"Athalie," Act. i, Sc. I,--_Racine_.
JEAN BAPTISTE RACINE, the illustrious French dramatist, was born at La
Ferté-Milon, December 21, 1639, and died at Paris, April 26, 1699. His
greatest works were: "The Thebaid," "The Pleaders," "Alexander,"
"Berenice," "Bajazet," "Esther," "Athalie," "Mithridates," "Iphigenia,"
"The Chaplain's Wig," "Phædra," "Nymphs of the Seine," "Letters," and
"Abridgment of the History of Port Royal," his last dramatic work.
The world is a wheel, and it will all come round right.
"Endymion," Chap. lxx,--_Benjamin Disraeli_.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Lord Beaconsfield, an eminent English statesman and
novelist, was born in London, December 21, 1804, and died April 19,
1881. Among his celebrated works are: "The Young Duke," "Vivian Grey,"
"Venetia," "The Rise of Iskander," "Henrietta Temple," "The
Revolutionary Epic," "Sibyl," "Tancred," "Lothair," and "Endymion."
To be really cosmopolitan a man must be at home even in his own
country.
"Short Studies of American Authors: Henry James, Jr.,"--_T. W.
Higginson_.
THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON, a distinguished American poet, essayist and
novelist, was born in Cambridge, Mass., December 22, 1823, and died in
1911. Among his writings are: "Atlantic Essays," "Out-Door Papers," "The
Afternoon Landscape," "Life of Margaret Fuller," "Short Studies of
American Authors," "Young Folks' History of the United States,"
"Concerning All of Us," "Cheerful Yesterdays," "Old Cambridge,"
"Contemporaries," "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow," "Part of a Man's Life,"
"Life of Stephen Higginson," etc.
I have a liking old
For thee, though manifold
Stories, I know, are told
Not to thy credit.
"Ode to Tobacco,"--_Charles Stuart Calverley_.
CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY, a noted English poet and humorist, was born at
Martley, Worcestershire, December 22, 1831, and died February 17, 1884.
He wrote: "Verses and Translations," and "Society Verses."
If I had a device, it would be the true, the true only, leaving
the beautiful and the good to settle matters afterwards as best
they could.
--_C. A. Sainte-Beuve_.
CHARLES AUGUSTIN SAINTE-BEUVE, the great French literary critic, was
born at Boulogne-sur-Mer, December 23, 1804, and died at Paris, October
13, 1869. He wrote: "Literary Critiques and Portraits," "Literary
Portraits," "History of Port Royal," "Contemporary Portraits," "Picture
of French Poetry in the Sixteenth Century," "Meditations in August,"
"Consolations," "Poems," his celebrated "Monday Talks," etc.
We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often
discover what will do by finding out what will not do; and
probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
"Self-Help,"--_Samuel Smiles_.
SAMUEL SMILES, a famous British author, was born at Haddington,
Scotland, December 23, 1812, and died, April 16, 1904. He wrote: "Lives
of the Engineers," "Industrial Biography," "James Brindley and the Early
Engineers," "Lives of Boulton and Watt," "Life of Thomas Telford," "Life
of George Stephenson," "The Life of a Scotch Naturalist" (Thomas
Edward), "Robert Dick," "George Moore," "Men of Invention and Industry,"
"Life and Labor," "A Publisher and His Friends," "Jasmin," "Josiah
Wedgwood," "History of Ireland," etc. Also, "Self-Help," "Character,"
"Thrift," and "Duty."
Her air, her manners, all who saw admir'd;
Courteous though coy, and gentle though retir'd;
The joy of youth and health her eyes display'd,
And ease of heart her every look convey'd.
"The Parish Register, Marriages," Part ii,--_George Crabbe_.
GEORGE CRABBE, a celebrated English poet, was born in Aldborough,
Suffolk, December 24, 1754, and died at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, February
3, 1832. His most famous poems are: "The Parish Register," "The
Village," "Tales in Verse," and "The Borough."
Still so gently o'er me stealing,
Mem'ry will bring back the feeling,
Spite of all my grief revealing
That I love thee,--that I dearly love thee still.
"La Sonnambula,"--_Scribe_.
AUGUSTIN EUGÈNE SCRIBE, a distinguished French dramatist, was born in
Paris, December 24, 1791, and died February 20, 1861. His collected
"Oeuvres," (76 vols. 1874-85), contains all his works.
She is fair as the spirit of light,
That floats in the ether on high.
--_Adam Mickiewicz_.
ADAM MICKIEWICZ, the most celebrated of Slavic poets, was born near
Novogròdek, Lithuania, December 24, 1798, and died at Constantinople,
November 26, 1855. Among his famous works are: "Crimean Sonnets,"
"Lectures on Slavic Literature," "The Books of the Polish People and of
the Polish Pilgrimage," the ballad, "Dziady," and three famous epics:
"Pan Tadeusz," "Conrad Wallenrod," and "Grazyna."
There is no better motto which it (culture) can have than these
words of Bishop Wilson, "To make reason and the will of God
prevail."
