Mabel Patterson

“ Shakespeare—that is, English tragedy—postulates the intense life of flesh and blood, of animal sensibility, of man and woman—breathing, waking, stirring, palpitating with the pulses of hope and fear. In Greek tragedy the very masks show the utter impossibility to these contests or conflicts. ”

“ A time will come when the science of destruction shall bend before the arts of peace; when the genius which multiplies our powers—which creates new products—which diffuses comfort and happiness among the great mass of the people—shall occupy in the general estimation of mankind that rank which reason and common sense now assign to it. ”

“ Alexander Hamilton, an illustrious American statesman, was born in the Island of Nevis, West Indies, January 11, 1757, and died near New York, July 12, 1804. His “Collected Works,” appeared in 1851.
The effect of every burden laid down is to leave us relieved; and when the soul has laid down that of its faults at the feet of God, it feels as though it had wings. ”

“ Sir William Blackstone, an eminent English jurist and writer on law, was born in London, July 10, 1723, and died in 1780. He won great celebrity by his famous “Commentaries on the Laws of England.”
All lies disgrace a gentleman, white or black, although I grant there is a difference. To say the least of it, it is a dangerous habit, for white lies are but the gentleman ushers to black ones. I know of but one point on which a lie is excusable, and that is, when you wish to deceive the enemy. Then, your duty to your country warrants your lying till you are black in the face ”

“ Thomas Otway, a noted English dramatist, was born at Trotton, near Midhurst, Sussex, March 3, 1652, and died in April, 1685. His famous plays include “Don Carlos, Prince of Spain,” “The Orphan, or the Unhappy Marriage,” “The History and Fall of Caius Marius,” “Venice Preserved, or a Plot Discover’d,” etc.
When money represents many things, not to love it would be to love nearly nothing. To forget true needs can be only a feeble moderation; but to know the value of money and to sacrifice it always, maybe to duty, maybe even to delicacy,—that is real virtue. ”

“ He is irresistible to every lonely child who reads and thrills, and reads again to find his past recovered for him with effortless ease. It is a book never long out of my hands, for only in it and in my dreams when I am touched with fever, do I grasp the long, long thoughts of a lonely child and a hill-wandering boy-thoughts I never told to any ”

“ While we would have our young sisters imitate, as they cannot fail to love, the conduct of Ruth, will not their elders do well to ponder on, and imitate the tenderness of Naomi? Would we have our daughters Ruths, we must be Naomis. ”

“ The object of science is knowledge; the objects of art are works. In art, truth is the means to an end; in science, it is the only end. Hence the practical arts are not to be classed among the sciences.
—William Whewell.
William Whewell, a noted English philosopher and scientist, was born at Lancaster, May 24, 1794, and died at Cambridge, March 6, 1866. ”

“ Sir Thomas Wyatt, a distinguished English poet and diplomatist, was born at Arlington Castle, Kent, in 1503, and died at Sherborne, October 11, 1542. He wrote many poems, chiefly love sonnets after the Italian manner.
Therefore, if to the goodness of nature be joined the wisdom of the teacher, in leading young wits into a right and plain way of learning; surely children kept up in God’s fear, and governed by His grace, may most easily be brought well to serve God and their country, both by virtue and wisdom. ”

“ Phoebe Cary, a noted American poetess and prose-writer, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 14, 1824, and died in Newport, Rhode Island, July 31, 1871. With her sister, she published many books, among them, “Poems of Faith, Hope, and Love,” and “Poems and Parodies.”
We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire. ”

“ Equality is one of the most consummate scoundrels that ever crept from the brain of a political juggler—a fellow who thrusts his hand into the pocket of honest industry or enterprising talent, and squanders their hard-earned profits on profligate idleness or indolent stupidity. ”

“ William Haines Lytle, a distinguished American general and poet, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 2, 1826, and was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga, Tenn., September 20, 1863. His best-known poems are “Antony to Cleopatra,” and “Jacqueline.”
All men of whatever quality they be, who have done anything of excellence, or which may properly resemble excellence, ought, if they are persons of truth and honesty, to describe their life with their own hand; but they ought not to attempt so fine an enterprise till they have passed the age of forty. ”

