Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 25

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,"--_Fouche_.

JOSEPH FOUCHe (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: "Reflexions sur le jugement de Louis Cofret,"

"Reflexions sur l'education publique," "Rapport et project de loi relatif aux Colleges," 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_.

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, a renowned Scotch story and romance writer, was born in Edinburgh, May 22, 1859. His works include: "A Study in Scarlet," "The Sign of the Four," "The White Company," "The Great Shadow," "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," "The Hound of the Baskervilles," "Adventures of Gerard," "Return of Sherlock Holmes," "Sir Nigel," "Through the Magic Door," "The Fires of Fate," "The Crime of the Congo," "The Lost World," "The Case of Oscar Slater," "The Valley of Fear," "A Visit to Three Fronts," "His Last Bow," etc.

I remember, I remember The fir-trees dark and high; I used to think their slender-tops Were close against the sky; It was a childish ignorance, But now 'tis little joy To know I'm farther off from heaven Than when I was a boy.

"I remember, I remember,"--_Thomas Hood_.

THOMAS HOOD, the great English poet, was born in London, May 23, 1799, and died there May 3, 1845. Among his poetical works are: "The Haunted House," "Whims and Oddities," "The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies," and "The Hostler's Lament," "The Bridge of Sighs," and "The Song of the Shirt."

Chance cannot touch me! Time cannot hush me!

Fear, hope, and longing, at strife, Sink as I rise, on, on, upward forever, Gathering strength, gaining breath,--naught can sever Me from the Spirit of Life!

"Dryad Song," Stanza 4,--_Margaret Fuller_.

SARAH MARGARET FULLER, Marchioness d'Ossoli, best known as "Margaret Fuller," was born at Cambridgeport, Ma.s.s., May 23, 1810, and died in 1850. She wrote: "Art, Literature, and Drama," "At Home and Abroad,"

"Life Without and Life Within," and a collection of essays on "Women in the Nineteenth Century."

The object of science is knowledge; the objects of art are works.

In art, truth is the means to an end; in science, it is the only end. Hence the practical arts are not to be cla.s.sed among the sciences.

--_William Whewell_.

WILLIAM WHEWELL, a noted English philosopher and scientist, was born at Lancaster, May 24, 1794, and died at Cambridge, March 6, 1866. Among his works are: "History of the Inductive Sciences," "Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences," "Lectures on Political Economy," "Elements of Morality," etc.

If ever any poet stood in the white light of the beauty which we call poetry, it was Mrs. Browning. Her thoughts were as fire and her words were as fire.

"Lectures on English Literature," 1889, p. 135.--_Maurice Francis Egan_.

MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN, a distinguished man of letters, was born in Philadelphia, May 24, 1852 and died in 1923. His works include: "That Girl of Mine," "That Lover of Mine," "A Garden of Roses," "Stories of Duty," "The Life Around Us," "Lectures on English Literature," "A Primer of English Literature," "A Gentleman," "The Flower of the Flock,"

"Preludes" (poetry), "Songs and Sonnets," "Everybody's St. Francis."

Beneath the rule of men entirely great, The pen is mightier than the sword.

"Richelieu," Act ii, Sc. 2,--_Edward Bulwer-Lytton_.

EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON, LORD LYTTON, the renowned English novelist, poet and dramatist, was born in London, May 25, 1803, and died in Torquay, January 18, 1873. Among his famous novels are: "Eugene Aram," "Pelham,"

"Last Days of Pompeii," "Pilgrims of the Rhine," "Last of the Barons,"

"Ernest Maltravers," "A Strange Story," "Rienzi," "Devereux,"

"Falkland," "Harold," "The Coming Race," "The Caxtons," and three noted dramas, "Money," "Richelieu," and "The Lady of Lyons."

I rarely read any Latin, Greek, German, Italian, sometimes not a French book, in the original, which I can procure in a good version. I like to be beholden to the great metropolitan English speech, the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven. I should as soon think of swimming across Charles River when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my books in originals when I have them rendered for me in my mother tongue.

"Books,"--_Ralph Waldo Emerson_.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON, the famous American philosopher, essayist and poet, was born in Boston, May 25, 1803, and died at Concord, Ma.s.s., April 27, 1882. He wrote: "The American Scholar," "Man the Reformer," "Nature,"

"The Young American," "The Conduct of Life," "Letters and Social Aims,"

"Tribute to Walter Scott," "Society and Solitude," "Representative Men,"

"Miscellanies," "Essays," "Poems," "May Day and Other Pieces," etc.