It must be so,--Plato, thou reasonest well!
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?
Or whence this secret dread and inward horror
Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us;
'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.
Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought.
"Cato," Act V. Sc. I.--_Joseph Addison_.
JOSEPH ADDISON, a famous English essayist and poet, was born at Milston,
Wiltshire, May 1, 1672, and died in London, June 17, 1719. He wrote 41
original papers in the "Tattler," and 34 with Steele; 274 in the
"Spectator," 24 to a revived "Spectator," and 2 to Steele's "Lover." His
other works include: "Letters from Italy" (a poem), "The Campaign" (a
poem), "Fair Rosamond" (an opera), "Remarks on Several Parts of Italy,"
and "Cato" (a tragedy).
As an orator, Webster has been compared in simplicity to
Demosthenes and in profundity to Burke.
"Daniel Webster; History of the United States,"--_James Ford
Rhodes_.
JAMES FORD RHODES, a distinguished American historian, was born in
Cleveland, Ohio, May 1, 1848. He is best known by his noted work in two
volumes, "History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850." His
other works include, "Historical Essays," "Lectures on the American
Civil War Delivered at Oxford," "History of the Civil War," "History of
the United States from Hayes to McKinley," etc.
All power appears only in transition. Permanent power is stuff.
--_Novalis_.
NOVALIS, the _nom de plume_ of FRIEDRICH VON HARDENBURG, a noted German
philosopher and mystic, was born in Saxony, May 2, 1772, and died, 1801.
Among his writings are: "Hymns to the Night," "Disciples at Sais," and
"Heinrich von Ofterdingen."
The people of Massachusetts in the seventeenth century, like all
other Christian people at that time and later,--at least, with
extremely rare individual exceptions,--believed in the reality of
a hideous crime called witchcraft. They thought they had Scripture
for that belief, and they knew they had law for it, explicit and
abundant; and with them law and Scripture were absolute
authorities for the regulation of opinion and of conduct.
"History of New England."--_J. G. Palfrey_.
JOHN GORHAM PALFREY, a distinguished American clergyman and author, was
born in Boston, May 2, 1796, and died in Cambridge, Mass., April 26,
1881. He published numerous sermons, lectures, addresses, etc., but "The
History of New England," won for him world-wide fame.
I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.
I love to keep it by me: the idea of getting rid of it nearly
breaks my heart.
"Three Men in a Boat," Chap. 15,--_J. K. Jerome_.
JEROME K. JEROME, a famous English writer, was born at Walsall, May 2,
1861. Among his works are: "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow," "Three Men
in a Boat," "Novel Notes," "John Ingerfield," "Fennel," "Ruth," "Passing
of the Third Floor Back," "Esther Castways," "Malvina of Brittany," "All
Roads Lead to Calvary," etc.
Bisogna che i giudici siano assai perché pochi sempre fanno a modo
de'pochi.[1]
"Dei Discorsi," I, 7,--_Machiavelli_.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, a renowned Italian statesman and political and
historical writer was born at Florence, May 3, 1469, and died there,
June 22, 1527. He wrote: "Mandragola," "The Prince," "Florentine
History," "Discourses," "Art of War," etc.
There is another and a better world.
"The Stranger," Act. i, Sc. 1,--_A. F. Kotzebue_.
AUGUST FRIEDRICH FERDINAND VON KOTZEBUE, a famous German dramatist, was
born at Weimar, May 3, 1761, and died at Mannheim, March 23, 1819. His
best known works are: "The Spaniards in Peru," "The Stranger,"
"Misanthropy and Repentance," "German Provincials," "The Indians in
England," and his noted novel, "Sorrows of the Ortenberg Family."
The Doctrine of Stoicism modified by a doctrine of culture is
nobly preached in Matthew Arnold's verse.
"New Studios in Literature," p. 37,--_Edward Dowden_.
EDWARD DOWDEN, a distinguished Irish poet and historian of literature,
was born at Cork, May 3, 1843, and died in 1913. He has written: "Life
of Percy Bysshe Shelley," "Primer of French Literature," "Studies in
Literature," "Poems," "Southey," "Shakespeare, His Mind and Art,"
"Introduction to Shakespeare," "Wordsworth," "New Studies in
Literature," "The French Revolution and English Literature," "A History
of French Literature," "Robert Browning," "Michel de Montaigne,"
"Essays: Modern and Elizabethan," "Poetical Works" (2 vols.). His
"Letters" appeared in 1914.
The triumphs of the warrior are bounded by the narrow theatre of
his own age, but those of a Scott or a Shakespeare will be renewed
with greater luster in ages yet unborn, when the victorious
chieftain shall be forgotten, or shall live only in the song of
the minstrel and the page of the chronicler.
--_Prescott_.
WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, a famous American historian, was born at
Salem, Mass., May 4, 1796, and died in New York, January 28, 1859. He
wrote: "History of Ferdinand and Isabella," "History of the Conquest of
Mexico," "History of the Conquest of Peru," "Critical Essays," "History
of the Reign of Philip II of Spain," etc.
It is well to think well: it is divine to act well.
--_Horace Mann_.
HORACE MANN, a noted American educator and educational writer was born
in Franklin, Mass., May 4, 1796, and died in Yellow Springs, Ohio,
August 2, 1859. He published: "A Few Thoughts for a Young Man,"
"Slavery: Letters and Speeches," "Powers and Duties of Woman," etc.
The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
"Technical Education,"--_Thomas Henry Huxley_.
