Edward Bulwer-lytton, Lord Lytton, the renowned English novelist, poet and dramatist, was born in London, May 25, 1803, and died in Torquay, January 18, 1873. Among his famous novels are: “Eugene Aram,” “Pelham,” “Last Days of Pompeii,” “Pilgrims of the Rhine,” “Last of the Barons,” “Ernest Maltravers,” “A Strange Story,” “Rienzi,” “Devereux,” “Falkland,” “Harold,” “The Coming Race,” “The Caxtons,” and three noted dramas, “Money,” “Richelieu,” and “The Lady of Lyons.”
I rarely read any Latin, Greek, German, Italian, sometimes not a French book, in the original, which I can procure in a good version. I like to be beholden to the great metropolitan English speech, the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven. I should as soon think of swimming across Charles River when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my books in originals when I have them rendered for me in my mother tongue.
“Books,”—Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the famous American philosopher, essayist and poet, was born in Boston, May 25, 1803, and died at Concord, Mass., April 27, 1882. He wrote: “The American Scholar,” “Man the Reformer,” “Nature,” “The Young American,” “The Conduct of Life,” “Letters and Social Aims,” “Tribute to Walter Scott,” “Society and Solitude,” “Representative Men,” “Miscellanies,” “Essays,” “Poems,” “May Day and Other Pieces,” etc.
Satire should, like a polished razor keen,
Wound with a touch that’s scarcely felt or seen.
“To the Imitator of the First Satire of Horace,” Book ii,—Mary Wortley Montagu.
Mary Wortley, Lady Montagu, a celebrated English letter-writer, was born at Thoresby, Notts, May 26, 1689, and died in England, August 21, 1762. Her “Letters” won for her great literary fame.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me; As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.
“Battle Hymn of the Republic,”—Julia Ward Howe.
Julia Ward Howe, a famous American poet, essayist, lecturer, biographer, and writer of travels, was born in New York, May 27, 1819, and died in 1910. Among her works are: “Life of Margaret Fuller,” “Trip to Cuba,” “Sex and Education,” “The World’s Own,” “Later Lyrics,” “From the Oak to the Olive,” and her celebrated “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”