republic," "History of the United Netherlands," "Causes of the Civil War in America," "Life of John of Barneveld," etc.

Not much talk--a great, sweet silence.

"A Bundle of Letters," Letter IV,--_Henry James_.

HENRY JAMES, a distinguished American novelist and miscellaneous prose-writer, was born in New York, April 15, 1843, and died in February, 1916. Among his numerous works may be mentioned: "Roderick Hudson," "A Passionate Pilgrim and Other Tales," "The American," "French Poets and Novelists," "Daisy Miller: a Study," "A Bundle of Letters," "The Diary of a Man of Fifty," "Washington Square," "A Little Tour in France," "The Portrait of a Lady," "The Bostonians," "The Tragic Muse," "Partial Portraits," "The Real Thing and Other Tales," "The Private Life," "The Wheel of Time," "The Princess Casamassima," "Essays in London and Elsewhere," etc.

There paused to shut the door,
A fellow called the Wind,
With mystery before,
And reticence behind.

"At the Granite Gate,"--_Bliss Carman_.

BLISS CARMAN, a celebrated Canadian poet, was born at Fredericton, N. B., April 15, 1861. He has written: "Low Tide on Grand Pré: A Book of Lyrics," "Songs from Vagabondia," "Behind the Arras: A Book of the Unseen," "A Winter Holiday," "Christmas Eve at St. Kavin's," "Ode for the Coronation," "Pipes of Pan No. I," "Pipes of Pan No. II," "The Kinship of Nature," "The Friendship of Art," "The Poetry of Life," "The Making of Personality," "Sappho," "Daughters of Dawn," "Oxford Book of American Verse," "Earth Deities," "April Airs," etc.

Le roi règne et ne gouverne pas.[3]

"In the National Newspaper," July 1st, 1830.

LOUIS ADOLPHE THIERS, a renowned French statesman and author, was born at Marseilles, April 16, 1797, and died at St. Germain, September 3, 1877. He wrote: "History of John Law," "Man and Matter," "On Property," "History of the Consulate and the Empire," and his most famous work, "History of the French Revolution."

To be frank, the critics should say: "Gentlemen, I intend to speak
of myself apropos of Shakespeare, Racine, Pascal, or Goethe."

--_Anatole France_.

ANATOLE FRANCE (JACQUES ANATOLE THIBAULT), a celebrated French critic, poet and novelist, was born at Paris, April 16, 1844. He has written: "The Yule Log," "Our Children: Scenes in Town and in the Fields," "The Garden of Epicurus," "Abeille," "Poems," "The Crime of Sylvester Bonnard," "The Wishes of Jean Servien," "Balthazar," "Thais," "My Friend's Book," "Le Jongleur de Notre Dame," "Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc," "La Revolte des Anges," etc.

When that my mood is sad, and in the noise
And bustle of the crowd I feel rebuke,
I turn my footsteps from its hollow joys,
And sit me down beside the little brook;
The waters have a music to mine ear
It glads me much to hear.

"The Shaded Water,"--_William Gilmore Simms_.

WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS, a distinguished American poet and novelist, was born in Charleston, S. C., April 17, 1806, and died there June 11, 1870. His publications include: "The Wigwam and the Cabin; or, Tales of the South," "Atalantis: A Tale of the Sea," "Castle Dismal," "The Maroon, and Other Tales," "The Yemassee," and "War Poetry of the South."

Many a genius has been slow of growth,
Oaks that flourish for a thousand years
Do not spring up into beauty like a reed.

"The Spanish Drama: Life of Lope De Vega." Ch. II,--_Geo.
Henry Lewes_.

GEORGE HENRY LEWES, a celebrated English historical and miscellaneous writer, was born at London, April 18, 1817, and died there November 28, 1878. Among his writings are: "The Life and Works of Goethe," "History of Philosophy from Thales to Comte," "The Physiology of Common Life," "Seaside Studies," "Studies in Animal Life," "Aristotle: A Chapter from the History of Science," "Problems of Life and Mind," "The Physical Basis of Mind," "Ranthorpe," "The Noble Heart," etc.

Friendship! mysterious cement of the soul!
Sweetener of life, and solder of society.

"The Grave,"--_Robert Blair_.

ROBERT BLAIR, a noted Scottish poet, was born at Edinburgh, April 19 (?), 1699, and died February 4, 1746. His reputation as a poet rests solely on his famous poem, "The Grave," written in blank verse.

If any man can convince me and bring home to me that I do not
think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after
truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who
abideth on still in his deception and ignorance.

"Meditations," VI, 21,--_Marcus Aurelius_.

