EMILY BRONTË. 1819-1848. [EMILY BRONTË was born at Hartshead-cum-Clifton, near Leeds, in 1819, and lived at the parsonage at Haworth from 1820 to her death. The monotony of this existence was broken only by a brief attempt to be a governess and by a short stay at Brussels in 1842, all exile from home being excessively painful and hurtful to her. She died of consumption at Haworth on the 19th of December, 1848. She published, in conjunction with her sisters, Poems, by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, in 1846, and, alone, the novel of Wuthering Heights in 1847.] And if I pray, the only prayer That moves my lips for me Is, "Leave the heart that now I bear, And give me liberty!" Yes, as my swift days near their goal, 'Tis all that I implore; In life and death, a chainless soul, ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH. 1819-1861. [BORN at Liverpool, Jan. 1, 1819; passed some years of his childhood at Charlestown, in Virginia: was at school at Rugby from 1829 to 1837: was Scholar of Balliol and afterwards Fellow and Tutor of Oriel; resigned his offices in Oxford in 1848; was Principal of University Hall, London, for a short time afterwards; again went to America; returned in 1853 to take a post in the Education Office. He died at Florence, Nov. 13, 1861. His poems were chiefly written between 1840 and 1850, The Bothie being published in 1848, and many of the shorter poems appearing in a volume called Ambarvalia in the next year.] QUA CURSUM VENTUS. As ships, becalined at eve, that lay With canvas drooping, side by side, Two towers of sail at dawn of day Arescarce longleagues apart descried; When fell the night, upsprung the breeze, And all the darkling hours they plied, Nor dreamt but each the self-same seas By each was cleaving, side by side: E'en so - but why the tale reveal Of those, whom year by year unchanged, Brief absence joined anew to feel, Astounded, soul from soul estranged? At dead of night their sails were filled, And onward each rejoicing steered Ah, neither blame, for neither willed, Or wist, what first with dawn appeared! To veer, how vain! On, onward strain, Brave barks! In light, in darkness too, Through winds and tides one compass guides - To that, and your own selves, be true. But O blithe breeze! and O great seas, Though ne'er, that earliest parting past, On your wide plain they join again, Together lead them home at last. One port, methought, alike they sought, One purpose hold where'er they fare,— O bounding breeze, O rushing seas! At last, at last, unite them there! QUI LABORAT, ORAT. O ONLY Source of all our light and life, Whom as our truth, our strength, we see and feel, But whom the hours of mortal moral strife Alone aright reveal! Mine inmost soul, before Thee inly brought, Thy presence owns ineffable, divine; Chastised each rebel self-encentered thought, My will adoreth Thine. With eye down-dropt, if then this earthly mind Speechless remain, or speechless e'en depart; Nor seek to see- - for what of earthly kind Can see Thee as Thou art?— If well-assured 'tis but profanely bold In thought's abstractest forms to seem to see, It dare not dare the dread communion hold In ways unworthy Thee, O not unowned, thou shalt unnamed forgive, In wordly walks the prayerless heart And if in work its life it seem to live, Nor times shall lack, when while the Unsummoned powers the blinding film shall part, And scarce by happy tears made dim, the eyes In recognition start. But, as thou willest, give or e'en forbear So, with Thy blessing blest, that humbler Approach Thee morn and night. WITH WHOM IS NO VARIABLE- IT fortifies my soul to know That, though I perish, Truth is so : CHARLES KINGSLEY. 1819-1875. [BORN at Holne Vicarage, Devonshire, in 1819, and educated, partly at Helston Grammar School, and partly at King's College, London, and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He was Rector of Eversley in Hampshire; Professor of Modern History at his old university from 1860 to 1869; and Canon of Westminster in 1872. Chief amor.g his thirty-five publications are The Saint's Tragedy (1848), Alton Locke and Yeast (1849), Hypatia (1853), The Heroes (1856), Andromeda (1858), The Water-Babies (1863), and Prose-Idylls (1873). He died in 1875.] GEORGE ELIOT (MARIAN EVANS LEWES CROSS). 1819-1880. [BORN at South Farm, Colton, Warwickshire, Nov. 22, 1819. Was the daughter of a poor curate, but was adopted by a wealthy clergyman, who gave her a careful education. She became pupil of Herbert Spencer, and under his training acquired great breadth of mental development, earning Greek, French, and Italian, studying music and art as well as metaphysics and logic. In 1851, she went to London to join the staff of the Westminster Review. One of the chief writers for this quarterly was George H. Lewes, whose wife she subsequently became, and after his death (1878) she married Mr. J. N. Cross, May 6, 1880. Her death took place Dec. 22, 1880, and her biography, prepared by Mr. Cross, will, it is anticipated, be published during the year (1884). Her first novel was Scenes of Clerical Life (1858), and was rapidly followed by others which proved marvellously successful, and gave her an enduring position among the writers of fiction. Her poems, The Spanish Gipsy (1868), and Jubal and other Poems (1870), though containing many beautiful passages, do not, in popular estimation, rank with her prose works. ] |