Book xviii

, Sect. 31,--_Pliny the Elder_.

PLINY THE ELDER, a celebrated Roman compiler of encyclopædic knowledge, was born at Novum Comum, (Como), A.D. 23; and died A.D. 79. He wrote: "A Natural History" in 37 books, compiled from more than 2,000 volumes.

Hunger is the teacher of the arts and the bestower of invention.

--_Persius_.

AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS, a famous Latin satiric poet, was born at Volaterræ in Etruria, 34 A.D., and died A.D. 62. He wrote six satires, and they are all extant.

A liar should have a good memory.

"Institutionis Oratoriæ," iv, 2, 91,--_Quintilian_.

QUINTILIAN, the famous Roman rhetorician, was born about A.D. 35, at Calagurris (Calahorra), Spain, and died about A.D. 95 or 96. His great work, "Institutionis Oratoriæ," is one of the most renowned classical works on rhetoric.

Alta sedent civilis vulnera dextræ.[3]

"Pharsalia," I, 32,--_Lucan_.

MARCUS ANNAEUS LUCANUS (LUCAN), a celebrated Latin poet, was born at Cordova, Spain, A.D. 39, and died at Rome, A.D. 65. He is best known by his epic poem, "Pharsalia."

Quid crastina volveret ætas, Scire nefos homini.[4]

"Thebaid," III. 562,--_Statius_.

PUBLIUS PAPINIUS STATIUS, a famous Roman poet, was born at Naples, about A.D. 45, and died there, about A.D. 96. His chief work is, "The Thebaid," an epic poem in twelve books.

Difficulties are things that show what men are.

"Discourses," Chap. xxiv,--_Epictetus_.

EPICTETUS, a celebrated Greek Stoic philosopher, was born at Hierapolis in Phrygia, about A.D. 50. No works of his have come down to our time, but his maxims were collected and published in the "Encheiridion," or Handbook, and the "Commentaries" in eight books.

The gods looked with favour on superior courage.

--_Tacitus_.

PUBLIUS CORNELIUS TACITUS, a great Latin historian, was born about A.D. 54. He wrote the dialogue "De Oratoribus," the "Annals," the "Agricola," the "Germania," ("On the Manners of the Germans"), and his "History."

No man ever became extremely wicked all at once.

"Satire ii," 83,--_Juvenal_.

JUVENAL, the renowned Latin poet, was born at Aquinum, about A.D. 60, and died about A.D. 140. Sixteen of his famous satires are extant.

Never do a thing concerning the rectitude of which you are in doubt.

"Letters," Letter xviii, 5,--_Pliny the Younger_.

PLINY THE YOUNGER, a noted Roman orator, nephew of Pliny the Elder, was born at Comum, A.D. 61, and died about 113. Of his numerous forensic works, only one oration is extant, "The Panegyric," also his "Letters."

To conduct great matters and never commit a fault is above the force of human nature.

"Life of Fabius,"--_Plutarch_.

PLUTARCH, the celebrated Greek moralist, practical philosopher, and biographer was born at Chæronea in Boeotia. The year of his birth and death are not known, but he was very old at the death of Trajan, A.D. 117. He wrote: "Parallel Lives," and many "Moral Treatises," including "The Education of Children," "The Right Way of Hearing," "Precepts About Health," "Cessation of Oracles," "The Pythian Responses," "The Retarded Vengeance of the Deity," "The Dæmon of Socrates," "The Virtues of Women," "On the Fortune of the Romans," "Political Counsels," "On Superstition," "On Isis and Osiris," "On the Pace of the Moon's Disk," "On the Opinions Accepted by the Philosophers."

A boy of five years old serene and gay, Unpitying Hades hurried me away. Yet weep not for Callimachus: if few The days I lived, few were my sorrows too.

--_Lucian_.

LUCIAN, the celebrated Greek satirist, was born at Samosata, in northern Syria, about 120 A.D., and died about 200 A.D. Among his writings are: "Praise of Demosthenes," "Dialogues of the Gods," "Dialogues of the Sea Gods," "Dialogues of the Dead," "The True History," "Lucius; or The Ass," "Death of Peregrinus," "The Fisherman," "The Sea Voyage, or Votive Offerings," "The Sale of Lives," "Alexander, or The False Prophet," "Hermotimus," etc.

Neither fear, nor wish for, your last day.

Epigram x, 47.13,--_Martial_.

MARTIAL, a famous Latin poet, was born at Bilbilis, Spain, A.D. 50 (?), and died in Spain, 102 (?). His fame rests upon his "Epigrams" in fifteen books.

Suetonius says of the Emperor Titus: "Once at supper, reflecting that he had done nothing for any that day, he broke out into that memorable and justly admired saying, 'My friends, I have lost a day!'"

"Lives of Twelve Cæsars" (Translation by Alexander Thomson),--_Suetonius_.

SUETONIUS, a famous Latin chronicler, grammarian, and critic, flourished in the early part of the second century of our era. His works include: "Distinguished Orators," "Illustrious Grammarians," "Lives of the Cæsars," etc.

When I am at Rome I fast as the Romans do; when I am at Milan I do not fast. So likewise you, whatever church you come to, observe the custom of the place, if you would neither give offence to others, nor take offence from them.

"Advice to St. Austin on Sabbath Keeping,"--_St. Ambrose_.

SAINT AMBROSE, one of the fathers of the Latin Church, born at Trèves, Gaul, probably A.D. 340, died at Milan, April 4, A.D. 397. His writings include: "Of the Duties of the Clergy," "Hexæmeron," hymns, etc. He became bishop of Milan in 374.

