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FEBRUARY

Richard Whately, a distinguished English clergyman and educator, archbishop of Dublin, was born in London, February 1, 1787, and died in Dublin, October 8, 1863. His writings include: “Elements of Logic,” “A General View of the Rise, Progress, and Corruptions of Christianity,” “The Use and Abuse of Party Feeling in Matters of Religion,” “Bacon’s Essays, with Annotations,” “Miscellaneous Lectures and Reviews,” etc.

Hannah More, a celebrated English religious writer, was born at Stapleton, Gloucestershire, February 2, 1745, and died at Clifton, September 7, 1833. She wrote: “Practical Piety,” “Religion of the Fashionable World,” “Sacred Dramas,” “The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain,” etc.

William Henry Burleigh, a noted American poet and journalist was born in Woodstock, Conn., February 2, 1812, and died in Brooklyn, N. Y., March 18, 1871. A collection of his poems was published in 1840.

Horace Greeley, a famous American editor and controversial writer, was born in Amherst, N. H., February 3, 1811, and died in New York, November 29, 1872. He wrote: “Glances at Europe,” “The American Conflict,” “Recollections of a Busy Life,” etc.

Frederick William Robertson, a distinguished English clergyman, was born in London, February 3, 1816, and died at Brighton, August 15, 1853. His works were collected and published after his death under the following titles: “Expository Lectures on St. Paul’s Epistles to the Corinthians,” “Lectures and Addresses on Literary and Social Topics,” “Notes on Genesis,” “Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton.”

Walter Bagehot, a famous English writer on political economy and government, was born in Langport, Somersetshire, February 3, 1826, and died there March 24, 1877. He wrote: “The English Constitution,” “Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market,” “Literary Studies,” etc. His complete works were published in 1889.

Sidney Lanier, a celebrated American poet, was born at Macon, Ga., February 3, 1842, and died at Lynn, N. C., September 7, 1881. He wrote: “The English Novel and the Principles of its Development,” “The Science of English Verse,” etc. His poems were collected and published after his death.

Mark Hopkins, a distinguished American educator and religious and ethical writer, was born at Stockbridge, Mass., February 4, 1802; and died at Williamstown, Mass., June 17, 1887. Among his works are: “Evidences of Christianity,” “The Law of Love, and Love as a Law,” “An Outline Study of Man,” etc.

George Morris Cohen Brandes, a distinguished Danish man of letters, was born at Copenhagen, February 4, 1842. He wrote: “Critiques and Portraits,” “French Aesthetics in Our Day,” “The Idea of Fate Among the Ancients,” and his masterpiece, “Main Currents of 19th Century Literature.” Also, “Men of the Modern Revival,” “A Study of Ibsen,” “Goethe,” “Poems,” “English: Main Currents,” “Eminent Authors,” “Poland,” “Recollections of My Childhood and Youth,” “Complete Works,” (21 vols.), “Voltaire,” “Caesar,” (2 vols.), “The World War,” etc.

Charles Churchill, a famous English satirical poet, was born in Westminster, February 5, 1731, and died at Boulogne, November 4, 1764. He wrote: “The Farewell,” “The Ghost,” “The Conference,” “The Author,” “The Prophecy of Famine,” and “The Rosciad,” the satire that won his fame.

Henry Howard Brownell, a noted American poet and writer of historical sketches, was born at Providence, R. I., February 6, 1820, and died at East Hartford, Conn., October 31, 1872. He published his many verses in “Lyrics of a Day, or Newspaper Poetry by a Volunteer in the U. S. Service.” In “The Bay Fight” he describes the battle of Mobile Bay.

Frederic William Henry Myers, a distinguished English poet and critic, was born at Duffield, England, February 6, 1843, and died January 17, 1901. He has written: “Science and a Future Life,” “Renewal of Youth and Other Poems,” “Essays, Modern and Classical,” “St. Paul,” “English Men of Letters,” etc. Also a posthumous work called “Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death,” (2 vols.), 1903.