“ The worth of a state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.
—John Stuart Mill.
John Stuart Mill, a famous English philosophical writer, logician, and political economist, was born in London, May 20, 1806, and died at Avignon, France, May 8, 1873. Among the most important of his works are: “Essay on Liberty,” “Logic,” “Political Economy,” “On the Subjection of Women,” “Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy,” “Auguste Comte and Positivism,” and “Utilitarianism.” ”

“ Logic makes only one demand, that of science. But life makes a thousand. The body wants health; the imagination cries out for beauty; and the heart for love. Pride asks for consideration; the soul yearns for peace; the conscience for holiness; our whole being is athirst for happiness and for perfection.
—Amiel.
Henri Frédéric Amiel, an eminent Swiss essayist, poet, and philosophical critic, was born at Geneva, September 27, 1821, and died there, March 11, 1881. ”

“ And ne’er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves,
While the earth bears a plant or the sea rolls its waves.
“Adams and Liberty,”—Robert Treat Paine, Jr.
Robert Treat Paine, Jr., a celebrated American poet, was born in Taunton, Mass., December 9, 1773, and died in Boston, November 13, 1811. He is best known as the author of two songs, “Rise, Columbia,” and “Adams and Liberty.” Among his poems are: “The Invention of Letters,” and “The Ruling Passion.”
Virtue often trips and falls on the sharp-edged rock of poverty. ”

“ Francis Parkman, an eminent American historian, was born at Boston, September 16, 1823, and died at Jamaica Plain, Mass., November 8, 1893. He wrote: “The Oregon Trail: Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life,” “History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac,” “The Pioneers of France in the New World,” “The Jesuits in North America,” “La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West,” “The Old Régime in Canada,” “Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV,” “Montcalm and Wolfe,” and “A Half-Century of Conflict.”
The essayist rises higher than the poet—witty, tender; wise in human frailty, but never bitter. ”

“ I do not know anyone who makes us feel more than Milton does the grandeur of the ends which we ought to keep always before us, and therefore our own pettiness and want of courage and nobleness in pursuing them. ”

“ However, as it is impossible for the whole race of mankind to be united in one great society, they must necessarily divide into many, and form separate states, commonwealths, and nations, entirely independent of each other, and yet liable to a mutual intercourse. ”

“ Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.
—Hazlitt.
William Hazlitt, a celebrated English prose-writer and critic, was born in Maidstone, Kent, April 10, 1778, and died in London, September 18, 1830. He wrote: “The Spirit of the Age,” “Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays,” “Lectures on English Poets,” etc.
Riches take wings, comforts vanish, hope withers away, but love stays with us. Love is God. ”

“ Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans, a noted English-Irish poet, was born in Liverpool, September 25, 1793, and died at Redesdale, near Dublin, May 16, 1835. Her most famous works are: “Tales and Historic Scenes in Verse,” “Songs of the Cid,” “Lays of Many Lands,” “The Siege of Valencia, the Last Constantine,” and “Domestic Affections.”
We can do without any article of luxury we have never had; but when once obtained, it is not in human nature to surrender it voluntarily. ”

“ Man should be ever better than he seems.
“The Song of Faith,”—Sir Aubrey De Vere.
Sir Aubrey De Vere, a famous Irish poet, was born August 28, 1788, and died in 1846. Among his works are: “Julian, the Apostate: A Dramatic Poem,” “The Duke of Mercia: an Historical Drama,” “The Song of Faith, Devout Exercises and Sonnets,” “Mary Tudor: an Historical Drama,” was published after his death in 1847.
The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable we have, and therefore should be secured, because they seldom return again. ”

“ Art is the work of man under the guidance and inspiration of a mightier power. Artifice is the work of mere man, in the imbecility of his mimic understanding.
—Hare.
Augustus John Cuthbert Hare, a noted English descriptive writer, was born in Rome, March 13, 1834, and died in 1903. He wrote: “A Winter at Mentone,” “Walks in Rome,” “Wanderings in Spain,” “Walks in London,” “Days near Paris,” “Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily,” “Memorials of a Quiet Life,” “Story of My Life,” etc. ”

“ A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
“Life of Johnson,” Vol. II, Chap. VI (1763) ,—Boswell.
James Boswell, a famous Scottish biographer, was born in Edinburgh, October 29, 1740, and died in London, May 19, 1795. He wrote: “An Account of Corsica and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli,” “Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson,” etc. His “Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson” is considered the most interesting biography that has ever been written.
N’est-on jamais tyran qu’avec un diadème? [1] ”

