"Pamela," I, 3,--_Goldoni_.
CARLO GOLDONI, a noted Italian comedy-writer, was born in Venice,
February 25, 1707, and died at Paris, January 6, 1793. He wrote: "The
Good Father," "The Singer," "Pamela," "Belisarius," "The Venetian
Gondolier," "Rosamond," and "The Coffee House."
Let us reckon upon the future. A time will come when the science
of destruction shall bend before the arts of peace; when the
genius which multiplies our powers--which creates new
products--which diffuses comfort and happiness among the great
mass of the people--shall occupy in the general estimation of
mankind that rank which reason and common sense now assign to it.
"Eloge on James Watt."--_Arago_.
DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS ARAGO, an eminent French astronomer and physicist,
was born near Perpignan, February 26, 1786, and died in Paris, October
2, 1853. Among his publications are: "Popular Lectures on Astronomy,"
"Meteorological Essays," "Biographies of Scientific Men," and his own
"Autobiography."
A queen devoid of beauty is not queen;
She needs the royalty of beauty's mien.
"Eviradnus," V,--_Victor Hugo_.
VICTOR HUGO, the great French novelist, was born at Besançon, February
26, 1802, and died at Paris, May 22, 1885. His most famous works are:
"Odes and Ballads," "New Odes," "The Orientals," "Various Odes and
Poems," "Twilight Songs," "Inner Voices," "Sunbeams and Shadows,"
"Autumn Leaves," "Songs of the Streets and Woods," "The Four Winds of
the Spirit," "The Legend of the Ages," "Notre Dame de Paris," "The Last
Day of a Condemned Man," "Claude Gueux," "Napoleon the Little," "Les
Misérables," "The Man Who Laughs," "Acts and Words," "History of a
Crime," "The Toilers of the Sea," etc. Also numerous plays, among them,
"Amy Robsart," "Cromwell," "Hernani," "Lucretia Borgia," "Marie Tudor,"
and "Esmeralda."
These deeper questions cannot be treated in this short appendix to
Descartes' life. They are mentioned here merely to show how he was
to modern thought what Socrates was to Greek philosophy. Far
greater, too, was he than Socrates, in the range of his influence.
In every department of his thinking--in his first philosophy, his
theology, his physics, his psychology, his physiology--he sowed
the dragon's teeth from which sprang hosts of armed men, to join
in an intellectual conflict, internecine, let us trust, to their
many errors and prejudices, but fraught with new life and energy
to the intellectual progress of Europe.
"Descartes,"--_John Pentland Mahaffy_.
JOHN PENTLAND MAHAFFY, a distinguished Irish classical scholar and
historian, was born at Chapponnaire, Switzerland, February 26, 1839, and
died in 1919. Among his publications are: "Social Life in Greece,"
"Rambles and Studies in Greece," "Greek Life and Thought," "Greece Under
Roman Sway," "History of Classical Greek Literature," "The Silver Age of
the Greek World," "The Empire of the Ptolemies," etc.
Sail, on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
"_The Building of the Ship_,"--_Longfellow_.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, one of the greatest of American poets, was
born at Portland, Me., February 27, 1807, and died at Cambridge, Mass.,
March 24, 1882. His celebrated works include: "Voices of the Night,"
"Hyperion," "Poems on Slavery," "Ballads and Other Poems," "The Spanish
Student," "Poets and Poetry of Europe," "Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie,"
"The Seaside and the Fireside," "The Golden Legend," "A Volume of
Poems," "Song of Hiawatha," "Poems," "Courtship of Miles Standish,"
"Tales of a Wayside Inn," "A New England Tragedy," "Excelsior," "The
Skeleton in Armor," "The Building of a Ship," etc.
A grain of sand leads to the fall of a mountain when the moment
has come for the mountain to fall.
--_Ernest Renan_.
JOSEPH ERNEST RENAN, the renowned French Semitic-Orientalist; historian,
philologist, and essayist, was born at Treguier, Brittany, February 27,
1823, and died at Paris, October 2, 1892. Among his numerous works may
be mentioned: "General History of the Semitic Languages," "The Life of
Jesus," "Marcus Aurelius," "Studies in Religious History," "Questions of
the Day," "Recollections of My Youth," "New Studies in Religious
History," "Discourses and Conferences," "Dialogue of the Dead," "The
Song of Songs," and "Ecclesiastes."
