Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 40

With the greatest possible solicitude avoid authorship. Too early or immoderately employed it makes the head waste and the heart empty.

Tr. by S. T. Coleridge.--_Herder_.

JOHN GOTTFRIED VON HERDER, a distinguished German philosopher and historian of literature, was born at Mohrungen, August 25, 1744, and died at Weimar, December 18, 1803. Among his works are: "Voices of Nations in Song," "Fragments on Recent German Literature," "The Cid,"

"Ideas for a Philosophy of the History of Mankind," "Spirit of Hebrew Poetry," etc.

Which I wish to remark,-- And my language is plain,-- That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar.

"Plain Language from Truthful James,"--_Francis Bret Harte_.

FRANCIS BRET HARTE, a celebrated American poet and short-story writer, was born in Albany, N. Y., August 25, 1839, and died in 1902. Among his many works are: "The Luck of Roaring Camp, and Other Sketches," "The Heathen Chinee," "Plain Language from Truthful James," "Poems," "East and West Poems," "Echoes of the Foot-Hills," "Poetical Works," "Thankful Blossom," "Drift from Two Sh.o.r.es," "Flip and Other Stories," "By Sh.o.r.e and Sedge," "The Queen of the Pirate Isle," "On the Frontier," "Snow Bound at Eagle's," "Tales of the Argonauts and Other Sketches," "A Waif of the Plains," "Three Partners," and "In the Hollow of the Hills."

It is even at the present day important to direct careful attention to an erroneous conception of wealth, which was universal until the appearance of Adam Smith's great work, in 1775.

"Manual of Political Economy,"--_Henry Fawcett_.

HENRY FAWCETT, a famous English political economist, was born at Salisbury, August 26, 1833, and died in Cambridge, November 6, 1884. His publications include: "Free Trade and Protection," "Indian Finance,"

etc. His celebrated work, "Manual of Political Economy," won for him great fame.

Roger Bacon treated more especially of physics, but remained without influence.

"Lectures on the History of Philosophy," tr., Haldane and Simpson, Vol. III. p. 92,--_Hegel_.

GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL, an eminent German philosopher, was born at Stuttgart, August 27, 1770, and died at Berlin, November 14, 1831.

Among his writings are: "On the Difference Between the Fichtean and Sch.e.l.lingian Systems," "The Orbits of the Planets," "Phenomenology of the Human Mind," "System of Science," "Principles of the Philosophy of Law, or the Law of Nature and Political Science," "Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences," etc.

If we compare Daudet with Zola, we shall see that it is Daudet who is the naturalist novelist, not Zola. It is the author of Le Nabob who begins with observation of reality, and who is possessed by it, while the author of "L'a.s.sommoir" only consults it when his seige is finished and then summarily with preconceived ideas.

"Les Contemporains,"--_Jules Lemaitre_.

FRANcOIS ELIE JULES LEMAiTRE, a famous French literary critic and dramatist, was born in Vennecy (Loiret), August 27, 1853, and died in 1914. He is the author of five volumes of literary biographies, "Contemporaries: Being Literary Studies and Portraits." Among his plays are: "La Revoltee," "Deputy Leveau," "The Kings," "The Pardon," etc.

Also: "Medallions" (poems), "Pet.i.tes Orientales" (poems), "Corneille and Aristotle's Poetics," "Myrrha Stories."

The old prose writers wrote as if they were speaking to an audience; while, among us, prose is invariably written for the eye alone.

--_Niebuhr_.

BARTHOLD GEORG NIEBUHR, a great German historian, was born at Copenhagen, August 27, 1776, and died at Bonn, January 2, 1831. His writings include: "Roman History," "Lectures on the History of Rome,"

"Lectures on Ancient History," "Grecian Heroic History," "Minor Historical and Philological Writings," etc.

Who never ate his bread in sorrow, Who never spent the darksome hours Weeping, and watching for the morrow,-- He knows ye not, ye gloomy Powers.

