“The Ballade of Dead Cities,”—Edmund William Gosse.
Edmund William Gosse, a famous English poet, essayist, and critic, was born in London, September 21, 1849. He has written: “On Viol and Flute,” “The Unknown Lover,” “Madrigals, Songs, and Sonnets,” “Life of Jeremy Taylor,” “French Profiles,” “Coventry Patmore,” “Life of Sir Thomas Browne,” “Father and Son,” “Henrik Ibsen,” “Two Visits to Denmark,” “Portraits and Studies,” “Collected Essays” (5 vols.), “Life of Swinburne,” “Lord Redesdale’s Further Memories,” “Three French Moralists,” “Diversions of a Man of Letters,” “Malherbe,” etc.
How few take time for friendship! How few plan for it! It is treated as a haphazard, fortuitous thing. May good luck send us friends; we will not go after them. May favoring fortune bind our friendships; we will take no stitches ourselves. Yet friendship requires painstaking. No art is so difficult, no craft so arduous. Roll a ball of clay and expect it to become a rose in your hand, but never expect an acquaintanceship, without care and thought, to blossom into friendship.
—Wells.
Herbert George Wells, a distinguished English author, was born at Bromley, Kent, September 21, 1868. Among his many works may be mentioned: “The Wheels of Chance,” “Certain Personal Matters,” (essays), “The War of the Worlds,” “The Sleeper Awakes,” “Love and Mr. Lewisham,” “Anticipations,” “The Sea Lady,” “Mankind in the Making,” “The Food of the Gods,” “A Modern Utopia,” “The War in the Air,” “Ann Veronica,” “The New Machiavelli,” “Marriage,” “The Passionate Friends,” “An Englishman Looks at the World,” “The World Set Free,” “The Peace of the World,” “The Research Magnificent,” “What is Coming?” “Mr. Britling Sees it Through,” “The Soul of a Bishop,” “Joan and Peter,” “The Come Back,” etc.
Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value.
“Letter,” July 1, 1748,—Earl of Chesterfield.
Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, a famous English man of affairs and of the world, was born in London, September 22, 1694, and died March 24, 1773. His “Letters to His Son” won for him everlasting literary fame.
A reply to a newspaper attack resembles very much the attempt of Hercules to crop the Hydra, without the slightest chance of ultimate success.
“Gilbert Gurney,” Vol. II, Chap. I, Theodore M. Hook.