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY, a renowned English scientist, was born in Ealing,
May 4, 1825, and died June 29, 1895. Among his famous works are:
"Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature," "On the Educational Value of the
Natural-History Sciences," "Lectures on the Elements of Comparative
Anatomy," "Lessons in Elementary Physiology," "On the Physical Basis of
Life," "Half Hours with Modern Scientists," "American Addresses," "An
Introduction to the Classification of Animals," "Science and Culture,
and Other Essays," etc., etc.
Time, to the nation as to the individual, is nothing absolute; its
duration depends on the rate of thought and feeling.
--_John W. Draper_.
JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER, a famous physiologist, historical and miscellaneous
prose-writer, was born near Liverpool, England, May 5, 1811, and died at
Hastings-on-the-Hudson, N. Y., January 4, 1882. He has written: "Human
Physiology," "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe,"
"History of the American Civil War," and his most celebrated work,
"History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science."
In La Fontaine there is an affluence of poetry which is found in
no other French author.
"Literary Judgments,"--_Joseph Joubert_.
JOSEPH JOUBERT, an eminent French moralist and writer of aphorisms, was
born in Montignac, Périgord, May 6, 1754, and died at Paris in 1824.
Most of his epigrammatic work was published after his death, the titles
of the volumes being, "Thoughts," and "Thoughts, Essays, Maxims, and
Correspondence."
I feel the breath of the summer night,
Aromatic fire;
The trees, the vines the flowers are astir
With tender desire.
"A Summer Night,"--_Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard_.
ELIZABETH DREW (BARSTOW) STODDARD, a noted American novelist and poet,
was born in Mattapoisett, Mass., May 6, 1823, and died in 1902. Among
her works are: "Temple House," "Two Men," "The Morgesons," and "Poems,"
collected and published in 1895, etc.
I trust in Nature for the stable laws
Of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant
And Autumn garner to the end of time.
I trust in God,--the right shall be the right
And other than the wrong, while he endures.
I trust in my own soul, that can perceive
The outward and the inward,--Nature's good
And God's.
"A Soul's Tragedy," Act i,--_Robert Browning_.
ROBERT BROWNING, the renowned English poet, was born in Camberwell, May
7, 1812, and died in Venice, December 12, 1889. Among his poetical works
are: "A Soul's Tragedy," "The Return of the Druses," "Colombe's
Birthday," "Strafford," "Pauline," "Christmas Eve and Easter Day,"
"Fifine at the Fair," "Men and Women," "King Victor and King Charles,"
"Jocoseria," "Red-Cotton Nightcap Country," "Dramatic Idylls," "Pippa
Passes," etc.
Facts are stubborn things.
"Gil Blas," Book x, Chap. i,--_Le Sage_.
ALAIN RENÉ LE SAGE, a famous French novelist and dramatist, was born at
Sarzeau, near Cannes, May 8, 1668, and died at Boulogne-sur-Mer,
November 17, 1747. His greatest works were: "The Bachelor of Salamanca,"
"Gil Blas," "The Life and Adventures of M. de Beauchène," "The Devil on
Two Sticks," and two well-known comedies, "Crispin His Master's Rival,"
and "Turcaret."
Suffering is the surest means of making us truthful to ourselves.
--_Sismondi_.
JEAN CHARLES LÉONARD SIMON DE SISMONDI, an illustrious Swiss historian,
was born at Geneva, May 9, 1773, and died there, June 25, 1842. His most
noted works are: "History of the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages,"
"History of the New Birth of Liberty in Italy," "History of the Fall of
the Roman Empire," "History of the French," "Julia Severa: or, the Year
492," and "Literature of the South of Europe."
Life is a long lesson in humility.
"The Little Minister," Chap. 3,--_J. M. Barrie_.
JAMES MATTHEW BARRIE, a noted Scottish author, was born in Kirriemuir,
Forfarshire, May 9, 1860. He has written: "When a Man's Single," "Better
Dead," "Auld Licht Idylls," "A Window in Thrums," "My Lady Nicotine,"
"Sentimental Tommy," "Margaret Ogilvy," "The Little Minister," "Tommy
and Grizel," "The Little White Bird," "Peter Pan in Kensington
Gardens," "Peter and Wendy," Dramatic works are: "The Professor's Love
Story," "The Wedding Guest," "Little Mary," "Peter Pan,"
"Alice-Sit-by-the-Fire," "What Every Woman Knows," "The Legend of
Leonora," "The Will," "The Adored One," "Half an Hour," "Der Tag," "Rosy
Rapture," "A Kiss for Cinderella," "Seven Women," "Dear Brutus," "Echoes
of the War," etc.
No country seems to owe more to its women than America does, nor
to owe to them so much of what is best in social institutions and
in the beliefs that govern conduct.
"The American Commonwealth,"--_James Bryce_.
JAMES BRYCE, a noted British statesman, diplomat, and historian, was
born in Belfast, May 10, 1838, and died Jan. 22, 1922. His most
important works are: "The Holy Roman Empire" and "The American
Commonwealth."
By the waters of Life we sat together,
Hand in hand, in the golden days
Of the beautiful early summer weather,
When skies were purple and breath was praise.
"An Old Man's Idyll,"--_Thomas Noel_.
THOMAS NOEL, a noted English poet, was born May 11, 1799, and died in
1861. Among his volumes of verse are: "Rhymes and Roundelayes," etc.
The congress of Vienna does not walk, but it dances.
--_Prince de Ligne_.
CHARLES JOSEPH, PRINCE DE LIGNE, a distinguished Belgian soldier and
miscellaneous writer, was born at Brussels, May 12, 1735, and died
December 13, 1814. He wrote: "Military, Literary and Sentimental
Miscellanies," "Life of Prince Eugene of Savoy," etc.