Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 59

"Actions and Reactions," "Rewards and Fairies," "The Harbour Watch" (a play), "The New Armies in Training," "France at War," "Fringes of the Fleet," "A Diversity of Creatures," "The Years Between," etc.

Die Todten reiten schnell.[2]

"Lenore,"--_Burger_.

GOTTFRIED AUGUST BuRGER, an eminent German poet, was born at Molmerswende, near Ballenstedt, Anhalt, December 31, 1747 (or January 1, 1748), and died in Gottingen, June 8, 1794. He wrote: "The Parson's Daughter," "The Wild Huntsman," "The Song of the Brave Man," "Kaiser and Abbot," "The Robber Count," "The Wives of Weinsberg," and his most famous ballad, "Lenore."

"Isn't G.o.d upon the ocean Just the same as on the land?"

"The Tempest,"--_James Thomas Fields_.

JAMES THOMAS FIELDS, a noted American publisher and author, was born at Portsmouth, New Hamps.h.i.+re, December 31, 1817, and died in Boston, April 24, 1881. He published: "Underbrush," "Yesterdays with Authors," etc.

In winter, when the dismal rain Comes down in slanting lines, And Wind, that grand old harper, smote His thunder-harp of pines.

"A Life Drama," Sc. ii,--_Alexander Smith_.

ALEXANDER SMITH, a famous Scottish poet, was born in Kilmarnock, December 31, 1830, and died at Wardie, near Edinburgh, January 5, 1867.

Among his poetical works are: "City Poems," "Edwin of Deira," and "A Life Drama," his most famous work. His prose works include: "Miss Oona McQuarrie," "Alfred Hagart's Household," "Dreamthorpe," "A Summer in Skye," etc.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] I fear G.o.d, dear Abner, and I have no other fear.

[2] The dead ride swiftly.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

A bad neighbour is as great a misfortune as a good one is a great blessing.

"Works and Days," Line 346,--_Hesiod_.

HESIOD, a renowned Greek poet, born at Ascra in Boeotia, and lived in the ninth century (?), B.C. Among his writings are the: "Theogony,"

"Works and Days," "The s.h.i.+eld of Hercules," etc.

"The Homeric Poems are the earliest literary product of the world which has survived to our day, and they lie at the fountain-head of all the later literature of Europe."

HOMER, the greatest of epic poets, author of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey."

The date of his birth has never been known, but is generally set at the eighth or ninth century B.C.

The fox said the grapes were sour.

--_aesop_.

aeSOP, a famous Greek fabulist, lived in the seventh century, B.C.

Procure not friends in haste, and when thou hast a friend part not with him in haste.

--_Solon_.

SOLON, the renowned Athenian legislator, lived about 638-559 B.C. The const.i.tution which he gave to Athens, made him famous.

What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon also be beautiful.

--_Sappho_.

SAPPHO, a celebrated Greek poet, was born in the Island of Lesbos, about 612 B.C. Little is known of her life. Only fragments of her poems remain. We have in complete form a "Hymn to Aphrodite" and an "Ode to a Beautiful Girl."

Wine is wont to show the mind of man.

"Maxims," Line 500,--_Theognis_.

THEOGNIS OF MEGARA, a famous Greek elegiac poet, flourished in the latter half of the sixth century B.C. Over one thousand of his verses have come down to our time.

With the exception of Herac.l.i.tus, Parmenides is the greatest of the pre-Socratic Greek thinkers.

--_Parmenides_.

PARMENIDES, a celebrated Greek philosopher of the fifth century B.C., was born at Elea in Southern Italy. He wrote one famous work on philosophy ent.i.tled: "On Nature." It was divided into three sections, "Proem," "Truth," and "Opinion," but only fragments of this work have come down to our time.

A lip like Persuasion's calling on us to kiss it.

--_Anacreon_.

ANACREON, a famous lyric poet, of Greece, was born at Teos, in Ionia, 562 (?) B.C., and died 477 B.C. A few of his authentic compositions have come down to our times.

We count it death to falter, not to die.