Sir Thomas More, the great English statesman and miscellaneous writer, was born in London, February 7, 1478, and was executed July 6, 1535. He wrote: “History of Richard III,” “Life of John Picus, Earl of Mirandola,” and “Utopia” (which was his most celebrated work), etc.

Charles Dickens, one of the most famous of English novelists, was born at Landport, in Portsea, February 7, 1812, and died June 9, 1870. His most famous works are: “Oliver Twist,” “Pickwick Papers,” “Sketches by Boz,” “Nicholas Nickleby,” “Old Curiosity Shop,” “A Christmas Carol,” “American Notes,” “The Cricket on the Hearth,” “The Chimes,” “Pictures from Italy,” “Dombey and Son,” “The Battle of Life,” “David Copperfield,” “The Haunted Man,” “Bleak House,” “Little Dorrit,” “A Child’s History of England,” “Great Expectations,” “A Tale of Two Cities,” “Hard Times,” “Our Mutual Friend,” etc.

Robert Burton, a famous English writer, was born at Lindley, Leicestershire, February 8, 1577, and died January 25, 1640. His greatest work was: “Anatomy of Melancholy.”

John Ruskin, the renowned English essayist and critic, was born in London, February 8, 1819, and died January 20, 1900. His principal works are: “The Seven Lamps of Architecture,” “Modern Painters,” “The Stones of Venice,” “Elements of Drawing,” “The Two Paths,” “Political Economy of Art,” “Lectures on Art,” “The Art of England,” “Verona and Other Lectures,” “Sesame and Lilies,” “Munera Pulveris,” “The Crown of Wild Olive,” “Love’s Meinie,” “The Eagle’s Nest,” “The Queen of the Air,” “Arrows of the Chace,” “Proserpina,” “The King of the Golden River,” etc.

William Tecumseh Sherman, one of the greatest of American generals, was born in Lancaster, O., February 8, 1820, and died in New York City, February 14, 1891. He published: “Memoirs of Gen. William T. Sherman by Himself” (2 vols.).

Richard Watson Gilder, a distinguished American poet, was born in Bordentown, N. J., February 8, 1844, and died in 1909. His works include: “Two Worlds and Other Poems,” “Five Books of Song,” “Lyrics,” “The New Day,” “The Great Remembrance and Other Poems,” and “The Celestial Passion.”

James Parton, a famous American writer, was born at Canterbury, England, February 9, 1822, and died at Newburyport, Mass., October 17, 1891. A few of his works are: “Life and Times of Aaron Burr,” “General Butler in New Orleans,” “Life of Thomas Jefferson,” “Famous Americans of Recent Times,” “Life of Horace Greeley,” “Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin,” “Life of Voltaire,” “Humorous Poetry of the English Language,” “Topics of the Time,” etc.

Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins (“Anthony Hope”) a celebrated English author was born February 9, 1863. Among his works are: “The Prisoner of Zenda,” “The Dolly Dialogues,” “Rupert of Hentzau,” “Double Harness,” “The Great Miss Driver,” “A Young Man’s Year,” “Beaumaroy Home from the Wars,” “Lucinda,” etc. Plays: “The Adventure of Lady Ursula,” “Pilkerton’s Peerage,” etc.

Charles Lamb, the great English essayist, was born in London, February 10, 1775, and died at Edmonton, December 27, 1834. Among his essays may be mentioned: “Essays of Elia,” “Last Essays of Elia,” and his famous work, “Tales from the Plays of Shakespeare” (Mary and Charles Lamb).

Henry Hart Milman, a celebrated English clergyman, historian, and poet, was born in London, February 10, 1791, and died near Ascot, September 24, 1868. He wrote: “Fall of Jerusalem,” “History of Christianity under the Empire,” “History of the Jews,” and his most important work, “The History of Latin Christianity down to the Death of Pope Nicholas V.”

William Falconer, a noted Scotch poet, was born February 11, 1732, and died in 1769. He wrote: “The Demagogue,” a “Universal Dictionary of the Marine,” and numerous odes, satires and poems; the most famous of his poems being “The Shipwreck.”

