Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 12

The people are gaining upon Nathaniel Hawthorne's works. A century hence, when the most popular authors of to-day are forgotten, he will probably be more widely read than ever.

--_Edward P. Roe_, 1888.

EDWARD PAYSON ROE, a noted American novelist, was born in Orange County, N. Y., March 7, 1838, and died at Cornwall, N. Y., July 19, 1888. He wrote: "Barriers Burned Away," "What Can She Do?" "The Opening of a Chestnut Burr," "From Jest to Earnest," "Near to Nature's Heart," "A Knight of the Nineteenth Century," "A Face Illumined," "A Day of Fate,"

"Without a Home," "A Young Girl's Wooing," "Nature's Serial Story,"

"Driven Back to Eden," "He Fell in Love with His Wife," "A Hornet's Nest," "Miss Lou," "Taken Alive, and Other Stories," etc.

The Roman Epic abounds in moral and poetical defects; nevertheless it remains the most complete picture of the national mind at its highest elevation; the most precious doc.u.ment of national history, if the history of an age is recorded in its ideas, no less than in its events and incidents.

"History of the Romans under the Empire," Ch.

xli,--_C. Merivale_.

CHARLES MERIVALE, a famous English historian, was born March 8, 1808, and died December 27, 1893. He wrote: "General History of Rome from the Foundation of the City to the Fall of Augustulus," and in 1862 he very successfully translated Keats' "Hyperion" into Latin verse.

O Light divine! we need no fuller test That all is ordered well; We know enough to trust that all is best Where Love and Wisdom dwell.

"Oh, Love Supreme,"--_Christopher P. Cranch_.

CHRISTOPHER P. CRANCH, a noted American poet and artist, was born in Alexandria, Va., March 8, 1813, and died in Cambridge, Ma.s.s., January 20, 1892. His publications include: "Poems," "The Last of the Huggermuggers," and "Ariel and Caliban, with Other Poems."

Man, being essentially active, must find in activity his joy, as well as his beauty and glory; and labor, like everything else that is good, is its own reward.

--_Whipple_.

EDWIN PERCY WHIPPLE, a distinguished American literary critic, was born at Gloucester, Ma.s.s., March 8, 1819, and died in Boston, June 16, 1886.

He published: "Essays and Reviews" (2 vols. 1848-49), "Lectures on Subjects Connected with Literature and Life," "Character and Characteristic Men," "The Literature of the Age of Elizabeth," "Success and Its Conditions." He also wrote: "Recollections of Eminent Men,"

"American Literature and Other Papers," and "Outlooks on Society, Literature, and Politics." The latter works were published after his death.

Public credit means the contracting of debts which nations never can pay.

"Advice to Young Men,"--_William Cobbett_.

WILLIAM COBBETT, a distinguished English essayist and political writer, was born in Farnham, March 9, 1762, and died at Normandy Farm, near Farnham, June, 1835. He wrote: "The Political Proteus," "Legacy to Laborers," "Advice to Young Men," etc.

The historian is a prophet looking backward.

--_Schlegel_.

FRIEDRICH VON SCHLEGEL, a celebrated German critic and philologist, was born at Hanover, March 10, 1772, and died at Dresden, January 12, 1829.

Among his publications are: "History of Greek and Roman Poetry," "The Greeks and Romans," "Fragments," "Poems," "Alarcos," "Language and Wisdom of the Indians," "On the Schools of Grecian Poetry," "Modern History," "History of Ancient and Modern Literature," "Philosophy of Life," etc.

Wem Gott will rechte Gunst erweisen, Den schickt er in die weite Welt.[1]

"Der Frohe Wandersmann,"--_J. V. Eichendorff_.

BARON JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF, a distinguished German poet, was born at the castle of Lubowitz in Silesia, March 10, 1788, and died at Neisse, November 26, 1857. His famous works include: "Presage and Presence,"

"War to the Philistines," "The Last Hero of Marienburg," etc.

I do not deem that Castiglione wrote for the men of his own day only ... the beauty of his writings deserves that in all ages they should be read and praised; and as long as courts shall endure, as long as princes, ladies, and n.o.ble gentlemen shall meet together, as long as valor and courtesy shall abide in our hearts, the name of Castiglione will be valued.

--_Ta.s.so_.

TORQUATO Ta.s.sO, a renowned Italian poet, was born at Sorrento, Italy, March 11, 1544, and died at Rome, April 25, 1595. He published: "Rinaldo," "Aminta," "Torismondo," and his masterpiece, "Jerusalem Delivered."

Wealth is not acquired, as many persons suppose, by fortunate speculations and splendid enterprises, but by the daily practice of industry, frugality, and economy. He who relies upon these means will rarely be found dest.i.tute, and he who relies upon any other will generally become bankrupt.

--_Wayland_.

FRANCIS WAYLAND, a distinguished American clergyman, author, and educator, was born in New York City, March 11, 1796, and died in Providence, Rhode Island, September 30, 1865. Among his notable works are: "Elements of Moral Science," "Elements of Political Economy," "The Limitations of Human Responsibility," "Elements of Intellectual Philosophy," "Sermons to Churches," etc., etc.

Our youth we can have but to-day, We may always find time to grow old.

"Can Love be controlled by Advice?"--_Bishop Berkeley_.

BISHOP GEORGE BERKELEY, the eminent Irish clergyman and author, was born near Kilkenny, March 12, 1685, and died at Oxford, England, January 14, 1753. His writings include: "Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision," "The a.n.a.lyst," "The Principles of Human Knowledge," his famous "Commonplace Book, 1703-6," etc.

The terrible rumble, grumble and roar Telling the battle was on once more-- And Sheridan twenty miles away!

"Sheridan's Ride,"--_Thomas Buchanan Read_.

THOMAS BUCHANAN READ, a celebrated American portrait-painter and poet, was born in Pennsylvania, March 12, 1822, and died in 1872. His most famous works are: "The House by the Sea," "Poems," "Lays and Ballads,"

"Poetical Works," "A Summer Story," "The New Pastoral," "The Pilgrims of the Great St. Bernard," "The Good Samaritans," "A Voyage to Iceland,"

"Sylvia; or The Lost Shepherd," "Drifting."

"I have heard frequent use," said the late Lord Sandwich, in a debate on the Test Laws, "of the words 'orthodoxy' and 'heterodoxy'; but I confess myself at a loss to know precisely what they mean." "Orthodoxy, my Lord," said Bishop Warburton, in a whisper,--"orthodoxy is my doxy, heterodoxy is another man's doxy."

"Memoirs," Vol. i, p. 572,--_Priestley_.

JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, an English theologian, physicist, and philosopher of great fame, was born at Fieldhead, near Leeds, March 13, 1733, and died near Philadelphia, February 6, 1804. His princ.i.p.al writings are: "Observations on Different Kinds of Air," "History of Electricity," "The Doctrine of Phlogiston Established," "History of the Corruptions of Christianity," "Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit," and "Inst.i.tutes of Natural and Revealed Religion."

Nature is mighty. Art is mighty. Artifice is weak. For nature is the work of a mightier power than man. Art is the work of man under the guidance and inspiration of a mightier power. Artifice is the work of mere man, in the imbecility of his mimic understanding.

--_Hare_.

AUGUSTUS JOHN CUTHBERT HARE, a noted English descriptive writer, was born in Rome, March 13, 1834, and died in 1903. He wrote: "A Winter at Mentone," "Walks in Rome," "Wanderings in Spain," "Walks in London,"

"Days near Paris," "Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily," "Memorials of a Quiet Life," "Story of My Life," etc.