Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 53

"A History of Greece,"--_George Grote_.

GEORGE GROTE, a famous English historian, was born in Clay Hill, Kent, November 17, 1794, and died in London, June 18, 1871. He is best known by his celebrated work, "History of Greece."

The Law is the true embodiment Of everything that's excellent.

It has no kind of fault or flaw, And I, my Lords, embody the Law.

"Lord Chancellor's Song,"--_Gilbert_.

WILLIAM SCHWENCK GILBERT, a celebrated English librettist and comic-poet and prose-writer, was born in London, November 18, 1836, and died in 1911. He wrote: "The Bab Ballads," and several famous comic operas, among which are: "Pinafore," "Patience," "The Mikado," "Ruddygore," and "The Pirates of Penzance."

And so I penned It down, until at last it came to be, For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.

"Pilgrim's Progress: Apology for his book,"--_John Bunyan_.

JOHN BUNYAN, a renowned English author, was born in Elstow, Bedford, November 19 (?), 1628, and died in London, August 31, 1688. He wrote numerous works, the most famous being: "The Pilgrim's Progress," "Grace Abounding," and the "Holy War."

What is love, It is nature's treasure, 'Tis the storehouse of her joys; 'Tis the highest heaven of pleasure, 'Tis a bliss which never cloys.

"The Revenge," Act I, Sc. 2,--_Thomas Chatterton_.

THOMAS CHATTERTON, the famous young English poet, was born in Bristol, November 20, 1752, and died at London, August 25, 1770. He wrote numerous poems and plays, but he is best remembered as the author of the so-called "Rowley Poems," which were collected and published by T.

Tyrwhitt in 1777.

The first who was king was a fortunate soldier: Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.

"Merope," Act I, Sc. 3,--_Voltaire_.

FRANcOIS MARIE AROUET DE VOLTAIRE, the ill.u.s.trious French writer, was born in Paris, November 21, 1694, and died there, May 30, 1778. Among his famous works are: "Artemire," "Mariamne," "Letters on the English,"

"History of Charles XII," "Philosophical Letters," "The Temple of Taste," "Elements of Newton's Philosophy," "The Maid of Orleans," "The Prodigal Son," "Merope," "Discourse on Man," "Poem on Natural Law,"

"Candide," "Semiramis," "Amelie," "Republican Ideas," "Tales,"

"Catechism of the Honest Man," "Irene," "Tancrede," "Socrates," "Century of Louis XV," "The Bible at Last Explained," "Zare," "The Ingenuous One," etc., etc.

Touch us gently, Time!

Let us glide adown thy stream Gently,--as we sometimes glide Through a quiet dream.

"Touch Us Gently, Time,"--_Bryan W. Procter_.

BRYAN WALLER PROCTER, an eminent English poet and man of letters, was born in Wiltshire, November 21, 1787, and died at London, October 4, 1874. Among his works are: "A Sicilian Story," "Dramatic Scenes and Other Poems," "Mirandola" (a tragedy), "English Songs," "The Flood of Thessaly," "Essays and Tales," "Charles Lamb: a Memoir," and the "Life of Edmund Kean."

There are certain people whose biographies ought to be long; who could learn too much concerning Lamb.

"Adventures in Criticism,"--_A. T. Quiller-Couch_.

SIR A. T. QUILLER-COUCH, a celebrated English writer of fiction, was born in Cornwall, November 21, 1863. He has written: "The Astonishing History of Troy Town," "Dead man's Rock," "The Splendid Spur," "The Blue Pavilions," "The Delectable Duchy," "Wandering Heath," "Adventures in Criticism," "Poems and Ballads," "The Ship of Stars," "The Westcotes,"

"The White Wolf," "From a Cornish Window," "Sir John Constantine," "True Tilda," "Brother Copas," "The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems," "Lady Good-for-Nothing," "News from the Duchy," "The Oxford Book of Ballads,"

"Poison Island," "Corporal Sam and Other Stories," "Nicky-Nan Reservist," "On the Art of Writing," "Hocken and Hunken," etc.

He who loves G.o.d and his law must hate the foes of G.o.d.

"Spanish Gypsy, Bk. I,"--_George Eliot_.

MARY ANN EVANS ("GEORGE ELIOT"), the great English novelist, was born at Arbury Farm, Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire, November 22, 1819, and died in London, December 22, 1880. Among her many works are: "Scenes of Clerical Life," "Adam Bede," "The Mill on the Floss," "Romola," "The Spanish Gypsy," "Agatha" (a poem), "Felix Holt," "Daniel Deronda,"

"Middlemarch," "Jubal and Other Poems," etc., etc.

Peel was, undoubtedly, as Lord Beaconsfield has said, a great member of Parliament; but he was surely much more than that, he was a great statesman, a great Minister. He must always rank among the foremost of English Ministers. The proud boast of Heine is that, if any one names the best half-dozen of German poets his name must be brought among them. If we name the best half-dozen of modern English Prime Ministers, we can hardly fail to bring in the name of Peel.

"Life of Sir Robert Peel,"--_Justin McCarthy_.

JUSTIN MCCARTHY, an eminent Irish politician, journalist, historian, novelist and miscellaneous writer, was born at Cork, November 22, 1830, and died April 24, 1912. He has written: "A History of Our Own Times,"

"History of the Four Georges," "A Fair Saxon," "Lady Judith," "The Story of Gladstone's Life," "Modern England," "The Reign of Queen Anne,"

"Reminiscences," "The Story of an Irishman," "Irish Recollections,"

etc. Also the biographies of Sir Robert Peel, Pope Leo XIII, and W. E.

Gladstone.

Spinoza was truly, what Voltaire has with rather less justice called Clark, a reasoning machine.

--_Hallam_ on _Spinoza_.

BENEDICT SPINOZA, a renowned philosopher, was born at Amsterdam, November 23, 1632, and died at The Hague, February 21, 1677. He wrote: "Tractate on G.o.d and Man and Man's Felicity," "Theologico-Political Tractate," and his most famous work, "Ethics Demonstrated Geometrically."

Courtship consists in a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood.

--_Laurence Sterne_.

LAURENCE STERNE, an English novelist of great fame, was born at Clonmel, Ireland, November 24, 1713, and died in London, March 18, 1768. His most noted works are: "Tristram Shandy," "The Sermons of Mr. Yorick," and "A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy."

Since the seventeenth century, we have had no poet of the highest order, though Sh.e.l.ley, had he lived, would perhaps have become one. He had something of that burning pa.s.sion, that sacred fire, which kindles the soul, as though it came fresh from the altar of the G.o.ds. But he was cut off in his early prime, when his splendid genius was still in its dawn.

"History of Civilization in England," Vol. II, p. 397 (1861),--_Henry Thomas Buckle_.

HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE, a distinguished English historian, was born in Lee, Kent, November 24, 1821, and died in Damascus, May 29, 1862. He is best known for his great work, "The History of Civilization in England" (2 vols. 1857-61). His "Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works" were edited by Helen Taylor in 1872, and a new edition by Grant Allen in 1880.

How oft my guardian angel gently cried, "Soul, from thy cas.e.m.e.nt look, and thou shalt see How he persists to knock and wait for thee!"

And, O! how often to that voice of sorrow, "To-morrow we will open," I replied, And when the morrow came, I answered still, "To-morrow."

"To-morrow," Longfellow's Trans. L. 9,--_Lope de Vega_.