Lydia Maria Child, a famous American prose-writer, was born in Medford, Mass., February 11, 1802, and died in Wayland, Mass., October 20, 1880. Among her numerous works may be mentioned, “Philothea,” “Fact and Fiction,” “Looking Toward Sunset,” “Miria: A Romance of the Republic,” “Hobomok,” “Aspirations of the World,” etc.

Abraham Lincoln, the great “War President,” was born in Hardin County, Ky., February 12, 1809, and died at Washington, D. C., April 15, 1865. His “Address,” at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa., and his “Second Inaugural Address,” won for him everlasting fame.

Charles Robert Darwin, the famous English naturalist and philosopher, was born at Shrewsbury, February 12, 1809, and died April 19, 1882. He wrote: “The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex,” “The Expression of the Emotions in Men and Animals,” “A Naturalist’s Voyage,” “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,” etc.

George Meredith, a noted British novelist and poet, was born at Portsmouth, Hampshire, February 12, 1828, and died May 18, 1909. Some of his famous works are: “Evan Harrington,” “Harry Richmond,” “Ordeal of Richard Feverel,” “Rhoda Fleming,” “Vittoria,” “The Adventures of Harry Richmond,” “Beauchamp’s Career,” “The Egoist,” “The Tragic Comedians,” “Diana of the Crossways,” “Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth,” “Ballads and Poems of Tragic Life,” “A Reading of Earth,” “One of Our Conquerors,” “The Amazing Marriage,” etc.

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-PÉrigord, a celebrated French diplomat, was born at Paris, February 13, 1754, and died at Valencay, May 17, 1838. His “Memoirs” were first published in 1891-92 in (5 vols.); his “Correspondence with Louis XVIII, during the Congress of Vienna,” in 1881, his “Diplomatic Correspondence,” in 1889-91 in (3 vols.) and “Unpublished Letters of Talleyrand to Napoleon, 1800-1809,” in 1889.

Mrs. Julia Caroline (Ripley) Dorr, a noted American poet and novelist, was born in Charleston, S. C., February 13, 1825, and died in 1913. Her works include: “Afternoon Songs,” “Daybreak, an Easter Poem,” “Poems,” “Lanmere,” “Expiation,” “Farmingdale,” “Bermuda,” “Sibyl Huntington,” and “A Cathedral Pilgrimage.”

Israel Zangwill, a renowned English-Jewish novelist, was born in London, February 14, 1864. He has published: “The Premier and the Painter,” “The Bachelors’ Club,” “The Big Bow Mystery,” “The Old Maids’ Club,” “Children of the Ghetto,” “Merely Mary Ann,” “Ghetto Tragedies,” “The Master,” “The King of Schnorrers,” “Without Prejudice,” “The Mantle of Elijah,” “The Next Religion,” “Plaster Saints.”

Jeremy Bentham, a distinguished English writer on ethics and jurisprudence, was born February 15, 1748, and died in 1832. His collected works (11 volumes) were published in 1843, and include: “A Fragment on Government,” “View of the Hard Labor Bill,” “Rationale of Punishment and Rewards,” “Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation,” “The Panopticon, or the Inspection House,” “Manual of Political Economy,” “Poor Laws and Pauper Management,” “Constitutional Code,” etc.

Rufus Wilmot Griswold, a distinguished American journalist and prose-writer, born in Benson, Vt., February 15, 1815, and died in New York, August 27, 1857. His works include: “Poets and Poetry of America,” “Poets and Poetry of England in the Nineteenth Century,” “Prose Writers of America,” “Female Poets of America,” etc.

Silas Weir Mitchell, a distinguished American physician, poet and novelist, was born in Philadelphia, February 15, 1829, and died January 4, 1914. He has written: “In War Time,” “Poems,” “Hephzibah Guinness, and Other Stories,” “Hugh Wynne,” “The Adventures of FranÇois,” “The Red City,” “Westways,” “Complete Poems,” etc.

Joseph Viktor Von Scheffel, an eminent German poet and novelist, was born at Karlsruhe, February 16, 1826, and died April 9, 1886. He wrote: “Gaudeamus,” “Ekkehard,” “Mountain Psalms,” and his famous epic poem, “The Trumpeter of SÄkkingen,” which won for him great fame, and has reached more than 250 editions.

