"Mémoires," Vol. iii, p. 517 (1702), Ed. 1856.--_Saint-Simon_.
LOUIS DE ROUVROY, DUC DE SAINT-SIMON, the great French annalist, was
born January 16, 1675, and died March 2, 1755. His notable works are:
His famous "Memoirs," published in twenty volumes.
Early to bed and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
--_Benjamin Franklin_.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, the renowned American philosopher and statesman, was
born in Boston, January 16, 1706, and died in Philadelphia, April 17,
1790. He wrote his own "Autobiography," and other important works.
Dicen, que el primer consejo
Ha de ser de la muger.[4]
"El Medico de su. Houra," I, 2.--_Calderon_.
PEDRO CALDERON DE LA BARCA, the great Spanish dramatist, was born at
Madrid, January 17, 1600, and died May 25, 1681. Among his dramas may be
mentioned: "The Wonder-Working Magician," "The Schism of England," "The
Alcalde of Zalamea," "No Magic Like Love," "The Divine Orpheus."
Ove son leggi,
Tremar non dee chi leggi non infranse.[5]
"Virginia," II., i.,--_Alfieri_.
COUNT VITTORIO ALFIERI, a celebrated Italian dramatist, was born at Asti
in Piedmont, January 17, 1749, and died at Florence, October 8, 1803.
Among his many works may be mentioned: "Cleopatra," "Polinice,"
"Antigone," "Agide," "Bruto," "Saul," "Filippo," etc. He also wrote:
"Tyranny," "Essays on Literature and Government," odes on "American
Independence," and "Memoirs of His Life."
A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.
--_Montesquieu_.
CHARLES DE SECONDANT, BARON DE MONTESQUIEU, a famous French historian
and political philosopher, was born near Bordeaux, January 18, 1689, and
died in Paris, February 10, 1755. He wrote: "Persian Letters," "The
Temple of Cnidus," "Causes of Roman Greatness and Decline," "Dialogue of
Sylla Eucrates and Lysimachus," "Works," etc. Also his renowned work,
"Spirit of Laws," his masterpiece.
Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.
"Speech at Plymouth," Dec. 22, 1820. Vol. i, p. 44.--_Daniel
Webster_.
DANIEL WEBSTER, the illustrious American statesman and orator, was born
in Salisbury, N. H., January 18, 1782, and died in Marshfield, Mass.,
October 24, 1852.
Truth is like a pearl: he alone possesses it who has plunged into
the depths of life and torn his hands on the rocks of Time.
--_Laboulaye_.
EDOUARD RENÉ LEFÈBVRE DE LABOULAYE, a distinguished French jurist,
historian, and writer of tales, was born at Paris, January 18, 1811, and
died there May 25, 1883. His greatest work is a "Political History of
the United States, 1620-1789," (3 vols.) 1856-66. His other works are:
"The United States and France," "Paris in America," and a novel "Prince
Caniche." His best known works of fiction are the three series of "Blue
Stories."
The despot's heel is on thy shore,
Maryland!
His torch is at thy temple-door,
Maryland!
Avenge the patriotic gore
That flecked the streets of Baltimore,
And be the battle queen of yore,
Maryland, my Maryland!
"My Maryland."--_James Rider Randall_.
JAMES RYDER RANDALL, a celebrated American song-writer, was born in
Baltimore, Md., January 18, 1839, and died in 1908. His poems include:
"The Sole Entry," "Arlington," "The Cameo Bracelet," "The Battle Cry of
the South," and his famous poem, "My Maryland!"
"Why wait," he said, "why wait for May,
When love can warm a winter's day?"
"Vignettes in Rhyme, Love in Winter."--_Austin Dobson_.
HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON, a famous English poet and man of letters, was born
at Plymouth, January 18, 1840, and died April 1, 1921. He has written:
"Proverbs in Porcelain," "Old-World Idyls," "Eighteenth-Century
Vignettes," "Vignettes in Rhyme and Vers de Société," "Four French
Women," "The Paladin of Philanthropy," "Side-Walk Studies," "De Libris,"
"Old Kensington Palace," "At Prior Park," "Rosalba's Journal and Other
Papers"; also "Lives of Fielding, Steele, Goldsmith," "William Hogarth,"
"Horace Walpole," "Richardson," "Fanny Burney," etc.
Literature is the daughter of heaven, who has descended upon earth
to soften and charm all human ills.
--_Bernardin de Saint-Pierre_.
BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE, the renowned French author was born in Havre,
January 19, 1737, and died at Eragny-sur-Oise, January 21, 1814. His
works include: "Voyage to the Isle of France," "Studies of Nature," "The
Indian Cottage," "Vows of a Solitary," "Harmonies of Nature," "On Nature
and Morality," "Voyage to Silesia," "Stories of Travel," "The Death of
Socrates," and his most famous work, "Paul and Virginia."
Woman's mission is a striking illustration of the truth that
happiness consists in doing the work for which we are naturally
fitted. Their mission is always the same; it is summed up in one
word,--Love.
"Positive Polity"--_Auguste Comte_.
AUGUSTE COMTE, the great French philosopher, was born at Montpellier,
January 19, 1798, and died in Paris, September 5, 1857. His most
celebrated works are: "Positive Philosophy," and "Positive Polity."
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
"A Dream within a Dream,"--_Edgar Allan Poe_.
