Touch us gently, Time!
Let us glide adown thy stream
Gently,—as we sometimes glide
Through a quiet dream.
“Touch Us Gently, Time,”—Bryan W. Procter.
Bryan Waller Procter, an eminent English poet and man of letters, was born in Wiltshire, November 21, 1787, and died at London, October 4, 1874. Among his works are: “A Sicilian Story,” “Dramatic Scenes and Other Poems,” “Mirandola” (a tragedy), “English Songs,” “The Flood of Thessaly,” “Essays and Tales,” “Charles Lamb: a Memoir,” and the “Life of Edmund Kean.”
There are certain people whose biographies ought to be long; who could learn too much concerning Lamb.
“Adventures in Criticism,”—A. T. Quiller-Couch.
Sir A. T. Quiller-Couch, a celebrated English writer of fiction, was born in Cornwall, November 21, 1863. He has written: “The Astonishing History of Troy Town,” “Dead man’s Rock,” “The Splendid Spur,” “The Blue Pavilions,” “The Delectable Duchy,” “Wandering Heath,” “Adventures in Criticism,” “Poems and Ballads,” “The Ship of Stars,” “The Westcotes,” “The White Wolf,” “From a Cornish Window,” “Sir John Constantine,” “True Tilda,” “Brother Copas,” “The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems,” “Lady Good-for-Nothing,” “News from the Duchy,” “The Oxford Book of Ballads,” “Poison Island,” “Corporal Sam and Other Stories,” “Nicky-Nan Reservist,” “On the Art of Writing,” “Hocken and Hunken,” etc.
He who loves
God and his law must hate the foes of God.
“Spanish Gypsy, Bk. I,”—George Eliot.
Mary Ann Evans (“George Eliot”), the great English novelist, was born at Arbury Farm, Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire, November 22, 1819, and died in London, December 22, 1880. Among her many works are: “Scenes of Clerical Life,” “Adam Bede,” “The Mill on the Floss,” “Romola,” “The Spanish Gypsy,” “Agatha” (a poem), “Felix Holt,” “Daniel Deronda,” “Middlemarch,” “Jubal and Other Poems,” etc., etc.
Peel was, undoubtedly, as Lord Beaconsfield has said, a great member of Parliament; but he was surely much more than that, he was a great statesman, a great Minister. He must always rank among the foremost of English Ministers. The proud boast of Heine is that, if any one names the best half-dozen of German poets his name must be brought among them. If we name the best half-dozen of modern English Prime Ministers, we can hardly fail to bring in the name of Peel.