Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 18

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, Ma.s.s., 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 G.o.d.

--_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 G.o.d," "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, Ma.s.s., 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 appet.i.te; 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 MITCh.e.l.l ("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 t.i.tle "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,"

"G.o.d 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, Ma.s.s., 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.