Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 24

Work, and thou wilt bless the day Ere the toil be done; They that work not, can not pray, Can not feel the sun.

G.o.d is living, working still, All things work and move; Work, or lose the power to will, Lose the power to love.

"Working,"--_John Sullivan Dwight_.

JOHN SULLIVAN DWIGHT, a noted American musical critic, was born at Boston, May 13, 1813, and died September 5, 1893. His noted poem is, "G.o.d Save the State."

Children are like grown people; the experience of others is never of any use to them.

--_Alphonse Daudet_.

ALPHONSE DAUDET, a distinguished French novelist, was born at Nimes, May 13, 1840, and died December 16, 1897. He wrote: "The Little Thing: Story of a Child," "Letters from My Mill," "Monday Tales," "Fromont, Jr. and Risler, Sr.," "The Nabob," "Kings in Exile," "Numa Roumestan," "The Gospeller," "Sappho," "Tartarin," "Prodigious Adventures of Tartarin,"

"Tartarin in the Alps," "Port Tarascon," "Thirty Years of Paris,"

"Recollections of a Man of Letters," etc.

Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, The queen of the world and the child of the skies!

Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold, While ages on ages thy splendors unfold.

"Columbia,"--_Timothy Dwight_.

TIMOTHY DWIGHT, a celebrated American Congregational clergyman, was born in Northampton, Ma.s.s., May 14, 1752, and died in New Haven, Conn., January 11, 1817. He wrote: "Observations on Language," "Essay on Light," "Greenfield Hill" "Travels in New England and New York,"

"Theology Explained and Defended," etc.

"You can never say too much about Coleridge to me," Rossetti would write, "for I wors.h.i.+p him on the right side of idolatry, and I perceive you know him well." Upon this one of my first remarks was that there was much in Coleridge's higher descriptive verse equivalent to the landscape art of Turner. The critical parallel Rossetti warmly approved of, adding however, that Coleridge, at his best as a pictorial artist, was a spiritualised Turner.

"Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti,"--_Hall Caine_.

SIR THOMAS HENRY HALL CAINE, an eminent English novelist, was born at Runcorn, Ches.h.i.+re, May 14, 1853. His most noted works are: "The Deemster," "A Son of Hagar," "Recollections of Rossetti," "The Scapegoat," "The Shadow of a Crime," "The Manxman," "The Christian,"

"The White Prophet," "The Prodigal Son," "The Woman Thou Gavest Me,"

etc. Also: "The Drama of 365 Days," "Scenes in the Great War,"

"Britain's Daughters," etc.

Sooth 'twere a pleasant life to lead, With nothing in the world to do But just to blow a shepherd's reed, The silent season thro'

And just to drive a flock to feed,-- Sheep, quiet, fond and few!

"Dolce far Niente," Stanza I,--_Laman Blanchard_.

SAMUEL LAMAN BLANCHARD, a noted British author and journalist, was born May 15, 1804, and died February 15, 1845. He published "Lyric Offerings," etc.; and edited numerous magazine journals.

The deeper the feeling the less demonstrative will be the expression of it.

--_Balzac_.

HONORe DE BALZAC, the greatest of French novelists, was born in Tours, May 16, 1799, and died in Paris, August 18, 1850. He wrote in all about 97 celebrated novels. Among them: "Le Vieille Fille," "Contrat De Marriage," "Le Colonel Chabert," "Les Chouans," "Pierrette,"

"Seraphita," "Les Employes," "Modeste Mignon," "Histoire Des Treize,"

"Debut Dans La Vie," "Ursule Mirouet," "Eugene Grandet," "Cousin Pons,"

"Le Pere Goriot," "Les Paysans," "Cousine Bette," etc., etc.

Les grandes ne sont grands que parceque nous sommes a genoux; Relevons nous.[3]

"Revolutions de Paris," Motto.--_Prudhomme_.

RENe FRANcOIS ARMAND SULLY-PRUDHOMME, a famous French poet, was born at Paris, May 16, 1839, and died in 1907. He has written: "The Broken Vase," "Stanzas and Poems," "The Stables of Augeas," "The Wildernesses,"

"Revolt of the Flowers," "Reflections on the Art of Versification," etc.

To think, and to feel, const.i.tute the two grand divisions of men of genius--the men of reasoning and the men of imagination.

"Literary Character of Men of Genius," Ch. II,--_Isaac Disraeli_.

ISAAC DISRAELI, a distinguished English literary essayist, compiler and historian, was born at Enfield in Middles.e.x, May 17, 1766, and died January 9, 1848. Among his writings are: "Curiosities of Literature,"

"Calamities of Authors," "Quarrels of Authors," "Miscellanies, or Literary Recollections," etc. Also: "Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I."

A monument to Newton! a monument to Shakespeare! Look up to Heaven--look into the Human Heart. Till the planets and the pa.s.sions--the affections and the fixed stars are extinguished--their names cannot die.

"Noctes Ambrosianae," Vol. iii,--_John Wilson_.

JOHN WILSON (CHRISTOPHER NORTH), a noted Scottish writer, was born May 18, 1785, at Paisley, and died April 3, 1854. Among his works are: "The Isle of Palms," "The City of the Plague," "Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life," "The Trials of Margaret Lindsay," "The Foresters," etc.

Not alone to know, but to act according to thy knowledge, is thy destination,--proclaims the voice of my inmost soul. Not for indolent contemplation and study of thyself, nor for brooding over emotions of piety--no, for action was existence given thee; thy actions, and thy actions alone, determine thy worth.

--_Fichte_.

JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE, a renowned German philosopher, was born at Rammenau in Upper Lusatia, May 19, 1762, and died at Berlin, January 27, 1814. Among his works are: "Foundations of the Whole Doctrine of Science," "Introduction to the Doctrine of Science," "The Doctrine of Science," "System of Moral Doctrine," "Man's Destiny," and his celebrated treatise, "Essay Toward a Critique of All Revelation."

The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.

--_John Stuart Mill_.

JOHN STUART MILL, a famous English philosophical writer, logician, and political economist, was born in London, May 20, 1806, and died at Avignon, France, May 8, 1873. Among the most important of his works are: "Essay on Liberty," "Logic," "Political Economy," "On the Subjection of Women," "Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy," "Auguste Comte and Positivism," and "Utilitarianism." His "Autobiography"

appeared in 1873.

It was the calm and silent night!

Seven hundred years and fifty-three Had Rome been growing up to might, And now was queen of land and sea.

No sound was heard of clas.h.i.+ng wars, Peace brooded o'er the hushed domain; Apollo, Pallas, Jove, and Mars Held undisturbed their ancient reign, In the solemn midnight Centuries ago.

"Christmas Hymn,"--_Alfred Domett_.

ALFRED DOMETT, a noted British statesman and poet, was born at Camberwell Grove, Surrey, May 20, 1811, and died in 1887. The best known of his works are: "Ranolf and Amohia, a South Sea Day Dream," and "Flotsam and Jetsam: Rhymes Old and New."