Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / Feb. 15, 1911, edition 1 / Page 3
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February 15, 1911. THE WEEKLY DIRECTORY. Burlington (N. C.) Business Houses. Buy Dry Goods from B. A. Sellars & Sons. See Burlington Hardware Co. for Plumb- ing. Get your Photographs at Anglin’s Studio. B. A. Sellars & Sons for Clothing and Gents’ Furnibliiiigs. See Dr. Morrow when in need of Dental Work. E«al Estate, Insurance and Loans, Ala mance Insurance & Real Estate Co. Bairber Shop, Brannoek & Matkins. Dr. J. H. Brooks, Dental Surgeon. See Freeman Drug Co. for Drugs. Elon College, N C. For an Education go to Elon College. Gibscnville, N. C. Dr. G. E. Jordan, M. D. Hijh Point, N. C. People’s House Furnishing Co Greensboro, N. C. Pierce Stamp Works for stamps. Hotel Hufflne. Burtner Furniture Co., for furniture. the peaceful angler continued to add to its completeness in his leisurely way for a quarter of a century. Mr. Mauly has given in his “English Prose” a flue selection from “Tlie Com plete Angler,” which is very interesting, especially that in which the hunter ang ler, and falconer discouise on the ele ments, that is the Air, Earth and Water in which tliey respectively ply their voca tions. William Bowles said that this work is the most singular of its kind; breathing the veiy spirit of contentment, of quiet . and of unaffected philanthropy, and is interspersed with some beautiful relics of poetiy, old songs and ballads. “The Complete Angler,” says William Hazlitt, “has an extreme simplicity, and, an extreme interest, arising out of its v’ery simplicity.” In the description of a fishing-tackle you perceive the piety and humanity of the author’s mind. This is the best pas toral in the language, not excepting Pope s or Philips's. William Ernest Henley says, “He had the purest and the most innocent of minds, he was the master of a style as bright, as sweet, as nefreshing, and delightful as fine clean home spun some time in laven- der.” James Russell Lowell says that there are two books which have a place in our literature by themselvfS and side by side— Walton’s “Complete Angler,” and White’s “Natural History of Selborne,” and they are books too, which have secur ed immortality without showing any tincture of imagination or of constructive faculty in the gift of one or the other of which that distinction commonly lies. They neither stimulate thought nor stir any passionate emotion. Andrew Lang says, “Without ambiticm. save to be in the society of good men, Walton passed through turaioil, ever com panioned by content.” PearJe Tuck. CAIUS CORNELIUS TACITUS. The exact date of the birth of Tacitus is not known but it is supposed to be in or 56 A. D. There is very little known of his family, but having occupied a prom inent public office at an early age, would indicate that he was from a good family. Very little is known of his own life except what he has told us in his own writings. At an early age—some say in 77 and oth- lers 78 A. D.—he was manied to the daugh- THE elon COLL] ter of Agricola. At one time Tacitus was an eminent pleaden at the bar. Under Domitian in 88 he was appointed one of 4he ^commissioners to preside at the cele bration of the secular games. In the same year he held otiice as praetor. The fol lowing year lie seems to have left Rome and to have visited Germany where he got the information for his book. “The Germania.” Between the years 93 and 97 he was elected to the senate and saw tlie cruel murders under Neio. In 97 he was ele'ted to the consulship to till the vacancy of Virginius Rufus, at whose funeral Tac itus delivered an oration. In 99 he was appointed by the senate, together with Pliny, to conduct a prosecution against Marcus Porsens who had otfended in jx)l- itical matters. Tacitus had a wide-spread reputation duiing his life time, both from a political stand-point and as a writer of history. The Emperor, Marcus Claudius Tacitus, wlio ruled in the third century, claimed to be a descendant from the historian and orde.ed that ten copies of his work should be published eveiy year and placed in the public libraries. The writings of Tacitus in chronological oiider are as following. The “Dialogue on orations,” written about 75 A.D. on the decline of oratory in the time of the em perors. This was denied by many to be the work of Tacitus because of its style which imitated Cicero. The “Germania,” published in 98, which treated of the sit uation, manners, and inhabitants of Gen- many, and contains but little of value from a historical point of view. The “Ag- ricola’’ is a biographical sketch of his father-in-law, Julius Agiicola, who was a distinguished governor of Britian. This is considered an admirable biography, be cause of its grace and dignified expression. At the time he wrote Agiicola he was planning his next work, the “Histoiie, which records events that transpired in Rome from 68 to 97 A. D. Only four books and a fragment have been preserved, while there were oiiginally fourteen. Some wiiters say that this history is from ()9 to 96. Next are the annals, which is a kind of histoiy containing events which happened from the death of Agus- tus to that of Nero. Originally there were 16 books but only nine have come down to us in full, though there are fragments of others. Tacitus’ style was fashioned somewhat with words and phrases of the classical writers and with the rihetorical teaching of the silver age, and yet there is a strik ing individuality about it. He is con cise and to the point and in many places he is elegant. His brevity is very notice able and leaves so much for the student to read between the lines or words that it takes careful study to get fully into his meaning. The exact date of his death is not known. Judging from the time his wiit- ings ceased, he must have lived until the year 117 A. I). J. Lee Johnson. LIFE AND WORKS OF JOHN MILTON .Tohn Milton, the celebrated English poet, was born in London, December 8, 1608. His father was John Milton, a skill ful musician and a composer of some fame. Milton’s boyhood was spent in the heart of London. He early acquired a taste for music from his father. 