Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 7

"Bourgeois," I observed, "is an epithet which the riff-raff apply to what is respectable, and the aristocracy to what is decent."

"Dolly Dialogues,"--_Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins_.

SIR ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS ("Anthony Hope") a celebrated English author was born February 9, 1863. Among his works are: "The Prisoner of Zenda,"

"The Dolly Dialogues," "Rupert of Hentzau," "Double Harness," "The Great Miss Driver," "A Young Man's Year," "Beaumaroy Home from the Wars,"

"Lucinda," etc. Plays: "The Adventure of Lady Ursula," "Pilkerton's Peerage," etc.

I have had playmates, I have had companions, In my days of childhood, in my joyful schooldays.

All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.

"Old Familiar Faces,"--_Charles Lamb_.

CHARLES LAMB, the great English essayist, was born in London, February 10, 1775, and died at Edmonton, December 27, 1834. Among his essays may be mentioned: "Essays of Elia," "Last Essays of Elia," and his famous work, "Tales from the Plays of Shakespeare" (Mary and Charles Lamb).

Too fair to wors.h.i.+p, too divine to love.

"The Belvedere Apollo,"--_Henry Hart Milman_.

HENRY HART MILMAN, a celebrated English clergyman, historian, and poet, was born in London, February 10, 1791, and died near Ascot, September 24, 1868. He wrote: "Fall of Jerusalem," "History of Christianity under the Empire," "History of the Jews," and his most important work, "The History of Latin Christianity down to the Death of Pope Nicholas V."

High in his chariot glow'd the lamp of day.

"The s.h.i.+pwreck," Canto I, III; L. 3,--_Falconer_.

WILLIAM FALCONER, a noted Scotch poet, was born February 11, 1732, and died in 1769. He wrote: "The Demagogue," a "Universal Dictionary of the Marine," and numerous odes, satires and poems; the most famous of his poems being "The s.h.i.+pwreck."

Genius hath electric power Which earth can never tame, Bright suns may scorch and dark clouds lower, Its flash is still the same.

"Marius Amid the Ruins of Carthage,"--_Lydia M. Child_.

LYDIA MARIA CHILD, a famous American prose-writer, was born in Medford, Ma.s.s., February 11, 1802, and died in Wayland, Ma.s.s., October 20, 1880.

Among her numerous works may be mentioned, "Philothea," "Fact and Fiction," "Looking Toward Sunset," "Miria: A Romance of the Republic,"

"Hobomok," "Aspirations of the World," etc.

Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

"Address," Cooper Union, New York City, Feb. 27, 1860,--_Abraham Lincoln_.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the great "War President," was born in Hardin County, Ky., February 12, 1809, and died at Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., April 15, 1865.

His "Address," at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa., and his "Second Inaugural Address," won for him everlasting fame.

We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence.

"The Origin of Species," Chap. iii,--_Charles Robert Darwin_.

CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN, the famous English naturalist and philosopher, was born at Shrewsbury, February 12, 1809, and died April 19, 1882. He wrote: "The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to s.e.x," "The Expression of the Emotions in Men and Animals," "A Naturalist's Voyage,"

"On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection," etc.

G.o.d's rarest blessing is, after all, a good woman.

"The Ordeal of Richard Feverel,"--_George Meredith_.

GEORGE MEREDITH, a noted British novelist and poet, was born at Portsmouth, Hamps.h.i.+re, February 12, 1828, and died May 18, 1909. Some of his famous works are: "Evan Harrington," "Harry Richmond," "Ordeal of Richard Feverel," "Rhoda Fleming," "Vittoria," "The Adventures of Harry Richmond," "Beauchamp's Career," "The Egoist," "The Tragic Comedians,"

"Diana of the Crossways," "Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth,"

"Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life," "A Reading of Earth," "One of Our Conquerors," "The Amazing Marriage," etc.

Ils n'out rien appris, ni rien oublie.[1]

--_Talleyrand_.

CHARLES MAURICE DE TALLEYRAND-PeRIGORD, a celebrated French diplomat, was born at Paris, February 13, 1754, and died at Valencay, May 17, 1838. His "Memoirs" were first published in 1891-92 in (5 vols.); his "Correspondence with Louis XVIII, during the Congress of Vienna," in 1881, his "Diplomatic Correspondence," in 1889-91 in (3 vols.) and "Unpublished Letters of Talleyrand to Napoleon, 1800-1809," in 1889.

O golden Silence, bid our souls be still, And on the foolish fretting of our care Lay thy soft touch of healing unaware!

"Silence,"--_Julia Caroline Ripley Dorr_.

MRS. JULIA CAROLINE (RIPLEY) DORR, a noted American poet and novelist, was born in Charleston, S. C., February 13, 1825, and died in 1913. Her works include: "Afternoon Songs," "Daybreak, an Easter Poem," "Poems,"

"Lanmere," "Expiation," "Farmingdale," "Bermuda," "Sibyl Huntington,"

and "A Cathedral Pilgrimage."

Oh, for the simple life, For tents and starry skies!

"Aspiration,"--_Israel Zangwill_.

ISRAEL ZANGWILL, a renowned English-Jewish novelist, was born in London, February 14, 1864. He has published: "The Premier and the Painter," "The Bachelors' Club," "The Big Bow Mystery," "The Old Maids' Club,"

"Children of the Ghetto," "Merely Mary Ann," "Ghetto Tragedies," "The Master," "The King of Schnorrers," "Without Prejudice," "The Mantle of Elijah," "The Next Religion," "Plaster Saints."

Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters--pain and pleasure.

--_Jeremy Bentham_.

JEREMY BENTHAM, a distinguished English writer on ethics and jurisprudence, was born February 15, 1748, and died in 1832. His collected works (11 volumes) were published in 1843, and include: "A Fragment on Government," "View of the Hard Labor Bill," "Rationale of Punishment and Rewards," "Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation," "The Panopticon, or the Inspection House," "Manual of Political Economy," "Poor Laws and Pauper Management," "Const.i.tutional Code," etc.

A poet is the translator of the silent language of nature to the world.

--_R. W. Griswold_.