II iuBtluu IB III mmffiff HH Imam Glass ^PJ Book Ma GopyrightN COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. LITERARY BREVITIES LITERARY BREVITIES SELECTED AND EDITED BY JOHN G. WIGHT, A.B., A.M., Litt.D., Bowdoin Ph.D., Hamilton FORMER PRINCIPAL OF WADLEIGH HIGH SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY D. C. HEATH & COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO PN(boVi W4(o COPYBIGHT, 1913 By D. C. Heath & Company 1e3 THE* PLIMPTON- PRESS NORWOOD* MA SS'U'S- A ■ t /yv )CI.A347728 to *5 THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED TO MY FORMER ASSOCIATE TEACHERS, IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THEIR FAITHFULNESS TO DUTY AND THEIR MANY KINDNESSES TO ME THEIR PRINCIPAL John G. Wight Clinton, N. Y. INTRODUCTION THE extracts contained in this volume have been made in connection with more than forty years of extensive reading. They are almost invari- ably short, and include a great variety of interesting facts, literary gems, and quotable epigrammatic say- ings. They are characterized by variety in points of authors cited and of matter chosen. But very few of them are to be found in other compilations of the kind. Authors are quoted quite as much for what they say as on account of their high literary stand- ing. Famous excerpts from writers of the first rank have been, to some extent, consciously excluded. On the other hand, the riches of a neglected literary man like Landor, or a not popularly known genius like Balzac, or even of writers having only a moderate reputation, have been freely drawn from. In fact, good things have been taken wherever found. This is in recog- nition of the fact, that a good thing said by an obscure writer is just as good as if it had been said by Shakspeare or Milton. Extracts from other than English authors have been generally taken from good translations, and always without giving the translator's name. The arrangement of selections under subject-headings is, in some instances, not severely accurate. For example, under "Wit" are placed humorous and facetious sayings, strictly speaking only allied to wit, and rarely the ex- tracts are, in sense, the opposite of what the heading implies. viii INTRODUCTION In the plan of the book, there has been no thought of copying such a work as Bartlett; to the contrary, the intention has been to choose and arrange interesting matter not usual in books of quotation. One feature of excellence claimed for these selections is, that they show, in their variety and in their appeal to good taste, the places and authors where the reader may confidently look for what is most entertaining and edifying in literature. It is believed that the book has appreciable value for writers and speakers, and for the general reader who may be seeking information or diversion; but especially for teachers of all grades and kinds. J. G. W. CONTENTS PAGE Admiration 3 Adversity 8 Age 11 Ambition 12 Amusements 14 Ancestry 15 Anecdotes 15 Anger 17 Appearances 18 Art 19 Avarice 26 Beauty 27 Belief 30 Benefits 31 Biography 31 Blunders — 35 Books 37 Bores 39 Bulls 39 Candor 40 Care 40 Chance 40 Character 41 Charity 46 Cheerfulness 47 Childhood 47 Civilization 48 Classics 55 Cleanliness 55 Composition 56 Conceit 63 Conduct 64 Confidence 65 PAGE Conquest 65 Conscience 65 Consistency 66 Consolation 67 Contempt 67 Contentment .68 Contradiction 68 Conversation 70 Convictions 72 Courage 73 Courtesy 75 Crime 78 Criticism 79 Cruelty 88 Custom 89 Death 91 Deceit 94 Deeds 97 Discretion 97 Disease 101 Disgrace 101 Disgust 101 Doubt 101 Drama 102 Dreams 106 Duels 106 Duty 107 Economy 108 Education 108 Egotism 134 Eloquence 135 Enemees 143 Energy 144 CONTENTS PAGE Ennui 144 Enthusiasm 145 Envy 145 Epigrams 148 Evils 148 Excess 149 Experience 149 Facts 150 Faith 151 Falsehood 151 Fame 151 Fate 158 Faults 159 Fear 159 Fiction 160 Filial Love 160 Flattery 161 Fools 162 Forgiveness 164 Fortune 165 Friendship 167 Genius 173 Gossip 180 Government 181 Gratitude 183 Greatness 183 Habit 184 Happiness 187 Haste 192 Hatred 193 Health 195 Heredity 196 Heroism 197 History 198 Honesty 208 Honor 209 Hope 211 Hospitality 211 Humility 212 Hyperbole 213 PAGE Idiosyncrasies 213 Idleness 223 Ignorance 223 Imitation 224 Ingratitude 224 Innocence 225 Insults 225 Intellect 226 Jealousy 230 Jests 230 Joy 231 Judgment 231 Justice 232 Knowledge 233 Labor 234 Laughter. 235 Lawyers 235 Letter-writing 236 Liberty 236 Life 237 Literature 241 Little Things 256 Logic 257 Longevity 257 Love 258 Luxury 266 Magnanimity 267 Manners 267 Marriage 268 Memory 269 Miracles 270 Misfortune 270 Modesty 271 Morality 272 Motives 272 Music 272 Mythology 276 Names 277 National Characteristics. .278 Nature 279 CONTENTS XI PAGE Odd Sayings 288 Opportunity 289 Opposition 290 Pain 290 Parallelisms and Familiar Sayings 291 Passion 311 Pateence 311 Patriotism 312 Perfection 315 Personal Characteristics .316 Personal Influence 319 Philosophy 320 Physical Characteristics . . 323 Pity 323 Plagiarism 324 Pleasure 326 Poetry 328 Politeness 335 Politics 336 Popularity 340 Poverty 341 Power 341 Praise 342 Precocity 343 Prejudice 343 Pride 344 Punctuality 348 Punishment 348 Purpose 349 Race 349 Recreation 349 Reform 350 Regrets 350 Religion 351 Rest 367 Royalty 367 Scholarship 368 Science 368 PAGE Secrets 371 Self-conceit 372 Self-confidence 373 Self-control 374 Selfishness 375 Self-knowledge 375 Sensibdlity 376 Service 376 Shame 376 Similes 376 Sincerity 379 Slander 379 Slavery 380 Sleep 380 Society 381 Solitude 383 Statesmanship 383 Success 384 Superstition 390 Talent 392 Taste 392 Temperance 394 Temptation 395 Time 395 Translation 396 Treason 396 Truth 396 Tyranny 400 Unfilial Spirit 401 Use 401 Versatility 402 Virtue 402 War 406 Wealth 412 Will 415 Wisdom 415 Wishes 417 Wit 418 Woman 442 LITERARY BREVITIES LITERARY BREVITIES ADMIRATION IT is a remark of Walter Pater, that the true value of souls is in proportion to what they can admire. As an apt comment on this, some one declares, that the time of his life he considers to have been wasted, from an intellectual point of view, was the time when he tried, in a spirit of dumb loyalty, to admire all the things that are said to be admirable. All have their periods of admira- tion; especially is this true of likings for certain writers as they affect one at different periods of life. At one time the absorbing author may be Tennyson or Scott or Haw- thorne; at another Thackeray or George Eliot or Landor; and again it may be Shakspeare or Goethe or Balzac. Sometimes, except for the influence of growth in years, it is impossible to account for these changes in taste. It is, furthermore, of quite frequent observation, that an immoderate admiration for a book upon the first reading is to be regarded with suspicion, as a revulsion in judg- ment is likely to ensue. The really great authors seldom take us by storm. An old-fashioned novel like "The Last Days of Pompeii," or Madame D'Arblay's " Evelina," having at length become somewhat antiquated in style, is less pleasing than it once was, owing to the reader's having formed his taste upon new models. T. W. Higginson has a pertinent fling at our, as yet, verdant American civilization, in which he declares, that to many the mere fact of foreign admiration is a sufficient proof of the greatness of an author — a foreign country being a kind of contemporaneous posterity. What has 4 LITERARY BREVITIES been said in the way of criticism regarding the decadence of old writers cannot in any sense apply to the works of the greatest literary geniuses, the few classics that are for all time. Thackeray wished he could have been Shaks- peare's bootblack. Emerson's idol, next after Plato, was also Shakspeare. St. Chrysostom used to sleep with a manuscript of Aristotle under his pillow. Petrarch, who constantly carried a copy of Virgil with him, was delighted beyond measure upon receiving an original text of Homer. Charles II was known to carry "Hudibras" in his pocket. When Keats and Coleridge were first introduced, after a brief interview Keats turned to go away, but again turned back, saying he wished to carry away the memory of having pressed Coleridge's hand. Alexander, who was said to know the whole "Iliad" by heart, declared it to be his chief desire that Homer were alive. Thoreau once walked to Boston, a distance of eighteen miles, to hear Emerson lecture, and then walked back to Concord the same night. Thucydides, when a boy, was so impressed by Herodotus as he recited his history at the Olympic games, that he was moved to tears. It was said to be fatal to leave a volume of Mil- ton lying about where John Bright was, as the mere sight of it would draw him away from any serious political subject in hand. Gautier declared, that if ever he found a single line of Victor Hugo's to fall short in any way, he would not confess it to himself alone, in a cellar, on a dark night. Archdeacon Paley thought it the summum bonum of human existence to sit still and read " Tristram Shandy." Browning had his little son touch Beranger. After the battle of Marengo, Napoleon respected Arezzo out of regard for the memory of Petrarch. In a like spirit Alexander, when he was destroying Thebes, spared the house of Pindar. Goethe called Shakspeare the ADMIRATION 5 "Will of Wills." Beethoven praised Handel as a musical composer, and said he would uncover his head and kneel on his grave. Ole Bull sold his last shirt to get money to hear Paganini. Lowell was sure Shakspeare was glad to see Hawthorne on the other side. Remarks Haydon, "I would not barter that sequestered tomb at Stratford for the Troad, the Acropolis, or the field of Marathon." A rough Yankee in Winchester cathedral, amazed by the artistic surroundings, rushed up to a stranger and ex- claimed, "It's too beautiful! I must shake hands with somebody." Richter said if Herder were not a poet he was something more — he was a poem. Dryden, where he confesses to having copied Shakspeare, affirms that in imitating such great authors he always surpasses him- self. Demosthenes transcribed Thucydides six times. It pleased the great Grecian orator to hear a basket woman say, "This is that Demosthenes." Victor Hugo felt highly complimented when some one showed him a pulpit on which an admirer had placed a copy of his "Les Miserables" beside the Bible. Ruskin, confessedly one of the most elegant writers of prose, declared no description of his to be worth four lines of Tennyson. In contemplating the great, our admiration sometimes amounts to awe. Scott confessed that he never felt awed in the presence of anyone except the Duke of Wel- lington. Alcibiades said Socrates was the only person who ever made him feel ashamed of himself. Sidney Smith had a great feeling of reverence for bishops — so great that, owing to nervousness, he would roll a crumb of bread in his hand when he sat next one at a dinner- table, and if next an archbishop would roll crumbs in both hands. We are informed by Carlyle, that Dr. Johnson only bowed to every clergyman or man with a "shovel hat." Fisher Ames, if he had been absent during a 6 LITERARY BREVITIES debate in the Continental Congress, but came in before the vote was taken, always voted as Roger Sherman did, as he thought Sherman always voted right. Heine pre- pared fine speeches to make to Goethe when they should meet, but in the event they all failed him, and he only told Goethe that the plums of Saxony were delicious. It was next to impossible for George William Curtis to deliver an address in which he did not make some allusion to Sir Philip Sidney, the scholar, author, courtier, and perfect gentleman. Poe's tribute to a beautiful woman was, "I saw no heaven — but in her eyes." It is recorded that the executioner who was to behead Charles I, before performing the duties of his office, knelt before the king and begged his royal forgiveness. Bolingbroke remarked of Marlborough, "He is so great a man that I have forgotten his faults." St. Simon found Fenelon's per- sonal attractiveness so great, that it required an effort to cease looking at him. Thackeray gives an example of extreme unreasoning admiration in an allusion to what sometimes happens in the connubial state, where he says, "Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet call him an angel." The diamond necklace of Anne of Austria gave rise to the aphorism, that the bracelets would have been of priceless value if they had not been unfortunate enough to be placed in contact with arms so beautiful as the queen's. The old lady said of her minister, whose sermons she did not understand, "He has a heavenly tone." Cumberland said of Pitt, "I don't know him, but from what you tell me, Pitt is what is scarce — he is a man." Addison thought Aristotle the greatest philos- opher, Polybius the most impartial historian, and Cicero the most consummate statesman of all antiquity. Charles Lamb calls Kent, in Lear, the noblest pattern of virtue which even Shakspeare has conceived. ADMIRATION 7 Admiration for the beauty of natural scenery is, essentially, a modern development. The ancient classics are almost entirely wanting in allusion to it. Whatever references to mountain, vale, landscape, or sea are found in them, are little more than expressions of wonder or fear. It is even said of Rousseau, the reputed discoverer of beauty in nature, that although he spent eighteen months in Venice, he never once alludes to the natural attractions of the place. Goethe's preference for art as being above nature is shown where he declares himself so taken with Michelangelo, that after him he has no taste for nature. In a similar vein some one speaks of a "Raphael sky." The principle embodied in nil admirari, the opposite of admiration, is indicated by Dowden in what follows, — "The wife of an exalted scholar cannot always maintain the adoring attitude assumed by her husband's passing admirers." It is the opinion of Balzac, that a writer's own family and friends are incapable of judging him. The lapsing from a first enthusiasm over an author applies also, but in a slightly different way, to personal attachments and to social and business connections. There is, speaking in general, danger of going too far in commending persons with whom we may have become intimately associated, lest a subsequent rupture make the situation awkward and even calamitous. A sugges- tive example of this danger is Pope Leo's too ready and complete endorsement of Henry VIII. What shattering of bosom friendships is sometimes made by political and business complications, is only too well known. Yet, it may be urged, life would be dreary enough if excessive caution in forming confidences were to become the rule; "if," as Longfellow has expressed it, "the fields gave no verdure for fear of the storm." 8 LITERARY BREVITIES ADVERSITY THE thought of trying to make the best of a bad bargain is anything but comforting; yet misfor- tune inevitably comes to all at some stage in the journey of life, and teaches the good of ill, reminding us that there is no great loss without some small gain. That adversity may prove a blessing in disguise, is of not infre- quent observation. As a confirmation of this, it will be recalled, that when, in the year 1666, the entire business portion of London was destroyed by fire, what seemed to be an irreparable loss was more than made good by the purification of the recently plague-stricken quarter, and the beautifying of the burned district under the direction of Christopher Wren. The exiled Duke in the Forest of Arden, who "Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything," in a delightful resume chants, — "Sweet are the uses of adversity." William James assures us, that in supreme sorrow lesser vexations may become a consolation; and likewise, that two afflictions, well put together, shall be a solace. Goethe affirmed, that it had been his lot to bear a succession of joys and sorrows, either of which, without the other, would have put an end to his life. Thackeray would like to know who is more worthy of respect than a brave man in misfortune. In the same line of thought is the remark of Eugene Sue, that nothing is more touching than suffering goodness. Henry James thinks joy brings people less together than sorrow. It is an observation of Lowell, that joy and sorrow are sisters surely, and very like each other too, or else both would not bring tears as they do equally. Cleon, the tanner of Athens, asserts ADVERSITY 9 that ordinary good fortune is safer than extraordinary; and that mankind find it easier to drive away adversity than to retain prosperity. It is a remark of Keats, that only those who have tasted an exquisite joy can feel the power of sadness. Excessive grief, as a result of adversity, sometimes manifests itself strangely. Goethe, who was known to be cold, when informed of his son's death, appeared calm, but it was afterwards ascertained that he had broken a blood-vessel from suppressed emotion. One of Balzac's characters is represented, on the death of his wife, as taking out his watch, breaking the mainspring, and hang- ing it up beside the hearth. Ole Bull once tried to com- mit suicide by jumping into the Seine, because his beloved violin had been stolen. According to Shakspeare, great griefs medicine the less. Vatel, a famous cook, committed suicide because the fish had not arrived in time for Louis XIVs dinner. Of adversity as the producer of despair, examples are not wanting. After the overwhelming de- feat of Varus by the German Arminius, Augustus was known to beat his head against a wall and to exclaim, "Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions." In his drama, "Antony and Octavius," Landor represents Cleo- patra, after the battle of Actium, as trying to assure Antony of happier days to come, when Antony replies, — "Never, when those so high once fall, their weight Keeps them forever down." Charles Lamb, in his old age, mournfully complained, "There is no one to call me Charley now." Of the short- lived but poignant grief of childhood, Charles Reade observes, "At her age a little cloud seems to darken the whole sky." Cicero's assertion that nothing dries so soon as a tear, in a peculiar manner applies to the young. 10 LITERARY BREVITIES Dean Swift was wont to deplore the day of his birth, and to celebrate each anniversary of it by reading the book of Job. Charles Lamb mentions a lugubrious friend who would cast a damper on a funeral. Dumas asserts, that great griefs contain within themselves the germs of their consolation. Horace Walpole says griefs are fond and griefs are generous. Adversity has its hopeful side. Macaulay has observed, that nothing is so credulous as misery. In the same vein Pope says, — "Hope springs eternal in the human breast." It is the common infirmity of mankind, Machiavelli asserts, in a calm to make no reckoning of a tempest. Victor Hugo reminds us, that destiny never opens one door without shutting another at the same time. Burke thinks wisdom consists in no small degree in knowing what amount of evil is to be tolerated. Shakspeare says grief makes one hour ten, and thus gives a hint that it is a part of personal discipline to regret as little as possible. The following is from Shakspeare, — "What's gone, and what's past help, Should be past grief." It is remarked by Mrs. Craigie, that people who have the misfortune to be born above the common anxieties of breadwinning make more importance of the few things they are able to grieve over. It is the advice of some one, that we should not meet trouble half way. Richardson would have nothing said that begins with "0." Ulysses wept for his dog, but not for his wife. Who never wet his bread with tears, declares Goethe, knows ye not, ye heavenly powers. AGE 11 AGE IT is interesting to note the different stages of life that are variously marked as the beginning of old age. The Earl of Rosebery declares, that Pitt was never young, and that Fox certainly could never have been old. Bul- wer remarks of some one, that he never had any youth, being one of those men who come into the world with the pulse of a centenarian. Montaigne called himself old at forty-seven. Whoever loves, affirms Dr. Holmes, is in no condition old. Goethe was in his prime at seventy. Socrates wrote well at seventy. De Foe wrote Robinson Crusoe at the age of sixty. Cervantes was fifty-eight when he published the first part of Don Quixote; the second part was issued ten years later. Some one has observed, that a choleric man ought never to grow old. There are few, observes Steele, who can grow old with a good grace. Thackeray thinks we grow simpler as we grow older. Old men, says Aristophanes, are boys twice over. Victor Hugo ^alls an old man a thinking ruin. In contrast to this we have senesco non segnesco. Goethe warns us to beware taking the faults of our youth into old age, for old age brings with it its own defects. The same reminds us, that being waited on continually we become preternaturally old and decrepit. It has been affirmed by some one, that all who have lived to be a century and a half old were beggars. Extreme old age has been characterized as having one foot already in Charon's boat. The average length of life of civilized man has been estimated to be thirty-three years, a figure that must be increased, if more recent statisticians are correct in asserting that the average length of life, owing to improved hygienic conditions and scientific discoveries, has in modern times been perceptibly increased. Dis- 12 LITERARY BREVITIES raeli states, that thirty-three is the age at which the world's saviors have died. He gives a list of twenty persons to prove his statement, our Saviour, of course, standing first. Alexander the Great, by no means to be significantly called a savior, is in the list; so is Shelley, who died at thirty. Emerson asserts, that the youth of great men is seldom marked by any peculiarities that arrest attention. As exceptions to this, we have such prodigies as Goethe and John Stuart Mill, who were called learned at the age of three. It is surprising in how short a time a few illus- trious men have done their work and then passed away. Keats died at twenty-five; Shelley at thirty; Byron at thirty-six; Lucan at twenty-six. There are but few instances of premature deaths among famous women. We have to be old, remarks De Coulevain, to realize what youth is. AMBITION THERE are few breasts, Le Sage declares, capacious enough to afford house-room for two such opposite inmates as political ambition and gratitude. Plutarch observes, that those who aspire to great things must always have something to suffer. Joubert calls ambition pitiless. Benson does not class ambition among Chris- tian motives; according to Milton, it is the last infirmity of noble minds. Some one calls it the highest of wishes to surpass the felicity of Augustus and the virtue of Trajan. It is a laudable ambition for a man to wish to coin a word that shall live forever in a language. C. C. Everett thinks the impression one gets from Browning's writings is, that the true life consists rather in aspiration than attainment. In 1827, Goethe predicted the Suez canal, the Panama canal, and the joining of the sources of the Rhine and the Danube; and wished he might live AMBITION 13 to see the consummation of all three. It was Thoreau's notion, that in the long run men hit only what they aim at. Hamerton asserts, that it is the dreams of youth that become the realities of manhood. Stevenson ob- serves, that people are generally cast for the leading parts in their own imaginations. Julius Caesar preferred being first in a little town to being second at Rome. Richelieu liked to be in a place where he was the strongest. From Browning we have this, — "Nothing has been which shall not bettered be Hereafter." It is Goethe's observation, that man loves to conquer, likes not to feel secure. Of the unreasonableness of ambition Shakspeare writes, — "Beggars, mounted, run their horse to death." It is a Scotch saying, that "ower mickle water drowns the miller." Balzac reminds the over-ambitious, that larks don't fall down roasted. Napoleon confessed that it was making war on Russia that ruined him. The African king wished to be painted white. The following is from Victor Hugo, — "When souls are thirsty they must drink, Though it be poison." The Greek proverb tells of a foolishly ambitious man who trained himself to be a potter by beginning on an amphora. As indicating that even great ambition may not always be unreasonable, Victor Hugo asks, "Because the goal is distant, is that any reason why we should not march towards it?" What matters it, remarks Seneca, how far Alexander extended his conquests, if he was not satisfied with what he had. In the opinion of Macaulay, the government which attempts more than it ought will 14 LITERARY BREVITIES accomplish less. Following is one of Browning's exquisite verses, — "Had I God's leave, how I would alter things." Fielding declares the truest mark of greatness to be insatiability. Walt Whitman humbly confesses, that he does not want the constellations any nearer. Some one has observed, that a man grasping for power finds the most needy the most serviceable. Impose limits, says Balzac, and who does not wish to go beyond them? Great sails, Landor thinks, are ill adapted to small vessels. Horace represents the Titans trying to place Pelion on top of shadowy Olympus. Scott, using an "old saw," gives warning, that covetousness bursts the bag and spills the grain. Cervantes advises against trying to make a new world. AMUSEMENTS ACCORDING to Richter, play is the first poetry of the human being. Chess is said to have been invented by the general of an army during a famine, to keep the soldiers from mutiny. The historian Hume was fond of the game of whist. Though Dr. Johnson never played cards, he approved of them, as being very useful in life as the generator of kindness. Joy is the accompani- ment of amusement. In Heine's view, life is at bottom so awfully serious that none of us could endure it without the blending of pathos and comedy. Great eccentricity is sometimes shown in the different ways men take their amusements. Donatus was busy catching flies. A bus-driver in London, it is said, when he has a holiday, sometimes rides with the man who takes his place. While the Dutch fleet was sailing up the Thames, Charles II was amusing himself with hunt- ing a moth about the supper-room. At the play, people are said to confirm their judgment by clapping of hands. ANECDOTES 15 ANCESTRY A GERMAN writer advises people to be careful in choosing their ancestors. John Bright made an epigram on families that came over with the Conqueror and never did anything else. Lowell has observed, that the agreeable aristocrats are those who are born to the aristocratic state and are therefore unconscious. Dr. Johnson, who confessed that he could hardly tell who his grandfather was, apologizes for primogeniture, in that it makes but one fool in a family. Carlyle alludes to Charles Seymour, the proud Duke of Somerset, as one in whom the pride of birth amounted almost to a disease. Virgil speaks of one as avis atavisque potens. Sir William Herschel's father was a Hanoverian bandsman; his mother was a coarse, ignorant woman. The German peasantry had coats of arms. In Dante's time anyone was considered noble who counted a knight among his ancestors. Cicero thought every man began his own ancestry. ANECDOTES TOM HYDE, the tailor, standing on the gallows, was asked if he had anything to say. "Tell the tailors," he said, " to remember to make a knot in their thread before taking the first stitch." When Prince Napoleon was received publicly at Cork, the mayor, with confident pride, addressed him in very poor French. The Prince, who replied in choice English, said he regretted, as he never had any opportunity to study the noble Irish language, he was unable to follow the words of the worthy chief magistrate. The witty Rowland Hill, one day when his chapel, with a thinner attendance than usual, sud- denly filled during a shower of rain, said he had often 16 LITERARY BREVITIES heard of religion being used as a cloak, but never before as an umbrella. When Washington asked Mad Anthony Wayne if he would storm Stony Point, Wayne replied, "I will storm hell if you will plan it." At Copenhagen, when a subordinate officer told Nelson that the admiral was signaling to withdraw from the fight, Nelson placed the glass to his blind eye, and, saying he was unable to see any such signal, ordered his own fighting signal to be kept up, and continued the engagement until the enemy struck. Charlotte Cushman tells of a noisy fellow in the gallery, that when the audience cried, "Throw him over," a woman with a thin voice interjected, "Don't; kill him where he is." When the Methodists objected to Father Taylor's being on intimate terms with Emerson, believing that as a Unitarian Emerson must go to hell, Taylor met their protest with, "If Emerson goes to hell he will change the climate there, and emigration will set that way." Mr. Henry T. Finck, in his life of Grieg, relates this amusing incident about the great musical composer. When out fishing with his friend Franz Beyer, a musical theme came into Grieg's head, which he instantly jotted down on a piece of paper and laid the paper on the bench beside him. Beyer picked the paper up unobserved, and whistled the theme. Grieg turned to him in surprise and asked, "What is that?" Beyer replied, "Only an idea I just got." "The devil you say," said Grieg, "I just got that same idea myself." Balzac thinks the best tales are told at special hours; that no one ever told a story well standing or fasting. A French lady, having married an Englishman who spoke little, excused his reticence on the ground that he was always thinking of Locke and Newton. When the last sheet of Johnson's dictionary was received by the publisher, the latter ex- claimed, "Thank God, I have done with him." When ANGER 17 Johnson was told of this, he said, "I am glad he thanks God for anything." Mr. Bentham, in Guy Mannering, when Dominie Sampson was reading to him his commis- sion as justice of the peace, listened as far as, "The King has been pleased" — "Pleased," exclaimed Bentham, "honest gentlemen, I am sure he cannot be better pleased than I am." ANGER ALLEN CUNNINGHAM remarks, that there is nothing so blind as anger. Carlyle affirms, that violence does even justice unjustly. In a similar vein Balzac says passion never reflects. This from Shak- speare, — " Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That you do singe yourself." Lord Palmerston always lost his good manners when he lost his temper. Our own anger, says Lubbock, does us more harm than the thing which makes us angry. It has been remarked by some one, that he only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason. Ira furor brevis est, is from Horace. From Shakspeare this, — "I'd set my ten commandments in your face." Landor has this, — "Heat an Arab and he keeps hot for life." In any controversy, it has been stated, the instant we feel angry we have already ceased striving for truth and begun striving for ourselves. Most of our regrettable actions are impulsive. Balzac's woman made it a point always to get into a rage before her husband did. The noble Kent thinks "anger has a privilege." Rousseau thinks women have the art of concealing their anger, especially when it is great. It is well known, that an angry man can be easily appeased if we can succeed in 18 LITERARY BREVITIES making him smile. Racine believes all anger to be an excess of love. Balzac calls an angry look a silent epi- gram; he also tells of one who slammed the door with the violence of a disinherited heir. Fielding has observed, that anger, when removed, often gives new life to affec- tion. Landor says it is the nature of the impudent never to be angry. Beaconsfield calls the Jesuits wise men, since they never lose their temper. Luther declared that he never worked better than when inspired by anger; that when angry he could write, pray, and preach well. It was Mahomet's advice, that when one got angry he must sit down, and if his anger still endured, he should lie down. It is proverbial that heavy showers do not last long. Socrates was silent when angry. William James psychologizes to the effect, that the memory of an insult may make us angrier than the insult did when we received it. The same writer reminds us, that Christ was fierce upon occasion. Once when Laura Keene was getting into a rage, Sothern called out, "Wait a bit"; and after crossing the room and turning off the gas he said, "Now go ahead; I do so hate to see such a pretty face in a rage." APPEARANCES CARLYLE who had met Daniel Webster, wondered whether any man could possibly be as great as he looks. Miinsterberg informs us, that a little strip of gray paper appears white on a black ground, and black on a white one. It is not always safe, as some one asserts, to judge a gentleman by his finger-nails. Dumas says you can always guess the message by the messenger's face. It is a statement of Hare, that few persons have courage enough to appear as good as they really are. Many times what is sugar to the taste, observes Carlyle, ART 19 is sugar-of-lead when it is swallowed. Thackeray bids us have a care of appearances, which are as ruinous as guilt. According to Landor, serenity is no sign of se- curity. Marguerite of Valois, sister of Charles IX of France, married Henry of Navarre much against her will. When asked at the altar if she consented to the marriage, she made no response, and was still silent when the question was repeated; her brother Charles made her bow assent by striking the back of her neck and thus forcing her head forward. ART IT is observed by Leigh Hunt, that Coleridge, when the crew in the "Ancient Mariner" are dead, does not set men, ghosts, or hobgoblins to man the ships again, but re-animates, for a while, the crew themselves. Sy- monds advises artists who aspire to immortality to shun the precious metals. In art, says Sainte-Beuve, nothing counts but the excellent, and the excellent in art may always be an exception, an accident of nature, a caprice of heaven, a gift of God. Coleridge thought Chantry's admirable bust of Wordsworth was more like Words- worth than Wordsworth himself was. The Greek sculp- tors and painters knew hardly anything, scientifically, of anatomy. Lavater held it to be quite impossible for any man of originality to be painted. It is a happy re- mark of Arlo Bates, that science may show a man how to live, but that art makes life worth living. Lowell thinks it was the great merit of the old painters, that they did not try to be original. The mission of art, observes Balzac, is not to copy nature, but to reproduce it. It was the belief of Reynolds, that it is impossible for two painters, in the same line of art, to live in friendship. Turner was 20 LITERARY BREVITIES a pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Thackeray says George II did not love the fine arts, but he did not pretend to love them. Haydon asserts, that no nation has ever been refined intellectually without art, nor ever can be. When Charles II complained to Waller that he had written a better panegyric on Cromwell than on himself, Waller gave as an excuse, that poets succeed better in fiction than in truth. This is Landor's estimate of the compara- tive merits of the three sister arts, — "If there are paces between sculpture and painting, there are parasangs be- tween painting and poetry; sculpture and painting are moments of life, poetry is life itself." It is difficult to induce young artists to study the principles of anatomy, when they are told that the greatest artists the world ever saw did not know them. Ellen Terry thinks a great actor can do nothing badly. Hawthorne observes, that a genuine love of painting and sculpture, and perhaps music, seems often to have distinguished men capable of every social crime. The same eminent authority assures us, that he does not remember to have recognized a man by having previously seen his portrait. Praxiteles re- placed a charioteer of Calamis by one of his own, that the horses, in the depiction of which Calamis was famous, might not surpass their driver. Heine thinks the sublime and terrible far easier to represent in art than the petty and paltry. Hawthorne regards suggestiveness to be the highest merit of poetry, pictures, and statuary. The best artists, both in poetry and painting, Southey asserts, have produced the most. It is a thought of Lewes, that while art enshrines the great sadness of the world, it is itself not sad. The human form, in the opinion of Flax- man, is the most perfect of all forms and contains in it the principles of all inferior forms. Story thinks it doubt- ful if Phidias made any statues of marble, his art being ART 21 chiefly in toreutic work, in gold and ivory or bronze. In a novel, remarks Goethe, it is chiefly sentiment and events that are exhibited; in the drama it is character and deeds. Painting in oil was discovered about the middle of the fifteenth century. You may paint with a big brush, it has been said, and yet not be a great painter. Victor Hugo, with his customary discernment, reminds us, that science dies, art alone is immortal; that Aristotle is outstripped, Homer is not. The rough designer, Michelangelo, thought painting in oil only fit for women and idlers. We are told by St. Augustine, that in his day no portrait of the Virgin Mary existed. Phidias por- trayed both himself and Pericles on the shield of Athena. Story says it was not in harmony with the practice of the Greeks to inscribe on the pedestal of their statues the names of the artists. Phidias was a slow, pains-taking worker. Michelangelo worked with great rapidity. Lafcadio Hearn thinks the Greeks never made white statues, but always painted them. The marvelous works of art in ancient Greece were all in some way connected with the worship of the gods. According to Dr. Harris, Christianity has not been able to express its distinctive ideas in sculpture; it finds painting a far more adequate means. In the fine arts, says Scott, there is scarce any alternative between distinguished success and downright failure. Lessing says with much grace, — "We see the force of the tempest in the wrecks and corpses with which the beach is strewn." Aristotle seems to have been the first to discover that a statue lies hid in every block of marble. The last touches, Balzac states, make the pic- ture. The weaving of tapestry, oil painting, the art of painting on glass, even pocket-watches, and sun-dials are said to have been originally invented in the Nether- lands. Hamerton would rank a painter, not by his merit, 22 LITERARY BREVITIES but by his fame. All art, Schiller affirms, is dedicated to pleasure, and, he declares, there can be no higher or worthier end than to make man happy. It was Duval's theory, that all painters without exception have a second love for music. Lowell finds all great artistic minds essentially conservative. Blake believed his method of coloring had been revealed to him in a vision. To pre- serve a faithful picture of the burning of the fleet in the harbor of Techesme, a ship of war was actually blown up on the roads of Livorne, before the studio of an artist. John Adams was indifferent to the fine arts, and once avowed that he would not give sixpence for a picture of Raphael or a statue of Phidias. When Mummius was preparing to send from Corinth to Rome some of the famous works of the Greek sculptors, he told the men in charge of the packing that if they broke or lost any of the limbs of Venus or Apollo, he should require that they replace them with new ones. Says Joubert, — "If a work shows marks of the file, it has not been polished enough." Goethe compares true art to good company. Dinocrates proposed forming Mt. Athos into a statue of Alexander the Great. In Turner's house there was little to show that he cared for any other art than his own. Both Scott and Byron were devoid of feeling for the fine arts. Painters maintain, that the same motions and screwings of the face that serve for weeping serve for laughter too. Hazlitt quotes this, — "If thou'st not seen the Louvre thou art damned." When Fielding wished to compliment a painter, he would not say the work breathes, but it thinks. This is from Shakspeare, — "To think an English courtier may be wise and never see the Louvre." Dante Gabriel Rossetti was both poet and painter. Art literature, like Lessing's Laocoon, may, as it did in the case of Gladstone, awaken in a man a love ART 23 of art. Balzac asserts, that artists command the ages. It is an observation of some one, that Rembrandt painted what he saw; the Greeks painted what they felt. Ac- cording to William Winter, the actor is born, but artists must be made. The best artist, R. L. Stevenson thinks, is not the man who fixes his eye on posterity, but the one who loves his art. Horace tells of a Greek artist who could paint nothing well but a cypress tree; when asked to paint a shipwreck, he inquired if they wouldn't like some- thing in the cypress line introduced into it. Queen Elizabeth disregarded art and artists. It is the idea of Allen Cunningham, that true art is nature exalted and refined. Reynolds admired one style and painted another. Paint the soul, enjoins Browning, never mind the arms and legs. It has been observed, that the best artists are not necessarily the best teachers. In the last part of the fifteenth century painting rendered Italy the most re- nowned nation of the earth. Goethe declared that he could pardon all faults of the man in the player; but that no fault of the player could he pardon in the man. The American sculptor Powers knew nothing, scientifically, of the human frame. Symonds asserts, that the Greeks and the Hindoos are the only two races who have produced the drama as a fine art originally and independently of foreign influences. The English artist Hudson, instructor of Sir Joshua Reynolds, could paint a head successfully, but needed help to put it on the shoulders. In no country, observes Allen Cunningham, has painting risen suddenly into eminence; while poetry takes wings at once. Michel- angelo did not work from clay models, and did his own chipping. It is a statement of Balzac, that literature revolves around seven situations; that music expresses everything with seven notes; and that painting employs seven colors. The same author tells us, that art consists 24 LITERARY BREVITIES not so much in the knowledge of principles as in the manner of applying them. It has been estimated, that the best painted and the best preserved pictures will last only about 800 years. Grecian literary art, the most perfect the world has ever seen, may be neglected at intervals, yet will in due time unfailingly re-assert its supremacy. Heine thinks it surprising, that a book which is so rich as "Don Quixote " in picturesque matter has as yet found no painter who has taken from it subjects for a series of independent art works. Alexander allowed no one but Apelles to paint him. Seneca has the following, — "A man is never the less an artist for not having his tools about him, or a musician, because he wants his fiddle; nor is he less brave because his hands are bound; or the worse pilot for being on dry ground." Chesterton asserts, that there are some things which a fifth-rate painter knows which a first-rate art critic does not know; and that there are some things which a sixth-rate organist knows which a first-rate judge of music does not know. It was a notion of Bacon, that the best part of beauty is that which a picture cannot express. Chesterton thinks there are many styles of art which perfectly competent critics cannot endure. It was a maxim of Zeuxis, that he took time to paint, and that he painted for eternity. According to Flaxman, Plato studied painting, and Socrates was a sculptor by profession. Flaxman tells us, that the statues of Jupiter and Neptune were at first beardless; but later, in harmony with Homer's verses, they were bearded. Phidias had a knowledge of painting as well as of sculpture. Flaxman affirms, that Michel- angelo is without an equal in the three sister arts. To make the port against both wind and tide is said to be the seaman's art. Flaxman is authority for the state- ment, that no sepulchral statue is known in England before ART 25 the time of William the Conqueror. We are told, that a great artist is a king, that he rules over the world of imag- ination. Balzac describes a certain good artist as one who does not spoil canvas. The statue of Jupiter at Elis, by Phidias, was esteemed one of the wonders of the world. John Van Eyck, of Bruges, was the inventor of oil painting; the ancient painters used wax. Raphael's Sistine Madonna is said to have been painted for a banner to be carried in a procession. From Milton we have, — "The work some praise, And some the architect." The Sultan Hassan Mosque at Cairo was so artistic a structure that, according to report, its designer was either put to death or had his hands cut off, to prevent a repetition of such a triumph of workmanship. Following are lines from Emerson, — "He builded better than he knew, The conscious stone to beauty grew." It is not the privilege of the artist, observes Beethoven, to be Jupiter's guest on Olympus all the time. It has been noted, that the loveliest Grecian statues were mostly expressive of repose; the Laocoon and the Niobe are among the few exceptions. We are told, that art precedes philosophy and even science. Until very recent times, it is said, no landscape painter began or finished an oil painting out of doors and from nature. Hamerton says noble pictures are never accurate; he thinks all attempts to paint skies from nature are futile, and that the painting of clouds from nature is an impossibility. How serious every trifle becomes, remarks Goethe, the moment it is treated according to the principles of art. It is asserted by Walt Whitman, that all architecture is what you do to 26 LITERARY BREVITIES it when you look upon it. It is claimed that the coloring of Rubens makes some defects in his figures pass unre- garded. Shelley thinks the most memorable epoch in the history of the world is the time from the birth of Pericles to the death of Aristotle; that the painting and the music of that period, essentially lost to us, were, as claimed by contemporary writers, of the highest merit. Other pic- tures, Lamb affirms, we look at; Hogarth's prints we read. The art of taking casts of the faces of the dead seems to have come into practice about the middle of the fourteenth century. A restoration, Victor Hugo compares to an oil painting blackened by time and revarnished. AVARICE ACCORDING to Bancroft, avarice is the vice of declining years. Those desiring many things want many things, Horace says. Balzac observes, that charity lays up a treasure in heaven which avarice lays up on earth. In plain truth, says Montaigne, it is not want, but rather abundance, that creates avarice. Misers are said to have no belief in a future life. The artist Turner had a passion for accumulating money; avarice, however, is the passion for keeping money. Scott mentions a miller who grudged every drop of water that went past his mill. Avarice is thought by some to be the most degrading of human passions. Where poverty ceases, it is said, avarice begins. It has been affirmed, that there is no fortress against an ass laden with gold. It is proverbial that a merchant never has enough till he has a little more. Junius declares, that of all the vices avarice is most apt to taint and corrupt man. BEAUTY 27 , BEAUTY BEAUTY is its own excuse for being, says Emerson. The same author says beauty may be felt; it may be produced; it cannot be defined. Grecian athletes were forbidden to look at beauties. The follow- ing is from Tasso, — "The throne of beauty hath an easy stair, His bark is fit to sail with every wind, The breach he makes no wisdom can repair." If you wish to make your life complete, cultivate the esthetic. Balzac describes some one as being as ugly as the capital sins. The same speaks of a woman fair enough to dispense with ornaments altogether, and as knowing how to reduce her toilet to the condition of a merely secondary charm. Shakspeare declares, that where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow. George Sand thinks it not desirable that a young girl should grow good looking too early. George Eliot speaks of certain women who are never handsome until they grow old. According to Pascal, the shape of Cleopatra's nose had much to do with the history of the world. It is the dictum of Hazlitt, that refinement creates beauty everywhere. She is not a beauty, Henry James says with discrimination, but she is beautiful, two very different things; a beauty has no faults in her face; the face of a beautiful woman may have faults that only deepen its charm. The three most beauti- ful things in nature, declares Balzac, are a frigate under sail, a horse at full speed, and a woman dancing. You can't eat a lily nor own stock in a sunset. This from Browning, — "Pansies, eyes that laugh, bear beauty's prize From violets, eyes that dream." 28 LITERARY BREVITIES The same has again, — "That budding face imbued with dewy sleep." Cowley compares a beautiful woman to a porcupine, that sends an arrow from every part. As beautiful as Antinous, the page of Hadrian. Even pearls are dark before the whiteness of his teeth, comes from the Persian. If you wish to preserve your heart shut your eyes, is from the Persian also. Adorned with beauty's grace and virtue's store, is from Spenser. Beauty is nature's coin, says Milton. Perhaps there is a limit to men's physical beauty, observes Balzac, while the beauty of the soul is infinite. The same calls beauty a veil which often serves to hide many imperfections. The same again asserts, that noth- ing is beautiful but what we feel to be useless; and that women who are still handsome when past fifty are too fat. Goldsmith speaks of a faded woman carrying the remains of beauty. Who has ever thought of a deformed angel? asks Balzac. Michelangelo's father said the boy was about as homely as he could be without making faces. Her eyes are sapphires set in snow, is the happy expression of Thomas Lodge. You mend the jewel by wearing it, is the diction and thought of the incomparable Shakspeare. This also is from Shakspeare, — "A withered Hermit, five score winters worn, Might shake off fifty looking in her eye." A thing of beauty is a joy forever, is from Keats. The light that never was on sea or land, is Wordsworth's. From Waller this, — "Small is the worth Of beauty from the light retired." This from Wordsworth, — BEAUTY 29 "Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky/' Henry James thinks beauty has at the best been allotted to a small minority. The following lines are from Shakspeare, — "And those eyes, the break of day, Lights that do mislead the morn." Perfect beauty, Balzac thinks, is generally allied with coldness and silliness. She carries all her beauty in her face, is Bulwer's. Fine shapes will ever be the fashion where she is, is Richardson's. Brunettes last, says George Meredith, which suggests Virgil's line, — "The white privets fall, the dark hyacinths are plucked." Anything is most beautiful without ornament, says the rugged Walt Whitman. Fashion makes beauty for a time, according to Leigh Hunt. Grace, I know, cannot be taught and is never learned, says Sainte-Beuve; in fact, it would be knowing it to attempt to copy it. The oak has a beauty of its own, says Hare, a beauty which would not be improved by being spangled over with blossoms. The same declares the beauty of a pale face to be no beauty to the vulgar eye. He was familiar with her repertoire of glances, is Blanche Howard's. One hair of a woman can draw more than a hundred pairs of oxen, declares James Howell. Hers was a beauty destined to last, wrote Rousseau, because it was more in the expression than in the features. Words, he thought, spoiled the beauty of the thing he saw, is from Tolstoy. This artless creature, writes Mme. D'Arblay, with too much beauty to escape notice, has too much sensibility to be indiffer- ent to it. According to Balzac's notion, the beauty of a woman's shoulders is the last to leave her. Lamb and Keats agreed that Newton had destroyed all the beauty 30 LITERARY BREVITIES of the rainbow by reducing it to the prismatic colors. The following selection is from Lowell's Dandelion, — "Dear common flower, that grow'st beside the way, Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold." Handsome is who handsome does, seems to be relegated to anonymity. You cannot place a patch where it does not hide a beauty, is from The Spectator. Little men are pretty, but not handsome, declares Aristotle. He knows not love who has not seen her eyes, is Petrarch's. This is Pope's line, — "And beauty draws us with a single hair." Her loveliness, writes Trollope, was like that of many landscapes, which require to be often seen to be fully enjoyed. Two-thirds of human beauty, George Moore thinks* is the illumination of matter by intelli- gence, and but one-third proportion and delicacy of line. Nothing is beautiful but what is natural, says Boileau. Bulwer pronounces pity in a woman to be a great beauti- fier. According to the proverb, the crows think their own young ones fair. BELIEF NOTHING is so firmly believed, observes Montaigne, as what we least know. According to an old Eastern proverb, the human mind is like a leech; it never lets go with its tail till it has taken hold somewhere else with its head. It is a statement of William James, that the most interesting and valuable things about a man are his ideals and over-beliefs. It is for us to believe in the rule, not in the exception, remarks Emerson. Lamb characterized a certain man as one who believed nothing unless it was as clear as the three sides of a triangle. Balzac is authority for the statement, that conviction is human will come to its full strength. Dr. Johnson for a BIOGRAPHY 31 long time refused to believe that the Lisbon earthquake had really taken place. BENEFITS THERE is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers, says Seneca. Again the same, — "It comes too late that comes for the asking"; "New appe- tites deface old kindnesses"; and "The greatest benefits of all have no witnesses, but lie concealed in the con- science." God alone, declares Balzac, has the right to know our good deeds. BIOGRAPHY IT is not known just when or where Columbus was born; he died in the belief that he had reached India. Edward II, like Charles I and George III, had no marked vices. John Bunyan was imprisoned, after a fashion, for twelve years. Homer, as Symonds asserts, remains forever lost, like Shakspeare, in the creations of his own imagination; instead of the man Homer, we have the Achilles and the Odysseus, whom he made im- mortal. The first house Franklin slept in after reaching Philadelphia, was a Quaker meeting-house; he had entered it almost involuntarily with the people who were throng- ing to it, and, feeling drowsy, fell asleep there. Franklin was once entertained by David Hume in Edinburgh. Picardy was the birthplace of both Robespierre and Calvin. Chaucer, Burns, Lamb, and Hawthorne were all custom-house officers. The Greek philosopher Hippias made his own clothes. Marsyas, for dreaming that he had killed Dionysius, was ordered by the latter to be killed. It was the learned Roman Varro who made the 32 LITERARY BREVITIES rule that guests should be neither fewer than the Graces, nor more than the Muses. The reply Lafayette made to Henry Clay, when the latter received him in the name of the nation, is said to have been written by Clay himself. As a biography, Lockhart's "Life of Scott" is conceded to be outranked only by Boswell's Johnson. Macaulay calls Sidney Smith "the Smith of Smiths." Addison, it has been declared, bore no rival and endured none but flat- terers. The great Roman authors were mostly not born at Rome. It is related of Lord Oxford, an incapable minister of government, that everything he went to tell you was in the epic way, for he always began in the middle. Cromwell was a bad speaker and a worse writer; Milton wrote his despatches for him. Almost nothing is known of the lives of Homer and Pindar, and very little of those of Shakspeare and Jesus. Our greatest poets — Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, and Wordsworth, Burrell ranks among the sanest of men. Scott, Goethe, and Cuvier all died in 1832. Macaulay was the first literary man to be made a peer of the House of Lords. Shakspeare, who has told us most about ourselves, remarks Burrell, whose genius has made the whole civilized world kin, has told us nothing about himself. Homer had but one servant, Plato three, and Zeno had none at all. Beranger was said to be capable of saying a foolish thing for the sake of being clever. The poet Longfellow, when in college, used to sing in the Brunswick Unitarian choir. iEschylus fought with distinguished bravery at both Marathon and Salamis. Sir Philip Sidney was the pet of Queen Elizabeth, who called him her Philip as opposed to her sister's husband, Philip II of Spain. Sidney made himself familiar with the whole range of the arts and sciences. His "Arcadia" and "Defense of Poesy" give him an enduring place among men of letters, the latter in particular being con- BIOGRAPHY 33 spicuous for originality and grace, the source from which hundreds have drawn thought and inspiration. In person he was extremely beautiful, and though of a beauty de- cidedly feminine, he was a soldier of rare courage, com- bining the gentle and the brave in an extraordinary manner. He has been called, in many respects, the Mar- cellus and the Maecenas of the English nation. Some one has wished we had more biographies of obscure persons. When Scott and Byron were at the height of their fame, some one remarked concerning them, that great poets formerly were blind, but now they are lame. Frederick the Great once found a crowd intently reading a scurrilous placard against himself; it had been posted high; he ordered it put lower so that it might be more easily read. Five hundred people were wont to assemble each day to see Louis XIV get up and go to bed. Sterne's dead body was sold by his landlady to defray his lodgings. Emerson saw the Duke of Wellington at Westminster Abbey, at the funeral of Wilberforce. Galileo died in 1642, the year Newton was born. Goethe was present as a spectator at the battle of Valmy. Jeremy Taylor was at college with Cromwell, George Herbert, and Milton. Milton was eight years old when Shakspeare died. Florence is the birth-place of Michelangelo, Dante, Petrarch, Galileo, and Boccaccio. Sir Isaac Newton was, like Kepler, a posthumous child. Newton was a member of the first parliament of William III. Franklin received the degree of LL. D. from the University of St. Andrews. Noah was once drunk, indeed, but once he built the ark, observes Mrs. Browning. Steele, in 1711, pronounced Louis XIV and Peter the Great the two greatest men then in Europe. At the time of his death, Richard III was only thirty-three years old. Gadsden, on June 14, 1774, wrote from Caro- lina to the Boston people, "Don't pay for an ounce of 34 LITERARY BREVITIES the d d tea." Queen Anne was the last English monarch to attend the debates in the House of Lords, or to preside at a meeting of ministers. Washington and Lincoln were both land surveyors. The robber Procrustes had a bed on which he requested his victims to lie, in pretended hospitality; those too short he pulled out; those too long he chopped off. Alaric was buried under the stream Busentinus. Knightly, one of the would-be assassins of William III, tried to escape in the attire of a woman. Scott was disappointed at finding the Cliff of Dover so low, but found the Tarpeian Rock of less height. Of the distinguished group of Concord literary men, Thoreau was the only native of the place. Burke was reputed to be as unable to cast up a tailor's bill as Sheridan was to pay it. Some suspected Burke of being the author of the " Letters of Junius." Burke and Goldsmith were contemporaries at Dublin University. Henry VII called Saturday his lucky day. Queen Elizabeth, who died in 1603, at the age of seventy, had reigned forty-four years. Bayard Taylor, like Cooper, had trouble with his neighbors who wished to open a street through his fine grounds. In order to be allowed passage with Commodore Perry on his expedition to Japan, Bayard Taylor was enlisted as a master's mate. Swift did not think Alexander the Great was poisoned. Neither Gibbon nor Grote was a university-bred man. Bacon left Cambridge without a degree. Flaxman is of the opinion that Achilles was the handsomest man that went to Troy. Sir Thomas Browne points out the fact, that twenty-four names make up the first story before the flood. Henry van Dyke thinks autobiography is usually a man's view of what his biog- raphy ought to be. Victor Hugo remarked upon the fact, that the year 1847 began and ended on Friday. Victor Hugo and Dumas were pall-bearers at the funeral of BLUNDERS 35 Balzac. Of the thirty-three years of our Saviour's life, only nine are known. It was Marcus Curtius who leaped into the chasm in the Roman forum. George Sand was the grand-daughter of Marechal Saxe. Shakspeare and Cervantes both died on April 23, 1616. Chaucer, who died in 1400, was acquainted with Petrarch. Lessing was, for a time, secretary to Frederick the Great. Em- press Eugenie was De Lesseps's cousin. There have been many Diogeneses and many Timons, declares Sir Thomas Browne, though but few of that name. When Elizabeth visited Oxford, to a Greek oration made to her she re- sponded in the Greek language. Once, at the Enfield chase, Elizabeth had the honor of cutting the buck's throat. When imprisoned in the Tower and expecting to be beheaded, Elizabeth requested that the instrument to be used in her execution might be a sword, after the French manner, and not an axe, after the English method. Cicero never speaks of his mother in any of his writings. BLUNDERS THE Cologne Gazette, contained an advertisement of a German who prided himself on his correct English, soliciting English boarders; the closing sentence read, "The diet is notorious and unlimited." It was an erratum in an English paper, which announced that a certain man had abjured the errors of the Romish Church and em- braced those of Protestantism. A single sentence may undo a man. Brignoli once caused merriment in a Western theater by announcing, by way of an apology for her absence, "Madam Nilsson is a leetle horse." In the stage directions it read, "Enter a king and two fiddlers solus." Mrs. Browning speaks jocosely of her mistake in confounding Constantine with Constantius. An Irish- 36 LITERARY BREVITIES man thought the moon of more value than the sun, be- cause the moon shines by night when we need it, while the sun shines by day when we don't need it. It was Monsieur Jourdain who was surprised to find he had talked prose all his life without knowing it. The judge of a French court said to the accused in giving sentence, "Your head will be cut off; let this be a lesson to you." The Duke of Wellington, being told that he should not say "Jacobus," but "Jacobus," blundered again by say- ing "Carolus" instead of "Carolus." When Queen Vic- toria was at Balmoral, an old Scotch preacher of the place prayed for her in the following manner, "O Lord, as she grows to be an old woman make her a new man." The lawyer of over-cautious statement, upon seeing the Siamese Twins, remarked, "Brothers, I suppose." Pro- fessor Felton, having occasion to reprimand his brother, a student, for swearing, was told by the young man that he was not addicted to profanity; whereupon the pro- fessor exclaimed in a tone of severe reproof, "Damnation, John, how often have I told you the word is 'profaneness,' and not 'profanity/ " A certain good parson, in his desire to be moderate in expression, prayed that the Lord might lead his people in the safe middle path between right and wrong. Macaulay refers to Thomas Nugent, Chief Jus- tice of the King's Bench, as a man who never distinguished himself except by his brogue and his blunders. I hardly remember, says Justin McCarthy, in my practical ob- servation of politics, a great public question of which Charles Kingsley did not take the wrong side. Thales fell into a well as he was looking up to the stars. I think the devil was in it the other day, remarked Swift, that I should talk to her of an ugly squinting cousin of hers, and the poor lady herself, you know, squints like a dragon. Only those who do nothing at all never make any mis- BOOKS 37 take, remarks Balzac. A member of the House of Commons, in a famous speech, delivered himself in this manner, "I am always hearing about Posterity; I should very much like to know what Posterity has ever done for the country." Speaking of a certain woman, Balzac said she afforded an example of the mischief that may be done by the purest goodness for lack of intelligence. An Irish bishop thought "Gulliver's Travels" contained im- probabilities. Napoleon, while claiming never to have committed crimes, said he had done worse, he had com- mitted blunders. Jefferson observes, that Washington erred as other men do, but erred with integrity. Presi- dent Taylor's inaugural contained this remarkable sen- tence, — "We are at peace with all the nations of the world and the rest of mankind." A famous lapsus linguae was that committed by President Van Buren. Once when receiving the Diplomatic Corps he addressed them as the "Democratic" Corps. It was a criticism of the Jansenist translation of the Bible, that the scandal of the text was preserved in all its purity. Addison quotes the following from somewhere, — "We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see pos- terity do something for us." The darkey prayed that "we might grow up befo' de Lord, and be made meat for de kingdom o' heaven." BOOKS P ORSON boasted, that he possessed more bad copies of good books than any private gentleman in Eng- land. Scott was proud of possessing a good competent share of such reading as is little read. Stick to the great books, says Blackie. The three books that were sure to be found on the table of an early settler of Australia were 38 LITERARY BREVITIES the Bible, Shakspeare, and Macaulay's Essays. The true university of these days, says Carlyle, is a collection of books. It is sometimes to the disadvantage of a book to be praised too much. The younger Pliny affirmed, that he never read a book so bad but he drew some profit from it. Only those books come down, Emerson declares, which deserve to last. Rousseau was an insatiable reader, says Landor. Seneca would suppress Homer, and cast Virgil and Livy out of all libraries. Wordsworth, who disparaged Goethe, cared little for books. There are books we never think it worth while to read until we find some favorite author praising them. The first book Hawthorne bought with his own money was Spenser's "Faerie Queene." Both Emerson and George Eliot thought Rousseau's "Confessions" the most entertaining book they had ever read. The first circulating library in America was the outgrowth of a club called The Junto, established by Franklin in Philadelphia. This is a line from Milton, — "Deep versed in books, but shallow in himself." This from Shakspeare, — " — Volumes that I prize above my dukedom." Montaigne's library contained only 1,000 volumes. John Bright read but few books, chief among them being the Bible; but he was master of those he read; he thought either the Bible or Shakspeare enough for a statesman. If one book tires me, remarks Montaigne, I take another, and yield myself to it only in those hours when the tedium of doing nothing descends upon me. BULLS 39 BORES SOCIAL success, in the opinion of Frances Little, is the infinite capacity of being bored. There's no bore like a secret, says George Meredith. Sidney Smith and Walter Scott were known to acknowledge that they never met a bore. A bore that is periodical gets a friendly face at last and we miss it on the whole, Lowell thought. Sophocles declares, what is obvious enough, that the man who takes delight in always talking is irksome to his friends and does not know it. I should have been immensely bored, some one has observed, if I had not been there myself. BULLS THE following notice was attached to one of the show- cases in an exhibition in India, — "All goods in this case are for sale, but they cannot be removed until after the day of judgment." An Irish legislator wished to say "a few words before I begin." The Englishman discovered in Paris, that although the French had no bread, they had a substitute called pain which answered the same purpose. Who was it that said, "To have no children is great misfortune, but it is hereditary in some families"? The Frenchman was "much displeased" at the news of his father's death. It was a Kircaldy elector who said, — "We will have a religious man to represent us, if we have to go to hell to find him." A Spanish judge, avers John Hay, announces to a murderer his sentence of death with the sacramental wish of length of days. 40 LITERARY BREVITIES CANDOR JOHN KEMBLE, the English actor, would correct errors of speech in anyone. Once George III re- marked, that it would "obleege" him if Kemble would take snuff from his royal snuff-box; upon which Kemble said, "It would become your royal mouth better to say 'oblige.' " Jenny Lind once sat next to Thackeray at dinner, and in conversation with him confessed that she had not read a line of his writings. Dr. Arnold was always ready to confess his ignorance. It was said of Arnold, that he woke every morning with the impression that everything was an open question. Bacon believes that all persons speak more virtuously than they either think or act. CARE NEW times demand new cares, Racine believes. It is impossible, observes Fielding, to be particular without being tedious. Suspense in news is torture, remarks Milton. He who owns soil has war and toil, says Balzac. It is the observation of some one, that certain people might be better for a little neglect. i CHANCE T is a saying of George Eliot, that nobody's luck is pulled by one string. From Spenser we have this, — "For he that once hath missed the right way, The further he doth go, the further he doth stray." It is a saying of Thackeray, that the blows which wound most are those which never are aimed. It is one attrac- tion of American life, T. W. Higginson observes, that it CHARACTER 41 affords an endless lottery, and we never can tell what lies at the other end of any person's career. This line is from Sophocles, — "Know, then, thou walk'st on fortune's razor edge." May Sinclair says, "For pure, delightful unexpectedness, give me a parquet floor." CHARACTER I AM a human being, said Terence, and nothing human is alien to me. According to Weir Mitchell, nothing but high character, implicitly believed in by the people, ever pulled Washington through the gigantic difficulties of our glorious Revolution. There is no wise or good man, thinks Jeremy Taylor, that would change persons or con- ditions entirely with any man in the world. Men have a singular desire to be good, says Thoreau, without being good for anything. It is a saying of Marcus Aurelius, that such as are our habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of our minds, for the mind is dyed by the thoughts. Browning speaks of a snow white soul that angels fear to take untenderly. There is a weak spot in every man, and if you look long enough for it you will find it. Much that is choicest and most delightful in literature has been written by authors who were anything but agreeable to their contemporaries. An enclosed two- cent stamp gives a man a character. Be sure of this at least, observes Lowell, that you are dreadfully like other people. Some one has remarked, that Emerson loved good and Caylyle hated evil. When a man commences by acting a character, says Scott, he frequently ends by adopting it in good earnest. Thomas a Becket proved to be altogether different from what Henry II thought him to be. There are moments of delirium, says Rousseau, when men ought not to be judged by their actions. If a 42 LITERARY BREVITIES man is not great enough to be painted as he is, observes Channing, he had better not be painted at all. It is an old proverb, that the man who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry out the wealth of the Indies. Linen detects its own dirtiness, observes Dr. Johnson. Perhaps if we knew the occasional thoughts of our best friends, we should despise them. Addison promised never to draw a faulty character which would not fit at least a thousand people. These lines are from Goethe, — "Talents are nurtured best in solitude, A character on life's tempestuous sea." The same author declares, that the history of every man paints his own character. Le Sage tells of those whose characters stand higher than their principles. Chaucer, who tells of the unreasonableness of expecting clean sheep when they have a foul shepherd, asks, "If gold rust, what should iron do?" Joubert thought Voltaire had a moral sense in ruins. It is the view of Horace, that by crossing the sea men have a change of sky, but not of character. In general, observes Thucydides, the dishonest more easily gain merit for cleverness than the simple for good- ness, since men take pride in the one, but are ashamed of the other. A physiognomist found in Socrates's face and the general formation of his head indications of bad passions and depraved character. The great philosopher and moralist confessed the correctness of the judgment, but claimed that by self-discipline he had thwarted the tendencies of his depraved nature. The Roman character was greatly due to well regulated family life. Gladstone confessed that he was a boy with a great absence of goodness. A character, says Novalis, is a completely fashioned will. Tasso's suggestive line is, — "Yet still CHARACTER 43 my hell within myself I bear." Milton seems to have paraphrased this in, "myself am hell." Chesterfield ad- vises, that we observe carefully what pleases or displeases us in others, since the same thing will please or displease others in us. Balzac observes, that most men have inequalities of character which produce discord; one man is honorable and diligent; another kindly but obstinate; this one loves his wife, yet his will is arbitrary and uncer- tain; that other, preoccupied by ambition, pays off his affections as he would a debt, bestows the luxuries of wealth, but deprives the daily life of happiness, — in short, the average man of social life is essentially incom- plete, without being signally to blame. Scott asserts, that an efficient bore must have something respectable about him, otherwise no one would permit him to exercise his occupation. A disregard of custom and decency, says Gibbon, always shows a weak and ill-regulated mind. Richardson asserts, that every fortified town has its strong and its weak place. Poe pronounces Tennyson the noblest poet that ever lived, so little of the earth earthy. Persons living side by side may practically belong to different ages, says C. C. Everett. As observed by Balzac, there are men who can never be replaced. La Fontaine is declared by Macaulay to have been a mere simpleton in society. There are depths in man that go to lowest hell; as there are heights that reach highest heaven, according to Carlyle. That the bread should be good, says Amiel, it must have leaven; but the leaven is not the bread. Some one has thought it better to leave the first two syllables out of the word gentleman than the last. The purer the golden vessel, says Richter, the more easily is it bent. Goldsmith says Johnson had nothing of the bear about him but the skin. John Morley sees in a habitually irreso- lute man one capable of clinging to a policy or conviction 44 LITERARY BREVITIES to which he has once been driven by dire stress of cir- cumstances. Chesterton thinks Browning had one great requirement of a poet — that of not being difficult to please. It has been stated, that Browning did not dislike spiritualism but spiritualists. Philip of Macedon, having been asked to banish a man for speaking ill of him, said it was better he should speak where they were both known than where they were both unknown. Character is capital, says May Sinclair. It was Dr. Johnson's belief, that a man will please more upon the whole by negative qualities than by positive. As expressed by George Meredith, a good character goes on compound-interesting. Bulwer asserts, that the iron out of which true manhood is forged is the power to resist. From Dry den is the following, — "Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was everything by starts, and nothing long." It has been observed, that we shall never pour anything from that which is empty. Thomas Bailey Aldrich has this, — "They never crowned him, never knew his worth, But let him go unlaureled to his grave." According to Wieland's judgment, Klopstock is the most poetical, Herder the most scholarly, Lavater the most Christian, and Goethe the most human of men. Edwin Booth said there was no door in his theater through which God could not see. Jeremy Taylor was wont to say, on seeing some bad men pass by, — "There goes my wicked self." Some one has remarked, that those who are worst to set wrong are also worst to set right. It is Lavater's observation, that you do not know a man until you have divided an estate with him. It is the belief of Bacon, that a little folly in a very wise man, a small slip in a very good man, and a little indecency in a polite CHARACTER 45 and elegant man, greatly diminish their characters and reputations. A cipher, observes Balzac, though it be never so large, traced in gold or written in chalk, will never be anything but a cipher. Kate Douglas Wiggin makes one of her characters say of a certain clergyman, — "He was so busy bein' a minister, he never got round to bein' a human creeter." There is no damning a devil, says Balzac. It is a providential arrangement that, after fifty, one hates improvements, thinks Lowell. It is noted by Bacon, that a man's temper is never well known until he is crossed. The man who is ready to pay you anything you ask, says Balzac, will pay you nothing. One must be something, observes Goethe, in order to do something. Henry James, in criticising George Eliot, thinks Adam Bede lacks that supreme quality without which a man can never be interesting, — the capacity to be tempted. Cato the elder was called "the biter"; Persephone was afraid even to admit him into Hades after death. One of Scott's lawyers thought it the pest oi nis profession, that lawyers seldom see the best side of human nature. In girls we love what they are, says Goethe, but in young men what they promise to be. One of Thackeray's characters com- plains, that his poor mother was so perfect that she never could forgive him for being otherwise. Evil tongues never want a whet, says Le Sage. Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow, is a line from Pope. If the balance exist, declares William James, no one faculty can possibly be too strong — we only get the stronger all-round character. One solitary philosopher may be great, vir- tuous, and happy in the midst of poverty, says Isaac Iselin, but not a whole nation. It has been remarked, that every man has his Achilles' heel. Some one has observed, that it is a painful thing to admit that so many good people are uninteresting and so many interesting 46 LITERARY BREVITIES people are not good. Bulwer's Richelieu enjoins us to leave patience to the saints, for he is human. The same reminds us, that we are not holier than humanity. King John of England, one of the meanest sovereigns in all history, had a decided literary taste, and read ravenously books of a high order. One of the most despicable things he did was, in traversing England from the Isle of Wight, every morning to set fire to the house that had sheltered him the previous night. A contemporary historian said, after John's death, that hell felt itself disgraced by his presence. No man, affirms Price Collier, could hold a position of supreme public trust in America whose private life has been of the character of the male sovereigns of England, for a hundred years. We are assured, that strong men can remake their lives. Benson thinks resolutions do little but reveal one's weakness more patently. A good face has been called a letter of recommendation. Addi- son thinks nothing so modish as an agreeable neglience. The same says mere bashfulness without merit is awk- ward; and merit without modesty is insolent. Men with red hair are said to be very good or very bad. Pascal thinks it delightful, when one expects to see an author to find a man. CHARITY WHO gives quickly, gives twice, says the proverb; this is, however, susceptible of a double inter- pretation. The day before marriage, observes Beacons- field, and the hour before death, is when a man thinks least of his purse and most of his neighbor. When thou eatest, remarks Zoroaster, give something to the dogs, even though they should bite you. His dews fall every- where, is a sentiment from Shakspeare. Of Judge Samuel Hoar, Emerson wrote, — CHILDHOOD 47 "July was in his sunny heart, October in his liberal hands." In poor families, Balzac remarks, a gift always takes the form of something useful. In the time of the famine, America took the guns from her battleships to load them fuller with grain for the starving Irish peasants. It was said of St. Francis, that he remembered those whom God had forgotten. One does not always lose what one gives away, Goethe observes. i CHEERFULNESS T is Cowper who speaks of " — the cups That cheer but not inebriate." So Shakspeare, — "A merry heart goes all the day, 3 Your sad tires in a mile-a. " It is asserted by William James, that the history of our own race is one long commentary on the cheerfulness that comes with fighting ills. CHILDHOOD FROM Wordsworth we have both "The child is father to the man," and "Heaven lies about us in our infancy." George Eliot observes, that childhood has no forebodings. This from Milton, — "The childhood shows the man As morning shows the day." Beaconsfield speaks of one who involuntarily reminds you of youth as an empty orchestra does of music. In Ger- 48 LITERARY BREVITIES many, in early times, Santa Claus was accompanied by a sinister form called Klaubauf; Santa Claus came with a great collection of gifts for good children, but Klaubauf with a basket to carry off the children who had been naughty. Victor Hugo describes Paradise as a place where the parents are always young and the children always little. Some one states, that a hundred years ago a son addressed his father as "Sir"; to-day he calls him "Dad." August of Poland, known as "August the Physically Strong," was the father of three hundred and fifty-four children. Where children are, says Novalis, there is the golden age. Thackeray says of his childhood days, "As I recall them, the roses bloom again and the nightingales sing by the calm Bendemeer." Sarah Orne Jewett says we never get over being a child so long as we have a mother to go to. CIVILIZATION THE accidental finding of Justinian's Pandects, about 1130, in the town of Amalfi, Italy, tended greatly to the improvement of that dark age. Wild men are said to paint and carve images of animals long before they have learned to fry an omelet. It has been observed with much truth, that the savage who adopts something of civilization too often loses his ruder virtues without gaining an equivalent. Amiel asserts, that we must have millions of men in order to produce a few elect spirits; a thousand was enough in Greece. It was the belief of William H. Seward, that all nations must renovate their virtues or perish. Civilization bows to decency, says Browning. Hume assigns the age of William the Con- queror as the period when the people of Christendom were the lowest sunk in ignorance. The best and bravest, CIVILIZATION 49 remarks Longfellow, are in advance not only of their own age but of every age. Hawthorne thinks the world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. There will be vices as long as there are men, is a Latin sentiment. The population of ancient Rome has been estimated as high as two million. The Greeks and Romans, like the Chinese, did not fight duels. The lost causes, declares Dowden, have not always been the worst. Henry IV expressed a wish and indulged a hope to see the day when every householder in France should have a pullet for dinner once a week. It is a maxim by Lyman Abbott, that barbarians have rights which civilization is bound to respect; but that barbarism has no rights which civiliza- tion is bound to respect. In Tennyson's estimation, — "Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.' 5 Civilization tends to render all men alike, thinks Madame de Stael. Minos was the first, Thucydides declares, to whom tradition ascribes the possession of a navy. We are assured by the same authority, that the Athenians were the first who laid aside arms and adopted an easier and more luxurious way of life. He likewise observes, that the Lacedaemonians were the first who in their athletic exercises stripped naked and rubbed themselves with oil. To speak paradoxically, observes George Eliot, the existence of insignificant people has very important consequences in the world. Thucydides mentions an eclipse of the sun in the summer of 437 B.C., as occurring at the beginning of the lunar month, apparently the only time when such an event is possible. States can bear the misfortunes of individuals, but individuals cannot bear the misfortunes of the state, Pericles has observed. Plato advised Dionysius to read the "Clouds" of Aris- tophanes, if he wished to understand the state of society in Athens. In every great discovery, Balzac thinks, 50 LITERARY BREVITIES there is an element of chance. According to Emerson, Europe has always owed to Oriental genius its divine impulses. It has been wisely observed, that you ought not to do everything you can for people at once. Goethe is convinced, that a great revolution is never a fault of the people but of the government. Gibbon, after de- scribing the costliness and splendor of the Cathedral of St. Sophia at Constantinople, makes this significant remark, — "Yet how dull is the artifice, how insignificant is the labor, if it be compared with the formation of the vilest insect that crawls upon the surface of the temple." Progress, it is said, brings conflict. Petrarch, in the fourteenth century, asserted that, except his friend Rienzi and one other, a stranger of the Rhone was more con- versant with the antiquities of Rome than the natives of the metropolis. Emerson observes, that an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man. It is an observa- tion of Bancroft, that the inference that there is progress in human affairs is warranted; that the trust of our race has ever been in the coming of better times. A nation is in a bad way when none of the people seek to get above the station to which they were born. Seneca tells of noble women who reckoned their years, not by the number of the consuls, but by that of their husbands. In early times cannibalism was practised in Scotland, a country which in later times produced a Hume, a Burns, a Scott, and a Carlyle. Gibbon pronounces the ruin of paganism in the age of Theodosius I to be perhaps the only example of the total extirpation of an ancient and popular super- stition. Gladiatorial combats were witnessed for the last time at Rome in the games of Honorius, 404 a.d. At the siege of Rome by the Goths in 408 a.d., mothers are said to have eaten their slaughtered children. A like occurrence is reported in connection with the siege of CIVILIZATION 51 Jerusalem. In the reign of Theodoric, in Italy, it was safe to leave a purse of gold in the fields, so secure did the inhabitants feel concerning their property. Gibbon de- clares Boethius to have been the last of the Romans whom Cato or Tully could have acknowledged for his country- man. Until the time of Justinian the silkworm which feeds on the mulberry tree was confined to China. Caligula spent nearly ten thousand pounds sterling on a single supper. The extravagance of one day, observes Edward Everett Hale, becomes the commonplace of another. Every age has its characteristic virtues, no age having a monopoly of them; today there is more phi- lanthropy than formerly, but less hospitality. In what civilization of the past would one choose to live? The Mexicans and Peruvians acquired a respectable degree of civilization without either money or iron. Gibbon thinks the proudest and most perfect separation which can be found, in any age or country, between the nobles and the people, is perhaps that of the Patricians and the Plebeians, as it was established in the first age of the Roman republic. Justin McCarthy is of the opinion, that we seldom have any political reform without a previous explosion. In revolutionary times it is quite as dangerous to employ honest men as scoundrels, Balzac thinks. Revolution, observes McCarthy, is like an epidemic; it finds out the weak places in a system. The fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries constitute the period of Euro- pean history known as the Renaissance. The ancient Peruvians used gold, silver, lead, and copper, but not iron. They had fine buildings, fine roads, arms, agri- cultural implements, and vases, but had no system of writing. Doubts keep pace with discoveries, Landor observes. No man is a pirate, thinks Coleridge, unless his contemporaries agree to call him so. Savages have 52 LITERARY BREVITIES been found among the South Sea islanders so uncivilized that they did not know enough to tell a lie. The native Australians cut off the right thumb of a slain enemy, that his ghost might not be able to draw the bow. The Athenians, when fortifying Pylos, having no hods, used their hands held behind them to prevent the mortar from falling off. Every man begins in the world afresh, says Amiel, and not one fault of the first man has been avoided by his remotest descendant. The Greeks, as well as the Apostles, practised the drawing of lots. The long pointed shoes of the time of William Rufus, though severely de- nounced by the ecclesiastics, were in vogue for a long time; the very opposition to them seemed to continue them in use. A belief in the world's improvability is a mistake, Hawthorne affirms, into which men seldom fall twice. The kings of Dahomey often killed victims to carry mes- sages to the other world, as well as to supply deceased kings with servants. We are told that at the beginning of the fight under Dundee, Lochiel took off what was probably the only pair of shoes in his clan, and charged barefoot. Aristophanes applaudingly refers to "the good old times," when an Athenian sailor knew just enough to call for his barley cake and cry "yo ho." Pontiff Sixtus V poisoned out a band of robbers among the Apennines, by sending a train of poisoned food to be captured by the unsuspecting bandits. Rumbold, who was executed in the reign of James II, said, just before his death, that he never would believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden. Macaulay observes, that in revolutions men live fast; the experience of years is crowded into hours; old habits of thought and action are violently broken; and novelties which at first inspire dread and disgust become in a CIVILIZATION 53 few days familiar, endurable, attractive. We have among us forms of wrong and bondage, unseen by us and toler- ated by religion, which will be clear to the more enlightened conscience of the future, just as we look upon intemperance and slavery not as they were regarded centuries ago. Torturing of prisoners to make them confess crime was common in the time of James I of England. Com- munism, declares Lyman Abbott, in all its forms, assumes in man a virtue he does not possess. A Spartan man was not allowed to marry until he was thirty. Jefferson was the first to introduce the threshing machine which may be operated by horse-power. Carlyle declares the genu- ine use of gun-powder to be, that it makes all men alike tall. We are so slow to accept what is new, that it seems necessary for reformers to exaggerate the exclusive excel- lence of their discoveries. Want is the necessary stimulus of civilization. The Chaonians were acorn-fed. Accord- ing to Diodorus Siculus, ale is an older beverage than wine. In fruitful Hindostan they have yearly three harvests and a famine. At one time eight hundred men were employed in lighting St. Peter's. In African audi- ences hisses mean what applause means with us. The Dutch used to cut down most of the precious trees in the Spice Islands, in order to raise the price of what remained. Black-balling at Sparta was indicated by putting in a flat dough-ball. The law of Japan compels a man, when he fells a tree, to plant another. The emperor Carinus in a few months married and divorced nine wives. The barbaric invasions of Europe saved it from the doom of a stationary civilization of a low order, such as has held China down. When the Royal Society of London, in 1752, introduced the Gregorian calendar, some of its members were pursued by a mob, who believed they had been robbed of eleven days of their lives. It is the belief 54 LITERARY BREVITIES of Balzac, that the advancement in society must be wrought out in the advancement of the individual. The Vandalic leaders were wont to debate everything twice — once when drunk and again when sober; when drunk, that they might debate with vigor, when sober, that they might debate with discretion. Father Newman thought the world simply tossing, not progressing. Some one has made French civilization consist of a cafe and a theater. Voltaire says Peter the Great civilized his subjects, and yet himself remained a barbarian. No sun ever rises without a preliminary, twilight, says Hare. Hare regards the Elizabethan age, continuing to the end of the reign of James I, as the most brilliant age in the history of the human mind. Lamb calls the Jews a piece of stubborn antiquity, compared with which Stonehenge is in its nonage. It was Swift who lauded the benefactions of the man who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before. Turgenieff describes a certain man as one who does not possess those faults which are necessary to make him a great writer. It would be absurd, thinks William James, to affirm that one's own age of the world can be beyond correction by the next age. At the beginning of the sixteenth century spice was a prime necessity of life; there were then, in general, no green vegetables. It is Victor Hugo's belief, that the French Revolution is the greatest step taken by the human race since Christ. Napoleon, when he took refuge with the English, saw for the first time a steamboat in motion. Von Humboldt observes, that savages look far more like one another than civilized men do. No merely agricultural people has ever produced a literature, T. N. Page affirms. According to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first to coin money of gold and silver. Edward Everett Hale's father, in 1804, was twelve days going from New York to Troy in a pas-. CLEANLINESS 55 senger sloop; it is a tradition in the Hale family, that while on the passage he read through Gibbon's "Decline and Fall." Victor Hugo calls the solitary man a modified savage, accepted by civilization. Every town, like every man, has its own countenance, Hans Christian Andersen thinks. It is Hume's observation, that one generation does not go off the stage at once, and another succeed; that in this everlasting continuity lies the guarantee of the existence of civilization. CLASSICS ACCORDING to Justin McCarthy's idea, to be a classic means only to be independent of actual date, and to find new readers in every generation. Sainte- Beuve thinks a classic, as generally understood, is an ancient author, already consecrated by admiration, and an authority in its own class. The Dictionary of the French Academy of 1835 defines classic authors as those who have become models in any language. Under the name of classics Sainte-Beuve would put for France, in the first instance, Corneille, then Moliere, "the most com- plete, the fullest poetical genius we have had in France." Arlo Bates says there are certain writings which, amid all the changes of custom, belief, and taste, have continu- ally pleased and moved mankind, — and to these we give the name classics. CLEANLINESS WE cannot all be clever, but we can all be clean, is the belief of G. W. E. Russell. Give me health and a day, writes Emerson, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous. A Frenchman may be clean, again Emerson says, an Englishman is conscientiously clean. 56 LITERARY BREVITIES Balzac speaks of a man whose hands are of the kind that look dirty after washing. COMPOSITION GOETHE declares, that to write prose one must have something to say. Balzac wrote and published forty volumes before he could write one to which he was willing to put his name; this book was "Les Chouans," and it proved to be the turning point in Balzac's literary career. The great secret of how to write well, according to Pope, is to know thoroughly what one writes about, and not to be affected. Hawthorne never used italics in his writings. Scribebat carmina maiore cur a quam ingenio, is from the younger Pliny. Thackeray regretted, that he had not enjoyed five years of reading before commencing his work as an author. Racine spent two whole years in polishing "Phedre." There have been statesmen, like Cromwell, who could not frame an intelligible sentence, Rosebery declares. Montaigne's best thoughts came to him, Dowden remarks, when he seemed to seek them least. Pascal said of his eighteenth letter, — "I would have made it shorter if I could have kept it longer." Goethe at first prepared to write a " William Tell," but turned the subject over to Schiller, just as Hawthorne gave "Evangeline" to Longfellow. Concerning the adage, sec- ond thoughts are best, Shenstone declares, that the third thought generally resolves itself into the first. La Bruyere thinks that for every thought there is only one right expression, and it must be found. Henry James says, "We've been awfully decent." Milton's blindness doubt- less helped his invention. Ten years of Balzac's life were sacrificed to experiments. Scott first tried a foreign field in "Quentin Durward." In 1827 Scott first publicly COMPOSITION 57 acknowledged before three hundred gentlemen that he was the total and undivided author of the Waverley Novels. Scott found that a sleepless night sometimes furnished him with good ideas. Scott wrote " Ivanhoe " when he had a severe cramp in the stomach; he wrote his verse twice, sometimes three times over; his day's work was thirty printed pages; "Woodstock," which he wrote in three months, sold for forty thousand dollars. In Shakspeare's latest plays there is little or no rhyme. Everyone who affects authorship, it has been said, must overcome a natural distaste for the plodding labor of writing. Ennius never wrote poetry except when confined to the house with gout. It is a mistake, says Hawthorne, to try to put our best thoughts into human language. It is stated, that Virgil first arranged and wrote out the iEneid in prose. Lowell declares, that the only art of expression is to have something to express. The good writers cannot always write their best, observes Macaulay. Scott revised his manuscripts but little. How little the average reader sees of the art, often laboriously expended, which makes a poem enjoyable. Some of the beautiful things in literature are products of persons not professionally literary, and who perhaps rely for fame upon a single composition. With whatever talent a man may be born, says Rousseau, the art of writing is not easily learned. Landor thinks com- position may be too adorned even for beauty. Corinna advised Pindar to sow with the hand, and not with the full sack. Blessed is the man, writes George Eliot, who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact. It has been remarked, that Jeffer- son wrote as many proverbs as Solomon, and was quite as careless in observing them. Hawthorne preferred writing in a small room. While at Oxford, Locke formed the habit of writing out, for his own eye only, his thoughts 58 LITERARY BREVITIES on subjects which particularly interested him. It was a characteristic of Scott, that as he neared the end of one novel his brain caught an inspiration for the next. There were found in the author's hand-writing thirteen versions of the opening sentence of Plato's "Republic." It was Horace's advice not to begin with Leda's eggs in treating of the Trojan War. It is thought to be injurious to a writer to know too much of what other writers have said. Goethe thinks the best is not to be explained by words. Sophocles wrote well at ninety. Brevity, it is claimed, should always be subordinate to perspicuity. According to Professor Peck, Prescott found it an effort to write, and used to penalize himself for laziness. Socrates, like Jesus, left nothing in a literary way; Plato and Xenophon were his biographers. Bacon was sixty years old when he published his Novum Organum. This had been rewritten twelve times over. Before his first visit to Germany, Bayard Taylor made an arrangement for sending letters to the Tribune. Mr. Greeley told him, if his letters were good he should receive pay for them, but not to write until he knew something. Swift said he believed if he wrote an essay on a straw, some fool would answer it. Addison, in a description of Italy, first used the expression "classic ground." Addison was so fastidious in regard to his writings that he sometimes would stop the press to alter a preposition or a conjunction. Montaigne's essays are remarkable for the large number of quotations they contain. Browning wrote with unimpaired power after he was seventy. Bacon was much given to repeat- ing his thoughts, sayings, and characters. It is said that Balzac once spent a whole night toiling over a single sentence. The adjective has been called the great enemy of the substantive. Sterne's sermon on Conscience found no readers until it was inserted in "Tristram Shandy." It COMPOSITION 59 has been observed by some one, that as soon as a grammar is printed in any language, that language begins to go; that the Greeks had no grammar when their best works were written. Our clever writers, observes Lessing, are seldom scholars, and our scholars are seldom clever writers. It has been remarked, that De Foe's accuracy "lies like truth." It was with much difficulty that De Foe found anyone willing to publish " Robinson Crusoe." Alfieri said he went to the market to learn good Italian. Steele called a certain elegy "prose in rhyme." Ibsen thinks it a pity that our best thoughts occur to our biggest blackguards. It is Motley's notion, that style above all other qualities seems to embalm for posterity. John W. Chadwick speaks of "writings inspired because inspiring." Joubert says the writers who have influence are only men who express perfectly what others think. It is the opinion of some, that Trollope's autobiography, in which his me- chanical way of writing is set forth, has caused his works to fall into neglect. Always keep pencil and paper, as birdlime, at the head of your bed, Lowell advises. Epi- curus's books contain no quotations. Wordsworth is accredited with commingling the ridiculous and the sub- lime; in a note containing the grandest thought he would record how he rubbed the skin off his heel by wearing a tight shoe. Bagehot observes, that no man can think to much purpose when he is studying to write a style not his own. The writer of genius, according to some one, is only he whose words pass into proverbs among his people. Good writing, like good company, comes from keeping good company, says Dr. John Brown. Lounsbury is authority for the statement, that there is not a single instance of the employment of its in Bacon's works. Goethe called his writings fragments of a great confes- sion. Professor Woodberry notes the fact that Virgil, 60 LITERARY BREVITIES like all the masters of poetic speech, seldom carries his sentence beyond three lines. Plutarch kept his works constantly by him, and polished them to perfection. I have a fancy, remarks Lowell, that long brooding is the only thing that will assure us whether our eggs are chalk or have a winged life hidden in them. Another theory of Lowell's is, that invention is the faculty that ages first, and while the material to work in is scant; the skill to shape it grows. Lowell's recipe was, to carry a thing long in his mind. Goethe shrank from touching with words that which is unbearable to the feelings. Biels- chowsky calls Goethe the mortal enemy of empty words. The Comtesse de La Fayette was accustomed to say, that a sentence cut out of a work was worth a gold louis, and a word left out, twenty sous. Bossuet, in giving directions for writing the life of De Ranee, advises that simplicity ought to be the sole ornament. Emerson speaks of the impracticability of using the pen in one hand and a crowbar in the other. It was the rather unique theory of Emerson, that if one were to elect writing for his task in life, he should renounce all pretension to reading. Of Irving's style it has been remarked, that it impresses one as a whole rather than in particulars — and that this is the higher art. Goethe sold " Wilhelm Meister " to a bookseller in its incomplete state, that he might be obliged to deliver the manuscript within a definite period. Richter boasted that he had made as many books as he had lived years. It is Balzac's assertion, that the rhyming fellows come to grief when they try their hands at prose; that in prose you can't use words that mean nothing; that you absolutely must say something. With Moliere, with Dante, Shakspeare, and Milton, Sainte-Beuve in- sists, the style equals the invention, but never surpasses it. La Rochefoucauld rewrote some of his maxims thirty COMPOSITION 61 times. Clearness has been called the varnish of masters. It was claimed that Boileau gave Racine the precept of writing the second line before the first. Pascal said of his critical method in writing prose, "If I write four words, I efface three." In the night, when an idea seized him, Richelieu rose and called his secretary, who wrote it down instantly. Bishop Percy informs us, that not a line of all his poems stands as he first wrote it. Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, and Demosthenes were no quoters. Pythagoras wrote nothing. Balzac observes, that the word "dis- gusting " has no superlative. Matthew Arnold gives Swift the credit of being the first to use the expression "sweet- ness and light." What would the " Ancient Mariner " amount to, if it had been written in prose? Addison calls attention to the advantage a man has who writes a book of travels, in that he can show his parts without incurring any danger of being examined or contradicted. An old tutor advised his pupils to read over their compositions, and whenever they met with a passage which they thought to be particularly fine, to strike it out. Dr. Johnson dis- approved of a parenthesis. The art of writing, observes Lowell, consists in knowing what to leave in the ink- stand. Bliss Perry thinks the academic atmosphere un- favorable to creative vigor — that few vital books come out of the universities. It has been alleged that Prescott never wrote a sentence that can be remembered. Pope's servant was called from her bed four times in a single night to supply him with paper, lest he should lose a thought. According to Sterne, the ideas of an author are different after he has shaved from what they were before. George Eliot created one hundred and seven characters; Thackeray forty; and Dickens one hundred and two. Haydon calls attention to the fact, that Don Quixote makes a pasteboard visor, believing it strong enough for 62 LITERARY BREVITIES the stroke of a giant; that he fetches a blow at it that smashes it to pieces; that, mortified, he fits it up again, consoling himself that it is strong enough now; but that Cervantes does not allow another blow to prove it. Hay- don advises a writer not to rub out in the evening of the day he has worked hard, if his labor should appear a failure. Landor once averred, that anybody who could write a parody ought to be shot. Carlyle would advise all men who can speak their thoughts, not to sing them. It is T. W. Higginson's judgment, that Walt Whitman has phrase, but not form — and that without form there is no immortality. In no one of Shakspeare's plays is there an Irish character. It was Cardinal Wolsey who said, Ego et Rex mens. Coleridge, in translating Schiller's " Wallenstein," introduced a passage not in the original; it was so a propos, that Schiller retranslated it into German with his own. Shakspeare recklessly disregarded the unities. Goethe obtained his best thoughts and expres- sions while walking. He could do nothing seated. Ac- cording to Macaulay, no historian with whom we are acquainted has shown so complete an indifference to truth as Livy. On the other hand, he acknowledges that we do not know, in the whole range of literature, an instance of a bad thing so well done. One characteristic of Jona- than Edwards as a student was, the habit of composition- writing as a means of mental culture. A close reasoner and a good writer, says Coleridge, in general may be known by his pertinent use of connectives; read any page of Johnson, he says, you cannot alter one connective without spoiling the sense. According to Lafcadio Hearn, some feelings are very difficult to develop; he will show a page that he worked at for months before the idea came clearly; when the best result comes, he says, it ought to surprise one, for our best work is out of the unconscious. Some one CONCEIT 63 has facetiously remarked, that a novelist is better equipped than the most of his trade, if he knows himself and one woman. Stanley Hall estimates, that Huxley used over twenty thousand words. The word "agnostic" was of Huxley's coining. To distinguish between the style of Addison and that of Steele, according to Barrett Wendell, all we need do is to apply a vocal test, as Addison wrote more for the ear, Steele for the eye. Victor Hugo de- clares, that for the sake of a few commas he made eleven revisions of "La Legende des Siecles." Tolstoy is almost wearisome by repetition in artistic detail; in depicting the human body he is thought to be without an equal. Leave out the adjectives and let the nouns do the fighting, is Emerson's advice. A certain ordinary writer remarked concerning "Les Miserables," "If you or I had told the same story, it would have fallen flat; Hugo's style makes it what it is." Prescott thinks the most celebrated novels have been the production of the later period of life. Vol- taire advises a writer, though he may write with the rapidity of genius, to correct with scrupulous deliberation. There were men who thought they wrote like Cicero because they ended every sentence with esse videtur. Goethe, in discussing the "Iliad," expressed the belief, that Achilles was kept inactive for a time that other characters might develop themselves. There is no more painful action of the mind, Addison declares, than invention. CONCEIT IT is conceited not to wish to seem conceited, says Thackeray. Swift, when re-reading his early pro- ductions, would say, "What a genius I was when I wrote that." A Bostonian, after reading Shakspeare for the first time, remarked, "I call that a very clever book; 64 LITERARY BREVITIES now I don't suppose there are twenty men in Boston to-day who could have written it." Dry den thinks every word a man says about himself is a word too much. Professor Woodberry pronounces Scott a master of behavior for both gentleman and peasant. According to Goethe's thinking, the constant balancing of our physical and moral conduct is always" a burdensome matter. Who can say how anyone of us would act in new circumstances? asks Goethe. Benson tells us that Wordsworth's chief reading in his later days was his own poetry. CONDUCT THERE is safety in numbers, says Balzac. Kant asserts, that a man must do right simply because it is right. C. C. Everett asks, "Who can say why it is right to do right?" Kant insists that no answer is pos- sible. "Oppressive civility" is one of Balzac's expres- sions. The Golden Rule is essentially in Confucius and also in the Talmud. The boldest of thinkers are often the most moral of men. From "Hudibras" we have, — "And we are best of all led to Men's principles by what they do ." The only remedy for a bad action, says H. W. Dresser, is a good one. Behavior is a mirror, observes Goethe, in which everyone displays his own image. According to Herbert Spencer, the perfect man's conduct will appear perfect — only when the environment is perfect. Trade, says Rosebery, has neither conscience nor bowels. CONSCIENCE 65 CONFIDENCE LORD MELBOURNE wished he was as certain of anything as Tom Macaulay was of everything. It is a good maxim, Fielding thinks, to trust a man entirely, or not at all. Nil actum credens dum quid superesset agendum, was said by Lucan of Augustus Caesar. The whole lesson of history, says some one, is the lesson of the danger of affirmation. From him whom I trust, declares some writer, God defend me; for from him whom I trust not I will defend myself. Tolstoy is of the opinion, that everybody, in order to be able to act, must consider his occupation important and good. CONQUEST f I ^HIS from Shakspeare, — " — lest too light winning Make the prize light." This also from the same, — "I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip." From Balzac we have, "When devil meets devil, there is nothing to be gained on either side." CONSCIENCE A CONSCIENCE, thought De Quincey, is a more expensive incumbrance than a wife or a carriage. It was a dictum of William Lloyd Garrison, that Senator Lodge differed from Senator Hoar in that Lodge had no conscience, while Hoar had a conscience but never obeyed it. The following aphorism is from " Gil Bias," — "To do wrong without being found out is more advantageous than to act well when appearances are against you." 66 LITERARY BREVITIES The consciousness of well-doing is an ample reward, ob- serves Seneca. Vedder allows Howells all the gifts of a great journalist except, perhaps, lack of conscientious scruples. With the great mass of mankind the test of integrity in a public man is allowed to be consistency. Joubert affirms, that those who never retract love them- selves better than truth. Theramenes, because of his inconsistency, was called the buskin of Critias, the buskin fitting both legs but constant to neither. Hume declares that knowledge and good morals are inseparable in every age, though not in every individual. James II, being incensed against his nephew Grafton, asked him if he did not pretend to have a conscience; Grafton replied, "It is true, sire, that I have very little conscience, but I belong to a party which has a great deal." Common sense, Hazlitt observes, is tacit reason; and conscience is the same tacit sense of right and wrong. Robert Walpole did not say, "Every man has his price," but "All these men have their price." Men of character are the conscience of the society to which they belong, says Emerson. How many men are lost for want of being touched to the quick, Seneca remarks. Sir Charles Napier tells of a man so religious that he would not cough on Sunday. Some one describes a man whose conscience, instead of being his monitor, becomes his accomplice. According to Balzac, the sin is in proportion to the purity of the conscience, and an act which for some is scarcely a mistake, will weigh like a crime upon a few white souls. CONSISTENCY IF the devil makes a promise, remarks C. C. Everett, he always keeps it, even to his own hurt. A French judge, after the argument of the cause was over, put the CONTEMPT 67 papers of the contending parties into opposite scales and decided according to the preponderance of weight. Con- sistency is an impossibility in a growing body, E. E. Sparks thinks. Adam Smith, in his "Wealth of Nations," argued against usury, but later, after reading Bentham's defense of usury, changed his mind. If I were cautious I should not be William Tell, is a line from Schiller. So inconsist- ent is human nature, remarks Macaulay, that there are tender spots even in seared consciences. It has been re- marked, that there is no surer evidence of moral great- ness than the courage of inconsistency. Aristotle claims that we should not require demonstrations from orators, nor persuasion from mathematicians. It is an observa- tion of Barrett Wendell, that when you take neither side in any passionate controversy, each side will generally hold that you are taking the other. It is hard to accept gifts and insults from the same person, says Blanche Howard. No man can be strictly consistent at all times. CONSOLATION SHAKSPEARE speaks of one who receives comfort like cold porridge. Pascal thinks a little matter consoles us because a little matter afflicts us. 'Tis sweet to hear of troubles past, Euripides remarks. From Milton this — " Without the meed of some melodious tear." CONTEMPT FREDERICK THE GREAT affected the French language, and to speak German like a coachman. Some one has observed, that contempt for Locke is the beginning of knowledge. Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon, is Shakspeare's. The same again, — 68 LITERARY BREVITIES "What our contempts do oft hurl from us, We wish it ours again." Addison writes, — "Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering teach the rest to sneer." Ben Jonson, in a fit of indignation at the niggardliness of James I, exclaimed, "He despises me, I suppose, because I live in an alley; tell him his soul lives in an alley." An ancient dean of Christ Church gave as one of the reasons for the study of Greek, that it gives one a proper contempt for those who are ignorant of it. As the extreme expres- sion of contempt, Balzac asks, "Where were you dug up? " CONTENTMENT QHAKSPEARE says, — ^ "Our content Is our best having." Pascal asserts, that we endeavor to sustain the present by the future; and that if we examine our thoughts we shall find them always occupied with the past or the future. George Moore thinks there is no deep pleasure in con- tentment. Blessed are they, some one says, who expect nothing, for they will not be disappointed. CONTRADICTION THEOCRITUS would have the deer pursue the hounds, and the mountain owls outsing the night- ingale. Balzac speaks of one doomed to lead the life of a devil in holy water. Another tells of skinning your lion and shooting him afterwards. "Busy idleness" is Brown- CONTRADICTION 69 ing's. George Herbert has, "Thou hast made the poor sand check the proud sea." Demophon, the steward of Alexander, was doomed to sweat in the shade and shiver in the sun. John Howard Payne, who wrote "Home, Sweet Home," had no home. Of some one it was said, he achieved a marvelous mediocrity. Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem, is a rule of Horace. Who was it that asked charity on horseback? The waterman looks one way and rows another. Achilles, though invulnerable, wore armor. Addison speaks of the satisfaction a physi- cian feels at the death of a patient, because he was killed according to art. Moliere's doctor thought it preferable to fail by rule than to succeed by innovation. The same cold bath which cured Augustus killed Marcellus. We have it on the authority of Dr. Holmes, that no lover of art will clash a Venetian goblet against a Roman amphora, to see which is the stronger; and that no lover of nature undervalues a violet because it is not a rose; comparisons used in the way of description, he observes, are not odious. William III said of a bitter Jacobite, "He has set his heart on being a martyr, and I have set mine on disappointing him." He that spits against the wind spits in his own face, observes Franklin. The same says, "God heals, and the doctor takes the fee." Can you blow a trumpet soberly? some one asks. Sewing lies with white thread, is in Balzac. We are told of a man so fond of contradic- tion, that he would throw up the window in the middle of the night and contradict the watchman who was calling the hour. Conan Doyle's hero announced, that he would slash to pieces any man who dared describe him as pug- nacious. Pleasure delights in contrasts, declares Balzac. 70 LITERARY BREVITIES CONVERSATION HENRY JAMES mentions one who had but little of the small change of conversation. Sidney Smith's rule in conversation was — - never to talk more than half a minute without pausing and giving others a chance to strike in. Hazlitt says Coleridge always talks to people about what they don't understand. The graces of speech and the graces of behavior, observes Chesterfield, are as much in your power as powdering your hair. Conversa- tion is talk in evening dress, remarks Henry van Dyke. George Sand thinks it a difficult art to change the subject. According to Weir Mitchell, accuracy is very destructive to conversation. It is when you come close to a man in conversation, Dr. Johnson maintains, that you discover what his real abilities are. Justin McCarthy asserts, that Henry James never could be commonplace in any conversation. It has been observed, that one of Madame Recamier's arts and charms was to make the most of the person with whom she was talking. One of Charles Reade's characters talked "nineteen to the dozen." A propos of Macaulay's great conversational powers, it is related that he and his friend Charles Austin once got engaged in a discussion at breakfast, and were so interest- ing in their talk that the whole company in the house lis- tened entranced till it was time to dress for dinner. When Burns came late to an inn, the servants would get out of bed to hear him talk. Who was the author of "the polysyllabic art of saying nothing"? And who of this, "There were so many subjects to be avoided, that con- versation was difficult"? Short answers, says Socrates, are best for short memories. George Eliot thinks one can say everything best over a meal. This excerpt is from Balzac, "She had the cleverness to make me dance CONVERSATION 71 with idiots who told me how hot the room was, as if I were frozen, and talked of the beauty of the hall, as if I were blind." Dr. Johnson could talk equally well on either side of a question. Silence itself is often a reply, says Balzac. It is a favorite fancy of mine, remarks Rogers in his " Table Talk," that perhaps in the next world the use of words may be dispensed with, that our thoughts may stream into each other's minds without any verbal communication. We can cauterize a wound, observes Balzac, but we know no remedy for the hurt produced by a speech. His words flew like a gutter after a hailstorm, is Le Sage's description. Of some one it was said, all his words were not to be found in the dictionary. Sainte- Beuve thought it better to read one man than ten books. Conversation is impossible without generalities, Balzac thinks. To talk without effort, says Hare, is after all the great charm of talking. According to Landor, talkative men seldom read. A flow of words, says Balzac, is a sure sign of duplicity. Montaigne regards perfect agree- ment in conversation of all things the most tiresome. Sir Arthur Helps liked to listen rather than to talk, and used to say that when anything apposite did occur to him, it was generally the day after the conversation had taken place. One never properly enjoys the beauties of nature unless he can talk them over on the spot, Heine observes. Dr. Johnson never thought he had hit hard, unless it rebounded. Matthew Arnold is of opinion, that a full mind must have talk or it will grow dyspeptic. It has been alleged, that Goldsmith never told a story but he spoiled it. I have something to tell you that can't be sweetened, is the way some one puts it. Crothers de- clares, that there is nothing so fatal to conversation as an authoritative utterance. Haydon writes, that after an evening with Wordsworth, Keats, and Lamb, all their 72 LITERARY BREVITIES fun could be said to have been within bounds; that not a word had passed that an apostle might not have listened to. Thackeray observes of one, that she had not said more than she meant, but more than she meant to say. William James regarded variety in unity to be the secret of all interesting talk and thought. When Coleridge was about to leave a certain hotel in London the landlord offered him free quarters if he would stay and talk, so entertaining and attractive was he. Hawthorne thinks it very wrong and ill-mannered in people to ask for an introduction unless they are prepared to make talk. Madame de Stael obtained her literary material almost exclusively from conversation. In the opinion of George Moore, a mere listener is a dead weight in conversation. It has been remarked by some one, that the great art of conversation is to ask people the right kind of questions. Turgenieff has observed, that a man always feels con- science-stricken somehow and uncomfortable, when he has been talking a great deal. E. J. Payne asserts, that the decline of the art of conversation has been accom- panied by the decline of style. Addison thinks nothing so talkative as misfortune. CONVICTIONS SIXTIETH year, remarks Balzac, an age when men rarely renounce their convictions. Happy the man, says Lessing, who can live up to his convictions. Goethe thinks one cannot expect to convert enemies in the heat of the conflict and excitement. In the old days, some one records, I desired to convince; I am now only too thank- ful to be convinced of error and ignorance. COURAGE 73 COURAGE LANDOR tells us of virtuous maidens who breathed courage into the heart before it beat to love. It is said, that in deep water we must either swim or drown. Grasp the thistle strongly and it will sting you less, is Hawthorne's advice. According to Plutarch, the angry man is courageous. Bunyan's poor Christian was so con- founded that he did not know his own voice. In splitting a gnarled log, it is advisable to strike at the knot. There is nothing, says Le Sage, like taking scandal by the beard, and testing the opinion of the world with heroic indiffer- ence. We are urged to put a good face on a losing game. Euripides asserts, that darkness turns runaways into heroes. Things out of hope are compassed oft by ven- turing, writes Shakspeare. Harold Frederic declares, that danger makes men brave; and that it likewise makes them selfish and jealous. Socrates thought courage a science. In his first battle, that of Mollwitz, Frederick the Great acted in a cowardly manner. A man must have courage to fear, is Montaigne's observation. Far- ragut said of a certain naval officer, "Every man has one chance; he has had his and lost it." Homer commends iEneas for his skill in running away. There is no creature more impudent than a coward, Addison observes. Aristotle thinks we become brave by performing brave actions. Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona multi, is Horace's famous line. So this is Virgil's, Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem. And this from Terence, Fortes fortuna adjuvat. Captain Morris, of the Bristol, in the attack upon Charleston in June, 1776, after remaining below long enough to have his shattered arm amputated, re- turned to the upper deck to take command again and was killed. Bancroft pronounces the taking of Stony Point 74 LITERARY BREVITIES by "Mad Anthony Wayne," as brilliant an achieve- ment as any in the Revolution. Lions make leopards tame, writes Shakspeare. This also from Shakspeare, — "The poor wren, The most diminutive of birds, will fight, Her young ones in her nest, against the owl." One kind of courage, according to Aristotle, is that when a man seems to be brave, only because he does not see his danger. In a false quarrel, Shakspeare says, there is no true valor. It sometimes requires more courage to refuse a challenge than to accept one, thinks Eugene Sue. None but the brave deserves the fair, is Dryden's. Cour- age, so it be righteous, observes Beethoven, will gain all things. The curs bark loudest, says Balzac. Our first best lesson — to endure, is Schiller's line. Paul Jones, being asked if he had struck his colors, said quickly, "Struck? Not at all. I have only just begun my part of the fighting." King Alfred participated personally in fifty-six pitched battles. Of a recklessly daring man it was said, he did not know what the color of fear is. When Pompey was told by an oracle that in going to a certain place he would surely risk his life, he rejoined, "It is necessary to go, it is not necessary to live." It needs valor and integrity, John Morley affirms, to stand forth against a wrong to which our best friends are most ar- dently committed. Crothers advises, that as we have more than one kind of courage, it is well to be prepared for emergencies. According to Earl St. Vincent, the true test of a man's courage is his power to bear responsibility. Without courage, George Meredith remarks, conscience is a sorry guest. The same again observes, that courage wants training, as well as other fine capacities. Bravery is noble only when the object is noble, is the thought of COURTESY 75 Lafcadio Hearn. If a great man struggling with mis- fortune is a noble object, says Cowper, a little man that despises it is no contemptible one. Dean Stanley thought being made a bishop destroyed a man's moral courage. Addison says courage is but ill shown before a lady. I have courage enough to walk through hell barefoot, is by Schiller. COURTESY IT is claimed by William Winter, that Shakspeare, the wisest of monitors, is never so eloquent as when he makes one of his people express praise of another. Cour- tesy and good humor, declares Dr. Johnson, are often found with little real worth. William III was bearish; when Princess Anne dined with him, at a time when green peas, the first of the year, were put upon the table, he devoured the whole dish without giving her any. Every civilization has its simple beginnings, when children are modest and polite. Thomas Fuller tells us that William, Earl of Nassau, won a subject from Spain every time he put off his hat. As polite as a gambler. Fielding speaks of that business which requires no apprenticeship, — that of being a gentleman. Some one claims, that an Italian would say "My dear" to a hangman. So it is likewise claimed, that to be always of the opinion of others is true politeness. There is said to have been an over-nice lord in Great Britain, who, when alone, would not cross his legs before the fire for fear of being improper. The cour- teous disposition of Marlborough was shown in his ordering his troops to protect the estates of Fenelon. It is a dictum of the younger Pliny, that if you lend a man your ears, all the grace of the act vanishes if you ask for his in re- turn. Polyphemus granted Ulysses the courtesy of being devoured last. Charles Reade thinks men are not ruined 76 LITERARY BREVITIES by civility. Emerson found Leigh Hunt and De Quincey the finest mannered literary men he met in England. The favors of a man like Richelieu are not easily refused, remarks Matthew Arnold. Some one reminds us, that it is not civil to contradict a man in his own house. When it was a matter of wonder how Keats, who was ignorant of Greek, could have written his "Hyperion," Shelley, whom envy never touched, gave as a reason, "Because he was a Greek." Jefferson thought politeness had been invented to enable people who would naturally fall out to live together in peace. Of the poets contemporary with Shakspeare he mentions only Marlowe and Ben Jonson. Horace gives it as a rule, that when three are walking abreast, the post of honor is in the middle. We soften devilish into diabolical. Bishop Middleton thinks virtue itself offends when coupled with forbidding manners. Thackeray would request a visitor not to leave his card, as it had cost two cents and would answer for another call. All that she looks on is made pleasanter, is Dante's graceful compliment. As there was no room in the Royal Academy for a meritorious picture by Bird, an obscure painter, Turner, who was on the hanging committee, took down one of his own pictures and put Bird's in its place; Ruskin called this a story that ought to be told in heaven. The welcome of the host, says Scott, will always be the better part of the entertainment. A propos of the polite- ness of the French as compared with the Germans, Heine wrote, "If some one accidentally jostled me without immediately asking pardon, I could safely wager it was a fellow-countryman; and if a pretty woman looked a little sour, she had either eaten sauerkraut or could read Klop- stock in the original." Franklin never contradicted people. There is no better test of a man's breeding than by putting a stranger into his pew. If you wish to appear COURTESY 77 agreeable in society, observes Talleyrand, you must con- sent to be taught many things you already know. Victor Hugo would rather be hissed for a good verse than ap- plauded for a bad one. Bulwer affirmed, that to dispense with ceremony is the most delicate mode of conferring a compliment. Your excellency's happiness makes ours, is Victor Hugo's delicate way of putting it. According to Lessing, politeness is not a duty, while, on the other hand, for the good of the majority, candor is a duty. When minister at London, Van Buren made it his business to be cordial with prominent men on both sides. Montaigne had often seen men uncivil by over-civility, and trouble- some in their courtesy. Politeness consists in forgetting yourself for others, is Balzac's definition. Emerson says a gentleman makes no noise. Charming courtesy be- tween contemporary authors, though by no means com- mon, has been of sufficient frequency to relieve them somewhat of the charge of extreme jealousy. Racine used to point out to his children a line of Corneille which he greatly admired. Thackeray was pleased to have his children love Dickens. The close friendship that existed between Virgil and Horace is well known. When Haydn saw the portrait of Mrs. Billington, the famous soprano, he said to Reynolds, "You have made a mistake; you have represented Mrs. Billington listening to the angels; you should have represented the angels listening to her." The generous conduct of Edward the "Black Prince" in acting as table-servant to the French king after the battle of Poictiers, had for an example the chivalrous compli- ments Saladin paid Richard Coeur de Lion. Ovid ad- vises his lover, when he sits in the circus near his mistress, to wipe the dust off her neck even if there is none on it. One of Landor's characters is made to say, "There are even in Greece a few remaining still so barbarous, that I 78 LITERARY BREVITIES have heard them whisper in the midst of the finest scenes of our greatest poets." CRIME EMERSON assures us, that we cannot do wrong with- out suffering wrong. Balzac calls crime a lack of reason. Some think it better to have one great vice than a spice of little ones. Colley Gibber's brother, a vile fellow, once told Dr. Sim Burton that he did not know any sin he had not been guilty of but one, which was avarice; and if the Doctor would give him a guinea, he would do his utmost to be guilty of that too. iEschylus's characters suffer for their sins. Every crime, says Haw- thorne, destroys more Edens than our own. One leak will sink a ship, says Bunyan, and one sin will destroy a sinner. As an angel you are not amiss, observes Haw- thorne; you need a sin to soften you. Shakspeare says some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. Browning declares, that the proper process of unsinning sin is to begin well-doing somehow else. Shakspeare thinks there is some soul of goodness in things evil. It is a Welsh saying, that God himself cannot procure good for the wicked. Men abandoned to vice, Bacon thinks, do not corrupt the manners of others so much as those who are half wicked. Blackie claims, that the man who lives at random will be ruined without the help of any positive vice. So Pascal, — "Pride and idleness are the two sources of all vice." No vices are so incurable, Addison thinks, as those which men are apt to glory in. By the common consent of humanity, says an English writer, a fault is half excused when it is known to be general. Poe says men naturally grow bad by degrees. According to Balzac, a folly that doesn't succeed becomes a crime. CRITICISM 79 Tennyson thinks every man imputes himself. The same poet observes, that there is hardly any crime greater than for a man with genius to propagate vice by his written words. This from Racine, — "All the first steps to crime some effort cost, But easy those that follow." The effect of Schiller's "Robbers" upon German students was such as to cause some of them to become real banditti. Sisyphus has the credit of being the greatest knave of antiquity. I see no fault committed, confesses Goethe, that I have not committed myself. CRITICISM LOWELL maintains, that the best poetry has been the most savagely attacked. Talleyrand thought Na- poleon, Fox, and Alexander Hamilton the three greatest men of their epoch. Plato was blamed for asking money, Aristotle for receiving it, Democritus for neglecting it, Epicurus for consuming it. In the judgment of Louns- bury, modern culture consists largely in the most refined method of finding fault. May Sinclair thinks lyric poets are cases of arrested development. Campbell claims, that the repetition of a word, when necessary, is not offensive. La Bruyere declares, that the surest test of a man's critical power is his judgment of contemporaries. This is Macaulay's confession: "I have not written a page of criticism on poetry or the fine arts, which I would not burn if I had the power; such books as Lessing's 'Laocoon,' such passages as the criticism on Hamlet in 'Wilhelm Meister,' fill me with wonder and despair." All that is fine in Milton is beyond comparison, asserts Sainte-Beuve. It is Goldsmith's polite advice, that the critic should 80 LITERARY BREVITIES always take care to say that the picture would have been better if the painter had taken more pains. William Winter protests, with undisguised impatience, that it is not easy to believe that Shakspeare, after he had created Falstaff and thoroughly drawn him, was capable of les- sening the character and making it almost despicable with paltriness — as certainly it becomes in "The Merry Wives." If you wish to have your works coldly reviewed, says the poet Rogers, have your intimate friend write an article on them. One runs no risk in trusting the liter- ary taste of a man who loves Hawthorne. Criticism cannot hurt what is truly great, declares Andrew Lang. William Matthews is of opinion, that of all critics concern- ing poetry, the most fallible are poets. Lewes did not allow George Eliot to read the adverse criticisms on her writings. George Eliot often speaks of Dickens with great kindness, but seems nowhere to praise him as an author, as she does Thackeray. Scott found no pleasure in read- ing the "Divine Comedy"; so Emerson never succeeded in reading one of Hawthorne's stories; so Byron could not read the "Faerie Queene." According to Frederic Har- rison, it is impossible to give any method to our reading till we get nerve enough to reject. Poe thought "Pil- grim's Progress " a ludicrously overestimated book. Ben Jonson used to say he would rather have been the author of the popular English ballad, " Chevy Chase," than of all his own works; Dr. Samuel Johnson, on the other hand, saw in the same ballad only lifeless imbecility. I doubt, declares Southey, whether any man ever criticized a good poem, who had not written a bad one himself. Goethe praised Scott. Victor Hugo insists that criticism cannot apply to genius. I have come to be suspicious of my judgment, when I find myself greatly taken with the first reading of a book; my great admiration is almost certain CRITICISM 81 to have a subsequent fall. George Eliot was partial to " Silas Marner." Plautus rebukes the hypercriticism of one who would try to find a knot in a reed. Emerson could not endure Shelley. Cultivated society, Lounsbury asserts, has always been afflicted with a class too superlatively intellectual to enjoy what everybody else likes. We are told of authors who write, and then publish, favorable criticisms of their own productions. No man was ever written down except by himself, affirms Richard Bentley. Boswell requested his friend, William J. Temple, to com- municate to him all the good he heard about his writings, but to conceal from him all censure. Socrates had no appreciation of the beauties of Greek sculpture. Dr. Johnson says a man who is asked by an author what he thinks of his work, is put to the torture and is not obliged to speak the truth. It is a rule laid down by Joubert, that we should never show the reverse of a medal to those who have not seen its face; and that we should never speak of the faults of a good man to those who know neither his countenance nor his life nor his merits. Be- fore Hood published his "Song of the Shirt," his wife told him it was the best thing he ever did. Landor tells us his prejudices in favor of ancient literature began to wear away upon reading " Paradise Lost." Landor pronounces the " iEneid " the most misshapen of epics — an epic of epi- sodes; he calls Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered" the most perfect in its plan. The same sees in the style of Hume something resembling a French translation of Machi- avelli; he declares again that fine verses may be bad poetry. The following is a lengthy quotation from Landor: "Swift ridiculed the music of Handel and the generalship of Marlborough; Pope the perspicacity and scholarship of Bentley; Gray the abilities of Shaftesbury and the eloquence of Rousseau; Shakspeare hardly found those 82 LITERARY BREVITIES who would collect his tragedies; the elephant is born to be consumed by ants in the midst of his unapproachable solitudes; Wordsworth is the prey of Jeffrey. Why repine? Let us recollect that God in the creation left his noblest creatures to the mercy of a serpent." It is hard indeed, says the same author, if they who are lame will not let you limp. Amiel asserts, that a chronicler may be able to correct Tacitus, but Tacitus survives all the chroniclers. George Eliot was particularly anxious to know what Thackeray thought of her first story. Balzac declared, that when he wanted the world to praise his novels he wrote a drama; and when he wanted his dramas praised he wrote a novel. Landor cared nothing for Spenser. A little boy said his sister's photograph looked natural all except the face. My later experience, said General Grant, has taught me two lessons: first, that things are seen plainer after the events have occurred; second, that the most confident critics are generally those who know the least about the matter criticised. With Macaulay, everything in the literary line is extremely good or extremely bad. Macaulay places Cicero at the head of minds of the second order. Scott says of Cooper's " Pilot," "The novel is a clever one, and the sea scenes and all characters in particular are well drawn." All who offer themselves to criticism are desirous of praise, Allen Cunningham thinks. To him whose survey is from a great elevation, all men below are of equal size, says Landor. It is the worst member of the family that settles what the world shall think of the others, observes James Lane Allen. Smollett speaks of damning to infamy a general for not performing impossibilities. By some good judges Sainte-Beuve is regarded as the greatest literary critic of all time; Matthew Arnold is, in this connection, to be mentioned at the same time with Sainte-Beuve. CRITICISM 83 Swift calls a true critic a discoverer and a collector of writer's faults; and thinks that in the perusal of a book he is like a dog at a feast, whose thoughts and stomach are wholly set upon what the guests fling away, and con- sequently is apt to snarl most when there are fewest bones. Lord Chesterfield slurs Dante; and Coleridge speaks dis- paragingly of Gibbon. Adam Smith committed each chap- ter of his " Wealth of Nations " to the criticism of Franklin before printing it. Balzac tells of a carping critic who blows his nose during a cavatina at the opera. Scott asks, "Who in the fiend's name would listen to the thrush when the nightingale is singing?" People praised "Eugenie Grandet" so much that its author began to feel a coldness toward it. Scott disliked Dante. Aristotle never seemed to appreciate his great contemporary, Demosthenes. Some one has said that the criticism of a foreigner is as near as we can get to the verdict of posterity. Strange to say, Poe rates " Paradise Regained " little, if at all, inferior to "Paradise Lost." Poe had no appreciation of Words- worth. Tennyson, to the surprise of many good judges, did not think highly of George Eliot's "Romola." Napoleon ranked Desaix as his best general, Kleber next, and Lannes as the third; he thought Caesar a greater general than Alexander; and that Gustavus Adolphus had gained fame at a cheap rate, as he fought only three battles, and lost two of them; he pronounced Louis XIV the only king of France worthy of the name; and allowed Frederick the Great, Turenne, and Conde to stand in the first rank of generals. Voltaire called Shakspeare an inspired savage. Balzac considered Sterne the most original of English writers. Washington Allston, born at Charleston, S. C, in 1779, the greatest American painter of his time, also had high rank as a poet. Musical people, whom I have heard criticise other musical people, declares Crothers, 84 LITERARY BREVITIES seem more offended when some one flats just a little than when he makes a big ear-splitting discord; and moralists are apt to have the same fastidiousness. McCarthy, rather unjustly it would seem, says Anthony Trollope, who has sometimes been called the apostle of the common- place, is Thackeray produced into thinness. Calvin, in his "Commentaries on the New Testament," found it impossible to do anything with " Revelation." Coleridge treats Gibbon as a historian with savage disparagement. According to Coleridge, good prose is proper words in their proper places; good poetry is the most proper words in their proper places. The characters in the play which are wholly the creations of Shakspeare are always the best; Falstaff, Benedict, and Beatrice are a few of many in- stances to prove this. Newton, when asked his opinion of poetry, gave that of Barrow, that it is a kind of ingenious nonsense. Everything which is most admirable in poetry, Dr. Johnson thinks, is to be found in Homer. Symonds is of the opinion, that the world has suffered no greater literary loss than the loss of Sappho's poems. Johnson says Shakspeare never has six lines together without a fault. Emerson thinks Wordsworth's "Ode to Immortality" is the high-water mark which the intellect has reached in this age. He also says Swift describes his fictitious per- sons as if for the police. Matthew Arnold calls Burke the greatest English prose writer; and Pascal, Bossuet, Fenelon, and Voltaire the greatest prose writers of France. He thinks the English poetry of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, with plenty of energy, plenty of creative force, did not know enough; that this makes Byron so empty of matter, Shelley so incoherent, Words- worth even, profound as he is, yet so wanting in com- pleteness and variety. Matthew Arnold and Hartley Coleridge pronounced Bryant's "Waterfowl" to be the CRITICISM 85 best short poem in the language. Wordsworth cared little for books, and, strange to say, disparaged Goethe. L. H. Vincent declares Lowell to be the most complete illustra- tion we have of the literary man. Henry James calls Hawthorne that best of Americans. Addison thought his poems superior to The Spectator. After Napoleon's fall, a certain Bourbon remarked to Madame de Stael, that Napoleon had neither talent nor courage. Her reply was, "It is degrading France and Europe too much, sir, to pretend that for fifteen years they have been subject to a simpleton and a poltroon." It is the opinion of Goethe, that when a man like Schlegel picks faults in so great an ancient as Euripides, he ought only to do it upon his knees. Sheridan, Byron, and George III all thought Shakspeare a much over-rated writer. It is William Black's idea, that we should find it harder to please our- selves than to please others. Following is some of Heine's suggestive criticism, "Nothing is more foolish than to depreciate Goethe in order to exalt Schiller; do such critics not know that those highly extolled, highly ideal- ized figures, those pictures of virtue and morality which Schiller produced, were much easier to construct than those frail, worldly beings of whom Goethe gives us a glimpse in his works? Do they not know that mediocre painters generally select sacred subjects, which they daub in life-size on the canvas? but it requires a great master to paint with lifelike fidelity and technical perfection a Spanish beggar-boy scratching himself?" Burns re- marked of some of his over-nice critics, that they reminded him of some spinsters in his country, who spin their thread so fine that it is neither fit for weft nor woof. Henry James calls Browning a poet without a lyre. Cooper's female characters are poor talkers, and are said never to be able to do anything successfully but faint. To the 86 LITERARY BREVITIES mind of Henry James, Shakspeare is the greatest genius who has represented and ornamented life. It is customary with the Chinese to cure a critic by giving him responsi- bility. Sulla saw many Mariuses in young Julius Caesar. Bad plays are best decried, says Dryden, by showing good. With the single exception of Luther, Carlyle says there is, perhaps, in these modern ages, no other man of merely intellectual character, whose influence and reputation have become so entirely European as that of Voltaire. Creevey, speaking of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall," says, "D his writing, but his stuff is invaluable." Never waste your time, advises Ruskin, on people who want their pictures looked at to see if they are genuine; they never are, and any dealer will tell them so for a guinea. The comment is sometimes finer than the text; the notes supplementary to Longfellow's Translation of Dante are almost as valu- able as the text. A good saying of a third-rate writer is just as good as if it had been said by Shakspeare. Goethe declares, that the works of the ancients are not classics because they are old, but because they are energetic, fresh, buoyant. Dr. John Brown prefers Thackeray ten times over to Dickens. Balzac thinks Goethe's greatest work is his " Tasso." Boileau thought Mme. De La Fayette the woman who had the most mind in France and the one who wrote the best. According to Hare's thinking, among the hundreds of characters in Walter Scott's novels hardly one has not more life and reality than his portrait of Napoleon. It is only certain people who see the moles on the hero's face, says George Eliot. Cardinal Mazarin declared that Louis XIV had the stuff in him to make four kings and one honest man. Sumner and Wendell Phillips called Fessenden a dyspeptic Scotch terrier. It is sur- prising, that Goethe could have disparaged Victor Hugo, who, he thought, wrote too much, and for money. Landor CRITICISM 87 asserts, that the eyes of critics, whether in commending or carping, are both on one side, like a turbot's. Landor thinks there is scarcely a text in the Holy Scriptures to which there is not an opposite text. Tennyson advised Ellen Terry to say "luncheon," not "lunch." Voltaire places Virgil above Homer. Gladstone thought Homer, Dante, and Shakspeare the three greatest men who have ever lived. Our taste, says Bacon, is never pleased better than with those things which at first created disgust in us. The actor McCullough thought Walt Whitman's poetry "spavined stuff." No German, says Heine, is so rich in thoughts and emotions as Richter, but he never allows them to ripen. Mediocrity is never discussed, observes Balzac. Macaulay, speaking of Xenophon's abilities, says he had elegant taste, but a weak head. Jacob compares his son Issachar to an ass, as Homer does his hero Ajax. Lanier observes, that art has no enemy so unrelenting as cleverness. Cowper accuses Pope of giving sense of his own not all warranted by the words of Homer, and sometimes of omitting the difficult part altogether. It is a remark of Goethe, that he can tolerate all men till they come to "however." It is his observation, also, that one is never satisfied with a portrait of a person that one knows. Huxley thought George Sand "bigger" than George Eliot. So great was Voltaire's prestige at one time, that his disparagement of Shakspeare temporarily did serious damage to the great Englishman's fame. In art, observes Huxley, if a man chooses to call Raphael a dauber, you can't prove he is wrong. Huxley thought the general effect of Naples was such as would be produced by a beautiful woman who had not washed or dressed her hair for a month. It was the opinion of Burke, that Dr. Goldsmith was the greatest fool that ever wrote the best poem of a century, the best novel of a century, and the 88 LITERARY BREVITIES best comedy of a century. Landor is inclined to think that good writers are often gratified by the commendation of bad ones. Moliere's serving- woman said to him, "That's amusing, read on." To praise a fault is worse than to commit one, Landor declares. Wellington claimed that he had no small talk, and that Peel had no manners. Landor believes, that experience makes one more sensible of faults than of beauties. A carping critic who read the works of Hans Christian Andersen solely for the purpose of pointing out defects, was rebuked by a six-year-old girl, who took the book under criticism and pointing to the conjunction and said, "There is yet one little word you have not 'scolded.'" CRUELTY WHEN flesh was only to be had at a high price for feeding his wild beasts, the Emperor Caligula ordered that criminals should be given them to be de- voured. Madame Du Barry's amiable desire was, to make every woman who hoped for a heaven hereafter experience a hell on earth. Montaigne is authority for the story that Amestris, the mother of Xerxes, being grown old, caused at once fourteen youths of the best Persian families to be burned alive, according to the religion of the country, to gratify some infernal deity. When Hepaestion died of fever at Ekbatana, Alexander caused the physician who had attended him to be crucified. Torture was used for the last time in England in 1640. Seneca mentions a Persian king who had the noses of a whole nation cut off, and they were to thank him that he had spared their heads. When Foulon was asked what the people would do, he replied, "The people may eat grass." It is Plu- tarch's observation, that no beast is more savage than CUSTOM 89 man, when he is possessed of power equal to his passion. It was a Roman who put a slave to death, that a curious friend might see what dying is like. Pascal mentions the fact, that Augustus, when he learned that Herod's own son was among the children under the age of two years whom Herod had ordered to be slain, declared it was better to be Herod's pig than his son. It is recorded by Dr. Johnson, that Sixtus Quintus, on his death-bed, in the intervals of his last pangs, signed death warrants. The first Roman was suckled by a wolf. Sir Arthur Helps asserts, anent the fact that very wise men in England once thought torture a judicious mode of discovering truth, that nothing but a relapse into barbarism could bring us back to it; that long columns of weighty names would never again reconcile us to burning witches. The Tartar king, Tamerlane, built a pyramid of seventy thou- sand human skulls. General Turreau, Bonaparte's min- ister at Washington, had for a secretary a violincello player who was made to play every day while Turreau horsewhipped his wife, that her cries would not be audible. CUSTOM IN the time of Henry VIII, to kiss a lady was an act of courtesy, not of familiarity; in dancing it was the customary fee of the lady's partner. It was during the crusades, in the time of Richard I, that the custom of using coats of arms was first introduced into Europe. No citizen was allowed to carry arms within the walls of Rome. Ibsen thinks people generally get used to the inevitable. A Grecian officer of rank had his shield carried by an attendant except when in actual conflict. Under the elder Cato's censorship Lucius Flaminius, ex- consul, was degraded for kissing his wife in presence of his 90 LITERARY BREVITIES daughter. It was a Thessalian custom to keep a watch over the dead until burial. The Celts reckoned time by nights rather than by days. The Arabs begin their day at noon. The fashions called English in Paris are called French in London, according to Balzac. Herodotus tells of nations where the men sleep and wake by half years. While John Smith was a captive among the Indians, on one occasion, after washing his hands, a bunch of feathers was offered him to dry them with. Gibbon informs us, that it was an ancient custom in the funerals, as well as the triumphs, of the Romans, to have the voice of praise corrected by that of satire and ridicule. This is from Shakspeare, — "It is a custom More honored in the breach than the observance." This again from the same, "Nice customs curt'sy to great kings." An elegant Roman, meeting a friend, regretted he could not invite him "because my number is complete." It is Shakspeare's discriminating observation, that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man. The Abyssinians do not smoke; this, according to a legend, is because a certain King Johannes made a law that whoever was seen smoking or chewing tobacco should have his lower jaw amputated. Landor, speaking of a certain cannibal tribe in central Africa, said only the men par- took of human flesh, not the women. Hadrian revived the custom of wearing the beard, because, as is thought, he had scars on his face. DEATH 91 DEATH SENECA thinks it a great providence, that we have more ways out of the world than we have ways into it. Rousseau estimated that half the children born into the world die before the eighth year. It was Dean Swift's apprehension, that he, like a certain tree whose upper limbs were beginning to decay, should com- mence to die at the top. The journey of life is thus epitomized by Marcus Aurelius: "Thou hast embarked, thou hast made the voyage, thou hast come to shore; get out." Of one who was hanged, Browning says, "He danced the jig that needs no floor." According to Seneca, there is nothing that nature has made necessary which is more easy than death. Buddha calls death that change which never changes. Death is declared to have been terrible to Cicero, coveted by Cato, and indifferent to Socrates. The old harper, as recorded by Goethe, carried a glass of laudanum to ward off suicide, as he thought the possibility of casting off his load of griefs forever would give him strength to bear them. To carry through great undertakings, it has been thought one should act as though he could never die. Hanging is too good, is in Shakspeare. So again Shakspeare says, — "Thou bear'st thy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee." Ill fares the life, observes Bulwer, that a single death can bereave of all. Goethe's last words were, "More light." Balzac is of the opinion, that people who talk of dying never kill themselves. This from Burns, — "His soul has ta'en some other way, I fear, the left-hand road." 92 LITERARY BREVITIES The oracle of Ammon, when consulted by Pindar as to what is best for man, replied, "Death." What is so uni- versal as death must be a benefit, thought Schiller. The coffin is a favorite birthday present among the Chinese. Our dead are never dead to us, says George Eliot, until they are forgotten. Criminals, when thrown from the Leucadian promontory, were allowed to have live birds attached to them to buoy them up. Cicero thinks the wisest are the ones who die with the greatest resignation. Luther blamed Erasmus for not wishing to be burned at the stake. Blessed Nirvana — sinless, stirless rest, is some one's unique way of designating death. The dying words of Dr. Bircham in " Kenilworth " were, "My last verb is conjugated." I sometimes wonder, remarked Samuel Rogers, how a man can ever be cheerful when he knows he must die. The following is from the poet Campbell, — "To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to die." It was the notion of Dumas, that death does not look so ugly in fine weather; that more people have been brave in August than in December. Balzac speaks of one who had twice said his In manus. Counsellor Hesselts, of the Council of Twelve, used to sleep during the trial of heretics, and when his turn came to vote on a sentence of death, used to cry out, still half asleep, "Ad patibulum" Portia, Brutus's wife, died from swallowing red-hot pieces of charcoal. Beaconsfield asserted, that assassination has never changed the history of the world. Three of our early Presidents — Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe — died on the fourth of July. It was a great matter with the ancients to die decently. Victor Hugo tells of one who spoke a dead language, which was like forcing his thoughts to dwell in a tomb. When Pausanias, fleeing from the DEATH 93 Lacedaemonians, took refuge in a shrine of Minerva, they walled him in and allowed him to starve to death. Juvenal thought old age more to be feared than death. Joseph Jefferson's great grandfather died of laughter on the stage. The dying words of John Quincy Adams were, — "This is the last of earth; I am content." Non omnis moriar, was the confidence of Horace. Petrarch was found dead with his head resting on a book. The Greek astronomer, Eratosthenes, died of voluntary starvation, caused by his regret for the loss of his eye-sight. The ancient Romans usually buried their dead near the great roads. Moliere died while acting one of his comedies. Titian died through accident at the age of ninety-nine. It was William Rufus who said no one ever heard of a king being drowned. Webster's pall-bearers were fisherman farmers, his neighbors. Walter Scott hated funerals, and said he was glad he should not see his own; his father loved to attend funerals. The Roman general Varus, whose army was annihilated by the Germans, committed suicide. Says Landor, "There are no fields of amaranth on this side the grave; there are no voices, O Rhodope, that are not soon mute, however tuneful; there is no* name, with whatever emphasis of passionate love repeated, of which the echo is not faint at last." Tennyson died holding in his hand a volume of Shakspeare, open at a dirge in "Cymbeline." We possess a great man most, remarks Henry James, when we begin to look at him through the glass plate of death. The following is by Anna L. Barbauld, — "Say not Good Night, but in some brighter clime Bid me Good Morning." Robespierre resigned his magistracy on account of repug- nance to passing a capital sentence. Every great head, says Richter, goes to the grave with a whole library of 94 LITERARY BREVITIES imprinted thoughts. Montaigne had great curiosity to know how men died, says George E. Woodberry. Shelley thinks the destiny of man can scarcely be so degraded, that he was born only to die. The ancients dreaded death; the Christians only dreaded dying, observes Hare. Edwin Booth could not grieve at death; it seemed to him the greatest boon the Almighty has given us. James Howell declares, that more men dig their graves with their teeth than with the tankard. Shelley wanted to die, that he "might solve the great mystery." 'Tis living ill that makes us fear to die, remarks some one. Zeno, the philosopher, taught that there are some things, canni- balism for instance, worse than death. At Buddhist funerals, boys carry little cages containing birds, which are released as symbols of the released souls. Nature her- self, thought Thoreau, has not provided the most graceful end for her creatures. Victor Hugo says of Death, — "I will not fear him like the common throng, But deck his scythe with garlands." It is Tolstoy's belief, that at death memory becomes extinct, which he thinks a great mercy. On the surrender of Hasdrubal's army his wife threw herself and her two infants into the flames. DECEIT WE should enjoy little pleasure, Rochefoucauld thinks, were we never to deceive ourselves. Balzac tells us of shrewd bankers and lawyers, with whom the omission of the dot over the letter "i" indicated that what was said in any written document was not meant. Some people want to hunt with the hounds and run with the hare. According to Napoleon's ethics, to promise and DECEIT 95 not keep your promise is the way to get on in the world. Smollett's deceitful woman "now began to glue herself to the man's favor with the grossest adulation." Non trahit esca ficta praedam, is accredited to Jean Voute. Walter Scott is said to have written anonymous reviews of his own books. Bulwer declares, that no gift is rarer or more successful in the intrigues of life than the hypocrisy of frankness. Addison thinks a man's speech is much more easily disguised than his countenance. We are told by some one, that Louis XIV hesitated to carry finesse so far as direct falsehood, and was content to deceive, if possible, without directly lying. Rochefoucauld calls hypocrisy a homage which vice pays to virtue. From his chamber window in England a man saw a kitchen-maid put on a horse and carried around and around the yard. When he later asked the reason for this, he was informed by the groom, that they were about to take the animal to the fair to sell, and they wished to be able to say he had carried a lady. Says Shakspeare, "Let's write good angel on the devil's horn." The same also, "Doing in the figure of a lamb the feats of a lion." And again, "He that is giddy thinks the world turns round." Likewise, "And seem a saint when most I play the devil." Landor is authority for the saying, that it is only a weak wine that sends the cork to the ceiling. Bancroft declares, that nothing deceives like jealousy. This is from Shakspeare, — '"More water glideth by the mill Than wots the miller of." Racine thinks it lawful to deceive deceivers. In business, as Balzac thinks, the moment of danger is that where everything goes to a wish. Pope was eager for the dis- tinction of remarkable precocity, and was insincere enough to alter the dates of some of his writings, in order to 96 LITERARY BREVITIES strengthen his claim. Spenser, Leigh Hunt, and Walt Whitman all wrote criticisms on their own works and pub- lished them anonymously. Voltaire's chief characteristic, according to Carlyle, was adroitness, he being the most adroit of all literary men. Balzac mentions mail-coach owners who set up a sham opposition coach to keep bona fide rivals out of the field. When Van Buren was first elected to congress, Rufus King said of him, "Within two weeks Van Buren will become perfectly acquainted with the views and feelings of every member, yet no one will know his." The tricky lawyer contrived to let his hat fall inside the door of heaven, and got St. Peter's permission to step inside for it. Says Shakspeare, — - "Purblind Argus, all eyes and no sight." Some one has designated Pope as a touchy, moody, intriguing little man, who could hardly drink tea without a stratagem. An old saying is, catch a miller, catch a thief. Macaulay says a reforming age is always fertile in imposters. Those who make themselves feared, says George Sand, always run the risk of being deceived. This from The Spectator, — "She smiled upon one, drank to another, and trod upon the other's foot which was under the table." It is an old saying, that broad thongs are cut out of other people's leather. Goethe asserts, that no one is more a slave than the man who thinks himself free while he is not. Erasmus, when a boy, was caught stealing pears; after descending from the tree he limped off counterfeiting the manner of a poor lame lay brother, who was punished instead of the real culprit. Mark Hopkins, when a student at Wil- liams College, handed in a metaphysical composition half original and half taken bodily from the philosopher Reid. He put quotation marks around his own, but not that of Reid; the professor cut Reid's part all to pieces. DISCRETION 97 DEEDS rr^HIS is from James Shirley, — "Only the actions of the just Smell sweet and blossom in their dust." The following is from Martial, — "Yet, after all, in nothing you excel, Do all things prettily, but nothing well." Charles Kingsley is of the opinion, that actions will pave the way for motives as much as motives do for actions. Shakspeare says, — "My commission Is not to reason of the deed, but do it." DISCRETION THE unwise mouse took up its lodging in a cat's ear. It was Solomon's advice, neither to oppose the mighty nor go about to stop the current of a river. It is easier, says Bulwer, to climb a mountain than to level it. A good maxim is the old one, Quieta non movere. It is Bacon's assertion, that a tortoise on the right path will beat a racer on the wrong path. Apollo recommended his votaries not to rake up a fever by stirring Lake Cama- rina. It is an old dictum, that he who scrubs the head of an ass wastes his soap. A certain one being told that dis- cretion is the better part of valor, remarked, "It is the whole of it in my constitution." Balzac thinks that, for buildings as for men, position does everything. It is an old adage, that if you light a fire at both ends, the middle will shift for itself. Most delicate is the mob-queller's vocation, remarks Carlyle; wherein too much may be as 98 LITERARY BREVITIES bad as not enough. Scott thinks that an admitted nuisance of ancient standing should not be abated with- out some caution. This from Pope, — "For fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Most men, John G. Brooks says, do not put their deepest opinions into print or state them before the public. George Meredith de- clares the axe to be better than decay. Turenne used to say he never spent time in regretting any mistake he had made, but set himself instantly and vigorously to repair it. George Eliot speaks of a keen youngster as one who will never carry a net out to catch the wind. Addison declares, that though a man has all other perfections, and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world. Scott says it is best sitting near the fire when the chimney smokes. John Selden advises wise men to say nothing in dangerous times. Thackeray considers ap- pearances as ruinous as guilt. Who was it that said, "When in doubt, abstain"? The old deacon never made paths until the snow had ceased falling. This aphorism is from Tasso, — "Things done in haste at leisure be re- pented." This one from Balzac, — "You can't have the omelet without breaking the egg." Says Moliere, — "Never full-gorge the hawk you wish to fly." The herd, observes Goethe, does not reflect that where there is no dog it is exposed to wolves. There is a Greek proverb to the effect, that to desire impossibilities is a sickness of the soul. Says Spenser, — "Oft fire is without smoke, And peril without show." Landor declares serenity to be no sign of security. Cheer- fulness out of season, Balzac asserts, is as bad as water poured into a sieve. Prudence, observes Cicero, is the safest shield. An indiscreet man, Addison thinks, is DISCRETION 99 more hurtful than an ill-natured one. The following is from Milton, — "What boots it at one gate to make defense, And at another to let in the foe?" Better an empty house, it has been said, than a bad tenant. Let the night come before we praise the day, is an old proverb. The following is from Schiller, — "For truly is that nation to be feared, That, arms in hand, is temperate in its wrath." This is from the Talmud, — "If a word spoken in its time is worth one piece of money, silence in its time is worth two." Medio tutissimus ibis, is Ovid's advice. This from Tasso, — "For once the steed is stolen, we shut the door too late." From Shakspeare, — "Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow"; "Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour." The strong man is one who does not say all he thinks. Balzac applauds the art of asking questions and saying little. Garrick asserts, that the devil is sooner raised than laid. Balzac speaks of a discreet chevalier who never let fall an epigram that might have closed a house to him. Some one criticises those who eat their white bread first. Racine said he couldn't hunt two hares at once. Heine observes, that the arrow belongs not to the archer when once it has left the bow, and the word no longer belongs to the speaker when once it has passed his lips. He who would travel far, says Racine, should spare his steed. James Howell remarks, that we have each two eyes and two ears, but one mouth. Seneca asks what wind will serve him that is not yet resolved upon his course. Gilbert Stuart, the painter, once had Commodore Hull for a sitter; he was, as usual, boastfully letting off his great social successes, when his 100 LITERARY BREVITIES wife, with a handkerchief on her head, came in from the kitchen, not knowing that a stranger was present, and said, "Did you mean to have that leg of mutton boiled or roasted? " With great presence of mind Stuart replied, "Ask your mistress." Macaulay was ridiculed for his indiscretion in writing to his constituents on Windsor Castle paper. Dante remarks, that the food that is hard we hold in vain to the mouths of sucklings. He is not a fish to be caught without a worm, is from Balzac. The host, while waiting, makes it possible for his guest to weary for his dinner, remarks Scott. Let the fish chew the bait awhile, is quoted from somewhere. There are those with an iron hand in an iron glove, is anonymous. Beware the fury of a patient man, says Dryden. The same bids us beware disturbing a hornet's nest. Some one warns us, — "Though April skies be bright, Keep all your wrappers tight." It is the common infirmity of mankind, declares Machia- velli, in a calm to make no reckoning of a tempest. The Englishman visiting our Cambridge, asked Colonel Hig- ginson if he didn't think it rather a pity that all the really interesting Americans seemed to be dead. Cicero assures us, that the best pilots in great storms are sometimes admonished by passengers. Spoiling the ship for a half- penny worth of tar, is the way the English express false economy. Swift informs us, that every draper at first shows three or four pieces of poor stuff to set off the good ones. DOUBT 101 DISEASE GLADSTONE is authority for the statement, that Homer never mentions diseases at all. Dr. John- son thinks it very difficult for a sick man not to be a scoun- drel. Balzac says sick people never know how sick they are. Caesar, Mahomet, and Napoleon were all epileptics. Cartier found that the Indians near Montreal had a cer- tain decoction that cured scurvy. Some one advises the use of three physicians — Dr. Quiet, Dr. Merriman, and Dr. Diet. DISGRACE BACON, whose lapses from good morals are well known, compared himself to Demosthenes, to Cicero, to Seneca, and to Marcus Livius, all of whom had been condemned for corrupt dealings as he had been, and had all recovered favor and position. DISGUST EXCESSIVE praise, Euripides declares, is apt to breed disgust. Balzac "would not stir that mud- heap." The same again, — "If a dish at table is not to our taste, there is no occasion to disgust others by men- tioning the fact." DOUBT CROMWELL'S epigram is to the effect, that nobody goes so far as the man who does not know where he is going. Examination, observes Balzac, leads to doubt. Shakspeare says it is a wise father that knows his own child. I may be wrong, says Sir George Jessel, and some- times am, but I have never any doubts. This, often 102 LITERARY BREVITIES misquoted, is from Shakspeare, — "But yet I'll make assurance double sure." When in doubt mind your own business, is Elbert Hubbard's counsel. This excerpt is from Horace, — Credat Judaeus Apella. Doubt keeps pace with discoveries, Landor asserts. DRAMA WHAT is Shakspeare's, and what is not, is best de- termined by reading, not by acting; his best is beyond acting; inferior productions are sometimes made by acting. Daudet thinks actors do not die of old age, but that they cease to exist when they no longer command applause. The greatest writers put a little comedy into their tragedy. It is a remark of Coleridge, that Schiller, to produce effect, sets you a whole town on fire, and throws infants with their mothers into the flames, or locks up an old father in a tower; Shakspeare drops a handkerchief, and the same or greater effects follow. The mathe- matical Buxton once went to hear Garrick play; when asked what he thought of Garrick's performance, he re- plied, "I only saw a little man strut about the stage and repeat 5,956 words." Rogers thinks it remarkable that no poet before Shakspeare ever introduced a person walk- ing in sleep. iEgisthus and Clytemnestra are both killed behind the scenes, though their screams are heard by the audience; their corpses are then exposed to the specta- tors. What author besides Shakspeare could write thirty- eight plays without repeating any of his characters? The elder Booth acted Richard III to such perfection, that the audience would hiss. Landor asserts, that a good tragedy shows us that greater men than ourselves have suffered more severely and more unjustly. It is a remark of Seneca, that a player may represent fear, sadness, anger, DRAMA 103 and the like, but can never come to express a blush. When Voltaire was instructing an actress in some tragic part, she said to him, "Were I to play in this manner, sir, they would say the devil was in me." "Very right," answered Voltaire, "an actress ought to have the devil in her." C. F. Richardson claims, that in range Shak- speare passes over the entire field of human nature, in- cluding both sexes, all ages and conditions, noting ethic peculiarities in the Roman plays or the barbaric petulances of the Celt in "Lear." Says the same again, "Leaving out the strictly subordinate characters, there are, in the plays of undoubted Shakspearian authorship, two hundred and forty-six distinctly marked personalities, an intel- lectual product far superior to that accomplished by any other man that ever lived." Lord Buckhurst, of the time of Elizabeth, was the author of "Gorboduc," the first tragedy written in the English language. Schlegel calls iEschylus the Phidias of tragedy. In versification, as in other respects, Shakspeare has clearly marked periods. Not even the gods could decide whether Orestes, by mur- dering his mother, Clytemnestra, in avenging the death of his father, Agamemnon, acted justly. Next to reading the "Agamemnon" of ^Eschylus, I would choose to read what Schlegel says about it. The claim made by some, that Shakspeare allows excellence of versification to cor- respond somewhat to the quality of the characters, is not verified in " Othello " at least, though possibly prose comes chiefly from the mouths of inferior characters. Some read Shakspeare solely for his beauty of diction; some for his excellence in characterization; and still others for his ethical teaching. As in the Greek New Comedy no rep- utable young woman was allowed to come upon the stage, the whole play often turned upon a marriage with, or a passion for, a young woman who was never once seen. 104 LITERARY BREVITIES The true comedy is said always to end in serious marriage. Schlegel declares, that among the French, versification of dramatic poetry was what decided the fate of a com- position. Concerning Corneille's late dramas, Schlegel thought we might as well make a tragedy out of a game of chess. Racine, it is thought, might, like Shakspeare, have excelled in comedy as well as in tragedy, if he had tried it. Coleridge pronounced Kean's acting like reading Shakspeare by flashes of lightning. Sophocles declared that iEschylus did what he ought to do, but did it with- out knowing. The characters of iEschylus, Sophocles, and Shakspeare suffer for their sins; Dry den reforms his bad characters. Symonds defines the drama as that form of art which combines all kinds of poetry in one. Sy- monds confidently asserts, that fifty-three years was sufficient for the complete development of the greatest work of art the world has ever witnessed — the drama as produced by iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. But for the accident of printing, we might now possess but few of the plays of Shakspeare. Cordelia in " Lear " and Ophelia in "Hamlet," though appearing but little, are yet very important and impressive characters. According to Julian Hawthorne, iEschylus may properly be pro- nounced the creator of the drama; he introduced a second actor, thus changing recitation into dialogue; in all his plays it is thought he enacted the part of the hero. The Greek tragic poets, in their work of composition, were rivals and contended for a prize. It may be that Euripides suffers in the estimation of the world, because a large amount of his composition has been preserved, bad and good alike, while only a small part, and probably the best, of the dramas of ^Eschylus and Sophocles has come down to us. In general, iEschylus employed but two actors for each play. Wallenstein, the Austrian hero of the DRAMA 105 Thirty Years' War, and who was defeated at Lutzen by Gustavus Adolphus, has been called the greatest dramatic character in German literature. Shakspeare's downright villains are lago and Richard III. According to Schlegel, Ben Jonson's productions are solid and regular edifices, before which, however, the clumsy scaffolding still re- mains, to interrupt and prevent us from viewing the archi- tecture with ease, and receiving from it a harmonious impression. Lessing wrote his dramas in prose, though his last, "Nathan the Wise," is in verse, and is, on this account, more successful than the prose ones. The Greek dramatists would not use prose even in comedies. Macau- lay thinks the comedy of actual life beyond all comedy; the same thing was said by Le Sage. Symonds calls Antigone the most perfect female character in Greek poetry. There have been five generations of Jeffersons on the stage. Shakspeare and Moliere both acted parts in their own plays. William Winter states, that Pepys first saw women as actors in 1661. It is known that Shak- speare himself played the part of the Ghost in "Hamlet," and that of Adam in "As You Like It." Symonds thinks the Protestant Reformation prepared the way for the Elizabethan drama, just as the Persian wars prepared the way for the Greek drama. To please Charles II, Shak- speare's tragedies were made to end happily. Balzac thinks the real dramas of life are not in circumstances, but in feelings; that they are played in the heart. It is a remark of May Sinclair, that iEschylus left the edges of his tragedies a little rough, and that God leaves them so sometimes when He is making a big thing. Shakspeare created, or touched up, seven hundred characters. Irving played Shylock over one thousand times. Brander Matthews is of the opinion, that Victor Hugo is deficient in the two chief qualities of a great dramatic poet, — in 106 LITERARY BREVITIES the power of creating characters true to nature, and in unfailing elevation of thought. Charlotte Cushman's advice to young Mary Anderson was, "Begin at the top." The practise of calling the author before the curtain seems to have had its inception in the case of Voltaire. Walter Raleigh thinks tragedy inconceivable without happiness for its background. Trollope says crowded audiences generally make good performers. Lamb asserts, that Shakspeare's "Lear" cannot be acted. DREAMS WERE we to dream the same thing every night, Pascal thinks it would affect us as much as the objects we see every day. The same says, "We often dream that we dream." Swift declares the worst of dreams to be, that one wakes in just the humor they leave one in. We are near awakening when we dream that we dream, says Novalis. DUELS JOHN RANDOLPH quarreled with a fellow-student over the pronunciation of a word, fought a duel with him, and killed him. Gourgaud wanted to fight a duel with Walter Scott for his severe treatment of Napo- leon. Among the Romans, instead of resorting to the duel, the two men who were at enmity with each other proved their courage by appearing at the head of the army in the next engagement, to fight against the com- mon foe. George Meredith asserts, that one duel on behalf of a woman is a reputation for her for life; and that two are a notoriety. When Mark Antony chal- lenged Augustus to fight a duel, the latter answered, that if Antony was weary of life, he might find many DUTY 107 other ways to end it than by his sword. Some think men learn the art of fence in vain, if they never show their skill in a duel. DUTY CARLYLE thinks the first duty of man is still that of subduing fear. Southey used to say, that the moment anything assumed the shape of a duty, Cole- ridge felt himself incapable of doing it. The following is from Emerson, — "So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When duty whispers low, 'Thou must/ The youth replies, 'I can.' " It was said of the Athenians, that to do their duty was their only holiday. Some think there is no merit in per- forming one's duty. George Sand declares, that happi- ness is not to be sought anywhere but in the fulfilment of duty. Terence insists, that it is not sufficient to do your duty, but that you must win the world's applause as well. This from Milton, — "Who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best." An incident is related of a man appearing on the field of battle where the Duke of Wellington was; being rebuked for rashness, the man rejoined, "Your grace is in the same danger." "Yes," said the Duke, "but I am doing my duty"; it was just at this moment that a ball struck the unfortunate man dead. "Duty" was Wellington's fa- vorite word; "glory" was Napoleon's. Do thy best, and leave the rest, is a good motto. Bacon defines duty as a word used of a mind well disposed towards others; virtue as a word used of a mind well formed and composed 108 LITERARY BREVITIES within itself. Lafcadio Hearn thinks the true way to attempt an enduring work is to begin it as a duty. Nel- son's last words were, "I have done my duty." It is an aphorism of William Black, that one of the great lessons of life is to learn, not to do what one likes, but to like what one does. Dumas thinks it humiliating to be thanked for doing one's duty. ECONOMY THE common people, observes Balzac, have ten ways of making money, and a dozen ways of spending it. Theodore Parker was said, facetiously perhaps, to be so economical that, for the sav- ing of ink, he would never cross a "t" nor dot an "i." Keep your land, and your land will keep you, is an old piece of advice. When a junior at Harvard, Emerson waited on the juniors' table, at commons, thus paying a part of his board. EDUCATION PUPILS bad in one school are sometimes good when transferred to another. According to the law of apperception, no two persons can have precisely the same idea of anything. Herbert Spencer would never give a child anything it cried for. Goethe disliked grammar ex- ceedingly, and only learned Latin willingly because the first book he studied was in rhyme. The Greeks culti- vated the ear; the Romans the eye. Some children de- velop late, and their parents are unduly anxious about them. Pestalozzi boasted that his son, who had passed his eleventh year, could neither read nor write. Jonathan Edwards practised literary composition as a means of mental culture. If a man reads very hard he will have EDUCATION 109 little time for thought, says R. L. Stevenson. It is the belief of Dr. Harris, that an act is educative when first learned, and then only. Learning is not accumulation, but assimilation, thinks Col. Higginson. Most persons are at some time or other dissatisfied with their educa- tion, though they may be at last convinced that it is, all things considered, good. Greek, sir, said Dr. Johnson, is like lace, — every man gets as much of it as he can. Amiel's slur against the habit of dissecting literature as the schools do, is implied in this: to study the statue minutely, he says, we pulverize it. There's no pause at perfection, says Browning. It is Bulwer's advice, in science to read the newest books, in literature the oldest. Taming a fox takes away his sagacity. Educational reforms often come from those who are not professional teachers. Locke, who had no children, wrote a valuable treatise on how to bring up children. Paracelsus boasted, that he could make a man live four hundred years or more, if he could have the bringing of him up from infancy. When I hear a new book talked about, said Rogers, or have it pressed upon me, I read an old one. I find out what the "best sellers" are, and then read something else. He who knows only his side of the case, knows little of that, says John Stuart Mill. Eupolis said of Socrates, "I hate the beggar, who is eternally talking, and who has debated every question upon earth except where to get his dinner." In managing a bad boy in school, it is worth a great deal to know that the boy's parents are with you. There is no escape from trouble and anxiety in any busi- ness. The best means of forejudging what you are likely to experience next year, is to review the year past. It is a great thing in life, says Weir Mitchell, to learn how to forget wisely. According to Emerson, the one pru- dence in life is concentration; the one evil is dissipation. 110 LITERARY BREVITIES Learning and arms, declares Bacon, have flourished in the same persons and ages. Seneca feared the man of one book. Goethe thought one ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words. Socrates learned to dance when an old man. Safety induces culture, says Browning. According to Aristotle, the mind reaches its prime at the age of forty-nine. Who knows most doubts most, asserts Browning. If a boy is not proficient as a measurer of wood, the farmer thinks him totally ignorant of mathematics. Edward Everett Hale, during his college course, read eighty novels a year. An eminent English judge declared private schools to be poor creatures, and public schools sad dogs. Lord Chesterfield thought nothing so interesting as maps. In the early part of the 17th century, in England, a lawyer, a physician, or a divine was looked upon with surprise if he could not read music and sing. If every man could hit upon his natural calling, geniuses would be more nu- merous than they now are. Music was a favorite recrea- tion with Jefferson. Labor is God's education, says Emerson. Off his own beat, Carlyle's opinions were of no value. The man who has a prodigy of a son thinks every child capable of the same brilliant achievements. There is nothing hard, declares Seneca, but custom makes it easy. According to Browning, 'tis the taught already that profits by teaching. How easy it is for some men, who have forgotten the aspirations of their youth, to ad- vise the confining of common school instruction to the 3 R's! One may know a man that has never conversed in the world, it is said, by his excess of good breeding. It is Richter's rule in Education, that no power should be weakened, but that its counterbalancing power should be strengthened. Bacon thought the educational methods EDUCATION 111 of the Jesuits superior to all others. Carlyle was edu- cated by his father against the advice of friends and neighbors. Balzac criticizes the ordinary imperfect school education, which develops great ambitions and little capacity for realizing them. Garfield thought it wisdom to be fit for more than the thing we are now doing. Professor Woodberry says Hawthorne had early learned the lesson of "doing without." Sciences can be taught, asserts Richter, genius can only be aroused. It is Locke's warning, that he who sinks his vessel by over- loading it, though it be with gold and silver and precious stones, will give the owner but an ill account of his voy- age. The chief advantage of a debating society is, that it offers the occasion of thoroughly studying a definite subject. We grow weak by striking at random, says Landor. As is the case with most men, Locke was dis- satisfied with his education. It is Herbert Spencer's idea, that the aim of education should be to produce a self- governing being. The meaning of culture, says Matthew Arnold, is to know the best that has been thought and said in the world. Goethe declares, that we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply. Fallen pride learns condescension, says Schiller. To be a stu- dent one wants the stimulus of sympathy, remarks George Eliot. Modern education, according to Hamerton, is a beginning of many things, and is little more than a beginning. Euclid told the king there was no royal way to geometry. A certain English lord considered all men uninformed who had not received a university educa- tion. China produced in all nine classics, a knowledge of which still constitutes a liberal education. Dr. John- son is of the opinion, that we oppose what is new, because we are unwilling to be taught. According to Miinster- berg, an American physician opens his office three years 112 LITERARY BREVITIES later than his German colleague of equal education. Montaigne said he could not write so that he could read it himself. Steele ridicules the educators who put you to prove that snow is white. Aristotle was the most learned man among the Greeks; the elder Pliny the most learned among the Romans. Sydney Smith and John Stuart Mill were strenuous advocates of the intellectual culture of women. It is said always to be more work to mine gold than coal. Pestalozzi, in 1764, when eighteen years old, read Rousseau's " Emile " and was inspired by it. It was a saying of Pestalozzi, that gold is not consumed, but purified, by fire. There are many upon whom Pes- talozzi's "Leonard and Gertrude" makes no deep impres- sion. Balzac thinks, that, if Paganini had passed three days without studying, he would have become an ordi- nary violinist. Literature is the teacher's compensa- tion for drudgery; it seasons his daily life with the "sweet serenity of books." Fenelon's delightful book on the "Education of Girls" was originally intended as a set of rules for the government of his little family school. The English statesman, Charles Fox, when he was appointed secretary of state, took lessons in penmanship, because some one ridiculed his handwriting. It has been truly said, that learning is better than house and lands. In the "Upton Letters" we are aptly reminded, that, in edu- cation, it is better to encourage aptitudes than to try merely to correct deficiencies. The dyer's hand, it has been said, is subdued to whatever it works in. Some one wittily ridicules the principle of education which finds out what a boy can't do and then makes him do it. It has been remarked by some one, that in education it matters more which way one's face is set than how fast one proceeds. In the Boston Latin School, at one time, the class was called after the name of the brightest boy EDUCATION 113 in it. We are never done with cutting our eye-teeth, says Lowell. Canon Cureton had a son at Westminster School, and whenever the canon preached too long a sermon, the boys thrashed the son. The lessons we learn when we do not know that we are studying, affirms Henry van Dyke, are often the pleasantest, and not always the least important. Goethe recognizes the high value of his errors. Arlo Bates says each reader must be his own health board in the choice of books. According to H. W. Dresser, all healthful changes are evolutionary, not revo- lutionary. It is James Howell who tells us, that a stumble makes one take a firmer footing. According to Rousseau, a child's characteristics should not be changed; we must make the best of the character nature gives him. It is recorded of a boy, that he was allowed to do any- thing but cross a certain brook. When E. L. Godkin's father took him to a school in England, he made but one stipulation, namely, that his son should never be flogged. The Spectator assures us, that a little negligence can spoil us, but great industry is necessary to improve us. George Eliot asserts, that our deeds determine us as much as we determine our deeds. They are best taught, observes Montaigne, who are best able to censure and curb their own liberty. From Landor we learn, that there is in the moral straits a current from right to wrong, but no reflux from wrong to right. Again Landor says, that the wisest of us have our catechism to learn. Sir Philip Sidney observes, that the mathematician might draw forth a straight line with a crooked heart. Ellen Terry thinks the parts we play influence our characters somewhat. According to Heine, the love of beauty and goodness and magnanimity may often be imparted by education, but a love of sport is in the blood. The chief part of original sin, thought Erasmus, is temptation and 114 LITERARY BREVITIES bad example. He is the best man, according to Xeno- phon, who is always studying how to improve, and he is the happiest who finds that he is improving. Carlyle says a healthy human soul can stand a great deal of rub- bish. John Stuart Mill asserts, that a pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded which he cannot do, never does all he can. We are advised, that it is always safe to learn, even from our enemies; seldom safe to instruct, even our friends. When Emerson was in Harvard, a student was forbidden going to the theatre, on a penalty of ten dollars. We know the consequences of unnecessary physic, says Burke. The last words of old Dr. Adams, a teacher of Edinburgh, when his mind was delirious, were, "But it grows dark, very dark; the boys may dismiss." The over-education of Queen Mary, at a very early age, was injurious in that it produced mel- ancholy in her later life. We read " Paradise Lost " as a task, declares Dr. Johnson. We are informed by Vol- taire, that Pope could hardly read French, and spoke not one syllable of that language. For truly one must learn ere one can teach, is anonymous. It has been estimated that practically one-half the adults of England, ten years after the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria, could neither read nor write. Chesterton speaks of an educated upstart as a man who could quote Beaumarchais, but could not pronounce him. Lord Chatham was an Eton- ian who spoke ill of that famous school; he said he scarcely ever knew a boy who was not cowed for life at Eton. It is a decided relief, amid the usual dryness of pedagog- ical literature, to light upon delectable John Adams, whose discussion of Herbart is as good as a comedy. The first six colleges established in the United States are in order — Harvard, in 1637; William and Mary, in 1692; Yale, in 1701; Princeton, in 1746; Columbia, in 1754; and EDUCATION 115 the University of Pennsylvania, in 1779. Controversial- ists should keep cool; in the moment of passion aroused by unfavorable criticism, they are liable to make sweep- ing assertions which are open to attack by specialists, and thus to subject themselves to ridicule; Sir William Ham- ilton is an example of such an one. The great importance of diffusing a taste for the best in literature is, that who- ever has once appreciated and loved a classic, is ever after- wards in no danger from trash. A grammarian, says Poe, is never excusable on the ground of good intentions. Some persons, Aristotle states, derive a stronger habit from a single impression than from oft-repeated ones. Charles Reade speaks of a man who had everything to learn, except what he had to unlearn. It is said of Bal- zac, that he had a wonderful facility for hurriedly absorb- ing ideas in reading; that his eye embraced six or eight lines at a time; his memory has been likened to a vise. The highest kind of knowledge is not wide, but self-depend- ent, says Miinsterberg. Bacon was glad to light his torch at any man's candle. Macaulay could neither swim nor row nor drive nor skate nor shoot. Kossuth learned English by reading and studying Shakspeare. McCarthy says he never knew another man of the edu- cated class who knew so little of literature as Parnell. Scott, when at school, stood at the middle of his class, a place he was the better contented with, as it chanced to be near the fire. Self-conquest is true victory, asserts Goethe. Until within twenty-one years of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, corporal punishment was in vogue at Harvard College. Speaking of a dis- agreeable character, Heine is led to think of the rose which was always watered with vinegar, and so lost its sweet fragrance and faded early. The same writer thinks the Romans would never have found time to conquer the 116 LITERARY BREVITIES world if they had been obliged first to learn the Latin language. It is a remark of Bliss Perry, that the young man, upon entering his profession, finds himself ranked at once by his power to assimilate the professional experi- ence of older men. If we read too quickly or too slowly, says Pascal, we understand nothing. Gladstone thinks Latin is in great part useful because it is difficult. At the time Prescott was an undergraduate at Harvard, the curriculum there is said to have been of less variety and range than that of a high school at the present time. It is Joubert's opinion, that in the uneducated classes the women are superior to the men; in the upper classes, on the contrary, that the men are superior to the women; and that the reason for this is, because men are more often rich in acquired virtues, and women in natural virtues. Montaigne advises, that the discipline of pain should be part of every boy's education, for the reason that everyone in his day may be called upon to undergo the torture. The value of learning a dead language rather than a living one, declares Latrobe, is, that it is acquired, not in loose conversation, but in reading and analyzing authors who are perfectly correct in their diction. It was Landor's notion, that if a man had a large mind, he could afford to let the greater part of it lie fallow. Culture, says Matthew Arnold, is properly described as having its origin, not in curiosity, but in the love of perfection. It was the rule of the Jesuits, that after an application to study for two hours, the mind of the student should be unbent by some relaxation. It was Adam Smith's belief, that the most grateful and soothing amusement of old age is a renewal of the acquaintance with the favorite authors of one's youth. Until the year 1773, the stu- dents' names appeared in the Harvard catalogue in the order of social standing. According to Matthew Ar- EDUCATION 117 nold, culture begets a dissatisfaction which is of the high- est possible value in stemming the common tide of men's thoughts in wealthy and industrious communities. In the simpler school life of earlier times, John Fiske reminds us, there were not so many subjects to be half-learned as there are now. Pascal points out the fact, that there are no two square numbers one of which is double the other. May Sinclair, referring to the speech of a certain cold- blooded person, says every sentence sounded as though it had been passed through a refrigerator. German is an open sesame to a large culture, remarks Lowell. When one wearies from physical exertion, observes Dr. Way- land, he is warned in time to desist, but weariness from overwork of the mind is far more dangerous, because then the weariness is often not perceptible until it is too late. Even a Latin school dunce is declared to be different from any other dunce. When girls were first admitted to the Boston High School, it was, by vote of the school board, to occupy the seats made vacant by the boys in summer only, when many of the boys were kept at home to work. Richelieu, with some horror, imagines what a state would be, if all its subjects were learned men. The Admirable Crichton, late in the 16th century, amazed the Venetian senate by an eloquent harangue on the absurdity of edu- cation. Talleyrand said of the English public school education, "It is the best I have ever seen, and it is abominable." It is Professor Woodberry's idea, that to turn a boy loose in a library is to give him the best of all opportunities — the opportunity for self-education. Henry James speaks of certain people who read novels as an exercise in skipping. Our religion, education, and even our fears, declares Dresser, are prepared for us by other minds. It is a great mistake to think that boys should understand all they learn, says Dr. Arnold. After 118 LITERARY BREVITIES Wordsworth and Coleridge had failed to get the collar off the horse's head, the servant girl showed them how, by turning it upside down. To aid her in playing Ophelia, Ellen Terry used to go to a madhouse and study the subjects there. Scarcely any person, says Macaulay, has become a great debater without long practise and many failures. Thackeray speaks of certain arguments of a woman for which "she had chapter and verse." Whatever you study, asserts Hamerton, some one will consider that particular study a waste of time. Much depends upon when and where we read a book, observes Lamb. Read the best books first, insists Thoreau, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. Assuredly we spend too much labor and outlay in preparation for life, remarks Goethe. According to William James, we can see no farther into a generalization than just so far as our previous acquaintance with particulars enables us to take it in. In college, the women do as well as the men, says President Jordan, but not in the university. Some one has remarked, that Bayard Taylor had traveled more and seen less than any man on earth. Young sol- diers, in the Roman camp, learned to use their weapons by fencing against a post in the place of an enemy. Dr. Johnson thinks the most successful students make their advance in knowledge by short flights, between which the mind lies at rest. Democritus, we are told, put out his eyes in order that he might philosophize better. There is not much satisfaction in listening to a German play where you understand but the one word "ja." Ed- ward Everett Hale once asked his father why, when he was at Williams College, he studied Hebrew in addition to Greek and Latin; his father replied, that there was nothing else to study. Hawthorne, speaking of the poet Tupper, said that he was so entirely satisfied with himself EDUCATION 119 that he took the admiration of all the world for granted. The strongest leg, says Ibsen, is that which stands most alone. The Greek word for school means leisure. In the Scriptures we read, that much study is a weariness of the flesh. Popular enlightenment is not everything; it is indispensable to the perpetuity of a republic. When Franklin visited London, circulating libraries were un- known there. It is Addison's declaration, that the mind that lies fallow but a single day sprouts up in follies that are only to be killed by constant and assiduous culture. Only evil grows of itself, while for goodness we want effort and courage, asserts Amiel. Sowing one's wild oats originally meant that noxious and ineradicable weeds would spring up later on. Theodore Parker thought the common school of America the cradle of all her great- ness. It is the height of wisdom to seek constant improve- ment, however foolish it may be to aim at perfection. Good morals and knowledge, says Hume, are almost always inseparable in every age, though not in every in- dividual. After reading Gibbon's " Rome," one is not the same man he was before. The best way to do away with cheap literature is to do away with the demand for it by educating the people to higher tastes. In all other pleasures, says Bacon, there is satiety, but in knowledge there is no satiety. Every adult citizen of the United States should read The Federalist. The product of na- ture is an animal, and not a civilized man. Our selfish- ness often in the end proves altruistic; since the more we improve ourselves the greater our influence for good over others. Bancroft remarks, that our fathers of the Revo- lution, in a few of the states, conceived the correct idea of binding up their public schools in their public life, instead of merely doling out a bounty to the poor. Haz- litt affirms, that knowledge is pleasure as well as power. 