Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 45

HENRI FReDeRIC AMIEL, an eminent Swiss essayist, poet, and philosophical critic, was born at Geneva, September 27, 1821, and died there, March 11, 1881. His writings include: "Millet Grains," "Study on Mme. de Stael," "The Literary Movement in Romanish Switzerland," etc. His famous "Journal" appeared after his death.

The dews of summer nights did fall, The moon, sweet regent of the sky, Silvered the walls of c.u.mnor Hall And many an oak that grew thereby.

"c.u.mnor Hall,"--_William J. Mickle_.

WILLIAM JULIUS MICKLE, a noted Scottish poet, was born at Langholm, Dumfriesshire, September 28, 1735, and died at Forest Hill, October 28, 1788. He wrote: "Syr Martyn," "Almada Hill," "c.u.mnor Hall," etc.

Cobden is a man of an extremely interesting mind; quite the opposite of an Englishman in this respect, that you never hear him talk commonplaces, and that he has few prejudices.

"Correspondence,"--_Prosper Merimee_.

PROSPER MeRIMeE, a renowned French essayist and litterateur, was born at Paris, September 28, 1803, and died at Cannes, September 23, 1870. He wrote: "Historic Monuments," "Historic and Literary Medleys," "Mateo Falcone," "Guzla," "Plays of Clara Gazul," and his most celebrated works: "Colomba" and "Carmen."

Time's corrosive dewdrop eats The giant warrior to a crust Of earth in earth and rust in rust.

"A Danish Barrow,"--_Francis T. Palgrave_.

FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE, a distinguished English poet and art critic, was born September 28, 1824, and died in 1897. He wrote: "Essays on Art," "Lyrical Poems," "The Visions of England," "The Life of Jesus Christ Ill.u.s.trated from the Italian painters of the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries," "Idylls and Songs," "Hymns," "Amenophis and Other Poems,"

"The Golden Treasury," etc.

"I have often noticed that almost everyone has his own individual small economies--careful habits of saving fractions of pennies in some one peculiar direction--any disturbance of which annoys him more than spending shillings or pounds on some real extravagance."

"Cranford, Chap. V,"--_Mrs. Gaskell_.

MRS. ELIZABETH CLEGHORN GASKELL, a famous English novelist, was born in Chelsea, September 29, 1810, and died November 12, 1865. Among her notable works are: "Mary Barton," "Ruth," "Lizzie Leigh," "Sylvia's Lovers," "Wives and Daughters," "The Life of Charlotte Bronte," and "Cranford," her most celebrated work.

Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen; Here's to the widow of fifty; Here's to the flaunting, extravagant quean, And here's to the housewife that's thrifty!

Let the toast pa.s.s; Drink to the la.s.s; I'll warrant she'll prove an excuse for the gla.s.s.

"School for Scandal," Act iii, Sc. 3.--_Sheridan_.

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, the renowned British dramatist and parliamentary orator, was born in Dublin, September 30, 1751, and died at London, July 7, 1816. His dramatic works include: "The Rivals," "The School for Scandal," "The Critic," and "The Duenna." His most famous speeches are: "The Perfumery Speech" and the "Begum Speech."

Der Unterliegende ist immer philosophisch gestimmt.[4]

--_Sudermann_.

HERMANN SUDERMANN, a celebrated German novelist and dramatist, was born at Matziken, East Prussia, September 30, 1857. Among his works are: "Dame Care," "In the Twilight," "Honor," "The Cat Bridge," "The Destruction of Sodom," "Brothers and Sisters," "Home," "Battle of the b.u.t.terflies," "Iolanthe's Wedding," "Once on a Time," "The Undying Past," "Das Hohe Lied," "Strand-kinder," "The Indian Lily," "Der gute Ruf," etc.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] I have often thought that however learnedly you may talk about it, one knows nothing but what he learns from his own experience.

[2] The style is the man himself.

[3] Nature made him, and then broke the mould.

[4] The losing side is always philosophically inclined.

OCTOBER

OCTOBER

I have read somewhere or other,--in Dionysius of Halicarna.s.sus, I think,--that history is philosophy teaching by examples.

"On the Study and Use of History," Letter 2,--_Bolingbroke_.

HENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE, a distinguished English statesman, author, and orator, was born at Battersea, October 1, 1678, and died there, December 12, 1751. His princ.i.p.al works are: "Letters on the Spirit of Patriotism," "Letters on the Study of History," "The Idea of a Patriot King," and "A Dissertation on Parties."

We join ourselves to no party that does not carry the flag and keep step to the music of the Union.

"Letter to the Whig Convention, 1855,"--_Rufus Choate_.

RUFUS CHOATE, an eminent American lawyer, orator and statesman, was born at Ess.e.x, Ma.s.s., October 1, 1799, and died at Halifax, N. S., July 13, 1859. His "Works" (2 vols.) were published in 1863.

But I account it worth All pangs of fair hopes crost-- All loves and honors lost,-- To gain the heavens, at cost Of losing earth.

"Sir Marmaduke's Musings,"--_Theodore Tilton_.

THEODORE TILTON, a noted American journalist, lecturer, editor, and verse-writer, was born in New York City, October 2, 1835, and died in 1907. He wrote: "Thou and I," "The s.e.xton's Tale, and Other Poems,"

"Suabian Stories," "Tempest-Tossed," "Sanctum Sanctorum: or An Editor's Proof Sheets," etc.

Mr. Webster says of Mr. Adams: On the day of his death, hearing the noise of bells and cannon, he asked the occasion. On being reminded that it was "Independence Day," he replied, "Independence forever!"

"History of the United States," Vol. vii, p. 65,--_Bancroft_.

GEORGE BANCROFT, a famous American historian and statesman, was born in Worcester, Ma.s.s., October 3, 1800, and died in Washington, D. C., January 17, 1891. His most famous work is the "History of the United States."

But Petrarch's highest merit by no means consists in this new cla.s.sic elegance; it consists in the fact that he was the first to write freely of all things in the same way that a man speaks. He was the first to throw aside all scholastic crutches, and prove how much more swiftly a man could walk without leaning upon them.

"Machiavelli and his Times," (transl.) Vol. I,--_Pasquale Villari_.