Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 43

FRANcOIS, DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, an ill.u.s.trious French cla.s.sicist and philosopher, was born at Paris, September 15, 1613, and died there March 17, 1680. His most celebrated works were: "Reflections, or Moral Sentences and Maxims," better known as "Maxims," and his "Memoirs."

Those families, you know, are our upper-crust,--not upper ten thousand.

"The Ways of the Hour," Chap. VI,--_Cooper_.

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, a famous American novelist, and historian, was born in Burlington, N. J., September 15, 1789, and died at Cooperstown, N. Y., September 14, 1851. A few of his celebrated novels are: "The Spy," "The Pilot," "Precaution," "The Pioneers," "The Last of the Mohicans," "The Prairie," "The Red Rover," "The Water-Witch," "Homeward Bound," "The Pathfinder," "The Deerslayer," "The Redskins," "The Ways of the Hour," etc.

I would not live alway: I ask not to stay Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way.

"I would not live alway,"--_William Augustus Muhlenberg_.

WILLIAM AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG, a noted American philanthropist and Protestant Episcopal clergyman, was born in Philadelphia, Penn., September 16, 1796, and died in New York, April, 1877. He wrote: "A Plea for Christian Hymns," and many well-known hymns, among them: "Saviour Who Thy Flock Art Feeding," "Shout the Glad Tidings," and "I Would Not Live Alway."

We all know Mr. Lowell's brilliant qualities as a poet, critic, scholar, and man of the world; but that in him which touches me most strongly belongs to his relations to his country--his keen and subtle yet kindly recognition of her virtues and her faults, and the sympathetic power with which in the day of her melancholy triumph, after the Civil War, he gave such n.o.ble expression to her self-devotion, sorrows, and hopes.

"James Russell Lowell, The Critic,"--_Francis Parkman_.

FRANCIS PARKMAN, an eminent American historian, was born at Boston, September 16, 1823, and died at Jamaica Plain, Ma.s.s., November 8, 1893.

He wrote: "The Oregon Trail: Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life," "History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac," "The Pioneers of France in the New World," "The Jesuits in North America," "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West," "The Old Regime in Canada," "Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV," "Montcalm and Wolfe," and "A Half-Century of Conflict."

The essayist rises higher than the poet--witty, tender; wise in human frailty, but never bitter.

"Personal Tributes to Dr. Holmes, the Writer," Vol. 7, p. 167 (1894),--_Hamlin Garland_.

HAMLIN GARLAND, a celebrated American story writer, was born in La Crosse, Wis., September 16, 1860. His works include: "Main Traveled Roads," "A Spoil of Office," "Prairie Folks," "Prairie Songs,"

"Crumbling Idols," "A Little Norsk," "Rose of Dutcher's Coolly," "Jason Edwards," "The Eagle's Heart," "Her Mountain Lover," "Hesper," "The Light of the Star," "The Long Trail," "Money Magic," "The Shadow World,"

"Victor Olnee's Discipline," "Other Main Traveled Roads," "A Son of the Middle Border," etc.

There's a magic in the distance, where the sea-line meets the sky.

"Forty Singing Seamen,"--_Alfred Noyes_.

ALFRED NOYES, a noted English writer, was born at Staffordshire, September 16, 1880. He has written, "Robin Hood," "Tales of the Mermaid Tavern," "The Winepress," "The Sea in English Poetry," "A Salute from the Fleet," "The Flower of Old j.a.pan," "Poems," "Forty Singing Seamen,"

"Walking Shadows," "The Elfin Artist," (New Poems).

All reasoning is retrospect; it consists in the application of facts and principles previously known. This will show the very great importance of knowledge, especially of that kind called Experience.

"Knowledge,"--_John Foster_.

JOHN FOSTER, a famous English author, and dissenting minister, best known as the "Essayist," was born near Halifax, Yorkshire, September 17, 1770, and died October 15, 1843. His fame rests chiefly on his celebrated "Essays." He also wrote: "Essay on Popular Ignorance,"

"Discourse on Missions," etc.

Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coa.r.s.e, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

"Life of Addison,"--_Samuel Johnson_.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, a renowned English critic, essayist, lexicographer, and poet, was born in Lichfield, September 18, 1709, and died in London, December 13, 1784. Among his many works may be mentioned: "Life of Richard Savage," "The Vanity of Human Wishes," "Life of Dryden," "Plan for a Dictionary," "The Rambler," "Irene," "The Idler," "Shakespeare with Notes," "The False Alarm," "Taxation no Tyranny," "Ra.s.selas,"

"English Poets," etc.

Men are polished, through act and speech, Each by each, As pebbles are smoothed on the rolling beach.

"A Home Idyl,"--_John Townsend Trowbridge_.

JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE, a celebrated American poet, novelist and general writer, was born in Ogden, N. Y., September 18, 1827, and died in 1916. He has written: "Martin Merrivale," "Neighbor Jackwood," "The Old Battle Ground," "The Drummer Boy," "The Three Scouts," "Coupon Bonds," "The Story of Columbus," "The Jack Hazard Series," "The Silver Medal Series," "The Emigrant's Story, and Other Poems," "At Sea," "The Pewee," "Hearts and Faces," "The Vagabonds," "The Book of Gold, and Other Poems," "The Start in Life Series," "The Tide Mill Series,"

"Poetical Works," "My Own Story," etc.

O Traveller who hast wandered far 'Neath southern sun and northern star, Say where the fairest regions are!

Friend, underneath whatever skies Love looks in love-returning eyes, There are the bowers of paradise.

"The Bowers of Paradise,"--_Clinton Scollard_.

CLINTON SCOLLARD, a popular American poet and author, was born in New York, September 18, 1860. He has published: "Pictures in Song," "Old and New World Lyrics," "Under Summer Skies," "Lyrics and Legends of Christmastide," "Odes and Elegies," "From the Lips of the Sea,"

"Poems--A Selection from the Harvest of Thirty Years of Song," "A Christmas Garland," "A Knight of the Highway," "A Son of a Tory," "The Lutes of Morn," "Lyrics of the Dawn," "Footfaring," etc.

Let the soldier be abroad if he will, he can do nothing in this age. There is another personage,--a personage less imposing in the eyes of some, perhaps insignificant. The schoolmaster is abroad, and I trust to him, armed with his primer, against the soldier in full military array.

"Speech," January 29, 1828,--_Lord Brougham_.

HENRY PETER BROUGHAM, LORD BROUGHAM, a distinguished British statesman and author, was born in Edinburgh, September 19, 1778, and died at Cannes, France, May 7, 1868. His most important works are: "Lives of Men of Letters and Science," "Speeches," and "Sketches of the Statesmen of the Time of George III."

The soul of man is larger than the sky, Deeper than ocean, or the abysmal dark Of the unfathomed center.

"To Shakespeare,"--_Hartley Coleridge_.

HARTLEY COLERIDGE, a celebrated English poet, and man of letters, (son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge), was born at Bristol, September 19, 1796, and died in 1849. His writings include: "Biographia Borealis," "The Worthies of Yorkshire and Lancashire," "Essays and Marginalia," and some exquisite sonnets, published in the _London Magazine_.

When change itself can give no more 'Tis easy to be true.

"Reasons for Constancy,"--_Sir Charles Sedley_.

SIR CHARLES SEDLEY, a noted English dramatist, was born at Aylesford in Kent, September 20, 1639, and died August 20, 1701. Besides his tragedies and comedies, he wrote a famous song, "Phyllis."

In the first days Of my distracting grief, I found myself As women wish to be who love their lords.

"Douglas," Act I, Sc. i,--_John Home_.