120 LITERARY BREVITIES It is a dictum of Herbert Spencer, that the child must be armed against the future. The best protection the rich man has in the peaceful possession of his goods is in the education of the poor, who are thereby taught to respect the rights of others' property. In the Talmud it is stated, that when a man teaches his son no trade, it is as if he taught him highway robbery. General enlight- enment counteracts despotism and centralization, and dethrones physical power. It is by the government and education of himself, asserts Cousin, that a man is great. What is educated for the age, Richter insists, is worse than the age. Weir Mitchell thinks books should be labeled to be read at this or that age. If the views of educators are to be taken seriously, the education of girls, who are to become the mothers of the future genera- tions, is of the first importance. It is Herbert Spencer's idea, that the function which education has to discharge is to prepare us for complete living. Says Carlyle, "That there should one man die ignorant who had capacity for knowledge, this I call a tragedy." Education, as some one states, attempts to change what is into what ought to be. Allen Cunningham declares, that the educa- tion we miss in youth we rarely obtain in age. It is astonishing, remarks Scott, how far even half an hour a day regularly bestowed on one object will carry a man in making himself master of it. Senator Hoar believed that self-government with universal suffrage could not be maintained long in a Northern state, or in any coun- try in the world, without ample provision for education. Education has been called another nature. Difficulties, some one observes, make our minds strong, as toil does our bodies. To instruct woman, remarks Hamerton, is to instruct man. It is said to be easy to follow the animal or the intellectual life — difficult to combine the EDUCATION 121 two. Pestalozzi declares the animal man to be the work of nature, the social man to be the work of society, but the moral man must be the work of himself. The nobil- ity of France in the time of Diderot opposed the educa- tion of the peasant, on the ground that, if he knew how to read, it would be more difficult to oppress him. Haw- thorne thought the world was accumulating too many materials for knowledge, that we do not recognize as rubbish what is really rubbish. It is Poe's notion, that happiness is not in knowledge, but in the acquisition of knowledge. John Adams, the writer on pedagogy, thinks education makes a greater difference between man and man, than nature has made between man and brute. 'Tis early practise only makes the master, says Schiller. From the age of twelve the Spartan boy had to go bare- foot, summer and winter; his only mental culture was in music and poetry. The Roman Empire, made up of many nationalities, very much as our nation is, had no system of popular education like ours to unify and nation- alize it. Voltaire decries giving a Lacedaemonian educa- tion to a child destined to live in Paris. Those who are denied the higher gratifications, states Herbert Spen- cer, fall back upon the lower. There is no darkness but ignorance, is Shakspeare's. Montesquieu states, that the first motive which ought to impel us to study, is the desire to augment the excellence of our nature, and to render an intelligent being yet more intelligent. Every day is lost, declares Beethoven, in which we do not learn something useful. Better to be a human being dissatis- fied, says J. S. Mill, than a pig satisfied; better be Soc- rates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. There is as much difference, some one has observed, between a lettered and an unlettered man as between the living and the dead. Learning gives men a true sense of their frailty, according 122 LITERARY BREVITIES to Bacon. The trials of school are among the most effec- tive influences in forming after character. If a father had not taught his son some art or profession, Solon relieved the son from all obligation to maintain him in old age. Knowledge always increases; it is like fire, which must be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself, Dr. Johnson de- clares. Down to the generation just preceding Socra- tes, nothing was taught to Grecian youth except to read, to remember, to recite musically and rhythmically, and to comprehend poetical composition, — this according to Grote. It is a saying of Goethe, that the art of right living is like all arts; the capacity alone is born with us; it must be learned and practised with incessant care. If my children are to die out of the course of nature before their parents, declared Sir Thomas More, I would rather they died well instructed than ignorant. Tolstoy says it is difficult to hinder parents from bringing up their children to be different from what they are themselves. George Moore thinks it the first law of life to discover our best gifts from nature and to cultivate those gifts. The greatest and most important difficulty of human science is the education of children, thinks Montaigne. Socrates never aspired to the laurels of authorship, says Dr. North; he was content to be an oral teacher. When appointed professor of anatomy and physiology at Har- vard, Dr. Holmes said he occupied, not a chair in the college, but a settee. Better saw wood, said Emerson, better sow hemp, better hang with it after it is sown, than sow the seeds of instruction. "The schoolmaster is abroad," that is, is everywhere at work. When a teacher in Watertown, Theodore Parker once kept a boy after school for punishment, but the boy looked so much like his sister, a lovely girl with whom Parker used to read EDUCATION 123 and take long walks, that he kissed the little reprobate and let him go. Probably no profession offers at once so good an opening for the impecunious college graduate as teaching. Racine was savage in his denunciation of his college instructors. When Eliot was made presi- dent of Harvard, Lowell wrote to Norton, "We have a real captain at last." It is not knowledge, says Matthew Arnold, that we have to teach, but the means of gaining knowledge. A wise questioning has been called the half of knowledge. The teacher, if sufficiently introspective, must often find the apparent disorder and restlessness of the school only the reflection of his own moodiness. When Tyndall told Carlyle of his intention to address a large boys' school, Carlyle warned him not to tell them anything which was not true. John Wesley's mother, who had nineteen children, was a severe disciplinarian, and in particular taught her children to "cry softly." A man once undertook to teach Sanskrit, of which language he knew nothing; he said he used to learn as much be- fore breakfast as he could teach between ten and twelve; and that he allowed no one to ask questions. Henry van Dyke asserts, that life has no finer lesson to teach than how to leave off. It is Hare's advice, that they who have children to educate should keep in mind that boys are to become men and that girls are to become women. In matters of discipline, Dr. Arnold almost always con- sulted his associate teachers. Dr. Arnold taught prin- cipally by questioning; he seldom gave information except as a kind of reward for an answer; his explanations were as short as possible. Some one wittily alludes to a teacher who explained a thing by something less known. Stonewall Jackson, when an instructor at the Lexington Military Institute, once criticized a student's solution of a certain problem; afterwards, having become con- 124 LITERARY BREVITIES vinced that he himself had been wrong, he walked a mile in the rain to apologize to the boy for his mistake. Socrates was accustomed to ask questions, but did not answer them, professing not to know. Dionysius took lessons in geometry from Plato; they formed their figures in sand spread on the floor. A schoolmaster, some one has observed, is a man who does not take the voyage of life himself, but stands on the gangway of the steamer to pass those along who are going to take it. From the poet Thomson we have, "to teach the young idea how to shoot." Erasmus speaks of some of his teachers as being "destructive of good intellects." In China, on rainy days, the teacher is expected to carry the children to school on his back, that they may not spoil their clothes and make their mothers trouble. Mencius declares, that the ancient Chinese exchanged sons, and one taught the son of another. There is said to be in China classical author- ity against having a son taught by his father. A girl said to her teacher, "I can do and understand this perfectly, if you only won't explain it." When, after the Peace of Dresden, Frederick the Great returned to Berlin, his first thought was to visit his old schoolmaster, De Jandun, who was at the point of death. In Bronson Alcott's school, when a bad child would make a noise, he would shake a good one, thus punishing the bad one by allowing him to see a good one suffer; sometimes he would even punish himself. All methods of teaching are good and all are bad, says Tolstoy; the talent and ability of the teacher are at the foundation of any method. A good pupil, says Turgenieff, perceives the errors of his teacher, but he respectfully holds his peace about them, for those very errors are of service to him and direct him in the right way. Huxley is called the father of modern lab- oratory instruction. Emerson gave his boys a holiday EDUCATION 125 on the occasion of Webster's address at Bunker Hill; he was afterwards much chagrined to find that not one of them went to hear the great orator. In teaching, it is said to be wiser often to suggest to the imagination than to satiate it. It was a chief accusation of Socrates against the Sophists, that they taught for money. A great deal of knowledge, says Howells, comes from doing, and a a great deal more from doing over. Confucius would teach only bright pupils; he used to declare, that when he had presented one corner of a subject and the listener could not from it learn the other three, he would not repeat the lesson. The art of spoiling, declares George Eliot, is within the reach of the dullest faculty. At the age of twenty John Adams was a schoolmaster. Lady Cummings, who lived near a boys' school in Edinburgh, sent a request that the master should not have the boys all flogged at once, as the noise of the concord was really dreadful. It is Dr. Johnson's slight dig at pedagogy, that while a teacher is considering which of two things he should teach a child first, another boy has learned them both. There are teachers who can make any subject interesting to their pupils. Landor observes, with but little truth it would seem, that men have seldom loved their teachers. The teacher's motto is, — "God makes, man shapes." Sir William Hamilton used to assert, that a man never knows anything until he has taught it in some way, whether orally or by writing a book. The Germans thought Pes- talozzi understood man better than men. Dussault said Pestalozzi took a world of trouble to teach a child that his nose was in the middle of his face. If Alexander was the Great, says Landor, what was Aristotle who made him so, and taught him every art and science he knew, except three — those of drinking, blaspheming, and of murdering his bosom friends? A graduate of Harvard, 126 LITERARY BREVITIES when asked his impression of the very liberal elective system permitted there, declared his mistake to have been in selecting subjects instead of men. Some of the most valuable pedagogical precepts have emanated from mor- ally defective characters who, like Rousseau, would in any civilized age be regarded as personally unfit to teach youth. It is sometimes belittling to a man of high lit- erary, intellectual, and moral character to be president of an American college, where, with the student body, neither goodness nor greatness is sacred. According to William James, psychology is a science, and teaching is an art; and he says sciences never generate arts directly out of themselves; that the science of logic never made a man reason rightly, and the science of ethics never made a man behave rightly. Dr. Johnson says a historical fraud lies against any biographer who does not name the school or the masters of men illustrious for literature. Senator Hoar, in explaining the fact that in earlier times a prominent New England lawyer or clergyman was often as famous at thirty as ever afterwards, declares it to have been in large part due to the personality of the college instructor. Miinsterberg insists, that all instruc- tion which is good must be interesting. The same says of his education, "I had from my ninth year no teacher who had not completed three years' work in a graduate school." Dr. Johnson once taught a private school and had David Garrick for a pupil. Some one has said, that there are virtues which only misfortune can teach us. Luther counts it one of the highest virtues upon earth, to educate faithfully the children of others, which so few, and scarcely any, do by their own. Emerson kept a school for a time at Cambridge; one of his pupils was John Holmes, a brother of Oliver Wendell. John Holmes thought Emerson seemed like a captive phi- EDUCATION 127 losopher set to tending sheep. Your born teacher, says Bliss Perry, is as rare as a poet, and as likely to die young. Voltaire says of a certain teacher, "What pains he takes to tell us what everybody knows." Washington's first schoolmaster was a bondman. Montaigne, who con- sidered Seneca and Plutarch as his two chief teachers, thought discipleship to be the most efficient kind of praise. It was greatly to the discredit of Socrates that he had been the teacher of Alcibiades and Critias. It was said of Dr. Young, author of " Night Thoughts," that he used to explain a thing till all men doubted it. Seneca was the teacher of Nero, as Socrates had been of Alci- biades. The faults of teachers, declares George Wash- ington Moon, if suffered to pass unreproved, soon become the teachers of faults. Old teachers, George Sand says, do not like to see their pupils appear to understand faster than they do themselves. The most successful teachers are those who make friends and companions of their pupils. Jeremy Taylor and Carlyle both detested teaching; the latter said it was better to die than keep a school. No- body can be taught faster than he can learn, declares Dr. Johnson. Dr. Buckland, lecturer at Oxford, on the birth of his son Frank planted a birch, for he was deter- mined that his son should be well brought up. Amiel thinks we must learn to read the childish soul as we might a piece of music. To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching. According to Herbert Spencer's phi- losophy, no intellectual power can become too great, but every moral faculty needs to have its boundaries fixed. How many men are lost for want of being touched to the quick, observes Seneca. Balzac declares, that natural intelligence never takes the place of what men learn from their mothers. The polisher, says Browning, needs precious stone no less than precious stone needs 128 LITERARY BREVITIES polisher. Balzac thinks the most dangerous of all instruc- tion is bad example. There were men at Rome who taught people how to chew. Whenever a young man became Jorden's pupil he became his son, says Dr. John- son. Lycurgus resolved the whole business of legisla- tion into the bringing up of children. It is Herbert Spencer's idea, that the end of education is to elevate above the age. Pestalozzi calls mothers the ideal edu- cators. Mlinsterberg believes that the really good teacher needs many gifts and qualities which may be ab- sent in great scholars. By continuing to teach music, says Rousseau, I insensibly gained some knowledge of it. Dr. Harris calls Isaac Newton a perpetual school- master to the race. Boswell tells us that Dr. Johnson had the happy art of instructing himself by making every man he met tell him something of what he knew best. The man who has no children of his own can al- ways tell just how to bring up children. The faculty of Harvard made Brook Farm a favorite place for rusti- cated students. It is easier, says the Spanish proverb, to keep the devil out than to turn him out. It is within the experience of most teachers to have a former pupil ask for a recommendation of good character, to aid him in obtaining a business situation; some of these letters, relating to students with shady school records, are signif- icant for what they do not say. It is not enough for the teacher to know the right precepts and philosophy of his profession; he must live with and practise them long before they can become through him an efficient power. It was a wise injunction of Richter, never to tell your children that other children are ill brought up. A good rider makes a good horse, says Eugene Sue. The direc- tion of the mind, thinks Joubert, is more important than its progress. The same author says, to teach is to learn EDUCATION 129 twice over. It is the doctrine of Herbert Spencer, that intellectual progress is from the concrete to the abstract. Richter calls repetition the mother of education. Edu- cators are generally one-sided in their professional views, illustrating the truth of Goethe's remark, that few persons know how to comprehend a whole. Carlyle tells of one Adam Hope, an old teacher of his time in Annan, who after allowing a boy to indulge in a sham of knowledge, "re- duced him to zero and made him fast," to think his way rationally out of his error. Landor declares that Aris- totle makes you learn more than he teaches. Tennyson read Job in the Hebrew; he was fond of Beethoven. When Charles Sumner first visited Washington, he called upon Chancellor Kent, finding his conversation lively and instructive, but grossly ungrammatical. Emerson, like Hawthorne, was not distinguished for scholarship while in college. Emerson made his acquaintance with foreign authors chiefly through translations; he so read two of his favorites, Plato and Montaigne, but, according to Dr. Holmes, he read all of Goethe in the original, though with some difficulty. "When I was at Eton," says Gladstone, "we knew very little indeed, but we knew it accurately." Lockhart informs us, that Burns seemed to have the poets by heart. At one period of his life Burns carried a pocket Milton with him constantly. Ben Jonson said Shakspeare had little French and no Latin. Plutarch, a Greek of the first century a.d., learned Latin late in life. Madame Roland believes, that there are minds that have no need of cultivation. Prescott, the historian, was no mathematician; he used to memo- rize all his mathematical demonstrations without any understanding of the reasoning. Madame Geoffrin's education was limited to learning to read, paying no atten- tion to spelling; she read a great deal. Benson speaks 130 LITERARY BREVITIES of a man full to the brim of uninteresting information. The same says a man may become a mere book-eater, as he may become an opium-eater. Why should a teacher feel obliged to publish something in order to gain profes- sional prestige? It has been observed by some one, that if he had read as many books as other men, he would be as ignorant as they. Shakspeare's mother could not write her own name. The Duke of Wellington remarked of a certain peer, that it was a pity his education had been so far too much for his abilities. John Hay informs us, that Spanish girls have scarcely any education what- ever; that they throw themselves, in orthography, entirely upon our benevolence. Balzac had a fine library and was a great reader. Mrs. Browning studied Greek and German with her brother. Haydon laughs at Sir Thomas Lawrence's lack of scholarship, alluding in particular to his calling Olympias, the mother of Alexander, Olympia. Crothers is of the opinion, that pedantry is a well-recog- nized compound, two-thirds sound learning and one-third harmless vanity. In the introduction to " Evelina," the editor declares that Mme. D'Arblay's English was never very secure, because it was not based on Latin. Bacon is said to have known very little Aristotle. Dr. Johnson calls classical quotation the parole of literary men the world over. We all at length come to have our own pref- erence as to the spelling of such proper names as Virgil and Shakspeare. Petrarch and Boccaccio both studied Greek under Leonzio Pilato. When everybody was igno- rant, half-knowledge served very well, some one has observed. Stanley Hall tells of two pedagogues of the 13th century who fought a duel for the right spelling of a word. It is worthy of remark, that none of Shakspeare's women are learned. Huxley learned Greek late in middle life, that he might see for himself just what Aristotle said EDUCATION 131 about the chambers of the heart, and also that he might read the New Testament in the original. Frederick the Great never learned to punctuate what he wrote, and spelled wretchedly. Of the severe scholarship of the humanist Valla, some one wittily remarked, that since he went among the shades, Pluto himself has not dared to speak in the ancient languages. A propos of accurate scholarship, Joubert observes, that we only become correct by correcting. Plato knew no language but Greek. Hazlitt declares, that a dunce may talk on the Kantian philosophy with great impunity, but if he opened his mouth on any other subject he might be found out. It was characteristic of Macaulay, that he showed a min- ute knowledge of subjects not introduced by himself. We are told that Shakspeare's second daughter was too illiterate to write her name. Macaulay said he did not feel the lack of the honor of being a senior wrangler, but did regret his want of a senior wrangler's knowledge of mathematics. The great literary lights have rarely been masters of more than one language. It is recorded of Sir Isaac Newton, that, though so deep in algebra and fluxions, he could not readily make up a common account. Professor Peck says it is only a servant-maid who makes a poor pen an excuse for her bad spelling. A good way to test a man's culture is to get him to read aloud. John Bunyan, the Prince of Orange, and Napoleon Bonaparte were all notoriously bad spellers. Leigh Hunt, it was said, never mastered the multiplication table. Dr. John- son said Goldsmith's utmost knowledge of zoology was to tell a horse from a cow. To obtain prominence as a scholar, one must be a specialist. The elder Pitt, his sister often said, knew nothing accurately except Spen- ser's " Faerie Queene." Dante knew no Greek. When the versatile Lord Brougham was made Lord Chancellor, 132 LITERARY BREVITIES O'Connell said of him, "If he knew a little law, he would know a little of everything." Shakspeare tells of some one who could not take two from twenty for his heart and leave eighteen. General Herkimer, who spoke Eng- lish badly, could not spell his own name twice alike, we are told. Solid learning, Bacon asserts, prevents vain admiration, which is the root of all weakness. Robert Burton is declared by Felix Adler to be the best read man who has ever lived. Locke's theory of becoming learned was to pursue a single subject for a considerable length of time. Joan of Arc was unable to write. Huxley, though not a university man, had a mastery of Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and German. Aristotle took all knowledge for his province. While Huxley was an omnivorous reader, Herbert Spencer read but little. Concern- ing the fact that Rubens spoke seven languages, some one has said, that to speak seven languages is to speak no one well. The man of imagination without learning, asserts Joubert, has wings and no feet. A wide scholar- ship, some one has observed, turns into knowledge of the places where knowledge is. Lichtenberg, a professor at Gottingen, declared that he never knew his own lan- guage until he had learned another. Walter Scott spoke no foreign language, but read Spanish and Italian. Bea- consfield said there was no subject which Lord Brougham knew thoroughly. Macaulay defined a scholar as one who reads Plato with his feet on the fender. Macaulay asserts, that in Europe during the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, not one man in five hundred could have spelled his way through a psalm. Tennyson studied "Don Quixote" in the original. In bad orthogra- phy, Andrew Jackson quite outdid the Prince of Orange and Napoleon; on a single page of a letter he was known to spell "which" in three different ways. If thou seest aught EDUCATION 133 amiss in another, mend it in thyself, says some writer. Your power over others will be in great measure propor- tionate to your power over yourself. Herbert Spencer thinks inconsistency one of the worst errors in education. According to William Beckford, disagreeable things are the most salutary. Seneca declares, that nature does not give virtue; and that it is a kind of art to become good. According to Plutarch, it was a saying of Brutus, that the person has had but an ill training who has not been taught to deny himself anything. A bad pupil often might be managed more successfully if he came in contact with only one teacher. It has been asserted by some one, that he is not well bred, who cannot bear ill breeding in another. The child's ear readily distinguishes a decided from an angry tone of voice, is the observation of Richter. The same also observes, that it is not the badness of examples, but their long continuance, that injures children. Bad home influences often render the moral improvement of pupils difficult. In rare cases, bad examples have a good effect. Seneca made the great mistake of governing Nero always on the ruinous prin- ciple of concession. Locke treated education under four heads, — virtue, wisdom, manners, and learning, and considered the last mentioned least important of them all. Montaigne would keep woman ignorant, on the pre- text that instruction would mar her natural charms. It is Seneca's idea, that it is good for every man to fortify himself on his weak side. The test of every religious, polit- ical, or educational system, is the man which it forms, says Amiel. The most gifted minds, when they are ill educated, become preeminently bad, according to Plato. Self-conquest, says Goethe, is true victory. Happy are they that hear their detractions and can put them to mend- ing, is a wise saying of Shakspeare. Homer explains 134 LITERARY BREVITIES Dolon's badness by the fact that he was a brother brought up among sisters only; Oliver Cromwell was a sole brother having seven sisters. Shakspeare thinks best men are moulded out of faults. Such was Grieg's dislike for school, that he would stand in the rain till he was soaked to the skin, so that the teacher would be obliged to send him home. Which is better, to present examples of ex- cellence to be revered, or of depravity to be avoided? Balzac wisely remarks, that it takes time for the undevel- oped man to discover that his own interests demand a measure of regard for the interest of his fellows; that the education of humanity is laborious and only to be achieved by infinite patience. Fathers are generally said to be wont to put their better minds into counsels to their sons. Bayard Taylor, when a lad, was surfeited with the Quaker idea of the wrongfulness of all kinds of oaths; the result, as often happens in such cases, was to give him an irrepressible desire to swear; to give vent to this desire, he once went to a retired spot and used freely all the "wicked words" he could command. The greatness of Frederick the Great, declares Sainte-Beuve, was shown in learning through trials. If a stick is held in front of a flock of sheep and the bell-wether leaps over it, all the rest vault in like manner even after the stick has been removed. It was the notion of Democritus, that more men become good by rule and discipline than by nature. Lowell thinks it good to be obliged to do what we don't like. EGOTISM THACKERAY liked to hear people talk about them- selves. The self -acknowledged brilliancy of some writers is matched in the man mentioned by Horace, who boasted that he could compose two hundred verses while ELOQUENCE 135 standing on one leg. Lord Selbourne wished he was as sure of anything as Tom Macaulay was of everything. Goethe observes of a certain man, that he was "at one with himself" on a certain subject. Beaconsfield regards the author who speaks of his own books almost as bad as the mother who talks about her own children. Mrs. Craigie warns one not to shoot tame canaries and think himself a sportsman. Some one writes, — "I go first; my name's Jowett; I am the master of Balliol college; Whatever' s worth knowing, be sure that I know it; Whatever I don't know is not knowledge." A certain writer of a bad dictionary put on the title page, "First edition." ELOQUENCE WE are told that Fox foresaw the weaker parts of the argument that would be opposed to him, and that he always learned his replies. Burke was called the "dinner bell," from his tendency, when speaking, to scatter his audiences in the House of Commons. A reporter said of a certain Irish member of Parliament, noted for his long dull speeches, that he could not say what o'clock it was under two columns. Lord Chatham was accustomed to read in Bailey's Dictionary when pre- paring to speak in Parliament. Lord Bute, for effect, spoke slowly and made long pauses between sentences; at which Charles Townshend on one occasion cried out, "Minute guns." Speaking of Channing, Theodore Par- ker declared diffuseness to be the old Adam of the pulpit; that there are two ways of hitting a mark, — one with a single bullet, the other with a shower of small shot; that Channing chose the latter, as most pulpit orators do. According to Macaulay, nothing strikes an audience 136 LITERARY BREVITIES so much as the animation of an orator who is gen- erally cold. Pericles made no gestures; Wendell Phil- lips but rarely. When Sir George Murray complained that he should never be able to get on with speaking in the House of Commons, Wellington gave him this piece of advice: "Say what you have to say, don't quote Latin, and sit down." Aristotle's three sources of persuasion are: Personal character of speaker, right mood of hearers, and argument. Seneca says of a certain orator, "Every- one, while he was speaking, feared lest he should stop." According to Emerson, all the great speakers were bad speakers at first. Longfellow's Boston friends used to say he was the only American citizen born since the Declaration of Independence who positively could not make a speech on any subject. Blaine affirms, that Webster's speech in reply to Hayne in 1830 was an amend- ment to the constitution; that it corrected traditions, changed convictions, and revolutionized conclusions. The inability of the Spartan envoys to speak in a public as- sembly put them to a great disadvantage when treating with the Athenians. It is reported of Isaac Barrow, Newton's predecessor in the chair of mathematics at Cambridge, that he could preach, with grave and copious eloquence, for three hours at a time. John Bright once said of Charles Wood's speech, that it contained some good things, that it would be impossible for any man to speak for three hours without saying some good things. The English cry of "Hear, hear," in a public assembly, originally meant disapproval of the speaker's sentiments. It is said of Cassius Severus that he spoke best ex tempore ; that he stood more obliged to fortune than to his own diligence; that it was an advantage to him to be inter- rupted in speaking; and that his adversaries were afraid to nettle him, lest his anger should redouble his eloquence. ELOQUENCE 137 Jonathan Edwards imitated Pericles in using gestures sparingly. O'Connell observes, that a good speech is a good thing, but that the verdict is the thing. Demos- thenes was wont to walk alone, collecting his arguments, arranging his sentences, and uttering them aloud. Pope never could speak in public; he was even incapable of giving an account of any story to twelve friends together. Jefferson was a wretchedly poor speaker. Henry van Dyke thinks great orators are seldom great talkers. Gar- rick could draw tears from his auditors by merely repeat- ing the alphabet. Of some one Le Sage remarks, "His words flow like a gutter after a hailstorm." Macaulay thinks a little hesitation at the beginning of a speech is graceful. With inimitable force and diction, Shak- speare says, "She speaks poniards, and every word stabs." Hampden always spoke late in the debate. Isocrates, whom Cicero calls "the father of eloquence," was himself a poor speaker, but taught eloquence and made speeches for delivery by others. "Did I deliver the speech well?" said George III, after opening the session of Parliament. "Very well, sir," said Lord Eldon. "I am glad of it," replied the king, "for there was nothing in it." Demos- thenes did not speak ex tempore, but prepared his speeches with great care. It is Milton who speaks of "that old man eloquent," a sobriquet that has been applied to John Quincy Adams. Addison once rose in debate in the House of Commons, but owing to bashfulness broke down; he was ever afterwards silent in that body. The poet Whittier never spoke in public. Truth and accu- rate definition are, according to Socrates, the two first requirements in good speaking. According to Emer- son's definition, eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak. Lysias wrote a defense for a man who 138 LITERARY BREVITIES got tired of it upon several re-readings. Weir Mitchell is authority for the statement, that Bishop Brooks habit- ually spoke, when preaching, two hundred ten words to the minute. I have often observed, says Macaulay, that a fine Greek compound is an excellent substitute for a reason. Sheridan once said of a certain speech, "It contains a good deal of what is new and what is true; but unfortunately what is new is not true, and what is true is not new." Philip remarked of one of the eloquent orations of Demosthenes, " Had I been there he would have persuaded me to take up arms against myself." Racine represents a tiresome advocate as beginning, "Before the creation of the world," when he is interrupted by the judge with, — "Advocate, let us pass on to the deluge." Cicero confessed that he always entered upon an oration with trembling and concern, and thought every good speaker did so. Hear Milton in this, "Thy words with grace divine infused, bring to their sweetness no satiety." The old deacon, who was deaf, told the young preacher to "speak the text up loud"; although he should not be able to follow the discourse, yet if he knew a young man's text he knew what he was going to say. Macaulay asserts, that nearly every eminent debater makes himself master of his art at the expense of his audiences. Charles Fox, when in Parliament, spoke every night but one, and regretted that he had not spoken that night. Shak- speare must have had the bombastic elocutionist in mind when he wrote, — "The empty vessel makes the great- est sound." Caius Gracchus had his Licinius carry a pitch-pipe, to warn him when he was getting too vocif- erous. The truest eloquence, observes Bulwer, is that which holds us too mute for applause. The tone of voice will affect the wisest and change the whole force of a speech or a poem, says Pascal. The Socratic sermon ELOQUENCE 139 was addressed to the individual man. Landor thinks Parliamentary speakers of most eminence are superfi- cial in scholarship; he denominates as eloquence that which moves the reason by working on the passions. St. Chrysostom's audiences used to cheer him when he preached. Senator Hoar refers to the statement of some one, that the fact that a speech reads well is proof that it is not a good speech. It has been estimated, that the voice of George Whitefield, the great evangelist, could be heard distinctly by an audience of thirty thousand people. De- mosthenes, who was in danger of being defrauded of his inheritance, was obliged, in accordance with the Athe- nian law, to plead his own cause before the court; he was thus induced to study and practice rhetoric. Tenny- son read "Guinevere" aloud to George Eliot, causing her to weep. In the time of James II, an hour-glass was the proper thing on a pulpit; Burnet would hold it up after it had once run out, and his audience would clamor for him to talk it out once more. iEschines employed no action in speaking. Multitudes of bees are said to have settled on the lips of Pindar when an infant. Emerson's father was said to lack the fervor that could rouse the masses and the original resources that could command the few. From Shakspeare again, — "He speaks plain cannon, fire, and smoke." Gladstone insists, that a man who speaks in public ought to know, besides his own meaning, the meaning which others will attach to what he says. Frederic Harrison tells us, that Chatham's eloquence boiled over with interrogations; and that from the days of Quousque tandem, Catilina, impassioned oratory has ever rested more in questions than in bold asseveration. The Earl of Rosebery thinks, that if his speeches are judged by their effect, the younger Pitt may be held the greatest orator England has ever produced. Ben Jon- 140 LITERARY BREVITIES son thought Bacon, as being both a good speaker and a good writer, the perfect orator. It has been declared, that Chatham always spoke without preparation. Gib- bon never spoke once while in Parliament. Swift ob- serves, that there is something native to each orator, which is so inherent to his thoughts and sentiments, that it is hardly possible for another to give a true idea of it. Rosebery asserts, that few speeches which have pro- duced an electrical effect on an audience can bear the uncolored photograph of a printed record. True elo- quence, according to Thomas Gray, consists in "thoughts that breathe and words that burn." As much as fifty guineas was paid for a single ticket to gain admission to Westminster Hall to hear Sheridan speak in the Warren Hastings case. Some go so far in praising Lincoln's Get- tysburg speech, as to say it rivals the funeral oration of Pericles. Bayard Taylor greatly disliked lecturing, not- withstanding his success in obtaining pecuniary compen- sation and popularity by it. Crothers thinks preaching without notes is not particularly difficult if one has some- thing to say. Sheridan's first speech in Parliament was not creditable; when his friends told him so, he answered, "It is in me, and, by , it shall come out." In the judgment of Mrs. Oliphant, it was Burke who orig- inated the idea of impeaching Warren Hastings; it was Pitt, by his unexpected vote with the accusing party, who made it practicable; but Sheridan was the hero of the occasion. We auditors grow restless, some one has remarked, when a speaker begins to cite classical names. In general it may be regarded as true, that a sermon which costs the preacher nothing is worth exactly what it costs. In the estimation of Don Piatt, Lincoln left at Gettysburg a record of eloquence never before reached by human lips. Some one declares, that Robespierre ELOQUENCE 141 always wrote out his lengthy speeches, and "read out his reams of manuscript through spectacles." Once when Massillon descended from the pulpit, one of his hearers told him he had been eloquent; Massillon replied, "The devil told me so before you." Louis XIV once said to Massillon: "Father, I have heard several great orators, and I have been very much pleased with them; as for you, every time that I have heard you I have been much displeased with myself." George J. Abbott, a favorite clerk in the Department of State of which Webster was Secretary, and a fine classical scholar, was accustomed to hunt up classical allusions for Webster's use. John Wesley preached a thousand times a year. Demos- thenes, the first of orators, had in the beginning the great- est natural disqualification for oratory. In preaching, some regard the sermon as the thing of least importance. Mrs. Wiggin tells of a minister who "always has plenty to say after you think he's all through." Voltaire de- clares grace in expression to be worth more than what is said. Douglas ranked William Pitt Fessenden as the ablest and readiest debater he had ever known. Try to imagine a Roman making an after-dinner speech. Hare thinks it an essential characteristic of genius to be uncon- scious of its own eloquence. The so-called magnetism that accompanies the spoken word, observes H. W. Dresser, is often more effective than a strong argument. Wendell Phillips characterized Rufus Choate as the man who made it safe to murder. No stenographer could report the speeches of Sargent S. Prentiss; nor could he himself reproduce his own thoughts and sentences. It is the opinion of some one, that the one physiological standard by which man can be truly measured, and which applies to him alone, is his faculty of speech. Faraday, as a lecturer, had such clear powers of exposi- 142 LITERARY BREVITIES tion that people thought they understood him even if they didn't. Savonarola said he was like the hail which pelts everyone who is out in the open air. George Eliot thinks the secret of oratory lies, not in saying new things, but in saying things with a certain power that moves the heart. Emerson thought Channing could never be reported, for his eye and his voice could not be printed. La Rochefoucauld lacked courage to speak before six or seven persons even. Opposition always drew Wen- dell Phillips out; when the meeting seemed too tame, some friend in the audience would purposely hiss to arouse him. Haydon remarks, that while Fuseli could not argue, he made good this defect by the use of brilliant repartees. Wendell Phillips was not gifted as a writer. Kyrle Bellew's father, a clergyman, had such a fascinating voice that he would repeat the Lord's Prayer so effectively as to cause his congregation to sob. Queen Victoria's voice was like a silver stream flowing over golden stones, says Ellen Terry. Massillon's opening words in his fu- neral oration on Louis XIV are r "God alone is great." Eulogies, E. P. Whipple observes, which might be con- sidered offensive when addressed to the living, may safely be ventured in noting the rare virtues of the dead. I don't quite see how an honest man can be a good and suc- cessful orator, observes Hawthorne. Truths divine come mended from his tongue, is a happy quotation from Beck- ford. Burke is a brilliant exception to the rule, that great orators are poor writers. Emerson's oration was said to begin nowhere and end everywhere. Coleridge failed in the attempt to be a Unitarian preacher; he had in his first congregation seventeen persons; several of these one by one slipped away; one woman remained to the end, but she was asleep. It was remarked by Sam- uel Rogers, that a certain Dr. Price was great indeed in ENEMIES 143 the pulpit, — making one forget the preacher and think only of the subject. The eloquence of Livy, it has been noted, was chiefly employed in painting virtue, the elo- quence of Tacitus in branding vice. Macaulay thinks a tribunal will decide a judicial question most fairly when it has heard two able men argue as unfairly as possible on the two opposite sides. Jonathan Edwards was known to weep while listening to the preaching of White- field. President Tappan's advice to young orators was, "Don't stop; keep saying something." Isocrates, cele- brated for his beautiful oratorical compositions, never ventured to speak in public. Cicero, egotistical and boast- ful in most respects, never boasted of his eloquence. John Fiske is of the opinion, that for genuine oratorical power, Webster's reply to Hayne is probably the great- est speech that has been delivered since the oration of Demosthenes on the Crown. During his first session of Parliament the elder Pitt never opened his mouth. ENEMIES BE patient with your enemy; time may repair the breach. Plutarch says a man should not allow him- self to hate even his enemies, for the reason that, if he indulge this passion on some occasions, it will rise of it- self on others. Give no odds to your foe, is Spenser's order. The strongest of all antipathies, according to Madame De Stael, is the antipathy of a second-rate mind to a first-rate one. He called me all the names in the rainbow, is the way some one complains. Emerson regards calamities as our friends; rough water, he de- clares, can teach lessons worth knowing. Don't be so tender at making an enemy now and then, is Emerson's advice. It is a wise saying of Buddha, that he who in- 144 LITERARY BREVITIES dulges in enmity is like one who throws ashes to windward. Balzac tells us not to be afraid of making enemies. Hay- don thinks there are moments when one forgives his bitter- est enemies. It is never wise to disregard what your enemies say about you. We are told that one enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good. The Spec- tator has something to the effect, that a generous enemy will sometimes bestow commendations, as the dearest friend sometimes cannot refrain from speaking ill. Bal- zac thinks it so natural to destroy that which we cannot possess. Horace says everybody envies his neighbor's pursuits until he tries them. It is Victor Hugo's injunc- tion, that we learn to disdain, as it protects and crushes; that we do not give our enemies the satisfaction of think- ing that they cause us grief or pain. Landor thinks no man so ignorant as not to know, that he who has lost all his enemies will soon lose all his energy. Dr. Johnson advises him who would know himself to consult his enemies. Some one has said, — "He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere." ENERGY THE difference between one man and another, says Dr. Arnold, is not mere ability — it is energy. Theocritus thought trying would do anything in the world. Frederick the Great wrote Voltaire, that he was busy with both hands. ENNUI BALZAC compares a certain one to a retired trades- man at a loss how to kill time. As tiresome as a rainy day, is Balzac's simile. Zoroaster longed "to tear ENVY 145 down this tiresome old sky." George Sand asserts, that ennui is sure to follow the inactivity of our instincts. Lowell thinks whittling a stick a medicine against ennui. Cowper tries to imagine how the antediluvians who lived to the age of eight hundred could have spent their time, with so little variety in the way of employments. ENTHUSIASM EDWARD EVERETT laughs at the American who looks at Westminster Abbey and Stratford-on- Avon with an enthusiasm which the Englishman thinks a sort of provincial rawness. According to Schiller, enthusiasm never calculates its sacrifices. It is an obser- vation of Sainte-Beuve, that the disappointments of enthusiasm bring disgust. Enthusiasm distorts, as Belloc thinks. Goethe observes that enthusiasm is not a herring that can be pickled and kept for a few years. Balzac calls enthusiasm "that virtue within a virtue." Thoreau calls enthusiasm a supernatural serenity. No virtue is safe that is not enthusiastic, says Sir J. R. Seeley. Success implies enthusiasm about something. ENVY SENECA thinks it hard to avoid envy without in- curring contempt. He also says it is a common thing for men to hate the authors of their preferment, as the witnesses of their mean origin. A Boston lady, upon saying that J her ancestors came over in the Mayflower, was slurringly informed by the New York lady, that she didn't know before that the Mayflower had any steerage passengers. Steele says it is a matter of consolation to an envious person, when a man of known honor does a 146 LITERARY BREVITIES thing unworthy of himself. Lord Chesterfield slurs Dante; so Coleridge does Gibbon. Ovid describes an evil spirit as looking down on the stately temples and wealthy haven of Athens, and scarce able to refrain from weeping because she could find nothing at which to weep. When Sir Joshua Reynolds proposed the health of Gains- borough as the best landscape painter, Wilson, in a spirit of jealousy, added, "And the best portrait painter too." Sir Robert Walpole, we are informed, shunned men of talents as latent rivals. According to the Indian prpverb, contempt pierces through the shell of the tortoise. The fox who had lost his tail tried to persuade the other foxes to have theirs cut off. Invidia festos dies non agit, is from some anonymous Latin author. A staff to beat that dog he long had sought, is Tasso's. Lord Bacon nowhere mentions Shakspeare. Adam Smith remarks, that the man who, by some revolution of fortune, is lifted up all at once into a condition of life greatly ajjove what he had formerly lived in, may be assured that the congratu- lations of his best friends are not all of them perfectly sincere. I envy no man's nightingale or spring, says George Herbert. Addison and Sir Joshua Reynolds are both said to have had the faculty of causing others to sneer without sneering themselves. Jealous ears, we are assured, always hear double. Dr. Johnson says envy is deservedly its own punishment. Heine, with rare frank- ness, confessed that he was envious of Goethe. A maxim of John Adams was, "Tell not of your prosperity, because it will make two men sad to one glad; nor of your ad- versity, for it will make two men glad to one sad." Pindar thinks it a nobler fate to be envied than to be pitied. Alison, speaking of the happy relation that existed be- tween Marlborough and Prince Eugene, says: "The really great alone can witness success without envy, or ENVY 147 achieve it without selfishness." Louis XVI of France aided us in the Revolution, not out of love of republican institutions, but of hatred towards England. Townshend, in reporting the battle on the Plains of Abraham, made no mention of Wolfe. It is much to the discredit of Shak- speare, that of the English poets contemporary with him he barely mentions Marlowe and Ben Jonson. Words- worth, who contests with Milton the place next after Shakspeare among English poets, was selfishly chary of the recognition he gave other authors; he nowhere speaks in unqualified praise of any author of his time. Scott, on the other hand, praised freely, and was the personal friend of nearly all his literary brethren. Dr. Johnson says scarcely any man ever wrote so much and praised so few as Milton. iEschylus hits the mark in declaring that "few have the fortitude of soul to honor a friend's success without a touch of envy." Heine affirms, that Goethe feared every writer of independence and origi- nality, but glorified and praised all the petty authorlings; that he carried this practise so far, that to be praised by Goethe came at last to be considered a brevet of mediocrity. Shakspeare makes one of his characters, in speaking of Cicero, say, — "For he will never follow any thing That other men begin." Monarchs, for the enhancement of their own glory, wish their successors to turn out bad princes. It has been claimed by some one, that Cicero was not mentioned by Virgil or Horace. St. Augustine defines envy as the hatred of another's felicity. 148 LITERARY BREVITIES EPIGRAMS BALZAC speaks of an epigram in the eyes. Her look was like a sad embrace, is Matthew Arnold's. Haste is of the devil, was a saying of Mahomet. Some one has said, "If it is impossible, it shall be done." He more had pleased us, had he pleased us less, is Addison's. Some one has characterized reform as organized distrust. Experience is the oracle of truth, is from The Federalist. Good company upon the road is the shortest cut, is anonymous. Ruskin thought Carlyle had been born in the clouds and struck by lightning. The Chinese phi- losopher Laotsze estimated things as valuable through what is absent from them. Charles Lamb pronounced Coleridge an archangel — a little damaged. To have loved her was a liberal education, is Steele's. The feast of reason and the flow of soul, is Pope's; this also, "The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind"; so is this, "'Tis the same rope at different ends we twist." Maria Theresa said she would as soon part with her petticoat as with Silesia. According to an old proverb, it is not wise to use razors to cut blocks. EVILS FATHER NEWMAN thinks flagrant evils cure them- selves by being flagrant. Pascal declares, that men never commit evil so fully and so gaily as when they do so for conscience' sake. Shakspeare believes there is some soul of good in things evil. This from Shakspeare, — "How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds Makes deeds ill done." Walt Whitman says, "Nothing out of its place is good; nothing in its place is bad." - EXPERIENCE 149 EXCESS PASCAL observes, that our senses can perceive no extreme; that too much noise deafens us, excess of light blinds us, too great distance or nearness equally interferes with our vision, prolixity or brevity equally obscures our discourse, too much truth overwhelms us, too many concords are unpleasing in music. Says Shakspeare, — "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, Is wasteful, and ridiculous excess." It is Shakspeare also who warns against "too much of a good thing." Again the same asks, "What need the bridge much broader than the flood?" By George Sand we are told, that the best qualities pushed to extremes become defective or absurd. Swift speaks of curing a scratch on the finger by cutting off the arm. Balzac mentions one who had eaten like a traveling actor, and drunk like the sands of the desert. It is remarked by George Sand, that he who tries to prove too much proves nothing. It is not the thing, says Bulwer, but the excess of the thing, that hurts. Balzac characterizes one as a "triple expansion glutton." Landor thinks it better to be lukewarm than to boil over. EXPERIENCE LOWELL refers to the happy hopeful past, when one was capable of everything because one had not tried anything. Lessing has observed, that the wealth of ex- perience derived from books is called learning; that one's own experience is wisdom; and that the smallest capital of the latter is worth millions of the former. William 150 LITERARY BREVITIES De Morgan would, in building, never let any man do any job he hadn't done before. According to H. W. Dresser, human experience would have no real value if we could do naught but obey. Col. J. P. Henderson thinks experience of little value without reflection. H. W. Dresser is of the opinion, that experiences of evil and suffering are, in a sense, to be entirely justified by the good which is brought out of them — although this does not make evil good. FACTS WE are told that Guizot's name is pronounced differently in different parts of France. Steel pens were first introduced at Washington by N. P. Willis. Mrs. Alexander Hamilton was the first to introduce ice-cream at Washington. Be most careful, observes Lowell, in stating facts; if an adversary can show one misstatement (however small) in your argument, he has already confuted you in the most effectual manner to nine-tenths of those you are striving to convince. In the sixteenth century, in Italy, the clocks struck up to twenty-four, from sunset to sunset. Sir John Hawkins, in the ship Jesus, engaged in the kidnapping of slaves. Montaigne, though living at the time, makes no men- tion of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Petrarch, in describing Laura's face, makes no mention of her nose. Italics were so called because they were invented in Italy, the invention being attributed to John Aldus. A copy of "Faust" was found in the possession of an American In- dian in North Carolina in the year 1829. The anagram of Gustavus is Augustus. Petrarch had an accurate pre- monition of the time of the death of two friends, Laura being one of them. It is claimed that the word "brain" does not occur in the Bible. Equality may be right, FAME 151 Balzac asserts, but no power on earth can convert it into fact FAITH FAITH admits of no discussion, Balzac thinks. Trust not him who hath once broken faith, observes Shakspeare. Heraclitus declares, that much knowledge of things divine escapes through want of faith. Playing fast and loose with faith, is Shakspeare's. Balzac says bankers have no faith in anything less than a promissory note. FALSEHOOD HE lied like a courtier, is from Balzac. Attorneys meet with more clients who tell lies, says Balzac, than who tell the truth. The same author tells of shops having fine signs and nothing to sell. It is Hawthorne's remark, that to the untrue man the whole universe is false. Falsehood flies and Truth comes limping after, is anonymous. Scott said to the prince regent, "I am not the author of Waverley." The true art of falsehood, observes Madeline de Scudery, is to resemble truth. It is a maxim of Mme. D'Arblay, that falsehood is not more unjustifiable than unsafe. FAME SENECA remarks, that he who makes himself famous by his eloquence, justice, or arms, illustrates his extraction, let it be never so mean; and gives inestimable reputation to his parents. We should never have heard of Sophroniscus but for his son Socrates; nor of Aristo and Gryllus, if it had not been for Xenophon and Plato. When Jenny Lind first met Daniel Webster, she was 152 LITERARY BREVITIES greatly impressed by his personality; after the interview she remarked, "I have seen a man." Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori, is from Horace. How many small streams have been made great in the writings of famous poets! Scamander, Avon, and Ayr are in point. Shak- speare, Bacon, and Bentham had their merits first recog- nized in foreign countries. Lucky is the man, says Thackeray, whose servants speak well of him. Tanto maior famae sitis est, quam virtutis, is from Juvenal. Spenser's " Faerie Queene " tells in allegory the glories of Queen Elizabeth. Heine thinks Sinai, when Moses stands on it, appears insignificant. Andrew D. White pronounces De Witt Clinton and William H. Seward New York's two greatest governors. When Madame De Stael asked Napoleon who in his opinion was the greatest woman, he replied, "She who bears the most children." Dr. John- son asserts, that no authors ever had so much fame in their lifetime as Pope and Voltaire. Carlyle remarks of some unfortunate, that the blessing of full oblivion is denied him. At Magdeburg, Nelson was exhibited to an admiring crowd at so much a peep. Browning says, "No dream's worth waking." The sea of glory has no banks assigned, is from Tasso. Thoreau remarks, that the Xanthus or Scamander is not a mere dry channel and bed of a mountain torrent, but fed by the overflowing springs of fame. Sir Godfrey Kneller, on his death-bed, said he should not like to lie among the rascals at Westminster. It is impossible for man to do anything in a mechanical way which time may not obliterate. Southey believed that Nelson, who had been made viscount after the battle of Copenhagen, would have fought his way up to a duke- dom if he had lived long enough. It is the greatest un- happiness of an eminent man to receive sympathy and applause from disreputable sources. It was Pompey the FAME 153 Great who said, "More men adore the rising than the setting sun." There is many a man whose sole recom- mendation consists in having an excellent wife. The fol- lowing is from Butler's "Hudibras," — "In western clime there is a town, To those who dwell therein well known." Alexander's horse had a city named after him. They glared through their absences, is Emerson's translation of a sentence in Tacitus which refers to the absence of the effigies of Brutus and Cassius at a certain state funeral. And fight i' the ranks, unnoticed by the world, is a line from Browning. Not to know me argues yourself un- known, is from Milton. Fame, that last infirmity of noble minds, is Milton's also. Landor professed never to have heard of Herschel, even by name. To the dead, says iEschylus, nothing remains save glory. Dr. John- son insists that in lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath. It was Chesterfield's idea, that no man deserves reputation who does not desire it. Pliny, the younger, leaves mankind this only alternative, — either of doing what deserves to be written, or of writing what deserves to be read. Landor believes that few rise to eminence in a calm. In Plutarch's opinion, man's applause is but a transient dream. George Eliot speaks of one not op- pressively illustrious. Chaucer was the first English poet to be buried in Westminster Abbey. To do acts that shall for all time beneficently affect the lives of others, is to achieve a glorious immortality. Hazlitt thinks no man is truly great who is great only in his lifetime; that the test of greatness is the page of history. Balzac says honors bring sycophants. One might as reasonably ex- pect to perpetuate his name by writing it on a bank of fog. Thackeray would rather make his name than inherit 154 LITERARY BREVITIES it. Allan Cunningham thinks the applause of a man's native place is generally the last which he receives. Shakspeare's remains do not honor Westminster Abbey. In the Rambler we are told, that the author's crudest mortification is neglect. Praise undeserved some one calls satire in disguise. An institution, says Emerson, is the lengthened shadow of one man. Pope calls fame that second life in other's breath. Jeremy Taylor enjoins men to use no stratagems and devices to get praise. To be unreasonably admired by one generation, Justin McCarthy asserts, is to incur the certainty of being unreasonably disparaged by the next. That fellow, remarks Balzac, wears the Legion of Honor for having published works he can't understand. Two out of eight of the busts on the outside front of the Congressional library at Washing- ton are Emerson and Hawthorne. It has been remarked, that it is not what others say of you, but what you say yourself, that does you the greatest injury. Hannibal conquered, says Alison, has left a greater name among men than Scipio victorious. Addison thinks there is nothing gains a reputation for a preacher so much as his own practice. To be famous when you are young is the fortune of the gods, says Beaconsfield. John Fiske calls Edward I the greatest of English kings. La Place re- moved the name of Napoleon from the dedication of "Mecanique Celeste." Napoleon said his nobility dated from Monte Notte, the place where he won his first victory in 1796. Napoleon did not like to be called a Corsican. There was a consul Nero, the conqueror of Hasdrubal at the river Metaurus, whose achievement saved Rome by giving a death blow to Hannibal's scheme of conquest in Italy; yet when the name Nero is mentioned, the in- famous Emperor of that name is the one always thought of. Macaulay speaks of Fuller, of King William's time, FAME 155 as sinking into an obscurity from which he twice or thrice, at long intervals, again emerged for a moment into in- famy. Chrysostom declares, that neither the tomb of Alexander nor the day of his death is known. Eratos- thenes, an obscure fellow, burned the temple of Diana to eternize his name, which has come down to us, though all were forbidden to speak or publish it. The artist-student Torregiano owes his only renown to the fact that in a fit of jealousy he threw his mallet at Michelangelo and broke his nose. Justin McCarthy thinks Blondin, who crossed Niagara more than three hundred times on his tight rope, probably the only man in history who never in his time had a rival in his own field of action. The land- lord of a New Hampshire inn, being asked by an itinerant preacher what sort of a man Franklin Pierce was, said: "Wall, up here, where everybody knows Frank Pierce and where Frank Pierce knows everybody, he's a pretty considerable fellow; but you come to spread him out over this whole country, and I'm afraid he'll be dreadful thin in spots." I have been, perhaps, says Scott, the most voluminous author of the day; it is a comfort to me to think that I have tried to unsettle no man's faith, to corrupt no man's principles, and that I have written nothing which on my deathbed I should wish blotted out. Shakspeare writes, — "The purest treasure mortal times afford Is spotless reputation." The graves of but few men of two thousand years ago can be identified today. In 1850, Bayard Taylor delivered the Phi Beta Kappa poem at Harvard; in a letter he speaks of this poem as follows, — "My Harvard poem, poor as it is, was received with great applause; but alas! I published it, and thus killed the tradition of its excel- 156 LITERARY BREVITIES lence." When the elder Cato was asked why he had no statue erected in his memory, he answered, "I had much rather men should ask why I had no statue, than why I had one." Some Athenians refused to aid in rearing a monument to Miltiades until he conquered alone. Addi- son thinks to be uncensured and to be obscure are the same thing. Never mind, says Bulwer, if one can read you but slowly — better chance of being less quickly forgotten. There may be conquest, Racine remarks, yet no glory won. George Meredith says the bare renown of a wine is inspiring. Carlyle thinks the time may come when Napoleon will be better known for his laws than for his battles. Owen Wister observes, that a great man cannot do great things without in a way growing apart from his fellows, little as he may desire such a result. Goethe and Napoleon, at the time the two greatest men in Europe, met at Weimar. Goethe thinks even the greatest man is con- nected with his century by some weakness. Henry Taylor asserts, that the world knows nothing of its great- est men. Celebrity is based on controversy, according to Balzac. The pirate told Alexander he was the mightier thief of the two. Why do we love Burns, and at the same time look coldly upon Byron, inasmuch as both are morally frail? Coleridge saw Wordsworth seated, "In the choir Of ever enduring men." Reputation, says James Howell, is like a fair structure, long time a-rearing, but quickly ruined. Fame is the sole payment of great souls, Richelieu thinks. Balzac finds no cheap route to greatness. Voltaire claims, that accusa- tions are always held to be just unless speedily confuted. At the festival of Feb. 26, 1881, in honor of Victor Hugo, seven hundred thousand people defiled before his house to FAME 157 greet him. To Pythagoras is ascribed the invention of the multiplication table. It was of him it was said, Ipse dixit Farragut was sixty-one when he began the achieve- ments on which his fame rests. The Spectator informs us, that censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent. Heine thinks the name of Pontius Pilate is as little likely to be forgotten as that of Christ. Some one observes, that the picture's value is the painter's name. Who can warrant the continuance of popularity? is asked by Scott. The following is from Lafcadio Hearn, "His name is lost, at least it is lost in Southern history; yet perhaps it may be recorded on the page of a great book, where leaves never turn yellow with time, and where letters are eternal as the stars." Perhaps only two other men, Erasmus and Voltaire, it has been remarked, were ever so popular as Petrarch. Cowper refers to one whose monument records everything but his vices. When once a woman has tested public applause, domestic life becomes lifeless and insipid in the comparison; actresses get the energy and spirit of men; so Hay don declares. It is only of the loftiest trees, says T. W. Higginson, of which it occurs to us to remark, that they do not touch the sky. Jacob Riis thinks a man everywhere is largely what his neighbors and his children think him to be. Sydney Smith had a brother whose chief distinction was, that as a boy he had been thrashed by a boy who afterwards became the Duke of Wellington. It has been remarked by some one, that the monument of the greatest man should be only a bust and a name; that if the name alone is insufficient to illustrate the bust, they should both perish. Hawthorne says each day you must prove your- self anew. Haydon thinks it one of the most difficult things in the world to manage the temper of your friends, when you first burst into public repute and leave them 158 LITERARY BREVITIES behind. Certain poets are spoken of as those who live now only in books of poetical selections. The large gilt eagle at Aix was always turned in the direction where Frederick the Great happened to be. The shoe-buckle swallowed by young Frederick is preserved in Berlin. Professor W. It. Harper thinks the minor poets of France have been obscured by the immensity of a few supreme reputations; that the underwoods have been stunted by the great oaks. Carlyle complained, that, after preaching to deaf ears for forty years, a trifling address of his to Edinburgh students, which happened to be reported in the press, and in which he enumerated no idea which he had not reiterated ad nauseam for a lifetime, gave him more reputation than all his books. It is a fine thing, remarks Victor Hugo, to be a flea on a lion. It is a remark of Addison, that there is no defense against re- proach but obscurity. Cowley thinks the unknown are better than the ill known. In the opinion of Addison, death closes a man's reputation, and determines it as good or bad. Eripuit caelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis, is Turgot's. The most shining merit, declares Addison, goes down to posterity with disadvantage, when it is not placed by writers in its proper light. Swift allows Maevius to be as well known as Virgil. FATE FATE is unpenetrated causes, Emerson declares. It is Huxley's belief, that there is always a Cape Horn in one's life that one either weathers or wrecks oneself on. What has once passed the press, says Dr. Johnson, is irrevocable. The following is from James Shirley, — " There is no armor against fate; Death lays his icy hand on Kings." FEAR 159 FAULTS SCIPIO told Signor Gabriel, that Gil Bias had but one fault — that of being faultless. Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Shakspeare asks. Car- lyle says the greatest of faults is to be conscious of none. It is Balzac's belief, that those who please everyone please no one in particular, and the worst of all defects is to have none. A man may take no little credit to himself, ob- serves Lessing, for having committed only such errors as anybody might have avoided. Few persons bare their defects at once, Balzac thinks. This from Matthew Arnold, — "Our wants have all been felt, our errors made before." According to Addison, Lord Bacon's principal fault seems to have been the excess of that virtue which covers a multitude of faults. Everyone is apt to excuse a fault which he himself might have fallen into, is from Addison. And made almost a sin of abstinence, is Dryden's. FEAR THE man who fears nothing, says Schiller, is as powerful as he who is feared by everybody. Dionysius caused a sword to be hung by a horse-hair above the head of Damocles. Weir Mitchell thinks what different people dread is interesting. Louis XVI, when surrounded by a mob, asked, "Am I afraid? feel of my pulse." The thing in this world Montaigne was most afraid of was fear. When the orator Licinius was asked why he did not attack Crassus among the rest, he replied, "He wears wisps upon his horns." Julius Caesar thought it better to die once than to live always in fear of death. This same Caesar refused to take precautions against assassination, because life was not worth having at the 160 LITERARY BREVITIES price of an ignoble solicitude for it. The tiger spares the fettered lion, says Heine. Weak-minded persons, Balzac says, are reassured as easily as they are frightened. Machiavelli thought it safer to be feared than to be loved. Addison thinks nothing makes such strong alliances as fear. The greatest cruelty, says Victor Hugo, is inspired by fear. James I of England is said to have trembled at the sight of a drawn sword. It is the opinion of Balzac, that the old are somewhat prone to foresee their own sorrows in the future of the young. Beaconsfield declares the worst evil one has to endure to be the anticipation of the calam- ities that do not happen. The fiercely satirical Pietro Aretino, of the sixteenth century, an Italian writer, was called "the scourge of princes." He was paid large sums of money by those who feared his satire. FICTION IT is the opinion of Arlo Bates, that the sure hold of fiction upon mankind depends upon the fact, that it enables the reader to gain experience vicariously. Ten- nyson thought the flight of Hetty in "Adam Bede" and Thackeray's gradual breaking down of Colonel New- come were the two most pathetic things in modern prose fiction. The Chinese romance ends with the hero's triumphantly marrying both heroines. Cooper's "Red Rover" was the first real sea tale, his "Pilot" being half land tale. The greatest merit of fiction, says Sir Arthur Helps, is that it creates and nourishes sympathy. FILIAL LOVE HAPPY for the most part, observes Cowper, are parents who have daughters; since daughters are not apt to outlive their natural affections, which a son FLATTERY 161 has generally survived even before the boyish years are expired. Barrie's mother, whom he adored, cared nothing for natural scenery; this, it is alleged, is why he has so little natural scenery in his books. We are told of a certain woman whose favorite reading was the biog- raphies of men who had been good to their mothers. Epaminondas declared it the chief happiness of his life, that his father and mother lived to see his generalship and victory at Leuctra. Plutarch is authority for the state- ment, that Coriolanus pursued glory because the acquisi- tion of it delighted his mother. FLATTERY THERE is not one man in a million, says Seneca, that is proof against artificial flattery. Balzac thinks flattery never emanates from noble souls; it means self-interest. Cicero says of some one, Vereor laudare praesentem. Balzac says he has always noticed how vulgar forced flattery is. To flatter those we do not know, re- marks Goldsmith, is an easy task; but to flatter our inti- mate acquaintances, all whose foibles are strongly in our eye, is drudgery insupportable. Weir Mitchell thinks the value of flattery lies in the flatterer. A man once piloted the Duke of Wellington across Piccadilly, and having expressed the great honor he felt in being so privi- leged, the Duke said, "Don't be a d d fool." Every- one likes flattery, Beaconsfield remarks, and when it comes to royalty you should lay it on with a trowel. How true it is, as observed by Dr. Johnson, that he that is much flattered soon learns to flatter himself. It is the opinion of James M. Barrie, that, gentle or simple, stupid or clever, the men are all alike in the hands of a woman that flatters them. 162 LITERARY BREVITIES FOOLS SOLON thought the worst of fools those who once had wisdom. Henry James speaks of a certain man as a prize fool. Who was it that said, "I can stand any fool but a d d fool"? R. L. Stevenson thinks it better to be a fool than be dead. A camel wanted to have horns and they took away his ears, is from the Talmud. For fools are known by looking wise, is from Butler's "Hudi- bras." Bacon calls it folly to gather fruit before it is ripe, for fear it may be stolen. Epictetus speaks of taking up whey with a hook. Scott advises one who would do a foolish thing, to do it handsomely. Cellini observes, that God very often shows compassion to fools. Though we sometimes love an idiot, says Balzac, we never can love a fool. The same author calls it folly to throw paving stones at your head to drive away flies that alight on it. Sir Godfrey Kneller objected to being buried in West- minster Abbey, "because they do bury fools there." La Fontaine was in society a mere simpleton. Says Thomas Gray, "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." There is an unwritten law against making a fool of one- self. La Rochefoucauld says there is no fool like an old fool. Dr. Johnson speaks of one kind of economy as stopping one hole in a sieve. Foolitis is an incurable disease, Weir Mitchell observes. Qui necesse habent cum insanientibus fur ere, is from Petronius. According to the Spanish proverb, a wise man changes his mind, a fool never will. Rusticus exspectat dum defluat amnis, is anonymous. The Indian fells the tree that he may gather the fruit. He is a fool, says Homer, who only sees the mischiefs that are past. It is a remark of Sir Philip Sidney, that in all miseries lamenting becomes fools, and action, the wise. Tennyson thinks most young men with FOOLS 163 anything in them make fools of themselves at some time or other. According to Thomas Fuller, all the whetting in the world can never set a razor's edge on what has no steel in it. The prime minister of the Sultan Mustapha was found, on the approach of the enemy, to be occupied in finding two canary birds that sang precisely the same notes. Shakspeare's professional fools are philosophers in disguise; so thinks Heraud. Balzac depicts for us poverty-stricken and superior men who can do everything for the fortune of others and nothing for their own, Aladdins who let other men borrow their lamps. If ever there was a man who did not derive more pain than pleasure from his vanity, that man, says Rousseau, was no other than a fool. All are fools and lovers first and last, says Dryden. This from Sophocles, — "Fools never know The treasure's value till the treasure's lost." More know Tom Fool than Tom Fool knows, the English proverb teaches. Weir Mitchell thanks God for fools, and trusts there will be a few fool-angels; he thinks the worst of being a fool is, that experience is of no use. If thou hast never been a fool, observes Thackeray, be sure thou wilt never be a wise man. No precedents, says Dr. Johnson, can justify absurdity. I am not old enough to be a fool, remarked Addison. Garfield thought it a matter of no small difficulty to be a radical without being a fool. Would any but these boiled brains of nineteen hunt this weather? Shakspeare asks. Henry IV of France called James I of England the wisest fool in Chris- tendom. Lowell speaks of "as great an ass as ever brayed and thought it music." A certain woman who had over- drawn her account, wrote a check for the amount on the same bank and sent it to make her account good. Once 164 LITERARY BREVITIES a man lighted a bonfire in his park and walked through it to get a foretaste of hell. A fool has been defined as one who never in his life tried an experiment. It was the belief of Napoleon, that only fools commit suicide. He is a fool who has nothing of philosophy in him, observes Samuel Butler, but not so much so as he who has nothing else but philosophy. Pope thinks no creature smarts so little as a fool. The folly of wearing a fine garment in the dark is like biting one's thumb at a blind man. Judge Hoar said his brother, the senator, knew a fool when he saw one, and could not resist the pleasure of telling him so. Following are lines from Dante, — "What boots it that for thee, Justinian The bridle mend, if empty be the saddle?" It'd only be waste of time to muzzle sheep, some one has said. From iEsop we learn, that the little viper licked the file until the blood came, and was flattered imagining the blood to come from the file. Cicero thinks it the part of every man to err, but the part only of a fool to persevere in error. FORGIVENESS SYDNEY SMITH calls attention to the fact, that the sandal wood, while it is felling, imparts to the ax its aromatic flavor. Pardon comes easily to the great, observes Andrew Lang. Bacon thinks nothing more popular than to forgive our enemies. Says Balzac, "I forgive as God forgives, madam, on certain conditions." The only way to get the better of the vanquished, remarks Victor Hugo, is to forgive them. FORTUNE 165 FORTUNE ON the summit of fortune one abides not long, remarks Goethe. Xerxes, who had crossed the Hellespont on a bridge of boats, and with an army of five million men, recrossed, on his return, in a fishing boat and almost alone. Opportunity is of great consideration in matters of his- tory and biography. Sir Isaac Newton succeeded only because he lived at the right time. The burning of London gave Sir Christopher Wren the best possible opportunity for the exercise of his art. Good luck lies in odd numbers, says Shakspeare. Seneca observes, that what we fear as a rock proves to be a port. It was Cleon's idea, that ordinary good fortune is safer than extraordinary. Haw- thorne's removal from the Salem custom-house was the making of him. It was well remarked by one (and per- haps more), says Fielding, that misfortunes never come single. The next trump may be of another color. Eugene Sue advises putting a good face on a bad fortune. It is Balzac's belief, that chance is an immense equation of which we know not all the factors. Napoleon says one must not ask of fortune more than she can grant. Ac- cording to Balzac, it is more difficult to keep a level head in good than in bad fortune. Eugene Sue thinks mad people and fools are always lucky. According to Mrs. Frances Burnett's thinking, it is easier to bear one's own misfortunes than to bear the good fortune of better-used people; that the latter is the insult added by fate to injury. When I take a bitter pill, I don't chew it before swallowing. Calamity is the touchstone of a brave mind, says Seneca. The same says that a crust of bread, upon a pinch, is a greater present than an imperial crown. Voltaire thinks secret vexations are ever harder to bear than public calamities. As good 166 LITERARY BREVITIES luck would have it, is in Shakspeare. The same great poet says, — "There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune." And again, — "111 blows the wind that profits nobody"; also this, "Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered." Le Sage says tossing up for heads and tails is not his ruling passion. He unjustly accuses Neptune who suffers shipwreck a second time, Bacon asserts. Balzac speaks of starting from zero to make a fortune. It is remarked by Richelieu, that a good heart is the only remedy against fortune. It is Richelieu who asserts, that one may be saved from ruin by defeat. Some one has observed, that to make good friends is to make one's fortune. The following well-known lines are from Burns, — "The best laid schemes o' mice an* men Gang aft a-gley." Let the world, then, take notice, when fortune has the will to ruin a man, says Benvenuto Cellini, how many divers ways she takes. The simplicity of Jefferson's inauguration was said not to have been in accordance with intention; that he had planned for a coach and four, but his horses failed to reach Washington in time. It has been observed, that luck never helps a man who relies upon it; that mere chance is often the deciding point in a man's career. The most dazzling fortune, Fenelon observes, is but a flattering dream. Richelieu says there are times when Fortune begins but cannot complete her work. Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum, author unknown. Balzac pronounces resignation the last stage of man's misfortune. Le Sage places victory in the same blind family with fortune. Lowell thinks the mis- FRIENDSHIP 167 fortunes hardest to bear are those which never occur. Macaulay thinks nothing is more favorable to the repu- tation of an author than to be succeeded by a race inferior to himself. FRIENDSHIP THE devil does not forsake his friends, is a statement of Schiller. Grimm, in his harangue to Rousseau, laid great stress upon always having preserved the same friends. It is a remark of Harold Frederic, that there was never any triad of friends since the world began, no matter how fond their ties, in which two did not build a little interior court of thoughts and sympathies from which the third was shut out. Izaak Walton says Lord Elles- mere did not account John Downe to be so much his servant as to forget he was his friend. Balzac thinks people as a rule make confidences to those beneath them rather than to those above them. According to Aristotle, all celebrated friendships have been between two. Idem velle atque idem nolle, ea demum firma amicitia est, is Sallust's. It is Seneca's observation, that we cannot choose our own parents, but our friends we can choose. Some one has remarked, that we are commanded to for- give our enemies, but nowhere to forgive our friends. Amid fures temporis, is anonymous. Canning prayed to be saved from a candid friend. Horace fought against Augustus at Philippi; yet subsequently there sprang up between them a friendship that has become proverbial. Some of the old artists called themselves after their teachers instead of taking their fathers' names. Weir Mitchell thinks friends add terribly to the responsi- bilities of life. When Burke heard that Goldsmith was dead, he burst into tears. When Joshua Reynolds heard the same, he laid down his palette and painted no more 168 LITERARY BREVITIES that day. The most unrelenting enemies are those who were once fast friends. There is nothing to pardon where friendship is, says Landor. Instances of rare friendship are — David and Jonathan, Hercules and Hylas, Theseus and Perithous, and Orestes and Pylades. Birrell is authority for the statement, that a dispute as to the respective merits of Gray and Collins was known to result in a visit to an attorney and a revocation of a will. Dr. Johnson advises us to keep our friendships in repair. There is, perhaps, no surer mark of folly than an attempt to correct the natural infirmities of those we love; so says Fielding. The same writer calls a treacherous friend the most dangerous enemy. Macaulay speaks of George III and Grenville as resembling each other too much to be friends. Cicero advises a man to live with his enemy in such a manner as to leave him room to be- come his friend. Closest unions are those of opposites, Goethe thinks. True men of all creeds are brethren, says Carlyle. Pope thinks the best time to tell a friend any fault he has is while you are commending him. Pignus amicitiae exiguum ingentis, author unknown. Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes, is a fragment from Virgil. Emer- son and Ruskin once met, but unhappily neither was interested in the specialty of the other. Weir Mitchell thinks it one of the uses of friends, that we consider how such and such a thing we are moved to do might appear to them. Offences that can be pardoned, says Landor, should never be taken. He who interposes in the quarrels of relations, observes Balzac, must pass through life with- out a friend. We taste an intellectual pleasure twice, and with double the result, says Hawthorne, when we taste it with a friend. Short reckonings make long friends. Poe says near neighbors are seldom friends. It is a remark of Cervantes, that whoever undertakes a long journey, if FRIENDSHIP 169 he is wise, makes it his business to find out an agreeable companion. He says again, "Nothing in the world can part us but the sexton's spade and shovel." The friend- ships of men, thinks R. L. Stevenson, are vastly agreeable, but they are insecure; life forces men apart and breaks up the good fellowship forever. To have friends, says Balzac, we must be friendly with young men. There are persons you meet and speak to daily for a dozen years without establishing anything like a real acquaintance; until at length some accident breaks down the hitherto impregnable barrier and cordial intimacy springs up. Scott tells of the rare hospitality of the Irish harper, who for want of firewood to cook a guest's supper committed his harp to the flames. What comes from the heart, says Coleridge, goes to the heart. Aristotle thinks friendship must be reciprocal. Pythagoras enjoins us not to leave the mark of a pot in the ashes. Some one has observed, that there is no surer mark of regard than to have your correspondent write nonsense to you. The Prince Regent, afterwards George IV, was on familiar terms with Scott, and used to call him "Walter." Scott enjoyed the friend- ship of his pigs and hens. God help me from my friends, says the Spanish proverb, and I will keep myself from my enemies. The close friendship that existed between Addison and Steele is one of the most memorable on record. Dr. Johnson declares, that no expectation is more frequently disappointed than that which arises in the mind from the prospect of meeting an old friend after a long separation. Fidelia vulnera amantis, author un- known. Advice lent unasked loses both self and friend, says Weir Mitchell. It is seldom, remarks Alison, that the prosperous want friends. In the same boat with thee to share thy fate, is from Sophocles. Balzac thinks friendship needs conspicuous qualities or defects. Napo- 170 LITERARY BREVITIES leon once stood sentry for a soldier who had fallen asleep, and so saved him from being shot. Balzac assures us, that the alliance of antagonistic interests can never last long. To friendship every burden's light, is from John Gay. Dumas observes, that while the wife's friends are almost always the husband's, the husband's friends are rarely the wife's. It was the social maxim of La Roche- foucauld, to treat every friend as if he might one day be an enemy. It was a rule with Charles Reade, never to disapprove of his friends' friends. Goldsmith declared the friendships of travelers to be more transient than vernal snows. Epicurus admitted but two persons to familiarity with himself. Dr. Johnson pronounced Bos- well the best traveling companion in the world. Thomas Gray says a favorite has no friends. According to Mat- thew Arnold, even a true and feeling homage needs to be from time to time renewed, if the memory of its object is to endure. It is Cicero's belief, that true friendships are hard to find among men who busy themselves about politics and office. I put it down as a fact, writes Pascal, that if all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world. At Potidea Socra- tes and Alcibiades both occupied the same tent. The friendship between Burke and Johnson, the one a Whig, the other a Tory, was warm and lasted as long as they lived. A great man, says Swift, will do a favor for me, or for my friend; but why should he do it for my friend's friend? Browning got on comfortably with Carlyle. Every year adds its value to friendship as to a tree, Lowell observes. Some one has said, "The man I don't like is the man I don't know." Scott remarks, that no enemy can be so dangerous as an offended friend and confederate. Madame de Sevigne regards little atten- tions as a stronger proof of friendship than anything else. FRIENDSHIP 171 He makes no friend who never made a foe, is Tennyson's. Scott is of the opinion, that the chain of friendship, however bright, does not stand the attrition of constant close contact. The worst solitude, says Bacon, is to want friendship. It is the advice of some one, that we should have sharers of our memories when life is nothing but memories. George Meredith declares it impossible to conciliate a withered affection. It is a suggestive thought of Hamerton, that real friendship can never be main- tained unless there is an equal readiness on both sides to be at some pains and trouble for its maintenance. By the same author we are reminded, that fate gives us our relations, while we select our friends. Voltaire compares his visit to Frederick at Aix la Chapelle to the familiar meeting of Terence and Scipio. People who go away are soon forgotten, says Ibsen. Somehow or other, says Lafcadio Hearn, wealth makes a sort of Chinese wall between friends. One of the most touching examples of friendship is that which existed between David and Jonathan, and it was best exemplified in David's care for Jonathan's son Mephibosheth after Jonathan's death. Samuel Butler speaks of some "under door-keeper's friend's friend." Amicitiae et libertati, was Bolingbroke's toast. You are the only woman in the kingdom, wrote Bussy to his charming cousin, who can persuade a lover to be contented with friendship. It has been said that friendship parts in poverty. Lewes says there is nothing presented in the history of literature comparable to the friendship of Goethe and Schiller. That between Addison and Steele is akin to it. Symonds thinks the chivalry of Greece found its motive in friendship rather than in the love of women. In the adversity of our best friends, La Rochefoucauld believes, we always find something which does not displease us. Madame De Tencin advised 172 LITERARY BREVITIES Madame Geoffrin never to decline anybody 's acquaintance, to reject any friendly advances; for if nine acquaintances out of ten prove to be of no value, a single one may com- pensate for all the rest. Madame Geoffrin advises us not to let the grass grow in the pathway of friendship. It is a Quaker apothegm, to treat your enemy as if you thought he might some day become your friend, and your friend as though he might become your enemy. Petrarch has been called great in the delicate diplomacy of friend- ship. All know each other and Christian-name each other, author unknown. It is said to be a weakness of human nature, that we always love to hear our friends undervalued. Goethe thinks one can be a thoroughly good fellow without being exactly a Philistine. Blanche Howard thinks only shallow natures make friends easily. In the opinion of Leslie Stephen, of the qualities that make an agreeable companion one of the chief is an in- tuitive perception of the impression you are making. It has been observed, that an exile rarely finds a friend. It has been affirmed, that Fontenelle, who lived to be one hundred years old, never lost a friend. Brunetto Latini was Dante's teacher and friend, and yet for some reason Dante gave him a disreputable place in the Inferno. Three- cornered friendships are said to be as insecure as they are rare. Rosebery says of Chatham, "Men of his type are beyond friendship; they inspire awe, not affection; they have followers, admirers, and an envious host of enemies, rarely a friend." Swift was so much afflicted by the loss of friends by death, that he sometimes wished he had never had a friend. Friendship has been called that which warms but cannot burn. GENIUS 173 GENIUS AMIEL remarks, that to do what is difficult for others is a mark of talent; to do what is impos- sible for talent is a mark of genius. Andrew Lang calls a certain writer "eminently uninspired." Victor Hugo asserts, that criticism cannot apply to genius. Thackeray says of one, that he is not one of those pre- mature geniuses whose much vaunted infantine talents disappear with adolescence. George Eliot was not pre- cocious as a child, as were Goethe and John Stuart Mill; she began her real literary career at the age of thirty-seven. We must have millions of men, says Amiel, in order to produce a few elect spirits; a thousand was enough in Greece. According to Carlyle, the gifted man is he who sees the essential point. Michelangelo was architect, sculptor, painter, and poet; he died in 1564, the year Shakspeare was born. Smollett called Edinburgh a hot- bed of genius. Napoleon succeeded by offensive opera- tions, he was too impatient for the defensive. Lowell thinks great character as rare a thing as great genius. Coleridge thinks there is something feminine in the coun- tenances of all men of genius. Montaigne is of the opin- ion that a strong memory is generally coupled with infirm judgment. Napoleon's head is thought to have been the largest and the best formed ever submitted to the inves- tigation of science. Balzac ventures the assertion, that the man who sees two centuries ahead of him dies on the scaffold. Beaconsfield would have you conciliatory, unless you are very clever. Mrs. Browning tells us, that Apollo taught Wordsworth under the laurels, while the Muses looked through the boughs. Gibbon, speaking of Ma- homet, remarks, that conversation enriches the under- standing, but solitude is the school of genius. Froude 174 LITERARY BREVITIES thinks men of genius have tenacious memories. Swift says there is a brain that will bear but one skimming. Talent is what we have; genius is what has us, says Lowell. Horace Walpole mentions an old ballad-maker who by chance or natural insight obeyed all the precepts of Horace, and yet had never heard of that poet. It is an observation of Botsford, that a great man is, to some extent, the product of his time. Allan Cunningham says stupidity must toil like Caliban, while genius works its ready wonders like the wand of Prospero. Gainsborough was a confirmed painter at the age of twelve. According to Emerson, it is not what talent or genius a man has, but how he is to his talents, that constitutes friendship and character. The man that stands by himself, the uni- verse stands by him, says Emerson. Mediocrity is never attacked, says Balzac. Some one has stated the following, Caesar est supra grammaticam. Julius Caesar could dic- tate to five amanuenses at one time. Buffon's apothegm is, "Genius is patience." Taine characterizes intuition as a superior but dangerous faculty. Schlegel ascribes "terrific grace" to iEschylus. Creasy considers Marl- borough an incomparable general. Says Carlyle, "It must be for the power of producing such creations and emo- tions, that Goethe is by many ranked at the side of Homer and Shakspeare, as one of the only three men of genius that have ever lived." In Balzac's opinion, there are in some sort two periods of youth in every life — the youth of confident hopes, and the youth of action; sometimes in those whom nature has favored the two ages coincide, and then we have a Caesar, a Newton, or a Bonaparte. Edwin Markham describes genius as the power to take a hint. Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae est, is anonymous. No matter what genius does, says C. C. Everett, there will be found those who will admire GENIUS 175 it. Balzac remarks, that what survives of a nation is the work of its men of genius. We are told by Beacons- field, that great men never want experience. It has been observed by some one, that to forget is the great secret of strong, creative natures. Napoleon had a wonderful memory, and was a natural mathematician; when young he could remember logarithms of more than thirty or forty figures. Said Napoleon, "I have fought sixty battles, and I learned nothing but what I knew when I fought the first; look at Caesar; he fought for the first time as he did the last." When a genius is needed, Miinsterberg asserts, democracy appoints a committee. General Sherman did not, when at West Point, discover extraordinary qualities, remaining a private throughout his four years' course. Lang calls Lucian "Prince of the Paradise of Mirth." Carlyle thinks Johnsons are rare, but Boswells rarer. Dumas calls Shakspeare "the great- est creator after God." Creasy declares one of the surest proofs of the genius of Louis XIV to have been his skill in finding out genius in others, and his promptness in calling it into action. Barrow presented a copy of Bacon's essays to his pupil, Sir Isaac Newton, saying it was a volume he gave only to those who were destined to be great. Macaulay always showed minute knowledge of subjects not introduced by himself. Dr. Johnson wrote his dictionary in nine years; the French Academy, forty members, spent forty years on a rival work. Emerson observes, that Napoleon was a man who in each moment and emergency knew what to do next. Shakspeare is the Proteus of human intellect, Hazlitt declares. Lyman Abbott pronounces Voltaire not a great man, for great men always build, and Voltaire only tore down; he had more wit than wisdom, more audacity than courage. Haller and Goethe are rare examples of men in whom both 176 LITERARY BREVITIES the poetical and the scientific natures coexist. Creasy calls Alcibiades the Bolingbroke of antiquity; he also pronounces him the most complete example of genius without principle that history produces. Within one Olympiad, Landor asserts, three men departed from the world, who carried farther than any other three that ever dwelt upon it, reason, eloquence, and martial glory: Aristotle, Demosthenes, and Alexander. Jonathan Ed- wards read Locke's "Essay on the Human Understand- ing " at the age of fourteen. Plutarch extols Seneca's wit beyond all the Greeks. Hazlitt asserts, that if Goldsmith had never written anything but the two or three first chapters of " The Vicar of Wakefield," they would have stamped him as a man of genius. Browning alludes to "safe mediocrity." It is a remark of Heine, that the artist who has only talent retains to the end of his life the impulse to exercise that talent; while genius has already accomplished the highest; it is content; it goes home to Stratford-on-Avon, like William Shakspeare. Chester- ton declares, that in military matters an Oliver Cromwell will make every mistake known to strategy and yet win all his battles. He also says that while Napoleon was a despot like the rest, he was a despot who defied the pessi- mism of Europe and erased the word "impossible." It has been remarked by some one, that the greatest tri- umphs in ideal philosophy are allowed Socrates and Plato; in the art of mental analysis Aristotle is awarded the palm; while Bacon carries off the honors in physical science. There be that can pack the cards, says Bacon, who yet cannot play the game well. Bacon, eminent both as a writer and a speaker, was not a mathematician. Richelieu allows that Gustavus Adolphus, like Hannibal, knew how to conquer, but not how to use his victory. Swift says we ought not to make a man a bishop who does not love GENIUS 177 divinity, or a general who does not love war; and he wonders why the Queen would make a man Lord Treasurer who does not love money. The greatest genius is not always equal to himself, remarks Balzac. It is an observa- tion of W. R. Thayer, that genius and ambition laugh at precedents. Byron praised Sheridan as the writer of the best comedy, the best opera, and the best oration of his time. To the man of genius, says James Sime, it is not granted to know a thousand things which every school- boy knows. If, says John Fiske, Tyler is small as com- pared with Jackson and Van Buren, he is great as compared with Pierce and Buchanan. Bulwer advises never trusting to genius for what can be obtained by labor. T. C. Munger thinks Shakspeare the most pathetic of men; for what is more pathetic than the unconscious posses- sion of great powers? Pascal was both a great writer and a great mathematician. Bulwer calls genius the enthusiasm for self-improvement. Mediocrity can talk, observes Disraeli, but it is for genius to observe. Les- sing thinks every man of genius above criticism. Goethe thinks that everything that is done by genius, as genius, is done unconsciously. There is, says Belloc, this weak- ness attaching to government by representation, that it presupposes an eminence in those elected. Genius is to be admired and not criticized, Lowell asserts. Birrell declares Southey to be one of those remarkable men whose observations are made for the first time. Goethe played the piano and cello, and drew beautifully. Says Biel- schowsky, "There is no great gift in this world which is not at the same time a burden to its possessor. Goethe suffered severely under the burden of his great natural gifts." Dr. John Brown marvels that genius so seldom serves God, and so often serves the devil. When we begin, remarks Sainte-Beuve, by knowing a great man in 178 LITERARY BREVITIES the full force of his genius only, we imagine that he has never been without it. Lowell believes there is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind. It was a remark of Bacon, that reading makes a full man, writing an exact man, and speaking a ready man; Blaine said William Pitt Fessenden was all three. To say a thing that everybody has said before, as quietly as if no one had ever said it, — that, says Goethe, is originality. According to De Quincey, whatever is too original will be hated at first; it must slowly make a public for itself. Genius is a cruel disease, is Balzac's severe way of putting it. Without Goethe, no Bismarck, says Bielschowsky. What is not in man will never come out of him, says Goethe. Stonewall Jackson claimed "no genius for seeming." Charlemagne formed the plan of uniting the Danube and the Rhine by a canal, and even began the work; so Goethe informs us. W. D. Howells asserts, that poets and painters spring up where there was never a verse made or a picture seen. It is a remark of some one, that genius does what it must, but talent does what it can. Shakspeare is subtle, but in letters a foot high, Lowell declares. Phidias was at once sculptor, painter, and architect. Emerson says that Scott was not suffi- ciently alive to ideas to be a great man; but that while he has strong sense, humor, fancy, and humanity, — of imagination, in the high sense, he has little or nothing. Ferrero thinks political life is always perilous to a man of genius. When, says William James, a superior intellect and a psychopathic temperament coalesce in the same individual, we have the best possible condition of the kind of effective genius that gets into the biographical dictionaries. The following observation is from Lafcadio Hearn, — "I think that genius must have greater attri- butes than mere creative power to be called to the front GENIUS 179 rank, — the thing created must be beautiful; I cannot content myself with ores and rough jewels; I see great beauty in Whitman, great force, great cosmical truths sung to mystical words; but the singer seems to me nevertheless barbaric; would Homer be Homer to us but for the billowy roar of his mighty verse?" Sir Joshua Reynolds, though allowing that men of ordinary talents may be highly satisfied with their own productions, thinks men of true genius never are. Lucky ideas occurred to Frederick the Great while playing the flute. Tolstoy praises the sound common sense of mediocrity. Balzac created something like two thousand characters. A genius sees what other people look at, is an epigram un- fortunately anonymous. Corot was offered £80 if he would be a painter, or £4,000 to start with, if he would be a shopkeeper. Leibnitz, wishing to confound Newton, sent him a difficult problem in mathematics, which Newton solved without difficulty and returned the next day. It is safe to say that a man never knows what nature has fitted him for till he tries. The Spectator thinks it shows a greater genius in Shakspeare to have drawn his Caliban than his Hotspur or his Julius Caesar. Emerson would judge of the splendor of a nation by the insignificance of great individuals in it. Lewes thinks no man ever repeated himself less than Goethe. According to Hamerton, a man's immediate neighbors are generally the very last persons to become aware of the nature of his powers or the value of his achievements. Speaking of Hamlet, Goethe says, "There is an oak-tree planted in a costly jar, which should have borne only pleasant flowers in its bosom; the root expands, the jar is shivered." Nothing excites inspiration like necessity, is remarked by Rossini. At the age of fifteen De Quincey wrote and spoke Greek fluently, and composed Greek verses in lyric measure. 180 LITERARY BREVITIES At Lincoln Cathedral there is a beautiful painted window, which an apprentice made out of the pieces of glass which had been rejected by his master; it was so far superior to every other in the church that, according to tradition, the vanquished artist killed himself from mortification. Hay don thinks men of genius are bad teachers — too quick, too eager, and too violent if not comprehended. Mrs. Browning refers to Landor as one in whose hands the ashes of antiquity burn again. Thackeray confessed that Becky Sharp was too deep for him. Great minds scorn the beaten track, says Goldsmith, Mrs. Browning thinks men of genius are apt to love with their imaginations. Powerful beings will and wait, says Balzac. Ne sutor ultra crepidam, said Apelles. Hay don is convinced that the only gift from nature is the capacity to conquer it. The same asserts, that genius is sent into the world, not to obey laws, but to give them. Great geniuses, Carlyle observes, have the shortest biographies. It is Balzac's belief, that there are men who can never be replaced. It was said of Burke, that he chose his position like a fanatic and defended it like a philosopher. Margaret Fuller's husband Ossoli, a very handsome Italian, was almost illiterate; she secured for him a place in a sculptor's studio, where he proved quite incapable of instruction in sculpture. After four months' labor he produced a copy of a human foot, but with the great toe on the wrong side. Genius has big ears — on the inside, says Balzac. Coleridge calls mere talent the faculty of appropriating and applying the knowledge of others. GOSSIP THERE'S no telling where gossips get their crumbs, remarks George Meredith. Cut scandal's head off, said Garrick, still the tongue is wagging. It is ob- GOVERNMENT 181 served by G. W. E. Russell, that, so far as he remembers, Shakspeare recognizes no male gossips. Addison says a gossip in politics is a slattern in her family. GOVERNMENT THE best government of all, says Jefferson, is the one that governs least. The framers of our con- stitution succeeded because they understood thoroughly all past forms of government, and framed the republic in the light of history. Locke, who framed the "Grand Model" for the Carolinas, although a great philosopher, failed because he evolved his government out of his inner consciousness. Macaulay thinks what in an age of good government is an evil may, in an age of grossly bad gov- ernment, be a blessing. The right kind of people may be well governed even under a bad constitution. The office of alderman was originally next in rank to that of king. Nescis, mi fill, quam parva sapientia regatur mun- dus, is a saying of Oxenstiern. It is a saying of Lincoln, that no man is good enough to govern another man with- out that other's consent. Burke has been called great because he brought thought to bear upon politics. Lan- dor says the Europeans called ours an infant state; then the first infant who ever kicked its mother down-stairs. We lose respect for a constitution if we change it too often. What an immortality to have written our Declara- tion of Independence! The will of the people, says J. Q. Adams, is the source of the happiness of the people, the end of all legitimate government on earth. Justin McCarthy declares, that the success of a motion in a leg- islative body depends much upon who brings it forward. It is a very easy thing to devise good laws; the difficulty is to make them effective, as thinks Lord Bolingbroke. 182 LITERARY BREVITIES The laws of Lycurgus were not allowed to be written. Sancho Panza thought it good to command, though it were but a flock of sheep. It is George Eliot's notion, that an absolute ruler needs to have at hand a man ca- pable of doing the meanest actions. Venice, in the thir- teenth century, was considered the most powerful state in Europe. P. F. Willert thinks the strength of a govern- ment depends upon the hold it has on public opinion and on the control of the revenues of the country. I allow, observes Macaulay, that hasty legislation is an evil; but reformers are compelled to legislate fast just because bigots will not legislate early. It was the saying of a Roman senator, that it were better to live where nothing is lawful, than where all things are lawful. John Mor- ley maintains, that Turgot, like Burke, held fast to the doctrine that everything must be done for the multitude, but nothing by them. Jefferson, in 1801, set the ex- ample of sending a written message to Congress when it opened, instead of appearing in person as his predeces- sors had done. It was a maxim of Louis XIV, that when any injury is done to the body of the state, it is not enough to repair the mischief, unless one adds some good thing which it had not before. It was the belief of Fenelon, that when a man is destined to govern men, he must love them for the love of God, and not expect to be loved by them. The same declares, that kings are made for subjects, not subjects for kings. Calhoun at one time proposed the election of two presidents, one from the North and one from the South. According to Fred- erick the Great, the strength of the state consists in the great men to whom nature seasonably gives birth in them. Up to the year 1820 there was no regular police in Lon- don. Kings, says Massillon, can be great only by render- ing themselves useful to the people. It is common to GREATNESS 183 all systems of democracy, remarks Belloc, to demand a rotation in the distribution of power. E. P. Whipple thinks our first twenty presidents compare most favor- ably with any twenty consecutive kings of any country. In France, for one hundred and forty years — from Louis XIV to Louis Philippe, no eldest son of the king reigned. Herbert Spencer is of the opinion, that by association with rules that cannot be obeyed, those that can be obeyed lose their authority. By an English law enacted in 1489, it was unlawful to take out of the country any money in gold or silver, coined or uncoined, English or foreign, beyond the value of four angels. The Irish are said to have fought successfully the battles of every country but their own. GRATITUDE WE are a great deal apter to remember injuries than benefits, Seneca observes. Principles are ungrateful, says Balzac. A Jesuit missionary tells of native tribes of Brazil who possess no word corresponding to our word for "thanks," and who are utterly devoid of the idea of gratitude. Apropos of the saying that repub- lics are ungrateful, Dr. Holmes suggests that it might be truer to say they are forgetful; but history never forgets and never forgives. It was remarked by Eurip- ides, that one good turn deserves another. Richter ob- serves, that it is better to make presents in articles than in money; because gratitude for the latter is spent as soon as that is. GREATNESS QHAKSPEARE speaks as follows, — "Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself, 'Till by broad spreading it disperse to naught." 184 LITERARY BREVITIES By the same, — "Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, That he is grown so great? " And again, — "Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus." Again, — "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have great- ness thrust upon them." Gladstone would never accept a peerage, though it was several times offered him. The following are Shak- speare's: "They that stand high have many blasts to shake them"; "A crown or else a glorious tomb"; "Un- easy lies the head that wears a crown." Balzac speaks of one as too great to make any claim to greatness. Sen- eca would have it, that the true grandeur of soul takes everything for great that is enough. Plutarch thinks the elder Cato's reputation greater than his power, and his virtue to have been more admired than followed. Poe alludes to some one as a great man in a small way. HABIT IT was an affectation of Alexander to carry his head on one side; of Alcibiades to lisp; and of Cicero to tweak his nose. James G. Blaine observes, that the force that will arrest the first slow revolution of a wheel cannot stand before it when by unchecked velocity it has acquired a destructive momentum. George Sand speaks of making faces to the devil. Weir Mitchell says an archbishop would learn to swear in the army. A good habit, says some one, is as hard to break as a bad one. Gibbon took but little exercise. Nero never put on one HABIT 185 garment twice. Demosthenes being taunted by iEschines, a man of pleasure, with the fact that his speeches smelt of the lamp, very pertly retorted, "There is great differ- ence between the object which you and I pursue by lamp- light." Dante is constantly alluding to his exile of nine- teen years, just as Montaigne constantly complains of his physical malady. The only way to be sure of being always on time is to be always a little ahead of time. It is a good habit always to go to dinner at once when summoned. It is an observation of J. A. Symonds, that we often think that we will lightly leave some ancient, strong habitual sin, of old time passionately cherished, of late grown burdensome; but not so easily may the new pure life be won; between our souls and it there stands the fury of the past. Parson Adams always carried his manuscript iEschylus with him, and always consulted it when in doubt. Balzac insists that no one can bid fare- well to a habit. Henry James says people have to get used to each other's charms as well as to their faults. R. L. Stevenson states, that Dr. Johnson's heart did not recoil before twenty-seven individual cups of tea. Thack- eray took no exercise. Rousseau was unable to reflect when he was not walking. Talent may be late in its unfolding, but habits of industrious application, unless formed early, are seldom formed at all. In classic times, every year boys went from house to house in the island of Rhodes, announcing the first arrival of the swallow, as the welcome harbinger of spring, and begging gifts in return for the good news. Carlyle regards habit the deepest law of human nature. Lamb says, "Use recon- ciles." In old Dutch taverns travelers were charged for the noise they made. Balzac thinks it easier to make a revolution than to improve the style of men's hats. It is a remark of Dr. Johnson, that the diminutive chains 186 LITERARY BREVITIES of habit are seldom heavy enough to be felt, till they are too strong to be broken. Demosthenes was an early riser. Newton once spent twenty-four hours with his hands on the table; when he came out of his reverie he thought it was still the day before. Franklin's rule for sleep was between ten and four. He did not long observe his own rule. James Cook remarks, that no people are more averse to every kind of innovation than seamen. It is remarked by Lessing, that everyone acquires by degrees the habits of those with whom he associates. Balzac likens some one to the blacksmith's dog, that sleeps under the forge yet wakes at the sound of a sauce- pan. The same author says the habits of life form the soul, and the soul forms the countenance. Swift did not smoke, but snuffed up cut-and-dry tobacco. Rosebery informs us, that Fox never used notes, and Pitt rarely. James I had a bad habit of swearing. In his later years Wordsworth read little or nothing. Walter Pater thinks to acquire habits is failure in life. Barrett Wendell does not remember that he ever saw a French boy whittle a stick. According to Parkman, the early Jesuit mis- sionaries in Canada used no salt whatever. Henry S. Landor informs us, that people living at high latitudes seldom use tobacco. It is the opinion of Sir Arthur Helps, that the habit of deciding for himself, so indispensable to a man of business, is not to be gained by study; that decision is a thing that cannot be fully exercised until it is actually wanted. Life is but a tissue of habits, says Amiel. New climes don't change old manners, says Aristophanes. Some writer calls habit "ten times na- ture." Goethe's Egmont does not like to "leave the familiar habit of living and eating." Thackeray says David Hume never went to bed without his whist. Scipio Africanus is said to be the earliest example of a Roman HAPPINESS 187 who shaved every day; from his time on, that is, from about 250 B.C., it was the Roman custom to wear no beard at all; no Roman ever wore the mustache alone. HAPPINESS GOETHE thinks nothing more intolerable than to hear people reckon up the pleasures they enjoy. The man, says G. I. Parsons, who devotes himself to the attainment of material ends is liable to find, when the goal is reached, that he is no longer capable of enjoying them. According to the wisdom of Seneca, misfortunes cannot be avoided, but they can be sweetened, if not over- come; and our lives may be made happy by philosophy. Di tibi divitias dederunt artemque fruendi, is from Hor- ace. Happy are they, Goethe remarks, who soon detect the chasm that lies between their wishes and their powers. Coleridge says, " Show me one couple unhappy merely on account of their limited circumstances, and I will show you ten who are wretched from other causes." Haw- thorne thinks mankind are getting so far beyond the childhood of their race, that they scorn to be happy any longer. Justin McCarthy doubts if any other queen ever had a married life so happy as that of Queen Victoria. Henry James thinks it a proof of cleverness to be happy without doing anything. No one truly knows happi- ness, says Amiel, who has not suffered, and the redeemed are happier than the elect. Seneca places felicity in the soul, not in the flesh. Balzac observes, that the thing the world pardons least is happiness, and, therefore, it is best to hide it. Dr. Radcliffe, Court Physician, in his bluff way told William III that he would not have his Maj- esty's two legs for his three kingdoms. George Sand would have happiness sought nowhere but in the fulfil- 188 LITERARY BREVITIES ment of duty. Hawthorne advises taking opium to get a glimpse of heaven. Writes Goethe, "The thoughts we have had, the pictures we have seen, may be again called up before the mind and the imagination; but the heart is not so complaisant; it will not repeat its agree- able emotions." Your mode of happiness, remarks Cole- ridge, would make me miserable. From the Welsh we are taught, that God himself cannot procure good for the wicked. Feelingly sweet is stillness after storm, observes Wordsworth. Balzac thinks happiness makes us selfish. The same author asserts, that all human beings who miss their vocation are unhappy. Our content, says Shak- speare, is our best having. R. P. Halleck believes, that more than half our pleasure comes from anticipation. If I prefer a short pleasure to a lasting one, observes Locke, it is plain I cross my own happiness. Herbert Spencer calls happiness the most powerful of tonics. Hawthorne thinks that happiness comes incidentally, and that it is unwise to make it an object of pursuit. According to Eugene Sue, the happiness of the old is to see the young happy. Dr. Johnson judges some to be too eminent for happiness; he also declares, that no man can be happy in total idleness. To be suspended in limbo is to be neither in pain nor in glory. It is the sen- timent of Swift, that happiness is a perpetual passion of being well deceived. One is never so happy nor so un- happy as he imagines, thinks La Rochefoucauld. Felix Me tamen corvo quoque rarior albo, is a verse in Juvenal. How happy could I be with either, were t'other dear charmer away, is John Gay's. Balzac thinks nothing more utterly uninteresting than a happy man. He says again, that happiness has no history. Leigh Hunt's philosophy of life was, how to neutralize the disagreeable and make the best of what is before us. Power and HAPPINESS 189 aim, observes Emerson, the two halves of felicity, seldom meet. It is very natural to change, thinks Le Sage, when we cannot be worse off. Irving, however, thinks a change is sometimes desirable even from bad to worse. Thack- eray observes, that the world deals good-naturedly with good-natured people. True happiness is indescribable, according to Rousseau; he remarks, that what he still wanted prevented him from enjoying what he had. It is an observation of Addison, that the utmost we can hope for in this world is contentment. Goethe thinks that nothing that calls back the remembrance of a happy moment can be insignificant. One element in happi- ness, Joubert believes, is to feel that we have deserved it. That which produces and maintains cheerfulness, Richter declares, is nothing but activity. Goodness, says Landor, does not more certainly make men happy than happiness makes them good. It was Gray's idea of heaven, to lounge on a sofa and read new novels. It was a maxim of Jefferson, that a mind always employed is always happy, that the idle are the only wretched. Sen- eca has the same thought, that no man is so miserable as he that is at a loss how to spend his time. Who'll say after this, that there are not days set apart for hap- piness? asks Eugene Sue. The same believes there is nothing so healthful as joy. Euripides records it as his belief, that youth holds no society with grief. Love and work, says Balzac, have the virtue of making a man indifferent to external circumstances. Pendennis felt sure of going to heaven, for his mother never could be happy there without him. Wealth and honor by no means insure happiness. Schiller declares that no happi- ness ripens in this world. Again he says, that no clock strikes ever for the happy. Call no man blessed before his death, is found in Ecclesiasticus, and also among 190 LITERARY BREVITIES the wise sayings of Solon. Balzac thinks the soul is happy in making great efforts of whatever kind. Happiness, says Chateaubriand, consisteth not in possessing much, but in hoping much and loving much. Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn? asks Shakspeare's character. Lessing thinks it always better not to know who speaks ill of us. Shakspeare says, "I were but little happy, if I could tell how much." Lessing thinks it melancholy to be happy alone. The happier a man is, remarks Balzac, the greater are his fears. The same asks, "Where would be the pleasure of hunting a tame thing?" And once more he affirms, that nature only owes us life; it is society that owes us happiness. Pythagoras sacrificed one hundred oxen in consequence of having discovered that the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled tri- angle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Blesses his stars and thinks it luxury, is Addi- son's. Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new, is Milton's. It was John Stuart Mill who, upon experien- cing the delights of Wordsworth's poems, said, "From them I seemed to learn what would be the perennial sources of happiness when all the greater evils of life shall have been removed." To enjoy happiness is a great blessing, remarks Bacon, but to confer it is a greater. In general, says Balzac, prescribed happiness is not the kind that any of us desire. To feel joy, we must be with joyous people, declares Mme. de Sevigne. In the opinion of Walter Raleigh, no one who is not capable of great hap- piness can be a highly moral being. Benson speaks of some one who contrives to give a great deal of happiness without having a program. The Greeks refused to speak of human happiness, lest the jealous deities should destroy it. Whoever can make others happy is happy himself, is anonymous. H. W. Dresser thinks it a matter of econ- HAPPINESS 191 omy to be happy. Bielschowsky is convinced that there is no great, true happiness without pain. I have often thought, remarks Mrs. Browning, that it is happier not to do what one pleases. In the opinion of Aristotle, neither virtue nor happiness is obtainable apart from society. The Promised Land is the land where one is not, is AmiePs epigram. The same declares, that no one truly knows happiness who has not suffered. The hap- piness one can procure for others, George Sand asserts, is the purest and most certain one can procure for himself. It has been remarked by some one, that a man's existence may be so unhappy that the best punishment that could be inflicted upon him would be to leave him where he is. Children who have never known want get few deep draughts of joy, is by an unknown author. Young's "How blessings brighten as they take their flight," is like Landor's, "What we love is lovelier in departure." Of what avail, says Beckford, is the finest cage without birds to enliven it? Enough of sunshine to enjoy the shade, is Landor's. It is a saying of George Sand, that the wisdom of people in her position consists in knowing how to do without what we call happiness. It is a theory of Tolstoy, that a powerful means to secure true happiness in life is — without any rules — to spin in all directions, like a spider, a whole web of love to catch in it all that we can. You must aim at something else, observes John Stuart Mill, and then you may get happiness in the re- bound; those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness. True happiness is never loud nor manifest. Man, Erasmus declares, is only happy by the goods of the mind. It is the belief of Goethe, that we are happiest under the influence of innocent delusions. George Meredith thinks possession without obligation to the object possessed 192 LITERARY BREVITIES approaches felicity. Nihil est ab omni parte beatum, is without a name. No man can be supremely happy long, says Carlyle. Happy the people, says Montesquieu, whose annals are blank in History — Books. Somebody has said, that happiness consists in searching for truth, and never finding it. To be happy, remarks George Moore, one must have an ideal and strive to live up to it. Con- genial labor is the secret of happiness, Benson thinks. Dr. Johnson assures us, that it is easy to laugh at the folly of him who, instead of enjoying the blessings of life, lets life glide away in preparations to enjoy them. Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happi- ness, is the opinion of Charlotte Bronte. It is a remark of Scott, that happiness depends so much less upon the quantity of fortune than upon the power of enjoying what we have. Sir Thomas Browne calls some one happy enough to pity Caesar. Grayson believes happiness to be nearly always a rebound from hard work. Boling- broke thought that in a little time, perhaps, he might have leisure to be happy. HASTE THERE is no way, says Richelieu, of doing two im- portant things at once. In good news never hurry; but in bad news not a moment is to be lost, is the advice of Napoleon. It is the idea of Hans Chris- tian Andersen, that everyone who goes before the coach of Time gets kicked or trampled down by its horses. The Rhine, says Hare, loses half its usefulness from the impetuosity of its current. HATRED 193 HATRED IT is easier, declares Swift, to distrust a man because you dislike him, than to dislike him because you distrust him. Franklin relates an incident of a man on shipboard who refused to work at the pump to save the vessel from sinking, because by so doing he would save the life of an enemy who was also on board. I am will- ing to forgive all men except an American, is the sour remark of Dr. Johnson. The same writer believes, that treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled. Giorgione, just before breathing his last, gave orders that Titian should not attend his funeral. Balzac declares, that Frenchmen have too many distractions of mind to hate each other long. The blood-thirsty Jeffreys, Chief Justice of James II's time, said he could smell a Presbyterian forty miles. Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo, is a line from Virgil. It is a damned humor in great men, Seneca remarks, that whom they wrong they hate. Hatred does not last long, so Pericles says. According to Vic- tor Hugo, it is one of the most difficult yet necessary things in life to learn to disdain. Angels bear no resentment, as Schiller affirms. The finest revenge, Balzac thinks, is the scorn of revenge. He also thinks the first requisi- tion of revenge to be dissimulation. Senator Hoar had a low estimate of the moral character of Wendell Phil- lips, and an unquenchable hatred of General B. F. Butler. The Russian Kropotof, in his funeral oration on "Balbus, my Dog," congratulated that animal on never having read Voltaire. Writes Shakspeare, — " — back- wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes." 194 LITERARY BREVITIES When a child, Walter Scott saw "As You Like It" played, and couldn't understand why brothers should quarrel. Balzac observed, that just as the one we love can do no wrong, so the one we hate can do nothing right. What dislikes are so deep-rooted, asks A. M. Rothschild, as those for which no adequate reason can be given? W. R. Thayer declares, that men do not hate a weakling. Bul- wer affirms, that the most irritable of all rancors is that nourished against one's nearest relations. Napoleon, when at St. Helena, made a legacy of ten thousand francs to a man who had attempted to assassinate Wellington. When brothers hate, observes Racine, their hatred knows no bounds. People grow to like what they do. The Duke of Wellington, on the anniversary of the battle of Water- loo, was surrounded by an angry mob, and was obliged to call the police to his assistance. If a man is subject to revenge, observes Richelieu, to put him in authority is to put a sword in the hand of a madman. The Athenian citizen who, after all his comrades had perished in the unfortunate expedition to the island of iEgina, returned home alone, was attacked by the widows of the slain war- riors, and put to death by their pricking him with bod- kins. The newspapers, angered at the Jay treaty, called Washington the "Step-father of his country." Egina bit off her tongue and spit it in the tyrant's face. Landor declares it to be the destiny of the poor to be despised, and the privilege of the illustrious to be hated. George Meredith would have us be suspicious of those we hate. Cowper, in view of Dr. Johnson's most industrious cru- elty in disparaging the character and writings of Mil- ton, says, "Oh! I could thrash his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pockets." Huxley likes to show his contempt for Bacon. We are told that envy always dogs the footsteps of merit. Brooks make even worse HEALTH 195 neighbors than oceans, Landor observes. The man pos- sessed by jealousy, says George Meredith, is never in need of matter for it. Harold Skimpole thought it might be in the scheme of things, that A should squint to make B happier in looking straight. Bismarck reminds us, that revenge is a delicacy that should be eaten cold. HEALTH PARS sanitatis velle sanari, is Seneca's. Weir Mitchell has discovered that since the mamas have begun to to keep thermometers the doctor has no peace. A certain Lord Russell who had spoiled his constitution by luxurious living, though being quite averse to sport, used to go out with his dogs every day only to hunt for an appetite. Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano, is Juvenal's famous verse. The first wealth is health, says Emerson. Weir Mitchell thinks it is some- times the body that saves the soul. The following is Browning's, — "But the soul is not the body, and the breath is not the flute; Both together make the music; either marred and all is mute." Franklin would have it, that nine men in ten are suicides. Addison thinks health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other. Voltaire, Goethe, and Scott were at the time of their birth all so feeble as not to be thought worth raising. Balzac alludes to a woman whose health was not coarsely apparent. It is an observation of Walt Whitman, that only health puts you rapport with the universe. G. W. E. Russell declares there's nothing so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse. Dr. Baillie advised his patient to take exercise; the lat- ter claiming that he had no time for it, Dr. B. asked, 196 LITERARY BREVITIES "Have you time to die, sir?" Dr. Arnold somewhat boastfully asserted, "When I find that I cannot run up the library stairs, I shall know it is time for me to go." Plato had such a high opinion of exercise, that he said it was a cure for a wounded conscience. Self-unconscious- ness is by some considered a test of health. Health first, beauty next, wealth third, is the burden of the old song. There is nothing worse, observes Tolstoy, than to confess being in low spirits. HEREDITY THE Germans have a saying, that one cannot be too careful in the selection of his parents. Emer- son is of the opinion, that all great men come out of the middle classes. Turner, the celebrated English landscape painter, was the son of a London barber. His mother had a bad temper and became insane. Emerson asserts, what is essentially true, that no great man ever had a great son; the few exceptions, perhaps, prove the rule. The mother of Alexander the Great was of a violent temper, jealous, cruel, and vindictive, and loved tame snakes. If we could trace our descents, observes Seneca, we should find all slaves to come from princes and all princes from slaves. The Argyles illustrate the fact, that a man of weak character and intellect may have ances- tors and descendants who are strong in both these par- ticulars. Rienzi's father was an inn-keeper and his mother a washerwoman; he, however, had the advantage of a liberal education. The philosopher Locke was not his mother's child, but took his strong qualities from his father. The Carlyles all had big heads. Balzac thinks a child takes its blood from the father and its nervous sys- tem from the mother. It is a pertinent remark of William HEROISM 197 Winter, that while all men may be free and equal in the eye of the law, all men are, in fact, unequal, since every man is subject to heredity and circumstance. Tenny- son was the son of a clergyman. Thomas Carlyle was the son of a stone mason, and George Eliot the daughter of a carpenter; the former one of the greatest English-speak- ing men of his century, the latter, perhaps, the greatest intellect among women. Plautus and Terence, among the earliest Roman poets, were both of low extraction. Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors, says Emerson. It is Schopenhauer's doctrine, that men of genius inherit their gifts from their mothers. Blood never lies, is an observation by Sainte-Beuve. Balzac, the Shakspeare among novelists, was said to be totally with- out literary ancestry. Amiel asserts, that a man may be born rich and noble, but that he is not born a gentleman. There is a saying among the Scotch, that an ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy. George Meredith thinks it requires a line of ancestry to train a man's taste. But little is known of Voltaire's parents or other kindred. Herodotus remarks, that the son of a herald is of course a herald; and if any man hath a louder voice, it goes for nothing. It is Ibsen's belief, that nearly all men who go to ruin early have had untruthful mothers. If you wish to be virtuous, observes Victor Hugo, educate your grandfathers. HEROISM IT is remarked by Hawthorne, that the greatest ob- stacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not prove oneself a fool; that the truest heroism is to re- sist the doubt, and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when obeyed. Pres- cott would rather not meddle with heroes who have not 198 LITERARY BREVITIES been under ground two centuries at least. In Landor's opinion, no fighting man was ever at once so great and so good a man as Blake. All conquerors, says Joubert, have had something coarse in their views, their genius, and their character. This from Walt Whitman, — "And there is no trade or employment but the Young man following it may become a hero." HISTORY THE year 1492 is distinguished not only for the discovery of America, but for the termination of Mohammedan power in Spain, after a continuance of eight centuries. Shakspeare, Montaigne, Tasso, and Cervantes, of the sixteenth century, were all born within a period of thirty-two years. In the summer of 1777, while in New Jersey, Washington was cruelly censured for too great caution and inactivity, though afterwards his course was declared wise. Grote thinks the exag- gerated desire of each Grecian city for autonomy was the chief cause of the short duration of Grecian freedom. Gymnastic games were of such importance in Greece, that they determined Greek chronology. It was in York, in the year 500, that, by the order of King Arthur, the first Christmas was kept in England. During the one hundred and sixty years which preceded the union of the Roses in England, nine kings reigned; six of these were deposed, five of whom lost their lives as well as their crowns. The most eventful act in the world's history, Dowden affirms, is an inward decision of the will — the simple matter of eating an apple. The Monroe Doctrine was first suggested by George Canning, the English states- man. Germany gave to the world gun-powder, printing, and the Protestant religion. The Greek and Roman HISTORY 199 historians generally had some personal acquaintance with the affairs they chronicled. Not to know the ancients, says Richter, is to be an ephemeron, which neither sees the sun rise nor set. Windsor Castle was built by Edward III. Birrell observes, that unless historians have good styles, they are so hard to read, and if they have good styles, they are so apt to lie. It is the judgment of Fer- rero, that in history the distortings of truth are much more numerous than are inventions. Henry III, in the thirteenth century, granted a charter to Newcastle to dig coal — the first mention of coal in England. William the Silent, Prince of Orange, was great-grandfather of William III of England. The battle of Sedgemoor, be- tween Monmouth and Feversham, is the last worth the name that has been fought on English soil. Longstreet, speaking of invading Pennsylvania, expressed it as his opinion, that the only hope the Confederates had was in out-generaling the Federals. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the Fourth of July, 1826, just fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The record of the Peloponnesian war by Thucydides has been pronounced the greatest historical narrative in the world. Sir George Rooke commanded the English fleet which, in 1704, in the War of the Spanish Succession, took Gibraltar. According to Goldwin Smith, there is no more romantic period in the history of human intellect than the thirteenth century. Constantine thought at first of building Constantinople on the site of ancient Troy. At the battle of Hastings, where Harold lost his life, William the Conqueror had three horses killed under him. When Xerxes was preparing to invade Greece, the bridges over the Hellespont were broken up by a storm; upon this Xerxes had the Hellespont scourged with three hundred lashes and had the engineers be- 200 LITERARY BREVITIES headed. The only accession which the Roman empire received during the first century of the Christian era was the province of Britain. The Whigs elected but two presidents — Harrison and Taylor, and both died after serving, the former but a month, the latter less than two years. Some one defines history as the sum of the biog- raphies of a few strong men. In the year 1805 every legitimate monarch in Europe was imbecile, so Emerson declares. Louis XIV, after forty years of remarkable success, saw his glorious conquests pass away. Almost every place prominently mentioned in the Bible is now under Mohammedan rule. Petrarch is commonly called the first modern man. When Sextus Pompey was enter- taining Augustus Caesar and Antony on shipboard, one of his captains asked him if he should not cut off the anchors and make Pompey master of the Roman world. Pompey 's reply was, "You should have done it without consulting me." The first steamship to cross the Atlan- tic, in 1819, was named the Savannah and was built in New York. Louis XVI, who came to the French throne in 1774, was the grandson of Louis XV, who had reigned fifty-nine years. Until the time of Julius Caesar the week of seven days was unknown to the Greeks and Romans. At the close of the Peloponnesian war Lysander was loaded with golden crowns, voted to him by the various Grecian cities. Sugar was almost unknown in Europe until the Crusades. Five attempts were made upon Queen Vic- toria's life. Of the two European republics of the eight- eenth century, one was at the source of the Rhine, the other at its mouth. The real point settled by the dethrone- ment of James II was, that the ruler of England must be a Protestant. The battle of Tours, in which Charles Martel defeated the Saracens in 732, has been pronounced one of the decisive battles of the world, as it freed Europe HISTORY 201 from Mohammedan rule. It is interesting to reflect, that nearly every prominent European nation has at some time held the political or intellectual supremacy over all the others. Dante was born three hundred years lacking one before the birth of Shakspeare; Petrarch and Boccaccio were about fifty years later than Dante. For about three hundred years the Arabs led the world in civilization. The Triple Alliance was a union between England, Holland, and Sweden against France, in the time of Charles II and Louis XIV, forty years after the death of Gustavus Adolphus. It was Philip of Mace- don before whom the woman appealed from "Philip drunk to Philip sober." The Turks, under Mahomet II, took Constantinople in 1453. The terms "Red Rose," of the house of Lancaster, and "White Rose," of the house of York, were applied after Edward IV became king. The greatest of the battles of the Wars of the Roses was that of Towton, a Yorkshire village near Leeds, where on March 29, 1461, the Yorkists under Edward IV defeated the Lancastrians under Henry VI and Margaret. Harvard has been prolific in historians; witness Bancroft, Motley, Sparks, Palfrey, Parkman, and Fiske. During the six years of its existence the Association of Brook Farm never numbered more than one hundred and twenty persons at one time; probably from first to last two hundred persons were connected with it. The American Indian, when first discovered, was an oyster eater. Henry IV of England found his crooked way to the throne in 1399. At a conference of Spartans, Argaeans, and Corinthians, held at Corinth, the Corinth- ians simulated an earthquake, so as to adjourn the confer- ence and gain time. There were thirteen battles between the houses of York and Lancaster, that of Bosworth Field being the last. There was no dueling among the Greeks 202 LITERARY BREVITIES and Romans. There are sixty or seventy pyramids in Egypt; the Great Pyramid, Cheops, is five hundred feet in height and covers an area of over thirteen acres. Wind- mills were first used in Asia Minor. The population of ancient Rome has been estimated as high as two millions. The Ptolemies descended from one of Alexander's generals. England had no census until 1665. Robert Bruce de- feated Edward II in the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. In the latter part of the twelfth century, Henry II sub- dued Ireland and annexed it to the English crown, though it was not brought under complete subjection until the reign of Elizabeth. The Normans, to preserve the knowl- edge of families and pedigrees, introduced the use of sur- names into England. Schiller declares impartiality to be the most sacred obligation of the historian. The first lesson of history, says Emerson, is the good of evil. Macaulay remarks concerning the resolution that declared the abdication of James II, "In fact the one beauty of the resolution is its inconsistency; they cared little whether their major agreed with their conclusion, if the major secured two hundred votes and the conclusion two hundred more." The same authority would have it, that the highest eulogy which can be pronounced on the revolution of 1688 is this, that it was England's last revolution. When William the Conqueror landed near Hastings, he accidentally fell, striking both hands upon the ground. His followers cried out, "Bad omen." He reassured them by saying it was a sign he had taken pos- session of England. Again, when he was putting on his hauberk before the battle of Hastings, he got the hinder part before. After changing it, he said the change signi- fied a change in his name, from duke to king. A custom- house officer notified his submission to the royal will of James II in the following words, "I have fourteen reasons HISTORY 203 for obeying His Majesty's commands, a wife and thirteen young children." Some one is responsible for the state- ment, that Julius Caesar introduced the use of "you" instead of "thou." The Locrians admitted only two laws in two hundred years, because he who proposed to estab- lish or change one had to come with a halter around his neck, and was strangled if his law was rejected. The Emperor Hostilianus brought much reproach upon him- self for offering an annual payment of tribute to the Goths if they would leave the Roman Empire unmolested. An innovation of Constantine, the dividing of the army into two classes, "Palatines" and "Borderers," was preparatory to the ruin of the empire. Chrysostom observes, that of the Emperors who had reigned in his time only two, Constantine and Constantius, died a nat- ural death. The Essex was the first United States ship of war to double both the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn. With the exception of CortereaPs slight explora- tions along the Atlantic coast, Portugal took no part in American discovery. In the heroic times in Greece the guilt of murder was expiated by a pecuniary satisfac- tion to the family of the deceased. Tarik, with his Sara- cens, gained a foot-hold in Spain in 710 a.d. The elder Pliny lost his life by suffocation in consequence of ventur- ing too near burning Vesuvius. The name Great Britain was applied to distinguish the island from Brittany in France. According to Bancroft, the authors of the Amer- ican Revolution avowed their object to be the welfare of mankind. Sir Robert Walpole, in 1724, entrusted the American colonies to the Duke of Newcastle, a man whose deficiency in geographical knowledge was such that he thought New England an island. Robin Hood and Ivanhoe were contemporary with Henry II and Richard I. Since the time of Constantine, Rome has been burned 204 LITERARY BREVITIES seven times. Bancroft pronounces the victory of Wolfe over Montcalm in 1759 one of the most momentous in the annals of mankind; and yet only five thousand men were engaged on either side. The same historian thinks it to be on account of pleasing associations that the common people of England reverence the peerage; since Magna Charta was obtained only by the aid of the bar- ons; moreover, the revolution of 1688 was made pos- sible only by the aid of the nobility and gentry. Lord Mansfield rebuked those who expressed contempt for the book of Otis as the work of a madman, declaring that one madman often makes many; that Masaniello was mad; nobody doubted it; yet, for that, he overturned the government of Naples. At the time the stamp act was thrust upon America, no one thought it would be resisted, though many thought it unwise and unjust. The warm winter of 1775-6, at Boston, was believed to be providential, as it was favorable to the shut-in people. During the riot in New York, in July, 1776, an equestrian statue of George III was thrown down, and the lead of which it was formed was cut up and run into bullets. Pennsylvania was called the Key-stone State because it had six of the original thirteen above and six below it. The great war between Greece and Persia was decided by four battles — two by land and two by sea. The Lacedaemonians voted viva voce, and when it was doubt- ful which party made the louder cry, they "divided the house" as we do. Pope Urban II proclaimed the first crusade in 1095. There was a most disastrous plague all over the Roman Empire from 250 to 265 a.d. Emerson thinks there is less intention in history than we ascribe to it. The French had the lion's share in the glory of Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown. Until the reign of Peter .the Great, Russia was called Muscovy. The HISTORY 205 Dutch Republic was the second power to recognize the independence of the United States, doing so in 1782. The Greek and Roman historians treated almost wholly of wars. The pay of an Athenian sailor in the fleet which went against Syracuse in 415 B.C., was eighteen cents a day. If, says Coleridge, men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! but passion and party blind us, and the light which experience gives is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us. Nobility became hereditary in Europe in the 13th century. In the time of Henry II the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, with their respective followers, had a pitched battle to decide which should take prece- dence, Canterbury coming out the winner. Henry III reigned fifty-six years; George III and Victoria each reigned still longer. In the fourth dynasty, about 4000 B.C., Khufu built Cheops, the largest of the pyramids. Pope Hadrian IV is the only Englishman who has ever sat upon the papal throne; his time was the twelfth century. The House of Commons chose a speaker for the first time in 1377, in the reign of Richard II. The Wat Tyler affair was in the same reign. Hume tells us, that after the repulse of the Yorkists at the passage of Ferrybridge, the Earl of Warwick stabbed his horse in presence of his army, and kissing the hilt of his sword swore that he was determined to share the fate of the meanest soldier. If the United States had refused to give up Mason and Slidell, her action would have comported with England's claim of the right of search and impressment in the War of 1812, and would have been contrary to our own position taken in that war. William the Conqueror ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book in 1085. This con- tained a full account of the population, ownership, and resources of every shire in England. At the battle of 206 LITERARY BREVITIES Marathon there fell, of the Persians, 6,400; of the Athe- nians, 192. King Alfred is regarded as the father of the English navy. The battle of La Hogue, 1692, was the first check ever given to Louis XIV, and the first English victory over the French after the battle of Agincourt. After the battle of Salamis each of the Greek generals voted himself deserving the first honor, but all gave The- mistocles the second place. France first assumed the title " Republic " September 20, 1792. Out of the thirty-six barons who signed Magna Charta in 1215, only three signed with their names. The ropes with which the slaves hauled timbers for the fleet at Carthage were partly made of the hair of patriotic women. Gold was first coined in England in 1344. Chancellor Livingston furnished Rob- ert Fulton with the money to build his steamboat. Poetry is truer than history, Aristotle thinks. In Thebes, in the fourth century, B.C., prisoners were set free to assist in riot and assassination. Diocletian abdicated, as did Charles V, of Spain, and, like Ovid, took delight in rais- ing cabbages in his retirement. A great mob of Pompey's friends once shouted so loudly in denunciation of a pro- posal from the opposition, that a crow flying over fell dead from fright. The Scythians, when in the field and without provisions, would wound their horses to drink the blood. When Rome was at the height of her power, within the empire each year, so Flaxman informs us, 20,000 gladiators were sacrificed in the amphitheatres. According to the same authority, at the time Athens contained 12,000 free citizens, it contained 120,000 slaves. The question of American independence was in fact deter- mined on the 2nd of July, though the 4th was settled upon as the date of the anniversary. Memoirs are the back- stairs of history, George Meredith remarks. The ancients did not use oak in shipbuilding. It is a declaration of HISTORY 207 John Fiske, that in the making of a historian there should enter something of the philosopher, something of the naturalist, and something of the poet. The history of Germany and that of France, as separate nations, begins with 843, nineteen years after the death of Charlemagne. A historian, says Voltaire, should be a man of no coun- try and of no party. "And Boyne be sung when it has ceased to flow," is Addison's famous line. J. P. Lange asserts, that Sparta perished when the whole land of the country belonged to one hundred families; that Rome's evil day came when a proletariat of millions stood opposed to a few thousands of proprietors, whose resources were so enormous that Crassus considered no one rich who could not maintain an army at his own expense. The year 1755, the first of the Seven Years' War (the 3rd Silesian), was the year of the Lisbon earthquake. Em- press Eugenie's vessel was the first to go through the Suez Canal. In the thirty years preceding 1860, Mexico had between sixty and seventy presidents, according to John Bigelow. Louis XI and Lorenzo de' Medici were con- temporaries. Sulla, who had ordered Marius's remains to be taken from his grave and thrown into the Arno, ordered his own body to be burned, fearing that other- wise the same indignity might be visited upon himself. William Rufus was a bachelor king. Tacitus says Caesar rather discovered Britain than conquered it. A contro- versy about the merits of a hound, arising between two German friends named Guelf and Ghibelline, as they were returning from the chase, caused these two friends to become deadly enemies. The friends of each took up the quarrel, which soon drew the Emperor Frederick I to the side of the Ghibellines and Pope Honorius II to that of the Guelf s; in 1215 the feud spread throughout Italy. Rosebery states, that Napoleon's household at 208 LITERARY BREVITIES St. Helena numbered fifty-one persons in all. The first genuine newspaper in England was The English Mercu- rie; it was printed in 1588, to prevent false reports in connection with the Spanish Armada. The abolishment of Parliament by Charles I, an act which cost him his head, was but following the example of Elizabeth. No copper money was coined in England until the time of James I. Carlyle states, that Queen Elizabeth was the first person in England to wear knit stockings. The term Roundhead, by which the opponents of Charles I were called, was first applied by Queen Henrietta, Charles's wife. When Lord Mountjoy was taken prisoner at the siege of Rochelle, Louis XIII released him without the payment of a ransom, out of regard for his sister, queen to Charles I — an example Agnes Strickland calls the precedent for the best amelioration of the horrors of war since the institution of Christianity. HONESTY IF in your own judgment, remarks Lincoln, you can- not be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. He was not the man to call an earthquake a seismic disturbance, as stated by some one. The human soul, says Smollett, will generally be found most defective in the article of candor. There are men who will break without scruple most of the ten commandments, and yet will scorn to accept a bribe or betray a trust. A profound conviction, Balzac declares, cannot be argued with. Lowell confesses to a strong sympathy with men who sacrificed everything to a bad cause which they could see only the good side of. Balzac thinks it not enough for a man to be honest, but that he must appear so. Mention has been made of a man so honest that you HONESTY 209 might play odd and even with him in the dark. Joubert asserts, that Englishmen are honorable in their private affairs, but dishonorable in the affairs of their coun- try. Sir John Drinkwater, an English magistrate, while sitting on the magisterial bench, was known to pull out a crown-piece and hand it to the clerk, with the remark, "Mr. Clerk, I was drunk last night; there are my five shillings." It is extraordinary, says Landor, to possess power and remain honest. Rousseau, or anyone else, is a fool to confess all the weaknesses of his character. Phocion, finding himself applauded, demanded of his friends whether he had not uttered something foolish. Balzac thinks the pure in mind have a superb disdain for appearances. HONOR IT is claimed that bribing a juror at Rome in the time of Cicero was no more disgraceful than bribing a voter now. Rectitude is a perpetual victory, Emerson declares. It is a remark of Thucydides, that the true path of expediency is the path of right. Nulla est enim laus ibi esse integrum, ubi nemo est qui aut possit aut conetur corrumpere, is a remark of Cicero. A candid evangelist, observes Blackie, is generally a black sheep to his brethren. Honesty is fled with Astraea, writes Swift. What's the use of being in parliament, observes one of Thackeray's characters, if you have to pay your debts? Balzac de- clares, that a thorough rogue never gets caught. The following statement is by Senator Hoar, — "I am strongly tempted to say, but I do not say it, that there are occa- sions in life where the meanest thing a man can do is to do perfectly right." Cromwell said to young Lely, "Paint me as I am." Of all the secret crimes buried in the mysteries of private life, one of the vilest and most dis- 210 LITERARY BREVITIES honoring, declares Balzac, is that of opening a letter and reading it surreptitiously. Steele pronounces barbarity to be the ignorance of true honor. It was highly disgrace- ful for any Grecian state to be excluded from the Olympic festivals at Elis. Honors change manners, Cervantes remarks. John Quincy Adams never accepted gifts. Once a bookseller sent him an elegant copy of the Scrip- tures; he returned the equivalent in money. This from Addison, — "When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honor is a private station." It has been affirmed, that in seditions bad men rise to honor. For new made honors do forget men's names, is Shakspeare's. The conqueror in one of the Olympic games was crowned with olive, drawn to the city in a chariot by four horses, and a breach was made in the wall for his entrance, this on the authority of Flaxman. The Venetians were determined upon making a certain man doge; upon his persistent refusal they threatened him with banishment if he did not accept. The following is from the mouth of Richard Lovelace, — "I could not love thee, Dear, so much, Loved I not honor more." Balzac says every calling has its point of honor. Dignity of command, Bacon declares, is always proportionable to the dignity of the commanded. Some one speaks of the honor that surpasses the service. Says Whittier, — "When faith is lost, when honor dies, The man is dead." An two men ride of a horse, observes Shakspeare, one must ride behind. Walter Scott declares new honors to be as heady as new wine. Alexander would not steal a victory. HOSPITALITY 211 The only use of honors, Huxley thinks, is as an antidote to fits of the "blue devils." HOPE IN prison, of all places, a man believes what he hopes, remarks Balzac. Dumas speaks of building castles on that moving sand we call the future. Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell, is from " Paradise Lost." Despair, says Beaconsfield, is the conclusion of fools. Bacon thinks all despair to be a kind of reproaching the deity. Ac- cording to Alexander Bain, the earliest and most constant sign of reason is working for a remote object. Haydon said in 1827, "There are three things in this world I hope to see before I die — the Americans whipped at sea, my own debts paid, and historical painting encour- aged by government." Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve, is a line from Coleridge. A hope is akin to a doubt, says Landor. This from Pope, — "Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be, blest." It is a remark of some one, that the youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity. Hope, says Sir Arthur Helps, can build, in reverse, a pyramid upon a point. No pos- session equals the dreams of it, the proverb says. The man who lives by hope, says the Italian proverb, will die by hunger. When a sickness is desperate, Addison de- clares, we often try remedies we have no faith in. HOSPITALITY OSPITALITY, according to Latrobe, is most con- spicuous among agriculturists far removed from a market; in fact, everywhere where food cannot be bought or sold. This from Shakspeare, — H 212 LITERARY BREVITIES "Unbidden guests Are often welcomest when they are gone." Lowell says the Bostonians generally seem to have two notions of hospitality — a dinner with people you never saw before nor ever wish to see again, and a drive to Mount Auburn cemetery, where you will see what man can do in the way of disfiguring nature. William von Humboldt, when invited out to dine at six, always dined first at a restaurant at five, considering the invitation one for the purpose of intellectual and social diversion. It was Irish hospitality to lock up the guest's bridle. Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest, Pope's line, is taken from the "Odyssey." HUMILITY JESUS and Mahomet both submitted to menial offices. Timoleon accepted the leadership against the Cartha- ginians, after it had been refused by all the prominent Corinthians. Hesiod kept sheep upon the slopes of Helicon. George Ripley, at Brook Farm, took delight in so menial a task as blacking the boots of a fellow- member. R. L. Stevenson writes of himself, "Here lies one who meant well, tried a little, failed much." Bos- suet thinks Paul was the more powerful because he felt himself weak. When it was first suggested to General Jackson, that he might be elected President, he is reported to have said, "Do you suppose I am such a d — d fool as to think myself fit for President of the United States?" Humbleness does not win multitudes or the sex, is re- marked by George Meredith. If William Black is to be credited, Celsus, a Roman writer who wrote the first polemic against Christianity, made it one of his objec- tions, that Christ had worked with his own hands. The following is from Victor Hugo, — IDIOSYNCRASIES 213 " — want is a low door, which, when we must By stern necessity pass through, doth force The greatest to bend down the most/* HYPERBOLE HAIR that was more than black. The tower of Babel was so high that some imagined that who- ever mounted to the top could hear the angels sing. The following is from Horace, — Fratresque tendentes opaco Pelion imposuisse Olympo. Wet even to the mar- row, is a familiar phrase. A noise that tore the sky, is Milton's. IDIOSYNCRASIES NOTHING more exposes us to madness, observes Goethe, than distinguishing ourselves from others. It is remarked by Creevey, that perhaps no man, prince or subject, ever left such a ward- robe behind him as our George IV. Rev. Mr. Frost, at one time an instructor in Harvard, would say in a Thanks- giving sermon, "We have been free from the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the destruction that wasteth at noonday; it is true, we have had some chickenpox and some measles." "Give me a drachm of silver," said a cynic philosopher to Antigonus. "That is not a present befitting a king," replied he. "Give me then a talent," said the other. "That," said Antigonus, "is not a present befitting a cynic." Goethe never read his " Tasso " through after it was printed. Sterne, who was known to weep at the mere perusal of pathetic suffering, deserted his own wife and children. Sir Thomas More had his fool painted along with himself. In the time of Frederick the Great's father, it was dangerous for a man to be six feet tall. 214 LITERARY BREVITIES Pepys mentions the circumstance of the Duke of York's being in mourning for his wife's grandmother, which he thought a great piece of fondness. Swift could not remember any weather that was not either too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry. One of Balzac's characters wrote an anonymous letter with her left hand. Hazlitt says Coleridge always talks to people about what they don't understand. We are told of a Scotchman who had only two names for twenty dogs. There are men who are willing to err with Plato, and there are those who are unwilling to go right with Epicurus, says Bacon. It was Timothy Dexter of Massachusetts who sent an invoice of warming pans to the West Indies. Vespasian thought it his duty, after the Roman fashion, to die standing. Ex- cessive patriotic pride is exemplified in the person of one Culrossie, who fought a duel for the honor of Aberdeen butter. A certain Englishman hanged himself, that he might no longer dress and undress himself. A certain gardener once wearily said, " Shall I always see these clouds moving from east to west?" Another one wished that the next returning spring might be red instead of green. Johnson's friend, Topham Beauclerk, was very absent- minded. One day he had a party coming to dinner, and just before their arrival he went up-stairs to dress. For the moment thinking it was bedtime, he forgot his visitors, took off his clothes, got into bed, and went to sleep. The great captain Zisca wished a drum to be made of his skin after he was dead, because he thought the very noise of it would put his enemies to flight. James II sat for his portrait to a flower painter. According to Jeremy Taylor, St. John recreated himself by sporting with a tame partridge. Caligula cared more for his horse than for all the world besides; he even wanted to make him a consul. It has been reported that Victor Hugo always IDIOSYNCRASIES 215 wrote standing. How fond Henry James is of the word "obsession." Cardinal Mazarin never thought anything of Cardinal de Retz after learning that he had written for the last thirty years with the same pen. The soprano Catalini had an ignorant husband who, when told that the piano was too high, called in a carpenter and had the legs cut off. Madame di Murska, the prima donna, always refused to be interviewed. Aristotle was some- thing of a dandy; his hair had a jaunty cut, and he wore numerous rings on his fingers. George III could name every ship in his navy. Baxter made it a rule in every sermon to say something that was above the capacity of his audience. Handel ate enormously; at a tavern he always ordered dinner for three. Lady Morgan's Irish hero entered a drawing-room by throwing a back somer- sault in at the door. The Brook Farm reformers tried to raise a calf on hay tea instead of milk, but with results fatal to the calf. An Irish tutor called his twins "Gem" and "Mini." Richardson felt unequal to the composi- tion of a letter to a certain fine lady unless he sat down in full dress. When Evarts entered the Senate, Hoar re- marked to him, "We shall now have to amend the rules so that a motion to adjourn will be in order in the middle of a sentence." At Brook Farm, instead of, "Will you pass the butter?" the over-refined request was, "Is the butter within the sphere of your influence?" Don Quixote was four days considering what name to give his horse; he thought it the very essence of adventure to allow his horse to go which way he pleased. Bayle was thrown into convulsions by the sound of falling water; Scaliger turned pale at the sight of a cress; Erasmus took a fever from the smell of fish; the Due d'Epernon fainted at the sight of a hare; Tycho Brahe at the sight of a fox, and Henry III at the sight of a cat; Marie de' Medici, 216 LITERARY BREVITIES the Chevalier de Guise, and many other historic person- ages, were made ill by roses, even painted ones — these facts according to Balzac. A Tyrant of olden time, who feared assassination, had twelve bed chambers, that it might not be known with certainty where he slept on any given night. Augustus Caesar used to read or write while being shaved. Queen Victoria said Gladstone always addressed her as if she were a public meeting. Where the whole population is hunch-backed, says Balzac, a straight shape is a monstrosity. Deacon Hosper claimed that he never swore except when it was necessary. Huxley, like James I, was a great punster. According to Sterne, the ideas of an author are different after he has shaved from what they were before. Michelangelo went on modeling and hewing through the sack of Rome, the fall of Florence, and the decline of Italian freedom. Alex- ander Cruden spent his leisure moments going about London erasing with a sponge chalk marks on the walls. Hawthorne always washed his hands before reading a letter from Sophia Peabody, his future wife. Hume never broke his resolution, formed early in life, of never replying to attacks upon his literary works. Swift, who died at seventy-eight, in accordance with a vow never would wear spectacles. Halifax, the prime minister of William III, was from the very quickness of his intellect slow in deciding practical matters; he was too much inclined to argue both sides. Lord Byron kept a horse at Venice. Rousseau had a poor memory; when alone he always dined with a book as company. Dr. Johnson could write without difficulty in a noisy crowded room; he seldom corrected anything he had written. Napoleon loved old clothes and old hats. Landor was an excellent Latin scholar, but was a poor mathematician; nor could he learn to dance; at college he refused to compete for IDIOSYNCRASIES 217 prizes in literary composition; he cared but little for a library, but gave away his books after reading them. Socrates never left the city walls of Athens except on military service. Carlyle's father was never outside a circle having a diameter of fifty miles. Blessed is the man that hath a hobby, said Lord Brougham. It is related of Pyrrho the Sceptic, that when out walking he never turned aside to avoid any obstacle or danger, and that he was only saved from destruction by the vigilance of his friends. It is difficult, Balzac thinks, for any man to live without a hobby. John Stuart Mill does not mention his mother in his autobiography. Dr. Johnson never wished to have children. Jonathan Edwards was absent-minded; when out riding he asked the lad, who had politely opened the gate for him, whose boy he was; the boy told him; Ed- wards returning soon, asked the same lad, who repeated the service, the same question as before; "Why, sir," he answered, "I am the same man's boy I was fifteen minutes ago." Dean Swift could never be prevailed upon to preach before Queen Anne. Napoleon slept after the battle of Waterloo. Morosini carried his favorite cat on his campaigns. When reading, Montaigne was accus- tomed to underline striking passages. The younger Pitt once drank a toast out of the shoe of a famous Devonshire beauty. Fox said it was lucky Burke took the royal side in the French Revolution, for his violence would certainly have got him hanged if he had happened to take the other side. Sheridan, in order to be near Miss Linley, is said on several occasions to have disguised himself as a hackney coachman and to have driven her home from her performances. Swift remarks upon a certain vicar, that he was such a stickler for etiquette that he would go but once to the sick, except they returned the visit. A certain devotee of literature, when giving a dinner to 218 LITERARY BREVITIES authors, placed his guests according to the size and thick- ness of the books they had published. Begin at the end, is the advice of Balzac. Gladstone chewed his food thirty-two times. Cardinal Richelieu, for recreation, used to jump in competition with his servant, each trying to reach the higher point on a wall. Paley, the great writer on natural theology, had himself painted with a fishing-rod in his hand. It made Schiller dizzy to see Madame De Stael twirl a fragment of paper between her fingers. Swift remarks, "I asked a gentleman the other day how he liked such a lady; he would not give me his opinion till I had answered him whether she were a Whig or a Tory." Every man, observes Bulwer, has his hobby; sometimes he breaks in the hobby, and some- times the hobby breaks him in. Socrates swore by his dog, as also did Zeno; Pythagoras swore by air and water; King John of England by God's teeth. During a long attendance in the family of a particular friend, Dr. John Radcliffe regularly refused the fee pressed upon him at each visit; but in the end when offered the whole amount, he took it, saying, "Singly I could have refused them for- ever; but being all offered at once they are irresistible." Sheridan's disregard of money was shown in his stuffing bank-notes around the window sash to prevent its rattling. Neander was so absent-minded that he was known to enter the lecture-room in his drawers alone. Carlyle tells us that Heine, like our Bancroft, delighted in roses; and that he had a habit (which ought to be general) of yawning when people spoke to him and said nothing. Jefferson was addicted to "drawing the long bow" in telling a story. The Adamses, asserts Lowell, have a genius for saying even a gracious thing in an ungracious way. Goethe's mother left orders, that at the time of her funeral there should not be too few raisins in the cake IDIOSYNCRASIES 219 for the funeral feast. Madame de Sevigne said, "I should be very happy in these woods, if I only had a leaf that sings." Late in life Dr. John Brown, whose patients were mostly personal friends, found it difficult to dis- tinguish between his professional and his personal calls. It came to be understood, that when he left his hat in the hall, the call was professional; when he kept it in his hand, it was a personal call. The records of the Hasty Pudding Club at Cambridge were kept in verse. At one time James Russell Lowell was secretary of this club. Herodotus gave to each of his books the name of a Muse. It is the remark of some one, that he never knew any good come to a man "who stroked his mustache with his little finger standing out like that from his hand." Southey, when too feeble to read his books, used to kiss them. Andrew Jackson was fond of cock-fighting. Dean Swift once kept a letter unopened several days, because he was afraid it contained news of a friend's death. Leigh Hunt tells of a man who took two Sundays in a single week instead of one in each of two weeks. Petrarch, so Balzac affirms, never appeared in the presence of Laura but in white from head to foot. President William Henry Harrison was much given to quoting the classics. In a fit of severe reformation, Rousseau decided to give up the ob- servance of the common amenities, such as politeness and all superfluities of dress; he sold his watch, saying, "I shall henceforth never need to know the time of day." Rousseau, being a good penman, earned his livelihood by copying music. In mentioning the abdication of Charles V of Spain, James Howell says, "This does not suit with the genius of an Englishman, who loves not to pull off his clothes till he goes to bed." According to Benson, Gray refused to accept money for his publications, and gave it to be understood that he was an eccentric gentleman who 220 LITERARY BREVITIES wrote solely for his own amusement. Dean Stanley, when once preaching to students, was disturbed by the half-suppressed laughter of his hearers. After the service he became aware that he had performed the functions of the pulpit with his gloves resting on the top of his head; they had accidentally been left in his hat, and when that had been removed from his head, the gloves had remained, he being quite unconscious of the fact. Madame Geoffrin, a woman of great liberality, was offended if thanked. Edward Everett was so punctilious in point of manners, that he used to retire to his chamber to wipe his nose. An English ordinary mentioned by Fielding objected to wine, but drank punch because it is nowhere spoken against in Scripture. Byron wished he could know the feeling of a murderer. Alcibiades cut off his dog's tail to make people talk. Bonaparte, so we are informed, was never more than ten minutes at dinner. La Fontaine went to sleep at the performance of his own opera. Haydon wished he could exist without sleep. Swift used to keep his birthday a day of mourning. Racine's wife was ignorant of his plays. They who are all spirit, says Balzac, do not weep. T. W. Higginson states, that General Taylor never wore a uniform, and habitually sat upon his horse with both feet hanging on the same side. In the journal of Haydon's father the most trivial notes concluded with the state of the wind. There are some fishermen, remarks Bliss Perry, who always fish as if they were being photographed. It is stated by Voltaire, that few Muscovites would ven- ture to eat a pigeon, because the Holy Ghost is painted in the form of a dove. The actor Cooper had a strange propensity for betting. Once, seeing on Broadway a cart loaded with hay, he made a bet with another actor, staking the possible proceeds of his benefit performance, that he would draw a longer wisp from the load of hay than IDIOSYNCRASIES 221 his companion would; he lost the bet and $1,200. Scott relates, that a certain king of Castile choked of thirst because his butler was not beside him to hand his cup. Coleridge, at the close of a lecture, is said to have given thanks to God that He had defended him from being able to utter a single sentence in the French language. Diderot never dated his letters. Savonarola was so impressed by one word in a sermon to which he listened, that he never forgot it; he would not reveal what the word was, and claimed that it made him a monk. We are told of a Persian dervish who for thirty years had kept a vow never to employ his organs of speech otherwise than in uttering "Allah." Goethe thinks certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality; that we should not be pleased if old friends were to lay aside certain pe- culiarities. At the time of his death Frederick the Great owned one hundred and thirty snuff-boxes, the most valuable being worth £1,500. At the battle of Fontenoy, when the tide at last turned in favor of the French, King Louis XV rode up and kissed Marechal Saxe; so Custer kissed Sheridan at the battle of Cedar Creek. Wallenstein could not endure the least noise near his sleeping-room. At Prague he had more than one hundred houses near his palace torn down, and sentries posted all around. Frederick the Great, as a sop to his father, also for a while chose tall soldiers. Landor, once in a towering passion, threw his cook out of the window, and then exclaimed, as he saw his victim strike the ground, "Good God! I never thought of those poor violets." A story is related of a greedy English clergyman, who, when asked to say grace, looked around anxiously to see if there were champagne glasses on the table, and if there were, began, "Bountiful Jehovah"; but if he saw only claret glasses, he said, "We are not worthy of the least 222 LITERARY BREVITIES of Thy mercies." In the time of George II, Lord Ferress was executed for murder, being hanged with a silken cord. Queen Elizabeth, according to report, had at one time 4,000 gowns. Frederick I obliged the apple-women to knit as they sat at their stalls. Goethe was annoyed at the sight of spectacles on anyone. Schiller kept a drawer full of rotten apples, the scent of which he found so beneficial that he could not live or work without it; Goethe chanced once to be near the drawer, and almost fainted from the effects of the dreadful odor. Ecker- mann pronounces Goethe's feeling for the Theory of Colors to be like that of a mother who loves a favorite child all the more, the less it is esteemed by others. It was Philoxenus who wished to possess the neck of the crane, so as to be longer in tasting the pleasures of the table. Voltaire is said to have one hundred and eighty pseudo- nyms. Emerson was not one of those writers who get up in the night to jot down a choice thought. I could digest a salad gathered in a churchyard as well as in a garden, declares Sir Thomas Browne. The unhappy queen of Henry II used to sign herself, "Eleanora by the wrath of God queen of England." According to Victor Hugo, the Duke of Alva would warm his hands at the stake. Rose- bery states that Napoleon, to make himself agreeable to Gourgaud, would pinch the latter's ear, the well-known sign of his affection and good humor. An Englishman, noted for his oddities, especially for his strict adherence to truth, would rather be thought a malcontent than drink the king's health when he was not dry, as related by Addison. At Brook Farm, it was the proper thing to propose that the pie should be cut from the center to the periphery. We are told of a man who, while in the tower awaiting execution, used each morning to lie down on the block by way of practising. IGNORANCE 223 IDLENESS AND lack of load made his life burdensome, is a line from Milton. In idle hours the evil mind is busy, Schiller writes. It is a saying of Theocritus, that every day is a holiday to people who have nothing to do. We would all be idle if we could, says Dr. Johnson. Brown- ing has the expression, "busy idleness." Henry James states that W. W. Story, while in college, was inclined to let himself go in almost any direction but that of effort. Chadwick informs us, that Theodore Parker's hardest work did not wear upon him so much as compulsory idleness. Euripides calls leisure "that seductive evil." There is nothing more wretched, observes Goethe, than a man in comfortable circumstances without work. Wil- liam Black thinks men cannot be idle with safety either to themselves or to the community. It is the estimate of Samuel Smiles, that nine-tenths of the vices and miseries of the world proceed from idleness. Lady Montagu pronounced idleness to be the root of all evil. IGNORANCE IGNORANCE is the curse of God, knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven, says Shakspeare. Brown- ing says ignorance is not innocence but sin. Dr. Johnson speaks of one Taylor as an instance of how far impu- dence can carry ignorance. The savages sowed gun- powder, expecting to raise a crop. Bunyan writes, "Thou talkest like one upon whose head is the shell to this very day." Balzac compares some one to a Mohican at the opera. The same declares ignorance to be the sole support of despotism, as it is easier to govern a nation of idiots than a nation of scholars. De Morgan says, "a 224 LITERARY BREVITIES complication" is the refuge of destitute diagnosis. A very attentive woman at Huxley's lecture on the brain, seeming to be the only one of his audience able to follow his argument, after the lecture came forward and asked Huxley if she understood him to say the cerebellum was on the inside of the skull or on the outside. There is nothing, affirms Lady Montagu, can pay one for that invaluable ignorance which is the companion of youth, those groundless hopes, and that lively vanity, which make all the happiness of life. IMITATION THE footmen in attendance at the Houses of Parlia- ment, in the time of Swift, used to form themselves into a deliberative body, and usually debated the same points as their masters. The surest way to be artificial, declares Henry van Dyke, is to try to be natural according to some other man's recipe. Landor thinks prayers and gaping are contagious. INGRATITUDE AT the battle of Ramillies, Overkirk, of the allied army under Marlborough, took prisoner a Bavarian officer, but gallantly returned him his sword, saying, "You are a gentleman, keep it"; the base wretch upon receiving his weapon immediately attempted to run Over- kirk through, when he was struck down by an orderly. Seneca thinks we are a great deal apter to remember injuries than benefits. Kellermann saved France and the First Consul at Marengo by a brilliant charge; the ranks applauded under fire and in the thick of the carnage; yet the heroic charge was not even mentioned in the bulletin, we are told by Balzac. M INSULTS 225 INNOCENCE ENCIUS asserts, that the great man is he who does not lose his child heart. This from Shakspeare, — "By the pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out The purity of his." The same again, — "Whose nature is so far from doing harms, That he suspects none. ,, H. W. Dresser thinks the credulity of human nature one of its profoundest weaknesses. There are very few, Addi- son remarks, who know how to be idle and innocent. INSULTS THOUGH the average man would not feel insulted if you were to say to him, "You are no saint," it would not be safe to say, "You are no gentleman. " The English solicitor-general, David Wedderspoon, in an in- vective against Franklin, whom he accused of tampering with private correspondence in order to have Thomas Hutchinson dismissed from the governorship of Massa- chusetts, called him a "man of three letters," after the manner of Plautus, "f-u-r," the Latin word for thief. Henry James speaks of "the perpetual luxury of a griev- ance." It needs no great experience of affairs, Rosebery observes, to know, that when menace has been attempted and has failed, expostulation is only an opportunity for insult. This from Racine, — "The dearer he Who does the offense, the more the ill is felt." 226 LITERARY BREVITIES INTELLECT IT is very hard, observes Addison, for the mind to dis- engage itself from a subject in which it has been long employed; the thoughts will be rising of themselves from time to time, though we give them no encouragement; as the tossings and fluctuations of the sea continue several hours after the winds are laid. It is hard for an empty sack to stand upright, says an old proverb. Mediocrity is never discussed, Balzac asserts. McCarthy says Burke saw everything, that Palmerston foresaw everything. Car- lyle declares, that for Voltaire the first question was, not what is true, but what is false. George Eliot affected but little critical knowledge of works of art; her husband says she had an enormous faculty for taking pains; as a child she was not precocious. Carlyle asserts, that there is not one great thought in all Voltaire's six-and-thirty quartos. If thinking were not so hard, remarks a brain- tired man. A great man must have an intellect that puts into motion the intellects of others, some one has observed. Emerson became interested in an obscure countryman of marked originality, a sort of philosopher in the rough, to whom he lent a volume of Plato; when the old man returned the book, he remarked to Emerson, "There are some good things in that book; I find this Mr. Plato has a good many of my idees." Carlyle thought Alcott "the ninth part of a thinker." Balzac refers to one as having no dangerous amount of in- tellect. It was said of Fontenelle, that he had as good a heart as could be made out of brains. Coleridge describes a certain man as one pre-eminently a man of many thoughts with no ideas. Shakspeare has been called the Proteus of human intellect. George Sand INTELLECT 227 alludes to a man who "hasn't two ideas a week." Some school boys, says Hazlitt, cannot read but in their own books; and the man of one idea cannot converse out of his own subject. A man is always pleased with himself, observes Dr. Johnson, when he finds his intellectual in- clinations predominant. Sterne would find a northeast passage to the intellectual world. A certain Ferdinand Cordoue, mentioned by Sterne, was so wise at nine "'twas thought the devil was in him." John Stuart Mill understood the integral calculus at the age of thirteen. Balzac allows the savage to have feelings only, while the civilized being has feelings and ideas. A profound thinker, says Beaconsfield, always suspects that he is superficial. Schiller is of the belief, that an honest man may be carved out of any willow stump, but to make a rogue you must have brains. Carlyle declares that Voltaire understood Newton when no other man in France understood him. John Fiske thinks one could no more expect a prime minister to understand Huxley's attitude in presence of a scientific problem, than a deaf-mute to comprehend a symphony of Beethoven. The same historian ranks Australian man the lowest of the human species. Sheri- dan was found very dull in society. Generals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan were all considered mediocre when at West Point. The more intellect we have our- selves, declares Pascal, the more originality do we dis- cover in others. Ordinary people find no difference in men. 'Tis the mind that makes the body rich, says Shakspeare. Man is but a reed, weakest in nature, Pascal says, but a reed that thinks. The same would have the greatness of man to consist in thoughts. Milton, we are told, was conversant with six foreign languages; he could almost repeat Homer entire; he particularly admired Ovid and Euripides; in preferring "Paradise Re- 228 LITERARY BREVITIES gained" to " Paradise Lost," he showed the mother's pre- dilection for her imbecile child. Landor's literary activity extended over a period of sixty-eight years. Plain living and high thinking are no more, is Wordsworth's. Balzac pronounces St. Peter the man of the people among the Apostles, the roughest among them, and likewise the shrewdest. Thought, according to Richard Burton, is essentially aristocratic; emotion is democratic the world over. It was said of the second Pitt, that he never grew, he was cast. Pascal declares that all bodies, the firma- ment, the stars, the earth and its kingdoms, are not equal in value to the lowest human mind; for that knows all things and itself too. Advice appeals to the intellect, and experience to the emotions, is the dictum of Arlo Bates. Joubert finds it insupportable to converse with men who have in their brains only compartments which are wholly occupied, and into which nothing external can enter. Arlo Bates thinks the most common intellectual difficulty is not that of the lack of ideas, but that of vague- ness of ideas. William M. Evarts thinks the legal pro- fession one that sharpens and does not enlarge the mind. There is, it must be confessed, William James remarks, a curious fascination in hearing deep things talked about, even though neither we nor the disputants understand them. To comprehend is to equal, says Balzac. Inter- est, it has been observed, is the soul of the will, and the undying ambition of many a statesman has kept his brain as strong after three score and ten as it was ever before. Aristotle thought the function of the brain had nothing to do with the mind; this position was over- thrown by Galen about 160 a.d. James Howell said his mind was like a stone thrown into deep water, which never rests till it goes to the bottom. The highest intel- lects, observes Macaulay, like the tops of mountains, are INTELLECT 229 the first to catch and reflect the dawn. S. M. Crothers defines a doctrinaire as one who theorizes without suf- ficient regard for practical considerations. During all Scott's life the half hour between waking and rising proved propitious to any task which was exercising his invention. Emerson asserts, that England has yielded more able men in five hundred years than any other nation. Stedman thinks the critical and the creative natures are rarely united in one person. Says Cowper, "When I can find no other occupation I think." There is no worse lie, asserts William James, than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it. George Meredith says men may be accurate observers without being good judges. Carlyle speaks of reading letters with more than the eyes. It is only when an idea has become a matter of course to the thinker, Chesterton observes, that it becomes startling to the world. The following is from Pascal, — " Set the great- est philosopher in the world on a plank really wider than he needs, but over a precipice, and though reason con- vince him of his security, imagination will prevail." Lamb considers Fletcher and Massinger the only poets of their age who are entitled to be considered after Shak- speare. Thucydides and Bolingbroke both complained of the indiscriminating tenacity of their memories. Marked gifts, says Sara Coleridge, are often attended by marked deficiencies even in the intellect. 230 LITERARY BREVITIES JEALOUSY NOTHING, says Bulwer, kindles the fires of love like a sprinkling of the anxieties of jealousy. Heine confessed, that he was jealous of Goethe. Shakspeare has the following, — "Trifles, light as air, Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ." The same again, — "So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt." A tiger is as jealous as a Dalmatian, says Balzac. When Dr. Johnson heard that Sheridan had been pensioned, he said in his fierce manner, "What! have they given him a pension? Then it is time for me to give up mine." Blanche Howard remarks, that there are people in whose presence one can praise only the Emperor of China. The worst kind of jealousy, according to Dumas, is jealousy without love. JESTS AS a necessary safeguard to society, every inveterate story-teller should constitute his friends and asso- ciates a committee to decide when he is to retire certain threadbare jokes. If one carries a joke too far it becomes earnest, remarks Lessing. Dean Swift and three other clergymen once played a practical joke on a coachman, by furtively going around the coach, re-entering the other side, and coming out again, until those emerging reached the number of nine. When a certain wag had invited to a feast guests who were all stammerers, they being un- aware of the trick, and had placed a reporter behind a JUDGMENT 231 screen to take down the conversation, the task did not require a knowledge of shorthand, as not twenty words were spoken during the first course, from The Spectator. JOY IT has been observed by some one, that a man who shakes his sides with mirth is seldom difficult to deal with. We are told of people who confirm their own judgment by clapping of hands. Life is at the bottom so awfully serious, observes Heine, that none of us could endure it without this blending of pathos and comedy. You do not laugh when you look at mountains, nor when you look at the sea, says Lafcadio Hearn. Tolstoy thinks all work makes one cheerful. The best part of a journey, some one has remarked, is the getting home from it. Scott says all merry fellows like moonlight. JUDGMENT 'f I ^IS an old proverb, that bids us not to be doing what A is done already. A certain man portioned out his capital at so much a day, calculating to live just long enough to make it last. Unfortunately he lived too long. Austin Dobson, alluding to Steele, says his sanguine Irish nature led him continually to mistake his expectations for his income. Mirabeau is reputed to have possessed the remarkable gift of discovering obscure men of talent. Napoleon's regard for details was illustrated in his advice to the matron of a home for invalid soldiers, that the shirts returned from the wash should be placed at the bottom of the drawer, so that the same garments should not be worn and washed continually. Some one speaks of people who are all steeped in the deep slumber of de- 232 LITERARY BREVITIES cided opinions. Just before the fall of Vicksburg Lincoln was half decided to supersede Grant by Banks. The very skill and swiftness of him who runs not in the right direc- tion must increase his aberration, asserts Bacon. We are warned by some one, that in moments of great peril, to try to save everything is the sure way to lose everything. According to William Matthews, the natural order is to try a man by his works, and not the works by the man. JUSTICE THE truly valiant, says Sir Philip Sidney, dare everything but to do others an injury. Cicero affirms, that nothing can be generous that is not at the same time just. God, says Matthew Arnold, is an eternal Power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness. After the battle of the Boyne was over, one of William's soldiers butchered three defenseless Irishmen who asked for quarter. William ordered the murderer to be hanged on the spot. Force and right, declares Matthew Arnold, are the governors of the world; force till right is ready. One should not be both plaintiff and judge. Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just, is a line from Shakspeare. Untempered justice is oft injury, Racine says. It was a maxim of Bonaparte, that force is very well when one can use nothing else; but when one is master, justice is better. Carlyle thinks injustice pays itself with frightful com- pound interest. Horace mentions Julius Caesar but orice, Virgil but three times, each seeming to fear offending Augustus. w KNOWLEDGE 233 KNOWLEDGE HO knows most doubts most, Browning asserts. Hazlitt calls knowledge pleasure as well as power. Emerson's lines are, — "Sunshine cannot bleach the snow, Nor time unmake what poets know." Some one wisely remarks, that knowledge should result in action. At a dinner in Washington, where President Buchanan was dining, a wager was made that no person present could tell all the names of the Muses; but one was found able to do it. Off his own beat Carlyle's opinions were of no value. No slave, it has been said, is clever enough to tie his own hands behind him. Goethe thinks self-knowledge comes from knowing other men. Hawthorne thinks the world is accumulating too many materials for knowledge; that we do not recognize for rubbish what is really rubbish. It is a glorious fever — that desire to know, suggests Bulwer. The same believes knowledge, in itself, is not friendly to content. There is nothing so little known, declares Balzac, as that which everybody is supposed to know — the law of the land, to wit. The frog in the well knows not the great sea, .Japanese saying. Lecky declares, that we owe more to our illusions than to our knowledge. Good morals and knowledge are almost always inseparable in every age, though not in every individual, Hume says. All the knowledge I possess, states Goethe, every one else can acquire, but my heart is exclusively my own. Better the devil we know than the devil we know not, old proverb. Carlyle speaks of one as a very dictionary of a man; who knows, in a manner, all things, and is by no means ignorant that he knows them. Leibnitz 234 LITERARY BREVITIES mentions a woman who wants to know the why even of the why. LABOR LABOR is the seed of idleness, says Swift. Carlyle claims that there is endless hope in work. All men, remarks Thucydides, are energetic in mak- ing a beginning. Mankind, Fielding observes, are to be comprised under two grand divisions, — those who use their own hands and those who employ the hands of others. The negroes declare, that apes could speak if they would, but that they discreetly hold their tongues lest they be made to work. Do thine own work and know thyself, is Plato's injunction. It is an assertion of Seneca, that difficulties strengthen the mind as well as labors do the body. The same declares, that an honest man is out of his element when he is idle. The secret of life, observes Mrs. Browning, is in full occupation; this world is not tenable on other terms. That slept and did none other werke, is Chaucer's. The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment, from the Rambler. Jeremy Taylor calls idleness the burial of a living man. Great rest standeth in little business, is Chaucer's. According to Sir Arthur Helps, hard work is a great police agent. Aristotle says the end of labor is to gain leisure. Happy is the wife of a busy man, remarks Balzac. To face un- interesting drudgery is, in the opinion of William James, a good part of life's work. Lord Chatham regards vacancy to be worse than the most anxious work. Augustus Caesar wondered that Alexander wanted more worlds to conquer, fearing he should lack work, seeing that it is as hard a matter to keep as to conquer. If you want anything done very poorly, get a boy to do it. Lincoln said his father taught him to work, but never taught him LAWYERS 235 to love it. It has been suggested, that if you are turning a grindstone, every moment is precious; but if you are doing a man's work, the inspired moments are precious. Following is the way Coleridge has it, — "Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve; And hope without an object cannot live." As Ruskin would have it, life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality. Virtue's sentinel is work, says Balzac. Emerson worked a little every day in his vegetable garden. LAUGHTER PESTALOZZI at first made an attempt to be a clergy- man; in his first sermon he was seized with a fit of uncontrollable laughter and broke down completely. Richardson depicts a character who excites a laugh by laughing himself at all he is going to say, as well as what he has just said. Seriousness, says Heine, shows itself more majestically when laughter leads the way. Dr. Johnson thinks every man may be judged by his laughter. In Carlyle's estimation, one great deficiency in Voltaire's nature was inborn levity; he thought him to be by birth a mocker. There is nothing more significant of men's characters, observes Goethe, than what they find laughable. Benson speaks of one who laughs as if he were amused, not like a man discharging a painful duty. Rabelais asserts, that laughter is the special gift of man. LAWYERS THE glory of a clever lawyer, Balzac declares, is to gain a rotten suit. It has been observed by G. S. Hillard, that Jeremiah Mason was a great lawyer, but that 236 LITERARY BREVITIES Daniel Webster was a great man practising law. It is a remark of Landor, that where the lawyers flourish, there is a certain sign that the laws do not. LETTER-WRITING DR. JOHNSON regards the art of letter-writing as consisting solely in telling the news. Carlyle pre- served all the letters he ever received; his correspondents were no common men, and in writing to him they naturally wrote their best. I have ever thought, says Steele, that men were better known by what could be observed of them from a perusal of their private letters than any other way. Southey declares, that a man's character may be judged of even more surely by the letters which his friends address to him than by those he himself pens. LIBERTY BURKE observes, that it is sometimes as hard to persuade slaves to become freemen as it is to compel freemen to become slaves. Seneca thinks a well governed appetite a great part of liberty. "O politics! how much bamboozling is done in thy game," paraphrase of Madame Roland's famous remark about liberty. The Rochester orator said, with true American boastfulness, "No people ever lost their liberty who had a waterfall two hundred and fifty feet high." Cousin's definition of liberty is, the doing of what we have a right to do. It was Madame Roland, of the time of Louis XVI, who said, "Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name." It is a saying of Heine, that the Englishman loves liberty like his lawful wife; the Frenchman like his mistress; the German loves her like his old grandmother. Creevey asserts, that in at- LIFE 237 tending Courts or the homes of Princes you lose your liberty. David depicted Robespierre with two hands upon his breast, as though he had two hearts for liberty. It is a remark of Robespierre, that there is no more for- midable enemy to liberty than fanaticism. Every man is rich who has the free use of earth and air. The fol- lowing from Cowper, — ff He is the free man whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves besides." The defense of freedom, declares William Roscoe, has always been found to expand and strengthen the mind. Even liberty must have a master, asserts Schiller. T LIFE HE following is from Browning, — "Yes, everybody that leaves life sees all Softened and bettered: so with other sights: To me at least was never evening yet But seemed far beautifuller than day, For past is past." The Greek poet Alexis calls human life a mad pastime between two darknesses. One half of the world knoweth not how the other half liveth, is a saying of Rabelais. Relinquamus aliquid quo nos vixisse testemus, said by the younger Pliny. The adage gives long life to threatened men, says Browning. He who lives but to save his life is already dead, is from Goethe's "Egmont." The sea-gull is said to live longer than man. Hawthorne states, that there are three times in a man's life when he is talked about — when he is born, when he is married, and when he dies. Remarks Joubert, "Some say human life is a black cloth wherein are woven a few white threads; others 238 LITERARY BREVITIES that it is a white cloth wherein are woven a few black threads." The greatest captains of antiquity, states Dumas, recreated themselves with casting pebbles into the ocean. Disce ut semper victurus, vive ut eras moriturus, John Fiske's motto. Plato died, while writing, in his eighty-first year. Regular habits, Balzac thinks, are the secret of long life and sound health. It is the observation of some one, that the clergy live by our sins, the medical faculty by our diseases, and the law gentry by our mis- fortunes. He who lives a long life must pass through many evils, remarks Cervantes. In giving life, says Victor Hugo, God contracts a debt. One sometimes thinks it regrettable, that in the primal ordering of things God hadn't made special provision whereby a few rare souls, touched to fine issues, might be allowed to live forever, remaining, physically and intellectually, with their sun at meridian. Addison wanted to pass his winter in Spain, his spring in Italy, and his autumn in France. There are few evils without a remedy, Le Sage thinks. Everyone grumbles at his own profession, ob- serves Scott. George Eliot says folks must put up with their own kin as they put up with their own noses; it's their own flesh and blood. Time hath power to soften all regrets, is Wordsworth's. This by P. J. Bailey, — "He most lives, Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." It is a maxim of Goethe, that what can never be recalled should not be done in haste. An oak should not be trans- planted at fifty, says Grattan. Man is a buffoon, states Balzac, who dances on the edge of a precipice. It was Socrates who said concerning the commodiousness of tak- ing a wife, "Let a man take what course he will, he will be sure to repent." Dr. Johnson thought the man who LIFE 239 was tired of London was tired of life. Nor is the wind less rough that blows a good man's barge, is Matthew Arnold's. Give me the luxuries of life, said Motley, and I will dispense with the necessaries. To tunes we did not call our being must keep chime, is Matthew Arnold's. One lives only once in this world, says Goethe. To keep wide awake is man's best dream, is Browning's. Locke thought the lasting pleasures of life to consist in health, reputation, knowledge, doing good, and the expectation of eternal happiness. The following from Goethe, — "Choose well; your choice is Brief and yet endless." It is Ernest Thompson Seton's belief, that no wild animal dies of old age; but that its life has soon or late a tragic end. Balzac says of some one, that he had made haste to enjoy life, and had paid dear for his enjoyments. It is not by living at Padua, observes George Eliot, that you can learn to know Florentines. The stork is an emblem of longevity. Diogenes, commenting on life, says, "There are two miseries in human life, to live without a friend and with a wife." Landor thinks he wrote "dog," not "friend." R. L. Stevenson defines life as a permanent possibility of sensation. There is no fooling with life, according to Abraham Cowley, when it is once turned beyond forty. It is the belief of John Fiske, that it is only through pain that higher and higher forms of life, whether individual or social, are evolved. Ut sementem feceris, ita metes, is Scripture Latinized. So much to do, so little done, complains Tennyson. Old age is a man who has dined and looks at others eat, is from Balzac. It is such a delight to live, observes Dumas, when one has just escaped death. Rousseau thinks the most perilous interval of human life is that between birth and the age of twelve. 240 LITERARY BREVITIES Thoreau's food cost him only twenty-seven cents a week. Living means fighting, Roman proverb. Following is Shakspeare's, — "Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man." So is this, — "We are such stuff As dreams are made of, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.' * And this, — "The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues." The moment of separation and the moment of meeting #,gain are the two most important epochs of life, from the Zendavesta. Dowden thinks the precept of true philosophy is, not Memento mori, but "Remember to live." The same author tells us, that life is short and death is always pres- ent behind the curtain. And again he remarks, that our whole life can be no more than an apprenticeship to the ideal. Balzac denies that everyday life can be cast in heroic mould. The following is Racine's, — "The gods command Our span of life, but in our own hand rests Our glory." This from George Eliot, — "Life is not rounded in an epigram, And, saying aught, we leave a world unsaid." Eight days of life, Saint-Evremond declares, are worth more than eight centuries of fame when dead. Life is a constant sharing of divine power, is the rather unique way H. W. Dresser expresses it. To love and to labor, LITERATURE 241 Sir Thomas More pronounces the sum of living. Huxley's view is this, — -"Life is like walking along a crowded street — there always seem to be fewer obstacles to getting along on the opposite pavement, and yet, if one crosses over, matters are rarely mended." It has been claimed as one of the advantages of living to be very old, that one comes to see that things which had seemed to be disastrous were really blessings. No work must be expected to live long which draws all its beauty from the color of the times, is Addison's idea. Nee tecum possum vivere, nee sine te, is Martial's. From the same this, Vivere bis, vita fosse priore frui. LITERATURE IT is sometimes the case, that a mere fragment of an author's work is all that keeps his name alive; De Foe is chiefly known as the man who wrote" Robinson Crusoe," and of the numerous readers of the wonderful story but few know that he wrote anything else; in the same con- nection may be mentioned " Gray's Elegy," one of the best known poems in existence, and the only product of Gray's pen ever seriously thought of; of the works of that pro- lific writer, John Selden, the " Table Talk " alone makes its author live; even his "History of Tithes," which greatly incensed James I, and his " Mare Clausum " are known to only a few of the curious among readers. At the time of Selden's death it was said of him, "When a learned man dies a great deal of learning dies with him; but if learning could have kept a man alive, our brother had not died." Selden's amanuensis, Richard Milward, acting a Boswel- lian part, and having had ample opportunity to listen to his conversations, made a record of the good things that fell from Selden's lips and embodied them in " Table Talk," 242 LITERARY BREVITIES perhaps the original of books so titled. Polonius illus- trates how Shakspeare gives to his plays an almost infinite variety of characters, the lesser ones, too, being almost as essential as the greater. Machiavelli's "Art of War" and "Marcus Aurelius" were the favorite books of Captain John Smith when a young man. Emerson and George Eliot both thought Rousseau's " Confessions " the most enter- taining book they had ever read. W. D. Howells, when at Rome, paid his respects to the Tarpeian Rock, not be- cause of its ancient renown, but because Donatello and Miriam had been associated with it in Hawthorne's "Marble Faun." One of the most remarkable things about Turner was his utter lack of literary faculty; Hamerton says Turner never did anything worse than his poetry except his prose. The poet Young never com- posed but at night, except rarely when he was on horse- back; hence the "Night Thoughts." Pope was the first Englishman who made an independent living from the sale of his literary productions. Charles Sumner read Hawthorne's chapter on Civic Banquets several times on account of the style. Byron's description of the Colos- seum by moonlight has been pronounced better than the reality. What a happy surprise it would be, if the sixty- three lost plays of iEschylus were to be found! It is, however, altogether likely that the few we have are his best. James Russell Lowell makes the surprising state- ment, that during the fifteenth century Europe did not produce a single book that is readable today. Bishop Pearson calls Virgil "that great master of the proprieties." The possessive of "it" does occur in the Bible, Leviticus xxv, 5. It is the opinion of G. W. Moon, that great writers may make or mar a language. The following fragment is from Browning, — r LITERATURE 243 " — fast and thick As stars which storm the sky on autumn nights." The new version of the Scriptures is bad for the clergy, who lose many opportunities of telling "how it is in the original." The vilest of prose or poetry is called "balder- dash"; Balder, among the Scandinavians, was the pre- siding judge of poetry. According to Lowell, Milton is the only man who has succeeded in getting much poetry out of a cataract, and that was a cataract of the eye. There is a kind of consolation to be derived from litera- ture, in that it shows the foibles and weaknesses of the men and women around us to be the characteristics of human nature throughout all history. When we hear it suggested in the way of raillery, as a necessary safeguard to society, that some tiresome dispenser of stale anecdotes ought to constitute his friends a committee to decide when he is to retire certain threadbare jokes, we are disposed to feel kindlier towards the offender to have the assurance that Cicero was much given to repeating his favorite stories; that egotism is not a recently evolved trait of hu- man nature, is made manifest in the same great orator. Wordsworth's self-conceit was quite equal to the most pro- nounced examples of antiquity; when asked to read aloud a chapter in one of Scott's novels, noticing that the chapter was introduced by a quotation from one of his own poems, he quite forgot the story, and instead of reading the chap- ter recited his poem in full. The following beautiful piece of description is from one of Shakspeare's sonnets, — "Full many a glorious morning have I seen Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye, Kissing with golden face the meadows green, Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy." Richardson, author of "Clarissa," wrote No. 99 of the Rambler , and it was the only number that was at once 244 LITERARY BREVITIES popular. We can say nothing, declares Robert Burton, but what hath been said; the composition and method are ours only, and show the scholar. It heightens the pleasure of reading Browning to know that but few can read him. General John A. Dix is a good example of an American public man who was thoroughly literary. A great book greatens with time, says G. E. Woodberry. How true what R. L. Stevenson says, that we cannot all take pleasure in " Paradise Lost." The " Pentameron," one of Walter Savage Landor's prose volumes, is, like his " Per- icles and Aspasia," of supreme literary excellence; every- one who enjoys the best should read it. Goldsmith wrote exquisitely in three distinct departments of literature — in descriptive poetry "The Deserted Village," in comedy " She Stoops to Conquer," and in prose fiction " The Vicar of Wakefield." It is claimed by some, that the actor in great measure makes Shakspeare; if this is so, why does not Booth make " Richelieu " as great a play as "Hamlet"? Webster's speeches are great as classic literature, though they lack the inspiring elocution of their author. In the judgment of Matthew Arnold, the best model of the grand style simple is Homer; perhaps the best model of the grand style severe is Milton; but Dante is remarkable for affording admirable examples of both styles. It is estimated, that thirty thousand people visit the grave of Burns every year. This is not wholly due to the fact that "Sweet Afton," "John Anderson my Jo," and the "Cot- ter's Saturday Night" are memorized the world over; Burns touches not only the Scotch heart, but all hearts, however humble, as no other poet has touched to responsiveness the hearts of people. Andrew Lang, in his "Letters to Dead Authors," writes of Burns, " We have had many a rural bard since Theocritus watched the visionary flocks, but you are the only one of them all who has spoken the LITERATURE 245 sincere Doric." Burns's songs, like the odes of Horace, may be said to sound like "linnets in the pauses of the wind." Carlyle thought "Tristram Shandy" one of the first books after "Robinson Crusoe." It was a fancy of John Stuart Mill, that when the greater evils of life shall have been removed, the human race is to find its chief enjoyment in reading Wordsworth's poetry. A man may play the fool in everything else, but not in poetry, says Montaigne. A translation no more reveals what there is in an exquisite classic, than words can tell what the mind sees in a perfect piece of statuary or in an excellent painting. Pope is said to have sent nothing to the press till it had lain two years under his inspection. It is allowed that Homer strikes the imagination with what is great; Virgil with what is beautiful; Ovid with what is strange. Addison wrote a book entitled "An Account of the Greatest English Poets," in which he made no men- tion of Shakspeare. Says Longfellow, "When I quote Latin I quote Horace." Lope de Vega wrote five novels, each with one of the five vowels excluded from it. Books form a universal republic, declares Richter. Bryant, in his writings, generally abstained from using foreign words and phrases. Shelley read the Bible through four times before he was twenty-one years old. It is a dictum of Froude, that literature happens to be the only occupation in which wages are not given in proportion to goodness of the work done. This from Browning, — " Fleet the years, And still the Poet's page holds Helena At gaze from topmost Troy." At the Saturday Club Agassiz confessed that he had read but one of Scqtt's novels, " Ivanhoe "; "But," said he, "if God please, before my death I will read two more." Hawthorne says of Miriam, possibly the greatest character 246 LITERARY BREVITIES he ever drew, "By some subtle quality she kept people at a distance, without so much as letting them know that they were excluded from her inner circle." The only impeccable writers, Hazlitt asserts, are those who do not write. Macaulay once bored Carlyle with the presentation of proofs that Sir Philip Francis wrote "The Letters of Junius." When thinking of the poet Gray, we are apt to think of his Elegy only, just as in thinking of Bunyan we think of his "Pilgrim's Progress" only, though each wrote other things of value. Of the Faun of Praxiteles, which inspired Hawthorne's tale, he writes, "Only a sculptor of the finest imagination, the most delicate taste, the sweetest feeling, and the rarest artistic skill — in a word, a sculptor and a poet, too — could have first dreamed of a Faun in this guise, and then have succeeded in imprisoning the sportive and frisky thing in marble; neither man nor animal, and yet no monster, but a being in whom both races meet on friendly grounds! The idea grows coarse as we handle it, and hardens in our grasp." In Miss Repplier's "Dozy Hours" are the following gems of thought: "It is a painful thing, at best, to live up to one's bric-a-brac"; " The necessity of knowing a little about a great many things is the most grievous burden of our day"; " It is never worth while to assert, that genius repeals the decalogue." It is an observation of Macaulay, as of many others, that great original literary works are most fre- quently produced in a rude state of society. Lowell kept Howells's first poem a long time before publishing it, to make sure it was not a translation. Montaigne might well say he could write upon any subject; for whatever the one chosen might be, he was always wandering from it. Some literary expressions, says Joubert, are like colors; often time must fade them before they can give general pleasure. Richard Burton states, that the Greeks of the LITERATURE 247 classical period were eager listeners and talkers; that they were not great students of books. According to the belief of Madame de Sevigne, those who are happy enough to have a taste for reading never need be at a loss for amuse- ment. How fortunate, that a man's writings are often better than the man himself. Alexander Hamilton wrote his contributions to The Federalist on board a packet plying between New York and Albany. Among the Greeks, the competitors for prizes in poetic composition were limited to twelve; and to win the third prize, which must have been a kind of "booby," was considered a disgrace, a position to which Sophocles never fell. The judges in such contests were chosen by lot from the audience. Thackeray was often surprised by the sayings and doings of his creations. Some books, Macaulay remarks, which I never should dream of opening at dinner, please me at breakfast, and vice versa. It is observed by C. F. Richardson, that most books float a short time and then become water-logged; then sink with all their crew. Whistled as he signed for want of thought, is the way Le Sage antedates Dryden. Bayle, called the Shakspeare of Dictionary Makers, worked fourteen hours a day for forty years. His dictionary was generally found open on Addison's table. Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerunt, is St. Augustine's. Lewes believes, that no man ever repeated himself less than Goethe. Who can tell in words what a rose is? The "Witches' Prayer" was verse, read either way; but it cursed one way and blessed the other. The Old Testament Prophets were poets; Jesus spoke prose. Smollett's Commodore Trunnion, in his last moments of subconscious dozing, mutters a hope that, "when the angel comes to pipe all hands," he "will be able to surmount the puttock — shrouds of despair, and get aloft to the cross-trees of God's good favor." He whistled 248 LITERARY BREVITIES as he went for want of thought, is Dryden's application of Le Sage. Pope received £1,200 for his translation of the "Iliad," and £600 for the "Odyssey." If Hawthorne's writings were to appear in a periodical for the first time today, but few would be attracted by them. Socrates thinks the worst of authors will say something to the point. Probably no writer is more absolutely identified with her nom de plume than George Eliot. Matthew Arnold re- gards as literature all knowledge that reaches us through books. Sydney Smith called Macaulay "a book in breeches." Small, beautiful islands in mid-ocean, being the peaks of lofty submerged mountains, typify the frag- ments of a great poet whose works have been lost to the world. According to Goethe, the ancient poems had no titles. Shakspeare uses a vocabulary of 15,000 words; and it is claimed that of every five verbs, adverbs, and nouns, four are Teutonic. The forest murmured like a shell, is George Moore's. When a poet has made a hit in writing the " Light Brigade," he is foolish to try the " Heavy Brigade." An interval of something over 400 years elapsed between the date of the last book of the Old Testament and the first of the New. It has been claimed that the best part of every author is to be found in his book. A novelist emi- nently uninspired, is what Andrew Lang calls a certain writer. Day wrapped her brightness up in sable weeds, is Tasso's exquisite description of night. Emerson, in speak- ing of Shakspeare, remarks, that a great poet who appears in illiterate times absorbs into his sphere all the light which is anywhere radiating. Josiah Quincy once declared, that if he were imprisoned and allowed to choose one book for his amusement, that book would be " Horace." Aristotle's rule for unity in a literary composition is — one day, one place, one action. Whoever has once come to appreciate and love a classic, will never afterwards be in danger from LITERATURE 249 i vile stuff. Scott calls the Book of Job the grandest poem that ever was written. It is well to have on the stocks for reading several books at the same time. The light that never was on land or sea, is Wordsworth's. Hawthorne, after returning from England, read aloud to his family at Wayside all of Scott's novels. We are told by Balzac, that the name Lovelace belongs to an old English family, though Richardson used it for a creation which dwarfed all its other distinctions. Jefferson was eighteen days writing the Declaration of Independence. Only one of Emerson's sermons has ever been published, though much of the thought contained in his pulpit discourses is said to be embalmed in his lectures and essays. Richter asks, "Why should one single good observation or rule be lost because it is imprisoned in some monstrous folio?" Hawthorne thinks few men have done so much for their country as Walter Scott. Things strike us in another language, says Landor, which we pass over in our own. When Goethe was once asked to explain a passage in one of his early productions, he replied, "You probably know better than I do, being young." George Eliot's " Middlemarch " brought her $100,000. What a world is comprised in " lost literature! " At the age of fifty-four Locke began to write and give his thoughts to the world. Tennyson observes, that few things are well received at first. The history of literature, Emerson thinks, is a sum of very few ideas and of few original tales — all the rest being variations of these. Thackeray thought the poem so pompous and feeble, that he was positively surprised that it didn't get the medal. Lowell says Virgil's subject was a man; Dante's, man. C. F. Richardson informs us, that George Eliot first discovered that children have childlike characters. It is the opinion of Thackeray, that there are few people who talk about or read books so little as literary men. With 250 LITERARY BREVITIES Macaulay everything would seem to be either superlatively good, or superlatively bad. Literature incloses the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of mankind in all ages. "Kiss," four letters, says Thackeray, and not one of them a labial. I don't care an et cetera, says Weir Mitchell. The follow- ing suggestive statement is by Addison, — "Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind; all other arts of perpetuating our ideas continue but a short time; statues can last but a few thousand years, edifices fewer, and colors still fewer than edifices; Michelangelo, Fontana, and Raphael will hereafter be what Phidias, Vitruvius, and Apelles are at present, — the names of great statuaries, architects, and painters, whose works are lost." Jeffrey spoke of Scott's diction as tinged with the careless richness of Shakspeare. After Washington Irving, it is hopeless for any American to write about England. Heine thinks Luther, by translating the Bible, created the German language. Montaigne and Bacon, our earliest essayists, are thought to be our best. Intense study of the Bible, Coleridge observes, will keep any writer from being vulgar in point of style. Hawthorne, with much satisfaction, speaks of reading Carlyle's "Heroes." On page 83, in Pepys's "Diary," the word success, used for event, means failure. The hair a thought browner, is Shakspeare's. Pisistratus was the first to found a library at Athens. The Spartans looked upon the art of rhetoric as the art of lying. China, it is believed, can lay claim to the invention of printing as applied to books. Sweet girl graduates in their golden hair, is in Tennyson's "Princess." John Bright read but few books, chief among them being the Bible. John and Paul were Luther's favorite writers. There are over forty English versions of Goethe's "Faust." Virgil left it in his will that Augustus should burn all his writings. Ruling passion strong in death, is LITERATURE 251 from Pope. Blushing to the bone, is Browning's. Though last, not least, belongs to Shakspeare. The following is a translation from Sophocles, — "For lo! resplendent Phoebus with his light Calls up the cheerful birds to early song, And gloomy night hath lost her starry train." From Browning this, — " I liked that way you had with your curls, Wound to a ball in a net behind: Your cheek was as chaste as a Quaker girl's." Heraclitus of Ephesus, of the sixth century B.C., was the first to write Greek prose. It was a kind of honorable distinction to be suspected of being the author of the "Letters of Junius." Carlyle calls Gibbon the splendid bridge from the old world to the new. It has been re- marked by some one, that the talent and ingenuity of a writer serve only to perplex a subject he is not thoroughly acquainted with. Nearly every writer of distinction, even Longfellow not excepted, has incurred the reproach of immorality in his literary productions. The great Roman authors were generally not born at Rome. Protagoras seems to have been the first who distinguished the three genders of nouns. The dog drops the real bone and catches at the shadow; so says the fable. Jotham's fable of the trees in Judges is said to be the oldest fable extant. Great letter-writers, some one observes, are exceedingly few, yet not so few as the great biographers. Among the mutilated poets of antiquity, as Addison thinks, there is none whose fragments are so beautiful as those of Sappho. Cervantes wrote thirty dramas, but is immortal through " Don Quixote " alone. To exact of every man who writes, asserts Dr. Johnson, that he should say something new, would be to reduce authors to a small number. This from Spenser: — 252 LITERARY BREVITIES "And fayned still her former angry mood, Thinking to hide the depth by troubling of the flood." By the same again, — "What need the bridge much broader than the flood." Hawthorne's stories have but few characters. We went on, says Weir Mitchell, talking of cats, and of Washington's aversion to them, and of the odd fact, that cats are not mentioned in the Bible. And Sidney, warbler of poetic prose, writes Cowper. By night in vivid dreams that sweetly lied, is from the Portuguese Camoens. So is what follows, — When day has smiled a soft farewell, And night-drops bathe each shutting bell, And shadows sail along the green, And birds are still and winds serene, I wonder silently. What an inestimable price, Addison says, would a Virgil or a Homer, a Cicero or an Aristotle bear, were they, like a statue, a building, or a picture, to be confined only in one place, and made the property of a single person. Was Sir Humphrey Davy, or Bishop Berkeley, the first to say, "The greater the circle of light, the greater the boundary of darkness?" May thy summer of life be calm, thy autumn calmer, and thy winter never come, says Landor with his usual grace. All wine, Goethe says, deposits lees in the cask in the course of time. Voltaire wrote " Candide " as an answer to a letter from Rousseau. Milton did not say that "poetry should be simple, sensuous, passionate," but that it should be more simple, sensuous, passionate than prose. It is Poe's opinion, that on important topics it is better to be a good deal prolix than even a very little obscure. Lord Brougham thinks it a sad thing to reflect, that the three masterpieces of three such men as Voltaire Rousseau, and Byron should be the most immoral of their compositions. Hell in life here; hereafter life in hell, is LITERATURE 253 Browning's. The same remarks, that geese have goose thoughts. And again, " Would we move the world, not earth but heaven must be our fulcrum." Schlegel praises the English of Shakspeare's time, before it had attained to that insipid correctness which came later to the prejudice of its originality. Camoens introduced firearms into the " Lusiad." Richardson's " Pamela," printed by Franklin in 1744, was the first novel ever printed in America. There are books which, although really good, must be read at a particular age to be enjoyed. The chief value of a novel sometimes consists in what has but little to do with the story. It is estimated that from eighty to ninety per cent of the words found in a Latin author are, in some way, found in English also. It is asserted by Heine, that to the Spaniards is due the honor of having produced the best novel, as England is entitled to the credit of having achieved the highest rank in the drama; that the Germans are the best lyric poets on earth; and that no people possess such beautiful songs as the Germans. The same author says, that the pen of a man of genius is always greater than the man himself; that, without being himself clearly conscious of it, Cervantes wrote the greatest satire against human enthusiasm. The same again informs us, that the arrow belongs not to the archer when once it has left the bow, and the word no longer belongs to the speaker when once it has passed his lips, especially when it has been multiplied by the press. Matthew Arnold thinks the power of French literature is in its prose writers, the power of English literature in its poets. It is by means of familiar words, observes Joubert, that style takes hold of the reader and gets possession of him. One translator made Han- nibal drag cannon over the Alps. The history of litera- ture, says Heine, is a great morgue, wherein each seeks the dead who are near or dear to him; and when, among 254 LITERARY BREVITIES the corpses of so many petty men, I behold the noble features of a Lessing or a Herder, my heart throbs with emotion. The Bible grew; the Koran was made, says Matthew Arnold. We speak of the Age of Pericles, of Augustus, of Elizabeth, of Louis XIV, and of Anne, because these ages were distinguished by literature. I found that books might make me learned, observes Lessing, but would never make a man of me. John Selden advises, that in quoting of books we quote such authors as are usually read. Aristotle's works are said to comprise more than four hundred volumes. It is remarked by Barrett Wendell, that literature, in general, must concern itself with interesting exceptions to the commonplace. Leigh Hunt insists, that the four great English poets — Shak- speare, Chaucer, Spenser, and Milton — were all fond of books. Some one has declared, that the world can never estimate the debt it owes to second-class literature; yet that it is basely afraid to acknowledge the debt. Shak- speare's women occupy but little space as compared with his men. According to Matthew Arnold's view, in the creation of a master-work of literature two powers must concur, — the power of the man and the power of the mo- ment, and the man is not enough without the moment. Fiction, Joubert thinks, has no business to exist unless it is more beautiful than reality. Balzac mentions one who turned critic, like all weak men who do not fulfil their early promise. All that is fine in Milton is beyond comparison, Sainte-Beuve asserts. Cowper's "John Gilpin" lay dor- mant for two or three years, until a famous actor gave it as a comic recitation, when it became the rage. Venice pro- duced no world-poet, no great literature, asserts W. R. Thayer. There are writings, observes Landor, that must lie long upon the straw before they mellow to the taste; and there are summer fruits that cannot abide the keeping. LITERATURE 255 Mme. d'Arblay places Shakspeare's "Tempest" at the head of improbabilities. " Robinson Crusoe," appearing in the early reign of George I, may be regarded as the first modern novel. A nation lives only through its literature, says E. P. Whipple. Dowden remarks, that what is permanent and universal in literature, lives by the aid of no fashion of the day, but by virtue of its truth to nature, — and hence is derived the authority of the ancient classics, which have been tried by time and have endured. And still I tread on classic ground, is Addison's. J. A. Symonds states, that a period of fifty-three years, noted for iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, sufficed for the complete development of the greatest work of art the world has ever witnessed. Henry James thinks a language can only be indirectly enriched. Has the English language a greater number of monosyllables than other languages have? Achilles is the swift-footed when he is sitting still, is a remark of Macaulay. Carlyle speaks of Lessing as " a writer of books which have turned out to have truth in them." Every abridgment of a good book is a foolish abridgment, according to Montaigne's thinking. The figure of Royalty, worshipful in its marble redundancy, is a rather fine expression from George Meredith. The beautiful uncut hair of Graves, is Walt Whitman's. It is a Chinese law, that no piece of paper with writing on it should ever be destroyed. Bulwer has the following, — "Beneath the rule of men entirely great The pen is mightier than the sword." Of the eighty-three articles in The Federalist, it is believed that sixty-three were written by Hamilton, and three by him in collaboration with Madison. Voltaire writes in English, observes Horace Walpole, and not a sentence is tolerable English. Jefferson, it is said, wrote 2,500 letters. 256 LITERARY BREVITIES No entertainment, says Lady Montagu, is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. Dryden says, — "All authors to their own defects are blind." Aaron Burr left no literary remains. LITTLE THINGS SOMETIMES, says Bulwer, the froth on the wave shows the change of the tide. What follows is from Matthew Arnold, — "Of little threads our life is spun, And he spins ill who misses one." It takes more than one shot to kill a wolf, is a remark of Balzac. Stilicidi casus lapidem cavat, is from Lucretius. All history, declares Charles Reade, shows that nothing is unconquerable except perseverance. Nulla dies sine linea, is the motto of Apelles. Fit audience find, though few, is Milton's. Virgil, in the "iEneid," portrays three children — Astyanax, Ascanius, and Marcellus. Goethe's " Wilhelm Meister " was once burned as an immoral book. It is well not to neglect small advantages; but it is dangerous to depend upon them, is the advice of Richelieu. Turgenieff suggests, that a kopec candle is enough to set the whole city of Moscow on fire. Sands make the mountain, moments make the year, is Young's. Mrs. Browning refers to little details in letters, which are such gold dust to absent friends. Nothing that calls back the remem- brance of a happy moment, observes Goethe, can be in- significant. The same remarked of one of the little errors in his writings, "Let the little wretch stay." Those only become great who think nothing little but themselves, is so happy that one wishes he knew its author. LONGEVITY 257 LOGIC SENATOR Hoar and John Felton, a fellow-student at Harvard, engaged in a warm discussion one night and kept it up until a late hour. When they separated, Felton said, "We will continue this discussion tomorrow; mean- time won't you look up the history of the matter a little? " "Yes," replied Hoar, "and won't you study up a little on "Whately's Logic "? " It has been observed by some one, that every Union cannon in our civil war was shotted with Webster's reply to Hayne. They thought, remarks James Walker, that if they could but wring the neck of the crowing cock, it would never be day. It was a maxim of Louis XIV, that no man who is ill-informed, can help reasoning badly. When " Emile " was publicly burned, Rousseau announced, that burning is not a convincing reply. William James thought it always best to discuss things by concrete examples. It was the belief of Antoine Arnauld, that the greater part of men's errors comes less because they reason ill on true principles than because they reason well on false ones. Analogy is not argument, insists Charles Reade, which is the reason so many, people use it as such. By way of argument, we may suppose impossibilities, says Addison. LONGEVITY YOUNG wrote "Night Thoughts" after he was sixty years old. Robert Burns died in his thirty-seventh year. Pascal died at the age of thirty-nine. Browning lacked only three years of reaching the four score limit; while Tennyson lived three years beyond it. Balzac de- scribes a man as one of those who are born old and will always remain fifty, even if they live to be eighty. It 258 LITERARY BREVITIES is to be regretted, that Bayard Taylor did not live long enough to write his projected life of Goethe. LOVE HEARING Hannah talk, writes Miss Mitford, is not the way to fall out of love with her. What we love is loveliest in departure, says Landor. Certain it is, re- marks Steele, there is no kind of affection so pure and angelic as that of a father for a daughter. Walter Pater puts this into the mouth of Aurelius, "Imitation is the most acceptable part of worship ; the gods had much rather mankind would resemble them than flatter them." Amiel thinks intellect is aristocratic, charity democratic. Ma- dame de Sevigne declares, that everyone loves in his own way. It is Thackeray's belief, that true love is better than glory; and a tranquil fireside, with the woman of your heart seated by it, the greatest good the gods can send us. The goal is not always to be reached, observes Joubert, but to serve as a mark for our aim; so it is with the precept, that we are to love our enemies. Elbert Hubbard declares, that to love a man so well as to imitate his faults is the highest compliment that can be paid him. In the opinion of Amiel, the more a man loves the more he suffers; and that the sum of possible grief for each soul is in proportion to its degree of perfection. Except in Shakspeare, asserts Coleridge, you can find no such thing as a pure conception of wedded love in our old dramatists; how transcendent over his age and his rivals was our sweet Shakspeare! Whittier said to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, "Elizabeth, thee would not be happy in heaven, unless thee could go missionary to the other place now and then." A passion that reasons is vitiated, says Balzac. Love despises genealogies, thinks Scott. It is related of a boy whose LOVE 259 penurious father was brought home dead, that his first remark was, "Now we can burn as much wood as we like." George Sand pronounces love the divinest of music. In girls we love what they are, says Goethe, but in young men what they promise to be. Goethe thinks if one can- not love unconditionally, love is already in a critical state. Mrs. Siddons declared, that after she became celebrated none of her sisters loved her as they had done before. It is said that a very little thing will entertain two lovers. Goethe thinks nothing more charming than to see a mother with a child upon her arm. A sour father may reform prisons, asserts George Eliot. Balzac refers to a man whom all like and none esteem. Symonds remarks, that the dog Argus has no doubt; he sees his master Ulysses through his rags, and dies of joy. It is a re- mark of Goethe that he who does nothing for others, does nothing for himself. Joubert thinks one who is never a dupe cannot be a friend. For the sake of Iole Hercules exchanged his club for the distaff. Beatrice was a child of nine years when Dante first saw and fell in love with her; she married another and died at the age of twenty- four; she was the inspiration of the "Divine Comedy." Petrarch's love for Laura was love for a woman already married. He knows not love who has not seen her eyes, is a line from Petrarch. To love her is a liberal education, is Steele's famous sentence. Balzac calls love that vast excess of reason. The same author says charity which costs nothing is ignored in heaven. To make a Lucretia out of an Aspasia, Balzac asserts, one has only to inspire her with a great passion. According to Henry James, a man never likes a woman enough, unless he likes her more than enough. In strewing their tombs, the Romans affected the rose, the Greeks the amaranthus and myrtle. Balzac pronounces love to be a mutual yielding to each 260 LITERARY BREVITIES other's likes and dislikes and dividing them. I am not sure, observes George Eliot, that men are fondest of those who try to be useful to them. The silver cup presented to Pope by Swift bore this inscription, Pignus amicitiae exiguum ingentis. Love that economizes is not a true love, declares Balzac. The same again asserts, that a renewal of love is never love. Heine's definition of love is, the secret malady of the heart. He who is not loved is alone, declares George Eliot. Seeing one through the prism of love, is Balzac's expression. May Sinclair asserts, that there can't be any generosity between equals. When love has got hold of us, farewell prudence, is Balzac's. When old men love a child there is no limit to their passion, is Balzac's also. Love quarrels oft in pleasing concord end, is a line from Milton. Poe thinks no man can consider himself entitled to complain of Fate while in adversity he still retains the unwavering love of woman. Rev. C. C. Everett writes, "Love is seen to be the most divine thing in the world. If the power that rules the world is not love as well as power, then man is superior to it." Love elevates great minds, Schiller thinks. Madame de Stael was Gibbon's early love. No one could tell whether George III really liked him or not. Said Balzac, "We want to remind you of ourselves by some pleasant souvenir, something that you will use every day, and something, too, that will not get worn out with use." A dram of sweete is worth a pound of soure, is Spenser's. Love is not in our choice but in our fate, as Dryden thinks. Babbling to her son, aged twenty months, in that onomatopoetic language which makes a baby smile, is from Balzac. Of all secret things love is the most public, is from the same. Pope satirized Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, because she laughed at him when he tried to make love to her. The gratitude of the clergy, remarks Smollett, is like their LOVE 261 charity; it shuns the light. It is a thought of Amiel, that it is better to be lost than saved all alone; and it is a wrong to one's kind to wish to be wise without making others share our wisdom. A cottage with the man one loves, Fielding observes, is a palace. Thou art all ice; thy kind- ness freezes, is Shakspeare's. He thought of her with smiles, is Goethe's. Henry James says affection is blind to faults, not to beauties. If nothing weakens love like pos- session, Dumas claims, nothing nourishes it like hope. Love that two hearts makes one, makes eke one will, is a line from Spenser. The following is from Shakspeare, — "For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings, That then I scorn to change my state with Kings." We are told that Cupid would not rank among the gods if he could not perform miracles. Howells says it is not the ladies-man who is the favorite of the ladies. Napoleon has observed, that men are never attached to you by benefits. We have this from Catullus, — Nee meum respectet, ut ante, amorem, Qui illius culpa cecidit velut prati Ultimiflos, praetereunte postquam Tactus aratro est. Petrarch wrote four sonnets to express his pleasure upon picking up Laura's glove. Love takes the deepest root in the steadiest minds, Richardson remarks. Amantium irae amoris integratio est, is from Terence. It is an observa- tion of Balzac, that the heart has the singular power of giving extraordinary value to mere nothings. The follow- ing lines are from Shakspeare, — "Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, And won thy love doing thee injuries." Benefits cease to be benefits, Lessing observes, if one seeks to be repaid for them. There's beggary in the love that 262 LITERARY BREVITIES can be reckoned, says Shakspeare. Voltaire would have it, that there can be no love without hope. There is no country, says the same author, where love has not turned lovers into poets. I owe him little duty, less love, is Shakspeare's. Though last, not least in love, is his also. Had every other gift, but wanted love, is from Matthew Arnold. The course of true love never did run smooth, is from Shakspeare. A man in love, says Balzac, is about as secret as a cannon shot. The following is Ben Jonson's arrangement from the Greek, — "Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup And I'll not look for wine." It is cheaper in the long run, Lowell thinks, to lift men up than to hold them down. From Victor Hugo this, — "Angel, for heaven reserved, say where You trod, that I may kiss the ground." Lessing wished he might have given two years of his life to Sterne. There is not a word in the language, says Bulwer, that conveys so little endearment as the word "dear/' It is a saying of Mrs. Craigie, that the faults of those who love us are more acceptable than the virtues of those who treat us with neglect. Richardson observes, " I hope I am in less danger of falling in love with any man, as I can be civil and courteous to all." When a stream is sluiced off into several channels, there is less fear that it will overflow its banks. Romeo loved a Rosaline before he died for a Juliet. John Fiske is inclined to think, that the better we understand people, the more we like them. There is no deep love without jealousy, Dumas asserts. Mrs. Craigie says lovers in poetry and novels are usually idle. Love is rarely a hypocrite, Bulwer remarks. Take LOVE 263 the child Beatrice from Dante's life, and should we have a Dante? It is all right, says Frances Little, to love hu- manity, but I was born a specialist. Richardson thought pity but one remove from love. Thoreau said John Brown would have left a Greek accent slanting- the wrong way, and righted up a fallen man. J. W. Chadwick de- clares, that we must save ourselves by saving others. Nelson in his dying moments desired his captain to give his love to Collingwood. I have never, God forgive me, had time to be in love, Benson declares. If ever you have grandchildren, Lowell asserts, you will grow miserly and approve of entails; depend upon it, 'twas grandfathers invented 'em. I only hope that when I go through the last door that opens for all, I may hear her coming step upon the other side, is Lowell's wish. A dalesman neighbor said Wordsworth was fond of children, but "children was niver vara fond o' him." Let Caesar have the world, if Marcia's mine, is in Addison's " Cato." It is a wise saying of Epicurus, that there is nothing so productive of joy as doing kindness. Hawthorne asserts, that men who at- tempt to do the world more good than the world is able entirely to comprehend, are almost invariably held in bad odor. We are told that Lord Althorp, after the death of his wife, gave up hunting, not because he thought it wrong, but because he did not think it seemly or suitable that a man after such a loss should be so very happy as he knew hunting would make him. During the madness of George III, " King Lear " was not played on the English stage. It is Hare's advice, that we believe all the good we hear of our neighbor, and forget all the bad. Why not, for the purpose of conjugation, use the verb "to hate" instead of the verb "to love?" It is a remark of Goethe, that if he had entered into any love affair at all, he should have become as a compass, which cannot possibly point 264 LITERARY BREVITIES correctly when it has an influencing magnet at its side. It is a true remark of Sir Arthur Helps, that you cannot pet anything much without doing it mischief. Leigh Hunt observes, that the greatest possible sum of happiness for mankind demands, that great part of our pleasure should be founded in that of others. Pascal had a great mind and a great heart, which great minds do not always have, so says Sainte-Beuve. Marquise de Sevigne was convinced that a man could not be a civil, polished, well- appearing man, unless he were always in love. It has been observed, that a love which comes late is often the most violent. La Rochefoucauld has noted, that persons have great difficulty in breaking apart when they no longer love each other. The first Scipio was called "the walking stick," because of his filial habit of allowing his decrepit father to lean upon him. I shall live only in your hearts henceforth, and I wish no other burying place, is a saying of Balzac. Every good deed, Hare remarks, does good even to the doer. Lowell observes, that there are some men who never put their hands in their pockets, and who yet give away a great deal in their faces and manners. Bacon says it is not granted to man to love and be wise. Kindness, remarks Leigh Hunt, itself is the best of all truths. The following piece of extravagance is Heine's, — "From Norway's forests I snatch their tallest pine tree And plunge it deep Into the crater of iEtna, And with this gigantic, fire-filled pen I write on the dark dome of heaven: 'Agnes, I love thee'!" Goethe thinks love is always of a somewhat impertinent nature. Lord Brooke requested, that it might be graven on his tomb, that Sir Philip Sidney was his friend. Le LOVE 265 Sage declares love to be a mental derangement, forcibly- drawing all our views and attachments into one vortex — a species of hydrophobia. It was the belief of Hawthorne, that human character in its individual developments — human nature in the mass — is best studied in its wishes. Wish him to be thine equal — that is the test of charity, says Crothers. Turgenieff calls affection a passion elimi- nating self. Love always makes us better, religion some- times, power never, is Landor's belief. It is the nature of mankind, observes Addison, to love everything that is prohibited. It was Cain who said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Thackeray says people hate, as they love, unreasonably. It was a maxim of Goethe, that love engenders love, and that one who is loved can easily govern. All strong men love life, observes Heine. We all need to be loved, says George Sand, in order that the good in us may be developed; but we need to be loved differently, one with unwearying indulgence, another with steady severity. Shakspeare declares, that men have died and worms have eaten them, but not for love. Goethe remarks of some one, that she was not lovely when she loved — the greatest misfortune that can befall a woman. Euripides tells us, that every man is fondest of that in which he is best. A faithful dog, Savonarola declares, does not leave off barking in his master's defense because a bone is thrown at him. It is an extreme thought of Paul Bourget, that love would not be love unless it could carry- one to crime. Trollope speaks surprisingly of one who knows nothing of that beautiful love that can be true to a false friend. Victor Hugo speaks of "a humanity without frontiers." An old monk, in a dream, saw another monk of recognized faults among the saints in heaven, and asked how this monk could deserve such a reward; the reply was, "He never condemned anyone." The pleasure of love, 266 LITERARY BREVITIES says George Moore, is in loving, not in being loved. The same says the delights of obedience are the highest felicities of love. A man who can express love felicitously, observes George Sand, is very little in love. Dr. Johnson, even in his days of poverty, used to thrust pennies into the hands of sleeping children whom he passed in his dreary midnight rambles. We first endure, then pity, then embrace, is Pope's familiar line. By an inadvertent act of cruelty we are sometimes made merciful. There are two things,* says George Eliot, not to be hidden — love and a cough. Tolstoy remarks of his mother, "It was a necessity for her to love what was not herself." Lamb speaks of " lovers' wrangles and endearing differences." Marlowe's line is, — "Come live with me and be my love." Henry III, in a philanthropic mood, gathered all the children in the neighborhood of Windsor and gave them a feast; the royal children were weighed, and their weight in silver was dis- tributed among the poor children. It is an observation of Hawthorne, that the young have less charity for the follies of the aged than the aged have for those of the young. It has been asserted, that men naturally dislike the very vir- tues of their enemies. From Dryden we have, — "He raised a mortal to the skies, She drew an angel down." The desire of the man, thinks Coleridge, is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man. Chesterton believes the way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost. Si vis amari, ama, is Seneca's. LUXURY STRATONICUS said concerning the luxury of the Rhodians, "They built houses as if they were im- mortal, but they feasted as if they meant to live a little MANNERS 267 while." Many dishes have made many diseases, was noted by Seneca. Nihil enim tarn mortiferum quam luxuria, is Seneca rhetor's sentiment. The mullet was considered stale, Seneca informs us, unless it died in the hands of the guest. Emerson pronounces the taste for luxury to be "that frequent misfortune of men of genius." It is related by Seneca, that one of the Sybarites, that saw a fellow hard at work a-digging, desired him to give over, as it made him weary to see him. MAGNANIMITY WHEN the letters of the traitor Avidius Cassius were brought to Marcus Aurelius in Syria, the latter ordered them to be burned without being opened. Scott said he relinquished poetry "because Byron bet me." It is a matter of congratulation, — if one possesses such a disposition that he can enjoy seeing others happy. According to Macaulay, William III gave the tale-bearer such a look that his story went back down his throat. Cicero, being asked which of Demosthenes's orations he liked best, replied, "The longest." When urged to attack the enemy at night, Alexander refused, as he "could not steal a victory." MANNERS SOME acute men are disagreeable in conversing and discussing, owing to their ill manners. Tom has read enough, Addison remarks, to make him very impertinent. At his receptions, President Washington did not shake hands, but simply bowed. Calthrop mentions some one who excelled in the art of polite discourtesy. Mr. Glad- stone declared that Queen Victoria's accession had abol- ished swearing. 268 LITERARY BREVITIES MARRIAGE IT was an ancient custom with the Samnites, to select every year ten of the most virtuous young women and ten of the most virtuous young men, and then to marry the most excellent young man to the most excellent young woman, the second to the second, and so on in order. When twenty-six years old, Poe married Virginia Clemm, a girl of thirteen. Napoleon was never done lamenting his Austrian marriage with Marie Louise, as it was the cause of his making war with Russia. The married woman, Balzac declares, is a slave whom one must know how to set upon a throne. The same author remarks, that newly married people are terrible destroyers. Napoleon and Josephine were married in accordance with civil contract; upon Josephine's entreaty, however, two nights before the Coronation, they were privately married by the Pope. La Bruyere thought the most fortunate husband found reason to regret his condition at least once in twenty-four hours. Plato would not have a man marry before thirty; Aristotle would make thirty-five the minimum limit. R. L. Stevenson notes, that all Shakspeare's male characters, with the single exception of Falstaff, are marrying men. It is related of a certain widow, that in her haste to marry again she fanned her late husband's grave to have it dry more quickly. Dies in single blessedness, is Shakspeare's. There is that in a wedding that appeals to universal sympathy, observes Bulwer. Theodore Parker calls a happy wedlock a long falling in love. The viaticum of married life, says Balzac, lies in these words — resignation and self-sacrifice. Napoleon was seven years younger than Josephine. Lowell thinks there is no ballast like a wife and children. In 46 B.C., Cicero contracted a second marriage with Publilia, a rich young girl of fourteen. It MEMORY 269 is a remark of Landor, that marriage ends pupilage, and royalty ends friendship. All the apostles except St. John were married men. Some one wittily remarks, that a happy marriage is one where the wife is blind and the husband deaf. It is a declaration of Goethe, that marriage is the beginning and end of culture; that it makes the savage mild, and that the most cultivated has no better opportunity for displaying his gentleness. Marriage is the end of man, is the double entendre of one of Balzac's characters. Any girl, however inexperienced, knows how to accept an offer, but it requires a vast deal of address to refuse one, is anonymous. A woman is more likely to marry at the end of a year of her widowhood than after several years. MEMORY MY memory, states Rousseau, serves me in propor- tion to my dependence upon it; the moment I have committed to paper that with which it was charged, it forsakes me forever. As I recall them (early associa- tions), says Thackeray, the roses bloom again, and the nightingales sing by the calm Bendemeer. Shelley never forgot what he once learned. A certain Boddington had a poor memory, and attended Feinaigle's lectures on the art of memory; when he had finished the course, some one asked Boddington the lecturer's name; for his life, Bod- dington could not tell. All science is but remembrance, is a dictum of Plato. It was the thought of de Ranee, that it would be a very sweet thing to be so entirely forgotten, that we lived only in the memory of friends. 270 LITERARY BREVITIES MIRACLES IT is Pascal's definition of a miracle, that it is an effect . which exceeds the natural force of the means employed. St. Augustine declared, that were it not for the miracles, he should not be a Christian. It was an assertion of Pascal, that any man can do what Mahomet did, for he wrought no miracles, he was confirmed by no prophesy; but no man can do what Jesus Christ did. The same says again, that the fulfilment of prophesy is an enduring miracle. With every leaf a miracle, says Walt Whitman. Miracles do not happen every day, says Ibsen. MISFORTUNE IT is a remark of Goldsmith, that disappointed love makes the misery of youth; disappointed ambition that of manhood; and successless avarice that of age. Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows, is Shak- speare's. She grew disconsolate, observes Sienkiewicz, and sought, as women do usually, solace in suffering. Misfortunes never come single, is the observation of some one. Though misfortune is supposed to develop virtues, Balzac thinks it only does so in virtuous people. The following is Schiller's, — "With light heart the poor fisher moors his boat, And watches from the shore the lofty ship Stranded amid the storm." Resignation, says Balzac, is the last stage of man's mis- fortune. Three removes are as bad as a fire, is Franklin's philosophy. According to Addison's view, a misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer. MODESTY 271 MODESTY IN the theatrical audiences of Shakspeare's time the women wore masks, so that there seemed less im- propriety in their listening to the coarse passages of the drama. A man so modest as to be unwilling to look at the naked truth. Chesterfield declares modesty to be the only sure bait when you angle for praise. Blush like a black dog, is Shakspeare's way of expressing absurdity. Balzac asserts, that doctors never talk medicine, real nobles never talk ancestors, men of genius never talk of their own works. It was remarked a propos of Marlborough's modesty, that the only things he had forgotten were his own deeds, and the only things he remembered were the misfortunes of others. Plato, in all his dialogues, is said to have mentioned himself but twice; he makes Socrates, his master, his chief figure. Balzac calls modesty the con- science of the body. Whittier left it in his will, that his gravestone should be of the same size as the others of his family. The poet Gray refused the laureateship. Wash- ington, unlike Cromwell, Frederick the Great, and Napo- leon, never talked about himself. Emerson accepted the office of class poet after seven others had declined it. Says Wordsworth, — "Strongest minds Are often those of whom the noisy world Hear least." Neither Goldsmith's nor Racine's library contained at the time of his death any of his own works. Bulwer declares, that the alliteration of modesty and merit is pretty enough, but where merit is great, the veil of that modesty you admire never disguises its extent from its possessor. Mrs. Craigie thinks the truest modesty is three parts pride. The following is from Richardson, — "There are points so 272 LITERARY BREVITIES delicate, my dear Mrs. Norton, that it is a degree of dishonor to have a vindication of them appear to be necessary." At the surrender of Quebec, Pitt modestly declined all demonstrations of praise in his behalf, saying, "The more a man is versed in business, the more he finds the hand of Providence everywhere. " Newton modestly called his great work the Principia, "the beginning." Sainte-Beuve informs us, that La Rochefoucauld had not the courage to speak before five or six persons. MORALITY IT is the belief of T. W. Higginson, that the masses of the people are unquestionably more critical as to morality than an exclusive circle. As a shell, man is murmurous with morality, says George Moore. It is a notion of Tolstoy, that an evil action may not be repeated; but that evil thoughts generate all evil actions. Bacon tried to excuse his wrong doing upon the ground that there are vitia temporis as well as vitia hominis. MOTIVES JOHN Randolph declares, that there are men who do right from wrong motives. Coleridge thinks the man makes the motive, and not motive the man. MUSIC BALZAC is authority for the statement, that the national air of England — "God save the King" — was composed by Lulli for the chorus of either "Athalie" or "Esther." A discord ending in a concord sets off the harmony, says Bacon. Joubert likened himself to an MUSIC 273 iEolian harp, that can sound a few beautiful notes but cannot play an air. Voltaire, when asked if he liked music, replied, "It doe^ not precisely annoy me." The sarcasms aimed at poor music have seldom excelled in happy expression the following from "Gil Bias," — "I hate loud music; be so good as to let me be ruined pianissimo." The minor poets wrote the great national songs, and the minor musicians fitted them to music. Luther played both the guitar and the flute. "Annie Rooney" and "Down went McGinty" are both said to be taken from Bach. Mendelssohn never refused to play when requested. The braying of an ass is declared to be the only unmusical sound in nature. Addison thought the poetry of the Vene- tian opera "exquisitely ill." The greatest discords occur, Carl Schurz has observed, when several persons at the same time play the same tune in different keys. Jenny land's children were not particularly musical. Abbe Galiani, when asked his opinion of Mile. Arnould's sing- ing, replied, "It is the finest asthma I ever heard." Ger- many is said to be the most musical country in the world. James T. Field said he would rather be a fine tenor singer than anything else in the world. Let those who would keep young hearts asunder beware of music, is Washington Irving's advice. Landor mentions the fact, that men, like birds, never sing well in hot climates. Walter Raleigh speaks of the futility of trying to render a symphony on a flute. Dr. Johnson once meditated learning to play the fiddle, but gave it up on being told that to fiddle well one must play all the time. A good tenor is generally a man of much human frailty. All music jars, says Cervantes, when the soul is out of tune. Some one characterizes a particular absurdity as much out of keeping as a trumpet accompaniment to "John Anderson, my Jo." Socrates played upon the lyre. Her tragic tone was thunder set to 274 LITERARY BREVITIES music, is Charles Reade's. Balzac asserts, that music alone has power to make us live within ourselves. The same author states, that a musician's genius has a mental eclipse when he is surrounded by ignorant persons. This music, declares Thackeray, would make an alderman dance. Pythagoras conceived the idea of the music of the spheres. Balzac tells of a singer whose fame was ever prospective. It has been noted, that music is the only fine art that appeals to the lower animals as well as to man. The finer the music, remarks Balzac, the less ignorant persons like it. It is the same tune, observes Fielding, whether you play it in a higher or a lower key. Singest of summer in full-throated ease, is from Keats. iEschy- lus was a musical composer, and Sophocles a practical musician. Aristotle assures us, that music was an essen- tial element of the Greek tragedy. In all music, thinks Balzac, there lies, besides the idea of the composer, the soul of the performer who, by a privilege peculiar to this art alone, can lend purpose and poetry to phrases of no intrinsic value. Each of the seven musical notes is called by a first syllable of one of the first seven lines of the Catholic hymn to St. John. Scientific music, as Poe sees it, has no claim to intrinsic excellence — it is fit for scien- tific ears only. When the nightingale pipes up, it is be- lieved, the other birds stop singing. Shakspeare to the contrary notwithstanding, the nightingale does sometimes sing by day. The best musicians, declares Miinsterberg, cannot play a symphony on a fiddle and a drum. That surfeit of harmony which my wife calls a concert, is Balzac's. Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter, says Keats. Voices diverse make up sweet melodies, says Dante. Shakspeare asserts, that Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews. How sour sweet music is! is remarked by one of Shakspeare's characters. MUSIC 275 Henry T. Finck observes, that Liszt was the first pianist who showed that an artist who plays without his notes is much more eloquent than one who uses them, just as an extempore speaker is more eloquent than one who reads a lecture. Leigh Hunt calls a piano a piece of furniture with a soul in it. The following is Shelley's, — "Our sincerest laughter with some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought." In 1853, Ole Bull took Adelina Patti, the great soprano, on his concert tours. Haydn has been called the father of classic music. Sweet birds antheming the morn, is one of the delicate touches of Keats. Married to immortal verse, is Milton's. Beethoven thought words a less capable medium of proclamation for feelings than music. Bee- thoven said, "Handel is the greatest musical composer that ever lived; I would Uncover my head and kneel on his grave." The following is from Victor Hugo, — "For music sweet can pour Into the soul a harmony divine, That like a heavenly choir wakes in the heart A thousand voices." Madame De Stael believes, that of all arts none save music can be purely religious. What a stupid thing, Sir Arthur Helps observes, it is, that we are not all taught music! Why learn the language of many portions of mankind, and leave the universal language of feelings, as you would call it, unlearned? It is related, that Jacques Boileau, when performing the service in the Sainte-Chapelle, sang with both sides of the choir, and always out of time and tune. Hamerton is of the opinion, that Ole Bull arrived at his most wonderful effects less by manual practise than medi- tation; that he practised less and thought more than most violinists. While music is in the world, God abides among 276 LITERARY BREVITIES us, thinks Benson. Your music so enchanted me, writes James Howell, that my soul was ready to come out at my ears. It is H. W. Dresser's observation, that the musical note, however pure, has no meaning for us unless it is sounded in unison with others. Fielding thought it a wonder how so many fiddlers could play at one time with- out putting one another out. According to Landor, Mahomet detested singing. Of all the arts, says Hamer- ton, music is the only one that the blessed are believed to practise in a future state. Are there not people who destroy the sight of singing birds to make them sing better? When people are alone, remarks Victor Hugo, they do not speak, they sing. When Landor heard the song of the nightingale, he neglected the naturalist. George Moore declares the organ to be a Protestant in- strument. Montaigne, when a child, used to be awakened from sleep by music. MYTHOLOGY ANTAEUS was ten times as strong when he touched the earth. iEsculapius was killed by a thunderbolt from Jove for cheating Pluto of his due number of subjects by means of his very singular medical skill. Achilles was allowed to love Helen after death among the shades. When the crew of the Argo failed to launch her, by the intimation of the figure-head Orpheus played upon the harp and the ship glided into the water through the in- fluence of music. Lynceus, of the Argonautic crew, could see through a grindstone. Apollo found himself unwisely indulgent in allowing Phaethon to drive his team. From the hoof -beat of Pegasus sprang the fountain of the Muses, called Hippocrene. Plato mentions the river of unmind- fulness, the water of which no vessel could hold. Juno is NAMES 277 the only goddess, according to Balzac, to whom mythologi- cal tradition does not give a lover. Pindar calls the Muses "the black-haired nine." Heine thinks it a very decent thought of Homer to give the much-loved Venus a husband. NAMES OWING to the part Clay took in connection with the Missouri Compromise, he was called the "Great Pacificator"; he was also called the "Great Commoner." The word "pagan" means one who lives in a village. Isocrates was called "The old man eloquent," as was John Quincy Adams in recent times. Sir Philip Sidney's father spelled his name Sydney. The word "nihilism" was coined by Turgenieff. John Fiske's real name was Edmund Fiske Green. At Vienna they called Gustavus Adolphus, in derision, the "Snow King." Elizabeth called Sir Philip Sidney " my Philip," in distinc- tion from Philip II of Spain. The soldiers of Cutts, at the retaking of Namur, called him "Old Salamander," a term also applied to Farragut at Mobile Bay. Thomas Hart Benton, who was a strenuous hard-money man, was called "Old Bullion." Walter Scott was familiarly called "Old Peveril." Poe calls Dr. Johnson "that scurrilous Ursa Major." The name "Gotham," applied by Irving to New York City, was taken from an English village. "Merry" England originally meant "famous" England. Addison tells us, that the Emperor of Persia denominates himself the "Sun of Glory and the Nutmeg of Delight." Some one states, that nicknames are durable things. The Jacobins took their name from the old Jacobin convent where their first meetings were held. Hawthorne calls the people who came over in the Mayflower "Puritan- Pilgrims." 278 LITERARY BREVITIES NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS THE elder Cato noted the fact, that the Romans were like a flock of sheep; that a man can better drive a flock of them than one of them. From 1661 to 1700 France could be called the first state in the world. It has been observed, that Hebraism, as against Hellenism, sets doing above knowing. The Ashantee wished to be painted white. The beauty of Greece, Lowell declares, was that the people had very few ideas, and those simple and great. Mungo Park says an African will sooner forgive a blow than a term of reproach applied to his ancestors. Boeotia, often a synonym for stupidity, produced Pindar, Epami- nondas, and Plutarch. Some one asserts, that the Greeks were entirely ignorant of the pleasures of betting. What- ever is obscure, says Bulwer, is not French. Sir Arthur Helps thinks the Spartans would never have grown into a great people. Leigh Hunt observes, that most nations have their good as well as bad features; that in Vanity Fair there are many booths. No Frenchman, asserts Barrett Wendell, can ever hate a foreigner so intensely as he hates Frenchmen of other opinions than his own. I suppose, remarks Benson, there is no nation in the world which has so little capacity for doing nothing gracefully, and enjoying it, as the English. Napoleon's foreign origin, a ground of offense with the French, was of service to him in his Italian campaigns. Richter observes, that Providence has given to the English the empire of the sea; to the French that of the land; and to the Ger- mans that of the air. A nation's possessions, according to the view of Sir Arthur Helps, are the great words that have been said in it, the great deeds that have been done in it, the great buildings and the great works that have been made in it. America is the only land in the world NATURE 279 where caste has never had a foothold, nor has left a trace; but this, be it said, is true of the white race alone; said by Frederic Harrison. It is stated, that the Romans had big ears. In the time of Charles I, a royal salute was fired with the guns shotted. NATURE NATURE is commanded by obeying her, says Bacon. The following is Mrs. Browning's, — "Earth's crammed with heaven And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes." Seneca declares, that nature has made nothing hard that is necessary. This is from Tasso, — "The golden sun rose from the silver wave, And with his beams enameled every green." It commonly rains when it was wet enough before, is an observation of Luther. The hills are clothed with pines sun-proof, is Matthew Arnold's. Nihil humani a me alienum puto, is by Terence. Coleridge thinks the ant the most intellectual, and the dog the most affectionate, of irrational creatures. Aristotle believed in the eternity, not the creation, of matter; while Herbert Spencer de- clares both to be unthinkable. Naturam expelles furca, tamen usque recurret, says Horace. Gold is always near the surface. George Eliot alludes to one whose length of limb seemed to have used up his mind. It has been re- marked by some one, that French human nature is nature elevated and adorned by art. Emerson reminds us, that the frost which kills the harvest of a year saves the harvests of a century, by killing the weevil or the locust. Chaucer loved flowers so intensely that he could spend the whole 280 LITERARY BREVITIES day gazing alone on the daisy. It is preposterous to argue the naturalness of a miracle. Nature, remarks Thackeray, has written a letter of credit on some men's faces, which is honored almost wherever presented. Pliny tells us, that carrier pigeons took messages to Mutina, when besieged by Antony. It is claimed, that at least one- fourth part of a country ought to be covered with trees in clumps. Thoreau reminds us, that heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. The albatross is said to sleep on the wing. It is a notion of Dr. Holmes, that Emerson contemplates himself as belonging to nature, while Wordsworth feels as if nature belonged to him. Balzac would have us know, that a pearl is the result of disease. Nature will get the better of dignity, is Fielding's. Now that October has come, would we, if it were in our power to effect the change, have summer repeat itself rather than have winter return as usual? The Swiss lakes are mostly without islands. Until comparatively recent years no one thought the natural scenery of Scotland beautiful. Natural scenery did not please Scott unless it had local legend. Landor observes, that the clouds that intercept the heavens from us come not from the heavens but from the earth. The depth of shadow, says Dowden, is proportioned to the brightness of the light. Steele often lamented, that we cannot close our ears as we can our eyes. The banks are overflowne when stopped is the flood, is Spenser's. The regiment of giants (mountain peaks), says Amiel, sleeps while the stars keep sentinel. Some fancy that the presence of gold is indicated by the prevalence of spiders. To the mind of Scott, it is a hundred times more easy to inflict pain than to create pleasure. Cole- ridge has discovered, that brute animals have the vowel sounds; that man only can utter consonants. We touch heaven, remarks Carlyle, when we lay our hands on a NATURE 281 human body. Amiel would woo the birds to build in his beard, as they do in the headgear of some cathedral saint. Blind men never blush. It is an observation of Addison, that the finest wines often have the taste of the soil. The lower animals have special natural powers as impossible to us as our intellectual powers are to them. The Bush- men of South Africa are the shortest of mankind. Emer- son, in his poetical way, says the wounded oyster mends his shell with pearl. Balzac asks why nature is so prodi- gal of the color green. The same remarks, that all the great men whose portraits he has seen are shortnecked. These lines are by Burns, — "For nature smiles as sweet, I ween, To shepherds as to Kings." The rocks bordering the ocean are protected from the wearing of the waves by the sea-weed. To know good liquor, Scott insists, you should drink where the vine grows. Hawthorne wondered if it rained in Paradise; and if so, thought how unpleasant it must have been for naked Eve. It used to be thought, that the fragrance of flowers robbed hunting dogs of their scent. C. C. Everett observes, that it is only when the earthquake is understood to have its place in the orderly movement of the world, that God is found also in that. And every flower that sad embroidery wears, is Milton's. Diodorus Siculus speaks of a blossom whose odor kills. Dixon H. Lewis of Alabama was of huge size; the newspaper men at Wash- ington used to say that he had to be surveyed for a pair of trousers. The following is from Schiller, — "The morning, see, has on the mountain tops Kindled her glowing beacon." Homerus eadem aliis sopitu quietest, is a line from Lucretius. It is remarked by Schiller, that matter is not that which 282 LITERARY BREVITIES produces consciousness, but that which limits it, and con- fines its intensity within certain bounds. For my own part, declares William James, so far as logic goes, I am willing that every leaf that ever grew in the world's forests and rustled in the breeze should become immortal. Na- poleon's height was exactly five feet two and one-half inches, French measure. Sed iumenta vocant, et sol in- clined; eundum est, is Juvenal's line. De nilo quoniam fieri nil posse videmus, is one from Lucretius. When a stranger asked to see Wordsworth's study, the maid said, "This is master's library, but he studies in the fields.'* Colts reared on dry stony places have hard hoofs, which need no protection. How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature, says Shakspeare. The apple is thought to be a native of Italy. The following is by Sir Charles Vaughan, "There's not a spring Or leaf but hath his morning hymn." Democritus asserted the eternity of matter. The water- fall shook more vehemently his white beard, is Heine's way of saying it. It is Plutarch's belief, that of all the senses, that of hearing soonest disturbs the mind, agitates the passions, and unhinges the understanding. Shakspeare y ' "When I have plucked the rose, I cannot give it vital growth again." Pascal describes the universe as an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere. Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep, is Shak- speare's. This is Tennyson's, — "The blind wave feeling round his long sea-hall In silence." No man, remarks Pascal, thinks himself unhappy in having but one mouth, but any man is unhappy if he have but NATURE 283 one eye. The same author calls rivers roads which move and carry us whither we wish to go. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, is Shakspeare's. Sweet flowers are slow, and weeds make haste, is his also. Quid ? tu ignoras arbor es magnas diu crescere, una hora extirpari ? Quintus Curtius asks. We are told that the wild goose never lays a tame egg. The following verses are by Matthew Arnold, — "Loveliness, magic, and grace, They are here! they are set in the world, They abide; and the finest of souls Hath not thrilled by them all, Nor the dullest been dead to them quite. The poet who sings them may die, But they are immortal and live, For they are the life of the world. Will ye not learn it and know, When ye learn that the poet is dead, That the singer was less than the themes?" Weak plants, says Landor, perish in the sunshine. The weather which favors the vines spoils the meadows, illustrates the principle of protection. It is a dictum of Bacon, that a man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds. George Sand has observed, that you must always talk to dogs if you want them to be intelligent. Give a crust to a surly dog and he will bite you, some one has said. Man is born crying, lives laughing, and dies groaning, is the remark of some one. Crothers finds it hard to draw the line between stimulants and narcotics. Balzac claims that something better than England is everywhere to be found; whereas it is excessively difficult to find the charms of France outside France. Burns has this, — "For nature made her what she is, And ne'er made sic anither." 284 LITERARY BREVITIES This from Wordsworth, — "And 'tis my faith that every flower Enjoys the air it breathes." Milton speaks of minute drops from off the eaves. These lines are Shakspeare's, — "For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds; Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds." Henry James says a dozen little mountains in the distance were peeping over each other's shoulders. Balzac says a sleeping dog has eyes and ears for his master. Thoreau thought church spires deformed the landscape. With his poetical fancy, Ole Bull could hear the delicate bluebell ring. One never goes twice on the same stream, Mrs. Craigie reminds us. Says Schiller, — "No crooked paths to virtue lead, 111 fruit has ever sprung from evil seed." Hazlitt makes laughter and tears the characteristic signs of humanity. Thoreau said if he ever got to heaven, he would expect to find the pine trees there, and still above him. It is the Russian's notion, that the higher blood a horse has, the thinner is his skin. Benvenuto Cellini says diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires never grow old, and that these four are precious metals. D'Al- embert remarks, that there are two things that can reach the top of a pyramid, the eagle and the reptile. Benson is inclined to think Gray to have been the first man who deliberately cultivated a delight in those monstrous cre- ations of God we call mountains. The same asserts, that there are very few people who are highly developed in one faculty who do not pay for it in some other part of their natures. Walter Raleigh declares, that in early civilizations men are never really familiar with nature — NATURE 285 she is too dangerous. In the evolution of the animal world, declares H. W. Dresser, organs which remain unused ultimately disappear. From Ovid we have, — Video meliora proboque, Deteriora sequor. An elaborate and pompous sunset, is De Quincey's de- scription. During the last years of his life, Southey's hair which had become almost white, grew perceptibly darker. Bacon discovered that lukewarm water poured into boiling water cools it. Dr. Johnson spoke of moun- tains with disgust. In describing the winter at Dresden, Motley says, "We have had an absence of warmth rather than the presence of cold." Wherever I pass my sum- mers, says Hawthorne with much impatience, let me spend my winters in a cold country. Writes Milton, — "The first-born bloom of spring, Nipt with the lagging rear of winter's frost." Victor Hugo thought the bee did not atone, by its honey- making, for its sting. The rose smells sweeter after it is plucked, remarks James Howell. The bee and the spider suck, the one honey, the other poison, out of the same flower. It is a statement of James Howell, that the purer the wheat is, the more subject it is to tares, and the most precious gems to flaws. In 1356 the whole basin of the Rhine was shaken by an earthquake, which destroyed over eighty castles. Pope declares, that he does not, like some people, make his roses and daffodils bloom in the same season, nor cause his nightingales to sing in November. Henry James refers to one who was like a man trying, but unable, to sneeze. Amiel likens our life to a soap-bubble hanging from a reed. Who wrote this, — 286 LITERARY BREVITIES " Like that which kept the heart of Eden green Before the useful trouble of the rain " ? We don't want a rose to sing, Thackeray says. Voltaire reminds us, that while the bile makes men choleric and sick, without bile they could not live. Luther observes, that when the wolf comes into the sheep-fold, he eats not any until he kills all. Heine points out, that nature, like a great poet, produces the greatest effects with the fewest materials. The same calls scents the feelings of flowers. To E. P. Whipple, Thoreau seemed to be a man who had experienced Nature as other men are said to have experienced religion. Unoculus inter caecos, is anony- mous. Mirabeau, who was twenty-eight years old at the beginning of his imprisonment, was two or three inches taller when it ended, as is stated by P. F. Willert. Here the nightingale sang the birth of the rose, is Wil- liam Beckford's. The young birds peep as the old birds pipe, is anonymous. The cuttle-fish looks exactly like the rock to which it clings. We all have five fingers, remarks William James, not because four or six would not do just as well, but merely because the first vertebrate above the fishes happened to have that number. Where there is much light, says Goethe, the shades are deepest. Hawthorne speaks of seeing the doves perched in full ses- sion. From Tasso this, — "The silver-mantled morning fresh appeared, With roses crowned, and buskined high with gold." G. H. Lewes thinks a thousand Ciceros insignificant in comparison with a law of nature. Mention is made of wind so strong that one might lean his back against it like a post. Heine thinks an ape, the nearer it resembles man, the more ridiculous it becomes. It is Shakspeare who says no one ever bathed himself twice in the same NATURE 287 stream. An active, wide-awake man was sorry that na- ture compels us to sleep at all. George Meredith declares our souls to be hideously subject to the conditions of our animal nature. Nature never did betray the heart that loved her, says Wordsworth. Petrarch, who has been called the first modern man, is said to have been the first who ever climbed a mountain out of love of nature. The crow is everywhere equally black. The sympathetic bear, in brushing a fly from his master's nose, smashed the nasal organ to disfigurement. It has been observed, that nightingales don't live on songs. The throat of Jehan Cotard was so dry that he was never known to spit. A great river never murmurs, remarks Sir Thomas More. Ice has been called the "fifth element." It is not easy for a man standing on the seashore to perceive the exact moment when the tide begins to ebb. Time and tide will no man bide, is the familiar jingle. Hippocrates thought inspiration possible nowhere but on a mountain top. Victor Hugo states, that insects exist which are so strangely disinterested that they sting knowing that to sting is to die. The bite of an insect, Dumas reminds us, can kill a giant, if the insect be venomous. The homesick exile in the Vale of Tempe asked, "Where is the sea?" We enjoy as much in drinking, some one has observed, as the thirst is great. Shakspeare has the following, — "And almost thence my nature is imbrued To what it works in, like the dyer's hand." Momus found fault with the make of a man, because he has not a window in his breast. It is a remark of some one, that whatever the lion eats turns lion. 288 LITERARY BREVITIES ODD SAYINGS SWIFT speaks of finding a needle in a pottle of hay. The same refers to something as likely to happen when the ducks have eaten up all the dirt. It was nuts to them, is Swift's. We are told of a boy who was turned out of school for truancy, and who promised his mother, if she would not whip him, that he would "experience religion." There is only a sheet of paper between Hell and Coatbridge, is anonymous. The old colored woman thought the Almighty "faithful but tedious." A young man was described as "resting like fury." What the dickens seems to have been originally what the "diggins." In Dr. Geddes's version of the Bible the passover is called the "skipover." All men are born free and unequal, is Grant Allen's version. Blushed inch-thick, is Balzac's expression. A life of strenuous idleness, is anonymous. The Russians say an experienced man is one who has eaten bread from more than one oven. Emerson thinks Hell has its infinite sat- isfactions. Don't be frightened; keep your hair on, is anonymous. Equus qui pellis et ossa fuit, seems to be old enough. Blanche Howard speaks of something that would make a corpse laugh. Van Dyke calls Walt Whit- man the "long-lined tumultuous one." Some one, threatening to use a certain man up, declared that the largest pieces left of him would be his ears. In the six- teenth century, to cudgel a man was to give him a wooden crown. Unlooked for, like the devil at prayers, is anony- mous. Napoleon has put the dot over the i of my life, is a remark of Goethe. It seems to be Swift who first de- clared, that angling is always to be considered a stick and a string, with a fly at one end and a fool at the other. Don't forget me to Appleton and Curtis, wrote Lowell. OPPORTUNITY 289 Leigh Hunt thought it a great compliment to call a ras- cal a dog. The same describes an old lady as elaborately hideous. It was Napoleon who spoke of washing dirty linen at home. The sauce is worth more than the fish, is anonymous. Aristotle defines the ludicrous as harmless incongruity. It is in "Gil Bias" that we read about " stripping a man to his birth-day suit." Dumas declares nothing to be so probable as improbability. Inopem me copia fecit, is Ovid's. Certum est, quia impossibile est, is by Tertullian. B OPPORTUNITY ALZAC thinks that for buildings, as for men, posi- tion is everything. The following is from Schiller, — "Turn to good account The moment which presents itself but once." England were not England, Bulwer asserts, if a man must rest where his father began. According to Benson, Dante assigns the lowest place in the lower world to those who refuse a great opportunity. Personality, says Balzac, demands its appropriate atmosphere to bring out its values. Goethe urges the importance of not wasting a propitious mood. No moment in one's life comes twice, Balzac declares. Opportunity makes the thief, is anony- mous. I know, said some one to E. P. Whipple, your idea of a public library, if you had a million dollars. "If I had a million dollars," answered Whipple, "I should not have the idea." Euripides says darkness turns run- aways into heroes. Plutarch represents Hercules as victorious only when standing on the defensive, and wait- ing to be attacked. God does not give us results, de- clares William Black, but only opportunities. I have 290 LITERARY BREVITIES the great advantage, says Goethe, of being born at a time when the greatest events which agitate the world occurred, and such have continued to occur during my long life; so that I am a living witness of the Seven Years' War, of the separation of America from England, of the French Revolution, and the whole Napoleon era. OPPOSITION IT is an observation of John W. Chadwick, that, given good courage, nothing so hurries an advancing col- umn as a brisk fire in front. Small things stand often in the way of important ones, anonymous. Praise ener- vates, flattery poisons, says Howells; but a smart brisk snub is always rather wholesome. PAIN PAINFUL sensations increase, declares H. W. Dresser, when we dwell upon them. Balzac says pain is a touch that throws light on life. Suffering, asserts Dresser, is intended to make man think. The same again calls pain beneficent, the most beneficent of all nature's arrangements, the best evidence of the unceasing presence of a resident restorative power. Suf- fering exalts all things, Balzac thinks. Singing like a nightingale with his breast against a thorn, author un- known. Some one has the fortitude to assert, that life properly lived is worth living, and would be even if a malevolent fate had decreed that one should suffer, say, the pangs of toothache two hours out of every twenty- four. There is always a pain attached to every pleas- ure, Victor Hugo would have us believe. PARALLELISMS AND SAYINGS 291 PARALLELISMS AND FAMILIAR SAYINGS ROBERT BURTON assures us, that as good horses draw in carts as in coaches. Montaigne has a beautiful simile on the way an author collects materials from various sources and moulds them by his genius into what is essentially new; just as bees cull sweets from many flowers, but themselves after make honey, which is all and purely their own, and no more thyme and marjoram. Addison describes a letter as neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring. A word too much is soon said, is from the French. There is no such remedy against fear as fun, is from the same source. No man loves the messenger of ill, found in Sophocles, is Shak- speare's "Bad news infects the teller." There is such a thing as a man's not knowing enough even to quote. She smiled, writes Henry James, in a way that made any other way of smiling than that seem a shallow grimace. Out of sight, out of mind, is found in Thomas a Kempis. Tell it to the marines, is a hint from Horace's Credat Judaeus Apella. Make haste slowly, is found as early as the time of Augustus Caesar. The burnt child dreads the fire, is in Ben Jonson, but probably much older. John Quincy Adams was called "that old man eloquent," a hint taken from Milton's line, "Killed with report that old man eloquent." No four legs will carry a dog for- ever, proverb. The longest lane will have a turning, proverb. There are beautiful prayers in Homer, that have much of the Old Testament spirit of invocation. Roman literature is to a great extent plagiarized. The " Ars Poetica " of Horace is said to contain but few pre- cepts which may not be met with in Aristotle. Ovid complained of the early writers for having stolen all the good things. It is Cervantes who reminds us, that there 292 LITERARY BREVITIES is nothing cheaper than civil words. The same author says that, whether the pitcher hits the stone, or the stone hits the pitcher, it is bad for the pitcher. They desire the fish but fear the water, old saying. It is the same to him who wears a shoe, as if the whole world were covered with leather, author unknown. If you wish to be power- ful, observes Home Tooke, pretend to be powerful. George Eliot remarks, that the smell of the bread is sweet to everyone but the baker. You may start a tiger while beating the jungle for a deer, is anonymous. Emerson aptly uses a Scripture incident in declaring, that the lead- ing question of the times absorbs all other questions, just as Aaron's serpent swallowed the other serpents; but Pope had been there before him, as the following shows, — And hence one master passion in the breast, Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest." Virtue is its own reward, is traced back through various English authors as far as Izaak Walton, yet fifteen hun- dred years before Izaak Walton Seneca had said, "The conscience of well-doing is an ample reward." The Scripture phrase, gathering grapes from thorns, is, in Cervantes, expecting pears from an elm tree. There are several well-known sayings intended to show that excess is wasteful and ridiculous; such are Shakspeare's "gilding refined gold," and "bringing fagots to bright- burning Troy"; and Cervantes's "throwing water into the sea"; and the trite "carrying coals to Newcastle"; a common source for all these is found in Horace, who intended at first to write his poems in the Greek language, but the image of Quirinus appeared to him after mid- night, when dreams are true, reminding him that such a course would be as foolish as "carrying timber into a wood." Lucian contains the phrase "too hot and too PARALLELISMS AND SAYINGS 293 heavy." At the battle of Thermopylae, when the Per- sians boasted that their army was so numerous that its arrows would conceal the sun, Leonidas replied, "So much the better, we shall then fight in the shade"; par- allel to this is the reply of Alaric to the Roman Ambas- sadors, "The thicker the hay, the easier it is mown." How often has the inspiring influence of a great crisis caused the man of momentous responsibility to give voice to a sentiment as great as the occasion. The victory of the fourteen hundred half -armed Swiss headed by Win- kelried, who grasped an armful of Austrian spears, only repeated a similar charge by desperate Persians at Pla- taea. The development theory of modern evolutionists is not wholly new, but has been faintly foreshadowed in the writings of earlier times; Butler, in " Hudibras," alludes to the hindlegs of the whale, which the scientists declare to exist as rudimentary and obsolete. It is interesting to study man's varied efforts in search of the origin of the material universe; Job's "Can'st thou find out God?" though an answer has been sought by millions of inquir- ing souls since his time, is still the supreme question of the speculatist. Herbert Spencer, the great exponent of objective reasoning, declares atheism to be illogical and insane; he demands that there must be an abso- lute, though unknowable, reality behind phenomena; yet declares it equally unthinkable, that God should have created matter out of nothing, and that matter should have existed from eternity. The Sioux Indians thought the Great Spirit made everything except the wild rice; but that the wild rice came by chance. The familiar saying, "The remedy is worse than the disease," is found, substantially, in Juvenal's sixteenth satire. Two hundred years ago, instead of ejaculating "Chestnut" after the recital of anything too antiquated, it was 294 LITERARY BREVITIES the proper thing to remind the speaker that his joke had passed through several editions. As showing how peren- nial is the allusion to the superior virtue of primitive times over our own times, Aristophanes refers to "the good old times," when an Athenian seaman knew nothing more than to call for his barley cake and cry "Yo-ho." Calamity is man's true touchstone, is but a reproduc- tion of Seneca's "Fire proves gold and misery proves brave men." It was the physicians of the highest stand- ing, we are told, that most opposed Harvey; so it was the most experienced navigators that opposed the views of Columbus. The world's history teaches nothing with greater uniformity than that happiness is but an incident of life, and that nothing can assure it. The wealthy man of recent times who, as an experiment, tried to make a poor woman happy by providing her with every neces- sity and luxury she desired, but who found her still unhappy owing to the frequent screams of a neighbor's guinea hen, was attempting nothing new. An old Latin writer tells of a discontented city barber who longed for a life of competency as a farmer. Some one gave him a farm with a complete equipment; the newly-installed farmer soon found his position so full of care and perplex- ity, with the ravages of winds, rains, destructive insects, and unruly beasts, that he was unhappy beyond endur- ance; in despair, he rose at midnight, mounted his mule, and returned to the city. Livy tells of a mother who died of joy at the safe return of her son after the battle of Lake Trasimenus; De Quincey, in his "Revolt of the Tartars," relates a similar incident. In "Hudibras" we read, — "He who complies against his will Is of his own opinion still." The same thought is in Aristophanes. Gladstone, like Walter Scott, was a valiant tree-feller. Browning says, i PARALLELISMS AND SAYINGS 295 "No rose without its thorn," and "So the thorn comes to the aid of and completes the rose," both being suggested by Milton's "without thorn the rose." We call "a spade a spade"; Lucian calls "a tub a tub." We have it on the authority of Robert Burton, that we can say nothing but what hath been said; the composition and method is ours only, and shows the scholar. Sophocles, long be- fore Pope, said "To err is human." Mirabeau, as well as Daniel O'Connell, used a friend's speech successfully in the Assembly, after his friend had made a failure with it. The " Comedy of Errors " is borrowed from Plau- tus, the only instance where Shakspeare has taken a plot from the ancients. "Damn with faint praise" is in Pope. Butler's morn turning from black to red, like a boiled lobster, is taken from Rabelais. Seneca said total abstinence was easier than moderation long before Dr. Johnson said it. Epictetus warned philosophers not to walk as if they had swallowed a poker. Did Sir Hum- phrey Davy, or Bishop Butler, originate the saying, "The greater the circle of light the greater the circle of dark- ness"? Henry Ward Beecher was wont to ridicule his poor mathematical abilities, by declaring that the more times he counted his money the less he