Samuel Pepys stands at the head of the world's literature in his
own department.... Pepys' "_Diary_" has been frequently compared
with Boswell's "_Life of Johnson_," and with justice in so far as
the charm of each arises from the inimitable naïveté of the
author's self-revelations. Boswell had a much greater character
than his own to draw, but Pepys had to be his own Johnson. It is
giving him no excessive praise to say that he makes himself as
interesting as Johnson and Boswell together.... Another Milton is
more likely to appear than another Pepys.
"The Age of Dryden,"--_Richard Garnett_.
RICHARD GARNETT, a noted English librarian and author, was born at
Litchfield, February 27, 1835, and died April 13, 1906. He wrote:
"Primula," "Io in Egypt," "Idylls and Epigrams," "The Queen and Other
Poems," "Collected Poems," "The Twilight of the Gods," "A Short History
of Italian Literature," "Essays in Librarianship and Bibliophily," etc.
You hail from Dreamland, Dragon-fly?
A stranger hither? So am I
And (sooth to say) I wonder why
We either of us came!
"To a Dragon-fly,"--_Agnes M. F. R. Darmesteter_.
AGNES M. F. R. DARMESTETER, a distinguished English poet, was born in
Leamington, February 27, 1857. Her writings include: "A Handful of
Honeysuckle," "Lyrics," "Retrospect," "Arden," a novel, "Emily Brontë,"
"The New Arcadia and Other Poems," "An Italian Garden, a Book of Songs,"
"The End of the Middle Ages," "Essays and Questions in History," "Life
of Renan," "Collected Poems," "The Fields of France," "The Return to
Nature," "The French Ideal," "Twentieth Century French Writers," "Madame
de Sévigne," etc.
How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputation!
"Of Glory," Chap. xvi.--_Montaigne_.
MICHEL EYQUEM DE MONTAIGNE, the illustrious French moral philosopher,
was born at Château Montaigne, Perigord, February 28, 1533, and died
September 13, 1592. His remarkable "Essays" won for him world-wide fame.
In Nature there is no dirt, everything is in the right condition;
the swamp and the worm, as well as the grass and the bird--all is
there for itself. Only because we think that all things have a
relation to us, do they appear justifiable or otherwise.
--_Auerbach_.
BERTHOLD AUERBACH, a renowned German novelist, was born at Nordstetten,
Wurtemberg, February 28, 1812, and died at Cannes, France, February 8,
1882. He wrote: "The Educated Citizen, a Book for the Thinking Human
Mind," "Poet and Merchant," "Spinoza," "The Professor's Lady," "Little
Barefoot," "Joseph in the Snow," "Edelweiss," "New Life," "The Head
Forester," "The Villa on the Rhine," "Waldfried, a Family History,"
"Black Forest Village Stories," "After Thirty Years," and his most noted
work, "On the Heights."
The first, and perhaps the final impression we receive from the
work of Robert Browning is that of a great nature, an immense
personality.
"Introduction to the Study of Browning,"--_Arthur Symons_.
ARTHUR SYMONS, a celebrated writer of prose and verse, was born in
Wales, February 28, 1865. His publications include: "An Introduction to
the Study of Browning," "Days and Nights," "Silhouettes," "London
Nights," "Amoris Victima," "Studies in Two Literatures," "The Symbolist
Movement in Literature," "Images of Good and Evil," "Collected Poems,"
"Plays, Acting, and Music," "Cities," "Studies in Prose and Verse,"
"Spiritual Adventures," "A Book of Twenty Songs," "The Fool of the
World," "Studies in Seven Arts," "Cities of Italy," "The Romantic
Movement in English Poetry," "Knave of Hearts," "Figures of Several
Centuries," "Tragedies," etc.
Take time enough: all other graces
Will soon fill up their proper places.
"Advice to Preach Slow,"--_John Byrom_.
JOHN BYROM, a noted English poet, and writer of hymns, was born at
Kersel Cell, near Manchester, February 29, 1692, and died in 1763. He
wrote a famous poem "Colin and Phoebe." A collection of his poems was
published in 1773.