Talent, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be obscure and
unostentatious.
--_Lady Blessington_.
MARGUERITE, COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON, a distinguished Irish descriptive
writer and novelist, was born in Knockbrit, Tipperary, September 1,
1789, and died in Paris, June 4, 1849. Among her works are: "The Idler
in Italy," "The Idler in France," "Conversations with Lord Byron," etc.
The glorified spirit of the infant is as a star to guide the
mother to its own blissful clime.
"Monody on Mrs. Hemans,"--_Lydia H. Sigourney_.
LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY, a noted American author, was born in Norwich,
Conn., September 1, 1791, and died in Hartford, Conn., June 10, 1865.
She wrote: "Letters to Young Ladies," "Letters to Mothers," "Scenes in
My Native Land," "Voice of Flowers," "Letters to My Pupils," "The Daily
Councelor," "Gleanings," (poetry), "The Man of Uz, and Other Poems,"
etc.
Socrates, like Solon, thought that no man is too old to learn;
that to learn and to know is not a schooling for life, but life
itself, and that which alone gives to life its value. To become by
knowledge better from day to day, and to make others better,
appeared to both to be the real duty of man.
"History of Greece,"--_Ernst Curtius_.
ERNST CURTIUS, a renowned German archæologist and historian, was born at
Lubeck, September 2, 1814, and died in 1896. He wrote: "Peloponnesus,"
and his famous, "History of Greece."
The fire upon the hearth is low,
And there is stillness everywhere,
And, like winged spirits, here and there
The firelight shadows fluttering go.
"In the Firelight,"--_Eugene Field_.
EUGENE FIELD, a noted poet and humorous journalist, was born at St.
Louis, Mo., September 2, 1850, and died November 4, 1895. He wrote: "The
Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac," "The Holy Cross, and Other Tales,"
"Love Songs of Childhood," "A Little Book of Western Verse," and "A
Second Book of Verse."
Nothing can make a man happy but that which shall last as long as
he lasts; for an immortal soul shall persist in being, not only
when profit, pleasure, and honour, but when time itself shall
cease.
--_South_.
ROBERT SOUTH, a famous English divine, was born at Hackney, Middlesex,
September 3, 1634, and died July 8, 1716. A collection of his sermons
was published in 1692 in six volumes.
The Grecian history is a poem, Latin history a picture, modern
history a chronicle.
--_Chateaubriand_.
FRANÇOIS RENÉ AUGUSTE, VICOMTE DE CHATEAUBRIAND, a renowned French
statesman, traveler, novelist and historical writer, was born at St.
Malo, September 4, 1768, and died at Paris, July 4, 1848. Among his
works are: "The Genius of Christianity" (his most famous work), "Atala,"
"René," and "The Natchez," also "The Martyrs, or Triumph of the
Christian Religion," "A Journey from Paris to Jerusalem," "An Essay on
English Literature," and translated Milton's "Paradise Lost."
Da dacht ich oft: schwatzt noch so hoch gelehrt,
Man weiss doch nichts, als was man selbst erfährt.[1]
"Oberon," II. 24,--_Wieland_.
CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND, a celebrated German poet and prose-writer,
was born in Oberholzheim, Suabia, September 5, 1733, and died January
20, 1813. He wrote: "Agathon," "The New Amadis," "The Golden Mirror,"
and "Oberon," his most famous work. He also translated the greater part
of Shakespeare into German.
Husband and wife--so much in common, how different in type! Such a
contrast, and yet such harmony, strength and weakness blended
together!
--_Ruffini_.
GIOVANNI DOMENICO RUFFINI, a distinguished Italian littérateur, was born
at Genoa, September 6, 1807, and died at Taggia, November 2, 1881. He
published: "Lorenzo Benoni" (a romance), "Lavinia," etc.; also, "Doctor
Antonio," his most famous book.