Socrates said, "Those who want fewest things are nearest to the gods."

"Socrates," XI,--_Diogenes Laertius_.

DIOGENES LAERTIUS, a famous Greek compiler of anecdotes, flourished about A.D. 200-250, a native of Lærte in Cilicia. He wrote a collection of notes and memoranda (in 10 books), "On the Lives, Teachings, and Sayings of Famous Men."

None can injure him, who does not injure himself.

--_Chrysostom_.

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, a noted Greek Church father, born in Antioch, Syria, 350 (?), and died at Comana, 407. His works, comprising homilies, commentaries, liturgies, epistles, etc., can be found in 13 volumes, fol. (1718).

Quis legem det amantibus? Major lex amor est sibi.[5]

--_Boëthius_.

BOËTHIUS, a famous Roman didactic poet and statesman, was born between 470 and 475, and died about 525. His celebrated "Consolation of Philosophy" won for him lasting fame.

Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire, And Hell the Shadow of a Soul on fire.

"Rubáiyát," Stanza lxvii,--_Omar Khayyám_.

OMAR KHAYYÁM, a celebrated Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer, was born at Nishapur, in 1050 (?), and died there in 1123 (?). His fame rests on the "Rubáiyát," or "Quatrains,"--four-line stanzas with the third unrhymed. Fitzgerald's was the first English translation to make these quatrains widely known.

"Abélard was almost the first who awakened mankind in the ages of darkness to a sympathy with intellectual excellence ... Abélard was the first of recorded name, who taught the banks of the Seine to resound a tale of love; and it was of Eloïse that he sang."

PIERRE ABÉLARD, a famous French scholastic philosopher and theologian, was born near Nantes, 1079, and died April 21, 1142. His romantic and tragic love for Héloïse is told in his "Story of My Misfortunes."

Jesu! the very Thought of Thee With sweetness fills the breast, But sweeter far Thy face to see And in Thy presence rest.

"Saint Bernard's Hymn,"--_Bernard of Clairvaux_.

BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX, ST. BERNARD, a renowned French theologian, church father, and saint, was born at Fontaines, near Dijon, in 1091, and died at Clairvaux, January 12, 1153. He wrote five books on "Reflection," and his famous hymn, "Jesu, the Very Thought of Thee," is popular in the churches of our day.

"Unless the spirit of wisdom and understanding had been with me and filled me, I had never been able to construct so long a work in such a difficult metre."

--_Bernard of Cluny_.

BERNARD OF CLUNY, a famous French monk and poet, who flourished in the twelfth century, is best known for his noted work, "On Contempts of the World."

"If St. Francis had been less of a poet, he would have been less of a saint."

ST. FRANCIS D'ASSISI, a renowned Italian preacher, and poet, founder of the Franciscan order, was born at Assisi in Umbria, Italy, 1182, and died October 12, 1226. The most famous of his hymns is the "Canticle of the Sun."

He who learns the rules of wisdom, without conforming to them in his life, is like a man who laboured in his fields, but did not sow.

--_Sadi_.

SADI, one of the greatest of Persian poets, was born at Shiraz, in 1184, and died in 1291 (?). He wrote: "Bustán," or "The Fruit Garden," and "Gulistán," or "The Rose Garden," also his "Divan."

The best perfection of a religious man is to do common things in a perfect manner. A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue.

--_St. Bonaventura_.

SAINT BONAVENTURA, an Italian theologian and scholar of great fame, was born at Bagnarea, 1221, and died in 1274. His real name was Giovanni di Fidenza. He wrote: "Life of Saint Francis," "Progress of the Mind Towards God," etc.

"To an absolute purity of life, St. Thomas added an earnest love of truth and of labor."

THOMAS AQUINAS, a great mediæval theologian and philosopher, was born at Aquino in the kingdom of Naples, about 1225, and died at Fossa Nuova, March 7, 1274. Among his works are: "Sum of Catholic Belief Against the Heathen," "Exposition of All the Epistles of St. Paul," and his most famous work, the "Sum of Theology."

No greater grief than to remember days Of joy when misery is at hand.

"Divine Comedy," Canto V, Line 121,--_Dante_.

DANTE ALIGHIERI, the greatest of Italian poets, was born in Florence 1265, and died in Ravenna, September 14, 1321. He wrote: the "New Life," the "Banquet," and the "Divine Comedy."

O, marvelous power of the Divine seed, which overpowers the strong man armed, softens obdurate hearts, and changes into divine men those who were brutalized in sin, and removed to an infinite distance from God.

--_John Wyclif_.

JOHN WYCLIF, a renowned scholar, was born near Richmond, England, about 1324, and died December 31, 1384. His great work was the translation of the entire Bible into English.

Who that well his warke beginneth, The rather a good ende he winneth.

"Confessio Amantis,"--_Gower_.

JOHN GOWER, a noted English poet, was born in Kent in 1325 (?), and died in London in August (or September), 1408. Among his works are: "Voice of One Crying" (Vox Clamantis), "Mirror of Meditation" (Speculum Meditantis), and "Lover's Confession" (Confessio Amantis).

Full wise is he that can himselven knowe.

"The Monkes Tale,"--_Geoffrey Chaucer_.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER, the father of English poetry, was born in London (?), 1328 or 1340, and died there October 25, 1400. He wrote: "Troilus and Cressida," "The Parliament of Fowles," "Boke of the Duchesse," "The House of Fame," "The Legend of Good Women," and his most famous work, "Canterbury Tales."

Man proposes, but God disposes.

"Imitation of Christ,"