knew how much he had; but he was not alone in this infelicity; Leigh Hunt never succeeded in mastering the multiplication table; Emerson said he could not multiply seven by twelve with impunity; it was wittily said of Burke, that he was as unable to add up a tailor's bill as Sheridan was to pay it. Goethe cautions us not to expect all qualities com- bined in one man; the same thought is in Homer. When the Spaniards burned their ships behind them in Mex- ico, they were imitating the Greek oligarchs at Corcyra four hundred years before Christ. Browning's "What books are in the desert," is an echo of Shakspeare's 296 LITERARY BREVITIES "books in the running brooks." "Abusing the King's English " seems to have its origin in " Merry Wives." It is a familiar saying, that it is always the unexpected that happens; the Greek has it, "The fawn slays the lion." Hawthorne seldom quotes or steals from another author; but has the following in common with several others, "One success pays for a hundred disappointments." The rude practical joke of pulling a chair away from a man who is about to sit down, and causing him to sprawl on the floor, is recorded somewhere in Plato. The mod- ern "takes the cake" is, in Burton, "carries the bell away." Tennyson's "Theirs not to reason why" is Shakspeare's "My commission is not to reason of the deed, but do it." Calhoun's "masterly inactivity" is Horace's strenua inertia. It is not uncommon, when a diminutive youth is observed wearing a large head cov- ering, for some one to give utterance to the stale witti- cism, "Where is that hat going with that boy?" This is one of Cicero's old jokes; once when he saw Dolabella, a short man, wearing a long sword at his side, he play- fully asked, "Who has tied that little fellow to his sword?" A certain Mr. Hamilton said of Dr. Johnson, after a fox-chase, "Why, Johnson rides as well, for aught I see, as the most illiterate fellow in England"; quite in line with this is what the critic Sartoris said of Robert Browning, "I like Browning, he isn't at all like a d — d literary man." From Job we have, "Oh that mine adver- sary had written a book"; also, "one in a thousand." When the frightened boatmen were rowing him across the Adriatic, the foremost man of all this world quieted them with, "You carry Caesar"; something parallel to this is related of William Ruf us of England, who ordered the mariners to set sail regardless of the storm, assuring them that no king had ever been known to be drowned. PARALLELISMS AND SAYINGS 297 Bacon quotes Lucretius and Thackeray quotes both, in "watching the waves tossing in the wind, and the struggles of others at sea." The expression "bang up" is found in Scott. Johnson's " Vanity of Human Wishes " is thought by some to be superior to the "Tenth Satire" of Juvenal, which it imitates. The new-born babe might comprehend it, is in iEschylus. Euripides, twenty cen- turies before Disraeli, originated the saying, that the un- foreseen always comes to pass. Bryant's "Truth crushed to earth shall rise again," seems to be an echo from what Livy calls an old saw, Veritatem laborare nimis saepe, aiunt, exstingui nunquam. In Smollett may be found, — "A fool and his money are soon parted," "too thin," "Charity begins at home," "afraid of his bacon," "room enough to swing a cat," "got in the wrong box," "for love or money," "rule the roast," and "The moon is made of green cheese." That the soul is dyed by the thoughts is the saying of Seneca; but Sophocles had said, "Bad desires corrupt the fairest minds." "Blind as a bat" is in the "Odyssey." Tempering justice with mercy, Mil- ton owes to Shakspeare. Just as Cervantes was driven to the writing of prose by the success of Lope de Vega, so Scott was turned from poetry to prose by the rising fame of Byron; as a fortunate consequence, we have " Don Quixote " and the " Waverley Novels." What evil means acquire is seldom kept, is an observation of Sopho- cles; which suggests, "What is got over the devil's back, etc." Webster's "sea of upturned faces" is found in Scott. Priests are only men, Browning remarks; bishops are made out of men, says Bulwer. Cervantes compares a translation to the reverse side of tapestry. Charles V, like Diocletian, resigned the crown for the felicity of pri- vate life. The Texan congressman said, "Where was I at?" We find in Browning's poems, "Where did I break 298 LITERARY BREVITIES off at?" How hard it is to forgive those we have injured, in the Spanish proverb runs, "The offender never pardons." Horse of another color, is, with Scott, pears of another tree. The following is from Tasso, — "She thought to strike the iron that was hot; For every action hath its hour of speeding." His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him, is found in Genesis. As old as Adam, is, in the Greek, as old as Iapetus. It is a remark of Sen- eca, that the corruption of the present time is the com- plaint of all time. Johnson's "Hell is paved with good intentions" is found in Herbert's works of a century ear- lier. The Scripture account of the safe passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea is paralleled in the early traditions of Macedonia, a river taking the place of the sea. In Butler's "Hudibras" is found, — "And little quarrels often prove To be but new recruits of love." Sophocles wrote, "Jove is yet in heaven"; and Browning, "God's in his heaven: All's right with the world." In for a penny, in for a pound, appears in "Guy Man- nering." In Lucian appears, "as like as two peas." G. W. Moon seems to be copying Michelangelo in saying that trifles make perfection, though perfection is no trifle. Nan cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum, is from Horace. Pope's "Essay on Man" is but a reproduction of the phi- losophy of Bolingbroke and Leibnitz. Cimmerian dark- ness dates back to Homer. The proverbial disagreement of doctors and the expression, "worth his weight in gold," are both to be found in Plato. Goethe's "There is no pause at perfection," is, in substance, Difficilis in perfecto mora est, found in " Velleius Paterculus." Wasting sweet- PARALLELISMS AND SAYINGS 299 ness on the desert air, is in Lucian. Aristotle says of Homer, "In the image of man created he God." Too much of a good thing, is in Shakspeare. There's no lid so poor but finds its pot, old proverb. Smollett speaks of an excuse that will not hold water. Shakspeare, through the mouth of Polonius, imitates Aristophanes in this, — "Hast thou not seen a cloud, which thou couldst fancy Shaped like a centaur, leopard, wolf or bull?" Ne sutor ultra crepidam, is a saying of Apelles. After us the deluge, was what Madame de Pompadour used to say to Louis XV. It was Sir Humphrey Gilbert who thought we were as near heaven by sea as by land. The motto of Peter the Great was, "I am a learner:" Mon- taigne contains, "The burnt child dreads the fire." Browning this, "You had brained me with a feather." Scott this, "It's ill waiting for dead men's shoon." Shak- speare is said to contain over five hundred quotations, sentiments, or allusions taken from the Bible. Homer says never man knew his own father; compare Shak- speare's "It's a wise father, etc." The golden mean, found in all literatures, is thus in Homer, "Best it is to take the middle way." Virgil's Haec olim meminisse iuvabit is copied from the " Odyssey." Balzac's "Years of suffering cannot outweigh one hour of love," has been, in substance, said by Browning, Tennyson, and many others. Le Sage's character thought it better to be near the church, however far from God. The same Le Sage would "tell the truth by way of variety"; have "the rec- tor and his curate say grace in the same key"; and have "one not carry principle to any dangerous extent." Mon- tesquieu, speaking of the diminutive Republic of San Marino, uses the expression, "tempest in a teacup." Burton would set a candle in the sun. Where the shoe 300 LITERARY BREVITIES pinches is, in the Latin, Nescio ubi soccus urat. Shakspeare calls life a shuttle. Francis I, when taken prisoner by Charles V, sent this message to his mother, "All is lost save honor." It was Louis XIV who said, " I am the state." Milton is copying Virgil's Descensus Averno in what follows, — „ T . ., Long is the way And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light." Plunging oneself up to the neck in water to save oneself from the rain is in imitation of some animals that go into the water to save themselves from getting wet. To love and win, declares Thackeray, is the best thing; to love and lose is the next best. All the following are from Shakspeare: "Delays have dangerous ends"; "I owe her little duty and less love"; "Burn her, hanging is too good"; "I'll bring the head with sorrow to the ground"; "dead as a door nail"; "For both of you are birds of self -same feather"; "The short and the long is"; "bag and baggage"; "crow of the same nest"; "I'll not budge an inch"; "There's small choice in rot- ten apples"; "a little pot and soon hot"; "as fat as butter"; "Tell the truth and shame the devil"; "He hath eaten me out of house and home." Nelson's "A crown or else a glorious tomb" is somewhat like Shak- speare's, "My crown is in my heart, not on my head"; and the same thought is in the "Anabasis." Shakspeare's "neat, not gaudy," was evidently a hint for Pope's, "plain but not sordid; though not splendid, clean." Tennyson's "a sight to make an old man young," is as follows in Shakspeare, — "A withered hermit, five-score winters worn, Might shake off fifty looking in her eyes." In the two foregoing passages, both Tennyson and Shak- speare seem to have before their eyes Homer's picture of PARALLELISMS AND SAYINGS 301 Helen and the old men on the wall of Troy. In "the wife the weaker vessel," Shakspeare has in view a pas- sage from the New Testament. No man is great all the time, asserts Elbert Hubbard. Hawthorne calls patriot- ism a noble weakness. Landor's "Gales that refresh us while they propel us forward," is like something in "Ju- nius." Aristophanes speaks of swallowing Euripides whole, very much as we speak of swallowing the dictionary. With Luther, taking the bull by the horns is taking the goose by the neck. Luther declares, that God suffered David to fall so horribly, lest he should become too haughty. Shakspeare, in his "web of our life," philoso- phizes in a similar way. It is in Aristotle we are told, that one swallow does not make a spring. In Shakspeare's " Measure for Measure," Master Barnardine would not get up to be hanged; Lucian has something like this in his "Dialogues of the Dead," concerning a man who, rather than do some disagreeable thing, would sooner come to life again. Murder will out, is in Chaucer; so is, "to maken virtue of necessite." Art is long and time is fleeting, the familiar line of Longfellow, is, in Chaucer, "The lyfe is short, the craft so long to lerne." Browning contains "cock of the roost," and "rules the roast"; also "to tell cheese from chalk." The usual "piling Ossa above Pelion," is, in Horace, " placing Pelion above the dark Olympus"; while Browning has it, "Ossa piled topping Olym- pus"; see the "Odyssey." Cowper, in his "God made the country, and man made the town," copies the Roman Varro, Divina natura agros, ars humana aedificavit urbes. "Do unto others as they would like to do unto you — and do it first," is an unholy paraphrase of the Golden Rule. Following are a few brevities from Cervantes: "Had a face like any benediction"; "to throw water into the sea"; "spending one's time fishing for mushrooms at the bottom 302 LITERARY BREVITIES of the sea"; "how to catch white ermine "; "While there is life there is hope " ; and "Rome was not built in a day." Samuel Butler tells of a patient who swallowed the written prescription. Some poet, to justify his flight at Cher- onea, wrote, "He who flees may fight again"; which an- other poet paraphrased thus, "The man who flees once will flee again." The fierce orator Labienus was called "Rabienus." Misfortunes never come single, is in " Paul and Virginia." An ass with golden furniture, remarks Cervantes, makes a better figure than a horse with a pack- saddle. As Shakspeare contains all the "old saws" common at his time, so Browning has enshrined in his verse whatever wise and quaint proverbial sayings had accumulated since Shakspeare's time. Browning has, "Life's short, learning hard"; also "Far go, fare worse." It is the belief of La Rochefoucauld, that in the adversity of our best friends we always find something which is not wholly displeasing to us; the same thought is elegantly expressed by iEschylus, — "How hard it is to honor a friend's success without a touch of envy." Wesley's "Cleanliness is next to godliness" is found in Bacon. "The King's English" is Shakspeare's. From Brown- ing we have, to match Tennyson's "better to have loved and lost," the following, — "Once to have loved is no matter for scorning; Love once — e'en love's disappointment endears; A minute's success pays the failures of years." Ben Jonson, speaking of Bacon as an orator, remarks, that the fear of every man was lest he should make an end, which is an accurate translation from the Latin — Nemo non, Mo dicente, timebat ne desineret. Bruce, in having his horse shod backwards, is repeating the experiment Hercules tried with his oxen. In calling PARALLELISMS AND SAYINGS 303 Washington the Father of his country, we are imitating Juvenal's line, Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit. Trouble for their pains, is Browning's. Walter Pater tells us, that by tasting a little we are ascertained of the quality of the whole cask; the same had been said already by others. It is Thomas Warburton who speaks of getting a Roland for an Oliver. Dryden's advice to poets, that they make haste gently, is but the Latin, Festina lente. Going to the dogs, is in Aristophanes. Like a fish out of water, is in Chaucer thus, — "A monk, when he is cloysterless, Is likened to a fische that is waterless." Virgil's "Descensus Averno" is quoted from Ennius. The native Africans match our "out of the frying pan into the fire," with "He fled from the sword and hid in the scabbard." Dr. John Donne's line, "She and compar- isons are odious," is, in Cervantes, "Comparisons of all kinds, whether as to sense, courage, beauty, or rank, are always offensive." Goethe paraphrases the New Testament, in saying that he who lives to save his life is already dead. In the New Testament it is written, "Evil communications corrupt good manners," which Menander said three hundred years before Christ. The injunction against returning evil for evil is found in Plato. Virgil's steering between Scylla and Charybdis, is, in Horace, "The wolf threatens you on this side, the dog on that." Chaucer speaks of "a foul shepherd and clean sheep"; but Boccaccio had enjoined, "Do as we say, not as we do," as if it were possible for the sheep to have more resolution than the shepherd. Pope's familiar hymn, "Vital spark of heavenly flame," is an extended translation of the dying sentiment of the Emperor Ha- drian. Solomon's "Spare the rod and spoil the child," 304 LITERARY BREVITIES is, in the Greek proverb, "The human being who has never had a hiding is uneducated." A recent writer assures us, that a secret is half told when we have told that we have a secret; Goethe says that whoever wishes to keep a secret must hide from us that he possesses one. The beautiful speech of Prospero, in " The Tempest," "The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces," is declared by Dowden to resemble closely something in an earlier drama of the Earl of Sterling; but to take even this bril- liant gem from the measureless treasures of Shakspeare does not impoverish that incomparable poet in the least. It is simply an illustration of the mathematical principle, that taking a finite quantity from infinity does not make infinity less. It's an old proverb, that the wise may be instructed by a fool. Henry James asserts, that while there is no smoke without fire, there may be fire without smoke. Emerson quotes from over eight hundred authors; Dr. Holmes has collected more than three thousand of these quotations. According to the proverb, the older the crab-tree, the more crabs it bears. It was a saying of the Chinese, that they saw with two eyes, the Latins with one, and that all other nations were blind. Shak- speare calls discretion the better part of valor, but Eurip- ides had said, "Discretion is valor." "Thou art the man," is from Second Samuel. "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow-citizens," is the way Light-horse Harry Lee pronounced it. "From the frying pan into the fire, " is, in the ancient Greek, "from the smoke into the fire itself." Wordsworth's "Vast is the circumference of hope" is Pope's "Hope springs eternal in the human breast." Montaigne seems to have been the originator of, "No man is a hero to his valet de chambre"; it is also found in Hegel, Goethe, Carlyle, and Emerson. In "Pilgrim's Progress" is found, PARALLELISMS AND SAYINGS 305 "Every tub must stand on its own bottom." Instead of "hearing a pin drop," George Eliot has, "hearing the flight of a fly." Buckle's remark, that there is no protection against the tyranny of any class but in giving that class very little power, is a thought that is found in Plato's "Laws." Dr. Johnson declares, that we can never refuse to any modern the liberty of borrowing from Homer. Landor imitates Goethe's "High on the sculptured frieze the swallow builds"; so does Longfellow in one of his son- nets preluding the " Divine Comedy." Whately remarks, that an old man rises early because he had gone to bed early; and that he goes to bed early because he had risen early. Who was the first to say, "The remedy is worse than the disease"? it is in Bacon, and can be traced as far as Juvenal's "Sixteenth Satire." "If gold rust, what should iron do," may be safely called Chaucer's own. Tasso's "Lowest falls attend the highest flights," is echoed in Shakspeare. As parallel to Young's "Blessings brighten as they take their flight," Browning writes, — "'Tis only when they spring to heaven that angels Reveal themselves to you; they sit all day Beside you, and lie down at night by you, Who care not for their presence, muse or sleep, And all at once they leave you, and you know them." G. W. Moon calls a weak defense a strong admission. A fast, declares Montaigne, is as good as a feast to him who loves fish. Balzac observes, that worms are in the finest fruits, insects attack the loveliest flowers. Sea widens and the coast is clear, is Browning's. As good luck would have it, is Shakspeare's. Quod non opus est asse carum est, is Cicero's. How blind must he be, ob- serves Cervantes, who cannot see through a sieve. To the epigram, "Never ask for public offices and never refuse them," Franklin adds, "Never resign them." 306 LITERARY BREVITIES Franklin observes, that the worst wheel in the cart makes the most noise. In German, to be courteous is to lie, according to Goethe. Kallikrates, after the battle of Mithymna, is an early example of magnanimity; the Black Prince is a later example. Making fritters of English, is Shakspeare's. Whoever, in "Richard II," is inclined to be disgusted with John of Gaunt's play upon words in alluding to his own name, should be reminded that the same kind of a pun occurs in the "Ajax" of Sophocles. It is Cervantes who would not have one talk halters in the house of the hanged. "I've lived in clover," is in Browning; so also is, "easy as an old shoe." John Wesley's "Cleanliness is next to godliness" which is also found in Bacon, is as follows in the Koran, "Cleanliness is one half the faith." "A living dog is better than a dead lion," found in Ecclesiastes, La Fontaine paraphrases thus, "Better a beggar alive than a dead emperor." "Hon- esty is the best policy," made familiar by Cervantes and Franklin, is twenty-three centuries old, as witness this in Jowett's translation of Thucydides, "The true path of expediency is the path of right." "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," is, in Cervantes, "A sparrow in the hand is worth a bustard on the wing." In Madame de Sevigne's writings we find the familiar proverb, "Fortune is always on the side of the largest battalions"; Tacitus says, "The gods are on the side of the stronger," a senti- ment which Napoleon denied in the assertion, that Provi- dence is always on the side of the last reserve. There is an old Latin proverb to the effect, that it is not everyone who can go to Corinth; it is repeated by Horace, Rabelais, George Sand, and others. Fielding intimates that a certain man may go to heaven when the sun shines on a rainy day; this is akin to paying on the Greek calends. Tennyson is copying Moliere in the line, "Marriages are made in PARALLELISMS AND SAYINGS 30? heaven." Goldsmith and Fielding both contain "Hand- some is that handsome does." There is real literary force in the illiterate preacher's extemporaneous prayer, "Though we speak nonsense, God will pick out the mean- ing of it." Even Tupper has one thing that is immortal, "A babe in a house is a well-spring of pleasure." There are examples of literary parallelism which are no doubt coincidences; "Pilgrim's Progress" begins very much like the " Divine Comedy "; yet there was in Bunyan's time no English translation of Dante; as another instance in point, "Rasselas" and "Candide" are so similar in theme and structure, that if they had not appeared at the same time, their likeness, it has been claimed, would have stamped the later production as plagiarized. Dr. Johnson asserted, that everything Hume had advanced against Christian- ity had passed through his own mind long before Hume wrote. Even the originality of Sterne's "God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb " has been questioned by some. Robert Burns holds a conspicuous place among original writers; "Sweet Afton" and "John Anderson my Jo" have no borrowed look. Thackeray must have been the first to say, "Bravery never goes out of fashion." In Thomas a Kempis appears, "Of two evils the less is al- ways to be chosen"; this is a reflection from Cicero and Horace. "Death loves a shining mark," seems to be Young's. • "Wherever Macgregor sits is the head of the table," is substantially in Cervantes. "While there is life there is hope," comes from as far as Theocritus. In "Hudibras" we have, — "For those that fly may fight again, Which he can never do that's slain," a thought clearly in Demosthenes. Talleyrand's witti- cism, to the effect that language was given to conceal 308 LITERARY BREVITIES one's thoughts, is suggested by a passage in Job. A council of war never fights, was, in substance, said by Bacon. The figure of falling water wearing a stone, found in Lucretius, dates from the Greek bucolic poet Bion of the third century B.C. Better late than never, is of Greek origin, and two thousand years old. Tennyson, in the line, "He makes no friend who never made a foe," imi- tates Young's line, "The man that makes a character makes foes." The plain unvarnished tale of "Othello" in reality belongs to iEschylus. Shakspeare's "Lions make leopards tame," is as follows in iEschylus, — "But dogs, they say, yield to the mastering wolves." Wordsworth's "The child is father to the man," is, in Milton, thus, — "The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day." "Light is the task when many share the toil," found in the "Iliad," suggests, "Many hands make light work." "All is not gold that glitters," found in Chaucer, Spenser, Shakspeare, and Dryden, appears still earlier in the French of the fourteenth century. "Dying in the last ditch" is a saying of William of Orange of the seventeenth century. Dr. Johnson's "Hell is paved with good inten- tions," is found in the writings of Francis de Sales. "Old men for council, young men for war," is Hesiod's "Deeds belong to youth; council to the middle aged; prayer to old men." Shakspeare's "Out, brief candle," may have been suggested by Seneca's "We are kindled and put out." Pope's "Men are children of a larger growth," is, in Seneca, "Men are but children, though they have gray hairs." Herbert Spencer is appropriating the thought of Seneca, when he lays down the rule in his treatise on education, that we should never give a child PARALLELISMS AND SAYINGS 309 anything it cries for. Murder will out, would seem to make its first appearance in Chaucer. Horace says, "Get money; if you can, honestly; if not, get it in some other way"; Shakspeare has the same idea. "I have played the fool," is in First Samuel; "Smote him under the fifth rib," is in Second Samuel. "Delays are dan- gerous," is in Dryden, Shakspeare, and Sophocles. Young's exquisite line, "Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," is, in Sophocles, as follows, — "Sleep, thou patron of mankind, Great physician of the mind." Longfellow has been severely criticised for his line, "Art is long and time is fleeting," because it is unquestionably taken from Goethe; the expression is, in fact, found in as many as three places in the great German's writings; the truth is, the thought is not even original with Geothe; in the fourth century B.C., Hippocrates wrote, "Life is short and art long." When a third-rate poet steals, he is called a plagiarist; when a first-rate, the appropria- tion is regarded as a royal prerogative. The rose, observes Burke, is even more beautiful before it is full blown. Our historian Bancroft claims kinship with the classics in declaring that the brightest lightning is kindled in the darkest clouds. Who would not like to know the wag who agreed to pay his debts on the "Greek Kalends"? or who was the first to say, "Good wine needs no bush"? The street gamin who says, "I can't see it in that light," is quoting from Fielding, who himself had borrowed it. Matthew Arnold's "sweetness and light" belongs to Swift. In Second Samuel are to be found, — "Take the thing to his heart," and "There shall not one hair of the son fall to the earth." It was Sir Edward Coke who called a man's house his castle. In Second Kings are 310 LITERARY BREVITIES found the following, "If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing"; "like the driving of Jehu"; and "Both his ears shall tingle." In Nehemiah is found, "Gathered themselves together as one man." In Job are the follow- ing,— "Doth Job fear God for nought?" "All that a man hath will he give for his life"; "Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward"; "My days are swifter than a post"; and "Canst thou by searching find out God?" In Shakspeare are the following, — "You have the start of me"; "I know a trick worth two of that"; "Everything is left at six and seven"; "Thou hast the odds of me"; "The word is short, but not so short as sweet"; and "A rotten case abides no handling." Titus, the Roman emperor, kept a diary of his actions, and when at night he found that he had performed nothing mem- orable, he would exclaim, Amici, diem perdidimus. To dine in the morning implies that one has no other dinner than his breakfast. "Have you fifty friends? — it is not enough. — Have you one enemy? — it is too much," Italian proverb. It has been remarked by some one, that he who scrubs the head of an ass wastes his soap. Give a dog a bad name and hang him, is everybody's. No one knows so well where the shoe pinches as he who wears it, proverb. According to Racine, he who laughs at morn will cry before night. It was the laughing phi- losopher, Democritus, who referred to the round man stuck in the three-cornered hole. As paraphrased by Sir John Finett of the time of James I, "Where the best man sits is the head of the table." Carlyle says, "crow to pluck" instead of "bone to pick." Huxley puts it, — "liars, d — d liars, and experts." Darwin says, "Like the Yankees do"; must we all eventually come to use the word "like" in this manner? The Russians say a man was born in his shirt. It was Sir James Mackintosh PATIENCE 311 who charged the British House of Commons with "wise and masterly inactivity." Talk of the Devil, says the proverb, and his horns appear. Evil communications corrupt good manners, found in the writings of St. Paul, was said by Menander, who took it from Euripides. PASSION PASSION and vengeance treading to their goal, remarks Bulwer, can make an Elsyium a Tartarus. There are few passions, says Balzac, which will not turn base in the long run. George Meredith asserts, that the passions are all more or less intermittent. PATIENCE ACCORDING to Rabelais, he that has patience may compass anything. Time and I, says the Spanish proverb, against any two. Boccaccio tells us, that one stroke never fells an oak. Who best can suffer, states Milton, best can do. We are informed, that Bal- zac would often spend an hour in burnishing a sentence. It is a Gascon saying, that everything comes to him who knows how to wait. Francis Parkman would have us believe, that patient industry need never doubt its reward. It is Shakspeare's admonition, that he that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding. What is long in coming, observes Lessing, is good when it comes. This from Shakspeare, — "She sat like patience on a monument, Smiling at grief." Dumas affirms, that the greatest, the strongest, the most skilful, is he who knows how to wait. Dr. Young de- 312 LITERARY BREVITIES clares, that patience and resignation are the pillars of human peace on earth. The fisherman, found at the same place morning and evening, was asked if he had had any success; "No," he replied, "but in the course of the day I have had a glorious nibble." Nullum est maius malum quam non posse ferre malum, says Seneca. Who hath endured the whole, observes Spenser, can bear each part. The longest lane will have a turning, is anony- mous. The following is from iEschylus, — "And like a ship with all its anchors out, I must abide the storm." Some one thinks silence the best nurse of strength. When in trouble and gloom, the happy application of some one advises, "Cast four anchors out of the stern and wait for day." PATRIOTISM FROM Horace we have, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. In the nearly equal fight between the British Boxer and the American Enterprise, an officer of the latter, despairing of the engagement, proposed hauling down the Stars and Stripes, when a common sailor threatened to cut him in pieces if he did it. It is recorded by J. A. Symonds, that Michelangelo went on modeling and hewing through the sack of Rome, the fall of Florence, the decline of Italian freedom, with scarce a word to prove the anguish of his patriot soul. The English sailor, says Emerson, times his oar to "God save the King." When it was suspected that the com- mander of a United States revenue cutter was about to turn his vessel over to the Confederates, General Dix telegraphed his famous order, "If any man attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." PATRIOTISM 313 General Robert E. Lee's son served as a private in the Confederate army. It was a law of Athens, that the children of patriots slain in battle should be supported at public expense. The American Continental Congress had in it one traitor, Galloway. Who can presume, asks Goethe, to analyze that inexplicable feeling which binds the person born in a mountain country to his native hills? It is a remark of Turgenieff, that any man's country can get along without him, but no man can get along without his country. Sir Philip Sidney said he would rather be charged with lack of wisdom than of patriotism. Time's noblest empire is the last, is Bishop Berkeley's. Pure hearts, remarks Balzac, have a fatherland in heaven. The Delphic oracle sometimes lost influence with the Greeks by being unpatriotic, as happened in the time of the Persian wars. Dante declares, that in the last circle of Hell those " who have betrayed their native country are punished by being entombed in a sea of everlasting ice." A Scotchman of poetic turn presented some verses to Lord Halifax for his approval; the verses contained this line, "The southern blast was so bitter cold"; said Hal- ifax, "You mean the northern blast." "Faith and truth," said the Scotchman, "and I did mean the north- ern, and did e'en write it, my laird, but I thought i' my conscience it ill beseemed me to leave an immortal reflax- ion on ma ain mither country." The Athenians buried their dead at Marathon on the field in recognition of their pre-eminent valor. The colors taken at Blenheim and hanging in Westminster Hall, rendered it impossible for the schoolboy, who had seen them, to sleep. Sir Roger de Coverley never allowed anyone to row in his barge who had not lost an arm or a leg in the Queen's service. Our celebrations and holidays have much to do with war, — evidently in recognition of the fact that the 314 LITERARY BREVITIES greatest human sacrifice is the offering of one's life. Mrs. Spencer, the mother-in-law of James Russell Lowell, retained so much of the Tory spirit of her father, that she used to close the shutters and put crape on her knocker every Fourth of July. Who in the world, Tacitus asks, would live in this wretched place, unless it were his native land? When the Guerriere was captured, there were found on board ten American sailors who had refused to fight. There is no misery, states Euripides, that doth surpass the loss of fatherland. There is an age, Balzac affirms, when a man's fairest mistress is his country. Balzac speaks of one whose memories of her dead chil- dren were like the headstones on a battlefield, which you can scarcely see for the flowers that have sprung up about them since. Hawthorne thought New England as big a lump of earth as he could hold in his heart. Balzac insists that there are very few Englishmen who will not maintain, that gold and silver are better in England than elsewhere. Bismarck's two sons, one seventeen and the other twenty-one years of age, served as privates in the campaign that resulted in the surrender of the French at Sedan; no favoritism was shown them in the way of promotion. When Lincoln made his last speech, on the evening of April 3, he called upon the band to play "Dixie," "now our property as it has been fairly cap- tured." It has been asserted, that of all sentiments patriotism is perhaps one of those least amenable to rea- son. John Wesley's wife, for a while, secretly, was in sympathy with the exiled king. Hawthorne thinks it remarkable that so many of the ablest orators in the British parliament were favorable to America at the time of our Revolution. Sainte-Beuve states, that the cour- age which undertakes wise and just things for the public good is a special gift of God. It is remarked by Victor PERFECTION 315 Hugo, that the man who fights against his own country- is never a hero. Louis XI thought there was no perfume to match the scent of a dead traitor. All countries are a wise man's home, says Samuel Butler. Loyalty is, in the English, declares Emerson, a sub-religion. A cer- tain patriot was declared to be more loyal than the king. During the war between Japan and China, men of the former nation were known to kill themselves on being refused the opportunity to do military service. To Les- sing, patriotism seemed at best to be a heroic weakness, of which he willingly disembarrassed himself. Kipling would never argue with a man who abused his own coun- try. My life is grafted on the fate of Rome, is a line from Addison. Burke called patriotism the cheap de- fense of nations. PERFECTION IF we had nothing to pardon or to be pardoned, Landor remarks, we might appear more perfect than we are. It is an observation of St. Augustine, that the true per- fection of a man is to find out his own imperfections. Seneca asserts, that every man has his weak side. The following is Browning's, — "Nothing mars Work, else praiseworthy, like a bodily flaw I' the worker." Aristotle compares a good man to a cube, which is the emblem of perfection. Beaconsfield liked a man who could do only one thing, but did that well. Much yet remains unsung, is anonymous. 316 LITERARY BREVITIES PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS MANY historic personages have been made ill by roses, even painted ones. Ellen Terry said it was never any pleasure to Irving to see the acting of other artists. George Sand observed of a certain one, that he was dull, like all handsome men. He is so natural that everyone calls him affected, anonymous. No general, we are informed, ever required so little sleep as Julius Caesar. Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death, is Pope's. Rembrandt declared, that while at work he would not give audience to the greatest monarch on earth. Macaulay said of Horace Walpole, "The conformation of his mind was such, that whatever was little seemed to him great, and whatever was great seemed to him little." Motley writes concerning Macaulay, — "He has exactly that kind of face and figure which by no possibility would be selected, out of even a very small number of persons, as those of a remarkable personage; his conversation is the perfection of the commonplace." The height of Charles Sumner was six feet four. Napoleon never liked to be called Bonaparte, preferring Napoleon. Napoleon could never learn to dance. Scott, Byron, and Talleyrand were all club-footed. Dante had a te- nacious memory and was fond of music. Mad Anthony Wayne preferred the bayonet to the musket, because it is always loaded. Demosthenes liked walking alone. The elder Pliny always took excerpts from the books he read. When Garfield was nearing his end, a friend said to him, "Every American feels the deepest sympathy for you." "Sympathy with/ 9 said Garfield. Balzac, like Goethe, detested tobacco; he never carried with him money or a watch. Goethe was an almost oppressively handsome man. Hazlitt remarks, that Bentham listens PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 317 to nothing but facts. Rienzi, Cromwell, and Richelieu were all easily moved to tears. Franklin and Lincoln were alike, in that something was always putting them in mind of a story. Cardinal Newman had an extraordi- nary gift for remembering faces and names. Macaulay could never see that there are two sides to a question; he was not athletic, and was wont to walk the street read- ing a book. Byron could not endure seeing women eat. Like Isaac Newton, Scott needed a great deal of sleep. Scott did not like Dante; he refused to ride or drive on Sunday, believing that the dumb animals needed a seventh day of rest. Scott disliked walking through beau- tiful natural scenery in company with botanists and geol- ogists. Jefferson strenuously opposed dueling; he called himself a farmer, hated cities, and discouraged manufac- tures. Locke, when a boy, was not good at games, and was unpopular at school. From nature and the force of habit, Johnson, at some time or other, said harsh things about everybody, Garrick possibly being an excep- tion. Every one, says R. L. Stevenson, sees life in his own way. A stammering man is rarely a worthless one. Whatever I do, declares Landor, I must do in the open air or in the silence of the night. Tom Tyers once said to Johnson, "You are like a ghost; you never speak till you are spoken to." Napoleon loved old coats and old hats, evidently thinking that an actively working brain is impatient of the pressure of a strange head covering. Alexander never learned to swim. Julius Caesar used to scratch his head with one finger. Heine never smoked. St. Bernard, after journeying all day by Lake Geneva, was asked how he enjoyed the lake. "Lake," he replied, "what lake?" Gladstone was a great walker; he objected to riding in a coach, because he could not read when travel- ing in one. What the nation likes in Palmerston is his 318 LITERARY BREVITIES "you be-d — dness," remarked by some one. Disraeli says Socrates did not blush to play with children. Curse me, said Richardson, if I can bear to look at myself in the glass. Homer's heroes, with the possible exception of Ulysses, were esteemed for their bodily strength and beauty. Goethe thinks determination and perseverance are the things most deserving of honor and respect in man. Alexander and Bonaparte were of the same stat- ure. Landor calls George Washington the greatest hero in the noble galaxy; and says concerning him, — "He had a large hand, which is an excellent sign; assassins have small hands; Napoleon had a small hand." Says Bismarck, — "One can afford to be gruff only to one's friends, being convinced that they won't take it ill; how much sharper, for instance, one is with one's own wife than with other ladies." Washington and Lincoln, the two all-round greatest Americans, were physically big men. He is one of those rare men who, after we have met them, make us think of them again, anonymous. Bulwer thinks every man has his favorite sin. Carlyle describes a certain duke as having a face consisting of much nose. Gibbon asserts, that it is the first aim of the reformer to prevent any future reformation. Do you recollect whether Byron's right or left foot was the de- formed one? asks Hawthorne. We are told, that no one ever saw Emerson run. Dr. Johnson has been charged with an inadequate appreciation of cleanliness. We are told of a man so pious that he would not cough on Sunday. Balzac alludes to a man who, like many another genius, disliked the art in which he excelled. Observes Wordsworth, "You always went from Burke with your mind filled; from Fox with your feelings excited; and from Pitt with wonder at his having the power to make the worse appear the better reason." According to Ju- PERSONAL INFLUENCE 319 nius, it is the middle compound character which is alone vulnerable, — the man who, without firmness enough to avoid a dishonorable action, has feeling enough to be ashamed of it. Haydon remarks, that Nelson had the power, which all great men have, of making others in his society forget their own inferiority; that no one in his presence lost his self-respect. Madame de Stael, who had met and talked with Coleridge, was asked how she liked him; to which interrogatory she replied, "For a monologue, excellent; but as to dialogue — good heavens!" Mrs. Siddons could act Lady Macbeth twenty nights, and vary her performance each night. Lorenzo de' Medici was wholly wanting of the sense of smell. Dean Swift did not hesitate to play cards for money. Swift was said to have the singular knack of putting his worst foot forward. The same declared, that he wrote so plaguy little he could not see it himself. PERSONAL INFLUENCE IT was Cobden's faculty, that he could learn something from everybody, observes McCarthy. A young girl said of her over-good aunt, "Upon my word, she's enough to make anyone wicked." Learn how to live by studying the lives of others, emulating their virtues and shunning their faults. Dumas asserts, that a man who had talked ten minutes with Cardinal Richelieu was no longer the same man. When the Abbot throws the dice, says Luther, the whole convent will play. Parva saepe scintilla contempta magnum excitavit incendium, is from Curtius. A beautiful life, declares Balzac, is more power- ful than the strongest argument. Man, says Disraeli, is mimetic; we repeat without thought the opinions of some third person, who has adopted them without inquiry. 320 LITERARY BREVITIES We are warned, that it destroys one's nerves to be ami- able every day to the same human being. The studious man's example, notwithstanding his seclusion, is provo- cative of studiousness in all who know him. An amiable clergyman of high character and exemplary life, preaches to more than those who attend his church. Fielding calls a good man a standing lesson to all his acquaintances. When Thurlow Weed expressed to Lincoln a fear that the latter was making a mistake in putting into his cab- inet four former Democrats as against three Whigs, "You seem to forget," said Lincoln, "that I expect to be there." It is remarked by Swift, that it is not the shepherd, but the sheep with the bell, which the flock follows. Bad examples sometimes produce the reverse of themselves. The danger of association with coarse people, it has been said, is that we may fall into their ways to protect our- selves. PHILOSOPHY TW. HIGGINSON describes the Concord Summer School of Philosophy as plenty of summer, some- thing of philosophy, and very little school. , Schopenhauer thought that of all possible worlds, that which exists is the worst; Leibnitz, on the other hand, thought it the best possible. Aristotle observes, that a carpenter and a rhetorician examine a right angle with different views. It was Plato's belief, that God and matter have existed from all eternity. Those philosophers were called Cynics who, like Diogenes, rather barked than declaimed against the vices and manners of their age. According to Amiel, the philosopher addresses himself to a few rare minds. Put trust in ideas, says Emerson, and not in circumstances; it is the ground we do not tread upon that supports us. Balzac does not wish to contradict philosophers and legis- PHILOSOPHY 321 lators, for they are fully able to contradict themselves. Aristotle denied the existence of innate ideas. The study of philosophy, thinks George Sand, destroys prejudice. Justin McCarthy observes sarcastically, that the bulk of a population is not made up of moral philosophers. Hume asserts, that the most refined and philosophic sects are constantly the most intolerant. There is no absurdity so great, as Cicero thinks, that it may not be spoken by some one of the philosophers. Cicero confessed that, although he had translated Plato's "Timaeus," he could never under- stand that mysterious dialogue. It is a pithy remark of the pedagogical writer, John Adams, that no work on philosophy is complete without a preliminary refutation of Locke, and an up-to-date sneer at Spencer. It has been well said, that psychology is no more bound to begin by telling what mind is, than physics is obliged to start by settling the vexed question as to what matter is. Emerson declares, that the notions of the nature of God which Socrates entertained were infinitely more correct and adequate than those of any other philosopher before him whose opinions have come down to us. Emerson, in speaking of the idealism which denies the existence of matter, asks, "What difference does it make, whether Orion is up there in heaven, or some god paints the image in the firmament of the soul?" Wundt states, that when we are tasting we are smelling at the same time. On the same authority we are informed, that Plato was the first among the Greeks to separate mind from body. Landor observes, that we may receive so much light as not to see; and so much philosophy as to be worse than foolish. Heine says the serpent, six thousand years before Hegel's birth, promulgated the whole Hegelian philosophy. It was a saying of Seneca, that Plato dignified philosophy, not by his birth, but by his goodness. May Sinclair speaks 322 LITERARY BREVITIES of certain fellows who come up from Oxford with wet towels round their heads to keep the metaphysics in. J. W. Chadwick declares the essential principle of transcen- dentalism to be — that there are elements in knowledge which transcend experience. Madame Roland thought it better to be acquainted with the writings of a philosopher than his person. It is an observation of W. W. Story, that vengeance outlasts friendship, and sorrow cuts deeper than joy. Coleridge's system of philosophy makes the senses out of the mind; Locke's makes the mind out of the senses. We know we are free, and there's an end on't, says Dr. Johnson. It is the belief of Huxley, that no induction, however broad its basis, can confer certainty. Only one absolute certainty is possible to man, namely, that at any given moment the feeling which he has exists, that all other so-called certainties are beliefs of greater or less intensity. It is in philosophy as in love, Landor remarks, the more we have of it and the less we talk about it the better. It was a part of Bishop Butler's doctrine, that probability is the guide of life. Schelling thought the philosophy of Fichte was like lightning; that it appeared only for a moment, but it kindled a fire which will burn forever. Birrell thinks the world is often wiser than any philosopher. Bishop Berkeley's celebrated doctrine is, that apart from a conscious mind nothing has any real existence in or of itself. "Endure and abstain" was the key-note of the later stoicism of Epictetus. According to E. J. Payne, the sum total of rational metaphysics has been held to consist in but two propositions; the first, which is involved in the Cogito, ergo sum, of Descartes, may be expressed as, "Here I am"; the second as, "I did not put myself here." PITY 323 PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS WASHINGTON'S height was six feet two; his hands and feet were of enormous size. Lincoln's height was over six feet three. The Carlyles all had big heads. Webster and Clay each wore a 7f hat. Emerson wore a small hat, but his head was two stories high. PITY MATTHEW HALE, when he found himself inclined to pity a criminal, did not allow himself to forget that there was likewise a pity due the country. Landor remarks, that the voice of a beggar has often more effect upon us than his distress. Heine has noticed that when one gets soundly thrashed in Germany, he can always count on the pity of the multitude. Balzac asserts, that for some natures pity is the deadliest of insults. Lessing accounts him the best man who feels pity most readily and most abundantly. When the vestals in ancient Rome met on their way a malefactor being led to death, they had the right to pardon him, and the poor wretch was allowed to live. When Wurmser surrendered at Mantua, Napoleon, being unwilling to witness the humiliation of his defeated foe, absented himself from the scene. Pity keeps the wound open, Landor observes. Pindar declares envy to be a nobler fate than to be pitied. Some wag has proposed sweeping the chimney by pulling a live goose down through it; but suggests, if one has too much pity for the goose that he take two ducks. 324 LITERARY BREVITIES PLAGIARISM BROWNING indignantly exclaims, "Tennyson sus- pected of plagiarism! Why, you might as well suspect the Rothschilds of picking pockets." Sir Dudley Worth, of King James II's time, anticipated Adam Smith's " Wealth of Nations " by a century. It is claimed, that the greatest writers have been the greatest borrowers. Cole- ridge is of the opinion, that Tennyson's sonnets have many of the characteristic excellences of Wordsworth and Southey. Goldsmith, at the beginning of his career as an author, determined to commit to paper nothing but what was new; but when he found that what is new is so generally false, he adopted a different course. To Emerson all stealing is comparative; and if you come to absolutes, he asks, pray, who does not steal? Carlyle somewhere remarks, as if speaking his own sentiment, and without using quotation marks, "The rustic sits waiting till the river runs by," flattering his readers in the presumption that they know he is quoting Horace. Landor states, that Racine has stolen many things from Euripides; that he has spoiled most of them and injured all. By the same authority we are told, that when Shakspeare borrows, he is more original than the originals; that he breathes upon dead bodies and brings them to life. Coleridge thinks even the Psalms of David and the Proverbs of Solomon are not altogether original with those sacred writers. iEschylus considered his writings only a few crumbs picked up from the table of Homer. Some one has said, that Plutarch is not robbed by Shakspeare; he is glorified. Emerson believed in quoting and quoted from everybody — oftenest from Plato, Plutarch, and Montaigne. Speak- ing of the immense number of quotations and allusions to be found in Plutarch's writings, Emerson says we quickly PLAGIARISM 325 cease to discriminate between what he quotes and what he invents; that 'tis all Plutarch's by right of eminent domain, and that all property vests in this emperor. Swift boasted that he never was known to steal a hint from any other writer. What shall we say of the "Ars Poetica" of Horace? asks Holmes, which is crowded with lines worn smooth as old sesterces with constant quota- tion. It was a remark of Sir Henry Wotton, that he was but a gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff. Landor's exquisite passage on the shell was copied, and injured, by both Byron and Wordsworth. J. P. Mahaffy states, that every early poet makes free use of earlier materials, and that there is in the history of primitive literature no in- stance when the first great advance was not based on previous work. Poor Richard's wit and wisdom are often not original with Franklin. Lady Montagu admired Pope's "Essay on Criticism" very much at first, because she did not know it was all stolen. Macaulay calls Mont- gomery a prince of plagiarists. The inventor, says Emer- son, only knows how to borrow. Milton has been called the celestial thief. With the ancients plagiarism was not so reprehensible as it is with us. Byron's famous "Apostro- phe to the Ocean" is said to be taken almost word for word from " Corinne." Those who never quote are never quoted, according to Disraeli. Scott, says Woodberry, bor- rowed his metre from Coleridge. Moliere, when accused of plagiarism, said he took his own wherever he found it. Sir Joshua Reynolds thinks happy appropriation is not plagiarism. 326 LITERARY BREVITIES PLEASURE BALZAC speaks of one of those rare moments when delightful sensations make us forget everything. Lessing says joy is talkative. Sweet is pleasure after pain, Dryden remarks. The game of cards known as Boston is said to have been invented by officers of the French army during the time of our Revolution. Shelley says there are two kinds of pleasure, one durable, universal, and perma- nent, the other transitory and particular. Xerxes prom- ised a great reward to the inventor of a new pleasure. Some people take their pleasure sadly. Tolstoy mentions a secret game of children, where one was required to stand in the corner and not think of a white bear. Plato calls pleasure the bait of evils. It is probably true, as some one maintains, that there is no pleasure without pain. Ac- cording to Joubert, nothing dwarfs a man so much as petty pleasures. From Goethe we have the following, — "Every day hath its own sorrow, Gladness cometh with the night." There is a pleasure, Voltaire asserts, in having no pleasure. Chesterfield advises us, that if we observe carefully what displeases or pleases us in others, we shall find that the same thing will displease or please others in us. It is Landor's belief, that the recollection of a thing is frequently more pleasing than the actuality. Where there is much enjoyment, Macaulay thinks there will be some excess. Misce consiliis stultitiam brevem, is the advice of Horace. It is more pleasing to see smoke brighten into flame than flame sinking into smoke, from The Rambler. Dr. John- son thought life had few things better than the excitation produced by being whirled rapidly along in a postchaise. There is a pleasure in being in a vessel beaten about by a PLEASURE 327 storm, provided we are certain it will not founder, says Pascal. The strong through pleasure soonest fall, the weak through smart, is Spenser's philosophy. Balzac suggests, that pain may be only violent pleasure. From Landor we have, — "Our brightest pleasures are reflected pleasures, And they shine sweetest from the cottage walls." In the opinion of Sainte-Beuve, we should enjoy little pleasure were we never to deceive ourselves. He that resisteth pleasure crowneth his life, remarks some one. The great pleasure in life, observes Walter Bagehot, is doing what people say you can't do. There must surely be more pleasure in desiring and not possessing, says Landor, than in possessing and not desiring. George Meredith thinks the purchase of furniture from a flowing purse a cheerful occupation. He that gives pleasure gets it, is a remark of Voltaire. And like a kiss all pleasure dies, is Goethe's. The following lines are by Matthew Arnold, — "For the eye grows filled with gazing And on raptures follow calms." Of linked sweetness long drawn out, is Milton's. Crothers thinks it a rare thing to enjoy the best things of the past. All men, says Dante, are delighted to look back. Bacon observes, that perils commonly are to be paid by pleasure. The following is anonymous, — " — the thing more perfect is, The more it feels of pleasure and of pain." 328 LITERARY BREVITIES POETRY LOWELL states, that the best poetry has been the most savagely attacked. It is Balzac's opinion, that poets are great only because they know how to em- body facts or feelings in living forms. Poe declares, that the origin of poetry lies in a thirst for a wilder beauty than earth affords. The same author holds, that a long poem does not exist; he praises Longfellow's poem beginning, "The day is done and the darkness." As Homer was called "the Poet," so Lesbian Sappho, known as "the tenth Muse," was called "the Poetess." Tennyson ob- serves, that for a hundred people who can sing a song, there are not ten who can read a poem. It heightens the pleasure one has in reading Browning to know that but few can read him. Poe declares, that where verse is pleasant to the ear, it is silly to find fault with it because it refuses to be scanned. It is a statement of R. G. Moulton, that Hebrew literature rests its verse system, not on meter or rhyme, but on the parallelisms of clauses. The same writer says Shakspeare and Sophocles are poets in virtue of their having created a Hamlet or an (Edipus. When Rogers was asked why he did not write a sonnet, he replied, "I never could dance in fetters." iEschylus once with difficulty composed three verses in three days. Tennyson told Browning, that his Muse was as prolific as Hecuba. Campbell characterized the life of Philip Sidney as poetry put into action. Tennyson wrote his dramas, — " Harold," "Becket," and "Mary," after he was sixty-five years old. Tennyson was much addicted to entertaining his guests with reading his poems aloud to them. Chaucer was probably acquainted with the writings of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Colley Cibber was made Poet Laureate in 1730; Ben Jonson had received the same distinction in POETRY 329 1619. Richelieu wished to be thought a great poet. Joubert asserts, that he who has no poetry in himself will find poetry in nothing. England first had a poet laureate in the fifteenth century; the office was made permanent in 1630. Poetry has no golden mean, Landor thinks. Dante called his poem a comedy, because it has a fortunate ending. Balzac calls a baby's feet a language. The East Indian epic, "The Great War of Bharatas," con- tains 110,000 verses, and is the longest poem in existence. This from Tasso, — "The silver-mantled morning fresh appeared, With roses crowned, and buskin' d high with gold." Stedman calls Tennyson's " Idyls of the King " an epic of chivalry. The adjective "Divine" was applied to Dante's great epic by later writers. Wordsworth says poetry comes from the heart and goes to the heart. It is declared by Dr. Holmes, that eight stanzas of four lines each have made the author of "The Burial of Sir John Moore" im- mortal. The cultivation of the poets brings into exercise mental resources and activities which are possible for every one to discover in himself, but which nothing but poetry can satisfactorily call forth. Washington and Jefferson both wrote poetry in a small way. The following is from Goethe, — "From hand to hand the jewel hath been passed; The very gilding is worn off at last." Lowell tells us, that all great poets have been in a certain sense provincial. Emerson's most quoted line is, "He builded better than he knew." Socrates thought quoting from the poets a waste of time, unless they were present to tell us what they meant. God, says Joubert, not willing to bestow truth upon the Greeks, gave them poetry. 330 LITERARY BREVITIES Longfellow calls ballads the gypsy children of song. Macaulay alludes to verses too bad for the bellman. Pope advised old Wycherley to turn his poetry into prose, his rhyming was so bad. The French writer Quinet states, that poetry is the last form of literature to wither under a despotism. Addison gives Milton the first place among English poets. It is Heine's notion, that the history of poets is to be found in their works. As after the storm the flowers are most fragrant, writes Heine, so poesy ever blooms most grandly after a civil war. It is asserted by Heine, that Goethe treats every person that appears in his romances and dramas as if he or she were the leading character; that so it is with Homer, so with Shakspeare; that in the works of all great poets there are, in fact, no minor characters at all. Bryant's faculty seems to have been essentially descriptive, having but little of the narra- tive or dramatic. Bryant began writing verses in his ninth year; he was past eighty when he wrote, "The Flood of Years," a poem to be classed with "Thanatopsis," which latter he wrote at the age of seventeen. The following is from Campbell, — *"Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before." Poetry, says Cardinal Newman, is always the antagonist of science. In the judgment of Sir Isaac Newton, poetry is ingenious nonsense. Browning wrote in more than one hundred different meters. It is very little realized, observes Chesterton, that the vast majority of great poets have written an enormous amount of very bad poetry; Wordsworth is not alone in this. In " The Ring and the Book," Browning studied a single matter from nine differ- ent standpoints. Chesterton thinks Spenser and Keats have a mysterious incapacity for writing bad poetry. POETRY 331 Browning, we are told, stands among the few poets who hardly wrote a line of anything else; he was clever enough to understand his own poetry, but not clever enough to understand his own character. It is claimed by some one, that the Greeks did not rhyme consciously. Montaigne thought the " Georgics " of Virgil the most accomplished work in the whole range of poetry. It is remarked by Crothers, that poetry is like music; that it is fitted, not to define an idea or describe a fact, but to voice a mood. Swift said he had finished his poem "The Shower," all but the beginning. Euripides calls epic poetry hymns that need no harp. Verdi composed the opera "Aida,"for which he was paid $30,000, to be used at Cairo, in celebrat- ing the opening of the Suez Canal. And that sweet city with her dreaming spires, is Matthew Arnold's line. These lines are Milton's, — "Or sweetest Shakspeare, Fancy's child, Warble his native wood-notes wild." These are Wordsworth's, — "Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong; And the most ancient Heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong." It is a remark of Camilla Crosland, that all poetry of the first order must be untranslatable; that it is scarcely possible that any phrase of another language can be quite so happy as that into which the molten thought of genius first flowed. Poetry is the utterance of emotions remem- bered in tranquillity, is Wordsworth's definition. It is Victor Hugo's thought, that an idea steeped in verse be- comes at once more cutting and more glittering; that it is iron turned to steel. When the poet is your host, observes Bulwer, his verses are sure to charm. Some one, with much grace and truth, says Burns made common life 332 LITERARY BREVITIES classical. Poe declares melancholy to be the most legiti- mate of all poetic tones. Sainte-Beuve remarks, that Milton was not, like Shakspeare, the center of a constella- tion. It is the belief of Shelley, that of no other epoch in the history of our species have we records and fragments stamped so visibly with the image of the divinity of man, as of the century which preceded the death of Socrates; that it is poetry alone which has rendered this epoch mem- orable above all others. Again, Shelley says the errors of the great poets have been weighed and found to have been dust in the balance; they have been washed in the mediator and redeemer, time. Epicurus observes, that wise men live poems instead of writing them. Shelley asserts, that poetry redeems from decay the visitations of the divinity of men. It is the opinion of Walter Raleigh, that it is the poets who preserve language from pollution and enrich it with new powers; that they redeem words from degrada- tion by a single noble employment. The same author observes, that it may be doubted whether women are ever sceptical enough to become great poets. Lowell regards Newman's "Lead, Kindly Light," far from poetry. Accord- ing to Shelley, poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds. It is stated anonymously, that the chief of the poet's business is to give utterance to what oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed. It was a remark of Cicero, that ancient Rome produced its statesmen first, and its poets later. It was the view of Aristotle, that the business of poetry is with general truth, that of history with particulars. Milton was the third great epic poet, Dante and Homer being the two preceding him. The poets, according to Leigh Hunt, are the common friends that keep up the intercourse between nature and humanity; how they double every delight for us, he observes, with their imagination and POETRY 333 their music. Professor Woodberry declares Scott to be the most martial of English poets. In a collection of sixty-six hymns selected for the use of the World's Parlia- ment of Religion in 1893, nine were by Whittier, a larger number than from any other poet. It is remarked by Goethe, that Byron's women are good; that this, indeed, is the only vase into which we moderns can pour our ideality; that nothing can be done with the men; that Homer has got all beforehand in Achilles and Ulysses, the bravest and the most prudent. It is maintained by Charles L. Moore, that Coleridge's poetry is the most absolutely original in English literature. Following are Landor's famous lines on the shell, — "But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue; Shake one and it awakens, then apply Its polished lips to your attentive ear, And it remembers its august abodes, And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there." While Shakspeare has numerous "fathers and daughters," he has scarcely any "mothers and daughters;" he has, however, "mothers and sons." The following lines are among the most beautiful of Landor's, — "I never pluck the rose; the violet's head Hath shaken with my breath upon its bank And not reproached me; the ever-sacred cup Of the pure lily hath between my hands Felt safe, unsoiled, nor lost one grain of gold." Lessing insists, that the poet is as far beyond the painter as life is better than a picture. By night in vivid dreams that sweetly lied, is from Camoens. Sulpitia is the only Roman female poet whose verse survives. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, is Shakspeare's. Les- sing thinks that possibly all poetic pictures require a previous knowledge of their subject. Says Landor, — 334 LITERARY BREVITIES "I drank of Avon too, a dangerous draught, That roused within the feverish thirst of song." Pontem indignatus Araxes, is Virgil's. This from Heine, — " Islands in a sea of vapor Float the countless mountain peaks." Lowell calls Carlyle a poet without the gift of song. Ludwig Borne claims, that poetry gives us what Nature denies — a golden age that rusts not, a spring that never fades, a cloudless bliss, and everlasting youth. Great poets, Bulwer asserts, have mostly passed their lives in cities. According to Dr. Johnson, the end of writing is to instruct; the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing. Nearly all the Seven Wise Men of Greece, among whom were Solon and Thales, were poets. Some one has dis- covered that nearly all young poets write old. One of the church fathers called poetry the devil's wine. The poet, says Heine, is like the Almighty Creator in this, that he makes men in his own image. Sidney Lanier thinks Poe did not know enough; that he needed to know a good many more things in order to be a great poet. According to Goethe, a poet paints his characters by describing their actions. The poet, some one observes, perfects creation. Lympha pudica Deum vidit et erubuit, author unknown. The poets in Juvenal's time were accustomed to rehearse their poetry in August, in dog days. Young states, that Milton's blindness lay not in his song. It is a Latin say- ing, that one becomes an orator, but that one is born a poet. There is no profession on earth which requires an attention so early, so long, or so unremitting as that of poetry; and indeed of literary composition in general. POLITENESS 335 POLITENESS YOU are one of those agreeable women with whom either speech or silence is golden, Tolstoy says most felicitously. On a certain day and at a certain hour a favor may be an honor; change the day and hour and it becomes an insult, is anonymous. Once when the Prince of Wales was talking poetry to him, Pope went to sleep. The irreproachable does not reproach, Victor Hugo asserts. Dr. Johnson never but once in his life was known to say, "I beg your pardon." It has been remarked by Mon- taigne, that he had often seen men uncivil by overcivility, and troublesome by their courtesy. Goethe speaks of good society, where it is reckoned unbecoming to dwell on any subject or search it to the bottom. Samuel Rogers informs us, that it is against all etiquette to ask a sovereign about his health. Greville thought Washington Irving lacked refined manners. Lord Charles Hay, at the battle of Fontenoy, said to the French officer, Marquis D'Aute- roche, "Bid your people fire." In a most chivalrous manner the Frenchman replied, "No, Monsieur, we never fire first"; Carlyle finds no good authority for this. It is a breach of Turkish etiquette to ask one's host if he will sell his house. Goldsmith declares that one may affront a gentleman as easily by professing to have met one who is in reality a stranger as by forgetting that he has met one he has really known before. The members of the Aca- demie Frangaise, of whatever rank or social standing, all alike address one another as "Monsieur." Markof, the Russian ambassador, was a match for Napoleon. As they were standing together, Napoleon purposely dropped his handkerchief, expecting Markof to pick it up. But Markof dropped his own beside Napoleon's and then picked it up, leaving Napoleon's where it lay. 336 LITERARY BREVITIES POLITICS FOR a successful foreign minister, Landor thinks three things are requisite on occasion: to speak like an honest man, to act like a dishonest one, and to be indiffer- ent which you are called. The great issues of a republic like ours should be discussed and directly voted upon at least as often as once in four years. Whatever in this country, observes George William Curtis, in its normal condition of peace, is too delicate to discuss, is too danger- ous to tolerate. Monroe, at his second election, received every electoral vote but one. This exception was made, that it might not be said that any man had been unani- mously elected after Washington. Jefferson called his party the Republican party rather than the Democratic, as the latter was too suggestive of the Democratic clubs in Paris. R. B. Sheridan would have it, that there is no more conscience in politics than in gallantry. When we are sufficiently shrewd to be able politicians, observes Balzac, we are usually too old to profit by our experience. The same tells us that a man in politics never complains of treachery. It is Justin McCarthy's notion, that it is a great thing accomplished in political agitation to have found a telling name. The only way to purify a party is to keep it out of power. To reform the manners of the Locrians, Zaleucus made a law, that no free woman should be allowed more than one maid to follow her unless she were drunk. It is the belief of Justin McCarthy, that there can be no practical statesmanship without com- promise. Majorities do not make wrong right, declares Lyman Abbott. Thomas Jefferson was a high protec- tionist. It was a dictum of Alexander Hamilton, that if every Athenian citizen had been a Socrates, every Athe- nian assembly would have been a mob. According to POLITICS 337 Addison, Cato's competitors for the censorship, to secure votes, promised to deal gently with vice. Cato, on the other hand, promised severity. Dr. Johnson thought the first Whig was the Devil. In political institutions, asserts Joubert, nearly everything we call an abuse was once a remedy. Oxford rejected Gladstone, so McCarthy says, the moment he became a liberal. John Adams appointed his relatives to office. The presidential election of 1796 was the last at which the electors were allowed the free exercise of their judgment. We have it on the authority of W. E. Curtis, that during the administration of John Adams an act of Congress authorized him to punish people who wrote or published anything discreditable to the President, by fining them $2,000 and sending them to jail for two years. The demand of the extreme socialists seems to be, not that all should be happy, but that all should be as unhappy as they are. Unless the people use their voting power reasonably often, they naturally lose the consciousness of that power and subside into a state of indifference and irresponsibility. Macaulay's election expenses when running for parliament were £500. In the opinion of Macaulay, men who die on the scaffold for political offenses almost always die well. President Jackson made clerks of his secretaries; they came to be known as a "kitchen cabinet." When the Indianian, Dick Thompson, was secretary of the navy, some one jocosely asked him to which mast of a man-of-war the American flag should be attached; he quite as jocosely replied, "I think I shall refer that question to the attor- ney-general." Hayes is the only President of the United States who promised, when he was a candidate for the office, not to be a candidate again, who kept his word. Emerson pronounces a conservative to be a democrat gone to seed. Senator Hoar said of Henry J. Gardner, "He 338 LITERARY BREVITIES was a very skilful political organizer; he knew better than any man I ever knew the value of getting the united sup- port of men who were without special influence." Addi- son informs us, that it was usual for the Roman censors to expel a senator who had been guilty of great immoralities, by omitting his name when they called over the list of the brethren. There was a change of party names during Jackson's administration; the terms Republican and Fed- eralist gave place to Democrats and Whigs. When it was first proposed to Jackson that he should run for the presidency, he scouted the idea, declaring himself wholly unfit for the office. Polk was our first "dark horse" presidential candidate. After retiring from the presidency, John Quincy Adams for seventeen years represented the Plymouth district in Congress. As the electoral college failed to elect, John Quincy Adams was chosen President by the House, although Jackson had received more elec- toral votes than he. Macaulay states, that while William III exercised the veto power freely, it has been used but once since his reign. A propos of Jackson's annoyance from office seekers, it is related that one caller apologized for making too protracted a visit; the President replied, — "Sit down, sir, and stay, I like to have you; you are the first man who has come to see me without asking for an office." Henry Clay was the father of the first protective tariff bill ever introduced in the American Congress. John Morley believes, that a slight ballast of mediocrity in a government steadies the ship and makes for unity. Gladstone proclaimed his belief, that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South had made a nation. Manzoni declares, that Cavour has all the prudence and all the imprudence of a true statesman. In political life, says Gladstone, a man must meet fortune in all its moods. Napoleon thought the best that could be said of a states- POLITICS 339 man was, that he had avoided the biggest blunders. Sad it is, observes McCarthy, that a distinction is made be- tween the personal and the political integrity of a states- man. Lord Rosebery succeeded Gladstone as prime minister, although he had never sat in the House of Commons. It was a dictum of Napoleon, that young republics cannot be made out of old monarchies. Macau- lay went up to Cambridge a Tory, but Charles Austin soon made him a Whig. Burke has been called the Bossuet of politics. A curve is the shortest road in politics, according to Balzac. Some one has declared, that majorities are often not the most trustworthy of supports. A man not born a liberal may become a liberal, says Gladstone, but to be a Whig he must be born a Whig. Because President John Quincy Adams was absent from Washington long enough to visit his sick father at Quincy, his political opponents tried to make political capital out of it. Jules Lemaitre thought Rousseau furnished the Revolution with its vocabulary. It is a principle laid down in the Koran, that a ruler who appoints any man to an office, when there is in his dominions another man better qualified for it, sins against God and against the state. Cowper tells of a fascinating politician who kissed the ladies and likewise the maid in the kitchen. The party that has no chance of winning always nominates a good ticket. It was declared that John Reynolds, Governor of Illinois, never took a drink of water without serious meditation as to how it might affect his political prospects. In the year 55 B.C., Caesar granted a furlough to many of his soldiers in Gaul to go to Rome to vote for Crassus and Pompey. Goldsmith thought Burke gave to party what was meant for mankind. It was a maxim of Roger Sherman, that when one is in the majority he should vote, when in the minority, he should talk. Canning, when in 340 LITERARY BREVITIES office, kept his eye on promising lads at Eton, who might make eligible followers. Steele won his election to the House of Commons by kissing the voters' wives with guineas in his mouth. Addison does not find that the Ro- man consuls had ever a negative vote in the passing of a law. Rosebery speaks of the "parliamentary Zoroasters," who worshiped the rising sun. Government is a contriv- ance of human wisdom to provide for human wants, is Burke's definition. Bolingbroke accused Swift of never coming without bringing a Whig in his sleeve. POPULARITY HENRY JAMES declares, that popularity shelters and hallows — has the effect of making a good- natured world agree not to see. George Sand thinks no girl so pretty but what she is forced to be amiable with everybody if she wants to have followers. Charles, Duke of Shrewsbury, of the time of James II, was called the "King of Hearts." More men adore the rising than the setting sun, says Plutarch. The "hosannahs" of today will tomorrow be changed to "crucify him," anonymous. Walt Whitman characterizes one as having the pass-key of hearts. The Jay treaty of 1794 rendered the ad- ministration exceedingly unpopular; Hamilton was stoned while speaking in favor of it, and Washington was called the "step-father of his country." A lady wishing at the time of Gladstone's golden wedding to send some gift, asked Browning to write an inscription for it; this he refused to do, owing to Gladstone's unpopularity caused by his "home rule" tendencies. In 1832, the Duke of Wellington was mobbed and pelted with all kinds of missiles as he rode through London. When some one alluded to the great pleasure Napoleon must feel in re- POWER 341 ceiving public applause, he said, "Bah! the people would crowd about me just as eagerly if I were going to the scaffold." It was a saying of Dolly Madison, that to be popular with a man you must feed him and flatter him. Dr. John Brown thinks, that, generally speaking, a man should stand in doubt of himself when he is very popular. It has been observed by some one, that no one ever equaled Napoleon in the art of getting himself talked about. POVERTY COTTAGE rhymes to nothing better than pottage, is an observation of Balzac. The same mentions one whose funeral expenses the taxpayers will have to pay for. Magnas inter opes inops, is from Horace. That girl, says Balzac, would beggar Peru. Balzac tells of one who holds the gridiron and knows how the fish are fried. James Howell remarks, that nothing depraves ingenuous spirits and corrupts clear wits more than want and indigence. When need is highest, then aid is nighest, anonymous. POWER ALL love power, observes Beaconsfield, even if they do not know what to do with it. Westward the course of empire takes its way, is Bishop Berkeley's. No pent up Utica contracts our powers, is J. M. Sewell's. In Queen Elizabeth's heart the rule of love always yielded to the love of rule, anonymous. He who knows not how to dissemble, says Louis XI, knows not how to rule. A dog's obeyed in office, says Shakspeare. Some one has observed, that power is a dazzling cloak which covers every imperfection. Carlyle says the elder Pitt was king of England for four years. Intelligent persistence, some 342 LITERARY BREVITIES one has asserted, is capable of making one person a ma- jority. This from Racine, — "'tis a task More difficult to quit a throne than life." It was the belief of Dr. Arnold, that the difference between one man and another is not more ability, but energy. All men are energetic in making a beginning, is an ob- servation of Thucydides. It is power, always power, remarks Hamerton, that commands the respect of men. Hadrian thought it reasonable to yield to one who com- mands thirty legions. In the opinion of Sainte-Beuve, power spoils men as soon as they touch it. Sarah O. Jewett declares, that there is no such king as a sea-captain; that he is even greater than a king or a schoolmaster. Power leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, says Benson. There are some wounds, it is said, though but of a cut finger, or the like, that we cannot well bind up for ourselves. Gibbon asserts, that the generality of princes, if they were stripped of their purple and cast naked into the world, would immediately sink to the lowest rank of society, without a hope of emerging from their obscurity. It was difficult to argue against Caesar with his ten legions. Addison affirms, that arbitrary power tends to make a man a bad sovereign. PRAISE OF whom to be dispraised were no small praise, is Mil- ton's. Our praises are our wages, is Shakspeare's. Thy soul was like a star and dwelt apart, is Wordsworth's. Beethoven thinks that only the praise of one who enjoys praise can give pleasure. Praise is deeper than lips, says Browning. It has been remarked, that to praise one's wife is only self-praise. To praise it would be to destroy its magic charm, by Bielschowsky. Lowell thinks popu- PREJUDICE 343 larity is as good for an author as the good will of an audience to a speaker. The living clarion that sounds the awakening of the nations, Victor Hugo's toast to the press. E. L. Godkin said he always considered anyone who conveyed to another a third person's praise of that other as a true Christian. Damn with faint praise, is Pope's. Allan Cunningham asserts, that all who offer themselves to criticism are desirous of praise. It is an injunction in The Spectator, that you should allow no one to be so free with you as to praise you to your face. Those best can bear reproof, says Euripides, who merit praise. One can't see her too often; she is always new, said of a certain French actress. Praises of the unworthy, declares Coleridge, are felt by ardent minds as robberies of the deserving. Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver, according to Burke. PRECOCITY THE younger Pitt was made prime minister at the age of twenty-five, which office he held continuously for eighteen years. Dr. Holmes reminds us, that there are plants that open their flowers to the first rays of the sun; and that there are others that wait until evening to spread their petals. When Louis XVI returned from his coronation at Rheims, the boy Robespierre read to him an original Latin speech. PREJUDICE DR. JOHNSON would not even read Hume. David Deans, in the "Heart of Midlothian," refused to take medicine unless assured that his physician's religious belief was in agreement with his own. Carlyle said 344 LITERARY BREVITIES Rhadamanthus would certainly give Macaulay four dozen lashes when he went to the Shades, for his treatment of Marlborough. In Macaulay's view, the Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. We may learn from the example of Cato, Gibbon observes, that a char- acter of pure and inflexible virtue is the most apt to be misled by prejudice. It is an observation of Macaulay, that men are not willing to attend the religious worship of people who believe less than they do, or to vote at elec- tions for people who believe more than themselves. PRIDE ALEXANDER disdained the ambassadors of Corinth, who came to make him a tender of a burgess-ship of their city; but when they proceeded to lay before him that Bacchus and Hercules were also in the register, he thankfully accepted the office. As a case of complacent self-conceit, what is told of a certain great lady is without a parallel; who had an assurance of future happiness in the belief that they would think twice before they would refuse a person of her condition. All censure of a man's self, observes Dr. Johnson, is oblique praise; it is in order to show how much he can spare. When Walt Whitman was asked if he thought Shakspeare as great a poet as himself, he replied that he had never been able to make up his mind. The foolish camel in the Hebrew proverb, in going to seek horns lost his ears. The great, but vain, Italian singer, Farinelli, used to say, "There is but one God, and one Farinelli." Cicero tells a good story at his own expense. Upon returning to Italy after his quaestorship in Sicily, naturally supposing that for months his career in Sicily had been the one thing in the mouths of all at Rome, he was PRIDE 345 surprised to have some of his cronies salute him with, "Hello, old boy, where have you been? we haven't seen you for a month." To be proud of learning, says Jeremy Taylor, is the greatest ignorance in the world. Attila used to boast that grass never grew on the spot where his horse had trod. Whatever you do well you will look back upon with pride. People, says Browning, like building where they used to beg. Tasso reminds us, that lowest falls attend the highest flights. Scott calls Guy Mannering too proud to be vain. Hume thinks it difficult for a man to speak long about himself without vanity. It was consid- ered disreputable for a native Athenian to be a retail trader. The highest peak does not always afford the finest view. George Sand says the vain detest the vain. Balzac calls " de " the aristocratic particle. Schiller knows people who are too proud to imitate foreign virtues. He struts about and parades himself like an amateur god. George Eliot recalls a name "free from polysyllabic pomp." As squeamish as Donatello was about showing his ears. If ever, observes Rousseau, there was a man who did not derive more pain than pleasure from his vanity, that man was no other than a fool. A proud man looks you full in the face, but takes no notice of your saluting him, says Eustace Budgell. Landor thinks no one ever quite for- gave a wrong pronunciation of his name. They who have good wares, Scott remarks, are fond of showing them. It is only by disdain, states Eugene Sue, that you can conquer a proud man. Dowden calls attention to those magnates of the parish who make a kind of state entry into church when half the prayers are over. Simon, in Lucian, having got a little wealth, changed his name to Simonides, because he had so many poor relatives, and burned the house where he was born, that nobody should point it out. He put on all the airs of a lieutenant-governor. Some 346 LITERARY BREVITIES one told Philip of Macedon after a victory, that his shadow was no longer than before. Seneca declares it to be a common thing for men to hate the authors of their prefer- ment, as being the witnesses of their mean origin. Paints, d' ye say? Why, she lays it on with a trowel, is from Congreve. Victor Hugo declares it to be arduous passing for a shining light. Cervantes was proud of having participated as a private soldier in the battle of Lepanto, in 1571, where he lost his left hand. Alexander said he would run in the Olympic race if he had kings for com- petitors. The following is from Shakspeare, — "O, but man, proud man, Drest in a little brief authority, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, As makes the angels weep." How apt, says Shakspeare, the poor are to be proud. Louis XIV, whenever a town was about to be taken, had himself notified of the fact, that he might be present in person and appear to take it himself. Balzac thinks vanity should be left to those who have nothing else to recommend them. Gibbon considers false modesty the meanest species of pride. During a brief period of teach- ing, Bayard Taylor whipped a boy, who in after years took great pride in having been so punished by a poet. According to Balzac, the most national of all sentiments in France is vanity. The empty vessel makes the greatest sound, is Shakspeare's. Some one has observed, that you may easily discover a man's prevailing vanity by observing his conversation. It is a statement of R. L. Stevenson, that the respectable are not led so much by any desire of applause as by a positive need of countenance. Hamerton observes, that you can never dine with a dilettante without having to look at his sketches. Bulwer mentions the fact, that many great philosophers have been great beaux; that PRIDE 347 Aristotle was a notorious fop; that Buff on put on his best lace ruffles when he sat down to write; that Pythagoras insisted greatly on the holiness of frequent ablutions; and that Horace took care to let us know what a neat, well- dressed, dapper little gentleman he was. The same author thinks vanity and valor go together, reminding us that Caesar, even in dying, thought of the folds of his toga; that Sir Walter Raleigh could not walk twenty yards because of the gems in his shoes; that Alcibiades lounged into the Agora with doves in his bosom; that Murat was bedizened in gold lace and furs; and that a slovenly hero like Cromwell is a paradox in nature and a marvel in history. Bielschowsky thinks nobody likes to forego applause. Madame de Stael used to twirl a poplar twig between her fingers to make her beautiful hand conspicuous. Hare asks if one is quite sure Pygmalion is the only person who ever fell in love with his own handi- work. Some satirist has remarked, that a curate does not desire to be bishop that he may exercise a wide influence, but primarily that he may be called "My lord." Dr. Johnson says great folks don't like to have their mouths stopped. Emerson's grandfather once, when going to church, was checked by his father with the reproof, "William, you walk as if the earth was not good enough for you." Amiel could not, like Scherer, content himself with being right all alone. Charles XII, when crowned, entered Stockholm riding on a sorrel horse that was shod with silver. Aristotle wore many rings on his fingers. Marsilio Ticino daily changed the jewels in his rings according to the mood of the moment. There's no pride, says George Meredith, like the pride of possession. It has been noted by some one, that an author shows more vanity in refusing to have his picture appear in his book than in allowing it to appear. Tolstoy calls vanity the 348 LITERARY BREVITIES passion by which we do least injury to others and the most to ourselves. A little boy belonging to an aristocratic family, having cut his finger, cried, not on account of the hurt, but because the blood was red instead of blue. The nobles of Venice and Genoa, Balzac informs us, like those of Poland, in former times bore no titles. PUNCTUALITY HAVE not men improved somewhat in punctuality since the railroad came into use? A propos of Kant's punctuality, it was said that the people, when he happened at his door for his customary walk, knew it was just half -past four, and would set their watches accordingly. Let nothing be done without a purpose, was a maxim of Marcus Aurelius. It has been observed, that not the least of Mirabeau's talents was the gift of doing every- thing in season; he could not have chosen a better time to die. Robespierre joined the Brutus Club early, and was present at its least attended meetings. Everything at the right time, was Goethe's rule. Scott made it a principle of action, to answer every letter he received the same day he received it. T PUNISHMENT IE following is by John Trumbull, — "No man e'er felt the halter draw, With good opinion of the law." In the domestic government of the American Indians, the severest punishment inflicted upon a misbehaved child, was to throw a dash of cold water into his face. Amiel thinks every man rewards or punishes himself. RECREATION 349 La Fontaine hoped, that in course of time the damned would feel as much at home in hell as a fish in water. A lower deep to which the hell we suffer seems a heaven, is anonymous. And Cain said unto the Lord, "My punish- ment is greater than I can bear." PURPOSE EVERY great mind, remarks Schiller, labors for eternity. The same again declares, that a man grows greater as his ends are great. Emerson regards him only a well-made man who has a good determination. RACE GOD made white men and black men, but the devil made half-castes, some one has observed. Be- sides French, Montaigne had both Spanish and Jewish blood in his veins. Charlevoix records the fact, that by the mingling of the French and Indians, the savages did not become French, but the French savages. RECREATION IN comparing Greek civilization with Roman, it is well to contrast the Olympic games of the former with the gladiatorial shows of the latter. Democritus counts a life without holidays a long journey without an inn. Talley- rand said to the man who had never learned whist, "What a miserable old age you are preparing for yourself." In cultivating the habit of reading, one is preparing a ^resource for old age. Leigh Hunt presumes that the most philosophical of anglers would hardly delight in catching shrieking fish. 350 LITERARY BREVITIES REFORM PROFESSOR WOODBERRY remarks, that Haw- thorne appears to take the same view of reform that is sometimes found in respect to prayer; that it has great subjective advantages and is good for the soul, but is futile in the world of fact. Balzac thinks morals are reformed only very gradually. A certain man set up a bottle of gin in his window when he gave up drinking, in order to defy drink. The Emperor Julian was too hasty in his attempts to reform the luxury of the palace at Constantinople. Every great author, observes Landor, is a great reformer. In conducting the Dial, Margaret Fuller, as noted by T. W. Higginson, had to attempt that hardest thing in life, to bring reformers into systematic co-operation. Scott thinks even an admitted nuisance of ancient standing should not be abated without some caution. Wounds cannot be cured without searching, says Bacon. Whoever heard of a reformer reaping the reward of his labor in his lifetime? asks Lincoln. REGRETS ' CATO the Censor regretted three actions of his life — having told a secret to his wife, that he had once gone a journey by sea when he could have gone by land, and having passed one day without doing anything. Regret, says Balzac, is not remorse, though it may be first cousin to it. It is asserted by some one, that those who meddle in matters out of their calling will have reason to repent. RELIGION 351 RELIGION SIR THOMAS BROWNE held, with Milton, that the soul perishes with the body, to be miraculously raised with it at the last day. Some one has declared, that Dr. Johnson believed in the Bible so implicitly that he believed in nothing but the Bible. The burglar, at the gallows, had great consolation in the thought, that he had always taken off his hat when entering a church. Landor affirms, that there are pious men who believe they are serving God by bearing false witness in his favor. John Stuart Mill declares, that the notion that it is one man's duty that another should be religious, was the foundation of all the religious persecutions ever perpetrated. It is remarked by Newman Smythe, that a man who should today attempt to regulate his social life by the laws of Moses would be sent to the penitentiary. Addison says we have just religion enough to make us hate, but not enough to make us love, one another. It is Symonds's view, that the Greeks worshiped what was best and noblest in themselves. Originally, to be a libertine was to be a freethinker. Pindar, unlike Horace, was pious. To some one who remarked that Alexander I of Russia was pious, it was replied, "Yes, a very devout man — no doubt he said grace before swallowing Poland." Constantine called the Lord's Day Dies Solis (Sunday), a name not offensive to his pagan subjects. The Moslem says men sleep in life and wake in death. The Quakers do not celebrate the Eucharist; they cease from labor on Sunday for the ease of creation and not from reverence for the day. Mahomet, after talking with a Christian, would wash his hands and face by way of purification. Regard not how full hands you bring to God, enjoins Jeremy Taylor, but how pure. The Greeks and Romans had no seventh day of rest, but 352 LITERARY BREVITIES numerous irregular holidays. It is a leading principle of Buddhism, that existence is an evil. The pirates of the Mediterranean, in the first century of our era, had a re- ligion of their own. Princess Elizabeth, daughter of George III, wrote from Windsor, "We began going to chapel this morning; it must be wholesome, it is so dis- agreeable." It is easier to cultivate religion than in- tellectuality, just as it is easier to submit passively than to contend persistently and painfully. We hear of Mohammedan Doctors who had read the Koran 70,000 times. Godfrey, when made king of Jerusalem, refused to wear a crown of gold, because our Lord had worn a crown of thorns. Bacon pronounces prosperity to be the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity that of the New. The Lacedaemonians sacrificed to the Muses before enter- ing battle. Miracles, Howells affirms, are never impossi- ble in the right hands. St. Augustine defines the nature of God as a circle whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere. The tonsure of the monks was supposed to represent the crown of thorns worn by our Saviour. It is remarked by George Sand, that rank and wealth cloak every vice, and, provided you go to church, everything else is tolerated. God is not so bad as he is painted, is a French proverb. Shakspeare, the greatest of all writers, though living in a time of most bitter religious controversy, was nevertheless so conservative, that it is impossible to tell from his works whether he was a Prot- estant or a Catholic. Calvin interpreted "Six days shalt thou labor " literally, and would allow no holidays. Shelley was expelled from Oxford, on account of having written a pamphlet questioning the logic of the current arguments in favor of the existence of a God. Owing to his irreligion, Shelley was not allowed the guardianship of his own children. It is a remark of Steele, that the first object RELIGION 353 the blind ever saw was the Author of Sight. The great books of the world are none of them atheistic. A super- ficial tincture of philosophy, Bacon asserts, may incline the mind to atheism, yet a farther knowledge brings it back to religion. Socrates's prayer to Pan was, "Make me to be beautiful in soul; teach me to think wisdom the only riches." Sterne declared, that in solitude he would worship a tree. It is sometimes said of a clergyman, that he has beautiful texts. Hawthorne calls "parenthetically devout" the people one sees kneeling, crossing themselves, and muttering brief prayers in the most incidental manner at Rome. Casting a dim religious light, is Milton's. Cowper's friend, John Newton, had the peculiarly mixed conscience which allowed him to go on a Guinea voyage largely supplied with hymn-books and hand-cuffs. When Longfellow visited Stockholm, he was shocked to find that the clergy played cards on Sunday. Jesus and Paul preached, but did not baptize. Victor Hugo refers to certain people who pray to kill time. Hooker has been called the real father of Anglicanism. Speaking of the bibliolatry of the Puritans, Coleridge observes, that they would not put on a corn-plaster without scraping a text over it. There are two things which I abhor, says Maho- met, the learned in his infidelity, and the fool in his devo- tions. Utilitarianism may account for the idea of right and wrong, but not for the universality of a belief in God and immortality. The nonconformist Baxter was author of the saying, "Hell is paved with infants' skulls." Prayers, says Browning, move God; threats and nothing else move men. Steele tells of a woman so fervent in her devotions as frequently to pray herself out of breath. The Koran commands the husbandman to cut off each stalk of rice separately. Coleridge thinks Christianity proves itself, as the sun is seen by its own light. Luther 354 LITERARY BREVITIES and Bossuet both thought slavery not opposed to Chris- tianity. Thoreau believed it necessary for one to be a Christian to appreciate the beauty and significance of the life of Christ. Three prayers like that would freeze hell over, is a remark of Peter Cartwright. The way of Provi- dence is a little rude, says Emerson. A narrow faith, Amiel declares, has much more energy than an enlightened one. There is an Arabian proverb to the effect, that no man is called of God till the age of forty. Ptolemy II caused the Old Testament to be translated into Greek; this version was called the Septuagint, as seventy (or more correctly seventy-two) men were employed in the work. Discite iustitiam moniti et non temnere Divos, is Virgil's. Emerson thinks Luther would have cut his hand off sooner than write his theses against the Pope, if he had suspected that he was bringing on with all his might the pale negation of Boston Unitarianism. Many have quarreled about religion who never practised it. Orthodoxy is my doxy, and heterodoxy is your doxy, was a saying of Franklin. It is strange, says Goethe, that with all I have done, there is not one of my poems that would suit the Lutheran hymn-book. Carlyle mentions a dissenting Scotch family who walked fifteen miles and back to church every Sunday. In July, 1776, Virginia had stricken the king's name from the Prayer Book, and Rhode Island had imposed a fine of £1,000 upon anyone who prayed for him. Emerson regards the unique im- pression of Jesus upon mankind, whose name is not so much written as ploughed into the history of this world, as proof of the subtle virtue of this infusion. Dr. Holmes sees a kind of harmony between boldly contrasted beliefs, like that of complementary colors. The same writer thinks true religious equality