"Wilhelm Meister," Book ii, Chap, xiii,--_Goethe_.

JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE, one of the greatest poets the world has ever known, was born at Frankfort on the Main, August 28, 1749, and died at Weimar, March 22, 1832. His most famous works are: "Sorrows of Young Werther," "Erwin and Elmira," "Stella," "Prometheus," "Iphigenia,"

"Ta.s.so," "Wilhelm Meister," and his greatest work, "Faust." He also wrote: "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship," "Fiction and Truth," "Hermann and Dorothea," "Elective Affinities," "Wilhelm Meister's Years of Travel," etc.

Man should be ever better than he seems.

"The Song of Faith,"--_Sir Aubrey De Vere_.

SIR AUBREY DE VERE, a famous Irish poet, was born August 28, 1788, and died in 1846. Among his works are: "Julian, the Apostate: A Dramatic Poem," "The Duke of Mercia: an Historical Drama," "The Song of Faith, Devout Exercises and Sonnets," "Mary Tudor: an Historical Drama," was published after his death in 1847.

The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable we have, and therefore should be secured, because they seldom return again.

--_John Locke_.

JOHN LOCKE, an eminent English philosopher, was born at Wrington, near Bristol, August 29, 1632, and died at Oates (Ess.e.x), October 28, 1704.

His philosophical writings include: "An Epistle on Tolerance," "Essay Concerning Human Understanding," "Two Treatises on Government," etc. He also wrote: "Some Thoughts Concerning Reading and Study," "Some Thoughts on Education," "Elements of Natural Philosophy," and many other works.

I do not know anyone who makes us feel more than Milton does the grandeur of the ends which we ought to keep always before us, and therefore our own pettiness and want of courage and n.o.bleness in pursuing them. I believe he failed to discern many of the intermediate relations which G.o.d has established between Himself and us; but I know no one who teaches us more habitually that disobedience to the Divine will is the seat of all misery to men.

"The Friendship of Books,"--_D. Maurice_.

FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE, a celebrated English divine and theological and philosophical writer, was born near Lowestoft, Suffolk, August 29, 1805, and died in London, April 1, 1872. Among his works are: "Ancient Philosophy," "Theological Essays," "Modern Philosophy," "Mediaeval Philosophy," "The Friendship of Books," etc., and a novel, "Eustace Conway."

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, n.o.bler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown sh.e.l.l by life's unresting sea!

"The Chambered Nautilus,"--_Oliver Wendell Holmes_.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, a distinguished American man of letters, was born at Cambridge, Ma.s.s., August 29, 1809, and died at Boston, October 7, 1894. The most important of his works are: "Urania," "The Iron Gate,"

"Songs in Many Keys," "Poems," "Songs of Many Seasons," "Elsie Venner,"

"The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," "The Professor at the Breakfast Table," "The Poet at the Breakfast Table," "Soundings from the Atlantic," "Our Hundred Days in Europe," "John Lothrop Motley," "A Mortal Antipathy," "Ralph Waldo Emerson," "Over the Teacups," etc.

Men's weaknesses are often necessary to the purposes of life.

"Joyzelle," Act ii.--_Maurice Maeterlinck_.

MAURICE MAETERLINCK, a celebrated Belgian poet, was born in Flanders, August 29, 1864. Among his works are: "The Seven Princesses," "The Blind," "The Intruder," "The Treasure of the Humble," "Hot-House Blooms," "La Princesse Maleine," "Alladine et Palomides," "Douze Chansons," "La Sagesse et la Destinee," "Le Temple Enseveli," "The Double Garden," "The Blue Bird," "La Mort," "The Light Beyond," etc.

It is very foolish, and betrays what a small mind we have, to allow fashion to sway us in everything that regards taste; in our way of living, our health, and our conscience.

"The Characters,"--_Jean de La Bruyere_.