He took his seat in the Continental Congress, June 21st, 1775, the day on which the news of the Battle of Bunker Hill reached Philadelphia, and on which Washington left that city to command the army at Cambridge. Jefferson was no orator, but he gained great influence by courtesy, readiness in composition, knowledge of law, general information, and his warm devotion to his country. He was chosen to draft the Declaration of Independence. In 1796, he was elected Vice-President of the United States. In 1800, he was elected to the Presidency, and was inaugurated March 4th, 1801. He retired to private life March 4th, 1809, and died at Monticello on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a few hours before his friend, John Adams. His tribute to his great contemporary, Washington (p. 559), is worthy of both writer and subject.

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DOUGLAS JERROLD.

OUGLAS WILLIAM JERROLD was born in London, January 3d, 1803. He entered the navy in 1813, and afterwards became a printer. When quite young he began to write poems and criticisms for the journals, which won for him much attention. His comedy "Blackeyed Susan" established his reputation. "The Caudle Lectures" were first published in "Punch" in 1841. These, with many other sketches and tales, extended his fame as a humorist and a powerful delineator of character. Jerrold died in London, June 8th, 1857. Three of his pieces brighten these pages, one of them being in his more serious vein.

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J. WILLIAM JONES.

HE author of the little war reminiscence on page 614 was fully competent to vouch for his incident. He was a Baptist minister, who went into the war early and stayed long. He was intimately associated with the famous Stonewall Jackson, of the Confederate service. Chaplain Jones related the scene quoted, at a religious convention held in Atlanta, Ga., in the spring of 1878. Its effect was thrilling.

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SIR WILLIAM JONES.

IIS distinguished scholar was born in London, September 28th, 1746. He early distinguished himself as a linguist, and finally became master of twenty-eight languages. Within a few weeks of his death he began the study of three new grammars. He published various grammars, translations, dissertations, poems, etc., all of which added to his great reputation as a scholar. He also studied law, entered

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somewhat into politics, was judge of the Supreme Court in Bengal, was knighted for eminent worth. He died April 27th, 1794. The selection on page 367 illustrates both his poetic and his statesmanly ability.

ELISHA KENT KANE.

LISHA KENT KANE, M.D., a distinguished American explorer, was born in Philadelphia, February 20th, 1820. His father was the eminent Judge, John K. Kane. He studied medicine, and, in 1843, sailed to China with Commodore Parker, as surgeon to the embassy. He visited India, Ceylon and the Philippine Isles. In 1845, he made an excursion to the Himalayas, ascended the Nile to Nubia, and traversed Greece on foot. He served in the Mexican war in 1847. In May, 1850, he sailed as surgeon to the De Haven expedition in search of Sir John Franklin. He commanded a second expedition sent out for the same purpose, in May, 1853. He returned home in October, 1855, and published the adventures of his party in his "Arctic Explorations," whence selections in this volume are taken. To recruit his shattered health he sailed for England, in October, 1856, and thence to the West Indies, where he died, at Havana, February, 1857.

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY.

EY, the author of our national song, the "Star Spangled Banner" (p. 466), was an American jurist and poet, born in Frederick county, Maryland, in 1779. He became District Attorney of the District of Columbia. When Fort McHenry, in Baltimore Harbor, was subjected to bombardment in the war of 1812, Key witnessed the scene from the city, and felt all the anxiety the citizens naturally cherished. After a vigorous night's bombardment, he looked in the early morning for the emblem of safety on the walls of the fort, and when he saw the flag "still there," he wrote the song to which the nation has clung ever since. He wrote other poems also. He died in 1843.

HENRY KING.

page 642, is a little gem, entitled "Life." It is from the pen of Henry King, who was born in England in 1591. All the quaintness of those old times in which he lived appears in these lines, and all the beauty of true poesy sparkles there. King was successively chaplain to James I. and to Charles I. He died in 1669.

ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE.

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CHARLES KINGSLEY.

HREE selections from Charles Kingsley adorn these pages. Like all else from this author, these productions will abundantly repay every one who reads them. Kingsley was born at Devonshire, England, June 12th, 1819. He graduated at Cambridge in 1842, and took orders in the Church of England. He was always an active helper of the working classes. He published several volumes, including many sermons, novels, fairy tales, lectures, poems, and educational works. For ten years he was Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. He occupied various high positions in the English church. In 1873, he visited the United States. He died in London, January, 23d, 1875.

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WILLIAM KNOX.

HE poem beginning "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" was immortalized by the fact that it was a great favorite of Abraham Lincoln's. Its author, William Knox, was born at Firth, Roxburghshire, Scotland, August 17th, 1789. He wrote verses at an early age and, when about thirty, devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits. He wrote for the papers extensively, and issued several volumes of poems. Knox led a dissipated life, and died November 12th, 1825.