MARCUS AURELIUS, the great Roman emperor, was born in Rome, April 20, A.D., 121, and died in Pannonia, March 17, 180. His "Meditations" have been handed down to posterity.

Immortality alone could teach this mortal how to die.

"Looking Death in the Face,"--_Dinah Maria Mulock Craik_.

DINAH MARIA MULOCK CRAIK, a famous English novelist, was born in Stoke-upon-Trent, April 20, 1826, and died at London, October, 1887. The best known of her works are: "The Ogilvies," "John Halifax, Gentleman," "Two Marriages," "A Brave Lady," and "A Noble Life."

No maid is near,
I have no wife;
But here's my pipe
And, on my life;
With it to smoke,
And woo the Muse,
To be a king,
I would not choose.

--_William H. Davies_.

WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES, a noted Welsh poet, was born in Monmouthshire, April 20, 1870. He has written: "The Soul's Destroyer," "New Poems," "Nature Poems," "Farewell to Poesy," "Songs of Joy," "Foliage," "The Bird of Paradise," "Child Lovers," "Collected Poems," "The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp," "A Pilgrim in Wales," "A Poet's Pilgrimage."

The first groundwork of religious life is love--love to God and
man--in the bosom of the family.

"Aphorisms,"--_Friedrich Froebel_.

FRIEDRICH FROEBEL, an eminent German educator, was born at Oberweissbach, April 21, 1782, and died at Marienthal, June 21, 1852. He won fame by his celebrated work, "The Education of Man."

From Greenland's icy mountains,
From India's coral strand,
Where Afric's sunny fountains,
Roll down their golden sand.

"Missionary Hymn."--_Reginald Heber_.

REGINALD HEBER, a famous English hymn-writer and clergyman, was born in Cheshire, April 21, 1783, and died at Trichinopoly, India, April 2, 1826. His prose writings include the Bampton lectures on "The Personality and Office of the Christian Comforter," "Life of Jeremy Taylor," "Journey Through India," etc. His fame rests, however, on his hymns, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," and "Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!"

Life, believe, is not a dream,
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day!

"Life,"--_Charlotte Brontë_.

CHARLOTTE BRONTË, a famous English novelist, was born in Thornton, April 21, 1816, and died in Haworth, March 31, 1855. She wrote: "Shirley," "Villette," "The Professor," and "Jane Eyre," her most famous work.

There are four varieties in society,--the lovers, the ambitious,
observers, and fools. The fools are the happiest.

--_Taine_.

ADOLPHE HIPPOLYTE TAINE, an illustrious French historian and critic, was born at Vouziers (Ardennes), April 21, 1828, and died at Paris, March 5, 1893. Among his publications are: "Essay on La Fontaine's Fables," "Essay on Livy," "Journey to the Pyrenees," "French Philosophers in the Nineteenth Century," "Essays in Criticism and History," "Notes on England," "Contemporary English Writers," "History of English Literature," "English Idealism," "New Essays in Criticism and History," "Philosophy of Art," "Philosophy of Art in Italy," "Tour in Italy, Naples, Rome, Florence, and Venice," "Notes on Paris," "The Ideal in Art," "Philosophy of Art in Greece," "On the Understanding," "The Old Régime," "The Revolutionary Governments," etc.

When I'm not thank'd at all, I'm thank'd enough;
I've done my duty, and I've done no more.

"Tom Thumb the Great," Act. i, Sc. 3,--_Henry Fielding_.

HENRY FIELDING, a celebrated English novelist, was born at Sharpham Park, Somersetshire, April 22, 1707, and died at Lisbon, October 8, 1754. His most famous works are: "Tom Jones, or the History of a Foundling," "The Adventures of Joseph Andrews," "Amelia," and "The History of Jonathan Wild."

Sincerity is the indispensable ground of all conscientiousness,
and by consequence of all heartfelt religion.

--_Emmanuel Kant_.

EMMANUEL KANT, an eminent German philosopher, was born at Königsberg, April 22, 1724, and died there, February 12, 1804. His three famous works are: "Critique of the Practical Reason," "Critique of Pure Reason," and "Critique of the Power of Judgment."

And all the bustle of departure--sometimes sad, sometimes
intoxicating--just as fear or hope may be inspired by the new
chances of coming destiny.

"Corinne," Book X, Chap. VI,--_Madame De Staël_.

ANNE LOUISE GERMAINE (NECKER), BARONESS DE STAËL-HOLSTEIN, a celebrated French writer, was born in Paris, April 22, 1766, and died there July 14, 1817. She wrote: "Letters on the Character and Writings of J. J. Rousseau," "Corinne," "Delphine," "Literature in Relation to Social Institutions," etc.

