Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 58

"Self-Help,"--_Samuel Smiles_.

SAMUEL SMILES, a famous British author, was born at Haddington, Scotland, December 23, 1812, and died, April 16, 1904. He wrote: "Lives of the Engineers," "Industrial Biography," "James Brindley and the Early Engineers," "Lives of Boulton and Watt," "Life of Thomas Telford," "Life of George Stephenson," "The Life of a Scotch Naturalist" (Thomas Edward), "Robert d.i.c.k," "George Moore," "Men of Invention and Industry,"

"Life and Labor," "A Publisher and His Friends," "Jasmin," "Josiah Wedgwood," "History of Ireland," etc. Also, "Self-Help," "Character,"

"Thrift," and "Duty."

Her air, her manners, all who saw admir'd; Courteous though coy, and gentle though retir'd; The joy of youth and health her eyes display'd, And ease of heart her every look convey'd.

"The Parish Register, Marriages," Part ii,--_George Crabbe_.

GEORGE CRABBE, a celebrated English poet, was born in Aldborough, Suffolk, December 24, 1754, and died at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, February 3, 1832. His most famous poems are: "The Parish Register," "The Village," "Tales in Verse," and "The Borough."

Still so gently o'er me stealing, Mem'ry will bring back the feeling, Spite of all my grief revealing That I love thee,--that I dearly love thee still.

"La Sonnambula,"--_Scribe_.

AUGUSTIN EUGeNE SCRIBE, a distinguished French dramatist, was born in Paris, December 24, 1791, and died February 20, 1861. His collected "Oeuvres," (76 vols. 1874-85), contains all his works.

She is fair as the spirit of light, That floats in the ether on high.

--_Adam Mickiewicz_.

ADAM MICKIEWICZ, the most celebrated of Slavic poets, was born near Novogrdek, Lithuania, December 24, 1798, and died at Constantinople, November 26, 1855. Among his famous works are: "Crimean Sonnets,"

"Lectures on Slavic Literature," "The Books of the Polish People and of the Polish Pilgrimage," the ballad, "Dziady," and three famous epics: "Pan Tadeusz," "Conrad Wallenrod," and "Grazyna."

There is no better motto which it (culture) can have than these words of Bishop Wilson, "To make reason and the will of G.o.d prevail."

"Culture and Anarchy,"--_Matthew Arnold_.

MATTHEW ARNOLD, an eminent English poet, essayist and critic, was born at Laleham, December 24, 1822, and died at Liverpool, April 15, 1888.

His princ.i.p.al works are: "Empedocles on Etna," "The Strayed Reveler and Other Poems," "New Poems," "Essays in Criticism," "Lectures on the Study of Celtic Literature," "Culture and Anarchy," "Friendship's Garland,"

"Mixed Essays," "Irish Essays," "Last Essays on Church and Religion,"

and "Discourses on America."

It is not enough to do good; one must do it the right way.

"On Compromise,"--_John Morley_.

JOHN MORLEY (VISCOUNT MORLEY), a renowned English statesman, essayist, editor, critic and biographer, was born at Blackburn, Lancashire, December 24, 1838. He has written: "Life of Oliver Cromwell," "Life of Gladstone," "Life of Cobden," "Sir Robert Walpole," "Studies in Literature," "Cromwell," "Literary Essays," "Notes on Politics,"

"Recollections," etc.

Well may your hearts believe the truths I tell: 'Tis virtue makes the bliss, where'er we dwell.

"Oriental Eclogues," I, Line 5,--_William Collins_.

WILLIAM COLLINS, a celebrated English poet, was born in Chichester, December 25, 1721, and died there, June 12, 1759. His princ.i.p.al works were: "Ode to Evening," "The Pa.s.sions," "Ode on the Death of Thomson,"

and the "Dirge to Cymbeline."

Who dares this pair of boots displace, Must meet Bombastes face to face.

"Bombastes Furioso," Act I, Sc. 4,--_William Barnes Rhodes_.

WILLIAM BARNES RHODES, a noted English dramatic writer, was born December 25, 1772, and died November 1, 1826. He wrote: "The Satires of Juvenal, Translated into English Verse," "Epigrams," and his famous burlesque, "Bombastes Furioso."

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

"Elegy in a Country Churchyard,"--_Thomas Gray_.

THOMAS GRAY, the renowned English poet, was born at Cornhill, London, December 26, 1716, and died at Cambridge, July 24, 1771. He wrote: "Ode to Adversity," "Progress of Poesy," "The Bard," "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College," and his most famous work, "Elegy in a Country Churchyard."

It may well wait a century for a reader, as G.o.d has waited six thousand years for an observer.

"Martyrs of Science" (Brewster),--_John Kepler_.

JOHANNES KEPLER, a German astronomer of great fame, was born at Weil, Wurtemberg, December 27, 1571, and died at Ratisbon, November 15, 1630.

His most famous work was: "New Astronomy, with Commentaries on the Motions of Mars."

Among men of letters Lowell is doubtless most typically American, though Curtis must find an eligible place in the list. Lowell was self-conscious, though the truest greatness is not; he was a trifle too "smart," besides, and there is no "smartness" in great literature. But both the self consciousness and the smartness must be admitted to be American; and Lowell was so versatile, so urbane, of so large a spirit, and so admirable in the scope of his sympathies, that he must certainly go on the calendar.

"Mere Literature and Other Essays,"--_Woodrow Wilson_.

WOODROW WILSON, a famous American educator and author, and twenty-eighth President of the United States, was born at Staunton, Va., December 28, 1856, and died at Washington, D. C., February 3, 1924. His works include: "Congressional Government: A Study of American Politics," "The State: Elements of Historical and Practical Politics," "Division and Reunion," "Epochs of American History," "An Old Master, and Other Political Essays," "Mere Literature and Other Essays," "George Washington," "A History of the American People," "Const.i.tutional Government in the United States," "The New Freedom," "When a Man Comes to Himself," "On Being Human."

Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race.

"Speech," Hawarden, May 28, 1890,--_William E. Gladstone_.

WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, the eminent English statesman, essayist, and translator from the cla.s.sics, was born in Liverpool, December 29, 1809, and died in 1898. His works include: "Studies in Homer and the Homeric Age," "Church and State," "Juventus Mundi," "Homeric Synchronism,"

"Gleanings of Past Years," etc.

The tumult and the shouting dies,-- The Captains and the Kings depart,-- Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heart.

"Recessional,"--_Rudyard Kipling_.

RUDYARD KIPLING, a renowned English short-story writer, poet, and novelist, was born at Bombay, India, December 30, 1865. Among his writings are: "Life's Handicap," "Mine Own People," "Many Inventions,"

"Soldiers Three," "The Light That Failed," "The Seven Seas," "Barrack Room Ballads," "The Jungle Books," "Captains Courageous," "The Day's Work," "Stalky and Co.," "Just So Stories for Little Children," "Kim,"

"The Five Nations," "Traffics and Discoveries," "Puck of Pook's Hill,"