CHARLES THEODORE KÖRNER.

NE of the most celebrated German poets was he whose name heads this paragraph. He was born in Dresden, in 1791. At an early age he displayed a rare poetical genius. He enlisted in the war against Napoleon; and, inspired with patriotism, he produced some of the most spirited martial poems in the German language. These were published under the title, "The Lyre and the Sword." His "Sword Song" (p. 312), is a rare gem, made all the more charming by the sad fact of his death before the ink of its manuscript was fairly dry.

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ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE.

HIS French poet, orator, and historian, was born at Mâcon on the Saône, October 21st, 1792. He left college in 1809, and afterwards privately read and studied Dante, Petrarch, Shakspeare, Milton, and Ossian. In 1820, he published a volume of poems entitled "Méditations Poétiques." This excited general admirations and 45,000 copies were sold in a few years. He displayed a marvellous

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affluence of pure sentiments and beautiful images in many of his poems and other works, especially so in "Jocelyn." After the coup d'etat of December, 1851, he took no part in political affairs, but published "A History of the Revolution in 1848." Among his later works are several other histories of great value, from one of which the sketch on page 686 is taken. His works have been translated into almost every European language. Lamartine died in February, 1869.

WALTER SAVAGE LANDON.

ROM this author's graceful pen but one sketch is given (p. 487). He was an Englishman, born January 30th, 1775. He was educated at Oxford, and being master of an independent fortune, he devoted himself to literary pursuits. He issued several volumes of poems and sketches. He died in Florence, September 1864.

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CHARLES G. LELAND.

EINRICH HEINE, the German author, owed much to Charles Godfrey Leland, for his excellent translations of "Pictures of Travel," by. which Heine reached a large circle of admiring English readers. Leland was born in Philadelphia in 1824, and published various very excellent volumes of original and translated matter.

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CHARLES JAMES LEVER.

HIS popular Irish novelist and song writer was born in Dublin, in 1806. He practiced medicine for a time, but abandoned that pursuit for those of literature. He excelled in delineations of Irish character, whether in his novels, or in such songs as "Widow Mahone" (p. 375). Lever spent many years in government positions. He died in 1872.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

FEW sentences only from Abraham Lincoln are given in this volume, but his sentences had a density of meaning seldom found. He was born in Kentucky, February 12th, 1807, but removed to Indiana in 1816. He received only one year of schooling, but, while assisting his father on the frontier farm, he read all the books he could secure, copying into a scrap book whatever best pleased him. In 1830, he removed to Illinois, but his laborious life continued. He always was

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famous as a teller of stories and a maker of stump speeches. He followed the water for a time, kept a store, went into the Black Hawk war, became a postmaster, studied law, entered the legislature for several successive terms, and was elected to Congress in 1846.

Lincoln soon became the recognized leader of his party in Illinois, and his debates with Stephen A. Douglas gave him a national reputation. In 1860, he was nominated for the Presidency of the United States, and was chosen to that post. Then came the war, in which the proclamations, messages, addresses, and pointed sayings of Lincoln became an unceasing source of inspiration. His tragic death on April 15th, 1865, is known the world over. His remains lie in Oak Ridge cemetery, Springfield, Ill.

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.

ERHAPS first of all American poets, is the revered Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Twenty choice selections from his works have not been deemed too many for these pages. He was born at Portland, Maine, February 27th, 1807, and graduated at Bowdoin College in 1825, He soon after went abroad for travel and study. He then took a Professorship at Bowdoin, and subsequently at Harvard. In 1851, he resigned this position, and spent the remainder of his days in a beautiful old mansion at Cambridge, Mass.,- the house once occupied by Washington as his headquarters.

While yet a boy, Longfellow wrote many poems, and while an undergraduate, contributed to the "North American Review." He was exceed ingly painstaking in all he did. One of his most laborious works was the translation of Dante's "Divina Commedia" into English verse. He was highly honored here and in England, both Oxford and Cambridge conferring on him the degree of D.C.L. Many of his poems have been translated into various foreign languages. "The Bridge" was suggested to Longfellow by his many journeys over the old bridge leading from Boston to Cambridge. There is the tide that rushes among those "wooden piers to the sea beyond. Here can be seen the "church tower," and the bells may be heard striking the hours, all indeed, is true to the facts stated in the poem, and both in youth and old age, the poet "often, O how ofter," passed there, and doubtless lingered there to think. On page 41, the Old Clock on the Stairs" of Longfellow's mansion is seen. He caught the exact spirit of all he wrote about, and clothed all he wrote in robing strictly harmonious with the facts. The same charming detail might be added to all Longfellow's delightful poems. He died March 24th, 1882.