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 principal 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 passes 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 Petöfi_.
ALEXANDER PETÖFI, 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," "Coriolanus" (a drama), and his famous song
"Talpra Magyar" (Up, Magyar), the Hungarian _Marseillaise_.
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, archæologist, 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-shore, and
diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a
prettier shell 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 RAMÉE (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,"
"Strathmore," "Chandos," "Idalia," "Under Two Flags," "A Leaf in the
Storm," "Pascarel," "In a Winter City," "Friendship," "A Village
Commune," "Wanda," "A House Party," "Guilderoy," "Moths," "A Rainy
June," "Views and Opinions," etc.
The Darwinian theory, even when carried out to its extreme logical
conclusion, not only does not oppose, but lends a decided support
to, a belief in the spiritual nature of man. It shows us how man's
body may have been developed from that of a lower animal form
under the law of natural selection; but it also teaches us that we
possess intellectual and moral faculties which could not have been
so developed, but must have had another origin; and for this
origin we can only find an adequate cause in the unseen universe
of Spirit.
"Darwinism,"--_A. R. Wallace_.
ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, a renowned English naturalist, was born at Usk in
Monmouthshire, January 8, 1822, and died November 7, 1913. He wrote:
"Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro," "The Malay Archipelago," "On the
Geographical Distribution of Animals," "Tropical Nature," "Darwinism: An
Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection," "Man's Place in the
Universe," "My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions," "Is Mars
Habitable?" "The World of Life," "Social Environment and Moral
Progress," "The Revolt of Democracy," etc.
I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary
object of a work of fiction should be to tell a story.
--_William Wilkie Collins_.
WILLIAM WILKIE COLLINS, a celebrated English novelist, was born in
London, January 8, 1824, and died there September 23, 1889. He wrote:
"The New Magdalen," "No Name," "Antonia," "Basil," "The Dead Secret,"
"Armadale," "Man and Wife," "Poor Miss Finch," "Miss or Mrs.?" "The Law
and the Lady," "The Two Destinies," "Heart and Science," "I Say No,"
"The Legacy of Cain," "The Moonstone," and "The Woman in White," his
greatest novel.
The all-pervading greatness of Shakespeare lies in his
comprehension of the ethical order of the world; [his dramas are]
the truest literary product of the time, because the most perfect
and concrete presentation of realized rationality.
--_D. J. Snider_.
DENTON JAQUES SNIDER, a distinguished American author, was born in Mt.
Gilead, Ohio, January 9, 1841. He is best known by his famous work, "A
Walk in Hellas." His other works include: "Homer in Chios," "Johnny
Appleseed's Rhymes," "Ancient European Philosophy," "Modern European
Philosophy," "Architecture," "World's Fair Studies," "Commentaries on
Froebel's Play Songs," "The Will and Its World," "The Life of Frederick
Froebel," "The Father of History," "Herodotus," "Social Institutions,"
"The State," "A Tour in Europe," "Cosmos and Diacosmos," etc.
Softly, O midnight hours,
Move softly o'er the bowers
Where lies in happy sleep a girl so fair:
For ye have power, men say,
Our hearts in sleep to sway
And cage cold fancies in a moonlight snare.
"Softly, O Midnight Hours,"--_Aubrey Thomas de Vere_.
AUBREY THOMAS DE VERE, a famous Irish poet and descriptive and political
essayist, son of Sir Aubrey De Vere, was born January 10, 1814, and died
in 1902. Among his works are: "Poems," "Irish Odes," "Alexander the
Great," "Picturesque Sketches of Greece and Turkey," "Constitutional and
Unconstitutional Political Action," "The Foray of Queen Meave and Other
Legends of Ireland's Heroic Age," "The Sisters," "Legends of the Saxon
Saints," "St. Peter's Chains," "Essays Chiefly on Poetry," "Essays
Chiefly Literary and Ethical," "Recollections," etc.
I know of no other English-speaking poet of the day who can turn a
song so gracefully and easily as Mr. Stoddard can. Certain of his
lyrics are, to my mind, unsurpassed for haunting charm of cadence.
He has also written several odes of admirable nobility and
stateliness.
"Poems of Wild Life,"--_Charles G. D. Roberts_.
CHARLES GEORGE DOUGLAS ROBERTS, a celebrated Canadian poet, was born in
Douglas, N. B., January 10, 1860. Among his publications are: "Orion and
Other Poems," "In Divers Tones," "Canterbury Poets," "History of
Canada," "A Sister to Evangeline," "The Heart of the Ancient Wood," "The
Kindred of the Wild," "Barbara Ladd," "The Watchers of the Trails," "The
Heart that Knows," "The House in the Water," "Neighbours Unknown," "The
Feet of the Furtive," "Babes of the Wild," "The Ledge on Bald Face," "In
the Morning of Time," etc.
A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national
blessing.
--_Alexander Hamilton_.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON, an illustrious American statesman, was born in the
Island of Nevis, West Indies, January 11, 1757, and died near New York,
July 12, 1804. His "Collected Works," appeared in 1851.
The effect of every burden laid down is to leave us relieved; and
when the soul has laid down that of its faults at the feet of God,
it feels as though it had wings.
--_Eugénie de Guérin_.
EUGÉNIE DE GUÉRIN, a famous French diarist and prose-writer, was born
January 11, 1805, and died May 31, 1848. Jointly with her brother
Maurice, she wrote the "Journals," and "Letters."
I feel the rush of waves that round me rise,
The tossing of my boat upon the sea;
Few sunbeams linger in the stormy skies,
And youth's bright shore is lessening on the lee!
--_Bayard Taylor_.
BAYARD TAYLOR, an eminent American poet, and novelist, was born at
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, January 11, 1825, and died at Berlin,
Germany, December 19, 1878. His noted works are: "Views Afoot," "The
American Legend," "Poems and Ballads," "Poems of the Orient," "Travels
in Greece and Russia," "Poems of Home and Travel," "At Home and Abroad,"
"Hannah Thurston," "The Story of Kennett," "By-Ways of Europe," "The
Masque of the Gods," "Egypt and Iceland," "Home Pastorals, Ballads, and
Lyrics," "Dramatic Works," "Critical Essays and Literary Notes," etc.
A liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest.
"Life and Letters," Vol. ii, p. 341,--_John Winthrop_.
GOVERNOR JOHN WINTHROP, first Colonial governor of Massachusetts, and a
distinguished writer, was born near Groton, Suffolk, England, January
12, 1587, and died at Boston, March 26, 1649. He wrote: "A Modell of
Christian Charity," "Arbitrary Government Described," and a "History of
New England from 1630 to 1649," which was left by him in MS., and found
in his "Life and Letters," by Robert C. Winthrop.
People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward
to their ancestors.
"Reflections on the Revolution in France," Vol. iii,
p. 274--_Edmund Burke_.
EDMUND BURKE, an eminent British statesman and orator, was born in
Dublin, January 12, 1729, and died in Beaconsfield, England, July 9,
1797. He wrote: "A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas
of the Sublime and Beautiful," "Reflections on the French Revolution,"
"Letters on a Regicide Peace," "Works and Correspondence."