Emanuel Swedenborg, the famous Swedish mystic philosopher and author, was born in Stockholm, January 29, 1688, and died there March 29, 1772. His notable works include: “Principles of Chemistry,” “Conjugal Love and its Chaste Delights,” “Opera Philosophica et Mineralia,” “Domini Jesu Christi Servus,” etc.
The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.
“Age of Reason,” Part ii, note,—Thomas Paine.
Thomas Paine, an eminent American publicist, was born at Thetford in Norfolkshire, England, January 29, 1737, and died at New Rochelle, New York, June 8, 1809. The most important of his Works are: “Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance,” “Common-Sense,” “The Age of Reason,” “The Rights of Man.”
A delicate thought is a flower of the mind.
—Charles Rollin.
Charles Rollin, a noted French historian and professor of belles-lettres, was born at Paris, January 30, 1661, and died September 14, 1741. His chief works are: “On the Study of Belles-Lettres,” “Ancient History” (12 vols. 1730-1738), and “History of Rome.”
Shakespeare is not our poet, but the world’s—
Therefore on him no speech! And brief for thee,
Browning! Since Chaucer was alive and hale,
No man hath walk’d along our roads with steps
So active, so inquiring eye, or tongue
So varied in discourse.
“To Robert Browning,”—Walter S. Landor.
Walter Savage Landor, the celebrated English poet and prose writer, was born at Ipsley Court, Warwickshire, January 30, 1775, and died at Florence, September 17, 1864. His best known works are: “The Pentameron,” “The Hellenics,” “Popery, British and Foreign,” “Poems,” “Antony and Octavius: Scenes for the Study,” “Heroic Idylls, with Additional Poems,” and his most famous work, “Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen.”