"Culture and Anarchy,"--_Matthew Arnold_.
MATTHEW ARNOLD, an eminent English poet, essayist and critic, was born
at Laleham, December 24, 1822, and died at Liverpool, April 15, 1888.
His principal works are: "Empedocles on Etna," "The Strayed Reveler and
Other Poems," "New Poems," "Essays in Criticism," "Lectures on the Study
of Celtic Literature," "Culture and Anarchy," "Friendship's Garland,"
"Mixed Essays," "Irish Essays," "Last Essays on Church and Religion,"
and "Discourses on America."
It is not enough to do good; one must do it the right way.
"On Compromise,"--_John Morley_.
JOHN MORLEY (VISCOUNT MORLEY), a renowned English statesman, essayist,
editor, critic and biographer, was born at Blackburn, Lancashire,
December 24, 1838. He has written: "Life of Oliver Cromwell," "Life of
Gladstone," "Life of Cobden," "Sir Robert Walpole," "Studies in
Literature," "Cromwell," "Literary Essays," "Notes on Politics,"
"Recollections," etc.
Well may your hearts believe the truths I tell:
'Tis virtue makes the bliss, where'er we dwell.
"Oriental Eclogues," I, Line 5,--_William Collins_.
WILLIAM COLLINS, a celebrated English poet, was born in Chichester,
December 25, 1721, and died there, June 12, 1759. His principal works
were: "Ode to Evening," "The Passions," "Ode on the Death of Thomson,"
and the "Dirge to Cymbeline."
Who dares this pair of boots displace,
Must meet Bombastes face to face.
"Bombastes Furioso," Act I, Sc. 4,--_William Barnes Rhodes_.
WILLIAM BARNES RHODES, a noted English dramatic writer, was born
December 25, 1772, and died November 1, 1826. He wrote: "The Satires of
Juvenal, Translated into English Verse," "Epigrams," and his famous
burlesque, "Bombastes Furioso."
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
"Elegy in a Country Churchyard,"--_Thomas Gray_.
THOMAS GRAY, the renowned English poet, was born at Cornhill, London,
December 26, 1716, and died at Cambridge, July 24, 1771. He wrote: "Ode
to Adversity," "Progress of Poesy," "The Bard," "Ode on a Distant
Prospect of Eton College," and his most famous work, "Elegy in a Country
Churchyard."
It may well wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six
thousand years for an observer.
"Martyrs of Science" (Brewster),--_John Kepler_.
JOHANNES KEPLER, a German astronomer of great fame, was born at Weil,
Würtemberg, December 27, 1571, and died at Ratisbon, November 15, 1630.
His most famous work was: "New Astronomy, with Commentaries on the
Motions of Mars."
Among men of letters Lowell is doubtless most typically American,
though Curtis must find an eligible place in the list. Lowell was
self-conscious, though the truest greatness is not; he was a
trifle too "smart," besides, and there is no "smartness" in great
literature. But both the self consciousness and the smartness must
be admitted to be American; and Lowell was so versatile, so
urbane, of so large a spirit, and so admirable in the scope of his
sympathies, that he must certainly go on the calendar.
"Mere Literature and Other Essays,"--_Woodrow Wilson_.
WOODROW WILSON, a famous American educator and author, and twenty-eighth
President of the United States, was born at Staunton, Va., December 28,
1856, and died at Washington, D. C., February 3, 1924. His works
include: "Congressional Government: A Study of American Politics," "The
State: Elements of Historical and Practical Politics," "Division and
Reunion," "Epochs of American History," "An Old Master, and Other
Political Essays," "Mere Literature and Other Essays," "George
Washington," "A History of the American People," "Constitutional
Government in the United States," "The New Freedom," "When a Man Comes
to Himself," "On Being Human."
Selfishness is the greatest curse of the human race.
"Speech," Hawarden, May 28, 1890,--_William E. Gladstone_.
WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, the eminent English statesman, essayist, and
translator from the classics, was born in Liverpool, December 29, 1809,
and died in 1898. His works include: "Studies in Homer and the Homeric
Age," "Church and State," "Juventus Mundi," "Homeric Synchronism,"
"Gleanings of Past Years," etc.
The tumult and the shouting dies,--
The Captains and the Kings depart,--
Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
"Recessional,"--_Rudyard Kipling_.
RUDYARD KIPLING, a renowned English short-story writer, poet, and
novelist, was born at Bombay, India, December 30, 1865. Among his
writings are: "Life's Handicap," "Mine Own People," "Many Inventions,"
"Soldiers Three," "The Light That Failed," "The Seven Seas," "Barrack
Room Ballads," "The Jungle Books," "Captains Courageous," "The Day's
Work," "Stalky and Co.," "Just So Stories for Little Children," "Kim,"
"The Five Nations," "Traffics and Discoveries," "Puck of Pook's Hill,"
"Actions and Reactions," "Rewards and Fairies," "The Harbour Watch" (a
play), "The New Armies in Training," "France at War," "Fringes of the
Fleet," "A Diversity of Creatures," "The Years Between," etc.