Book ii

, Sat. 6,--_Jonathan Swift_.

JONATHAN SWIFT, the celebrated English prose satirist, was born in Dublin, November 30, 1667, and died there, October 19, 1745. He wrote: "Advice to the October Club," "Tale of a Tub," "Meditation upon a Broomstick," "Battle of the Books," "Project for the Advancement of Religion," "Public Spirit of the Whigs," "A Modest Proposal," "Drapier's Letters," "Remarks on the Barrier Treaty," "Sentiments of a Church of England Man," and "Gulliver's Travels," his most important work.

Forth we went, a gallant band-- Youth, Love, Gold and Pleasure.

"Last Song,"--_Mark Lemon_.

MARK LEMON, a noted English playwright, was born in London, November 30, 1809, and died at Crawley in Sussex, May 23, 1870. Among his comedies and dramas are: "Hearts Are Trumps," "Lost and Won," "Arnold of Winkelried," "Domestic Economy," etc.

There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate; when he can't afford it, and when he can.

--_Mark Twain_.

SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS, ("MARK TWAIN"), the distinguished American humorist, was born in Missouri, November 30, 1835, and died in 1910. He has written: "The Innocents Abroad," "Huckleberry Finn," "A Tramp Abroad," "The Jumping Frog," "Old Times on the Mississippi," "Roughing It," "Tom Sawyer," "The Prince and the Pauper," "The Gilded Age," "Pudd'nhead Wilson," "Following the Equator," "A Double-Barreled Detective Story," etc.

FOOTNOTES:

[1]

Man, think of thine end, whatever thou doest, That will be counted as wisdom the truest.

DECEMBER

DECEMBER

What is the greatest bliss That the tongue o' man can name? 'Tis to woo a bonnie lassie When the kye comes hame!

"When the Kye Comes Hame," st. 2,--_James Hogg_.

JAMES HOGG, a famous Scotch pastoral poet, was born in Ettrick, December 1, 1770, and died at Eltrive Lake, November 21, 1835. He wrote: "Poems and Songs," "The Mountain Bard," "Scottish Pastorals," and "The Queen's Wake," his most famous work.

In the soul of Keats, if ever in a human soul at all, there was a portion of the real poetic essence--the real faculty divine.... His most obvious characteristic, I repeat, is the universality of his sensuousness. And this it is, added to his exquisite mastery in language and verse, that makes it such a luxury to read him.

"Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats,"--_David Masson_.

DAVID MASSON, a noted Scottish author, was born at Aberdeen, December 2, 1822, and died in 1907. He wrote: "The Life of Milton in connection with the History of His Time," "Essays, Biographical and Critical," "British Novelists," "Recent British Philosophy," "Carlyle Personally and His Writings," "Edinburgh Sketches and Memories," etc.

Strange to the world he wore a bashful look, The fields his study, nature was his book.

"The Farmer's Boy: Spring," L. 31,--_Bloomfield_.

ROBERT BLOOMFIELD, a celebrated English poet, was born at Honington, December 3, 1766, and died in Shefford, in 1823. Among his poetical pieces are: "The Milk Maid," "The Sailor's Return," and his most famous poetical work, "The Farmer's Boy."

In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream.

"Heroes and Hero-Worship: The Hero as a Man of Letters,"--_Thomas Carlyle_.

THOMAS CARLYLE, a Scotch biographer, historian, and miscellaneous writer of great fame, was born at Ecclefechan, December 4, 1795, and died in London, February 4, 1881. Among his celebrated works may be mentioned: "Life of Schiller," "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship," a translation; "The French Revolution," "Life and Letters of Oliver Cromwell," "German Romance," "Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History," "Chartism," "Past and Present," "Life of Sterling," "Friedrich II," "Latter-Day Pamphlets," "Inaugural Address at Edinburgh," etc.

Give me the lowest place: or if for me That lowest place too high, make one more low Where I may sit and see My God, and love Thee so.

"The Lowest Place,"--_Christina G. Rossetti_.

CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI, a renowned English poetess, was born in London, December 5, 1830, and died December 29, 1894. Among her works are: "The Prince's Progress," "Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book," "Seek and Find," "Speaking Likenesses," "A Pageant, and Other Poems," "Letter and Spirit," "Annus Domini: A Prayer for Each Day in the Year," "Verses," and her most celebrated work, "Goblin Market."

Right as a trivet.

"The Ingoldsby Legends, Auto-da-fe,"--_R. H. Barham_.

RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM, a famous English poet, was born in Canterbury, December 6, 1788, and died in London, June 17, 1845. Under the nom de plume of "Thomas Ingoldsby," he wrote the celebrated "Ingoldsby Legends." He also wrote: "Life of Theodore Hook," "My Cousin Nicholas," etc.

What is worth doing is worth doing well; and with a little more trouble at first, much trouble afterwards may be avoided.

Max Müller, "Letter to John Bellows," July 18, 1866, from "Life" (by His Wife) I. XV,--_Max Müller_.

FRIEDRICH MAX MÜLLER, an eminent German-English Sanskrit scholar and comparative philologist, was born at Dessau, December 6, 1823, and died in 1900. He has written: "History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature," "Science of Language," "Chips from a German Workshop," "Science of Religion," "Essays on Language, Mythology, and Religion," "Science of Thought," "My Autobiography," "Last Essays," appeared after his death, also, "Life and Letters of the Right Honorable Friedrich Max Müller," by his wife.

Liberty of the imagination is the most precious possession of the novelist.

--_Joseph Conrad_.

JOSEPH CONRAD, a renowned English author, of Polish parentage, was born December 6, 1857. Among his works are: "An Outcast of the Islands," "The Nigger of the Narcissus," "Typhoon," "The Mirror of the Sea," "The Secret Agent," "Under Western Eyes," "Some Reminiscenses," "Chance," "Within the Tides," "Victory," "The Shadow Line," "The Arrow of Gold," "Rescue," "Notes on Life and Letters."

A wet sheet and a flowing sea, A wind that follows fast, And fills the white and rustling sail, And bends the gallant mast. And bends the gallant mast, my boys, While like the eagle free Away the good ship flies, and leaves Old England on the lee.

"A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea,"--_Allan Cunningham_.

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, a noted Scotch poet and miscellaneous writer, was born in Keir, Dumfriesshire, December 7, 1784, and died in London, October 30, 1842. His best known works are: "Lord Roldan," "Paul Jones," "Sir Marmaduke Maxwell," and his most famous work, "Critical History of the Literature of the Last Fifty Years."

Out in the lonely woods the jasmine burns Its fragrant lamps, and turns Into a royal court with green festoons The banks of dark lagoons.

"Spring,"--_Henry Timrod_.

HENRY TIMROD, a famous American Southern poet and author, was born at Charleston, S. C., December 8, 1829, and died at Columbia, S. C., October 6, 1867. His "Poems" appeared in 1860.

You k'n hide de fier, but w'at you gwine do wid de smoke?

"Plantation Proverbs,"--_Joel Chandler Harris_.

JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS, a noted American journalist and story writer, was born at Eatonton, Georgia, December 8, 1848, and died July 3, 1908. He has written: "Daddy Jake, the Runaway," "The Folk-Lore of the Old Plantation," etc. He is best known, however, by his famous "Uncle Remus" sketches.

Now came still evening on, and twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad; Silence accompany'd; for beast and bird, They to their grassy couch, these to their nests, Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale; She all night long her amorous descant sung; Silence was pleas'd. Now glow'd the firmament With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon, Rising in clouded majesty, at length Apparent queen unveil'd her peerless light, And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

"Paradise Lost,"