WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.
(From the Tablet in Grasmere Church.)
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.
ROBERT RAIKES.
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.
