Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 42

Husband and wife--so much in common, how different in type! Such a contrast, and yet such harmony, strength and weakness blended together!

--_Ruffini_.

GIOVANNI DOMENICO RUFFINI, a distinguished Italian litterateur, was born at Genoa, September 6, 1807, and died at Taggia, November 2, 1881. He published: "Lorenzo Benoni" (a romance), "Lavinia," etc.; also, "Doctor Antonio," his most famous book.

Le style est l'homme meme.[2]

"Discours de Reception,"--_Buffon_.

GEORGE LOUIS LE CLERC, COMTE DE BUFFON, a famous French naturalist, was born at Montbard, September 7, 1707, and died April 16, 1788. His "Natural History," won for him world-wide fame.

Natura il fece, e poi ruppe la stampa.[3]

"Orlando Furioso," Canto x, Stanza 84,--_Ludovico Ariosto_.

LUDOVICO ARIOSTO, an ill.u.s.trious Italian poet, was born at Reggio, September 8, 1474, and died at Ferrara, June 6, 1533. His most famous work is: "Orlando Furioso."

None but G.o.d can satisfy the longings of an immortal soul; that as the heart was made for Him, so He only can fill it.

--_Trench_.

RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, a noted Anglican archbishop and poet, was born at Dublin on September 9, 1807, and died March 28, 1886. He wrote: "The Story of Justin Martyr, and Other Poems," "Sabbation," "Honor Neale, and Other Poems," "Poems from Eastern Sources," "The Study of Words,"

"English Past and Present," "A Select Glossary of English Words," "Notes on the Parables," "Notes on the Miracles," etc.

The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people.

"What is to be done?" Chap. xl. Note,--_Tolstoi_.

COUNT LYOF ALEKSeEVICH TOLSTOI, the great Russian novelist, was born on the family estate of Yasnaya Polyana in the government of Tula, Russia, September 9, 1828, and died in 1910. His most celebrated works are: "In What My Faith Consists," "Cossacks," "Sevastopol," "War and Peace,"

"Master and Man," "My Confession," "The Kreutzer Sonata," and "Anna Karenina."

A language cannot be thoroughly learned by an adult without five years' residence in the country where it is spoken; and without habits of close observation, a residence of twenty years is insufficient.

--_P. G. Hamerton_.

PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON, a distinguished English artist and art-writer, was born at Laneside, Lancashire, September 10, 1834; and died near Boulogne, France, November 5, 1894. Among his works are: "Etching and Etchers," "Thoughts About Art," "Painting in France," "The Quest of Happiness," "The Graphic Arts," "Contemporary French Painters," "Human Intercourse," "The Intellectual Life," and "A Painter's Camp in the Highlands."

A pleasing land of drowsyhead it was, Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye; And of gay castles in the clouds that pa.s.s, Forever flushing round a summer sky; There eke the soft delights that witchingly Instil a wanton sweetness through the breast, And the calm pleasures always hover'd nigh; But whate'er smack'd of noyance or unrest Was far, far off expell'd from this delicious nest.

"The Castle of Indolence," Canto i, Stanza 6.--_James Thomson_.

JAMES THOMSON, a famous Scotch poet, was born at Ednam, September 11, 1700, and died August 27, 1748. His most celebrated poems are: "The Seasons," and "The Castle of Indolence."

Woman's grief is like a summer storm, Short as it is violent.

"Basil," Act V, Sc. 3,--_Joanna Baillie_.

JOANNA BAILLIE, a celebrated Scottish poet, was born in Bothwell, Lanarkshire, September 11, 1762, and died at Hampstead, England, February 23, 1851. She wrote: "Plays on the Pa.s.sions," and numerous poems and songs.

Blessed be agriculture! If one does not have too much of it.

"My Summer in a Garden: Preliminary."--_Chas. Dudley Warner_.

CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER, an eminent American journalist and miscellaneous writer, was born at Plainfield, Ma.s.s., September 12, 1829, and died in 1900. Among his noted works are: "My Summer in a Garden," "Backlog Studies," "My Winter on the Nile," "Life of Captain John Smith,"

"Washington Irving," "A Roundabout Journey," "Their Pilgrimage," "Book of Eloquence," "A Little Journey in the World," "As We Were Saying,"

"The Golden House," "The Relation of Literature to Life," "Studies in the South and West, with Comments on Canada," "That Fortune," etc. In collaboration with Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) he wrote: "The Gilded Age." He was editor of the "American Men of Letters" series, and of "The Library of the World's Best Literature."

The desire of love, Joy; The desire of life, Peace: The desire of the soul, Heaven: The desire of G.o.d ... a flame-white secret forever.

"Desire,"--_William Sharp_.

WILLIAM SHARP, a distinguished British critic and man of letters, was born September 12, 1856, and died in 1905. Among his works are: "Humanity and Man," "The Conqueror's Dream, and Other Poems," "Dante Gabriel Rossetti," "Shakespeare's Songs, Poems, and Sonnets," "Sonnets of this Century," "Sh.e.l.ley," "Romantic Ballads," "Sospiri di Roma,"

"Flower o' the Vine," "Sospiri d' Italia," etc.

Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.

"Guesses at Truth."--_J. C. and A. W. Hare_.

JULIUS CHARLES HARE, a famous English divine and theological writer, was born at Valdagno, Italy, September 13, 1795, and died in England, January 23, 1855. He wrote: "Mission of the Comforter," "The Contest with Rome," "Vindication of Luther," and conjointly with A. W. Hare, "Guesses at Truth."

True resignation, which always brings with it the confidence that unchangeable goodness will make even the disappointment of our hopes, and the contradictions of life, conducive to some benefit, casts a grave but tranquil light over the prospect of even a toilsome and troubled life.

--_Humboldt_.

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT, a renowned German scientist, was born in Berlin, September 14, 1769, and died there May 6, 1859. He wrote: "Voyages to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent," "Observations on Zoology and Comparative Anatomy," "View of the Cordilleras and of the Monuments of the Indigenous Races of America," and "Cosmos," his most celebrated work.

O years, gone down into the past, What pleasant memories come to me Of your untroubled days of peace, And hours of almost ecstasy.

"_Reconciled_,"--Phoebe Cary.

PHOEBE CARY, a noted American poetess and prose-writer, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 14, 1824, and died in Newport, Rhode Island, July 31, 1871. With her sister, she published many books, among them, "Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love," and "Poems and Parodies."

We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.

"Maxim 294,"--_Rochefoucauld_.