April claims an anniversary which all Englishmen are presumed to honour. April 23rd is St. George's Day, and St. George is the patron saint of England. Yet he was not, so far as we know, an Englishman. He is said to have been a centurion in the army of Diocletian, and to have been roasted alive for pulling down a copy of the decree ordering the infamous persecution associated with Diocletian's name. That distinction is disputed in the interests of another person; but the fact remains that St. George was held in conspicuous honour by the early Church. His particular place as the patron of the English dates from the Crusades. The story of George and the Dragon has no relation to the incident which couples him to the English. Some authorities have identified this St. George with a certain George of Cappadocia, Arian Bishop of Alexandria; but Mr. Baring-Gould rejects with indignation the proposal to confound the patron saint of England with a heretic. We are on the ground, not of legend, but of history, in recalling St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was born about 1033. His day is April 21st.

St. George's Day has memories of other people than the legendary slayer of the dragon. On April 23rd, 1564, William Shakespeare was born; on April 23rd, 1616, he died. These, then, are anniversaries which cannot be overlooked by any person who values literature. Our pride is qualified by the thought that all the world of intelligence has taken hold of Shakespeare; he is the possession of educated mankind. Cervantes does not come of our stock, but in passing it may be permitted to remember that he died on the same day of the same year as Shakespeare. It was on St. George's Day, 1850, too, that William Wordsworth, poet laureate, died. The body of John Keble, the poet of the Oxford Movement, was laid to rest in Hursley churchyard on April 6th, 1866. He was deeply influenced by Wordsworth, but his name still more definitely suggests another English poet—the saintly George Herbert. He, too, belongs to this month, for he was born on April 3rd, 1593.

George Herbert was related to Lord Herbert of Cherbury, whose friends included Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesbury, one of the most distinguished of English philosophers. Hobbes was born on April 5th, 1588. The philosophy afterwards associated with the names of Locke, Hume, and Priestley owed much to Hobbes. Hume himself—philosopher, historian, and servant of the State—was born at Edinburgh on April 26th, 1711. Charles Darwin, philosopher and naturalist, died this month (April 19th, 1882). Few Englishmen have attained to wider fame; few have ever more profoundly influenced human thought.

Robert Raikes, in virtue of his work in prisons and his share in the foundation of Sunday schools, deserves long to be held in memory. Born at Gloucester, he died there suddenly on April 5th, 1811. Could Raikes have looked into the future, with what astonishment and joy he would have marked the development in the extent and spirit of this work, which is indicated by the existence of The Quiver Medal Fund and its rewards to veteran Sunday-school workers! A more modern and a greater philanthropist also belongs to April. Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, was born in Grosvenor Square on April 28th, 1801. In and out of Parliament, with a zeal which no opposition and no disappointment could repress, "the good Earl" worked for the cause of the oppressed, the poor, the sick, the sinful. He did much directly; perhaps more by the stimulus of his example.

Of institutions associated with the month of April, the Royal Academy is one of the most conspicuous. The Society of Incorporated Artists held their first exhibition at the Society of Arts, Adelphi, on April 21st, 1760. From this there sprang the Royal Academy. The first exhibition of the Academicians was held in Pall Mall on April 26th, 1769. The British Museum has its association with this month, for it was on April 5th, 1753, that Parliament granted the sum of £20,000 to the daughters of Sir Hans Sloane, in return for the collections which were the basis of the museum's vast treasures. The National Gallery also has its link with April, for it was on April 9th, 1838, that the present building in Trafalgar Square was completed and opened.

April has many memories for citizens of the United States. On April 17th, 1790, died Benjamin Franklin, politician, economist, and natural philosopher; in April, 1861, began the long struggle between the Northern and Southern States; and on April 14th, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, perhaps the most striking personality hitherto produced by the great democracy, was shot by John Wilkes Booth.