Ernst Haeckel, a renowned German naturalist, was born at Potsdam, February 16, 1834, and died in 1919. Among his most famous works are: “On the Division of Labor in Nature and Human Life,” “On the Origin and Genealogy of the Human Race,” “Life in the Great Marine Animals,” “The Arabian Corals,” “The System of the Medusa,” “A Visit to Ceylon,” “Riddle of the Universe,” “Natural History of Creation,” “Souvenirs of Algeria,” “Monoism as Connected with Religion and Science,” etc.

Mrs. Rose (Terry) Cooke, a noted American poet and short-story writer, was born at West Hartford, Conn., February 17, 1827, and died at Pittsfield, Mass., July 18, 1892. Her complete poems were published in 1888, and her stories were published in book form under the titles: “Somebody’s Neighbors,” “Root-Bound,” “The Sphinx’s Children,” “Happy Dodd,” “Huckleberries,” “Steadfast,” a novel, appeared in 1889.

Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, a celebrated English historian and statesman, was born at Dinton, Wiltshire, February 18, 1609, and died at Rouen, France, December 9, 1674. His famous works are: “History of the Civil War in Ireland,” “History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England,” “Essay on an Active and Contemplative Life.”

Nicolas Copernicus, a famous Polish astronomer, was born at Thorn, Poland, February 19, 1473, and died at Frauenburg, Prussia, May 24, 1543. He wrote: “Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs (De Orbium Coelestium Revolutionibus).”

Gustave Nadaud, a well-known French composer and song-writer, was born in Roubaix, February 20, 1820, and died in Paris, April 28, 1893. He wrote a novel, “An Idyll,” and published “Songs,” “More Songs,” “Unpublished Songs,” and “New Songs.”

John Henry Newman, a celebrated religious writer, first in the Church of England, and later in the Roman Catholic Church, was born in London, February 21, 1801, and died at Birmingham, August 11, 1890. His principal works are: “Five Letters on Church Reform,” “St. Bartholomew’s Eve,” “Plain and Parochial Sermons,” “Loss and Gain,” “Verses on Religious Subjects,” “Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent,” “Lectures on Justification,” “The Arians of the Fourth Century,” “Tracts for the Times,” “Hymns for the Use of the Birmingham Oratory,” and “Apologia pro Vita Sua,” his most celebrated work.

(James) Brander Matthews, a famous American author, was born in New Orleans, February 21, 1852. Among his works may be mentioned: “French Dramatists of the Nineteenth Century,” “With My Friends,” “Studies of the Stage,” “Bookbindings, Old and New,” “Introduction to the Study of American Literature,” “Aspects of Fiction,” “A Confident To-morrow,” “The Historical Novel,” “Parts of Speech,” “Essays in English,” “Development of the Drama,” “Recreations of an Anthologist,” “Inquiries and Opinions,” “The American of the Future,” “A Study of the Drama,” “MoliÈre,” “Shakespeare as a Playwright,” “These Many Years,” etc.

George Washington, the illustrious American statesman and first President of the United States, was born at Pope’s Creek, Westmoreland County, Va., February 22, 1732, and died at Mt. Vernon, Va., December 14, 1799.

Arthur Schopenhauer, a renowned German philosopher, was born at Dantzic, February 22, 1788, and died at Frankfort-on-the-Main, September, 1860. He wrote: “The Fourfold Root of the Principle of the Sufficient Cause,” “The World as Will and Representation,” “On Vision and Colors,” “The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethic,” “Parerga and Paralipomena,” etc.

William Barnes, a celebrated English poet and philologist, was born in Dorsetshire, February 22, 1800, and died in Winterbourne Came, in October, 1886. He wrote many works on philology, and a series of “Poems of Rural Life in Dorsetshire Dialect,” “Poems of Rural Life,” etc.

James Russell Lowell, the great American poet and critic, was born at Cambridge, Mass., February 22, 1819, and died there August 12, 1891. Some of his works are: “The Bigelow Papers,” “A Year’s Life,” “Poems,” “Under the Willows and Other Poems,” “My Study Windows,” “Among My Books,” “Latest Literary Essays and Addresses,” “Heartsease and Rue,” “Political Essays,” “Democracy, and Other Addresses.”

