Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 55

What is the greatest bliss That the tongue o' man can name?

'Tis to woo a bonnie la.s.sie When the kye comes hame!

"When the Kye Comes Hame," st. 2,--_James Hogg_.

JAMES HOGG, a famous Scotch pastoral poet, was born in Ettrick, December 1, 1770, and died at Eltrive Lake, November 21, 1835. He wrote: "Poems and Songs," "The Mountain Bard," "Scottish Pastorals," and "The Queen's Wake," his most famous work.

In the soul of Keats, if ever in a human soul at all, there was a portion of the real poetic essence--the real faculty divine....

His most obvious characteristic, I repeat, is the universality of his sensuousness. And this it is, added to his exquisite mastery in language and verse, that makes it such a luxury to read him.

"Wordsworth, Sh.e.l.ley and Keats,"--_David Ma.s.son_.

DAVID Ma.s.sON, a noted Scottish author, was born at Aberdeen, December 2, 1822, and died in 1907. He wrote: "The Life of Milton in connection with the History of His Time," "Essays, Biographical and Critical," "British Novelists," "Recent British Philosophy," "Carlyle Personally and His Writings," "Edinburgh Sketches and Memories," etc.

Strange to the world he wore a bashful look, The fields his study, nature was his book.

"The Farmer's Boy: Spring," L. 31,--_Bloomfield_.

ROBERT BLOOMFIELD, a celebrated English poet, was born at Honington, December 3, 1766, and died in Shefford, in 1823. Among his poetical pieces are: "The Milk Maid," "The Sailor's Return," and his most famous poetical work, "The Farmer's Boy."

In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream.

"Heroes and Hero-Wors.h.i.+p: The Hero as a Man of Letters,"--_Thomas Carlyle_.

THOMAS CARLYLE, a Scotch biographer, historian, and miscellaneous writer of great fame, was born at Ecclefechan, December 4, 1795, and died in London, February 4, 1881. Among his celebrated works may be mentioned: "Life of Schiller," "Wilhelm Meister's Apprentices.h.i.+p," a translation; "The French Revolution," "Life and Letters of Oliver Cromwell," "German Romance," "Heroes, Hero-Wors.h.i.+p, and the Heroic in History," "Chartism,"

"Past and Present," "Life of Sterling," "Friedrich II," "Latter-Day Pamphlets," "Inaugural Address at Edinburgh," etc.

Give me the lowest place: or if for me That lowest place too high, make one more low Where I may sit and see My G.o.d, and love Thee so.

"The Lowest Place,"--_Christina G. Rossetti_.

CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI, a renowned English poetess, was born in London, December 5, 1830, and died December 29, 1894. Among her works are: "The Prince's Progress," "Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book," "Seek and Find," "Speaking Likenesses," "A Pageant, and Other Poems," "Letter and Spirit," "Annus Domini: A Prayer for Each Day in the Year,"

"Verses," and her most celebrated work, "Goblin Market."

Right as a trivet.

"The Ingoldsby Legends, Auto-da-fe,"--_R. H. Barham_.

RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM, a famous English poet, was born in Canterbury, December 6, 1788, and died in London, June 17, 1845. Under the nom de plume of "Thomas Ingoldsby," he wrote the celebrated "Ingoldsby Legends." He also wrote: "Life of Theodore Hook," "My Cousin Nicholas,"

etc.

What is worth doing is worth doing well; and with a little more trouble at first, much trouble afterwards may be avoided.

Max Muller, "Letter to John Bellows," July 18, 1866, from "Life" (by His Wife) I. XV,--_Max Muller_.

FRIEDRICH MAX MuLLER, an eminent German-English Sanskrit scholar and comparative philologist, was born at Dessau, December 6, 1823, and died in 1900. He has written: "History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature,"

"Science of Language," "Chips from a German Workshop," "Science of Religion," "Essays on Language, Mythology, and Religion," "Science of Thought," "My Autobiography," "Last Essays," appeared after his death, also, "Life and Letters of the Right Honorable Friedrich Max Muller," by his wife.

Liberty of the imagination is the most precious possession of the novelist.

--_Joseph Conrad_.

JOSEPH CONRAD, a renowned English author, of Polish parentage, was born December 6, 1857. Among his works are: "An Outcast of the Islands," "The n.i.g.g.e.r of the Narcissus," "Typhoon," "The Mirror of the Sea," "The Secret Agent," "Under Western Eyes," "Some Reminiscenses," "Chance,"

"Within the Tides," "Victory," "The Shadow Line," "The Arrow of Gold,"

"Rescue," "Notes on Life and Letters."

A wet sheet and a flowing sea, A wind that follows fast, And fills the white and rustling sail, And bends the gallant mast.

And bends the gallant mast, my boys, While like the eagle free Away the good s.h.i.+p flies, and leaves Old England on the lee.

"A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea,"--_Allan Cunningham_.

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, a noted Scotch poet and miscellaneous writer, was born in Keir, Dumfriess.h.i.+re, December 7, 1784, and died in London, October 30, 1842. His best known works are: "Lord Roldan," "Paul Jones," "Sir Marmaduke Maxwell," and his most famous work, "Critical History of the Literature of the Last Fifty Years."

Out in the lonely woods the jasmine burns Its fragrant lamps, and turns Into a royal court with green festoons The banks of dark lagoons.

"Spring,"--_Henry Timrod_.

HENRY TIMROD, a famous American Southern poet and author, was born at Charleston, S. C., December 8, 1829, and died at Columbia, S. C., October 6, 1867. His "Poems" appeared in 1860.

You k'n hide de fier, but w'at you gwine do wid de smoke?

"Plantation Proverbs,"--_Joel Chandler Harris_.

JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS, a noted American journalist and story writer, was born at Eatonton, Georgia, December 8, 1848, and died July 3, 1908. He has written: "Daddy Jake, the Runaway," "The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation," etc. He is best known, however, by his famous "Uncle Remus"

sketches.

Now came still evening on, and twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad; Silence accompany'd; for beast and bird, They to their gra.s.sy couch, these to their nests, Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale; She all night long her amorous descant sung; Silence was pleas'd. Now glow'd the firmament With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon, Rising in clouded majesty, at length Apparent queen unveil'd her peerless light, And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

"Paradise Lost," Book IV, Line 598,--_John Milton_.

JOHN MILTON, one of the greatest of English poets, was born in London, December 9, 1608, and died there November 8, 1674. His most famous works were: "Paradise Lost," "Paradise Regained," "Comus," "Lycidas,"

"L'Allegro," "Il Penseroso," "Samson Agonistes," "Areopagitica," "The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates," and the "Defence of the English People."

And ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves, While the earth bears a plant or the sea rolls its waves.

"Adams and Liberty,"--_Robert Treat Paine, Jr._