harder to establish than civil liberty. Richelieu pursued the policy of being a Protes- RELIGION 355 tant abroad and a Catholic at home. Though at first a Protestant, Rousseau became a Catholic, and at the age of forty-two became a Protestant again. Thoreau thinks the New Testament is remarkable for its pure morality; the best of the Hindoo scripture, for its pure intellect. Dr. Tamponet declared, that he would trace heresies in the Lord's Prayer if anyone desired it. Rousseau tells of an old woman whose only prayer was the interjection "Oh." When the Greek sacrificed, he raised his eyes to heaven; the Roman when sacrificing veiled his head. George Eliot would have a clergyman feel himself a bit of every class. Symonds asserts, that science cannot be more fatalistic than Calvinism. Jove's random fires strike his own fane, says Aristophanes. That Marius was seven times made consul was to Cotta a sufficient argu- ment against Providence. Professor Peck sees something peculiarly piquant in heterodoxy when it is preached from an orthodox pulpit. Friday is the Mohammedan Sunday. We are told of a certain man who killed himself upon read- ing Plato's description of the future life. It is the belief of De Quincey, that without Christianity, in these times, there is no absolute advance possible on the path of true civilization. Balzac would give a hundred sous to a mathematician who would demonstrate by an algebraic equation the certainty of a hell. The following is from Schiller, — "Time consecrates; And what is grey with age becomes religion." This from Landor, — "Did you ever try how pleasant it is to forgive anyone? There is nothing else wherein we can resemble God so perfectly and easily." Thoreau alludes to an old man who fished, not for sport nor solely for a subsistence, but as a sort of solemn sacrament and withdrawal from the world, just as the aged read their 356 LITERARY BREVITIES Bible. Moulton informs us, that when King James's version of the Bible was made, the scholars of that age did not even know that parts of the Bible were in verse; the distinction between prose and verse in Hebrew, he assures us, was rediscovered a century later. It is esti- mated, that altogether the Buddhists comprise about one-third of the human race. Botsford finds in the monuments and literature of the Egyptians no evidence of a belief in the transmigration of souls. Buddhism, in its essentials, it has been claimed, was, more than anything else, a revolt from corrupt Brahmanism; and the only system of religion known to have been founded by an Aryan teacher. Milton held, that matter was not created out of nothing; but that it was an efflux from God's own nature. It is an assertion of Jeremy Taylor, that if you divide the church into twenty parts, in whatever part your lot falls, you and your party will be damned by the other nineteen. According to an old German fable, a certain priest was offered a bishopric if he would come to the conclusion that the sun is triangular, and succeeded in reaching such a conclusion. A man may be religious and yet be evil, says Gilbert Parker. Need teaches prayer, the proverb says. And what, my dear, asks Richardson, is this needle's point of Now to a boundless eternity? Social exclusiveness reaches its climax in the ancient Thracian king who had a religion by himself, and a god of his own whom his subjects were not allowed to worship. In the opinion of Gilbert Parker, the passion of a cause grows in you as you suffer for it. When Calvin wrote his commentaries on the New Testament, he stopped when he came to Revelation. Moses described the crea- tion briefly, whereas he spent a whole chapter in narrating the purchase of the field and cave that Abraham bought to bury Sara in. Mohammed, the Jews, and the early t RELIGION 357 Christians used sand instead of water when baptizing in emergencies. It is a remark of Emerson, that there is a good deal of scepticism in the street and hotels and places of coarse amusement; but that is only to say that the prac- tical faculties are faster developed than the spiritual; that where there is depravity, there is a slaughter-house style of thinking; and that one argument for a future life is the recoil of the mind in such company. The usurer has been called the greatest Sabbath-breaker, because his plow goeth every Sunday. If we knew, says C. C. Everett, with absolute certainty, that what seems to us wrong is really wrong; if we knew with equal certainty, that there is a divine power that will as assuredly punish wrong as fire burns the hand that is thrust into it, that thus life has worth incalculable, — earth would be no longer man's probation place. This says Browning, — "For a loving worm within its clod Were diviner than a loveless God." Christ seems always in advance of the world, thinks C. C. Everett, simply because he is clothed upon by the un- attained ideal of every age. When Edward Everett received his degree at Oxford, the undergraduates treated him with gross incivility, and because he was a Unitarian. Heine declares the final fate of Christianity to be de- pendent upon our need of it. The early New Haven colony refused to have trial by jury, because no such thing could be found in the Mosaic law. William M. Evarts gives an account of a Sunday spent with Judge Kent on the Hudson in company with several New York lawyers, when they all went to the Episcopal Church in the forenoon and dined with the Judge after the service. During the service one of the company kept far behind in the responses, much to the discomfort of the others, 358 LITERARY BREVITIES the Judge in particular. At dinner he broke out with, "Davis, why couldn't you descend into hell with the rest of us?" A certain pious woman of Calvinist belief would weep for hours because God is so infinitely good. It is beautiful, but what empty and awful mockery, if there were no God, says Tennyson in Westminster Abbey. Fiske pronounces the spreading of Christianity over the Roman Empire the greatest event in all history. The same observes, that while the millennium is sure to come sooner or later, it cannot be bullied or coaxed into coming pre- maturely. Calvin was willing to burn Servetus for doubt- ing the doctrine of the Trinity. According to Herodotus, the Persians had no images of the gods, no temples nor altars; their wont, however, was to ascend to the summits of the loftiest mountains, and there to sacrifice to Jupiter, which is the name they gave to the whole circuit of the firmament. The sight of a priest coming out of the grand Cathedral of Saint Stephen at Vienna, to carry extreme unction to a dying man, persuaded Werner, the tragic poet, to become a Catholic. Balzac declares, that every criminal is an atheist — often without knowing it. Every Greek city had in its town hall a sacred hearth on which it always kept fire burning. It is a notion of Novalis, that the more sinful a man feels himself, the more Christian he is. Cannot you, like Pascal and Bossuet, be at once learned and pious? asks Balzac. Calvin decreed, that God should be worshiped in the mother-tongue of every country. The following is by De Foe, — " Wherever God erects a house of prayer, The Devil always builds a chapel there; And 'twill be found upon examination, The latter has the largest congregation." It is asserted by Lyman Abbott, that in the United States hitherto our churches have grown faster than our popula- RELIGION 359 tion. It was a pious Scotch farmer who on the "Sawbath day" would bargain for a cow, "gin it were Monday." The gamblers at Homburg, they say, never play on Good Friday. It is Tennyson's belief, that humanity will not and can not acquiesce in a godless world. John Wyclif , who translated the Bible in the latter part of the fourteenth century, has been called our first Protestant. Rabelais, Scarron, Swift, Sterne, and Sidney Smith were all priests. William III refused to "touch" for scrofula, while Charles II touched for over 100,000 afflicted persons. Garfield was in favor of taxing church property. Balzac envied the privilege of God, who can read the under currents of the heart. Brownson, after embracing Catholicism, was obliged to study Latin before entering the priesthood, but at his age found great difficulty in mastering the Latin accent. George Ripley, a precise Latin scholar, dreamed that he went to confession to Brownson, who ordered him as a penance to kneel and repeat after him the fifty-eighth Psalm in the Vulgate. Ripley, shocked at the thought of following Brownson's awful pronunciation, awoke with a cry, "O Lord, the punishment is greater than I can bear." When Luther became convinced that the Pope was wholly bad, he ordered all his previous admissions on papal authority to be burned. Although Jefferson, before the Revolution, suggested a day of fasting and prayer in Virginia, when President he refused to issue such proclamations. Carlyle, in answer to those who found fault with Goethe's lack of religious orthodoxy, said: "Gentlemen, do you know the story of the man who railed at the sun because he couldn't light his pipe by it?" The Lacedaemonians, in their prayers, asked the gods to give them all good things so long as they were virtuous. The Long Parliament, in 1644, gave orders that Christmas should be observed as a 360 LITERARY BREVITIES Fast Day. The first crusade, instigated by Peter the Hermit, was agreed upon in 1095. The nomadic Scythians from earliest times worshiped a bare sword. Pascal re- garded the prophesies the strongest proofs of Jesus Christ. The same authority pronounced the knowledge of God very far from the love of God. Gladstone thought Inno- cent III the greatest of the Popes. Gladstone warns us against letting our religion spoil our morality. Pascal thinks experience shows a vast difference between devout- ness and goodness. States, says Pascal, would perish if they did not often make their laws bend to necessity, a thing religion has never suffered or practised. It was Jenny Geddes who threw the stool at the Dean of Edin- burgh's head. President Eliot thinks the new religion will not attempt to reconcile men and women to present ill by promises of future blessedness. Pascal declares the religion which alone is contrary to our nature to be that alone which has always existed. The most conservative religionists have frequently at the outset been radicals. If St. Paul had not been a very zealous Pharisee, observes R. L. Stevenson, he would have been a colder Christian. The American Indian never kneels. Rousseau never liked to pray in a chamber. Providence knows well on whose shoulders to impose its tasks, said by Heine of Luther. For twenty years Rev. Paul Lorrain reported the dying confessions of the condemned criminals of Newgate Prison, always laying stress upon their penitence; these criminals were called "Lorrain's Saints." Dean Swift hated Lent. Phidias is said to have made gods better than men. God consecrates no privileges, asserts George Sand. The reverence of a man's self, observes Bacon, is, next to religion, the chiefest bridle of all vices. It is a remark of Chesterton, that Browning believed that to every man that ever lived upon the earth had been RELIGION 361 given a definite and peculiar confidence of God; that each one of us was the founder of a religion. The Scotch woman at Balmoral complained of the way the attendants upon the Queen disregarded the Sabbath in boating and rowing; when reminded of our Saviour's going about on the Sabbath, she replied, "We don't think any more of Him for it either." John Randolph, in his youth, was greatly fascinated by the Mohammedan religion. We are told of a clergyman of ability and experience who, in the pulpit, trembled when he saw Robert Burns enter church. Calvin called the pastors of his church "ministers." Beaconsfield thinks sensible men are all of the same religion, and that they never tell what it is. Lessing says a single thankful glance towards heaven is the most perfect prayer. Frederick the Great once expressed a willingness that every one of his subjects, for all he cared, might take his own peculiar way of getting to heaven. The Arabs' religion did not permit them to cultivate the fine arts. Among the Romans persons were treated as atheists who would not kiss their hands when they entered a temple. The honest priest said he could not tell a lie to gain heaven by it. Madame de Stael asserts, that the pagans deified life, as the Christians sanctify death. In the opinion of Matthew Arnold, the mental habit of him who imagines that Balaam's ass spoke, in no respect differs from the mental habit of him who imagines that a Madonna of wood or stone winked. The papal law observes no distinc- tion of birth, observes Madame de Stael. John T. Morse declares, that the Lisbon earthquake filled Europe with infidels. Frankincense to the gods, says Bulwer, but praise to men. In the opinion of Andrew D. White, the real Mohammedan cannot be converted. The French heaven, says George Eliot, is having the laughers on our side. Constantine told Ascesius, a rather heretical bishop, 362 LITERARY BREVITIES to take a ladder and get up to heaven by himself. Rous- seau read the Bible through five or six times. James Howell, on Sundays, prayed in seven different languages. The same declares, that he never heard of anything that prospered, which being once designed for the honor of God, was alienated from that use. It is better, says Bacon, to have no belief of a God than such an one as dishonors him. Barrett Wendell notes the fact, that there was never any image of the Last Judgment but showed you shaven crowns among the damned. Carlyle calls the passage in Tacitus relating to the early Christians, the most earnest, sad, and sternly significant passage that we know to exist in writing; since Tacitus, the wisest and most penetrating man of his generation sees so little in the most important transaction that has occurred or can occur in the annals of mankind. Sainte-Beuve asked to have a pagan burial, which request was granted him. Cato wondered how when one sooth- sayer met another he could help laughing. Benson be- lieves, that unless a man converts himself no one else can. William James believes, that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences. J. H. P. Belloc thinks, that, in revivals, men and women sway ecstatically to phrases they have heard a thousand times. Bishop Colenso's laundress declined to wash for him, because by doing so she lost customers. The eminent judge, Matthew Hale, never once for thirty-six years missed going to church. God does not always pay on Saturday, some one remarks. Dr. John Brown speaks of being in a sort of pro tempore heaven. There is hardly a mythological system that does not include a snake. It is a remark of Hare, that religion presents few difficulties to the humble, many to the proud, and insuperable to the vain. In heaven, observes some one, if we choose, now and then, we shall even have in- conveniences. Lemaitre declares, that the doctrine that RELIGION 363 one has no remorse because he repents, is one according to which actions are of no consequence provided that one loves God. Duties, says Stonewall Jackson, are ours, consequences are God's. James Howell knew of a church edifice on which the word "God" was inscribed in very large letters. No religion but our own, says Pascal, has taught that man is born in sin. A candid evangelist, observes Blackie, is generally a black sheep to his brethren. The dog has been deified in heaven, on earth, and in hades. Joubert declares that it is not hard to know God, provided one will not force oneself to define him; that the proofs of the existence of God have made many men atheists. Queen Elizabeth was wont to say, that she knew very well wiiat would content the Catholics, but that she never could learn what would content the Puritans. When God sends his light, says Cervantes, he sends it to all. Col. Benjamin Franklin's men, when he was fighting the Indians in 1756, were indifferent to the chaplain's services. To meet this, Franklin made a rule, "no prayers, no rum"; then the men were said to "walk after the spirit." William James calls pessimism a religious disease. Crothers alludes to the good Christian who goes to church every Sunday only to hear the parson rebuke the sins of people who are not there. The gods themselves, remarks Pindar, cannot annihilate the action that is done. Steele's life, says Macaulay, was spent in sinning and repenting. Hawthorne suspects, that when people throw off the faith they were born in, the best soil of their hearts is apt to cling to its roots. Bending before the corrections of the Almighty, Haydon thinks, is the only way to save the brain from insanity and the heart from sin. Matthew Arnold defines religion as morality touched by emotion. Heine speaks of the multiplication table being bound up with the catechism, though, he says, it is not easy to recon- 364 LITERARY BREVITIES cile it with the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. In the time of Peter the Great it was argued by certain of the Russians, that smoking tobacco was a sin, but getting drunk with brandy was not; because the Scripture saith, "That which proceedeth out of the mouth defileth a man, and that which entereth into it doth not defile him." Gibbon states, that the doctrine of the resurrection was first entertained by the Egyptians. According to Junius, there are proselytes from atheism, but none from super- stition. Evil that good may come, asserts Hay don, is the prerogative of the Deity alone, one that should never be ventured on by mortals. To despise flowers is to offend God, says Dumas. Junius observes, that the mistakes of one sex find a retreat in patriotism, those of the other in devotion. Diderot thought the world as the result of chance more explicable than God. Referring to the claim of some thinkers, that civilization could not exist without a belief in God and in another life, Amiel suggests, that such persons seem to forget that Japan and China prove the contrary. Sainte-Beuve, who never belonged to any confession, considered himself as one of "the great dio- cese." Swinburne thinks the gods hear men's hands before their lips. They are like to be short graces where the devil plays the host, observes Charles Lamb. Edward Hutton remarks, that genuine theism humbles the mind, while genuine pantheism inflates it. To a Greek of the age of Plato, Jowett thinks, the idea of an infinite mind would have been an absurdity. From despair we learn prayer, German proverb. No appearances whatever, William James states, are infallible proofs of grace; our practise, he insists, is the only sure evidence, even to ourselves, that we are Christians. A lady once mentioned the pleasure it gave her to think she could "always cuddle up to God." Some one has declared, that the first maker of the gods RELIGION 365 was fear. The first repentance, according to William James, is to up and act for righteousness, and forget that you ever had relations with sin. Professor James, alluding to a picture by Guido Reni, in the Louvre, which represents St. Michael with his foot on Satan's neck, remarks, — "The richness of the picture's allegorical meaning is due to Satan's being there — that is, the world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck." The same acute thinker regards the best fruits of religious experience as the best things history has to show. John Fiske says the heretic is not now burned at the stake; but there is an organized policy to starve him by injuring his reputation and lying about him. Sidney Lanier in- forms us, that late explorers have found some nations that have no god, but that he has not read of any nation that had no music. Men need formulas, says Professor James, just as they need fellowship in worship; epithets, he re- marks, lend an atmosphere and overtones to our devotion. Again James says, "If an Emerson were forced to be a Wesley, or a Moody forced to be a Whitman, the total human consciousness of the divine would suffer." Curse not* even the devil, is the injunction of some one. George Meredith alludes to the ascetic zealot who hugs his share of heaven in his hair shirt and scourge. It has been ob- served, that natural religion, so called, is no religion at all, since it cuts man off from prayer. Stanley Hall asserts, that of the ten crimes of the Hebrews of old only one is now a crime. John Wesley thought giving up witchcraft would be giving up the Bible. How much beyond whole libraries of orthodox theology, observes Carlyle, is, sometimes, the mute action, the unconscious look of a father, of a mother, who had in them devoutness, pious nobleness. Cardinal Newman thought there was no better evidence for ancient than for modern miracles. 366 LITERARY BREVITIES A dead man lying on the ground with outstretched arms is in the form of a cross. Landor thinks it odd enough that no temple or altar was ever dedicated to beauty. The Roman senate always met in a temple or consecrated place; and before they entered on business every senator dropped some wine and frankincense on the altar. God is the evident invisible, declares Victor Hugo. The same declares, that the acceptance of God is the final effort of philosophy. It has been affirmed, that the situa- tion of the blind is unpropitious to religious sentiment. Holmes calls Emerson an iconoclast without a hammer, who took down our idols from their pedestals so tenderly that it seemed like an act of worship. Swedenborg thinks the trouble with hell is, we shall not know it when we arrive. God alone is not enough for the orphan, says Leonie. Queen Anne thought animals happy, because they run no risk of going to hell; some one reminded her that they are there already. How many men believed they prayed to Jupiter when they prayed to Jehovah! exclaimed Victor Hugo. Rosebery gives a statement of Napoleon, to the effect that he never could have achieved what he did had he been religious. Balzac imagines the blank faces of the saintly crowd, if heaven were to play us such a joke as to omit the day of judgment. One theory of future punishment is, that the soul in purgatory feels as great a desire to be punished for a sin as it had to commit it. Dante, being asked why he put more Christ- tians than gentiles into hell, replied, "Because I have known the Christians better." Dumas thinks a bishop must sacrifice more to appearances than a simple clerk. iElian mentions a foolish people who worshiped a fly and sacrificed an ox to it. ROYALTY 367 REST BLESSED Nirvana — sinless, nameless rest, anony- mous. William Black thinks leisure an invaluable gift to a man who accepts his life sacredly. It is the advice of Sir Arthur Helps, that a man should have some pursuit which may be always in his power, and to which he may turn gladly in his hours of recreation. Who sleeps dines, is from the French. Rufus Choate defined the lawyer's vacation as the time after he has put a question to a witness while he is waiting for an answer. The following is from Horace, — Neque semper arcum Tendit Apollo. We are assured, that there is no such rest as that which is acquired through labor. Feelingly sweet is stillness after storm, is Wordsworth's. I loaf and invite my soul, is Walt Whitman's. ROYALTY UNDER Louis XIV one dared not speak; under Louis XV one spoke low; under Louis XVI one spoke aloud, according to Marechale de Richelieu. If those waters of the Seine were ink, said the Moorish envoy, they would not suffice to describe adequately the grandeur and magnificence of Louis XIV. Good advisers make good kings, Dumas thinks. 368 LITERARY BREVITIES SCHOLARSHIP HEINE speaks of old Canonicus as one who studied night and day as though he feared lest the worms might find a few ideas missing in his head. Longfellow ranked fourth and Hawthorne eigh- teenth in the class of 1825 at Bowdoin. In the fall of 1810 Bryant entered the sophomore class of Williams College, where he remained but one year; like Cooper at Yale, he did not graduate. It is said that the younger Pitt did not read much; he was, however, a fine Greek scholar; as an author he has left but little. Late in life Bayard Taylor began the study of Greek, and also learned to paint. Latin was Montaigne's mother tongue. Bacon was not much of a Greek scholar. SCIENCE TEARS, says Balzac, are composed of a little phos- phate of lime, chloride of sodium, mucus and water. The French writer Prevost suffered a sudden stroke of apoplexy in the sixty-seventh year of his age; a quack, thinking him dead, began a post-mortem examination, under which Prevost revived, but afterwards died from the effects of the knife. The botany of the ancients, it is claimed, was much more advanced than their geology. Luther and Melanchthon denounced the idea, that the planets revolve around the sun. Air balloons came into existence the latter part of the eighteenth century. As useless as the rudimentary hind legs of a whale. The Greek Herophilus, 300 B.C., was the first to dissect human subjects. According to Matthew Arnold, literature nour- ishes the whole spirit of man, while science ministers only to the intellect. Six centuries ago Roger Bacon explained SCIENCE 369 the precession of the equinoxes and invented gunpowder. Benjamin Franklin invented double spectacles, with one lens in the upper half for observing distant objects and another in the lower half for reading. The low state of physical science at Athens may be seen in the fact that Socrates declared astronomy to be among the divine mysteries, which it was impossible to understand and madness to investigate. Professor Young of Princeton had astronomy in the blood, both his father and maternal grandfather having been astronomers. Herschel took to astronomy at the age of forty-seven. A scorner of physic once declared, that nature and disease may be compared to two men fighting, the doctor to a blind man with a club who strikes into the melee, sometimes hitting the disease and sometimes hitting nature. A diamond and a piece of charcoal are essentially of the same material. Samuel Butler represented the scientists of his time as engaged in ascertaining whether fishes sleep. The following is from Hudibras, — "When all their wits to understand the world Can never tell why a pig's tail is curled." It has been estimated, that if a whale ninety feet long be struck on the tail by a harpoon, two seconds will elapse before the blow will be communicated to the brain and a return communication cause the movement of the tail to damage the boat. It is not possible for every man to be a scientist; it is, however, possible for him, through literature, to be respectably familiar with the general tendencies of scientific thought. The ancients were un- acquainted with the art of cutting diamonds. According to Balzac, it was in searching how to make gold that learned men unconsciously created chemistry. Much to his regret, Darwin found that his devotion to scientific 370 LITERARY BREVITIES research killed all his natural love for music and poetry. Julius Caesar, in 46 B.C., brought Egyptian astronomers to Rome, to reform the calendar; this particular year was increased to fifteen months — 445 days. We are told of a professor who, in the fantastic days of geology, explained the Pyramids of Egypt to be the remains of a volcanic eruption, which had forced its way upwards by a slow and stately motion; that the hieroglyphics are crystalline for- mations; and that the shaft of the Great Pyramid is the air hole of the volcano. Until Galileo, born in 1564, no one believed in the earth's diurnal rotation on its axis; until Harvey, born fourteen years later, no one believed in the circulation of the blood. Montaigne remarks concerning the value of experimenting, that we must push against a door to ascertain that it is bolted. The ancient philoso- phers ascribed all sciences to the Muses, females; all sweetness and morality to the Graces, as stated by James Howell. The bodies of persons poisoned with arsenic, it has been noted by some one, are in death preserved by the very thing that caused their death. Charles XII of Sweden wanted to alter the method of counting by tens, and to substitute in its place sixty-four, because that number contains both a square and a cube, and being divided by two is reducible to a unit. A drop of prussic acid is harmless in a bucket of water. William James tells us, that matter is not that which produces conscious- ness, but that which limits it, and confines its intensity within certain limits. The same writer calls our science a drop, our ignorance a sea. About 600 B.C., Glaucus of Chios discovered the art of welding iron. A large and a small fire in the same spot, says Bacon, tend mutually to increase each other's heat, but luke-warm water poured into boiling water cools it. The infusion of blood was, in 1492, for the first time tried, in the case of a human being, SECRETS 371 on Pope Innocent VIII; the experiment did not save the Pope's life, although it cost three boys their lives. One drop of vinegar destroys a whole cask of honey. In Florence and Pisa, four hundred years ago, criminals were vivisected as brutes are today. Huxley thought sixty the age at which men of science ought to be strangled. Trained and organized common sense, is Huxley's defini- tion of science. Cotton Mather was the first person in the English-speaking world to practise inoculation for small- pox. Gibbon informs us, that the age of science has generally been the age of military virtue and success. Sir Arthur Helps predicts the coming of a day when there will be acquired the knowledge of the means of creating a pestilence. A certain one in Dante's purgatory boasts of coming from a city whence doth every science scintillate. Difficile est de scientiis inscienter loqui, is anonymous. Figures of most angles do nearest approach unto circles, which have no angles at all, says Sir Thomas Browne. SECRETS THREE can keep a secret, says Franklin, if two are dead. Philippides, being asked by King Lysima- chus what of his estate he should bestow upon him, answered, "Whatever you will provided it be none of your secrets." It is an observation of Chesterfield, that little secrets are commonly told you, but great ones are generally kept. William IV, in a speech to Freemasons, said, " Gentlemen, if my love for you equaled my ignorance of everything concerning you, it would be unbounded." A character in one of Congreve's plays declares, that a woman is exceeding good to keep a secret, for, though she should tell, yet she is not to be believed. There are secrets which are fatal to those who possess them, says 372 LITERARY BREVITIES Eugene Sue. The sea is a famous keeper of secrets, re- marks Balzac. That which I would keep a secret, says Erasmus, I tell to no man. Lessing thinks what one has told to one's friend he has told to no one. Bulwer asserts, that he from whom a woman can extract a secret will never be fit for public life. Some one has observed, that a secret is too much for one, too little for three, and enough for two. There is as much responsibility, says Helps, in imparting your secrets as in keeping those of your neighbor. SELF-CONCEIT HAYDON mentions one Sammons, who always seemed astonished that the battle of Waterloo had been gained and he not present. Self-love, says Goethe, exaggerates our faults as well as our virtues. Father Newman mentions one who is sui similis. Egotism, says Sarah Orne Jewett, is the best part of a man after eighty. Francis, the author of Junius, impudently wrote to Burke, "I wish you would let me teach you to write English." Sir Thomas Browne asserts, that he who discommendeth others, obliquely commendeth himself. Congreve asked Voltaire to look upon him, not as an author, but as a gentleman; and drew from Voltaire in reply, that had Congreve been so unfortunate as to be simply a gen- tleman, he should not have troubled himself to wait upon him. Bentley was so foolish as to attempt emen- dations of " Paradise Lost." A confident man who had never played the fiddle, said he had no doubt he could if he tried. It is an evil recklessness, observes Benson, not to weigh one's own deficiences. SELF-CONFIDENCE 373 SELF-CONFIDENCE WHEN it was reported to Grant, during a battle in the Wilderness, that one of the wings of his army was routed, he said, "I don't believe it," and went on whittling. Eagles fly alone; sheep herd together, is a remark of Sir Philip Sidney. Cicero thinks it not only arrogant, but profligate, for a man to disregard the world's opinion of himself. It has been noted, that Victor Hugo had the valuable trait of believing profoundly in himself. Balzac speaks of men so great as not to be afraid to confess their weakness. We are the victims of our own superiority, observes Balzac. When Thackeray had written a passage which particularly pleased him, he would put on his hat and rush out to find some friend to whom to read it. Le Sage speaks of one who polished up the brass on his fore- head a little. He who is sure of his own motives, says Goethe, can with confidence advance or retreat. Some one tells of a man who had the cheek of a Corinthian. According to Scott, there is no better antidote against entertaining too high an opinion of others than having an excellent one of ourselves at the very same time. Jtuskin would make the first of possessions self-possession. The man that stands by himself, says Emerson, the universe stands by him also. A strong tree wants no wreath about its trunk, is a remark of Browning. Mrs. Oliphant ob- serves, that it is well that every man should learn that his own exertions are his only trust. George Meredith con- fesses, that he lays himself open to the charge of feeling his position weak every time he abuses the contrary one. Goethe said his opinion on any matter was immensely strengthened if he found it accepted by one fellow-creature. To every bad, says Bulwer, there is a worse. Louis XIV thought there were occasions when it was necessary to 374 LITERARY BREVITIES know how to lose. No one can do anything well, says Emerson, who does not think that what he does is the center of the visible universe. SELF-CONTROL WHOEVER is in a hurry, some one observes, shows that the thing he is about is too big for him. George Eliot's Daniel Deronda has a wonderful faculty of standing perfectly still. There is never any good to be expected of young men, says Balzac, who confess their sins and repent and straightway fall into them again; a man of strong character only confesses his faults to him- self, and punishes himself for them. The ability to limit our desires, Madame Roland considered a proof of wisdom. Bismarck thought no horseman could afford to be always on the gallop. Goethe claimed, that when he had nothing to say he could hold his tongue. The law student, when in the garden, could conceive the cabbages to be scholars; but in the chair he could not conceive the scholars to be cabbages. It is a conceit of Bulwer, that if a hen would hold her tongue, nobody would know that she had laid an egg. It is an observation of James Howell, that Alex- ander subdued the world, Caesar his enemies, Hercules monsters; but that he who overcomes himself is the true valiant captain. Carlyle thinks the suffering man ought to consume his own smoke. It has been asserted, that he may hold anything who will hold his tongue. It is a confession of some one, that he is not over-fond of resisting temptation. SELF-KNOWLEDGE 375 SELFISHNESS IT is a remark of Lecky, that men come into the world with their benevolent affections very inferior in power to their selfish ones, and that the function of morals is to invert the order. George Meredith speaks of one who would have to write selfishness with a dash under it. Henry James thinks disappointment makes men selfish. John Bright was one of the most unselfish men who have ever lived. While Scott praised Wordsworth's poetry lavishly, the latter would not say one word in praise of Scott's writings. There are times, says Balzac, when selfishness is a sublime virtue. SELF-KNOWLEDGE IT is a remark of Cicero, that somehow we perceive what is defective more readily in others than we do in our- selves. The following is from Burns, — "O wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursel's as others see us." Who knows anyone save himself alone? Thackeray asks. Hawthorne discovered the fact, that men are often ashamed of what is best in them. It is Lemaitre's notion, that self-love carried to excess prevents self-knowledge. Tolstoy mentions one whose extreme indulgence for every one was founded on the knowledge of what was lacking in himself. Balzac says we respect a man who respects himself. Kant eulogizes the true man as one who does not want to lower himself in his own eyes, as preserving and glorifying in his own person the dignity of mankind. 376 LITERARY BREVITIES SENSIBILITY IF you want to keep people from reasoning, says Balzac, you must give them something to feel. Racine would have us pardon the tenderness of an old wound. SERVICE THEY also serve who only stand and wait, is Milton's. Who best bear his mild yoke, they serve him best, is Milton's also. Scott would have servants see and hear, and say nothing. SHAME HOMER was consumed with shame because he was unable to unfold a fisherman's riddle; Sophocles killed himself because one of his tragedies was hissed off the stage. Shame, says Bulwer, is not in the loss of other men's esteem, but in the loss of our own. The only shame, Pascal thinks, is to be shameless. SIMILES AS dismal as a mute at a funeral, is by Thackeray. As drunk as a Thracian. Bunyan notices one whose house is as empty of religion as the white of an egg is of savor. As ugly as iEsop or Thersites. Lenior quam pluma, is from Plautus. Unstable as water, is in Genesis. The attempt to make some people appreciate Browning would be like trying to make a savage understand the precession of the equinoxes. The following is from iEschylus, — "And like a ship with all its anchors out I must abide the storm." SIMILES 377 As mad as Ophelia. As testy as the devil with the gout, is anonymous. As beautiful as the vales of Thessaly. As deadly as the month of May. As Chaucer loved a flower. As safe as a star in heaven, is Goethe's. As important as an undertaker. As mean as King John of England. Hawthorne describes a girl as healthy as a wild flower. He promises like a shoemaker. New truth is as heady as new wine, is Hawthorne's. As high-toned as a constitutional headache. As spry as Joe Ireland, the Yorkshire jumper. As hungry as a convalescent, is Balzac's. As comfortable as an old shoe. As dumb as a fish, is probably two thousand years old. He talks pro- verbs like Sancho Panza. As conscienceless as Iago. As wise in admonitions as Polonius. Welcome as salt to sore eyes, is Scott's. Virtuous as a briar-rose, is Emer- son's. As fearful as Plutus, is Burton's. The artist compared her involuntarily to an exiled angel remembering heaven, is Balzac's. As futile as biting your thumb at a blind man. As obscure as an explanatory note, is Poe's. As fit as a flea, is Henry James's. As fat as a monk, is Rousseau's. As sincere as a baby's smile, is Hawthorne's. Barren as the Harmattan wind, is by Carlyle. As un- womanly as a long beard, belongs to Macaulay. As pious as a life-insurance agent. As safe as in a sanctuary, is by Spenser. Cervantes speaks of hiding oneself as close as a lizard. The same again tells of one undone like salt in water. Balzac notes that Dresden is as quiet as a sick room. As barbarous and ignorant as an Armenian slave. As splendid as an Aurelian triumph. Balzac speaks of one as calm and composed as a bankrupt on the day after his assignment. Henry James mentions one who looks as blank as a pickpocket. The same again compares a cer- tain one to a man desiring, but unable, to sneeze. As thirsty as sand, is anonymous. Stupid as a millionaire, is 378 LITERARY BREVITIES Dumas's. As incapable of blushing as an American Indian. As foolish as Antony to fight by sea. Roar like the groves of Garganus or the Tuscan sea, is from Horace. As pleased as a child at the appearance of the first snow. As easy as it is for a child to feel happy. Addison has a beautiful simile about the difficulty the mind has in disen- gaging itself from a subject long considered, — that it is like the tossing sea after the wind is still. A pretty girl's open mouth — the gates ajar. Tired as tombstones, is Browning's. As ambiguous as one of Cromwell's speeches. As sober as a camel, is Balzac's. The following is from Burns, — "Time but the impression stronger makes, As streams their channels deeper wear." You'll get as hoarse as a wolf, says Balzac. He could sing no better than an owl, is Thackeray's. As dead as a door- nail, is Shakspeare's. Even ministers of good things, says Richard Hooker, are like torches, a light to others, waste and destruction to themselves. That's as easy, remarks Shakspeare, as setting dogs on sheep. As silent as a pair of gamblers, is Balzac's. As helpless as an ele- phant, is Swift's. The following is from James Thom- son, — . - . . "Still more majestic shalt thou rise, More dreadful from each foreign stroke; As the loud blast that tears the skies Serves but to root thy native oak." I am like a creeper, observes one, I must cling to some- thing or die. Bryant has this fine touch in "The Prairies," — "Lo! they stretch In airy undulations, far away, As if the ocean, in his gentlest swell, Stood still, with all his rounded billows fixed, And motionless forever." SLANDER 379 Whittier speaks of "the slant javelins of rain." As hand- some as a vision, says Balzac. As cold as friendship, is Bonaparte's. As serious as an undertaker, is Bulwer's. With a face like a comic mask, is Balzac's. Of as little consequence as an egg-shell, is Swift's. As impossible as it would be to make a deaf mute appreciate a symphony. Lowell says he is as stupid as a public dinner. About as amiable as a wild boar, is Balzac's. As obsolete as selah, is Emerson's. Words unuttered are arrows still in the quiver, old proverb. As long as a Welsh pedigree, is anonymous. SINCERITY ROUSSEAU said of Robespierre, "He will do some- what; he believes every word he says." Nothing is more disgraceful, says Cicero, than insincerity. Honest minds are devoid of tact, Balzac observes. Sir, says Kent in "King Lear," 'tis my occupation to be plain. Heine observes, that with the most honest desire to be sincere, one cannot tell the truth about oneself; that Rousseau's self-portraiture is a lie, admirably executed, but still only a brilliant lie. Montaigne thinks it convicts a writer of some want of courage not to speak roundly of himself. Did you ever happen to hear of a pessimist sincere enough to cut his own throat? asks Lowell. SLANDER NONENTITIES are never slandered, remarks Balzac. Plato, it is said, had his detractors, who accused him of envy, lying, robbery, incontinence, and impiety. It is Mark Twain's belief, that few slanders can stand the wear of silence. 380 LITERARY BREVITIES J SLAVERY EFFERSON earnestly advocated the abolition of slavery. A chained slave for a porter was common at Rome. Jefferson called slavery "the enormity." He who fears serves, is anonymous. Emerson was once hissed by Harvard students for expressing anti-slavery sentiments in a lecture. Heine calls silence the honor of slaves. By a provision of the treaty of Utrecht, England was to be allowed to supply the Spanish possessions in America with negro slaves. At the time of the forming of the Constitu- tion, all the states except Massachusetts and New Hamp- shire had slaves. The next voyage of the Mayflower after transporting the Pilgrims to America, was to carry slaves from Africa to the West Indies. Shelley refused to use sugar in his tea and coffee, because cane was produced by slave labor. It was the elder Cato's maxim, that a slave ought either to be at work or asleep. Washington, though the owner of slaves, never bought or sold one. Emerson, in his anti-slavery addresses, proposed buying the slaves of their masters, and estimated the probable cost to be two thousand million dollars. William Penn, like Wash- ington, died a slave-owner. It is probable that the importation of slaves to the United States did not cease altogether up to 1860. Gladstone's father was a slave-owner. A disturbed liberty is better than a quiet servitude, is anonymous. SLEEP HORACE speaks of swimming the Tiber three times as a means of inducing sleep. Scipio was a great sleeper. The following is by Sir Philip Sidney, — "—Sleep, The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release." SOCIETY 381 George Meredith calls a pillow the best counselor. Lessing possessed the power of sleeping at any moment he chose to close his eyes. Chaucer's woman never was idle but when she slept. SOCIETY LOWELL thought it delightful to meet a man who knows just what you do not know. We may gain much good by associating with people unlike ourselves. Madame de Sevigne was of the opinion, that there is nothing of so much consequence as being in good company. Garrick enjoyed being in the company of men greater than himself. Good books are good society. Victor Hugo observes, that solitude is good for great, and bad for little minds. Amiel makes all social difference turn upon money. I'll send you my bill of fare, said a certain Lord B., when trying to persuade Swift to dine with him. Swift replied, that he would prefer knowing his bill of company. Dryden made Will's coffee-house the great resort for the wits of his time. De Quincey asserts, that no man will ever unfold the capacities of his own intellect who does not at least checker his life with solitude. The French call a "bread and butter call" a "visit of digestion. " There is a great difference, says Seneca, betwixt the choos- ing of a man and the not excluding him. According to Macaulay, the general tendency of schism is to widen. Balzac declares, that between persons who are perpetually in each other's company dislike or love increases daily. Matthew Arnold has tried to imagine the feelings of Virgil and Shakspeare, if they had been thrown into the company of the Pilgrim Fathers. A club in New York, called the "Bread and Cheese Club," was founded by James Fenimore Cooper. Theodore Parker thinks books, nature, and God afford the only society you can always 382 LITERARY BREVITIES have and on reasonable terms. In the society to which Swift belonged, the president was chosen every week; the retiring president treated and chose his successor. Swift loved to be worst of the company. It has been observed by some one, that when bad men combine, the good must associate. Hannibal himself was unmanned by the looseness of Campania. Every one lives in public in a country town, Balzac observes. It is a remark of Belloc, that great social forces drive themselves out of their own channels; that they undermine their banks. We shook hands with a routine smile, says William De Morgan. We are only at our ease, says Balzac, with our equals. Where on earth, asks Landor, is there so much society as in a beloved child? The Southern girl of the Old South, says T. N. Page, never "came out," because she had never been in. Nee tecum possum vivere, nee sine te, is from Martial. Keep with good men, and thou shalt be one of them, is by Cervantes. I am communicative, and do not like to enjoy a pleasure alone, says Madame de Sevigne. With an Englishman, Emerson states, an introduction is a sacrament. Fielding declares, that in England, particularly, acquaintance is almost as slow of growth as an oak. Some one has defined Bohemianism as plain living and high thinking; Philis- tinism, as rich living and low thinking. With vain people, Tolstoy affirms, one becomes vain oneself. Hamerton says an Englishman repels another Englishman when he meets him on the Continent. The same observes, that steady workers do not need much company. It is re- marked by Henry James, that a saint is abstractly a higher type of man than the strong man, because he is adapted to the highest society conceivable. STATESMANSHIP 383 SOLITUDE THERE are few mental wounds, says Balzac, that solitude cannot cure. The world is too much with us, Wordsworth observes. STATESMANSHIP ANDREW JACKSON was the first who crossed the Alleghanies to take a seat in the White House. John Quincy Adams, when in the senate, voted against the Louisiana Purchase as being unconstitutional. Schiller refers to one as the "Atlas of the State." In warning against the premature agitation of slavery, John Quincy Adams said, "The most salutary medicines, unduly ad- ministered, are the most deadly poisons." It has been remarked, that the peculiar characteristic of Lincoln's administration was, that he never did anything so hastily that he was obliged to undo it. When John Adams, in 1777, went as commissioner to France, he had his dispatch bags weighted, so that in case of capture they could be sunk instantly. James Madison was called the "Father of the Constitution." According to Sainte-Beuve, the historian is employed to describe the malady when the sick man is dead; the statesman is employed to treat the sick man while he is still living. Lord Chatham declared and avowed, that, for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation, no body of men, could stand in preference to the General Congress of Philadel- phia. It was a maxim of Louis XIV, that empires are preserved only as they are acquired, that is to say, by vigor, by vigilance, by toil. Themistocles said he could not fiddle, but he could make a little village a great city. 384 LITERARY BREVITIES SUCCESS SUCCESS at Marathon spoiled Miltiades; in like manner, Alcibiades's reception after eight years' exile spoiled him. The lame in the path, says Bacon, outstrip the swift who wander from it. The camomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows, is by Shak> speare. They fail, and they alone, writes T. B. Aldrich, who have not striven. Swift tells us, that the great turns are not always given by strong hands. Hawthorne asserts, that success makes an Englishman intolerable. Thoreau observes, that though a hen should sit all day she could lay only one egg. It is claimed by Greville, that a man's virtues are sometimes an obstacle to his success. It is no shame, says Seneca, not to overtake a man, if we follow him as fast as we can. Let those laugh who win, is anony- mous. Atterbury's enemies used to say he was made a bishop because he was so bad a dean. Great and ac- knowledged force, Burke affirms, is not inspired, either in effect or in opinion, by an unwillingness to exert itself. No case is won till it is tried, observes Balzac. A majority is always better than the best repartee, says Beaconsfield. It is said to be sometimes an advantage to a man to be the subject of an outrage. The half is often more than the whole, says Hesiod. iEschylus calls obedience the mother of success. Halifax refers to Rochester as being kicked up stairs. In ipso limine victoriae stamus, is from Curtius Rufus. Nothing violent is lasting, Richardson observes. Little men build up great ones, according to Landor. It is an observation of Holmes, that our self- made men, who govern the country by their wealth and influence, have found their place by adapting themselves to the particular circumstances in which they were placed, and not by studying the broad maxims of Poor Richard or SUCCESS 385 any other moralist or economist. Eminence in one call- ing, it has been observed, may fail of recognition among educated men of other callings. Eugene Sue pronounces the success that is difficult to be the most certain. If you are not too large for the place you occupy, remarks Garfield, you are too small for it. Gales that refresh us while they propel us forward, is by Landor. Landor makes Aristotle say of Phocion, "He conquered with few soldiers, and convinced with few words." Aristotle de- clares it easy to miss the mark, but difficult to hit it. Nothing emboldens one like success, observes Dumas. Non omnia possumus omnes, is from Virgil. Much dearer be the things that come through hard distress, is a line from Spenser. Not all of one's efforts can be successful. Do not rely upon good luck for success. Success implies enthusiasm about something. Happy, says Goethe, they who soon detect the chasm that lies between their wishes and their powers. The heaviest, Carlyle observes, will reach the bottom. It is Lincoln's assertion, that the leading rule for the lawyer, as for every other calling, is diligence. According to a Sclavonian proverb, it is with men as with asses; whoever would keep them fast must find a very good hold at their ears. Carlyle declares, that Richard III knew a man when he saw one. The maids of honor took great care that no mirrors were allowed in Queen Elizabeth's apartments. When the storks meet in Asia, Robert Burton states, he that comes last is torn in pieces. R. L. Stevenson wished to have inscribed on his tomb, "He clung to his paddle." Why jump off the lad- der so near the top? asks Charles Reade. It has been said of Marlborough, that he never fought a battle which he did not gain, nor laid siege to a town he did not take. Intelli- gent persistence, John Fiske affirms, is capable of making one person a majority. I attempted too many things, was 386 LITERARY BREVITIES the confession of Napoleon. It took twelve years, Colonel Higginson assures us, to sell five hundred copies of Emer- son's " Nature." Faber est suae quisque fortunae, is Seneca's. One of Lowell's early lectures at Concord brought him the insignificant sum of five dollars. For every action hath its hour of speeding, is Tasso's line. Greatness, Hazlitt declares, is great power producing great effects. The mathematical line called asymtote, constantly approaches another line but never quite reaches it. It is the assertion of some one, that the man who devotes himself to the attainment of material ends is liable to find, when the goal is reached, that he is no longer capable of enjoying the prize. The example of great men is the best guide to greatness. The proverb calls attention to the fact, that the wren mounts as high as the eagle by getting upon his back. It has been observed, that this age wants men who can do things, not only well, but quickly. More than half the world, it has been said, thinks after it is too late. Pestalozzi says the only real help is self-help. If we miss the mark, Macaulay tells us, it makes no difference whether we aim too high or too low. It does not follow that a man is capable of leading because he is incapable of fol- lowing. When great the theme, 'tis easy to excel, says Euripides. Polisher needs precious stone no less than precious stone needs polisher, is Browning's. Goldsmith declares, that whatever employment you follow with perseverance and assiduity will be found to fit you. There's no story that can't be spoiled in the telling, Terence affirms. When a leading clinical practitioner takes a young man to his bosom, says Balzac, that young man has, as they say, his foot in the stirrup. I would rather see one fair opening in life than be confused by three dazzling ones, remarks Van Dyke. The following is Milton's, — SUCCESS 387 "Who overcomes By force hath overcome but half his foe." A fear of becoming ridiculous is the best guide of life, says Beaconsfield, and will save a man from all sorts of scrapes. The same thinks it a great thing to make a fortune, but a greater one to keep it when made. No affec- tions and a great brain, says Beaconsfield, — these are the men to command the world; no affections and a small brain, — such is the stuff of which they make petty vil- lains. Henry James mentions one who calls himself a perfectly equipped failure. Greatness unshared, says Schiller, is torture; it was a burden, he declares, to the Deity, and he created angels to partake his counsels. Macaulay thinks all great men have been careful to sub- ordinate the talent or habit of ridicule. Self-confidence, observes Schiller, has always been the parent of great ac- tions. How often apparent complete success is the precur- sor of failure. Neither Cromwell nor Napoleon transmitted an enduring political institution. Power, Balzac remarks, does not consist in striking with force or with frequency, but in striking true. In playing with such a gamester, said Tilly, not to have lost is to have won a great deal. Keep thy shop, Franklin said, and thy shop will keep thee. The many fail, the one succeeds, is a line from Tennyson. Victor Hugo gives as a reason why innovations have to contend with difficulty, that few wish them well. Seneca thinks some virtues require the rein, others the spur. Plutarch remarks, that Coriolanus was always endeavoring to excel himself. The following is from Shakspeare, — "Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie Which we ascribe to heaven." Balzac speaks of one whose manner was marked by the confidence born of success. In private as in public life, 388 LITERARY BREVITIES observes Madame de Stael, men oftener succeed by the absence of certain qualities than by any they possess. Once you fix the confidence of your superior, says George Meredith, you're water-proof. Heine observes, that everywhere in the world we see that men, when they once begin to fall, do so according to Newton's law, ever faster and faster as they descend to misery. This from Addison, — "'Tis not in mortals to command success, But we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll deserve it." It is Hare's belief, that those who have light in them- selves will not revolve as satellites. Some one has wisely observed, that the applause of the multitude accompanies success rather than merit. It is a sarcastic remark of Hare, that some persons make their way through the difficulties of life as Hannibal is said to have done when crossing the Alps, by pouring vinegar upon them. So- bieski was a successful warrior, but ill adapted to the office of king; just so Grant was a great general, but only an indifferent President. There is no harm, says Owen Wister, in going from the tow-path to the White House; the point is, what you do when you get there. Sir Arthur Helps believes, that success in life is mostly gained by unity of purpose. Those who fail, William De Morgan states, get scant quarter from those who never try. Sher- idan's "Rivals," upon its first appearance, was damned. Benson thinks a disappointment is often of itself a rich incentive to try again. Never mind, said Lincoln, I will hold McClellan's horse, if he will only bring us suc- cess. It has been observed, that purely defensive tactics, whether in physical or intellectual contests, rarely succeed. Only one of Shelley's books, "The Cenci," went into a second edition. Balzac calls failure high treason against SUCCESS 389 society. It is a remark of Bulwer, that the State coach requires that all the horses should pull together. Brief danger, says Landor, is the price of long security. We are told that the anvil must do its work as well as the hammer. There being no advice so judicious that it may not have a bad issue, suggests Richelieu, one is often obliged to follow opinions that he least approves. James Parton gives as the grand secret of success, the fact that successful men take one hundred times the trouble that men usually do. A man is never quagmired till he stops, says Landor. We are assured, that it is better to bear the difficulties than the reproaches of the world. Suc- cess, says Allan Cunningham, seldom teaches humility. Strive to concentrate yourself, is Goethe's advice. Ed- win Forrest once walked down to the footlights and said to the audience, "If you don't applaud, I can't act." To execute great things, it is said, man must live as though he had never to die. It is an observation of Hay- don, that you cannot do anything twice in life with the same effect. All beginnings are fine, as Richelieu thinks. According to Fielding, nothing more aggravates ill success than the near approach to good. That man is happy, says The Spectator, who can believe of his son, that he will es- cape the follies and indiscretions of which he himself was guilty, and pursue and improve everything that was valu- able in him. He that climbs a ladder, Scott asserts, must begin at the first round. Nothing is more dangerous than to aim at your enemy and miss him. From Lord Acton we learn, that bonfires that are good in the dark obscure the daylight. When Dean Stanley asked what he ought to do, Carlyle told him to do his best. It is a dictum of Lorenzo de' Medici, that he only knows how to conquer who knows how to forgive. These lines are Bulwer 's, — 390 LITERARY BREVITIES "In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves For a bright manhood, there is no such word As fail." Addison affirms that method makes business easy. Trol- lope thinks there is no merit in a public man like success. Despair, declares Richelieu, makes victims sometimes victors. It is a proverb, says Horace Walpole, that gold may be bought too dear. Daniel Webster's rule in fishing was to fish in the difficult places, which others were likely to skip. Says Dante, — " — not each impression Is good, albeit good may be the wax." Dumas tells of one who had risen so high that there was nothing for him to do but to descend. The following lines are Dryden's, — "But how much more the ship her safety owes To him who steers than him that only rows." How many men have been made great by their vices, says Bulwer. Dumas thinks it never a fault to arrive too soon. SUPERSTITION AMONG the Tartars today, as it was six hundred years ago, it is an offense to touch the ropes or tread on the threshold when entering a tent. Charles II touched nearly one hundred thousand persons for scrofula; whatever cures were effected were doubtless due to exercise in traveling and fresh air. Cornishmen eat fish from the tail towards the head, to bring other fishes' heads towards the shore. The Russian peasant covers up the saint's picture, that it may not see him do wrong. The reason for burying Alaric under a stream SUPERSTITION 391 was to prevent his ghost from getting out. The German peasants have a saying, that it is wrong to slam a door, lest one should pinch a soul in it. The Shetlanders have a superstition, that he who saves a drowning man will receive at his hands some deep wrong. She interpreted it as people interpret oracles, — to suit themselves, — is by Balzac. Zola says miracles only begin when things can- not be explained. Augustus Caesar was frightened, if he happened in the morning to put on his left shoe first. Napoleon was wont to consult Madame Lemormand as to his future fortunes. When Timoleon was in the temple of Delphi seeking favor before commencing his expedition against Syracuse, a fillet intertwined with the symbols of victory fell upon his head from one of the statues. It has been remarked by John Fiske, that to untrained minds in all ages the substitution of a familiar and calculable agency for one remote and incalculable has had an atheis- tic look, and consequently it has had a tendency either to frighten honest inquirers or to induce their neighbors to burn them; and that this state of things has undoubtedly been a drawback on the progress of mankind. It is the superstitious notion, that neither witches nor any other evil spirits have power to follow a person farther than the middle of the next running water. If you see the basilisk first, you kill him; if he sees you first, he kills you. Huxley observes, that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as supersti- tions. Owing to some superstitious notion, Swift always drew up the bedclothes with his left hand. 392 LITERARY BREVITIES TALENT CHARLES KINGSLEY said his father possessed every talent except that of using his talents. Weir Mitchell observes of some one, that he had a mighty talent for neglect. Amiel would have a man shape his arrow out of his own wood. I have no great talents, says Mrs. Craigie, so I must make the best use of my faults. TASTE A LOVE of tulips, Balzac insists, is an acquired taste. The same says gravy is the triumph of taste in cookery. According to Hamerton, color is a mere personal sensation, that differs with different indi- viduals quite as much as taste. Tennyson liked tobacco as intensely as Goethe hated it. Thoreau, being asked what fish he liked best, replied, "The nearest." Pepys was disgusted with "Hudibras," when he first read it, though it was all the rage. I lose confidence in a book when I find myself able to skip in reading it. Macaulay confessed to a liking for some poor novels. Thoreau found but little life and thought in novels. Offer a cow nutmeg, says Luther, and she will reject it for old bay. Some one has defined taste as the faculty of coinciding with the opinion of the majority. Gladstone read Rous- seau's "Confessions" with great impatience. It is not by his own taste, observes Macaulay, but by the taste of the fish, that the angler is determined in the choice of bait. Chesterton remarks, that the life of society is superficial, but it is only very superficial people who object to the superficial. We must not be too arbitrary in our tastes; we may chance to dislike a good writer; and we must re- spect the general taste. Lowell loved above all other read- TASTE 393 ing the early letters of men of genius. A literary man late in life is quite inclined to read novels. I wish, observes Lessing, that the spring would sometimes appear in red; the everlasting green is so fatiguing. Petrarch's father, having found the works of Cicero which his son had in hid- ing, threw them into the fire, being determined that the son should give up his taste for literature and devote himself to the study of civil law. Carlyle boastingly declared, that he neither knew nor cared anything about Titian. Lowell thought possibly the reason why he liked Buckle so much was, that he disagreed with him so much. A man once applied for a divorce on the ground that his wife did not like Shakspeare and would read Ouida. How cherries and berries taste, it has been asserted, one must ask chil- dren and sparrows. It has been declared, that, in La Bruyere, thought often resembles a woman who is better dressed than beautiful; that she has less person than style. Balzac finds something in the art of wearing a hat that escapes definition. Blanche Howard thinks liking step- mothers is a cultivated taste. In reading, states Goethe, you throw aside the book if it displeases you, but at the theater you must endure. No good reader, declares James T. Field, ever outgrows Walter Scott. Emerson was never able to complete the reading of any one of Haw- thorne's stories. Lamb relates, that on once letting slip at the table that he was not fond of a certain popular dish, a friend at his elbow begged him at any rate not to say so, or the world would think him mad. A young man, what- ever his genius may be, says Macaulay, is no judge of such a writer as Thucydides. At this moment, affirms Goethe, I am so taken with Michelangelo, that after him I have no taste for even nature herself. It has been observed of Walt Whitman, that perhaps no man who ever lived liked so many things and disliked so few 394 LITERARY BREVITIES as he. We are advised, that a cigar once out should never be relighted. TEMPERANCE IN respect to the use of wine, Dr. Johnson thought total abstinence easier than moderation. Steele tells of one wHo urged with a melancholy face, that all his family had died of thirst. Cardinal Manning practised total abstinence rigorously all his life. On occasions of religious festivals or friendly congratulation, every Greek considered even excessive indulgence in wine becoming. In the opinion of Lyman Abbott, there is proportionally more drinking and less drunkenness in America than in any other country possessing a similar climate. Boswell confessed, that on a certain occasion he had been "intox- icated," but not "drunk." A certain Duke used to say, "Next Friday, by the blessing of Heaven, I propose to be drunk." Weir Mitchell mentions a stream called Temperance River, because it had no bar at its mouth. The following is from Milton, — "Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine." Wine, says Schiller, invents nothing; it only tattles. Alexander was very temperate in eating, but infrequently drank to excess. As abstemious as a Hindoo, is Matthew Arnold's. The following familiar quotation is Shak- speare's, — "O, that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their brains!" Again from Shak- speare this, — "Dost thou think, because thou art virtu- ous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" It has been stated that Robert Walpole's father was wont to make his son drink more than his just share, on the ground TIME 395 that no son should ever be allowed to have enough of his senses to see that his father was tipsy. The Spartans intoxicated their helots to make their children abhor drunkenness. This from Cowper, — " — the cups That cheer but not inebriate." Montaigne was before Dr. Johnson in asserting, that moderation is less easy to maintain than abstinence. TEMPTATION EVERY bird, observes Goethe, has its decoy, and every man is led in a way peculiar to himself. It is asserted by George Eliot, that no man is matriculated in the art of life till he has been well tempted. Balzac describes a woman lovely enough to bring the angel Raphael to perdition. Mrs. Craigie would have us be- lieve, that there is no strength so great and abiding as that which follows from a resisted temptation. TIME rnr^HE following is from Young, — "We take no note of time Save by its loss." The same again, — "Procrastination is the thief of time." The Ephesian temple, observes Carlyle, which had employed many wise heads and strong arms for a lifetime to build, could be unbuilt by one madman in a single hour. 396 LITERARY BREVITIES TRANSLATION CC. EVERETT declares, that one who translates the poem into prose has touched the airy bubble and it has burst. The best in Horace is untranslatable. It were as wise, remarks Shelley, to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its color and odor, as seek to transfuse from one language to another the creation of a poet. The spirit of poetry, says W. J. Mickle, is sure to evaporate in literal trans- lation. Has not Dante himself told us, that no poetry can be translated? asks Lowell. T TREASON HE following is a translation from the Latin, "Treason ne'er prospers; for when it does, None dare call it treason." Themistocles the Athenian and Pausanias the Lacedae- monian, the most distinguished Hellenes of their day, both turned out traitors. This from Shakspeare, — "For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like Another fall of man." TRUTH JOHN STUART MILL once made the assertion, that the working classes of England were given to lying. Truth, Emerson affirms, is ever born in a manger. Mil- ton says a man may be a heretic in the truth. Heine observes, that the deepest truth blooms only out of the deepest love. Amiel is of the opinion, that an error is TRUTH 397 the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth it contains. Locke approved of debating, only so far as it arrived at truth, and was not practised for ostentation. Whateley observes, that the variety of men's opinions furnishes a proof of how many must be mistaken. From Lowell the following, — "They must upward still And onward, who would keep abreast of truth." To speak in "broad Scotch" is to speak plainly. A lie was told by a certain king, whose citizens hearing it and not knowing what a lie was, asked if it were white, black, or blue. Lord Chesterfield, in defining a gentleman, declared that truth made the distinction. Lawyer Pleydell always spoke truth of a Saturday night. Balzac affirms, that all the horrors that romance-writers think they invent, are forever below the truth. Shielded and helm'd and weaponed with the truth, is Schiller's. Likewise this, — "A brave man hazards life, but not his conscience." Sir Henry Wotton's sentiment facetiously written in an album was this, Legatus est vir bonus peregre missus ad mentiendum rei publicae causa. If it comes to prohibiting, asserts Milton, there is not aught more likely to be prohibited than truth itself. Carlyle's father was a stone mason; the son always took delight in pointing out the excellence of the work done by his father. Lying children have often grown up into truthful men. I have something to tell you, says Balzac, which can't be sweet- ened. Dowden assures us, that even the devil, to serve his turn, can tell the truth. The only morality taught by the Persians is said to have been truthfulness, Joubert insists, that there are truths that must be colored to make them visible. Balzac allows that historians are privileged liars, who lend their pen to popular beliefs, exactly as most newspapers of the day express nothing but the 398 LITERARY BREVITIES opinions of their readers. One of the peculiarities of James II was, that whenever his opinion was not adopted he fancied that his veracity was questioned. It is the belief of Bliss Perry, that amateur search for truth has always flourished, and is likely to flourish always, in the United States. From Shakspeare we have what fol- lows, — "For truth can never be confirmed enough, Though doubt did ever sleep." Gladstone is free to assert, that Charles I was no doubt a dreadful liar; that Cromwell perhaps did not always tell the truth; and that Elizabeth was a tremendous liar. When it was remarked to Walpole, that George II would not lie, "Not often" was Walpole's reply. Wal- pole said to an insolent Hanoverian hanger-on of George I, Mentiris impudentissime. Tell the truth and shame the devil, is from Shakspeare. Days that are to come, we have been told, are wisest witnesses. In the opinion of Chesterfield, the heart never grows better with age; a young liar will be an old one. The following are Bry- ant's famous lines, — "Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again; The eternal years of God are hers; But error, wounded, writhes in pain, And dies amid his worshippers." Scott observes, that when truth is spoken for the purpose of deceiving, it is little better than a lie in disguise. Noth- ing is great, says Lessing, which is not true. Says Byron, — "The devil speaks truth much oftener than he's deemed; He hath an ignorant audience." It is difficult, Rousseau observes, to think nobly when we think for a livelihood; to be able to dare even to speak TRUTH 399 great truths, an author must be independent of success. For truth is stronger than a tyrant's sword, is by Sopho- cles. In truth lives beauty, says Browning. So this from the same, - « Mom . g breaking there _ The granite ridge pricks through the mist, turns gold As wrong turns right." Plutarch calls truth the greatest good man can receive, and the goodliest blessing that God can give. Truth has an accent of its own, claims Eugene Sue. Logic, says Macaulay, admits of no compromise. A man who really loves truth, Bishop Butler affirms, is almost as rare in the world as a black swan. A gentleman is a man of truth, according to Emerson. Jefferson declared there was nothing true in the newspapers but the advertise- ments. Bishop Butler, before leaving school, wrote to a friend, "I intend to make truth the business of my life." Nothing so endures, Carlyle asserts, as a truly spoken word. Among the gods, they say, Rumor always tells the truth. When the brains are out, Carlyle says, para- phrasing Shakspeare, an absurdity will die. Hawthorne pronounces a forced smile uglier than a frown. The highest perfection of human reason, observes Pascal, is to know that there is an infinity of truth beyond its reach. The boys at Rugby used to say it was a shame to tell Arnold a lie — he always believed one. This from Wordsworth, — "How verse may build a princely throne On humble truth." Shaftesbury thought ridicule the test of truth. William James insists, that truth is made largely out of previous truths; that men's beliefs at any time are so much experi- ence funded. Thackeray is generous enough to think, that it is by believing themselves in the right, that men 400 LITERARY BREVITIES have perpetrated nine-tenths of the tyranny of this world. It is a statement of Heine, that Lessing could do every- thing for truth except lie for it. Lecky thinks it a moral duty to pursue truth, whether it leads to pleasure or pain. All are madmen, asserts Landor, who draw out hidden truths. Tolstoy thinks no truth presents itself alike to any two men. According to J. B. Crozier, the deepest truths can often be got out of the poorest and simplest materials. Benson insists, that absolute truth is not the property of any creed or school or nation; that the whole lesson of history is the lesson of the danger of affirmation. Error is not to be advanced by perspicacity, says Addison. Benson thinks boys, as a rule, are not truthful. TYRANNY THE Roman Emperor Caligula expressed a wish, that the Roman people had but a single neck, that he might strike it off at a single blow. Seneca thinks it a dangerous office to give good advice to intemperate princes. Rebellion to tyrants is obedience, to God, is a dictum of Franklin. Marsyas, for dreaming that he had killed Dionysius, was ordered by Dionysius to be killed. Qui praesentes metuunt, in absentia hostes erunt, is from Quintus Curtius. Holmes always, when in England, felt as if English servants expected to be trampled on. There is an old saying, that whoever takes a child gets a master. Macaulay remarks, that those who trample on the help- less are disposed to cringe to the powerful. Poe has ob- served, that if there is on earth a supreme and unqualified despotism, it is the despotism of a master mind in boy- hood, over the less energetic spirits of its companions. To swell the taxes levied upon the Gauls, who paid a cer- tain sum each month, an enterprising Gallic captive whom USE 401 Caesar left in Gaul to exact the greatest possible tribute, added two months to the year, making the number four- teen instead of twelve. Balzac speaks of the tyranny of an all-absorbing thought. The Persian Sapor held as a prisoner the Roman Emperor Valerian, and every time he mounted his horse he put his foot on the neck of a Roman emperor. The worst of all tyrannies, De Tocque- ville remarks, is the tyranny of cowards. UNFILIAL SPIRIT AN evil more severe and rude than age or sickness, observes Theognis, is dealt to him who rears a thankless offspring. We are told of a heart- less rascal who would be capable of turning his father's bones into dominoes. Balzac speaks of lending money to a Chinaman, and taking the body of his father for secur- ity. Neither Cicero nor John Stuart Mill once mentions his mother in any part of his writings. From Shakspeare we have this, — "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child." USE THE bow must not be bent too much nor too long, says William Black, but bent it must be and not a useless stick. The used key is always bright, remarks Franklin. It is a statement of Junius, that the feather lhat adorns the royal bird supports its flight; that if you strip him of his plumage you fix him to the earth. If a thing is kept seven years, says the proverb, some use will be found for it. The Duke of Norfolk, when betrayed by his supposed friend, de- 402 LITERARY BREVITIES clared, that knowing how to distrust is the only sinew of wisdom. VERSATILITY CICERO thinks Plato might have been a Demos- thenes, or Demosthenes a Plato; Aristotle an Isocrates, or Isocrates an Aristotle. John Tyler was a skilful violin player. Joseph Jefferson was an actor, an author, and a painter. Sophocles held the rank of general as a colleague of Pericles and Thucydides. Bryant was an expert botanist. Father Newman played the violin. Charles V thought the man who understands four languages worth four men. George Eliot was a thor- ough musician, being especially proficient as a pianist. v VIRTUE IRTUE'S beyond the reach of fate, some one observes. The following is from Milton, — "Goodness thinks no ill Where no ill seems." Some one has remarked, that military virtues receive more of applause than virtues of any other kind. Alison thinks characters of imperfect goodness constitute the great majority of mankind. La Rochefoucauld would have it, that our virtues are often only our vices in disguise. It is of great importance, says Sydney Smith, to keep public opinion on the side of virtue. Balzac declares vir- tue based on reasons to be invincible. This from Shak- speare, — "The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair, if they were not cherished by our virtues." Landor calls time and VIRTUE 403 virtue the only losses that are irrevocable. The following is Wordsworth's, — "The good die first, And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust Burn to the socket." Gibbon thinks real virtue is sometimes excited by unde- served applause. From Shakspeare this, — "Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water." It is a remark of Thoreau, that there is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted. Seneca thinks it hard for a man to be both popular and virtuous. Ac- cording to Chesterfield, conscious virtue is the only solid foundation of all happiness. The zenith of all virtue is resignation, Balzac thinks. Bacon calls blushing the livery of virtue. Virtue, observes Balzac, considers herself so beautiful that she may dispense with the cul- tivation of charm. True virtue, says Gibbon, is placed at an equal distance between the opposite vices. Dry- den speaks of one who seldom does good with good inten- tion. Steele calls glory nothing but the shadow of virtue. If virtue leads to conduct, observes Joubert, con- duct leads to virtue. Macaulay thinks it the highest proof of virtue to possess boundless power without abus- ing it. Emerson regards a series of humble efforts more meritorious than solitary miracles of virtue. It is an Eastern saying, that a good deed hath length of life. The virtue of women has been pronounced the finest invention of men. Emerson calls rectitude a perpetual victory. Money capital, says Balzac, can be spent and wasted, but moral capital can't. Quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam, praemia si tollas? is anonymous. Her- bert Spencer asks at what rate per annum wrong becomes right. Juvenal says virtue alone is true nobility. The following is from Schiller, — 404 LITERARY BREVITIES "Virtue I know may often be severe, But never is she cruel and inhuman." There are virtues so splendid, as Balzac thinks, that they necessitate obscurity. Pascal would not measure the strength of a man's virtue by his occasional efforts, but by his ordinary life. There is no virtue like necessity, is Shakspeare's. Much virtue in if, is his also. For who so firm, that cannot be seduced? is Shakspeare's question. While thou livest, enjoins Marcus Aurelius, while it is in thy power, be good. There is no man but approves of virtue, Seneca asserts, although but few pursue it. This is Shakspeare's, — "The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good." This also, — "How poor an instrument May do a noble deed." It is the opinion of Seneca, that one may be a good physi- cian, a good governor, or a good grammarian, without being a good man. Landor affirms, that men, like col- umns, are only strong while they are upright. His good is — knowing he is bad, is said by Browning. Emerson considers all plus good, only put it in the right place. A good name is better than bags of gold, declares Cervantes. Few men, observes Balzac, deny themselves the luxury of some good action. It was Sir Edward Coke who as- serted, that corporations have no souls. It is a dictum of Talleyrand, that the love of glory can only create a hero, but that the contempt of it creates a great man. It was a declaration of Madame Roland, that justice towards ourselves is wisdom; justice towards others, vir- tue. It is only when we immolate self to principle, de- clares Madame de Stael, that we are truly virtuous. It is a statement of Sir Arthur Helps, that it is seldom given to man to do unmixed good. Henry van Dyke VIRTUE 405 believes, that many a man has been worried into vice by well-meant but wearisome admonitions to be virtu- ous. It is easy to be virtuous on ten thousand a year, says Thackeray. When virtue is departed from most individuals, Robespierre observes, you will find it in the corporate existence of the people. Be virtuous and you will be happy, Whistler remarks, but you won't have a good time. Barrett Wendell thinks vice less various, far less individual, than virtue. Benvenuto Cellini de- clares, that virtues are rarely at home with vices. At Rome there were two temples, one dedicated to Virtue, the other to Honor; and there was no way to enter the last but through the first. Virtue, says Bacon, like a diamond, is best plain set. May virtue be your guide and fortune your companion, is James Howells' grace- ful wish. Honores mutant mores, nunquam in meliores, is anonymous. Hypocrisy is the highest compliment to virtue, is anonymous. All virtue is difficult, remarks Mrs. Browning. Lecky thinks the morals of men are more governed by their pursuits than by their opinions. The same tells us, that Rome produced many heroes, but no saint. The same again, — "In every age virtue has consisted of the cultivation of the same feelings, though the standards of excellence attained have been different." Enthusiasm, that virtue within a virtue, is the way Balzac expresses it. His virtues are obstacles to his success, Greville remarks. No virtue is safe that is not enthusiastic, says Sir J. R. Seeley. Stanley Hall asserts, that real virtue requires enemies. Were I as good as he, I should like to die, for fear I could not keep it up, is anonymous. 406 LITERARY BREVITIES WAR IN our Civil War, Huxley sympathized with the North, Tyndall with the South. The Lacedaemo- nian soldiers sang war songs when entering an engage- ment, and marched to the fife; the other Greeks went to battle without music and without uniform step. Battles are often named for places distant from the place where the fight actually took place; Alexander's famous battle of Arbela was fought at a distance of twenty miles from Arbela. Wellington said Napoleon lacked the patience requisite for defensive operations. Spartan generals made no speeches before battle, but relied upon previous thorough drill. The Esquimaux never go to war. Bonaparte used to say, that one of the principal requisites for a general was an accurate calculation of time. General Grant regarded patience to be the first quality of a general. It is remarked by McCarthy, that if Count Von Moltke had been withdrawn from ac- tive service according to the rule now favored in England, the world would never have known that he was the great- est Continental soldier since Napoleon. Hannibal's army, in fifteen years, never had a panic or mutinied. In revolutions the rebellious party is usually defeated at first, as was the case with the Roundheads against Charles I; not so, however, in our civil war. The French Revolution was an attempt to reform too fast; John Adams calls it the work of a blind giant. John Fiske, speaking of the treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, declares, that no other treaty ever transferred such an immense por- tion of the earth's surface from one nation to another. The gilded iron cross over the new entrance to Harvard College library was captured from the French at Louis- burg in 1745. They conquered in their very flight, is a WAR 407 sentence from Thucydides. It was noted by Brasidas, that the enemy often has weak points which wear the appearance of strength. The same remarks, that to fly and to advance being alike honorable, no imputation can be thrown on the soldiers' courage. The same, again, regards re-enforcements always more formidable to an enemy than the troops with which they are already engaged. Napoleon's famous epigram was, — "There is but one thing worse than a bad general, and that is two good ones." Scott said twelve Highlanders and a bagpipe made a rebellion. The earliest naval engagement on record is that between the Corinthians and Corcy- reans, which occurred in the seventh century B.C. The Roman soldiers were trained to use heavier arms in their exercises than in actual battle. After Varus was defeated by Arminius, Augustus Caesar resorted to a conscrip- tion. When Alexander was building a way from the main- land to the city of Tyre, by filling up the sea, the Tyrians asked tauntingly if he thought himself greater than Nep- tune. There never was a good war, says Franklin, nor a bad peace. Louis XIV first introduced the uniform in the French army. Hannibal, Marlborough, and Napo- leon placed great reliance upon cavalry. At least twenty- seven foreigners served as generals in our Continental army. Units homo nobis cunctando restituit rem, is a verse from Ennius. In the battle of New Orleans Jackson's force lost only eight killed, with thirteen wounded; while the English loss was twenty-five hundred killed, wounded, and missing — a disparity of loss unprecedented. The Spartan was subject to military service until his sixtieth year. Napoleon considered Austerlitz, the "Battle of the Emperors," his most brilliant one; and that his army there was the best he ever had. Napoleon thought him- self superior to Cromwell, in that the latter fought his 408 LITERARY BREVITIES own countrymen, while he fought only foreigners. Napo- leon thought a general should make much of maps. Whenever I was not present, was Napoleon's boast, my generals were defeated. Napoleon predicted, that Russia would some day conquer the world. Following are Emer- son's familiar lines, — "Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world." Sir Philip Sidney says of one, that his defense shall be like A j ax's shield, which rather weighed down than de- fended those who bore it. Frederick William, father of Frederick the Great, is credited with having built up the first standing army of Europe. In all the great battles of Marlborough his force was numerically but little inferior to that of the enemy; while Frederick the Great, Charles XII, and Napoleon often won victories over twice or thrice their own numbers. England, says Alison, has not seen the fires of a French camp since the battle of Hastings. Frederick the Great and Wellington were both defeated in their first battles. Montaigne states, that there is no record of Caesar's having been wounded in battle. In 1776, Alexander Hamilton, though only twenty years old, raised a company and was ap- pointed its captain. Elis was exempt from the ravages of war. Lord Clive claimed, that he had called but one council of war in his life, and that had he taken its advice, the British would never have been masters of Bengal. In battle the Spartans wore red cloaks, that the blood might not be seen. Elephants were first used in battle at Arbela. At the battle of the Metaurus the Gallic aux- iliaries in Hasdrubal's army were drunk. Heine declares, that Lessing needed conflict for the full development of his powers; that in slaying his enemies he made them WAR 409 immortal. According to Julius Caesar, arms and laws do not flourish together. Thucydides assures us, that war is the last thing in the world to go according to pro- gram. Says Shakspeare, — "Why then the world's mine oyster. Which I with sword will open." Balzac declares, that to effect a retreat with all the honors of war, has always been the greatest achievement of the most skilful generals. Bacon assures us, that the wounding of Venus by Diomed is the only instance of a hero wounding a god. The same writer informs us, that Julius Caesar had due regard to his person; that in great battles he would sit in his pavilion and manage all his adjutants. It has been observed, that war is the only school in which war can be learned. Some one has re- marked with truth, that good and courageous leadership means brave and victorious soldiers. Recruits, says Balzac, will laugh where the veteran soldier looks grave. In war, thinks Swift, opinion is nine parts in ten. Mi- nerva sometimes holds an olive branch as the patroness of peace, but oftener is armed with spear and shield. War cancels all treaties, Bismarck asserts. In England a foot-soldier is called a "gravel-grinder." JSschylus, in his "Persae," treated of the expedition of Xerxes against Greece, in which struggle he had himself taken part. The Dutch have had to contend against two of the mightiest powers in the world, Motley declares, the ocean and Spanish tyranny, and they conquered both. From Mil- ton this, — "Peace hath her victories No less renowned than war." There is no peace so bad, declares Richelieu, that it is not better than civil war. It is a wise remark of Leigh 410 LITERARY BREVITIES Hunt, that the moment soldiers come to direct the intel- lect of their age, they make a sorry business of it; that Napoleon himself failed; Frederick failed; even Caesar failed. To defend Rome, states Sainte-Beuve, it was necessary to go and attack Carthage. Braddock, in the battle known as his "Defeat," had five horses shot under him; at the same battle Washington had two killed in like manner, besides having four bullets pierce his cloth- ing. Margaret of Richmond, the mother of Henry VII, assured the princes of Europe, that she would go as their washerwoman, if they would cease to war with each other and would combine against the Turk. In the great wars of the early eighteenth century, it has been estimated, that Ney and Bliicher were probably the best fighting generals of France and Prussia, and that they were, never- theless, absolutely unfitted for independent command. In the German army there is no bugle sound that means retreat. Thackeray tells of one as quarrelsome as men are when they are in the wrong. Mrs. Browning thinks the secret of being invincible is not to fight. Napoleon claimed to have fought nearly sixty battles. Napoleon was once wounded in the foot. If I fight against mud, says Luther, I am all the same covered with mud. It was a maxim with Farragut, that the best protection against the enemy's fire is a well-directed fire from our own guns. Spain carried on war with the Moors continuously for seven centuries, in which struggle three thousand battles were fought. To hurt your enemy, Farragut insists, is the best way to keep him from hurting you. They don't defend their men with walls, observes a Swedish historian, but their walls with men. It is recognized as a good rule, that it is better to attack than to be attacked. Hanni- bal, who knew how to conquer, did not know how to use his victories. Following are Tennyson's lines, — WAR 411 "Till the war-drum throbbed no longer and the battle flags were furl'd In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world." He makes a solitude and calls it peace, is Byron's. They sell the pasture now to buy the horse, is Shakspeare's. The captain who was ordered to take a file of men and destroy a certain bridge at Princeton, touching his hat to Washington, asked, "Are there enough men?" Wash- ington replied, "Enough to cut to pieces." Victor Hugo thought Austerlitz the most brilliant battle of history. The Romans never granted a triumph to the conqueror in a civil war. In the land force of Xerxes, when he in- vaded Greece, there were forty-six nations represented. The rich Greek, from Achilles down, served in the ranks as a soldier like the poorest citizen. Cervantes, when doing military service, was always a common soldier. Lecky informs us, that duels were almost or altogether unknown to the pagan world. Landor says, with sly humor, that if an English lawyer is in danger of starving in a market-town or village, he invites another, and then both thrive. George Meredith thinks the English beat the world, because they take a licking well. Frederick William's giant Potsdam regiment had in it men nearly nine feet tall. In 1870 the French went to war with Ger- many, having no ordnance maps. It was the belief of Kutuzoff, that before a battle there is nothing more important than to have a good night's rest. London was in greatest danger in 1803, when Fulton proposed putting the French army across the Channel in steamboats, and Napoleon rejected the scheme. The battle of the "Spurs," won by Henry VIII at Guinegate in 1513, was so called because the French in their precipitate flight used their spurs freely. Achilles's spear could both kill and cure. Balzac says one must sometimes slay to es- cape being slain. Our Revolutionary General Greene was 412 LITERARY BREVITIES a Quaker, and was turned out of meeting for joining the army. Victor Hugo regards being too much on the defen- sive as pointing to a secret desire for attack. According to Rosebery, the last British king to take the field was George II. WEALTH A RICH man never borrows, observes Chesterfield. Why may not the time come when a single family — the Rothschilds or the Rockefellers, for instance — will own a controlling interest in the whole world? If money was coined round, says Balzac, it was meant to roll; if it is round for spendthrifts it is flat for economical folks who pile it up. Seneca affirms, that it is not the augmenting of our fortunes, but the abating of our appe- tites, that makes us rich. In 1685, one-fourth of the pop- ulation of England received public relief to some extent. It is just as easy to spend a large salary as a small one. The more numerous the property holders, the more likely that the rights of property will be respected. In the seventeenth century the poor-rate was the heaviest tax in England. Pauperi est numerare pecus, is Ovid's. A mere madness to live like a wretch and die rich, anony- mous. It is an assertion of Seneca, that no man can be poor that has enough; nor rich, that covets more than he has. A crust of bread, upon a pinch, says Seneca again, is a greater present than an imperial crown. The Greeks and Romans were hard money people; their languages have no word for currency or banknotes. Thoreau men- tions one as being rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. The wealth that the gods give, says Solon, lasts. Bacon compares money to muck, not good except it be spread. Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam, anonymous. Their money was made only WEALTH 413 yesterday, is Balzac's. William III brought with him from Holland the secret of the funding system — forestall- ing the resources of future years. Bolingbroke declares, that public want and private wealth abound in all declin- ing states. Those who attend to small expenses are always rich, says John Adams. What madness it is, proclaims Seneca, to enrich a man's heir and starve himself. Nihil esse tarn sanctum quod non violari, nihil tarn munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit, is from Cicero. What I see is mine, boasts Thoreau. For centuries, in Europe, wealth could ennoble anyone; in the thirteenth century nobility became hereditary. The only way is to be born rich, Walter Besant affirms, and so not to feel the burden of wealth. Milton says, — "Extol not riches, then, the toil of fools, The wise man's cumbrance, if not snare." If we take a farthing from a thousand pounds, Goldsmith says, it will be a thousand pounds no longer. The stand- ard ratio of silver to gold which Solon adopted was thirteen to one. Lew Wallace gives warning, that the poor make themselves poorer as apes of the rich. I choose rather, says Boccaccio, a man that hath need of wealth than wealth that hath need of a man. If you know how a man deals with money, affirms Henry Taylor, how he gets it, spends it, keeps it, shares it, you know some of the most important things about him. Burke, in a speech, used the Latin expression, magnum vectigal est parci- monia, giving vectigal the wrong accent. A man has no debts till payment is due, says Balzac. In the opinion of Lord Rosebery, more Miltons have been mute and inglorious under the suffocation of wealth, than under the frosts of penury. The familiar lines of Sir Henry Wotton are, — 414 LITERARY BREVITIES "Lord of himself, though not of lands; And having nothing, yet hath all." Balzac declares a man rich enough that spends less than his income. Men who make money, Bulwer observes, rarely saunter; men who save money rarely swagger. The same writer thinks there is no advantage in being rich, unless one enjoys one's riches. The rich, says Belloc, the world over, have one appetite, which is for the sensation of novelty. It was Lincoln's idea, that wealth is a superfluity of what we don't want. Cowper thinks every man may be rich if he will. Carlyle's rich man was capable of lighting more than one candle when the king came to see him. Money, in a word, Gibbon affirms, is the most universal incitement, iron the most powerful instrument, of human industry. Victor Hugo believes, that no purse, however full, makes up for an empty soul. Turner said to a nobleman who was an amateur painter, "My lord, you only need poverty to make you a very excellent painter." Pitt thought every man who had a thousand a year had a right to be a peer. Panurge had- sixty-three ways of finding money, and two hundred and fourteen ways of spending it. He is rich, remarks Sir Thomas Browne, who hath enough to be charitable. Mon- tesquieu asserts, that the English value only two things — wealth and worth. The elder Pitt never seemed to have considered how important solvency is to character. Content is natural wealth, observes Socrates. It is an old saying, that a merchant never has enough until he has a little more. Theognis declares, that among men there are some who have their vices concealed by wealth, and others who have their virtues concealed by poverty. To be rich enough, thinks Dumas, a man must be too rich. WISDOM 415 WILL QAMUEL BUTLER'S familiar lines are, — "He that complies against his will Is of the same opinion still." Steele thinks nothing ought to be laudable in a man in which his will is not concerned. No power, we have been told, so grows in us by exercise, or so weakens and atrophies by disuse, as the will. WISDOM NO man, Fielding declares, is wise at all hours. Whole- some is the wisdom that we have gathered from misfortune, remarks Landor, and sweet the repose that dwells upon renown. The wisest persons, in their own conceit, are those who have never had experience. Cicero calls prudence the safest shield. It is De Witt the Pen- sioner, who warns us never to put off till tomorrow what we can do today. The following is from Horace, — Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem, Dulce est desipere in loco. To know what you like, according to R. L. Stevenson, is the beginning of wisdom. It is a remark of Cousin, that one may be a hero at intervals, but in every-day life it is sufficient to be a wise man. Goethe warns us, that what can never be recalled, should not be done in haste. It is an observation of Joubert, that gravity is only the bark of the tree of wisdom, but that it preserves it. Dow- den tells of a poor mother who would not startle her in- fant when it was crawling on the edge of the precipice, but silently displayed her bosom and won the straggler 416 LITERARY BREVITIES back. He who sets his heart on a great subject, says Bulwer, suddenly becomes wise. Wisdom is a fox, Swift observes, who, after long hunting, will at last cost you the pains to dig out. We are told by John Selden, that wise men say nothing in dangerous times. It is the belief of William James, that wise men regret as little as they can. Eugene Sue orders one to bring his full dress judgment with him. Wisdom comes with work, says Balzac. Sainte-Beuve thinks the art of wisdom and hap- piness cannot be taught. Beaconsfield says all men have their imprudent days; also that nature has given us two ears, but only one mouth. Ecclesiasticus warns us not to display our wisdom out of season. When the wise err, remarks iEschylus, their wisdom makes their shame. Von Moltke has been characterized asr the man who held his tongue in seven languages. Joubert allows, that the multitude are capable of virtue but not of wis- dom. Macaulay asserts, that the judicious are always a minority. Morley calls Burke the greatest of Irishmen and the largest master of civil wisdom in our tongue. The credit we get for wisdom, Euripides declares, is meas- ured by our success. The same maintains, that we should ever learn wisdom from the wise; also that he is a very master in his craft who can force fools to be wise. We are never too young or too old, in the judgment of Flax- man, to become wiser or better. It is a saying of Eurip- ides, that he who knoweth when to be quiet is a wise man; also that there is naught more serviceable than a prudent distrust. The proverb has it, that if you light a fire at both ends, the middle will shift for itself. Wise men are not always wise, Emerson says. It was said of Marcus Aurelius, that he never paid his debts in advance. Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar, is Wordsworth's. Shelley believes we have more WISHES 417 moral, political, and historical wisdom than we know how to reduce into practise. According to James Howell, the first part of wisdom is to give good counsel, the second to take it, and the third to follow it. The wisdom of the Phrygians ever came too late, is anonymous. Cicero quotes from Lucilius the equivalent of "the feast of rea- son and the flow of soul." Cervantes thinks it one part of prudence not to do by foul means that which may be done by fair. It is greatly wise, remarks Carlyle, to recog- nize the impossible. Coleridge defines wisdom as common sense in an uncommon degree. Prudent people, remarks Victor Hugo, neither hear nor see. According to Burke, wisdom consists in no small degree in knowing what amount of evil is to be tolerated. Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia, is Juvenal's. WISHES HOWELLS wished he could have sailed with Colum- bus. The three most earnest wishes of St. Jerome were, to have seen Christ in the flesh, to have heard Paul preach, and to have seen Rome in its glory. Thackeray relates, that when a boy he used to pass a confectioner's shop where there was taffy in the window; he wanted some, but had no shilling wherewith to pay for it; that in later life he had the shilling, but did not care for the taffy. Buffon and certain physiologists affirm, that our members are more completely exhausted by desire than by the most keen enjoyments. We have from Shakspeare, — "Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of bare ground." Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought, is Shakspeare's line. There's small choice in rotten apples, is his also. He has most who desires least, is a saying of Apuleius. Bad desires cor- 418 LITERARY BREVITIES rupt the fairest minds, is from Sophocles. The hungry sheep look up and are not fed, is Milton's. WIT IF one man in Scotland, said Dr. Johnson, gets £2,000, what remains for the rest of the nation? An Irish bishop confessed, that there were some things in Gulliver on which he for one would keep his belief suspended. There is a Greek epigram on a man with a very long nose, who did not say "God bless me" when he sneezed, because the noise was too far off for him to hear. The practise of slightly altering a man's name in such a manner as to indicate a habit for which he is notorious, is far from new; the Emperor Tiberius Nero, who had a strong propen- sity for drink, was known among the wags of the time as "Biberius Nero." Martial describes his Sabine farm as so small that a cucumber could not lie straight on it. A witty guest at a wedding saw "the bride thrown away." The Scot, it has been observed, keeps the faith and every- thing else he can lay his hands on, and, "like seasoned timber, never gives." A propos of Saul, the son of Kish, who went out to find his father's asses but found a king- dom, W. T. Harris remarks, that many people have done the reverse of this. Thoreau used to say he had traveled a great deal — in Concord. The Frenchman's center of gravity, Amiel declares, is always outside of himself. Charles Lamb remarked of a fat woman sitting in a door- way, that it was a shrewd zephyr that escaped her. Dow- den calls the gift of humor that happy adjunct of common sense. Henry James says of some one, that the number of subjects upon which he had no ideas was extremely large. A waggish friend asked the cadaverous Rogers why, now that he could afford it, he did not set up his WIT 419 hearse. Upon Serjeant Butterworth's introducing him- self to Dean Swift, the latter asked, "Of what regiment, sir?" The gratitude of the clergy, remarks Smollett, is like their charity, which shuns the light. A Roman lady, having told Cicero that she was thirty years old, he said, "It must be true, for I have heard it these twenty years." Dumas alludes to "a drama of immortal dul- ness." Artemus Ward remarked of some of his audiences who were unacquainted with the nature of his lectures, "I was prepared for a good deal of gloom, but I had no idea they would be so much depressed." Coleridge once said to Charles Lamb, "Charles, you never heard me preach"; Lamb's rejoinder was, "My dear boy, I never heard you do anything else." In trying to pay a pretty compliment to marriage, one of Balzac's characters in- nocently gave expression to this double entendre, "Mar- riage is the end of man." He makes a foe who makes a jest, Franklin asserts. It would have made an oyster merry, is Charles Reade's. The Dutch are said to live in a country that draws fifty feet of water. Both Wash- ington and Jefferson are said to have lacked the sense of humor; though in one instance the latter is possibly humorous; when sent to the French Court, he remarked to some one, "I merely succeed Franklin; no one could replace him." A strong adherent of Jefferson, who would never countenance the reconciliation between Jefferson and Adams, when he learned that the two statesmen had died on the same day, said it was "a d — d Yankee trick." Emerson had heard of persons who make an an- nual joke. It is claimed, that in Virgil's "iEneid " there is only one passage that calls forth laughter. Old Dr. Parr had a mortal fear of the East wind; Tom Sheridan, who knew his weakness, once kept him a prisoner in the house for a fortnight by fixing the weather-cock due east. 420 LITERARY BREVITIES The editor of a famous review found that it cost him much time to cut the jokes out of the articles written by men of science. That joke has gray mustaches, is Balzac's. Robert Burton wrote his "Anatomy of Melancholy" to cure his own melancholy, but without avail; he was moved to laughter only by listening to the ribaldry of bargemen. Dr. Boteler thought that doubtless God could have made a better berry than the strawberry, but doubtless God never did. Henry James depicts a woman as looking naturally new, as if she took out every night her large, lovely, varnished eyes, and put them in water. Petronius enjoins, "Pray commend this wine by your drinking; you must make your fish swim twice." Wit, says Swift, has its walks and purlieus; such a jest there is as will not pass out of Covent Garden. An Irishman's ghost returned to his sailor companions at Aden and asked for a coat, claiming that after Aden he had found hell cold. Robert Burton calls England a paradise for women, a hell for horses; Italy he calls a paradise for horses, a hell for women. Balzac tells of one who looked as though he had been buried and dug up again. Elbert Hubbard says that out West, even now, if you address a man as "Mister," he will probably inquire what you have against him. Camden said, "I was indeed replied to, but not answered." The climate of Scotland has been described as consisting of rain with showers between. Purblind Argus — all eyes and no sight, is Shakspeare's. One of these fellows, remarks Steele, is milking a ram, and the other holds the pail. An English regiment that had been raised among the lawyers was called the "Devil's Own." When the Duke of York was obliged to retreat before the French, Sheridan gave as a toast, "The Duke of York and his brave followers." She had not said more than she meant, but more than she meant to say, is WIT 421 Thackeray's. It is Lysistratus who facetiously affirms, that when two parties are already of the same mind, they are not long in coming to an understanding. The devil, says Le Sage, would have no great catch in the best of us. It is all for their good, as the old lady said, when she skinned the eels. I don't suppose he has a hair on his head that is not mortgaged, is from Petronius. Some one tells of a speech thick enough to cast a double shadow. After a dinner at the White House, during the Hayes administration, Mr. Evarts was asked how the dinner went off; "Excellently," Evarts replied, "the water flowed like champagne." Landor calls banter the worst species of wit. Mere wit, like salt, says the Shakspear- ian Hudson, is grateful as a seasoning, but will not do as food. The same writer says Falstaff 's speech is like pure, fresh, cold water, which always tastes good because it is tasteless. The gravest nations, declares Landor, have been the wittiest; few men have been graver than Pas- cal; few have been wittier. Thackeray speaks of weep- ing tears of Bordeaux and gratitude. True wit, to every man, Landor affirms, is that which falls on another. I will not kill them, I will only frighten them to death, is anonymous. Hawthorne speaks of "liquid hospitality." Locke objected to going as ambassador to Prussia, because he was not a sufficiently hard drinker. Jefferson defined a lawyer as a person whose trade it is to contest everything, concede nothing, and talk by the hour. Theodore Parker said of Channing, "Channing hit the same nail every time, he hit it hard, but the head was downward." Weir Mitchell tells of a man with not enough blood to blush with. Balzac calls a man a "scoundrel emeritus." Lord Thurlow used to read Satan's speeches in " Paradise Lost," and exclaim, "He was a fine fellow; I wish he had won." Porson declared, there was no better exercise for a school- 422 LITERARY BREVITIES boy than to turn a page of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall" into English. When Howells expressed surprise that Bayard Taylor began the study of Greek at the age of fifty, Taylor said he expected to use it in the next world. Goldsmith said the French would be the best cooks in the world, if they had any butcher's meat, for they can make ten dishes out of a nettle top. "Remember you owe me a shilling, Pat." "May your honor live till I pay it." It has been affirmed, that a man who is fortu- nate enough to be born in Boston does not need to be born again. Wit and a strong will are superior to fate, says the Turkish proverb. There were many dry eyes at their departure, is Carlyle's. The unfeelingness of the human heart has, perhaps, never been more uniformly displayed on any subject than on that of the much ma- ligned mother-in-law; Montaigne, to show how fortune sometimes befriends us, relates, that a certain man who threw a stone at a dog, hit and killed his mother-in-law. An Italian affirmed, that the only ripe fruit he had ever seen in England was a baked apple. Ah, said Tom Saw- yer, if I could only die temporarily! Starr King's terms for a lecture were — F.A.M.E., "fifty and my expenses." A man inquired in a Boston book-store for an expurgated edition of Emerson. He's notoriously not from Boston, writes Henry James. The authorship of the following is unknown, — "Where the Rudyards cease from Kipling And the Haggards ride no more." A drunken fellow passing St. Paul's at midnight, and hearing the clock strike twelve, impatiently asked, "D — n you, why couldn't you give us all that at once?" Mid- shipman's half-pay is, — nothing a day and find your- self. When a physician advised Sidney Smith to walk WIT 423 on an empty stomach, the latter asked, "On whose?" The following lines are from Chevy Chase, — "For Witherington needs must I wail, As one in doleful dumps, For when his legs were smitten off, He fought upon his s tumps.' ' And thought of convincing while they thought of dining, is Goldsmith's. Swift speaks of one so ready to give his word that he never keeps it. It is a dangerous thing, observes Elihu Vedder, for an author to establish at the outset a reputation as a humorist. Instead of calling cer- tain phases of character "too steep," Lang calls them a "little precipitous." Nothing went unrewarded but desert, is Dryden's. An English magistrate was fined heavily for committing a poor man to prison for "being in possession of a hare," it being proved that the hare was in his possession, and not he in the hare's. Bulwer pronounces wit to be but truth made amusing. The Van Hoorns are a God-fearing people, and they have rea- son to be, is by Harold Frederic. According to Wendell Phillips, a Yankee's idea of hell is of a place where he will have to mind his own business. In a gathering of law- yers some one having remarked that John Quincy Adams meant to be a Christian, Josiah Quincy asked, "When?" Voltaire incurred the lasting enmity of Rousseau by tell- ing him in jest that his '\Ode to Posterity" w^ould never reach its destination. It was Alfred Crow-quill's poodle whose tail curled so tight as to lift his hind legs. Sena- tor Hoar remarks of the scholarship of a certain young lawyer, that the only evidence he ever gave of classi- cal education was his habit of using the Greek double negative in ordinary English speech. When an insolent interrupter in a Birmingham audience asked Beecher why we didn't put down the rebels in ninety days as we 424 LITERARY BREVITIES boasted we would do, Beecher replied, "We should if they had been Englishmen." Charles Lamb, in arguing against the common notion that it is a misfortune to' a man to have a surly disposition, asserts, that it is not the man's misfortune, but the misfortune of his neighbors. Once when a tradesman dunned Beau Nash for the pay- ment of a suit of clothes, Nash compromised by lending him twenty pounds. The elder Cato, speaking in deri- sion of Isocrates's slow method of teaching rhetoric, said his scholars grew old in learning the art, as if they intended to exercise it and plead causes in the world be- low. What follows is by Burke, — "Here lies Goldsmith for shortness called Noll, Who wrote like an angel and spoke like poor Poll." The poet Edmund Waller wrote a poem in praise of Crom- well, and after the Restoration one in praise of Charles II; when Charles complained that the one on Cromwell was the better, Waller gave as a reason, that poets suc- ceed better in fiction than in truth. When a young man, in the presence of Robert Toombs, objected to Milton's "Paradise Lost," on the ground that it was obscure, Toombs replied, "Milton was blind, he couldn't see to write for fools." Some one has recorded the fact, that the Duke of Wellington spoke the French language with the greatest intrepidity. Charles Sumner was not good at repartee. Lord Monk asserts, that the Englishman is never happy unless he is miserable; the Irishman never at peace unless he is fighting; the Scotchman never at home unless he is abroad. Socrates, being told that a certain person was nothing improved by his travels, made answer, "I believe it, for he took himself along with him." The French poet Fontenelle was said to have as good a heart as could be made out of brains. Schlegel assures us, WIT 425 that one half of the subtle wit of Aristophanes is lost on the moderns. Who originated the idea of one's wits going wool-gathering? A certain man was bold to commit highway robbery, as the decalogue only said, "Thou shalt not steal." Walpole called Goldsmith an inspired idiot. Whittier asked Emerson, "Does thee pray? What does thee pray for, friend Emerson?" Said Emerson, "WTien I first open my eyes and look out upon the beau- tiful world, I thank God I am alive, and that I live so near Boston." It has been claimed, that John Adams was less given to deception than Franklin, and that he never could have told a lie if he had met with one. Bliss Perry pronounces Voltaire's "Candide" to be the wittiest book of the eighteenth century. Heine thinks it a ple- onasm to call a Frenchman witty. No wit will bear repetition, Sidney Smith affirms. Stanley said Pitt died of old age at forty-six. When Brougham heard causes on Good Friday, Wetherill said he was the first judge who had done such a thing since Pontius Pilate. It was a remark of O'Connell, that Joseph Hume would have been an excellent speaker, if only he would finish a sentence before beginning the next but one after it. Gladstone, according to John Morley, said of the recon- struction of the income tax, that he only did not call it Herculean, because Hercules could not have done it. Gladstone alludes to a railway companion as more genial than congenial. From Shakspeare we have this, — "His reasons are As two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff." There is not enough leek to swear by, is Shakspeare's. "I hope, Mr. Rogers, you are not attacking me," said a certain lady. "Attacking you!" he rejoined, "why, my dear lady, I have been all my life defending you." 426 LITERARY BREVITIES Truly a charity sermon, for it required great charity to sit it out, is anonymous. From Shakspeare this, — "He is a valiant trencher man, he hath an excellent stomach." I can see a church by daylight, is Shakspeare's. "I give," said Burns, "I give you the health, gentlemen all, — of the waiter who called my Lord out of the room." Rose- bery states, that Lord North, when a list of officers was submitted to him for the commands in America, remarked, "I know not what effect these names may have on the enemy, but I know they make me tremble." Carlyle said his wife had read "Sordello" with great interest, and wished to know whether Sordello was a man or a city or a book. Do in Turkey as the Turkeys do, says Balzac. Browning, when asked to explain the meaning of one of his darker poems, confessed that when the poem was written two people knew what it meant — God and Rob- ert Browning, but that now God only knew. A Flemish tiler fell from the roof upon a Spaniard and killed him; the next of blood demanded reparation according to lex talionis, and was told to mount to the roof and fall upon the tiler. A judge and a sailor laid a wager that the latter could not say his compass better than the former could say his Paternoster; the sailor won by boxing the compass backwards, the judge being unable to do the same by his Paternoster. The half-witted scholar, in the hunt- ing party, was told to be silent if he saw rabbits, lest he should scare them; when he espied a company of them, he shouted, Ecce multi cuniculi; the conies, of course, ran to their hiding-places; when his companions reproved him, he answered, "Who the devil would have thought that the rabbits understood Latin?" Balzac observes, that the best way to bring two wills into agreement is to take care that there is but one in the house. The boy at Eton, being rebuked for having so many errors in his WIT 427 exercise sheet, and being taunted with the reminder that his younger brother could do better, replied, "Please, sir, he hasn't been here so long as I have." One more such failure, says Balzac, and you will be immortal. I have read "Sordello," affirmed Bayard Taylor, and re- tain (though with some effort) my reason. A happy marriage, some one states, is where the wife is blind and the husband deaf. Now we are even, quoth Stephen, when he gave his wife six blows for one. Great wits, it is said, have short memories. A soldier boasting to Ju- lius Caesar that he had received wounds in the face, was advised by Caesar, who knew him to be a coward, to take heed next time he ran away how he looked back. James I likened the Novum Organum to the peace of God, as passing all understanding. Chatham was a con- summate actor, Rosebery informs us; it is related of him, that whenever he met a bishop, he bowed so low that his nose could be seen between his knees. A soldier, panic- stricken and fleeing, was asked why he was running; his sense of humor did not leave him, and he replied, that he was running because he couldn't fly. Rev. John J. Breckinridge of Kentucky, an ardent Union man, was a bitter enemy of Rev. Stuart Robinson, who as warmly espoused the Southern cause. Upon his death-bed Breck- inridge declared he had forgiven all his enemies; when asked if he would be willing to greet Brother Robinson in heaven, he answered, "Don't bother me with such ques- tions; Stuart Robinson will never get there." When Bayard Taylor lectured in Indianapolis, that he might speak in the College hall, which none but members of the faculty were allowed to use for such a purpose, the trustees elected him professor of history pro tern. The old mari- ner, in a tempest, prayed to Neptune, "Thou wilt save me if it be thy will, and if thou choosest thou wilt destroy 428 LITERARY BREVITIES me; but, however it be, I will always hold my rudder straight." It is a remark of Crothers, that artistic sen- sibility finds its satisfaction only in the perfect; that humor is the frank enjoyment of the perfect. True wit, says Addison, consists in the resemblance of ideas; false wit in the resemblance of words. Speaking of a lazy man, Le Sage declares, that the resurrection of Lazarus was an ordinary event compared to this man's getting up. Addi- son pictures a state of society where no woman was al- lowed to be married until she had " killed her man." Professor North prepared as his own epitaph, "Died of faculty meetings." It was remarked by Charles Napier in 1804, that most of the English generals were more obliged to the Duke of York than to the Deity for their military talents. Crothers thinks there is something mel- ancholy in a joke deserted in its old age. Swift tells of one who follows the law, but at a great distance. The parliamentary candidate claimed that his popularity was on the increase, for whereas his audience used to throw bricks at him, they now pelted him with rotten eggs. The praise of Sheridan's speech against Warren Hastings was in every mouth; Sheridan's servant, Edwards, thought the best part to be the closing words, "My Lords, I have done." A priest and a Huguenot minister, in Acadia, died at the same time and were buried in the same grave, "to see if they would lie peaceably together." Brunetiere, when introducing Masson to the French Academy, said, "Thanks to you, we shall now know the exact number of Napoleon's shirts." Thackeray calls eating with the knife "administering the cold steel." Andrew Lang recalls one of those hot days when you could have poached an egg on the cover of a quarto. Lord North, who cared but little for music, hearing a remark on the extreme difficulty some singers have in reaching high notes, ob- WIT 429 served, that he wished it was impossible. A certain man, who had not spoken to his wife for fifteen years, being asked why this was so, said it was because he didn't want to interrupt her. Mrs. Craigie alludes to one who had just soul enough to be damned. When the dowager- queen Henrietta expressed to the court physician a fear that her understanding was approaching madness, he replied, "Madam, fear not that; for you are already mad." "Tom Sawyer," is the name I'm licked by, but those who love me call me "Tom," by Mark Twain. Captain Benton, ordnance professor at West Point, asked a waggish cadet how many pieces a twelve-pound shell would burst into, and received as an answer, "Not less than two." Racine's witty satire, against the courts of justice failed to make a hit until Louis XIV laughed at its humor; then all Paris began to see the joke. E. P. Whipple declares Webster to be inductive, Calhoun deductive, and Clay seductive. A Protestant pastor, who had a church on one side of a river in Silesia, com- plained to Frederick the Great, that a younger pastor on the other side of the river was drawing all his parish- ioners away from him; Frederick advised him to go and preach on the other side, and thus drive them back again. Lincoln tells of "reading by turns," at school, from the Bible, when a young fellow cried because he saw that "them miserable cusses," — Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego, were coming to him again. An American Secretary of State, being asked why he did not promote merit, replied, "Because merit did not promote me." The Sunday School teacher, after telling the story of Jonah, asked the children how they supposed Jonah felt, to receive in reply, "Down in the mouth." May Sin- clair alludes to one whose word had weight in any dis- cussion of the incomprehensible. Walter Scott, walking 430 LITERARY BREVITIES in the fields with his wife, asked, "Are not these lambs beautiful?" To which she replied, "Yes, boiled." Let us get on, sir, to the deluge, says Racine. Napoleon III volunteered the statement, that if his cousin, Prince Napoleon, should fall into the Seine, it would be an acci- dent; but if anybody were to pull him out, it would be a misfortune. I pity the man, said bibulous Senator Mc- Dougal, who has never viewed the affairs of this world save from the poor, low, miserable plane of ordinary sobri- ety. Heine loved his enemies, but not until they were dead. Thackeray had Story and Lowell dining wdth him. The fare seemed meager, as he chanced to have two extra guests. The cutlets, in particular, w r ere small. Thack- eray wittily said to Story, "Eat one of them, Story; it will make you feel a little hungry at first, but you'll soon get over it." Galiani disliked the noisy opera at Paris; when it was remarked, that the music-hall of the Tuilleries, to which the opera was transferred after the burning of the hall of the Palais Royal, was bad for hearing, "How happy it must be," cried Galiani. Tolstoy makes a char- acter say of a high-priced lawyer, "Why, he won't spit at you for less than a thousand roubles." Justice Story told a friend, that the Supreme Court denied themselves wine except in wet weather; sometimes it happened that Chief Justice Marshall would say, "Brother Story, step to the window, and see if it does not look like rain." If the sun was reported shining, Marshall would say, "The doc- trine of chances makes it certain that it must be raining somewhere, and it will be safe to take something," related by Ben Perley Poore. It has been said, that Rousseau would do anything for party, even a good action. Sainte- Beuve characterized Pope as — Mens curva in corpore curvo. Lord John Russell, a man of diminutive size, married a widow; he was called "the widow's mite." WIT 431 The criticism an American bank president made upon a note offered for discount was, "This note ^looking at the signature) is bad enough, but (turning it over) with these indorsements, it is absolutely good for nothing." Of the manner of reviewing books as practised by certain journals, William Matthews observes, that all you have to do is to cut the leaves of the book to be reviewed, and then smell of the paper knife. When it was asked if a certain beautiful American woman came from that part of the United States where they "calculate," King William IV said, "Lady Wellesley (who was a Philadelphian) came from where they 'fascinate.' ' Sheridan said he had known many men who had knocked their heads against a wall, but had never before heard of a man collecting bricks and building a wall for the express pur- pose of knocking out his own brains against it. Sainte- Beuve and Dubois fought a bloodless duel; as it was raining at the time, Sainte-Beuve took his position, having his pistol in one hand and his umbrella in the other; when the seconds protested, Sainte-Beuve declared, that he was willing to be killed, but was not willing to be wet. When Dean Stanley, whose handwriting was execrable, was invited to dinner, his hostess was known sometimes to write back and inquire whether his note was an acceptance or a refusal. They used to speak of Washington's "grow- ing up to his nose." The Cambridge carrier, being asked if his horse could draw inferences, answered, "Yes, any- thing in reason." A metaphysician defined omnibuses as things that go in the opposite direction. The Irish shillalah has been defined as a stick with two butt ends. During our civil war a Universalist announced his conver- sion to Calvinism, because he had become satisfied that hell is a military necessity. If I should catch myself non-existing after death, De Morgan remarks, I should 432 LITERARY BREVITIES simply die of laughter. A young soldier was called from the ranks to write at Napoleon's dictation; when the let- ter was finished, a shot struck near and covered it with earth; "Good," ejaculated the soldier, "I shan't need any sand"; by this witticism he gained Napoleon's marked favor. When Wordsworth boasted that he saw but lit- tle difficulty in writing like Shakspeare, if he had the mind to try it, "Yes," said Lamb, "it is clear nothing is wanted but the mind." Banter, Benson insists, to be agreeable must be of a complimentary kind. Bismarck said he was beginning to think that the best part of life is before seventy. Heine made the Latin anagram vastari from "Austria." Science, said Sidney Smith, was Dr. Whewell's forte, and omniscience his foible. Of Rochette, Bishop of Autun, it was said, that his ser- mons were undoubtedly his own, inasmuch as he bought them. Tell him he is an ass, but say so kindly, by Arch- bishop Tait. When the Duke of Newcastle told George II that Wolfe was mad, "Mad, is he?" the king replied, "then I hope he will bite some others of my generals." When the wife of Henry Clay was asked if it did not dis- turb her to have Mr. Clay gamble, she answered, "Oh! dear, no! he 'most always wins." Dr. Thompson said of Ely, "The place is so damp that even my sermons won't keep dry there." I have been principally engaged in dying, was the witty and pitiful remark of R. L. Stevenson, and you see I have made a failure of it. When the elder Booth was playing, a buffoon in the gallery noticing his bandy legs cried out, "You are a pretty fellow to stop a pig." It was remarked of the "Memoirs" of Genevieve de Bourbon, that they were sufficiently ill written to as- sure us that they were written by herself. The boy told his instructor he would admit the truth of the pons asi- norum without taking the trouble to demonstrate it. We WIT 433 may live without Dr. Smith, but nobody can die without him, is anonymous. "I met a man just now who said you and I look very much alike!" "Where is he? I'd like to punch him." "Oh! I killed him." When he shakes hands with you, it is like being caught in a wind- lass, is anonymous. One brother wrote to another, begging him, in the name of universal humanity, to write so that at least each alternate word might be obscurely guessed at. When Tom Corwin, who in his speech was careful not to offend the abolitionists, was asked if negroes should be allowed to sit at table with white folks, he asked, his swarthy features beaming with fun, "Is it proper to ask such a question of a gentleman of my color?" It was General Jackson who once knew a man who got rich by minding his own business. The Earl of Kildare would never have burned the church unless he had thought the Bishop in it. An invitation having by mistake been sent to Sir Charles Vaughan, an Englishman, to attend a Fourth of July celebration, he politely declined as he thought he should be indisposed on that day. The physi- cian makes the earth cover all his faults, is a remark of James Howell. There was never any contrary minded, it was observed, when Mrs. Jere Burbank was in the chair. Nor is the hackney-coachman only disagreeable in him- self, says Leigh Hunt, but, like Falstaff reversed, the cause of disagreeableness in others. Talleyrand said language was given to conceal thought. E. L. Godkin remarked, that Henry J. Raymond was making a desperate effort not to get excited. Scott declared, that no ,four legs would carry a dog forever. Balzac speaks of linen that was anonymous. Dr. Johnson says in his letter to Rey- nolds, "Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?" 434 LITERARY BREVITIES Lord Granville, when inviting Lowell to dinner, apolo- gized for such short notice to "the most engaged man in London"; in Lowell's note of acceptance he said, "The most engaged man is glad to dine with the most engag- ing." When Sir Thomas More was offered a pair of gloves containing £40, he accepted the gloves but refused the contents, saying he preferred his gloves without lin- ing. Carlyle alludes to a certain man's long-eared learn- ing and omniscience. A certain butler said he was always sober, especially when he had only water to drink. More's wit, declared Erasmus, shines without burning. A learned lawyer being asked if he understood Emerson's lectures, replied, "No, but my daughters do." Trollope tells of a woman whose favorite insanity was genealogy. That is epigrammatic and witty in Latin, Cowper declares, which would be perfectly insipid in English. Arthur H. Clough has the following, — "Thou shalt not kill; but neecTst not strive Officiously to keep alive." Sidney Smith's cock-sure people must be trepanned be- fore they can be convinced. A young girl described a certain notorious novel she was reading as not the sort of a book one would give one's mother to read. F. Marion Crawford, being asked by a lady whether he had written anything that would live after he was gone, said what he was trying to do was to write something that would enable him to live while he was here. Life would be very tolerable if it were not for its pleasures, is anony- mous. A part of the Russian marriage ceremony used to be, "Here, wolf, take thy lamb." The cook-book stated, that some crabs like to be boiled alive. When asked if he wrote "dog" with a small "d," Hans Chris- tian Andersen replied, "Yes, because here I spoke of a WIT 435 little dog." Morrison, in nominating Milburn, the Blind Preacher, for the office of Chaplain of the House, won over all opposition by the following brief speech, — "Mr. Chairman, I present for the office of Chaplain of the House the name of Dr. Milburn, a man who loves God, pays his debts, and votes the Democratic ticket." When the Corliss engine was explained to the Emperor of Brazil, and he was told how many revolutions it could make in a minute, he exclaimed, "Goodness! that beats a South American republic." At a dinner in New York, Evarts was introduced as the "Sage of the bar." In his response Evarts gave utterance to this witticism, — "An hour ago you beheld a goose stuffed with sage; you now behold a sage stuffed with goose." "Sunset" Cox was wont to regret, that there were no more commandments to keep, as what few there were he kept so easily. A man running for office, being asked his views as to the comparative merits of heaven and hell, declined to express an opinion as he had friends in both places. Senator Proctor, in excusing himself for non-attendance at the devotional exercises in the senate, used to say he was paired with Blackburn on prayers. Some one declared honesty to be better than dishonesty, — he had tried both. "I'm standing on the soil of liberty," said the orator; "You ain't," shouted a bootmaker in the audience, "you're standing on a pair of boots you never paid me for." It is easier for a camel to get to heaven than for a fat man to go through the eye of a needle, is Heine's paraphrase. And why, ye gods, should two and two make four? asks Pope. In citing obscure writers, Heine would have the number of the house given. At the time of an exciting election, Macaulay was hit full in the face with a dead cat; the one who threw it apologized, saying it was intended for a Mr. Adeane. I wish, said Macaulay, you had intended 436 LITERARY BREVITIES it for me and hit the other man. When Margaret Fuller's "I accept the universe" was repeated to Carlyle, he said after his gruff manner, "Gad, she'd better." I wrote my last letter, said Cowper, merely to inform you that I had nothing to say. The colored resident of Georgia said a black man had no chance in that State, as he was obliged to work hard all day and steal all night in order to make an honest living. Senator Hale asked Joe Blackburn what he thought of Senator Chandler; the reply was, "I like him, but it is an acquired taste." Asa Gray thought it great fun to be seventy years old, as you do not have to know everything. Horace Greeley was refused admission to Girard College, being taken for a clergyman; when he asked, "What the h — is the reason?" the gate- keeper said apologetically, "Walk right in." The in- toxicated student, as he stumbled and fell down-stairs, to the professor asking, "Who is that?" replied, quoting from his recent declamation, " Hohenlinden," "It is I, sir, rolling rapidly." Things may take a turn, as the pig said on the spit, by Hood. Carlyle calls Graf von Briihl who had a new suit of clothes for every day in the year, "vainest of human clothes-horses." Ices were so delicious, it was a pity taking them wasn't a sin, is anony- mous. Arthur Stanley, who was dead to the charm of music, confessed that the only thing that pleased him was a drum solo. Emerson, after one of his sittings to the sculptor French, said of his bust, "The trouble is, the more it resembles me, the worse it looks." Father Tay- lor thought Emerson must go to heaven, for if he went to hell the devil wouldn't know what to do with him. When the historian Charles Elliott was asked if he believed that Abraham lived to be one hundred and sixty years old, he replied, "Why not? he had no bad whiskey to drink, no primaries to attend, and no newspapers to read." WIT 437 For fools are known by looking wise, is a line of Samuel Butler's. Brougham said the idea of Campbell's writing his life added a new horror to death. That fellow, says Dr. Johnson, seems to have but one idea, and that is a wrong one. It is a good thing about us Germans, declares Heine, that no one is so crazy but he can find a crazier countryman to understand him. The noblest prospect a Scotchman ever sees, Dr. Johnson observed, is the high road leading him to London. Heine believed that the compelling of the poor souls in hell to read all day all the dull sermons that are printed here is a calumny; that such a refinement of torture will never be invented even by Satan. This from Burns, — "Yet an insect's an insect at most, Though it crawl on the curl of a queen." Good sense and genius are reputed to be of the same family, wit being only a collateral. Heine would not settle in England, because he would find two things there — coal smoke and Englishmen. Haddon Hall, I believe, remarks Henry James, is one of the sights in which it is the fashion to be disappointed. Bliss Perry asserts, that "Who's Who in America" informs you of the name of a man's second wife. Whose volley of names, says Beckford, when pronounced with the true Portuguese twang, sounds like an expectoration. Owing to the poor acoustics of the House of Lords, it was said that the leader of the opposition was obliged to go out and buy an evening paper to learn what the government was talking about. The following is anonymous, — "The man, in troth, with much ado Has proved that one and one make two." A pun, says The Spectator, is a conceit arising from the use of two words that agree in sound but differ in sense. 438 LITERARY BREVITIES Henry James declares the frequent use of capitals to be the only marks of verse in Walt Whitman's writings. To resemble Chaucer, rather surprisingly observes Henry James, is a great safeguard against resembling Swinburne. The tongue, says Butler, is like a race-horse, which runs the faster the less weight it carries. Solo- mons, who gave violin lessons to George III, once said to his pupil, "Violin players may be divided into three classes — those who cannot play at all, those who play very badly, and good players; your Majesty has already come to the second class." Sothern said to Booth, "The worst performance ever seen was my Armand Duval"; Booth gravely rejoined, "Did you ever see my Romeo?" I told the truth by way of variety, wrote Le Sage. He achieved remarkable mediocrity in several professions, anonymous. The good that's in him is incidental, is Howells's. When Dunning was stating the law to a jury, Lord Mansfield interrupted him by saying, "If that be law, I'll go home and burn my books"; to which Dun- ning replied, "My Lord, you had better go home and read them." The man who thanked God for his igno- rance, was told he had a great deal to be thankful for. The piper strutted behind them, blowing a trumpet of dissonance, is Scott's. From Goldsmith the following, — "The man recovered from the bite, The dog it was that died." Charles Lamb asked for a string with which to lead home a piece of cheese. He is at one with himself, remarks Goethe. There are two ways, observes Theodore Parker, of hitting a mark — one with a single bullet, the other with a shower of small shot; Dr. Channing chose the lat- ter, as most pulpit orators have done. Do not injure me so much, says Junius, as to suspect I am a lawyer; I WIT 439 had rather be a Scotchman. John Holmes having ob- served that men are apt to shorten in size as they grow older, pictured Methuselah as he approached the end of his nine hundred years as shrunk to be less than knee-high to ordinary men. When Dr. Johnson upbraided Mrs. Thrale for being so polite to all the people they met in Wales, she retorted, "When I am with you and Mr. Thrale and 'Queeny,' I am obliged to be civil for four." Daniel Burgess, dining with a gen- tlewoman of his congregation, a large uncut Cheshire cheese being brought to the table, asked where he should cut it; "Where you please, Mr. Burgess," she answered; upon which instruction he ordered his servant to carry it home, for he would cut it there. The New Yorker said he had lost both his sons, one had died and the other had gone to Philadelphia. Thackeray thinks nobody ought to say that people in the country have no imagina- tion, who has heard them talk about new neighbors. The Chicago man boasted that his sweetheart came pretty near calling him "honey," when in fact she called him "Old Beeswax." La Fontaine's nurse said of him, "He is so simple that God will not have courage to damn him." Some one has remarked, that the style of Sainte-Beuve's letters is far superior to that of his essays, because he had not time to spoil it. His death will not add to the over- crowding of heaven, is anonymous. A young preacher who had occupied old Dr. Emmons's pulpit, looking for a compliment, said to the doctor, "I hope I didn't weary you by the length of my sermon"; the reply was, "No, nor by its breadth either." Haydon thinks there must be more malice than love in the hearts of all wits. John Hay thinks that one who has nothing to say can say it better in a foreign language. Narvaez, on his death- bed, being urged to forgive his enemies, said, "Bless 440 LITERARY BREVITIES my soul, I have none; I have killed them all." We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others, is an observation of La Rochefoucauld. It is much easier, remarks some one, for a woman to yield and be silent when she is in the right than when she is in the wrong. Addison speaks of a man who was more famous for his library than his learn- ing. It was claimed that a certain man would have been a good fellow, if he had not been a drunkard, a liar, and a thief. Negroes have been called the image of God cut in ebony. Sir Thomas Browne referred to acute diseases, where "'tis as dangerous to be sentenced by a physician as by a judge." Sit we upon the highest throne in the world, says Montaigne, yet sit we on our own tail. The country rector thought the professor might be in- clined to re-write the Lord's Prayer, thinking there was a sad absence of the intellectual element in it. Ev'n wit's a burden, when it talks too long, is Juvenal's. Bal- zac's woman had the bumps of Judas. Richter depicts a girl about to be married as standing on the scaffolding of joy. Chesterton refers to an educated upstart as a man who can quote Beaumarchais, though he cannot pro- nounce him. Though Hudibras applied the spur to only one side of his horse, he did not doubt but the other side would keep pace with it. Instead of ordering his driver to hurry, he told him to "burn the pavement." Agnes Strickland observes, that controversies between husband and wife are dangerous pastimes to the weaker vessel, especially if she chance to have the best of the argument. A bad man is not so bad as a worse, according to Bernard Shaw. Dumas's man snored like an organ. The same says we are never so slow as when we are in a hurry. Voltaire remarks of Dante, "He has commentators, which, perhaps, is another reason for his not being understood; WIT 441 his reputation will go on increasing, because scarcely anybody reads him." To R. L. Stevenson, who remarked that every boy hunted for buried treasures, Henry James stated that he never did; "Then," said Stevenson, "you were never a boy." The lean poet put lead in his pocket to prevent his being blown away. To have debts, says Victor Hugo, is to have something. The same author accuses James II of practising mortification in the ugli- ness of his mistresses. People, says Addison, are natu- rally full of themselves who have nothing else in them. The following lines are from Congreve, — "Rules for good verse they first with pains indite, Then show us what are bad by what they write." Speaking of the weakness of the council of George II, Pitt deplores the ambition of being the only figure among ciphers. From Herbert we have, — "Only a sweet and virtuous soul, Like seasoned timber never gives." Diogenes said to one who spoke ill of him, "Nobody will believe you when you speak ill of me, any more than they would believe me should I speak well of you." Dry- den says great wits are sure to madness near allied. When Thackeray was leaving the Garrick Club one night with a man who was standing as his political opponent in the election to be held on the morrow, the latter said, " Good night, Mr. Thackeray; may the best man win." "I hope not," rejoined Thackeray. Charles II remarked of the famous Vossius, that the learned divine believed everything but the Bible. Some witty Frenchmen called them, "King Elizabeth" and "Queen James." Speak- ing of Dresden as abounding very much in snow, Addi- son affirmed, that there was scarce anything they met with, except the sheets and napkins, that was not white. 442 LITERARY BREVITIES Senator Sawyer of Wisconsin, who became wealthy in the lumber business, at one time even having been a practical sawyer, adorned his carriage with the Latin motto, Vidi, "I saw." At a Lord Mayor's dinner in Lon- don, an alderman sitting next to the Duke of Marlbor- ough, remarked, "Sir, yours must be a very laborious profession"; "No," replied the Duke, "we fight about four hours in the morning and two or three after dinner, and then we have all the rest of the day to ourselves." WOMAN GOD could not be everywhere, and therefore He made mothers, Rabbinical saying. A woman conquers when she flies, is Tasso's. Wherever women are honored, the gods are satisfied, is anonymous. Nothing, says Bal- zac, can ever console a woman for the loss of her beauty, but loving and beloved children. The more corrupt a century, affirms Richter, the more contempt there is in it for women. Amiel asserts, that woman is at once the delight and terror of man. George Eliot thinks the hap- piest women, like the happiest nations, have no history. It is Balzac's judgment, that English women have a genius for raising children. Seneca declares, that woman either loves or hates; that there is no third possibility. Of the four Lesbian poets three were women. It is a Hindu sentiment, that if the women of a house are beautifully arrayed, the whole house is decorated. It is a paradoxical saying of Balzac, that a woman is never so garrulous as when she holds her tongue. It is unac- countable, that in democratic Athens woman was so little respected. At the last Great Day, Renan declares, men will be judged by women, and the Almighty will merely vise the verdict. We are fearfully and wonderfully WOMAN 443 made, especially women, is an observation of Thackeray. J. A. Symonds thinks it significant, that in "Plutarch's Lives," whereas we read of many noble Lacedaemonian ladies, comparatively little account is taken of the wives and mothers of Athenian worthies. The following is from ^Eschylus and relates to Clytemnestra, — "Her husband, Once the dear object of her love, to which Her swelling zone bore many a precious pledge." No woman, affirms Balzac, likes to listen to another woman's praises. The same author declares, that next to the pleasure of admiring the woman we love, is that of seeing her admired by others. According to Addison, a woman seldom writes her mind but in her postscript. The same says a virtuous woman should reject the first offer of marriage, as a good man does that of a bishopric. The glory of a woman, Balzac thinks, is to be adored for a defect. What is better than gold? Jasper; What is better than jasper? Wisdom; What is better than wisdom? Woman; What is better than a good woman? Noth- ing, — appropriated from the Latin by Chaucer. Cole- ridge has discovered, that all the sarcasms on women to be found in Shakspeare are put into the mouths of vil- lains. Where women have the most culture, observes Hamerton, men are most open and sincere. Women were forbidden to witness the Olympic games. Modesty in woman; integrity in man, is the dictum of some one. The following is from Burns, — " Auld nature swears the lovely dears, Her noblest work she classes, O, Her prentice han' she tried on man, And then she made the lasses, O." 444 LITERARY BREVITIES Balzac declares it easier for a woman to be a good wife than a good mother. We are told that Rome never saw a woman on the stage. More ungovernable than any other evil is a bad wife, is from the Talmud. Mother is the name of God in the hearts of little children, declares Thackeray. Sainte-Beuve thinks a woman's biography ought never to be written. Senator Hoar pronounces Mrs. Sarah Ripley, of Waltham, one of the most scholarly women America has produced. Napoleon found the pret- tiest women the hardest to make love to. Madame de Stael asked Napoleon whom he thought to be the greatest woman in antiquity, and whom he thought to be so at the present day, evidently looking for a compliment; Napoleon answered, "She who has borne the most chil- dren." Mrs. Burnett describes a woman as shallow as a brook in midsummer. It has been said in the praise of some men, that they could talk whole hours together upon anything; but that it must be owned to the honor of the other sex, that there are many among them who can talk whole hours together upon nothing. The Ves- tal Virgins, after living as priestesses for thirty years, were allowed to marry. Dowden informs us, that in the historical plays of Shakspeare — there being ten English ones — there is really only one happy woman, Henry V's wife Kate. Says Shakspeare, — "There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass." When there is an old maid in the house, says Balzac, a watch- dog is not needed. This from Shakspeare, — "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety/ ' From the same again, — "But you, O you, So perfect and so peerless, are created Of every creature's best." WOMAN 445 And again, — "She's beautiful; and therefore to be woo'd; She is a woman; therefore to be won." " — When maidens sue, Men give like gods." And this, — "That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man, If with his tongue he cannot win a woman." And this, — "Frailty, thy name is woman." This also, — "Good wombs have borne bad sons." Also this, — "How hard it is for women to keep counsel." A man with a corrupt heart, according to Coleridge, has been sometimes saved by a strong head; but a corrupt woman is lost forever. Charles Kingsley has the following, — "Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not dream them all day long; And so make life, death, and that vast forever One grand, sweet song." Rousseau pictures a woman of so amiable a weakness, that it seemed to add a charm to virtue. Balzac men- tions a wife with no dangerous brilliancy. He also says, that a woman is no older than she looks. He thinks there is no character in women's faces before the age of thirty. She looks rather conscious of her clothes, is Balzac's. It is Richardson's view, that women know better how to be sorry than to amend. One reason why she was satisfied with being a woman was, that she could not be married to a woman, from Richardson. However dis- tinguished a man may be, it is remarked by Madame de Stael, he rarely feels unqualified pleasure in the superior- ity of a woman. It was an ancient Roman law, that no one should make a woman his heir. St. Evremond 446 LITERARY BREVITIES believes it less impossible to find in a woman the sound, strong reason of men, than to find in men the charm and the natural graces of woman. Mrs. Craigie asserts, that virtuous women will cling to men whom the good Samaritan would scarcely touch with the tongs. Lord Beaconsfield said of his wife, "She is an excellent crea- ture, but she never can remember whether the Greeks or the Romans came first." Benson laments the fact, that in English there is no female word for "man"; he thinks "woman" means something quite different, and always sounds slightly disrespectful; he thinks "lady" is impos- sible, except in certain antique phrases. Sienkiewicz compares women to will-o-the-wisps; if you chase one, it flees, if you flee, it pursues. The Franks are said to have debated in a church assembly whether or not a woman is a human being. Mahan knew of a housekeeper so good as to make a home unbearable. Congreve has the following, — "Heav'n has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned." Some one has declared, that a woman is not in her true sphere until she is a mother. No woman, says The Spec- tator, is capable of being beautiful, who is not incapable of being false. The woman that deliberates, says Addison, is lost. The prettiest girls, remarks Heine, find it hardest to get husbands; the three Graces were all old maids. Hawthorne thought the women of Scotland had a faculty of looking exceedingly ugly as they grow old. Cervantes would not engage to put a pin point between a woman's yea and nay. George Meredith declares, that women will want a change of air in Para- dise. In the opinion of Tolstoy, nothing is so advanta- geous to a young man as the society of clever women. It WOMAN 447 has been claimed, that French women govern but can- not reign. Minerva, in the contest with Neptune as to which one should name Athens, won the day by the aid of the votes of women. It has been asserted, that women are mostly foolish, that the Almighty made them to match the men. Some one has gracefully written, — " — a woman with the sweet Behavior of a mother/ ' INDEX NAMES OF PERSONS, CHIEFLY AUTHORS, QUOTED OR MENTIONED, WITH NUMBERS ADDED TO INDICATE THE PAGE WHERE EACH EXTRACT OR ALLUSION OCCURS Aaron, 292 Abbott, George J., 141 Abbott, Lyman, 49, 53, 175, 336, 358, Abraham, 356, 436 Acton, Lord, 389 Adam, 298 Adams, John, 22, 92, 146, 199, 337, 406, 413, 419, 425 Adams, John (Educationist), 114, 121, Adams, John Quincy, 93, 137, 181, 277, 291, 338, 339, 383, 423 Addison, 6, 37, 42, 46, 58, 61, 63, 68 72, 73, 75, 78, 85, 95, 98, 119, 146, 148, 154, 158, 159, 160, 163, 171, 181, 189, 190, 195, 207, 210, 222, 225, 226, 238, 241, 245, 247, 251, 252, 255, 257, 263, 265, 267, 273, 277, 281, 291, 315, 330, 337, 340, 342, 351, 378, 388, 390, 400, 440, 441, 443, 446 Adler, Felix, 132 Adrian, Emperor, 90, 303, 342 Adrian IV, Pope, 28, 205 ^Elian, 366 jEschines, 139, 185 JEschylus, 32, 78, 103, 104, 105, 147, 174, 185, 242, 255, 274, 297, 302, 312, 324, 328, 376, 384, 409, 416, iEsop, 164, 376 Agamemnon, 103 Agassiz, 245 Alaric, 34, 293, 390 Alcibiades, 5, 127, 170, 176, 184, 220, 384 Alcott, Bronson, 124, 226 Aldrich, Thomas B., 44, 384 Aldus, John, 150 Alexander the Great, 4, 12, 13, 22, 24, 69, 83, 88, 125, 153, 155, 156, 176, 196, 202, 267, 317, 318, 344, 346, 406, 407 Alexander I, 351 Alexis, 237 394 383, 321 210, , 69, 137, 169, 211, 250, 270, 338, 428, 153, 308, 443 347, , 34, 184, 374, Alfieri, 59 Alfred, King, 74, 206 Alison, Archibald, 146, 402, 408 Allen, Grant, 288 Allen, James Lane, 82 Alston, Washington, 83 Althorp, Lord, 263 Alva, Duke of, 222 Ames, Fisher, 5 Amestris, 88 Amiel, 43, 48, 52, 82, 109, 119, 133, 186, 187, 191, 197, 258, 261, 280, 320, 347, 348, 354, 364, 381, 392, 418, 442 Anne of Austria, 6 Anne, Queen, 34, 75, 217, 254 Andersen, Hans Christian, 55, 88, 192, Antigonus, 213 Antinous, 28 Antony, Mark, 9, 106, 200, 280, 378 Apelles, 24, 180, 250, 256, 299 Appleton, Daniel, 288 Aristo, 151 Aristophanes, 11, 52, 186, 294, 299, 303, 355, 425 Aristotle, 4, 6, 21, 26, 30, 61, 67, 73, 79, 83, 110, 112, 115, 125, 129, 132, 136, 167, 169, 176, 206, 215, 248, 252, 254, 268, 274, 279, 289, 298, 301, 315, 320, 321, 332, 347, 402 Arminius, 9, 407 Arnauld, Antoine, 257 Arnold, Matthew, 61, 71, 76, 82, 84, 116, 123, 148, 159, 170, 232, 239, 248, 253, 254, 256, 262, 279, 283, 327, 331, 361, 363, 368, 381, 394 Arnold, Dr. Thomas, 40, 117, 123, 196, 342, 399 Arnould, Mile., 273 Arpuleius, 417 Arthur, King, 198 Ascesius, 361 173, 285, 396, 434 301, :, 74, 130, 228, 291, 385, 111, 244, 309, 144, 450 INDEX Aspasia, 244, 259 Atterbury, Francis, 384 Attila, 345 August, of Poland, the Strong, 48 Augustine, Saint, 21, 147, 247, 270, 315, 352 Aurelius, Marcus, 41, 91, 242, 258, 267, 348, 404, 416 Austin, Charles, 70, 339 Bach, 273 Bacon, Francis, 24, 34, 40, 78, 87, 97, 101, 107, 110, 132, 140, 146, 152, 159, 171, 175, 176, 178, 190, 214, 232, 250, 264, 272, 302, 305, 306, 308, 327, 360, 362, 368, 370, 384, 412 Bacon, Roger, 368 Bagehot, Walter, 59, 327 Bailey, Philip J., 238 Baillie, Dr., 195 Bain, Alexander, 211 Balaam, 361 Balder, 243 Balzac, 3, 7, 9, 13, 14, 16, 17, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 45, 47, 49, 51, 54, 56, 58, 66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 74, 86, 87, 90, 91, 92, 94, 95, 100, 101, 105, 108, 111, 130, 134, 144, 145, 148, 154, 156, 159, 160, 161, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 175, 177, 178, 179, 180, 187, 188, 189, 190, 193, 197, 208, 209, 210, 211, 218, 219, 220, 223, 224, 230, 234, 235, 238, 239, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 269, 270, 272, 274, 277, 284, 288, 289, 290, 299, 314, 316, 318, 319, 323, 329, 336, 339, 341, 345, 355, 358, 359, 366, 368, 374, 375, 376, 377, 378, 384, 386, 387, 388, 391, 397, 401, 402, 403, 404, 412, 413, 414, 416, 419, 427, 433, 440, 442, 443, Bancroft, 26, 50, 73, 95, 119, 218, 309 Banks, Nathaniel P., 232 Barbauld, Anna L., 93 Barrie, James M., 161 Barrow, Isaac, 84, 136, 175 Barry, Comtesse du, 88 44, 45, 58, 59, 115, 119, 122, 162, 164, 166, 194, 210, 211, 279, 285, 297, 350, 352, 353, 403, 405, 409, , 18, 19, 21, 23, , 35, 37, 40, 43, 60, 61, 64, 65, 77, 78, 82, 83, , 96, 97, 98, 99, 112, 127, 128, 149, 151, 153, 162, 163, 164, 170, 173, 174, 183, 184, 185, 194, 195, 196, 214, 216, 217, 226, 227, 228, 240, 249, 254, 261, 264, 268, 280, 281, 283, 305, 311, 313, 326, 327, 328, 346, 348, 350, 369, 372, 373, 379, 381, 382, 392, 393, 395, 405, 409, 411, 420, 421, 426, 444, 445 201, 203, 204, Bates, Arlo, 19, 55 , 113, 160, 228 Baxter, Richard, 215, 353 Bayle, Pierre, 215, 247 Beaconsfield (see Disraeli) Beatrice, 259, 263 Beauclerk, Topham, 214 Beaumarchais, 114. 440 Becket, Thomas a, 41 Beckford, William, 133, 142, 191, 286, 437 Beecher, 295, 423, 424 Beethoven, 5, 25, 74, 121, 129, 227, 275, 342 Bellew, Kyrle, 142 Belloc, J. H. P., 145, 177, 183, 362, 382, 414 Benson, Arthur C, 12, 46, 64, 129, 190, 192, 219, 235, 263, 276, 278, 284, 289, 342, 362, 372, 388, 400, 432, 446 Bentham, Jeremy, 67, 152, 316 Bentley, Richard, 81, 372 Benton, Captain, 429 Benton, Thomas Hart, 277 Beranger, 4, 32 Berkeley, Bishop, 252, 313, 322, 341 Bernard, Saint, 317 Besant, Walter, 413 Beyer, Franz, 16 Bielschowsky, 177, 178, 191, 342, 347 Bigelow, John, 207 Billington, Elizabeth, 77 Bion, 308 Birrell, Augustine, 168, 177, 199, 322 Bismarck, 178, 195, 314, 318, 374, 409, 432 Black, William, 85, 108, 289, 367, 401 Blackburn, Senator, 435, 436 Blackie, John Stuart, 37, 78, 363 Blaine, 136, 184 Blake, William, 22, 198, 212, 223 Blondin, Charles, 155 Blucher, 410 Boccaccio, 33, 130, 201, 303, 311, 328, 413 Boddington, 269 Boethius, Ancius, 51 Boileau-Despreaux, 30, 61, 86, 275 Bolingbroke, 6, 171, 176, 181, 192, 229, 298, 340, 413 Booth, Edwin, 44, 94, 244, 438 Booth, Junius Brutus, 102, 432 Borne, Ludwig, 334 Bossuet, 60, 84, 212, 339, 354, 358 Boswell, James, 32, 81, 128, 170, 394 Boteler, Dr., 420 Botsford, George Willis, 174, 356 Braddock, General, 410 Brahe, Tycho, 215 Brasidas, 407 Breckenridge, Rev. John J., 427 Bright, John, 4, 15, 38, 136, 250, 275 Brignoli, 35 INDEX 451 Bronte, Charlotte, 192 Brooke, Lord, 264 Brooks, John G., 98 Brooks, Phillips, 138 Brougham, Lord, 131, 132, 217, 252 425, 437 Brown, John, 263 Brown, Dr. John, 59, 86, 177, 219, 341, 362 Browne, Sir Thomas, 34, 35, 192, 222, 351, 371, 372, 414, 440 Browning, 4, 12, 13, 14, 23, 27, 41, 44, 48, 58, 68, 78, 85, 91, 109, 110, 127, 152, 153, 170, 176, 195, 223, 233, 237, 239, 242, 244, 245, 251, 253, 257, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 301, 302, 303, 305, 306, 315, 324, 328, 330, 331, 340, 342, 345, 353, 357, 360, 373, 376, 378, 386, 399, 404, 426 Browning, Mrs., 33, 35, 130, 173, 180, 191, 234, 256, 279, 405, 410 Brownson, Orestes A., 359 Bruce, Robert, 202, 302 Briihl, Graf von, 436 Brunetto, Latini, 172 Brutus, Marcus Junius, 92, 133, 153 Bryant, 84, 245, 297, 330, 368, 378, 398, 402 Buchanan, 177, 233 Buchurst, 103 Buckland, Dr., 127 Buckle, Henry Thomas, 305, 393 Buddha, 91, 143 Budgell, Eustace, 345 Buffon, 347, 417 Bull, Ole, 5, 9, 275, 284 Bulwer-Lytton, 11, 29, 30, 44, 46, 77, 91, 95, 97, 109, 138, 149, 156, 177, 194, 218, 230, 233, 255, 256, 262, 268, 271, 278, 289, 297, 311, 318, 334, 346, 361, 372, 373, 374, 376, 379, 389, 390, 414, 416, 423 Bunyan, 31, 78, 131, 223, 307, 376 Burgess, Daniel, 439 Burke, 10, 34, 84, 87, 114, 135, 140, 142, 167, 170, 180, 181, 182, 217, 226, 295, 309, 315, 318, 339, 340, 343, 372, 384, 413, 416, 417, 424 Burnet, Gilbert, 139 Burnett, Mrs. Frances H., 165, 444 Burns, 31, 50, 70, 85, 91, 129, 156, 166, 244, 245, 257, 281, 283, 307, 331, 361, 375, 378, 426, 437, 443 Burrell, William, 32 Burton, Robert, 132, 244, 291, 295, 296, 299, 377, 385, 420 Burton, Sir Richard, 228, 246 Burton, Sir Sim, 78 Bussy, Comte de, 171 Bute, Lord, 135 Butler, Bishop, 295, 322, 399 Butler, Gen. B. F., 193 Butler, Samuel, 153, 162, 164, 171, 293, 295, 298, 302, 315, 3«9, 415, 437, 438 Buxton, Jedediah, 102 Byron, 12, 22, 33, 80, 84, 85, 156, 177, 216, 220, 242, 252, 262, 297, 316, 317, 318, 325, 333, 398, 411 Caesar, Augustus, 9, 12, 65, 69, 89, 106, 167, 200, 216, 232, 234, 250, 254, 291, 391, 407 Caesar, Julius, 13, 83, 86, 101, 159, 174, 175, 179, 184, 192, 200, 203, 207, 232, 263, 296, 316, 317, 339, 342, 347, 370, 374, 401, 408, 409, 410, 427 Cain, 265, 349 Calhoun, 182, 296, 429 Caligula, 51, 88, 214, 400 Calthrop, Gordon, 267 Calvin, 31, 84, 356, 358, 361 Camden, 420 Camoens, 252, 253, 333 Campbell, Thomas, 79, 92, 328, 330, 437 Canning, George, 167, 198, 339 Canonicus, 368 Carinus, 53 Carlyle, 5, 15, 17, 18, 38, 41, 43, 50, 53, 62, 86, 96, 97, 107, 110, 111, 114, 120, 123, 127, 129, 148, 152, 156, 158, 159, 168, 170, 173, 174, 175, 180, 185, 192, 197, 217, 218, 226, 227, 229, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 245, 246, 250, 251, 255, 280, 304, 310, 318, 324, 334, 335, 341, 343, 354, 359, 362, 365, 374, 377, 385, 389, 393, 395, 397, 399, 414, 417, 422, 426, 434, 436 Cartier, Jaques, 101 Cartwright, Peter, 354 Cassius, Avidius, 267 Cassius, Longinus, 153 Catalini, 215 Catiline, 139 Cato, the Elder, 51, 89, 91, 156, 184, 278, 337, 344, 350, 362, 380, 424 Catullus, 261 Cavour, 338 Cellini, Benvenuto, 162, 166, 284, 405 Celsus, 212 Cervantes, 11, 14, 35, 62, 168, 198, 210, 238, 253, 273, 291, 292, 297, 301, 303, 305, 306, 307, 346, S63, 377, 382, 404, 411, 417, 446 Chadwick, John W., 59, 223, 263, 290, 322 Chandler, Senator Zachariah, 436 Channing, William E., 42, 135, 142, 421, 438 Chantry, Sir Thomas, 19 452 INDEX Charlemagne, 178, 207 Charles I, 6, SI, 208, 279, 398, 406 Charles II, 4, 14, 20, 105, 201, 359, 390, 424, 441 Charles V, of Spain, 206, 219, 297, 300, 402 Charles IX, 19 Charles XII, of Sweden, 347, 370, 408 Charlevoix, 349 Chateaubriand, 190 Chaucer, 31, 32, 42, 153, 234, 254, 279, 301, 303, 308, 309, 328, 377, 381, 438, 443 Chesterfield, 43, 70, 83, 110, 146, 153, 271, 326, 371, 397, 398, 403, 412 Chesterton, 24, 44, 114, 176, 229, 266, 330, 360, 392, 440 Choate, Rufus, 367 Chrysostom, Saint, 4, 139, 155, 203 Cibber, Colley, 78, 328 Cicero, 6, 9, 15, 35, 51, 63, 82, 91, 92, 98, 100, 101, 137, 138, 143, 147, 161, 164, 168, 170, 209, 232, 243, 252, 267, 268, 286, 296, 303, 305, 307, 321, 332, 344, 373, 375, 379, 393, 401, 402, 413, 415, 417, 419 Clay, 32, 277, 323, 338, 429, 432 Clemm, Virginia, 268 Cleon, 8, 165 Cleopatra, 9, 27 Clinton, De Witt, 152 Clive, Lord, 408 Clough, A. H., 434 Cobden, 319 Coke, Sir Edward, 404 Colenso, Bishop, 362 Coleridge, 4, 19, 51, 62, 70, 72, 83, 84, 102, 104, 107, 118, 142, 146, 148, 156, 169, 173, 180, 187, 188, 205, 211, 214, 221, 226, 235, 250, 258, 266, 272, 279, 280, 319, 322, 324, 325, 333, 343, 353, 417, 419, 443, 445 Coleridge, Hartley, 84 Coleridge, Sara, 229 Collier, Price, 46 Collingwood, 263 Collins, William, 168 Columbus, 31, 294, 417 Conde, 83 Confucius, 64, 125 Congreve, 346, 371, 372, 441, 446 Constantine, 35, 199, 203, 351, 361 Constantius, 35, 203 Cook, James, 186 Cooper, 34, 82, 85, 160, 368, 381 Cooper, the Actor, 220 Cordoue, Ferdinand, 227 Coriolanus, 161, 387 Corneille, 55, 104 Corot, 179 Cortereal, 203 Corwin, Tom, 433 Cotard, M. J., 287 Cotta, 355 Coulevain, 12 Cousin, 120, 236, 415 Cowley, 28, 158, 239 Cowper, 47, 75, 87, 145, 157, 160, 194, 229, 237, 252, 254, 301, 339, 353, 395, 414, 434, 436 Cox, S. S., 435 Craigie, Mrs., 10, 135, 262, 271, 284, 392^ 395, 429, 446 Crassus, Lucius Licinius, 159, 207, 339 Crawford, F. Marion, 434 Creasy, 174, 175, 176 Creeden, Alexander, 216 Creevey, 86, 213, 236 Crichton, Admirable, 117 Critias, 66, 127 Cromwell, 20, 32, 33, 56, 101, 134, 176, 209, 271, 317, 347, 378, 387, 398, 407, 424 Crosland, Camilla, 331 Crothers, 71, 74, 83, 130, 140, 229, 265. 283, 327, 331, 363, 428 Crozier, J. B., 400 Culrossie, 214 Cumberland, Duke of, 6 Cunningham, Allen, 17, 23, 82, 120, 154, 174, 343, 389 Cureton, William, 113 Curtis, G. W., 6, 288, 336 Curtis, W. E., 337 Curtius, Marcus, 35 Curtius, Quintus, 283, 400 Curtius, Rufus, 319, 384 Cushman, Charlotte, 16, 106 Custer, General, 221 Cutts, General, 277 Cuvier, 32 D'Alambert, 284 Damocles, 159 Dante, 15, 33, 60, 83, 86, 87, 131, 146 164, 172, 185, 201, 244, 249, 259, 263, 274, 289, 307, 313, 316, 317, 327, 328, 329, 332, 366, 371, 390, 396, 440 D'Arblay, Madame, 3, 29, 130, 151, 255 Darwin, 310, 369 Daudet, 102 d'Auteroche, Marquis, 335 David, 168, 171, 301 David, Jaques Louis, 237 Davis, Jefferson, 338 Davy, Sir Humphrey, 252, 295 De Foe, 11, 59, 241, 358 INDEX 453 Democritus, 79, 118, 134, 282, 310, 349 Demophon, 69 De Morgan, William, 150, 223, 382, 388, 431 Demosthenes, 5, 61, 83, 101. 137, 138, 139, 141, 143, 176, 185, 186, 267, 307, 316, 402 De Quincey, 65, 76, 178, 179, 285, 294, 355, 381 Desaix, 83 Descartes, 322 De Stael, Madame, 49, 72, 85, 143, 152, 218, 260, 275, 319, 347, 361, 388, 404, 444, 445 Dexter, Timothy, 214 Dickens, 61, 77, 80, 86 Diderot, 121, 221, 364 Dinocrates, 22 Diocletian, 206, 297 Diodorus, Siculus, 53, 281 Diogenes, 35, 239, 441 Dionysius, 31, 49, 124, 159, 400 Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, 12, 18, 46, 47, 132, 135, 154, 160, 161, 173, 175, 177, 211, 227, 297, 315, 318, 319, 325, 341, 361, 384, 387, 416 Dix, John A., 244, 312 Dobson, Austin, 231 Dolabella, 296 Dolon, 134 Donatus, 14 Donne, Dr. John, 303 Douglas, Stephen A., 141 Dowden, Edward, 7, 49, 198, 240, 255, 280, 304, 345, 397, 415, 444 Downe, John, 167 Doyle, Sir A. Conan, 69 Dresser, H. W., 64, 113, 117, 141, 150, 190, 225, 240, 276, 285, 290 Drinkwater, Sir John, 209 Dryden, 5, 44, 64, 74, 86, 100, 104, 159, 163, 247, 248, 256, 260, 266, 303, 308, 309, 326, 381, 390, 403, 423, 441 Dubois, 431 Dumas, Pere, 10, 18, 34, 92, 108, 170, 175, 230, 238, 239, 261, 262, 289, 311, 319, 364, 367, 378, 385, 390, 414, 419, 440 Dundee, Viscount, 52 Dunning, John, 438 Duval, Jules, 22 Eckermann, Johan Peter, 222 Edward I, 154 Edward II, 31, 202 Edward HI, 199 Edward IV, 201 Edward, The Black Prince, 77, 306 Edwards, Jonathan, 62, 108, 137, 143, 176, 217 Egina, 194 Eldon, Lord, 137 Eliot, Charles W., 123, 360 Eliot, George, 3, 27, 38, 40, 45, 47, *9, 57 61, 70, 80, 81, 82, 83, 86, 87, 92, 98, 111, 113, 125, 139, 142, 153, 173, 182, 197, 226, 238, 239, 240, 242, 248, 249, 259, 260, 266, 279, 292, 305, 345, 355, 361, 374, 395, 402, 442 Elizabeth, Princess, 352 Elizabeth, Queen, 23, 32, 34, 35, 103, 152, 202, 208, 222, 254, 277, 341, 363, 385, 398, 441 Ellesmere, Lord, 167 Elliott, Charles, 436 Emerson, 4, 12, 16, 25, 27, 30, 33, 38, 41, 46, 50, 55, 60, 63, 66, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 84, 107, 108, 109, 110, 114, 122, 124, 126, 129, 136, 137, 139, 142, 143, 153, 154, 158, 168, 174, 175, 178, 179, 189, 195, 196, 200, 202, 204, 209, 222, 226, 229, 233, 235, 242, 248, 249, 267, 271, 279, 280, 281, 288, 292, 295, 304, 312, 315, 320, 321, 323, 324, 325, 329, 337, 347, 349, 354, 357, 365, 366, 373, 374, 379, 380, 382, 393, 396, 399, 403, 404, 408, 416, 419, 422, 425, 434, 436 Emmons, Nathanael, 439 Ennius, 57, 303, 407 Epaminondas, 161, 278 Epernon, Due d', 215 Epictetus, 162, 295, 322 Epicurus, 59, 79, 170, 214, 263, 332 Erasmus, 92, 113, 124, 157, 191, 215, 372, 434 Eratosthenes, 93, 155 Euclid, 111 Eugene, Prince, 146 Eugenie, Empress, 35 Eupolis, 109 Euripides, 67, 73, 85, 101, 104, 183, 189, 223, 227, 255, 265, 289, 297, 301, 304, 311, 314, 324, 331, 343, 386, 416 Evarts, 215, 228, 357, 421, 435 Everett, C. C, 12, 43, 64, 66, 174, 260, 281, 357, 396 Everett, Edward, 145, 220, 357 Evremond, Saint, 240, 445 Farinelli, 344 Farragut, 157, 277, 410 Feinaigle, 269 Felton, Cornelius C, 36 Felton, John, 36, 257 Fenelon, 6, 75, 84, 112, 166, 182 Ferrero, 199 454 INDEX Ferress, Lord, 222 Fessenden, W. P., 86, 141, 178 Feversham, General, 199 Fichte, 322 Field, James T., 273, 393 Fielding, 14, 18, 22, 40, 65, 75, 165, 168, 220, 234, 261, 274, 276, 280, 306, 307, 309, 320, 382, 389, 415 Finck, Henry T., 16, 275 Finett, Sir John, 310 Fiske, John, 117, 143, 154, 177, 201, 207, 227, 238, 239, 262, 277, 358, 365, 385, 391, 406 Flaminius, Lucius, 89 Flaxman, 20, 24, 34, 206, 210, 416 Fletcher, 229 Fontana, Carlo, 250 Fontenelle, 172, 226, 424 Forrest, 389 Foulon, 88 Fox, 11, 79, 112, 135, 138, 186, 318 Francis, of Assisi, 47 Francis I, 300 Francis, Sir Philip (see Junius) Franklin, 31, 33, 38, 69, 76, 83, 119, 186, 193, 195, 225, 270, 305, 306, 317, 325, 354, 363, 369, 371, 387, 401, 407, 419, 425 Frederic, Harold, 73, 167, 423 Frederick 1,^207, 222, 408, 411 Frederick the Great, 33, 35, 67, 73, 83, 124, 131, 134, 144, 158, 171, 179, 182, 213, 221, 271, 361, 408, 410, 429 Frost, Rev., 213 Froude, 173, 245 Fuller, Margaret, 180, 350, 436 Fuller, Thomas, 75, 154, 163 Fulton, 206, 411 Fuseli, John Henry, 142 Gadsden, James, 33 Gainsborough, 146, 174 Galen, 228 Galiani, 273, 430 Galileo, 33, 370 Galloway, Joseph, 313 Gardner, Henry J., 337 Garfield, 111, 163, 316, 359, 385 Garrick, 99, 102, 126, 137, 180, 317, 381 Garrison, 65 Gaunt, John of, 306 Gautier, 4 Gay, John, 170, 188 Geddes, Dr., 288 Geddes, Jenny, 360 Genevieve de Bourbon, 432, Geoffrin, Madame, 129, 172, 220 George I, 255, 398 George II, 20, 222, 398, 412, 432, 441 George III, 31, 40, 85, 137, 168, 204, 205, 215, 260, 263, 352, 438 George IV, 169, 213 Ghibeline, 207 Gibbon, 34, 43, 50, 51, 55, 83, 84, 86, 90, 119, 146, 173, 184, 251, 260, 318, 342, 344, 346, 364, 371, 403, 414, 422 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 299 Giorgione, 193 Gladstone, 22, 42, 87, 101, 116, 129, 139, 184, 216, 218, 267, 294, 317, 337, 338, 339, 340, 360, 380, 392, 398, 425 Glaucus, of Chios, 370 Godfrey de Bouillon, 352 Godkin, E. L., 113, 343, 433 Goethe, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 21, 22, 23, 25, 32, 33, 38, 42, 44, 45, 47, 50, 56, 58, 60, 62, 63, 64, 72, 85, 86, 87, 91, 96, 98, 108, 110, 111, 113, 115, 118, 122, 129, 133, 135, 145, 146, 156, 165, 168, 171, 173, 174, 175, 177, 178, 179, 186, 187, 188, 189, 191, 195, 213, 218, 221, 222, 223, 230, 233, 235, 237, 238, 239, 247, 248, 249, 250, 252, 256, 259, 261, 263, 264, 265, 269, 288, 289, 290, 295, 298, 303, 304, 305, 306, 309, 313, 316, 318, 326, 327, 329, 330, 333, 334, 335, 348, 354, 359, 372, 373, 374, 377, 385, 389, 392, 393, 395, 415, 438 Goldsmith, 28, 34, 43, 71, 79, 87, 131, 161, 167, 170, 176, 180, 244, 270, 271, 307 324, 335, 339, 386, 413, 422, 423, 424, 425, 438 Gourgaud, Gaspard, 106, 222 Gracchus, Caius, 136 Grafton, 66 Grant, 82, 227, 232, 373, 388, 406 Granville, Lord, 434 Grattan, 238 Gray, Asa, 436 Gray, Thomas, 81, 140, 162, 168, 170, 189, 219, 241, 246, 271, 284 Grayson, 192 Greeley, 58, 436 Greene, Gen. Nathaniel, 411 Grenville, George, 168 Greville, Charles, 335, 384, 405 Grieg, 16, 134 Grimm, Frederick M., 167 Grote, 34, 122, 198 Gryllus, 151 Guelf, 207 Guise, Chevalier de, 216 Guizot, 150 Gustavus Adolphus, 83, 105, 176, 201, 277 > INDEX 455 Hadrian (see Adrian) Hale, Edward Everett, 51, 54, 110, 118 Hale, Matthew, 323, 362 Hale, Senator, 436 Halifax, Earl of, 216, 313, 384 Hall, G. Stanley, 63, 130, 365, 405 Halleck, R. P., 188 Haller, Albrecht von, 175 Hamerton, P. G., 13, 21, 25, 111, 118, 120, 171, 179, 242, 275, 276, 342, 346, 382, 392, 443 Hamilton, Alexander, 79, 247, 255, 336, 340, 408 Hamilton, Mrs. Alexander, 150 Hamilton, Sir William, 115, 125 Handel, 5, 81, 215, 275 Hannibal, 154, 176, 253, 382, 388, 406, 407, 410 Hare, A. W., 18, 29, 54, 71, 86, 94, 123, 192, 263, 264, 362, 388 Harold, 199 Harper, W. Rf, 158 Harris, William T , 21, 109, 128, 418 Harrison, Frederic, 80, 139, 279 Harrison, William H., 200, 219 Harvey, 294, 370 Hasdrubal, 94, 154, 408 Hassan, Sultan, 25 Hastings, Warren, 140, 428 Hawkins, Sir John, 150 Hawthorne, 3, 5, 20, 31, 38, 49, 52, 56, 57, 72, 73, 78, 80, 85, 111, 118, 121, 129, 142, 151, 154, 157, 165, 168, 187, 188, 197, 216, 237, 242, 245, 246, 248, 249, 250, 252, 263, 265, 266, 277, 281, 285, 286, 296, 301, 314, 318, 353, 363, 368, 375, 377, 384, 393, 399, 421, 446 Hawthorne, Julian, 104 Hay, John, 39, 130, 439 Hay, Lord Charles, 335 Haydn, 77, 275 Haydon, B. R., 5, 20, 61, 62, 71, 130, 142, 144, 157, 180, 211, 220, 319, 363, 364, 372, 389, 439 Hayes, R. B., 337, 421 Hayne, 136, 143, 257 Hazlitt, 22, 27, 66, 70, 119, 131, 153, 175, 176, 213, 227, 233, 246, 284, 316, 386 Hearn, Lafcadio, 21, 62, 75, 108, 157, 171, 178, 231 Hegel, 304, 321 Heine, 6, 14, 20, 24, 71, 76, 85, 87, 99, 113, 115, 146, 147, 152, 157, 160, 176, 218, 230, 231, 235, 236, 250, 253, 260, 264, 265, 277, 282, 286, 321, 323, 330, 334, 360, 363, 368, 379, 380, 396, 400, 408, 425, 430, 432, 435, 437, 446 Helps, Sir Arthur, 71, 89, 160, 186, 234, 264, 275, 278, 367, 371, 372 : 404 Henderson, Col. J. P., 150 Henrietta, Queen, 208, 429 Henry II, of England, 41, 202, 203, 222 Henry III, of England, 199, 205, 266 Henry III, of France, 215 Henry IV, of England, 201 Henry IV, of France, 19, 49, 163 Henry V, of England, 444 Henry VI, 201 Henry VII, 34, 410 Henry VIII, 7, 89, 411 Heraclitus, 151, 251 Heraud, J. A., 163 Herbart, 114 Herbert, George, 33, 69, 146, 298, 441 Herder, 5, 44, 254 Herkimer, General, 132 Herod, The Great, 89 Herodotus, 4, 54, 61, 90, 197, 219, 358 Herophilus, 368 Herschel, 15, 153, 369 Hesiod, 212, 308, 384 Hesselts, Counselor, 92 Higginson, T. W., 3, 40, 62, 100, 109, 220, 272, 320, 350, 386 Hill, Rowland, 15 Hillard, George S., 235 Hippias, 31 Hippocrates, 287, 309 Hoar, George F., 65, 120, 126, 139, 209, 215, 257, 337, 423, 444 Hoar, Judge Samuel, 46, 164 Hogarth, 26 Holmes, John, 126, 439 Holmes, O. W., 11, 69, 122, 126, 129, 280, 304, 325, 343, 354, 366, 384, Homer, 4, 21, 24, 31, 32, 38, 73, 84, 101, 133, 162, 174, 179, 227, 244, 252, 277, 281, 291, 295, 298, 299, 318, 324, 328, 330, 332, 333 Honorius II, Pope, 207 Honorius, Flavius, 50 Hood, 81, 436 Hooker, Richard, 353,378 Hope, Adam, 129 Hopkins, Mark, 96 Horace, 14, 17, 23, 26, 42, 58, 69, 76, 93, 102, 134, 144, 147, 152, 167, 187, 213, 245, 248, 279, 291, 292, 298, 301, 306, 307, 309, 312, 324, 326, 341, 347, 351, 367, 378, 396, Hostilianus, 203 Howard, Blanche Willis, 29, 67, 172 288, 393 211, 388, 205. 157, 193, 183, 400 , 87, 245, 300, , 77, 174, 296, 325, 415 230, 456 INDEX Howell, James, 29, 94, 99, 113, 156, 228, 276, 285, 341, 362, 363, 370, 405, 417, 433 Howells, 66, 125, 178, 242, 246, 261, 352, 417, 422, 438 Hubbard, Elbert, 102, 258, 301, 420 Hudson, Henry N., 23, 421 Hugo, 4, 5, 10, 11, 13, 21, 26, 34, 48, 55 t 63, 77, 80, 86, 92, 94, 105, 144, 158, 160, 164, 173, 193, 197, 212, 222, 238, 262, 265, 275, 276, 285, 290, 315, 331, 335, 343, 346, 353, 373, 381, 387, 411, 412, 414, 417, Hull, Commodore, 99 Humboldt, William von, 54, 212 Hume, 14, 31, 48, 50, 55, 66, 81, 119, 205, 216, 233, 307, 321, 343 Hume, Joseph, 425 Hunt, Leigh, 19, 29, 76, 96, 131, 188, 254, 264, 275, 278, 289, 295, 332, 409, 433 Hutchinson, Thomas, 225 Hutton, Edward, 364 Huxley, 63, 87, 124, 130, 132, 158, 211, 216, 224, 227, 241, 310, 322, 391, 406 Hyde, Tom, 15 219, 374, 290, , 54, 156, 214, 287, 366, 441 186, 219, 349, 194, 371, Ibsen, 59, 89, 119, 171, 197, 270 Innocent III, 360 Innocent VIII, 371 Ireland, Joe, 377 Irving, Henry, 105 Irving, Washington, 60, 189, 250, 273, 277, 316, 335 Iselin, Isaac, 45 Isocrates, 137, 143, 277, 402, 424 Issachar, 87 Jackson, Andrew, 132, 177, 212, 219, 337, 338, 383, 407, 433 Jackson, Thomas (Stonewall), 123, 178, Jacob, 87 James I, 53, 54, 68, 160, 241, 310, 356, 427, James II, 52, 66, 139, 324, 340, 398, 441 James, Henry, 8, 27, 86, 93, 117, 162, 225, 255, 259, 261, 340, 375, 377, 382, 437, 438, 441 James, William, 8, 18, 118, 126, 178, 228, 286, 362, 363, 364, Jandun, De, 124 Jay, John, 194 , 163, 186, 208, 216, 441 193, 200, 202, 214, 29, 45, 56, 70, 85, 185, 187, 215, 223, , 284, 285, 291, 304, , 387, 418, 420, 422, 30, 45, 47, 54, 72, 229, 234, 257, 282, 365, 370, 399, 416 Jefferson, Joseph, 93, 402 Jefferson, Thomas, 37, 53, 57, 76, 92, 137, 166, 181, 182, 189, 199, 218, 255, 317, 329, 336, 359, 380, 399, 421 Jeffrey, Francis, 82, 250 Jeffreys, Chief Justice, 193 Jehu, 310 Jerome, Saint, 417 Jessel, Sir George, 101 Jesus, 12, 18, 32, 35, 58, 212, 247, 270, 354, 357, 360, 417 Jewett, Sarah Orne, 48, 342, 372 Joan of Arc, 132 Job, 10, 129, 293, 296, 308, 310 Johannes, King, 90 John, King of England, 46, 218, 377 John, Saint, 214, 250, 269, 274 Johnson, Dr., 5, 14, 15, 16, 30, 32, 42. 44, 61, 62, 70, 71, 75, 80, 81, 84, 101, 109, 111, 114, 118, 122, 125, 127, 128, 130, 131, 144, 146, 147, 153, 158, 161, 162, 163, 168, 169, 175, 185, 188, 192, 193, 194, 214, 217, 223, 227, 230, 235, 236, 238, 266, 273, 277, 285, 295, 296, 297, 305, 307, 308, 317, 318, 322, 326, 335, 337, 343, 344, 347, 351, 394, 418, 433, 437, 439 Jonah, 429 Jonathan, 168, 171 Jones, Paul, 74 Jonson, Ben, 68, 76, 80, 105, 129, 139, 262, 291, 302, 328 Jordan, David Starr, 118 Josephine, 268 Jotham, 251 Joubert, 12, 22, 42, 59, 66, 81, 116, 132, 189, 209, 237, 246, 253, 254, 259, 272, 326, 329, 337, 363, 397, 415, 416 Jourdain, M ., 36 Jowett, 135, 306, 364 Judas, 440 Julian, 350 Junius, 26, 34, 246, 301, 318, 364, 372 Justinian, 48, 51 Juvenal, 93, 152, 188, 195, 282, 293, 303, 305, 334, 403, 417, 440 110, 249, 419, 353, 43, ■ 89, 126, 152, 170, 216, 251, 298, 334, 395, 147, 131, 258, 403, 297, Kallicrates, 306 Kant, 64, 131, 348, 375 Kean, 104 Keats, 4, 9, 12, 28, 29, 71, 76, 274, 275, 330 Keene, Laura, 18 Kellermann, General, 224 Kemble, 40 Kempis, Thomas a, 291, 307 INDEX 457 Kent, Chancelor, 357 Keppler, 33 Khufu, 205 Kildare, Earl of, 433 King, Ruf us, 96 King, Thomas Starr, 422 Kingsley, 36, 97, 392, 445 Kipling, 315, 422 Kish, 418 Kleber, J. B., 83 Klopstock, 44, 76 Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 152, 162 Knightly, 34 Kossuth, 115 Kropotof, 193 Kutuzoff, 411 La Bruyere, 56, 79, 268, 393, 428 La Fayette, Comtesse de, 60, 86 Lafayette, Marquis de, 32 La Fontaine, 43, 162, 220, 306, 349, 439 Lamb, 6, 9, 10, 26, 29, 30, 31, 54, 71, 106, 118, 148, 185, 229, 266, 364, 393, 418, 419, 424, 432, 438 Landor, Henry S., 186 Landor, Walter Savage, 3, 9, 14, 18, 19, 20, 38, 51, 57, 62, 71, 73, 77, 81, 82, 86, 87, 88, 90, 93, 95, 98, 102, 111, 113, 116, 125, 129, 139, 144, 149, 153, 168, 176, 180, 189, 191, 194, 195, 198, 209, 211, 216, 221, 224, 228, 236, 239, 244, 249, 252, 254, 258, 265, 269, 273, 276, 280, 283, 301, 315, 317, 318, 321, 322, 323, 324, 325, 326, 327, 333, 336, 345, 350, 351, 355, 366, 382, 384, 385, 389, 400, 402, 404, 411, 415, 421 Lang, Andrew, 164, 173, 175, 244, 248, 423, 428 Lange, J. P., 207 Lanier, 87, 334, 365 Lannes, Jean, 83 Laotsze, 148 La Place, 154 La Rochefoucauld, 60, 94, 95, 142, 162, 170, 171, 188, 264, 272, 302, 402, 440 Latrobe, C. J., 116, 211 Laura, 150, 219, 259, 261 Lavater, 19, 44 Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 130 Lecky, 233, 375, 400, 405, 411 Lee, "Light Horse Harry," 304 Lee, Robert E., 313 Leibnitz, 179, 233, 298, 320 Lely, 209 Lemaitre, Jules, 339, 362, 375 Lemormand, Madame, 391 Leo X, Pope, 7 Leoni, 366 Leonidas, 293 Le Sage, 12, 42, 45, 71, 73, 105, 137, 166, 189, 238, 247, 248, 265, 299, 373, 421, 428, 438 Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 35 Leasing, 21, 22, 35, 59, 72, 77, 79, 105, 149, 159, 177, 186, 190, 230, 254, 255, 261, 262, 311, 315, 323, 326, 333, 361, 372, 381, 393, 398, 400, 408 Lewes, G. H., 20, 80, 171, 179, 247 Lewis, Dixon H., 281 Lichtenberg, Georg C, 132 Licinius, 138, 159 Lincoln, 34, 181, 208, 232, 234, 314, 317, 318, 320, 323, 383, 385, 388, 414, 429 Lind, Jenny, 40, 151, 273 Liszt, 275 Little, Frances, 39, 263 Livingston, Chancelor, 206 Livius, Marcus, 101 Livy, 38, 62, 143, 294, 297 Lochiel, 52 Locke, 16, 57, 67, 109, 111, 132, 133, 176, 181, 188, 196, 239, 249, 317, 321, 322, 397, 421 Lockhart, 32, 129 Lodge, Henry C, 65 Lodge, Thomas, 28 Longfellow, 7, 32, 49, 56, 86, 136, 245, 251, 301, 305, 309, 328, 330, 353, 368 Longstreet, General, 199 Lorrain, Paul, 360 Louis XI, 207, 315, 341 Louis XIII, 208 Louis XIV, 9, 33, 83, 95, 141, 142, 175, 182, 183, 200, 201, 206, 254, 257, 300, 346, 367, 373, 383, 407, 429 Louis XV, 200, 221, 299, 367 Louis XVI, 147, 159, 200, 236, 343, 367 Lounsbury, T. R., 59, 79, 81 Lowell, 5, 8, 15, 19, 22, 30, 39, 41, 45, 57, 59, 60, 85, 113, 117, 123, 134, 145, 149, 150, 163, 166, 170, 173, 174, 177, 178, 208, 212, 218, 219, 242, 243, 246, 249, 262, 263, 268, 278, 288, 314, 328, 329, 332, 334, 342, 379, 381, 386, 392, 393, 396, 397, 430, 434 Lubbock, 17 Lucan, 65 Lucian, 175, 292, 295, 298, 301 Lucilius, 417 Lucretia, 259 Lucretius, 256, 281, 282, 297 Lulli, 272 Luther, 18, 86, 92, 126, 250, 273, 279, 286, 301, 319, 353, 354, 359, 360, 368, 410 Lycurgus, 182 Lysander, 200 458 INDEX Lysias, 137 Lysimachus, 371 Lysystratus, 421 Macaulay, 10, 13, 32, 36, 38, 43, 52, 57, 62, 65, 67, 70, 79, 82, 87, 96, 100, 105, 115, 118, 131, 132, 135, 137, 138, 143, 154, 167, 168, 175, 181, 182, 202, 228, 246, 247, 248, 250, 255, 267, 316, 317, 325, 326, 330, 337, 339, 344, 363, 377, 381, 386, 387, 392, 393, 399, 400, 403, 416, 435 McCarthy, 36, 51, 55, 70, 84, 115, 154, 155, 181, 187, 226, 319, 321, 336, 337, 339, 406 Machiavelli, 10, 81, 100, 160, 242 McClellan, General, 388 McCullough, J. E., 87 McDougal, Senator, 430 Macgregor, 307 Mackintosh, 310 Madison, Dolly, 341 Madison, James, 255, 383 Maecenas, 33 Maevius, 158 Mahaffy, J. P., 325 Mahan, Admiral, 446 Mahomet, 18, 101, 148, 173, 212, 270, 276, 351, 353 Manning, Cardinal, 394 Mansfield, Lord, 204, 438 Manzoni, 338 Marcellus, 33, 69, 256 Margaret of Richmond, 201, 410 Marguerite of Valois, 19 Maria Theresa, 148 Marie Louise, 268 Marius, Caius, 86, 207, 355 Markham, Edwin, 174 Markof, 335 Marlborough, Duke of, 6, 75, 81, 146, 174, 271, 344, 385, 407, 408, 442 Marlowe, 76, 147, 266 Marshall, Chief Justice, 430 Marsyas, 31, 400 Martel, Charles, 200 Martial, 97, 241, 382, 418 Mary, Tudor, Queen, 114 Mason, J. M., 205 Mason, Jeremiah, 235 Massillon, 141, 142, 182 Massinger, 229 Masson, 428 Mather, Cotton, 371 Matthews, Brander, 105 Matthews, William, 80, 232, 431 Mazarin, Cardinal, 86, 215 Medici, Lorenzo de, 207, 319, 389 Medici, Marie de, 215 Melancthon, 368 Melbourne, Viscount, 65 Menander, 303 Mencius, 124, 225 Mendelssohn, 273 Mephibosheth, 171 Meredith, George, 29, 39, 44, 74, 98, 106, 156, 171, 180, 191, 194, 195, 197, 206, 212, 229, 255, 287, 311, 327, 347, 365, 373, 375, 381, 388, 411, 446 Methuselah, 439 Michelangelo, 7, 21, 24, 28, 33, 155, 173, 216, 250, 298, 312, 393 Mickle, W. J., 396 Middleton, Bishop, 76 Milburn, Blind Preacher, 435 Mill, J. S., 12, 109, 112, 114, 121, 173, 190, 191, 217, 227, 245, 351, 396, 401 Miltiades, 156, 384 Milton, 4, 12, 25, 32, 33, 38, 40, 43, 47,56, 60, 67, 79, 99, 107, 129, 137, 138, 147, 153, 190, 213, 223, 227, 243, 244, 252, 254, 256, 275, 281, 284, 285, 291, 295, 297, 300, 308, 311, 325, 327, 330, 331, 332, 334, 342, 351, 353, 356, 376, 386, 394, 396, 397, 402, 409, 413, 418, 424 Milward, Richard, 241 Minos, 49 Mirabeau, 231, 286, 295, 348 Mitchell, Weir, 41, 70, 109, 120, 138, 159, 161, 162, 163, 167, 168, 169, 184, 195, 250, 252, 392, 394, 421 Mitford, Mary R., 258 Moliere, 55 y 60, 68, 69, 88, 98, 105, 306, 325 Moltke, Count von, 406, 416 Momus, 287 Monk, Lord, 424 Monmouth, Duke of, 199 Monroe, 92, 336 Montagu, Lady, 223, 224, 256, 260, 325 Montaigne, 11, 26, 30, 38, 56, 58, 71, 73, 77, 88, 94, 112, 113, 116, 122, 127, 129, 133, 150, 159, 173, 185, 198, 217, 245, 246, 250, 255, 276, 291, 299, 304, 305, 324, 331, 335, 349, 368, 370, 379, 408, 422, 440 Montesquieu, 121, 192, 299, 414 Montgomery, 325 Moody, 365 Moon, G. W., 127, 242, 298, 305 Moore, C. L., 333 Moore, George, 30, 68, 72, 122, 248, 266, 272, 276 More, Sir Thomas, 122, 213, 241, 287, 434 Morley, John, 43, 74, 182, 338, 416, 425 INDEX 459 Morosini, 217 Morrison, Congressman, 435 Morse, John T., 361 Moses, 152, 351, 356 Motley, 59, 201, 239, 285, 316, 409 Moulton, R. G., 328, 356 Mountjoy, Lord, 208 Mummius, 22 Munger, T. C, 177 Miinsterberg, 18, 111, 115, 126, 128, 175, 274 Murat, 347 Murray, Sir George, 136 Murska, Madame di, 215 Mustapha, Sultan, 163 Napier, 66, 428 Napoleon Bonaparte, 4, 13, 37, 79, 83, 85, 86, 89, 94, 101, 106, 107, 131, 132, 152, 154, 156, 164, 165, 169, 173, 174, 175, 176, 192, 194, 207, 216, 217, 220, 222, 231, 232, 268, 271, 278, 282, 288, 289, 290, 306, 316, 317, 318, 323, 335, 338, 339, 340, 341, 366, 379, 386, 387, 391, 406, 407, 408, 410, 411, 428, 432, 444 Napoleon, Prince, 15, 430 Napoleon, III, 430 Narvaez, 439 Nash, Beau, 424 Neander, 218 Nehemiah, 310 Nelson, 16, 108, 152, 263, 300, 319 Nero, The Consul, 154 Nero, Emperor, 127, 133, 418 Newcastle, Duke of, 432 Newman, Father, 54, 148, 317, 330, 332, 365, 372, 402 Newton, 16, 29, 33, 84, 128, 131, 136, 165, 174, 175, 179, 186, 227, 317, 330, 388 Newton, John, 353 Ney, 410 Nilsson, 35 Noah, 33 Norfolk, Duke of, 401 North, Lord, 426, 428 North, Professor, 122, 428 Norton, C. E., 123 Novalis, 42, 48, 106, 358 Nugent, Thomas, 36 O'Connell, 132, 137, 295, 425 Oliphant, Mrs., 140, 373 Olympias, 130 Overkirk, 224 Ovid, 77, 99, 146, 206, 227, 245, 285, 289, 412 Oxenstiern, 181 Oxford, Earl of, 32 Paganini, 5, 112 Page, T. N., 55, 382 Paley, 4, 218 Palfrey, J. G., 201 Palmerston, 226, 317 Paracelsus, 109 Park, Mungo, 278 Parker, Gilbert, 356 Parker, Theodore, 108, 119, 122, 135, 223, 268, 421, 438 Parkman, 186, 201, 311 Parnell, 115 Parr, Dr., 419 Parsons, G. I., 187 Parton, James, 389 Pascal, 27, 46, 61, 67, 68, 78, 84, 89, 116, 117, 138, 148, 149, 170, 177, 227, 228, 257, 264, 270, 282, 327, 358, 360, 363, 376, 399, 404, 421 Pater, 3, 186, 258, 303 Paterculus, 298 Patti, 275 Paul, Saint, 212, 250, 311, 353, 360, 417 Pausanias, 92, 396 Payne, E. J., 72, 322 Payne, John Howard, 69 Peabody, Sophia, 216 Pearson, Bishop, 242 Peck, H. T., 58, 131, 355 Peel, 88 Penn, 380 Pepys, 105, 214, 250, 392 Percy, Bishop, 61 Pericles, 21, 49, 136, 137, 140, 193, 244, 254, 402 Perry, Bliss, 61, 116, 127, 220, 398, 425, 437 Perry, Commodore, 34 Pestalozzi, 108, 112, 121, 125, 128, 235, 386 Peter, The Great, 33, 54, 204, fc99, 364 Peter, The Hermit, 360 Peter, Saint, 96, 228 Petrarch, 4, 30, 33, 35, 50, 93, 130, 150, 157, 172, 200, 201, 219, 259, 261, 287, 328, 393 Petronius, 162, 420, 421 Phelps, Elizabeth S., 258 Phidias, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 103, 178, 250, 360 Philip II, 32, 277 Philip, of Macedon, 44, 138, 201, 346 Philippe, Louis, 183 Philippides, 371 Phillips, Wendell, 86, 136, 141, 142, 193, 423 Philoxenus, 222 Phocion, 209, 385 460 INDEX Piatt, Don, 140 Pierce, Franklin, 155, 177 Pietro, Aretino, 160 Pilate, 157 Pindar, 4, 32, 57, 139, 146, 277, 278, 323, 351, 363 Pisistratus, 250 Pitt, Earl of Chatham, 114, 131, 135, 139, 140, 143, 172, 234, 272, 341, 383, 414, 427 Pitt, "William, 6, 11, 139, 140, 186, 217, 228, 318, 343, 368, 414, 425, 441 Plato, 4, 24, 32, 49, 58, 61, 79, 124, 129, 131, 132, 133, 151, 176, 196, 214, 226, 234, 238, 268, 269, 271, 296, 298, 303, 321, 324, 326, 355, 364, 379, 402 Plautus, 81, 197, 225, 295, 376 Pliny, The Elder, 112, 203, 316 Pliny, The Younger, 38, 56, 75, 153, 237 Plutarch, 12, 60, 73, 88, 127, 129, 133, 143, 153, 161, 176, 184, 278, 282, 289, 324, 325, 340, 399,v443 Poe, 6, 43, 78, 80, 83, 115, 121, 168, 184, 252, 260, 268, 274, 277, 328, 332, 334, 377, 400 Polk, J. K., 338 Polybius, 6 Pompadour, Madame de, 299 Pompey the Great, 74, 152, 206, 339 Pompey, Sextus, 200 Poore, Ben Perley, 430 Pope, 10, 30, 45, 56, 61, 81, 87, 95, 96, 98, 114, 137, 148, 152, 154, 164, 168, 211, 212, 242, 245, 248, 251, 260, 266, 285, 292, 295, 298, 303, 304, 308, 316, 320, 325, 330, 335, 343, 430, 435 Porson, Richard, 421 Portia, 92 Powers, Hiram, 23 Praxiteles, 20, 246 Prentiss, S. S., 141 Prescott, 58, 61, 63, 116, 129, 197 Prevost, d'Exiles, 368 Price, Dr., 142 Proctor, Senator, 435 Protagoras, 251 Ptolemy II, 354 Publilia, 268 Pyrrho, The Sceptic, 217 Pythagoras, 61, 157, 169, 190, 274, 347 Quincy, Josiah, 248 Quinet, Edgar, 330 Rabelais, 237, 306, 311, 359 Racine, 18, 40, 56, 61, 77, 79, 95, 99, 104, 123, 138, 156, 194, 220, 225, 232, 240, 271, 310, 342, 376, 429, 430 Radcliff, Dr. John, 187, 218 Raleigh, Walter (Author), 106, 190, 273, 284, 332 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 347 Ranee, Jean de, 60, 269 Randolph, 106, 272, 361 Raphael, 22, 25, 87, 250 Raymond, H. J., 433 Reade, 9, 70, 75, 115, 170, 256, 257, 274, 385, 419 Recamier, Madame, 70 Reid, Thomas, 96 Rembrandt, 23, 316 Renan, 442 Repplier, Agnes, 246 Retz, Cardinal de, 215 Reynolds, John, 339 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 19, 20, 23, 77, 146, 167, 179, 325, 433 Richard, Coeur de Lion, 77, 88, 203 Richard II, 205 Richard HI, 33, 102, 105, 385 Richardson, C. F., 103, 247, 249 Richardson, Samuel, 10, 29, 43,. 210, 215, 235, 243, 249, 253, 261, 262, 263, 271, 318, 356, 384, 445 Richelieu, Cardinal, 13, 61, 76, 156, 166, 176, 192, 194, 218, 244, 256, 317, 319, 329, 354, 389, 390, 409 Richelieu, Marechale de, 367 Richter, 5, 14, 43, 60, 87, 93, 110, 111, 120, 128, 129, 133, 183, 189, 199, 245, 249, 278, 440, 442 Rienzi, 50, 196, 317 Riis, Jacob, 157 Ripley, George, 212, 359 Ripley, Sarah, 444 Robespierre, 31, 93, 140, 237, 343, 348, 379, 405 Robinson, Rev. Stuart, 427 Rochester, Earl of, 384 Rochette, Bishop, 432 Rogers, Samuel, 71, 80, 92, 102, 109, 142, 328, 335, 418 Roland, Madame, 129, 236, 322, 374, 404 Rooke, Sir George, 199 Roscoe, William, 237 Rosebery, 11, 56, 64, 139, 140, 172, 186, 207, 222, 225, 339, 340, 366, 412, 413, 426, 427 Rossetti, 22 Rossini, 179 Rothschild, A. M., 194 Rousseau, 7, 17, 38, 41, 57, 81, 91, 112, 113, 126, 128, 163, 167, 185, 189, 209, 216, 219, 239, 242, 252, 257, 269, 339, 345, 355, 360, 362, 377, 379, 392, 398, 423, 430, 445 INDEX 461 Rubens, 26 Rumbold, 52 Ruskin, 5, 76, 86, 148, 168, 235 Russell, G. W. E., 55, 181, 195 Russell, Lord, 195 Russell, Lord John, 430 Sainte-Beuve, 19, 55, 60, 71, 79, 82, 134, 145, 177, 197, 254, 264, 272, 314, 327, 332, 342, 362, 364, 383, 410, 416, 430, 431, 439, 444 Saladin, 77 Sales, Francis de, 308 Sallust, 167 Samuel I, 309 Samuel II, 304, 309 Sand, George, 27, 35, 70, 87, 96, 107, 127, 145, 149, 184, 187, 191, 226, 259, 265, 266, 283, 306, 321, 340, 345, 352 Sappho, 84, 251, 328 Sara, 356 Sartoris, 296 Saul, 418 Savonarola, 142, 221, 265 Sawyer, Senator, 442 Saxe, Marechal de, 35, 221 Scaliger, 215 Scarron, 359 Schelling, 322 Scherer, Edmond, 347 Schiller, 22, 56, 62, 67, 74, 75, 79, 85, 92, 99, 102, 111, 121, 145, 159, 167, 171, 189, 193, 202, 218, 222, 223, 227, 237, 260, 270, 281, 284, 289, 345, 349, 383, 387, 394, 397, 403 Schlegel, 85, 103, 104, 174, 253, 424 Schopenhauer, 197, 320 Schurz, 273 Scipio, Africanus, 154, 171, 186, 380 Scott, 3, 5, 14, 21, 22, 26, 32, 33, 34, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 50, 57, 58, 64, 76, 80, 82, 83, 86, 93, 95, 98, 100, 106, 115, 120, 132, 147, 151, 157, 162, 169, 170, 171, 178, 192, 194, 195, 210, 221, 229, 231, 238, 243, 245, 249, 250, 258, 267, 277, 280, 281, 294, 297, 298, 299, 316, 317, 325, 333, 345, 348, 350, 373, 375, 376, 389, 393, 407, 429, 433, 438 Scudery, Madeline de, 151 Seeley, Sir J. R., 145, 405 Selbourne, Lord, 135 Selden, John, 98, 241, 254, 416 Seneca, 13, 23, 31, 38, 50, 66, 88, 91, 99, 101, 102, 110, 127, 133, 136, 145, 151, 161, 165, 167, 176, 183, 184, 187, 189, 196, 224, 234, 236, 266, 267, 279, 292, 294, 295, 297, 298, 308, 312, 315, 321, 346, 381, 384, 386, 387, 400, 403, 404, 412, 413, 442 Servetus, 358 Severus, Cassius, 136 Sevigne, Madame de, 170, 190, 219, 247, 258, 264, 306, 381, 382 Seward, 48, 152 Sewell, J. M., 341 Seymour, Charles, 15 Shaftesbury, Earl of, 81, 399 Shakspeare, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 17, 22, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 35, 38, 46, 47, 57, 60, 62, 63, 65, 67, 68, 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 90, 91, 93, 95, 96, 99, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 115, 121, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 137, 138, 139, 146, 147, 148, 149, 151, 152,154, 155, 159, 163, 165, 166, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 181, 184, 188, 190, 193, 197, 198, 201, 210, 211, 223, 225, 226, 227, 232, 240, 242, 243, 244, 245, 247, 248, 250, 251, 253, 254, 255, 258, 261, 262, 265, 268, 270, 271, 274, 282, 283, 286, 287, 291, 295, 296, 297, 299, 300, 301, 302, 304, 305, 306, 308, 309, 310, 311, 324, 328, 330, 331, 332, 333, 341, 342, 344, 346, 352, 378, 381, 384, 387, 393, 394, 396, 398, 399, 401, 402, 403, 404, 409, 411, 417, 420, 425, 426, 432, 443, 444 Shaw, G. B., 440 Shelley, 12, 26, 76, 81, 84, 94, 245, 269, 275, 326, 332, 352, 380, 396, 416 Shenstone, 56 Sheridan, General, 227 Sheridan, R. B., 34, 85, 138, 140, 177, 217, 218, 221, 227, 230, 295, 336, 388, 419, 420, 428, 431 Sherman, General, 175, 227 Sherman, Roger, 6, 339 Shirley, James, 97, 158 Shrewsbury, Duke of, 340 Siddons, Mrs., 259, 319 Sidney, Sir Philip, 6, 32, 113, 162, 232, 252, 277, 313, 328, 373, 380, 408 Sienkiewicz, 270, 446 Sime, James, 177 Simon, Saint, 6 Sinclair, May, 41, 44, 79, 105, 117, 260, 321, 429 Sixtus V, 52, 89 Skimpole, Harold, 195 Slidell, 205 Smiles, Samuel, 223 Smith, Adam, 67, 83, 116, 146, 324 Smith, Goldwin, 199 Smith, John, 90, 242 462 INDEX Smith, Sidney, 5, 32, 39, 70, 112, 157, 164, 248, 359, 402, 422, 425, 432 Smollett, 82, 95, 173, 208, 247, 260, 297, 299 Smythe, Newman, 351 Socrates, 5, 11, 18, 24, 42, 58, 70, 73, 81, 91, 109, 110, 121, 122, 124, 125, 127, 137, 151, 170, 176, 217, 218, 248, 271, 273, 274, 318, 321, 329, 332, 336, 353, 369, 414, 424 Solomon, 57, 97, 303 Solon, 122, 162, 190, 334, 412, 413 Sophocles, 39, 41, 58, 104, 163, 169, 247, 251, 255, 291, 295, 298, 306, 309, 328, 376, 399, 402, 418 Sophroniscus, 151 Sothern, 18, 438 Southey, 20, 107, 152, 219, 236, 285, 324 Sparks, E. E., 67 Sparks, Jared, 201 Spectator, The, 30, 85, 96, 113, 144, 157, 179, 231, 437, 446 Spencer, Herbert, 64, 108, 111, 120, 121, 127, 128, 129, 132, 133, 183, 188, 251, 279, 293, 308, 321, 403 Spencer, Mrs., 314 Spenser, 28, 32, 38, 40, 82, 96, 98, 131, 143, 152, 254, 260, 261, 280, 308, 312, 327, 330 377 385 Stanley/ Dean, 75, 220, 389, 425, 431, 436 Stedman, 329 Steele, 11, 33, 59, 63, 112, 145, 148, 169, 210, 231, 236, 259, 280, 340, 352, 353, 363, 394, 403, 415, 420 Stephen, Leslie, 172 Sterling, Earl of, 304 Sterne, 33, 58, 61, 83, 213, 216, 227, 262, 307, 353, 359 Stevenson, R. L., 13, 23, 109, 162, 169, 185, 212, 239, 244, 268, 317, 346, 360, 385, 415, 432, 441 Story, Justice, 430 Story, W. W., 20, 21, 223, 322, 430 Stratonicus, 266 Strickland, Agnes, 208, 440 Stuart, Gilbert, 99, 100 Sue, Eugene, 8, 74, 128, 165, 188, 189, 345, 372, 385, 399, 416 Sulla, 86, 207 Sulpitia, 333 Sumner, Charles, 86, 129, 242, 316, 424 Swedenborg, 366 Swift, 10, 34, 36, 54, 58, 61, 63, 83, 84, 91, 100, 106, 140, 149, 158, 170, 172, 174, 176, 186, 188, 193, 209, 214, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 224, 230, 234, 260, 288, 319, 320, 331, 340, 359, 360, 379, 381, 382, 384, 391, 409, 416, 419, 420, 423 Swinburne, 364, 438 Symonds, J. A., 19, 23, 31, 84, 104, 105, 185, 255, 259, 312, 351, 355, 443 Tacitus, 82, 143, 153, 207, 306, 314, 362 Taine, 174 Tait, Archbishop, 432 Talleyrand, 77, 79, 117, 307, 316, 349, 404, 433 Talmud, The, 64, 99, 120, 162, 444 Tamerlane, 89 Tamponet, Dr., 355 Tappan, President, 143 Tarik, 203 Tasso, 27, 42, 81, 98, 99, 146, 152, 198, 213, 248, 279, 286, 298, 345, 386, 442 Taylor, Bayard, 34, 58, 118, 134, 140, 155, 258, 346, 368, 422, 427 Taylor, Father, 16, 436 Taylor, Henry, 156, 413 Taylor, Jeremy, 33, 41, 44, 127, 154, 214, 234, 345, 351, 356 Taylor, Zachary, 37, 200, 220 Temple, W. J., 81 Tennyson, 3, 5, 43, 49, 79, 83, 87, 93, 129, 132, 139, 160, 162, 171, 197, 239, 249, 250, 257, 282, 296, 299, 300, 302, 306, 308, 324, 328, 329, 358, 387, 392, 410 Terence, 41, 73, 107, 171, 197, 261, 279, 386 Terregiano, 155 Terry, Ellen, 20, 87, 113, 118, 142, 316 Tertullian, 289 Thackeray, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 19, 20, 40, 45, 48, 56, 61, 63, 72, 76, 77, 80, 82, 84, 86, 98, 118, 152, 153, 160, 163, 180, 185, 186, 189, 209, 247, 249, 250, 258, 265, 269, 274, 280, 286, 297, 300, 307, 373, 375, 376, 378, 399, 405, 410, 417, 421, 428, 430, 439, 441, 443, 444 Thales, 334 Thayer, W. R., 177, 194, 254 Themistocles, 206, 383, 396 Theocritus, 68, 144, 223, 244 Theodoric, 51 Theodosius, 50 Theognis, 401, 414 Theramenes, 66 Thersites, 376 Thompson, Rev. Dr., 432 Thompson, Richard, 337 Thompson Seton, 239 Thomson, James, 124, 378 Thoreau, 4, 13, 34, 41, 94, 118, 145, 152, 179, 240, 263, 284, 286, 354, 355, 392, 403, 412, 413, 418 Thrale, Mrs., 439 Thucydides, 4, 5, 42, 49, 199, 209, 229, 234, 306, 342, 393, 402, 407, 409 INDEX 463 Thurlow, Lord, 421 Ticino, 347 Tilly, Count of, 387 Timoleon, 212, 391 Timon, 35 Titian, 93, 193, 393 Titus, 310 Toqueville, Alexis de, 401 Tolstoy, 29, 63, 65, 94, 122, 124, 179, 191, 196, 231, 266, 272, 326, 335, 347, 375, 382, 400, 430, 446 Tooke, Home, 292 Toombs, Robert, 424 Townshend, Charles, 135 Townshend, Gen. George, 147 Trajan, 12 Trollope, 30, 59, 84, 106, 265, 390, 434 Tupper, 118, 307 Turenne, 83, 98 Turgenieff, 54, 72, 124, 256, 265, 277, 313 Turget, 158 Turgot, 182 Turner, 19, 22, 26, 76, 196, 242, 414 Turreau, 89 Twain, Mark, 379, 429 Tyers, Tom, 317 Tyler, John, 177, 402 Tyler, Wat, 205 Tyndall, 123, 406 Urban II, Pope, 204 Valerian, Emperor, 401 Valla, 131 Van Buren, 37, 77, 96, 177 Van Dyke, Henry, 34, 70, 113, 123, 137, 224, 288, 386, 404 Van Eyck, John, 25 Varro, 31, 301 Varus, 9, 93, 407 Vaughan, Sir Charles, 282, 433 Vedder, Elihu, 66, 423 Vega, Lope de, 245, 297 Verdi, 331 Victoria, Queen, 36, 114, 142, 187, 200, 205 216, 267 Vincent, Saint, 74, 85 Virgil, 4, 15, 29, 38, 57, 59, 73, 77, 87, 130, 147, 158, 168, 193, 232, 242, 245, 249, 250, 252, 256, 303, 331, 334, 354, 381, 385, 419 Virgin Mary, 21 Vitruvius, 250 Voltaire, 42, 54, 83, 84, 87, 96, 103, 106, 121, 127, 141, 144, 152, 156, 157, 165, 171, 175, 193, 195, 197, 207, 220, 222, 226, 227, 235, 252, 255, 262, 273, 286, 326, 327, 372, 423, 425, 440 Voute, 95 Walker, James, 257 Wallace, Lew, 413 Wallenstein, 104, 221 Waller, Edmund, 20, 28, 424 Walpole, Horace, 10, 174, 255, 316, 390, 425 Walpole, Robert, 66, 146, 203, 394, 398 Walton, Izaak, 167, 292 Warburton, Thomas, 303 Ward, Artemus, 419 Warwick, Earl of, 205 Washington, 16, 34, 37, 41, 89, 194, 198, 252, 267, 271, 303, 318, 323, 329, 336, 340, 380, 410, 419, 431 Wayland, Francis, 117 Wayne, "Mad Anthony," 16, 74, 316 Webster, 18, 93, 125, 136, 141, 143, 151, 236, 244, 257, 297, 323, 390, 429 Wedderspoon, David, 225 Weed, Thurlow, 320 Wellesley, Lady, 431 Wellington, 5, 33, 36, 88, 107, 130, 136, 157, 161, 194, 340, 406, 408, 424 Wendell, Barrett, 63, 67, 186, 254, 278, 362, 405 Werner, Franz von, 358 Wesley, 123, 141, 306, 314, 365 Wetherill, 425 Whateley, 397 Whewell, William, 432 Whipple, E. P., 142, 183, 255, 286, 289, 429 Whistler, 405 White, Andrew D., 152, 361 Whitefield, 139, 143 Whitman, Walt, 14, 25, 29, 62, 87, 96, 148, 179, 195, 198, 255, 270, 288, 340, 344, 365, 367, 393, 438 Whittier, 137, 210, 258, 271, 333, 37.9, 425 Wieland, 44 Wiggin, Kate Douglas, 45, 141 Wilberforce, 33 Willert, P. F., 182, 286 William Rufus, 52, 93, 207, 296 William III, 33, 34, 69, 75, 154, r 187, 199, 216, 232, 267, 338, 359, 413 William IV, 371, 431 William, The Conqueror, 15, 25, 48, 199, 202, 205 William, The Silent, 75, 132, 199, 308 Winkelried, 293 Willis, N. P., 150 Wilson, Richard, 146 Winter, William, 23, 75, 80, 105, 197 464 INDEX Wister, Owen, 156, 388 Wolfe, General, 147, 204, 432 Wolsey, Cardinal, 62 Wood, Charles, 136 Woodberry, George Edward, 59, 64, 94, 111, 117, 244, 325, 333, 350 Wordsworth, 19, 28, 32, 38, 47, 59, 64, 71, 82, 83, 84, 85, 118, 147, 156, 173, 186, 188, 190, 228, 238, 243, 245, 249, 263, 271, 280, 282, 284, 287, 304, 308, 318, 325, 329, 330, 331, 342, 367, 375, 399, 403, 416, 432 Worth, Sir Dudley, 324 Wotton, Sir Henry, 325, 397, 413 Wren, Sir Christopher, 8, 165 Wundt, 321 Wurmser, General, 323 Wycherley, 330 Wyclif, 359 Xenophon, 58, 87, 114, 151 Xerxes, 88, 165, 199, 326, 409, 411 York, Duke of, 214, 420, 428 Young, Charles A., 369 Young, Edward, 127, 191, 242, 256, 257, 305, 307, 308, 309, 311, 334 395 Zaleucus, 336 Zeno, 32, 94, 218 Zeuxis, 24 Zisca, 214 Zola, 391 Zoroaster, 46, 144 jun n w LIBRARY OF CONGRESS i 021 100 839 8