Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 52

This is my youth,--its hopes and dreams How strange and shadowy it all seems After these many years!

Turning the pages idly, so, I look with smiles upon the woe, Upon the joy, with tears!

--_Aldrich_.

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH, a renowned American poet, author, and essayist, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, November 11, 1836, and died in 1907. His works include: "Marjorie Daw and Other People," "Prudence Palfrey," "Complete Poems," "The Queen of Sheba," "The Stillwater Tragedy," "The Story of a Bad Boy," etc.

I preached as never sure to preach again, And as a dying man to dying men.

"Love breathing Thanks and Praise,"--_Richard Baxter_.

RICHARD BAXTER, an eminent English divine and author, was born at Rowton, Shropshire, November 12, 1615, and died in London, December 8, 1691. His literary fame rests chiefly on his celebrated work, "The Saints' Everlasting Rest."

Hail, Columbia! happy land!

Hail, ye heroes! heaven-born band!

Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, And when the storm of war was gone, Enjoyed the peace your valor won.

Let independence be our boast, Ever mindful what it cost; Ever grateful for the prize, Let its altar reach the skies!

"Hail, Columbia,"--_Joseph Hopkinson_.

JOSEPH HOPKINSON, a noted American jurist and composer of the famous patriotic song, "Hail Columbia," was born at Philadelphia, November 12, 1770, and died there, January 15, 1842.

My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Saviour divine!

Now hear me while I pray; Take all my guilt away; Oh, let me from this day Be wholly Thine!

"My Faith Looks Up To Thee,"--_Ray Palmer_.

RAY PALMER, a distinguished American clergyman, and hymn-writer, was born at Little Compton, R. I., November 12, 1808, and died at Newark, N.

J., March 29, 1887. He published: "Spiritual Improvement," "Hymns and Sacred Pieces," "Hymns of My Holy Hours," etc. His best known hymn is, "My Faith Looks up to Thee," which has been translated into twenty languages.

When I am here, I do not fast on Sat.u.r.day; when at Rome, I do fast on Sat.u.r.day.

"Epistle 36, To Casula.n.u.s,"--_Saint Augustine_.

SAINT AUGUSTINE, the most famous of the Latin fathers of the Church, and of patristic writers, was born in Tagasta, Numidia, November 13, 354, and died at Hippo, August 28, 430. His most noted works are: "City of G.o.d," "Grace of Christ," "Original Sin," and his "Confessions."

Viking gains are deep wounds, and right well they adorn if they stand on the brow or the breast.

Let them bleed!

--_Tegner_.

ESAIAS TEGNeR, an ill.u.s.trious Swedish poet, was born at Kyrkerud, Wermland, Sweden, November 13, 1782, and died at Wexio, November 2, 1846. He wrote: "Frithiof's Saga" (epic ballads), "Axel,"

"Nattvardsbarned," and his celebrated poem, "Svea," crowned by the Swedish Academy.

To be honest, to be kind, to earn a little, and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not to be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation; above all, on the same condition, to keep friends with himself, here is a task for all a man has of fort.i.tude and delicacy.

--_Robert Louis Stevenson_.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, a Scotch novelist, poet and essayist, of great renown, was born in Edinburgh, November 13, 1850, and died at Apia, Samoa, December 3, 1894. Among his publications are: "Familiar Studies of Men and Books," "An Inland Voyage," "Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes,"

"New Arabian Nights," "Treasure Island," "Prince Otto," "A Child's Garden of Verses," "Kidnapped," "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde," "Underwoods," "Memoirs and Portraits," "Ballads," "The Merry Men and Other Tales," "The Black Arrow," "The Ebb Tide," "A Foot-Note to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa," "David Balfour," "Island Nights' Entertainments," "Essays and Criticisms," etc.

"Comedies and novels end with the wedding of the hero," he says in his autobiography; "for only the struggle, not the acquired position, lends itself to their treatment."

--_Adam Gottlob Oehlenschlager_.

ADAM GOTTLOB OEHLENSCHLaGER, a noted Danish poet, was born near Copenhagen, November 14, 1779, and died January 20, 1850. He has written: "The Life of Christ Annually Repeated in Nature," "Poems,"

"First Song of the Edda," "Palnatoke," "A Journey to Langeland," "Earl Hakon," "Axel and Valborg," "The Little Shepherd Boy," "Socrates,"

"Hamlet," etc.

Mutual love brings mutual delight,-- Brings beauty, life;--for love is life, hate, death.

"The Dying Raven,"--_Richard Henry Dana_.

RICHARD HENRY DANA (THE ELDER), an American poet and essayist of great fame, was born at Cambridge, Ma.s.sachusetts, November 15, 1787, and died February 2, 1879. His poetical works include: "The Dying Raven," "The Buccaneers," "The Change of Home," etc. Among his short stories are: "Edward and Mary," and "Paul Fenton."

The great artist ... is he who guides us into the region of his own thoughts, into the palaces and fields of his own imagination, and while there, speaks to us the language of the G.o.ds.

--_Charles Blanc_.

CHARLES BLANC, a distinguished French art critic, was born November 15, 1813, and died in 1882. He wrote: "A History of Painters of All Schools," "The Treasure of Curiosity," "Grammar of the Arts of Design,"

"The Dutch School of Painters," "Grammar of Painting and Engraving,"

etc.

High office is like a pyramid; only two kinds of animals reach the summit--reptiles and eagles.

--_D'Alembert_.

JEAN BAPTISTE LE ROND D'ALEMBERT, an eminent French philosopher, mathematician and man of letters, was born in Paris, November 16, 1717, and died there, October 9, 1783. Among his works are: "Literary and Philosophical Miscellanies," "Elements of Philosophy," etc. He also wrote the "Preliminary Discourse," or introduction to the great French Encyclopedia.

In seeking to represent the working cla.s.ses, and in standing up for their rights and liberties, I hold that I am also defending the rights and liberties of the middle and richer cla.s.ses of society.

From the "Speech on the Corn Laws" (1843),--_John Bright_.

JOHN BRIGHT, a distinguished English statesman, was born near Rochdale, in Lancashire, November 16, 1811, and died March 27, 1889. His "Public Letters," appeared in 1885, and his speeches and addresses were published in the years 1867-69-79.

If my early friend, Dr. Thirlwall's "History of Greece," had appeared a few years sooner, I should probably never had conceived the design of the present work at all; I should certainly not have been prompted to the task by any deficiencies, and as those which I felt and regretted in Mitford. The comparison of the two authors affords indeed a striking proof of the progress of sound and enlarged views respecting the ancient world during the present generation. Having studied of course the same evidence as Dr.

Thirlwall, I am better enabled than others to bear testimony to the learning, the sagacity, and the candour which pervades his excellent work.