Sara Flower Adams, a noted English hymn-writer, was born at Great Harlow, Essex, February 22, 1805, and died August, 1848. She wrote many lyrics and hymns, the most popular of which is “Nearer, My God, to Thee!”

Margaret Elizabeth (Munson) Sangster, a celebrated American poet and prose-writer, was born in New Rochelle, N. Y., February 22, 1838, and died in 1912. Among her writings are: “May Stanhope and her Friend,” “Little Kingdom of Home,” “Good Manners for all Occasions,” “Radiant Motherhood,” “Easter Bells,” “Little Knight and Ladies,” “Lyrics of Love,” “Fairest Girlhood,” “Eleanor Lee,” “A Little Book of Homespun Verse,” “Women of the Bible,” “The Story Bible,” “From My Youth Up—an Autobiography,” “My Garden of Hearts,” and her famous poems, “Our Own” and “Are the Children at Home?”

Samuel Pepys, a famous English diarist, was born in London, February 23, 1633, and died there May 26, 1703. His fame rests on the remarkable “Diary” that bears his name.

Emma (Hart) Willard, a noted American educator, historian, and poet, was born at New Berlin, Conn., February 23, 1787, and died at Troy, N. Y., April 15, 1870. She has written: “A History of the United States,” “Universal History in Perspective,” etc. She also wrote: “Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep,” and much other verse.

Margaret Wade Deland, a famous American author, was born at Allegheny, Pa., February 23, 1857. She has written: “John Ward, Preacher,” “The Old Garden and Other Verses,” “Old Chester Tales,” “Dr. Lavendar’s People,” “The Common Way,” “The Awakening of Helena Richie,” “An Encore,” “The Iron Woman,” “The Voice,” “Partners,” “The Hands of Esau,” “Around Old Chester,” “The Rising Tide,” etc.

George William Curtis, a distinguished American author, was born in Providence, R. I., February 24, 1824, and died at Staten Island, August 31, 1892. His works include: “The Howadji in Syria,” “Nile Notes of a Howadji,” “Manners upon the Road,” “Lotus Eating,” “Prue and I,” “Potiphar Papers,” “Trumps,” etc.

William Clark Russell, a noted English-American novelist, was born in New York City, February 24, 1844, and died in 1911. Among his numerous sea stories and novels are: “The Wreck of the Grosvenor,” “A Sailor’s Sweetheart,” “My Watch Below,” “A Sea Queen,” “Jack’s Courtship,” “A Strange Voyage,” “The Frozen Pirate,” “The Death Ship,” “Marooned,” “The Romance of Jenny Harlowe,” “The Good Ship Mohock,” “Overdue,” “The Ship’s Adventure,” “Abandoned,” “Voyage at Anchor,” “Yarn of Old Harbor Town,” etc.

Grant Allen (Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen), a celebrated English naturalist, essayist, and novelist, was born in Kingstone, Canada, February 24, 1848, and died October 24, 1899. His most noted works are “The Devil’s Die,” “Under Sealed Orders,” “Recalled to Life,” “The Woman Who Did,” “Strange Stories,” “The British Barbarians,” “Science in Arcady,” “Vignettes from Nature,” “Colin Clout’s Calendar,” “The Color Sense,” “Colors of Flowers,” “Flowers and Their Pedigrees,” “Force and Nature,” etc.

Carlo Goldoni, a noted Italian comedy-writer, was born in Venice, February 25, 1707, and died at Paris, January 6, 1793. He wrote: “The Good Father,” “The Singer,” “Pamela,” “Belisarius,” “The Venetian Gondolier,” “Rosamond,” and “The Coffee House.”

Let us reckon upon the future. A time will come when the science of destruction shall bend before the arts of peace; when the genius which multiplies our powers—which creates new products—which diffuses comfort and happiness among the great mass of the people—shall occupy in the general estimation of mankind that rank which reason and common sense now assign to it.

“Eloge on James Watt.”—Arago.