“Written After Recovery from a Dangerous Illness,”—Sir H. Davy.
Sir Humphry Davy, an eminent English chemist, philosopher and man of letters, was born at Penzance, Cornwall, December 17, 1778, and died at Geneva, Switzerland, May 29, 1829. He wrote: “Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher,” “Chemical and Philosophical Researches,” “On the Safety Lamp and on Flame,” etc.
For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”
“Maud Muller,”—John Greenleaf Whittier.
John Greenleaf Whittier, a renowned American poet, was born at Haverhill, Massachusetts, December 17, 1807, and died at Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, September 1892. Among his noted poems are: “Barbara Frietchie,” “Skipper Ireson’s Ride,” “Snow-Bound,” “Maud Muller,” “My Playmate,” “Laus Deo,” “My Birthday,” and “The Tent on the Beach.”
A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify;
A never dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.
“Christian Fidelity,”—Charles Wesley.
Charles Wesley, a famous English clergyman and poet, was born at Epworth, Lincolnshire, December 18, 1708, and died in London, March 29, 1788. He was called “the poet of Methodism,” but many of his beautiful hymns are used in all denominations of the Protestant church.
’Tis noon;—a calm unbroken sleep
Is on the blue waves of the deep;
A soft haze like a fairy dream,
Is floating over wood and stream;
And many a broad magnolia flower,
Within its shadowy woodland bower,
Is gleaming like a lovely star.
“To An Absent Wife,” St. 2,—George D. Prentice.