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
Life's but a means unto an end; that end
Beginning, mean, and end to all things,--God.

"Festus," Scene V, A Country Town,--_Philip James Bailey_.

PHILIP JAMES BAILEY, a noted English poet, was born in Basford, Nottinghamshire, April 22, 1816, and died in 1902. He wrote: "The Universal Hymn," "The Age," "The Mystic," "The Angel World," and his great poem, "Festus."

Friendship is constant in all other things
Save in the office and affairs of love:
Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;
Let every eye negotiate for itself
And trust no agent.

"Much Ado about Nothing," Act ii, Sc. i.--_William Shakespeare_.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, the great English poet, was born at Stratford-on-Avon, April 23, 1564, and he died there April 23, 1616. Among his famous works may be mentioned: "Henry VI," "Richard III," "Taming of the Shrew," "Love's Labour's Lost," "Comedy of Errors," "Two Gentlemen of Verona," "Romeo and Juliet," "The Merchant of Venice," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Henry V," "All's Well That Ends Well," "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "As You Like It," "Julius Cæsar," "Much Ado About Nothing," "Twelfth Night," "Hamlet," "Othello," "King Lear," "Macbeth," "Measure for Measure," "Antony and Cleopatra," "Cymbeline," "A Winter's Tale," "The Tempest," etc., etc.

Our thoughts and our conduct are our own.

"Short Studies on Great Subjects: Education,"--_James A.
Froude_.

JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, a celebrated English historian, was born at Dartington in Devonshire, April 23, 1818, and died in London, October 20, 1894. Among his works are: "Luther: A Short Biography," "Shadows of a Cloud," "Nemesis of Faith," "History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth," "The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century," "Influence of the Reformation on the Scottish Character," "Thomas Carlyle," "Short Studies on Great Subjects," "Spanish Story of the Armada," etc.

Bowed by the weight of centuries, he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.

"The Man with the Hoe,"--_Edwin Markham_.

EDWIN MARKHAM, a noted American poet, was born at Oregon City, Oregon, April 23, 1852. He is best known by his famous poem, "The Man with the Hoe."

But as some muskets so contrive it
As oft to miss the mark they drive at,
And though well aimed at duck or plover,
Bear wide, and kick their owners over.

"McFingal," Canto i, Line 93,--_John Trumbull_.

JOHN TRUMBULL, a famous American lawyer, poet, and wit, was born in Westbury, Conn., April 24, 1750, and died at Detroit, Mich., May 10, 1831. He wrote: "The Progress of Dullness," "McFingal," which won for him his greatest fame, and several other works. His "Poetical Works" were published in 1820.

Whatever Thackeray says, the reader cannot fail to understand; and
whatever Thackeray attempts to communicate, he succeeds in
conveying.

"Life of Thackeray,"--_Anthony Trollope_.

ANTHONY TROLLOPE, an illustrious English novelist, was born in London, April 24, 1815, and died there, December 6, 1882. Among his numerous publications may be mentioned: "The Kellys and the O'Kellys," "La Vendée," "The Warden," "Barchester Towers," "Doctor Thorne," "The Bertrams," "Castle Richmond," "Orley Farm," "Tales of All Countries," "The Struggles of Brown, Jones and Robinson," "North America," "Rachel Ray," "Hunting Sketches," "Traveling Sketches," "The Claverings," "British Sports and Pastimes," "He Knew He Was Right," "Mary Gresley," "Ralph the Heir," "The Golden Lion of Granpère," "Phineas Redux," "South Australia and Western Australia," "Lady Anna," "The Prime Minister," "The American Senator," "South Africa," "John Caldigate," "Cousin Henry," "The Duke's Children," "Life of Cicero," "Ayala's Angel," "Marion Fay," "The Fixed Period," "Kept in the Dark," etc. His "Autobiography" appeared in 1883.

Come and see her as she stands.
Crimson roses in her hands;
And her eyes
Are as dark as Southern night,
Yet than Southern dawn more bright.
And a soft, alluring light,
In them lies.

"Fanny, A Southern Blossom," St. I,--_Anne Reeve Aldrich_.

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.

"Noctes Ambrosianæ," Vol. iii,--_John Wilson_.

JOHN WILSON (CHRISTOPHER NORTH), a noted Scottish writer, was born May 18, 1785, at Paisley, and died April 3, 1854. Among his works are: "The Isle of Palms," "The City of the Plague," "Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life," "The Trials of Margaret Lindsay," "The Foresters," etc.

