Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 64

"If St. Francis had been less of a poet, he would have been less of a saint."

ST. FRANCIS D'a.s.sISI, a renowned Italian preacher, and poet, founder of the Franciscan order, was born at a.s.sisi in Umbria, Italy, 1182, and died October 12, 1226. The most famous of his hymns is the "Canticle of the Sun."

He who learns the rules of wisdom, without conforming to them in his life, is like a man who laboured in his fields, but did not sow.

--_Sadi_.

SADI, one of the greatest of Persian poets, was born at s.h.i.+raz, in 1184, and died in 1291 (?). He wrote: "Bustan," or "The Fruit Garden," and "Gulistan," or "The Rose Garden," also his "Divan."

The best perfection of a religious man is to do common things in a perfect manner. A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue.

--_St. Bonaventura_.

SAINT BONAVENTURA, an Italian theologian and scholar of great fame, was born at Bagnarea, 1221, and died in 1274. His real name was Giovanni di Fidenza. He wrote: "Life of Saint Francis," "Progress of the Mind Towards G.o.d," etc.

"To an absolute purity of life, St. Thomas added an earnest love of truth and of labor."

THOMAS AQUINAS, a great mediaeval theologian and philosopher, was born at Aquino in the kingdom of Naples, about 1225, and died at Fossa Nuova, March 7, 1274. Among his works are: "Sum of Catholic Belief Against the Heathen," "Exposition of All the Epistles of St. Paul," and his most famous work, the "Sum of Theology."

No greater grief than to remember days Of joy when misery is at hand.

"Divine Comedy," Canto V, Line 121,--_Dante_.

DANTE ALIGHIERI, the greatest of Italian poets, was born in Florence 1265, and died in Ravenna, September 14, 1321. He wrote: the "New Life,"

the "Banquet," and the "Divine Comedy."

O, marvelous power of the Divine seed, which overpowers the strong man armed, softens obdurate hearts, and changes into divine men those who were brutalized in sin, and removed to an infinite distance from G.o.d.

--_John Wyclif_.

JOHN WYCLIF, a renowned scholar, was born near Richmond, England, about 1324, and died December 31, 1384. His great work was the translation of the entire Bible into English.

Who that well his warke beginneth, The rather a good ende he winneth.

"Confessio Amantis,"--_Gower_.

JOHN GOWER, a noted English poet, was born in Kent in 1325 (?), and died in London in August (or September), 1408. Among his works are: "Voice of One Crying" (Vox Clamantis), "Mirror of Meditation" (Speculum Meditantis), and "Lover's Confession" (Confessio Amantis).

Full wise is he that can himselven knowe.

"The Monkes Tale,"--_Geoffrey Chaucer_.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER, the father of English poetry, was born in London (?), 1328 or 1340, and died there October 25, 1400. He wrote: "Troilus and Cressida," "The Parliament of Fowles," "Boke of the d.u.c.h.esse," "The House of Fame," "The Legend of Good Women," and his most famous work, "Canterbury Tales."

Man proposes, but G.o.d disposes.

"Imitation of Christ," Book I, Chap. 19,--_Thomas a Kempis_.

THOMAS a KEMPIS, a renowned German mystic, was born at Kempen, near Cologne in 1380, and died in 1471. He was the author of the "Imitation of Christ," which is said to be the most popular book in the world, with the exception of the Bible.

"The one certain thing about Sir Thomas Malory is, that he wrote the first and finest romance of chivalry in our common-tongue,--the 'Morte d'Arthur.'"

SIR THOMAS MALORY, the British author of the renowned "Morte d'Arthur,"

was born about 1430, and died after 1470.

"If Froissart, by his picturesque descriptions, and fertility of historical _invention_, may be reckoned the Livy of France, she had her Tacitus in Philippe de Comines."

PHILIPPE DE COMINES, a celebrated French chronicler, was born at Comines, about 1445, and died at the Chateau of Argenton, October 17, 1510. His famous "Memoirs" won for him great fame.

I know everything except myself.

"Autre Ballade," i,--_Francois Villon_.

FRANcOIS VILLON, a renowned French poet, was born in 1431, and died 1460 (?). He wrote: "The Greater Testament," and the "Smaller Testament: Its Codicil"; a collection of poems and a volume of "Ballades."

A heart which is void of the pains of love is not heart; A body without heart woes is nothing but clay and water.

Turn thy face away from the world to the pangs of love; For the world of love is a world of sweetness.

"Love" (Translation of S. Robinson),--_Jami_.

'ABD-URRAHMaN JAMI, the last of Persia's cla.s.sic poets, was born in Jam, Khorasan, in 1414, and died in May (?), 1492 or 1493. His best known works are: "The Abode of Spring," "The Chain of Gold," "The Loves of Joseph and Zuleika and of Mejnun and Leila."

E duobus malis minimum eligendum.[6]

"Adages,"--_Erasmus_.

DESIDERIUS ERASMUS, a renowned Dutch humanist, was born at Rotterdam, 1465 or 1467, and died July 12, 1536. He wrote a noted volume of "Colloquies," a collection of "Adages," and a celebrated satire, "The Praise of Folly"; besides numerous works on the ancients--Cicero, Seneca, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, etc.; also a noted treatise on "Free-Will."

There are few husbands whom the wife cannot win in the long run, by patience and love.

--_Marguerite de Valois_.

MARGUERITE D'ANGOULeME, or DE VALOIS, Queen of Navarre, and famous for her stories, poems and letters, was born in 1492, and died in Bigorre in 1549. She is best known in literature by the celebrated "Heptameron," a collection of tales; "Pearls of the Pearl of Princesses" (poems), and her "Letters," which were published in 1841-42.