EDGAR ALLAN POE, a celebrated American poet and story-writer, was born
in Boston, January 19, 1809, and died in Baltimore, Maryland, October 7,
1849. His poems include: "The Raven, and Other Poems," "Tamerlane and
Other Poems," "Eureka, a Prose Poem," "Poems," etc.
It would hardly be safe to name Miss Austen, Miss Brontë, and
George Eliot as the three greatest women novelists the United
Kingdom can boast, and were one to go on and say that the
alphabetical order of their names is also their order of merit, it
would be necessary to seek police protection, and yet surely it is
so.
"Life of C. Brontë,"--_Augustine Birrell_.
RT. HON. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, a distinguished English essayist, was born
in Wavertree, near Liverpool, January 19, 1850. He has written: "Obiter
Dicta," "Res Judicatæ," "Life of Charlotte Brontë," "Men, Women and
Books," "Collected Essays," "William Hazlitt," "Andrew Marvell,"
"Miscellanies," "In the Name of the Bodleian," "Frederick Locker
Lampson," etc.
For it stirs the blood in an old man's heart,
And makes his pulses fly,
To catch the thrill of a happy voice,
And the light of a pleasant eye.
"Saturday Afternoon,"--_Nathaniel P. Willis_.
NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS, a celebrated American journalist and poet, was
born at Portland, Maine, January 20, 1806, and died at Idlewild on the
Hudson, New York, January 20, 1867. Some of his writings are: "People I
Have Met," "Inklings of Adventure," "Letters from Under a Bridge,"
"Famous Persons and Places," "Poems," etc.
Time's horses gallop down the lessening hill.
"Time Flies,"--_Richard Le Gallienne_.
RICHARD LE GALLIENNE, a noted English author, was born in Liverpool,
January 20, 1866. He has written: "The Religion of a Literary Man," "My
Lady's Sonnets," "Prose Fancies," "Sleeping Beauty and other Prose
Fancies," "The Quest of the Golden Girl," "The Life Romantic," "Pieces
of Eight," etc.
Gray found very little gratification at Cambridge in the society
and manners of the young university men who were his
contemporaries. They ridiculed his sensitive temper and retired
habits, and gave him the nickname of "Miss Gray," for his supposed
effeminacy. Nor does Gray seem to have lived on much better terms
with his academic superiors. He abhorred mathematics, with the
same cordiality of hatred which Pope professed towards them, and
at that time concurred with Pope in thinking that the best recipe
for dullness was to
"Full in the midst of Euclid plunge at once,
And petrify a genius to a dunce."
"Memoirs of Eminent Etonians,"--_Sir Edward Creasy_.
SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY, a famous English historian was born at
Bexley in Kent, January 21, 1812, and died January 27, 1878. He wrote:
"Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World," "The History of the Ottoman
Turks," "History of England," "Rise and Progress of the English
Constitution," "Historical and Critical Account of the Several Invasions
of England," etc.
The father's love is greater than the mother's, as his strength is
greater than hers. Christ, not Mary, is the embodiment of parental
love.
"The Betrayal,"--_Walter Neale_.
WALTER NEALE, a noted American author and man of letters, was born at
Eastville, Va., January 21, 1873. Among his works are: "The Betrayal" (a
novel), "The Sovereignty of the States," and numerous essays, poems,
addresses, etc.
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder,
a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country before he
hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to
travel.
"Of Travel,"--_Francis Bacon_.
FRANCIS BACON, the great English philosopher, was born in London,
January 22, 1561, and died April 9, 1626. Some of his works are: "The
Advancement of Learning," "On the Colors of Good and Evil," "Novum
Organum," his immortal "Essays," and many histories, among them
"Elizabeth," "Henry VII" and "Henry VIII."
For the will and not the gift makes the giver.
--_Lessing_.
GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM VON LESSING, a famous German poet, was born at Kamenz,
in Upper Lusatia, January 22, 1729, and died at Brunswick, February 15,
1781. Among his writings are: "Letters on Literature," "Nathan the
Wise," "Philotas," "The Woman-Hater," "The Jews," "Trifles," (a
collection of poems), "The Free-Thinker," "Education of the Human Race,"
etc.
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar;
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
"Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," Canto iv, Stanza 178.--_Byron_.
GEORGE NOEL GORDON, LORD BYRON, the renowned English poet, was born in
London, January 22, 1788, and died at Missolonghi, Greece, April 19,
1824. Some of his celebrated works are: "English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers," "Hours of Idleness," "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," "The
Corsair," "Hebrew Melodies," "Lara," "Manfred," "The Prisoner of
Chillon," "The Lament of Tasso," "Don Juan," etc.
Blandishments will not fascinate us, nor will threats of a
"halter" intimidate. For, under God, we are determined that
wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make
our exit, we will die free men.
"Observations on the Boston Port Bill," 1774--_Josiah Quincy_.
JOSIAH QUINCY, a distinguished American lawyer, was born in Boston,
January 23, 1744, and died April 26, 1775. His important works are:
"Observations on the Boston Port Bill," and "An Address of the
Merchants, Traders, and Freeholders of Boston."
We love because we get pleasure from loving. When the pleasure
palls, love dies a natural death; and the love that survives
should not hope for resurrection, but abide in patience a new
birth.
"Love,"--_Marie Henri Beyle_.
MARIE HENRI BEYLE, a famous French novelist and critic, was born in
Grenoble, January 23, 1783, and died in Paris, March 23, 1842. He has
written, "History of Painting in Italy," "Rome, Naples, and Florence in
1817," "About Love," and his celebrated work, "The Chartreuse
(Carthusian Nun) of Parma."