Not alone to know, but to act according to thy knowledge, is thy
destination,--proclaims the voice of my inmost soul. Not for
indolent contemplation and study of thyself, nor for brooding over
emotions of piety--no, for action was existence given thee; thy
actions, and thy actions alone, determine thy worth.

--_Fichte_.

JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE, a renowned German philosopher, was born at Rammenau in Upper Lusatia, May 19, 1762, and died at Berlin, January 27, 1814. Among his works are: "Foundations of the Whole Doctrine of Science," "Introduction to the Doctrine of Science," "The Doctrine of Science," "System of Moral Doctrine," "Man's Destiny," and his celebrated treatise, "Essay Toward a Critique of All Revelation."

The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the
individuals composing it.

--_John Stuart Mill_.

JOHN STUART MILL, a famous English philosophical writer, logician, and political economist, was born in London, May 20, 1806, and died at Avignon, France, May 8, 1873. Among the most important of his works are: "Essay on Liberty," "Logic," "Political Economy," "On the Subjection of Women," "Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy," "Auguste Comte and Positivism," and "Utilitarianism." His "Autobiography" appeared in 1873.

It was the calm and silent night!
Seven hundred years and fifty-three
Had Rome been growing up to might,
And now was queen of land and sea.
No sound was heard of clashing wars,
Peace brooded o'er the hushed domain;
Apollo, Pallas, Jove, and Mars
Held undisturbed their ancient reign,
In the solemn midnight
Centuries ago.

"Christmas Hymn,"--_Alfred Domett_.

ALFRED DOMETT, a noted British statesman and poet, was born at Camberwell Grove, Surrey, May 20, 1811, and died in 1887. The best known of his works are: "Ranolf and Amohia, a South Sea Day Dream," and "Flotsam and Jetsam: Rhymes Old and New."

Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things
To low ambition and the pride of kings.
Let us (since life can little more supply
Than just to look about us, and to die)
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;
A mighty maze! but not without a plan.

"Essay on Man," Epistle i, Line 1,--_Alexander Pope_.

ALEXANDER POPE, the renowned English poet, was born at London, May 21, 1688, and died at Twickenham on the Thames, May 30, 1744. His most famous works are: "Homer's Odyssey," "The Iliad of Homer," translated, "Epistles from Eloisa to Abelard," "The Rape of the Lock," "The Temple of Fame," "Essay on Criticism," "The Dunciad," "Imitations of Horace," "Essay on Man," etc.

"It is more than a crime; it is a political fault,"--words which I
record, because they have been repeated and attributed to others.

"Memoirs,"--_Fouché_.

JOSEPH FOUCHÉ (DUKE OF OTRANTO), a celebrated French statesman, was born May 21, 1759, and died in 1820. A few of his famous political pamphlets and reports are: "Réflexions sur le jugement de Louis Cofret," "Réflexions sur l'éducation publique," "Rapport et project de loi relatif aux Collèges," etc.

A sudden thought strikes me,--let us swear an eternal friendship.

"The Rovers,"--_J. H. Frere_.

JOHN HOOKHAM FRERE, a noted English poet, translator, and diplomatist, was born in London, May 21, 1769, and died in Malta, January 7, 1846. He produced: the "Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National Work... Relating to King Arthur and his Round Table," known as "The Monks and the Giants"; a literary burlesque, and numerous translations.

A sound so fine, there's nothing lives
'Twixt it and silence.

"Virginius," Act v, Sc. 2 (1784-1862),--_James Sheridan
Knowles_.

JAMES SHERIDAN KNOWLES, a famous Irish actor, lecturer and dramatist, was born at Cork, May 21, 1784, and died at Torquay, England, November 30, 1862. Among his dramas are: "Caius Gracchus," "William Tell," "Alfred the Great," "The Wife: a Tale of Mantua," "The Rose of Aragon," and his three masterpieces, "Virginius," "The Hunchback," and "The Love Chase."

Unconsciousness is one of the most important conditions of a good
style in speaking or in writing.

--_Richard Grant White_.

RICHARD GRANT WHITE, an eminent American journalist, critic, and Shakespearean scholar, was born in New York City, May 22, 1822, and died there, April 8, 1885. Among his books are: "National Hymns: A Lyrical and National Study for the Times," "Memoirs of the Life of William Shakespeare, with an Essay Towards the Expression of His Genius," "Poetry of the Civil War," "Words and Their Uses," "England Without and Within," etc.

The bow was made in England:
Of true wood, of yew-wood,
The wood of English bows;
So men who are free
Love the old yew-tree
And the land where the yew-tree grows.

"Songs of Action: Song of the Bow," etc. I,--_Sir A. Conan
Doyle_.