Through the Year With Famous Authors.
by Mabel Patterson.
JANUARY
There is no moment like the present; not only so, but, moreover, there is no moment at all, that is, no instant force and energy, but in the present. The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards: they will be dissipated, lost, and perish in the hurry and skurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence.
--_Maria Edgeworth_.
MARIA EDGEWORTH, a noted English novelist, was born in Black Bourton, Oxfordshire, January 1, 1767, and died in Edgeworthstown, Ireland, May, 1849. She wrote: "Early Lessons," "Castle Rackrent," "Tales of Fashionable Life," "Belinda," "Leonora," "Moral Tales," "The Modern Griselda," "Helen," "Ormond," and "Patronage."
"Tis always morning somewhere in the world.
"Orion," Book iii, Canto ii (1843).--_Richard Henry Horne_.
RICHARD HENRY HORNE, a famous English miscellaneous writer, was born January 1, 1803, and died March 13, 1884. His princ.i.p.al works are: "The Dreamer and the Worker," "Cosmo de" Medici," "Orion," "A New Spirit of the Age," "The Death of Marlowe," "Judas Iscariot, A Miracle Play,"
"Australian Facts and Prospects," and "Exposition of the False Medium, and Barriers Excluding Men of Genius from the Public."
Ah, the key of your life, that pa.s.ses all wards, opens all locks, Is not I will, but I must, I must, I must,--and I do it.
--_A. H. Clough_.
ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH, an English poet of great renown, was born in Liverpool, January 1, 1819; and died at Florence, Italy, November 13, 1861. Among his noted works may be mentioned: "Ambarvalia: Poems by Thomas Burbidge and A. H. Clough," "Poems and Prose Remains,"
"Plutarch"s Lives: the Translation called Dryden"s Corrected," etc.
And what is sorrow? "Tis a boundless sea.
And what is joy?
A little pearl in that deep ocean"s bed; I sought it--found it--held it o"er my head, And to my soul"s annoy, It fell into the ocean"s depth again, And now I look and long for it in vain.
"Sorrow and Joy,"--_Alexander Petofi_.
ALEXANDER PEToFI, a celebrated Hungarian poet, was born at Kis-Koros, near Pesth, January 1, 1823, and died July 31, 1849. His chief works are: "The Wine-Bibbers," "Coriola.n.u.s" (a drama), and his famous song "Talpra Magyar" (Up, Magyar), the Hungarian _Ma.r.s.eillaise_.
I think, ofttimes, that lives of men may be Likened to wandering winds that come and go Not knowing whence they rise, whither they blow O"er the vast globe, voiceful of grief or glee.
"A Comparison,"--_Paul Hamilton Hayne_.
PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE, a distinguished American poet, was born in Charleston, S. C., January 1, 1830, and died at Augusta, Ga., July 6, 1886. He has written: "Sonnets and Other Poems," "Avolio, a Legend of the Island of Cos," "Legends and Lyrics," "The Mountain of the Lovers,"
etc.
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe; They took the spear, but left the shield.
"To the Memory of the Americans who fell at Eutaw,"--_Philip Freneau_.
PHILIP FRENEAU, a noted American poet, was born in New York City, January 2, 1752, and died near Freehold, N. J., December 18, 1832. He wrote: "Eutaw Springs," "The College Examination," "The Home of Night,"
"The Indian Student," and "Lines to a Wild Honeysuckle."
Men of letters and great artists are the lights of a nation; they are what make it great; they are what give it a place in history.
"Advance of the English Novel,"--_William Lyon Phelps_.
WILLIAM LYON PHELPS, a celebrated university professor and literary critic, was born at New Haven, Connecticut, January 2, 1865. He has written "Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray," "Irving"s Sketch Book," "The Best Plays of Chapman," "The Novels of Samuel Richardson," (20 vols.), "The Works of Jane Austen" (12 vols.), "Stevenson"s Essays," "The Pure Gold of Nineteenth Century Literature,"
"Essays on Modern Novelists," "Essays on Russian Novelists," "Essays on Books," "The Advance of the English Novel," "The Advance of English Poetry," "Reading the Bible," "Essays on Modern Dramatists."
He is one of those wise philanthropists who in a time of famine would vote for nothing but a supply of toothpicks.
--_Douglas Jerrold_.
DOUGLAS WILLIAM JERROLD, a noted English humorist, was born in London, England, January 3, 1803, and died there June 8, 1857. Some of his well-known works are: "The Rent Day," "Retired from Business," "Story of a Feather," "Nell Gwynne," "The Bubbles of the Day."
You can"t expect anything from a pig but a grunt.
"Fairy Tales,"--_Grimm_.
JACOB GRIMM, a famous philologist, archaeologist, and folklorist, was born at Hanau, January 4, 1785, and died at Berlin, September 20, 1863.
He wrote: "The Poetry of the Meistersingers," "German Mythology,"
"History of the German Language," "German Grammar," etc. His fame rests, however, upon his celebrated work, "Fables for Children," written in collaboration with his brother Wilhelm, and best-known as, "Grimm"s Fairy Tales."
I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-sh.o.r.e, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier sh.e.l.l than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Brewster"s "Memoirs of Newton," Vol. ii, Chap. xxvii.--_Isaac Newton_.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON, the renowned English philosopher and mathematician, was born at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, January 5, 1643, and died at Kensington, March 31, 1727. Among his works are: "Principia," "Theory of Light and Colors," "Optical Readings," "On Motion," "Opticks," etc.
The phrase, "public office is a public trust," has of late become common property.
--_Charles Sumner_ (May 31, 1872).
CHARLES SUMNER, a distinguished American statesman, was born in Boston, January 6, 1811, and died in Washington, D. C., March 11, 1874. His speeches, orations, etc., were collected and published (1870-83) in a 15-vol. edition.
There are many moments in friendship as in love, when silence is beyond words. The faults of our friends may be clear to us, but it is well to seem to shut our eyes to them.
--_Ouida_.
LOUISE DE LA RAMeE (OUIDA), a famous English novelist of French extraction, was born at Bury St. Edmunds, January 7, 1839, and died January 25, 1908. Among her numerous works are: "Held in Bondage,"