“Balder the Beautiful,”—Robert W. Buchanan.
Robert Williams Buchanan, a celebrated English author, was born in Warwickshire, August 18, 1841, and died in 1901. He wrote: “Idylls and Legends of Inverburn,” “Undertones,” “London Poems,” “North Coast Poems,” “Ballads of Love, Life and Humor,” “The City of Dreams,” “A Child of Nature,” “The Shadow of the Sword,” “Foxglove Manor,” etc.
Let’s learn to temper our desires,
Not harshly to constrain;
And since excess makes pleasure less,
Why, so much more refrain.
Small table, cozy corner—here
We well may be beguiled;
Our worthy host old wine can boast;
Drink, drink—but draw it mild!
“Les Petits Coups,”—translation of William Young,—Pierre Jean de Béranger.
Pierre Jean de Béranger, a famous French poet, was born in Paris, August 19, 1780, and died there July 16, 1857. Some of his noted songs are: “The Old Flag,” “Les Petits Coups,” “The Old Corporal,” “Roger Bontemps,” “Little Red Man,” “Little Gray Man,” “King of Yvetot,” “My Grandmother,” “The Marquis of Carabas,” and his “Autobiography.”
Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt;
Nothing’s so hard but search will find it out.
“Seek and Find,”—Robert Herrick.
Robert Herrick, a renowned English poet and royalist clergyman, was born in London, August 20, 1591, and died at Dean Prior, Devonshire, October 15, 1674. He wrote: “Noble Numbers,” and “Hesperides.”
In the Confessions of St. Augustine, passion, nature, individuality only appear in order to be immolated to Divine grace. They are a history of a crisis of the soul, of a new birth, of a Vita Nuova; the Saint would have blushed to relate more than he has done of the life of the man, which he had quitted. With Rousseau the case is precisely the reverse; here grace is nothing, nature everything; nature dominant, triumphant, displaying herself with a daring freedom, which at times amounts to the distasteful—nay, to the disgusting.
“Life of Luther,” (translation),—Michelet.