“ Donald Grant Mitchell (“Ik Marvel”) , a famous American novelist and essayist, was born at Norwich, [Pg 90] Conn., April 12, 1822, and died in 1908. He wrote: “Dream Life,” “My Farm of Edgewood,” “Doctor Johns,” “Bound Together,” “Wet Days at Edgewood,” “English Lands, Letters and Kings,” and his most noted work, “Reveries of a Bachelor.”
Every white will have its blacke,
And every sweet its soure. ”

“ Lydia Huntley Sigourney, a noted American author, was born in Norwich, Conn., September 1, 1791, and died in Hartford, Conn., June 10, 1865. She wrote: “Letters to Young Ladies,” “Letters to Mothers,” “Scenes in My Native Land,” “Voice of Flowers,” “Letters to My Pupils,” “The Daily Councelor,” “Gleanings,” (poetry) , “The Man of Uz, and Other Poems,” etc.
Socrates, like Solon, thought that no man is too old to learn; that to learn and to know is not a schooling for life, but life itself, and that which alone gives to life its value. ”

“ Joseph Priestley, an English theologian, physicist, and philosopher of great fame, was born at Fieldhead, near Leeds, March 13, 1733, and died near Philadelphia, February 6, 1804. His principal writings are: “Observations on Different Kinds of Air,” “History of Electricity,” “The Doctrine of Phlogiston Established,” “History of the Corruptions of Christianity,” “Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit,” and “Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion.”
Nature is mighty. Art is mighty. Artifice is weak. For nature is the work of a mightier power than man. ”

“ George Edward Woodberry, a famous American poet and miscellaneous writer, was born at Beverly, Mass., May 12, 1855. He has written: “The North Shore Watch, and Other Poems,” “History of Wood Engraving,” “Life of Edgar Allan Poe,” “The Flight and Other Poems, [Pg 115] ” “North Africa and the Desert,” “Shakespeare: An Address,” “Great Writers,” “Poems,” “The Inspiration of Poetry,” “Wendell Phillips,” “Two Phases of Criticism,” “Ideal Passion” (sonnets) .
Work, and thou wilt bless the day
Ere the toil be done;
They that work not, can not pray,
Can not feel the sun. ”

“ Robert Southey, an English poet and prose-writer, of great renown, was born in Bristol, August 12, 1774, and died March 21, 1843. He wrote: “A Vision of Judgment,” “Joan of Arc,” “Thalaba the Destroyer,” “The Curse of Kehama,” “Life of Nelson,” “The Doctor,” “Book of the Church,” “Life of John Bunyan,” “Life of John Wesley,” “History of Brazil,” etc.
One day thou didst desert me—when I learned
How looks the world to men that lack thy grace,
And toward the shadowy night sick-hearted turned,—
When, lo! the first star brought me back thy face! ”

“ Charles Robert Darwin, the famous English naturalist and philosopher, was born at Shrewsbury, February 12, 1809, and died April 19, 1882. He wrote: “The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex,” “The Expression of the Emotions in Men and Animals,” “A Naturalist’s Voyage,” “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,” etc.
God’s rarest blessing is, after all, a good woman.
“The Ordeal of Richard Feverel,”—George Meredith.
George Meredith, a noted British novelist and poet, was born at Portsmouth, Hampshire, February 12, 1828, and died May 18, 1909. ”

“ To be honest, to be kind, to earn a little, and to spend a little less, to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not to be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation; above all, on the same condition, to keep friends with himself, here is a task for all a man has of fortitude and delicacy.
—Robert Louis Stevenson.
Robert Louis Stevenson, a Scotch novelist, poet and essayist, of great renown, was born in Edinburgh, November 13, 1850, and died at Apia, Samoa, December 3, 1894. ”

“ A poet is the translator of the silent language of nature to the world.
—R. W. Griswold.
Rufus Wilmot Griswold, a distinguished American journalist and prose-writer, born in Benson, Vt., February 15, 1815, and died in New York, August 27, 1857. His works include: “Poets and Poetry of America,” “Poets and Poetry of England in the Nineteenth Century,” “Prose Writers of America,” “Female Poets of America,” etc. ”