“A Summer Night,”—Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard.
Elizabeth Drew (Barstow) Stoddard, a noted American novelist and poet, was born in Mattapoisett, Mass., May 6, 1823, and died in 1902. Among her works are: “Temple House,” “Two Men,” “The Morgesons,” and “Poems,” collected and published in 1895, etc.
I trust in Nature for the stable laws
Of beauty and utility. Spring shall plant
And Autumn garner to the end of time.
I trust in God,—the right shall be the right
And other than the wrong, while he endures.
I trust in my own soul, that can perceive
The outward and the inward,—Nature’s good
And God’s.
“A Soul’s Tragedy,” Act i,—Robert Browning.
Robert Browning, the renowned English poet, was born in Camberwell, May 7, 1812, and died in Venice, December 12, 1889. Among his poetical works are: “A Soul’s Tragedy,” “The Return of the Druses,” “Colombe’s Birthday,” “Strafford,” “Pauline,” “Christmas Eve and Easter Day,” “Fifine at the Fair,” “Men and Women,” “King Victor and King Charles,” “Jocoseria,” “Red-Cotton Nightcap Country,” “Dramatic Idylls,” “Pippa Passes,” etc.
Facts are stubborn things.
“Gil Blas,” Book x, Chap. i,—Le Sage.
Alain René Le Sage, a famous French novelist and dramatist, was born at Sarzeau, near Cannes, May 8, 1668, and died at Boulogne-sur-Mer, November 17, 1747. His greatest works were: “The Bachelor of Salamanca,” “Gil Blas,” “The Life and Adventures of M. de Beauchène,” “The Devil on Two Sticks,” and two well-known comedies, “Crispin His Master’s Rival,” and “Turcaret.”
Suffering is the surest means of making us truthful to ourselves.
—Sismondi.