3GE WEEKLY. Mn Thomas Young, a graduate from St. Andrew's University, began giving private lessons in school work when he was ten years of age. Later he was sent to St. Paul’s School. Theie he studied Latin and Greek, and possibly French, Italian and Hebrew. From first he showed skill at his books and tireless application. At the age of sixteen he entericd Christ’s College Cambridge, in the grade of pen sioner, and graduated in 1629. He de voted himself to literatuie at Horton, near Windsor, for the next six years. His high character and his Scholarly excellence won him friendship and renown, and he was often called upon to take part in col lege and university exercises. In 1629 he received the degiee of B. A., and three years later that of M. A. In 1639, Oxford bestowed upon him an M. P. as an honorp ary degree. In 1638 he went to Italy, and I here he met many friends. The Civil War called him back in 1639. In 1632, Milton was described as being of middle height with a fair complexion, dark giay eyes, and auburn hair. His personal appearance, coupled with the purity of his character, had won him the rich name of “Lady of Christ’s.” Yet ho was not of a soft yielding disposition, but he was very gentle. In 1643 he mairied his first wife, Mary Powell, a girl of seventeen, daughter of an Oxfordshire squire, who was a debtor of Milton’s father. She found life dull with him, and abandoned him a month later. They were divorced, but she re turned to him after a few years, and he foigave her. She died in 1652. Of this marriage three daughters lived to woman hood. After the execution of Charles 1. Miltcpn was made Latin secretary to the new commonwealth, March, 16-19. By May, 1652, he had grown totally blind. In 1656 he maiTied his second wife, Katherine Woodcock, who died in 16.58, and in 1663 he mai ried the third time, Elizabeth Min- shall, whom he never saw but she was re commended by a friend. Dr. Paget. Up to the time of his third marriage, his domes tic life had been rendered unhappy by the undutifulness of his daughters, who were impatient of the restraints and employ ments his blindness imposed upon them. It w'as his greatest desire to construct something which the world would not wil lingly let die. He wrote prose as well as poetry. In style the difficultoies of his prose—the heaviness of its logic, the clumsiness of its discussion, the involution of its sen tences, have almost sealed it to common readers; but if it lacks simplicity and perspicuity, it has what is considered the eloquence in wealth of imagery, sublimity of diction. His political manner with more of rich ness and inversion is essentially the same. Am]de measured and organ like, not im pulsive and abrupt, but solid and straight, as one who writes from a supeib self-com- mand. His rank as a poet was little regarded by his contemporaries. The fame of a great man needs time to give it due per spective. He was esteemed and featied, however, as a learned and powerful dis putant. By the purity of his sentiments, and the sustained fulness, he holds affinity with Spenser. By his theme and majesty, with Dante, who is fervid and rapt; his 3 learning with Bacon, who is more com prehensive, by his inspiration with Shakes peare, who is free and more varied; but in sublinity he excels them all, even Hom er. As for his character, he was born for gr^t seivice and great ideas. His aniuse- meiits consisted in gardening, in exercise with the sword, and in playing on the or gan. Music he insisted, should form part of a generous education. His ear for it was accurate; and his voice, it is said, was sweet and harmonious. The most devout man of his time, he frequented no place of woiship. To the manner; and spirit of his age, as well as to his success, is due his conception of fe male excellence and the relative position of the sexes. Milton’s heart lived in a sublime solitude. His woiks will never have the influence (if thos: of Shakes|)care, Bunyan, Bnrns, or, even Pope and Cowper. During his last years his mind was re markably active. Miltou, the man, impresses us perhaps as much as Milton the poet. In 1674, Milton’s gout grew worse, and on the eighth of November he died, “with so little pain that the time of his expiring was not perceived by those in the room.” He was buried beside his father in the parish church of St Giles, Cripplegate. Some of his woiks a>-e “Paradise Lost” (1G67) “Paradise Regained,” (1671, “Comus,” “Lycidas,” “Allegro,” “St. Penseroso,” “Aicades,’’“Song on a May Morning,” “Sonnet on a Nightingale,” “At a Solemn Music,” and in 1634 the two poems “On Time” and “Upon the Circumcision. ” In 1669 appeared his history of “Brit ain to the Norman Conquest.” Janie-Lee Beale. SIR THOMAS BROWNE. Sir Thomas Browne, an English physi cian and author, was born in London on the 19th of October, 1605. He was edu cated at Winchester School, and after wards at Broadgate Hall, Pembroke Col lege, Oxford, where he graduated, B. A., in January, 162G. He took the further degree of M. A. in 1629, studied Medicine, and practiced for some time in Oxford shire. Between 1630 and 1633 he left Eng land, traveled through Ireland, France, and Italy, and on his way home received the degree of M. D. at the University of Leyden. He returned to London in 1634, and two years later, after a short residence LINEN MARKING 0UT:^ttS: Name Stamp, Indelible li.i »nd Pad, 40c. Postpaid on receipt of price. PIERCE STAMP WORKS. Greensboro, N. C. HOTEL HUFFINE Near Passenger Station Greensboro* N. C. Rates ?2 up. Cafe in connection. 11. M. MOIIKOW, Surgeon Dentist, MORROW BUILDING, Corner Front and Main Streets, BURLINGTON, N. C.
Elon University Student Newspaper
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Feb. 15, 1911, edition 1
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