Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 63

the "Germania," ("On the Manners of the Germans"), and his "History."

No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.

"Satire ii," 83,--_Juvenal_.

JUVENAL, the renowned Latin poet, was born at Aquinum, about A.D. 60, and died about A.D. 140. Sixteen of his famous satires are extant.

Never do a thing concerning the rect.i.tude of which you are in doubt.

"Letters," Letter xviii, 5,--_Pliny the Younger_.

PLINY THE YOUNGER, a noted Roman orator, nephew of Pliny the Elder, was born at Comum, A.D. 61, and died about 113. Of his numerous forensic works, only one oration is extant, "The Panegyric," also his "Letters."

To conduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the force of human nature.

"Life of Fabius,"--_Plutarch_.

PLUTARCH, the celebrated Greek moralist, practical philosopher, and biographer was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia. The year of his birth and death are not known, but he was very old at the death of Trajan, A.D.

117. He wrote: "Parallel Lives," and many "Moral Treatises," including "The Education of Children," "The Right Way of Hearing," "Precepts About Health," "Cessation of Oracles," "The Pythian Responses," "The r.e.t.a.r.ded Vengeance of the Deity," "The Daemon of Socrates," "The Virtues of Women," "On the Fortune of the Romans," "Political Counsels," "On Superst.i.tion," "On Isis and Osiris," "On the Pace of the Moon's Disk,"

"On the Opinions Accepted by the Philosophers."

A boy of five years old serene and gay, Unpitying Hades hurried me away.

Yet weep not for Callimachus: if few The days I lived, few were my sorrows too.

--_Lucian_.

LUCIAN, the celebrated Greek satirist, was born at Samosata, in northern Syria, about 120 A.D., and died about 200 A.D. Among his writings are: "Praise of Demosthenes," "Dialogues of the G.o.ds," "Dialogues of the Sea G.o.ds," "Dialogues of the Dead," "The True History," "Lucius; or The a.s.s," "Death of Peregrinus," "The Fisherman," "The Sea Voyage, or Votive Offerings," "The Sale of Lives," "Alexander, or The False Prophet," "Hermotimus," etc.

Neither fear, nor wish for, your last day.

Epigram x, 47.13,--_Martial_.

MARTIAL, a famous Latin poet, was born at Bilbilis, Spain, A.D. 50 (?), and died in Spain, 102 (?). His fame rests upon his "Epigrams" in fifteen books.

Suetonius says of the Emperor t.i.tus: "Once at supper, reflecting that he had done nothing for any that day, he broke out into that memorable and justly admired saying, 'My friends, I have lost a day!'"

"Lives of Twelve Caesars" (Translation by Alexander Thomson),--_Suetonius_.

SUETONIUS, a famous Latin chronicler, grammarian, and critic, flourished in the early part of the second century of our era. His works include: "Distinguished Orators," "Ill.u.s.trious Grammarians," "Lives of the Caesars," etc.

When I am at Rome I fast as the Romans do; when I am at Milan I do not fast. So likewise you, whatever church you come to, observe the custom of the place, if you would neither give offence to others, nor take offence from them.

"Advice to St. Austin on Sabbath Keeping,"--_St. Ambrose_.

SAINT AMBROSE, one of the fathers of the Latin Church, born at Treves, Gaul, probably A.D. 340, died at Milan, April 4, A.D. 397. His writings include: "Of the Duties of the Clergy," "Hexaemeron," hymns, etc. He became bishop of Milan in 374.

Socrates said, "Those who want fewest things are nearest to the G.o.ds."

"Socrates," XI,--_Diogenes Laertius_.

DIOGENES LAERTIUS, a famous Greek compiler of anecdotes, flourished about A.D. 200-250, a native of Laerte in Cilicia. He wrote a collection of notes and memoranda (in 10 books), "On the Lives, Teachings, and Sayings of Famous Men."

None can injure him, who does not injure himself.

--_Chrysostom_.

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, a noted Greek Church father, born in Antioch, Syria, 350 (?), and died at Comana, 407. His works, comprising homilies, commentaries, liturgies, epistles, etc., can be found in 13 volumes, fol. (1718).

Quis legem det amantibus? Major lex amor est sibi.[5]

--_Boethius_.

BOeTHIUS, a famous Roman didactic poet and statesman, was born between 470 and 475, and died about 525. His celebrated "Consolation of Philosophy" won for him lasting fame.

Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire, And h.e.l.l the Shadow of a Soul on fire.

"Rubaiyat," Stanza lxvii,--_Omar Khayyam_.

OMAR KHAYYaM, a celebrated Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer, was born at Nishapur, in 1050 (?), and died there in 1123 (?). His fame rests on the "Rubaiyat," or "Quatrains,"--four-line stanzas with the third unrhymed. Fitzgerald's was the first English translation to make these quatrains widely known.

"Abelard was almost the first who awakened mankind in the ages of darkness to a sympathy with intellectual excellence ... Abelard was the first of recorded name, who taught the banks of the Seine to resound a tale of love; and it was of Elose that he sang."

PIERRE ABeLARD, a famous French scholastic philosopher and theologian, was born near Nantes, 1079, and died April 21, 1142. His romantic and tragic love for Helose is told in his "Story of My Misfortunes."

Jesu! the very Thought of Thee With sweetness fills the breast, But sweeter far Thy face to see And in Thy presence rest.

"Saint Bernard's Hymn,"--_Bernard of Clairvaux_.

BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX, ST. BERNARD, a renowned French theologian, church father, and saint, was born at Fontaines, near Dijon, in 1091, and died at Clairvaux, January 12, 1153. He wrote five books on "Reflection," and his famous hymn, "Jesu, the Very Thought of Thee," is popular in the churches of our day.

"Unless the spirit of wisdom and understanding had been with me and filled me, I had never been able to construct so long a work in such a difficult metre."

--_Bernard of Cluny_.

BERNARD OF CLUNY, a famous French monk and poet, who flourished in the twelfth century, is best known for his noted work, "On Contempts of the World."