rapidly, and in 1834 he produced a very brilliant romance entitled "The Improvisatore." It sets forth, in an inimitable manner, scenery and customs in Southern Europe. Another sketch of life in the North of Europe appeared the next year, and was almost equally successful. He also wrought the story of his own early life into a series of very striking pen pictures, which he entitled "Only a Fiddler." Andersen's genius was most conspicuous in the realm of fairy lore, of which he published several volumes. All these have met with a hearty reception. They are brilliant in imagination, quaint in humor, and ofttimes melting in pathos.

The works of Hans Christian Andersen have been translated into almost all the languages of Europe. His one story given in this work is "The Little Match Girl," which is a perfect gem. Andersen died in 1875.

P. ARKWRIGHT.

NDER the above nom de plume, or the fuller, Peleg Arkwright, David L. Proudfit has written much concerning the "gamins," or street boys of our large cities. So graphic and tender have these descriptions been, that the public heart has turned very fondly toward this much neglected and abused class. "Poor Little Joe" (p. 358) is full of pathos and vivid description.

EDWIN ARNOLD.

DWIN ARNOLD is a native of England. He was born June 10th, 1831. As early as 1852 he took a high prize at Oxford for a poem. He subsequently became a master in a high school, but soon after removed to British India, where he became President of the Sanskrit College at Poonah. He resigned this post in 1860, and devoted himself wholly to literary pursuits. He has been a voluminous contributor to periodicals, magazines, etc., and has produced some highly meritorious poems, chief among which is his last extended venture, "The Light of Asia." His translation of the Persian poem, "Call me not Dead," given on page 269, is a rare piece of literary elegance.

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GEORGE ARNOLD.

HE author of "The Jolly Old Pedagogue," George Arnold, was born in New York City, June 24th, 1834, and died November 9th, 1865. He followed journalism and literature, making a good

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reputation by his poems, stories, reviews, etc. He also attained some distinction as a humorist. His writings have not been numerous, however, but their choice character has won and held for them an honorable place.

WILLIAM E. AYTOUN.

(AUGUSTUS DUNSHUNNER.)

ILLIAM EDMONDSTOUNE AYTOUN, D.C.L., was a native of Scotland. He was born at Edinburgh about the year 1813. He died August 4, 1865. He began his career at the Scottish bar in 1840, but so marked was his ability that, in 1845, he was appointed Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University of his native city. He excelled as a poet and dramatist, and he was also one of the most brilliant contributors of "Blackwood's Magazine." He wrote under the nom de plume of Augustus Dunshunner. His most celebrated poems are "Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers" and "Bothwell." These poems are full of the old Scotch martial fire, and they have gone through numerous editions. "The Buried Flower (p. 272) is one of the most exquisitely sweet poems which ever appeared from this gifted writer.

ANNA BACHE.

RS. ANNA BACHE, was a resident of the city of Philadelphia, where she published a volume for juveniles in 1843. She also issued several humorous descriptive poems, one of the very best and most homelike of which, "The Quilting," is given in this volume. It is a lifelike description of the old-timne quilting parties in country places.

J. M. BAILEY.
(DANBURY NEWS MAN.)

AMES MONTGOMERY BAILEY, was born in the city of Albany, New York, September 25th, 1841. In 1865 he commenced journalism on the "Danbury Times," afterwards known as the “Danbury News," and published at Danbury, Conn. From its constant flow of rich and healthy humor the paper soon gained a national reputation and circulation. Mr. Bailey has published a collection of his papers under the title, "Life in Danbury," also "The Danbury News Man's Almanac," and other works, all of which are characterized by the same admirable veins, which first brought him into so favorable a prominence.

RICHARD BAXTER.

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EDWARD DICKINSON BAKER.

2OLONEL BAKER, more generally known as Senator Baker, was a native of England. He was born February 24th, 1811. He came to the United States while but a youth and adopted law as his profession. He was among the early settlers of California, having migrated to that State in 1852. In 1860 he was chosen United States Senator for Oregon, but on the outbreak of the civil war he raised a regiment for the Union service, at the head of which he was killed at Ball's Bluff, October 21st, 1861. The selection from one of his most celebrated speeches, given on page 516, shows his spirit as that terrible struggle began. He was at the very moment of speaking ready to march to the front.

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LADY ANNE BARNARD.

HIS distinguished Scottish poetess, whose maiden name was Lindsay, was born at Fifeshire in 1750. She was a daughter of the Earl of Balcarres. Her best literary effort, and that which made her the widest reputation, was the poem given in this volume, “Auld Robin Gray." The history of this poem is related substantially in its few introductory lines (p. 193). She died in 1825.

RICHARD BAXTER.

R

ICHARD BAXTER was an eminent English non-conformist minister, who was born at Rowdon, in Shropshire, Nov. 12th, 1615. He was a man of very extensive learning, though he was not educated at any college. He was ordained to the ministry in 1638 and was chosen Vicar of Kidderminster soon after.

distinguished as a very eloquent preacher. In the civil war of England he sought to be neutral and to mediate between the contesting parties. About 1645 he accepted the post of chaplain to a regiment of Cromwell's army; but he afterwards became hostile to the government of the Protector. In 1650 he published the "Saints' Everlasting Rest," a work which is generally and justly admired, and from which a selection in "Gems" is taken. In 1685 Baxter was tried before the notoriously unjust Jeffries on a charge of sedition, which was based on a passage in one of his works. He was fined five hundred marks, for the non-payment of which he was imprisoned eighteen months. He died in December, 1691

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JAMES BEATTIE.

AMES BEATTIE was a Scottish poet and philosophical writer, who was born in the county of Kincardine in 1735. In 1760 he was appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic at Marischal College, Aberdeen. In 1767 he brought out his " Essay on Truth," written in refutation of the doctrines of Hume. It went through five editions in a few years, and was translated into several languages. The first book of "The Minstrel" appeared in 1771, and met with great favor also. Beattie soon after visited London, where he secured the friendship of Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, and other distinguished literary men. During a second visit, in 1773, he received from the University of Oxford the degree of D.C.L. Soon after this time he published the second part of "The Minstrel," and in a few years followed it with a series of moral and critical essays, and a "Treatise on the Evidences of Christianity." The two extracts given in this volume are fair specimens of Beattie's style.

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HENRY WARD BEECHER.

HE REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER, who is one of America's most distinguished clergymen, orators and writers, was born at Litchfield, Conn., January 24th, 1813. His father, Dr. Lyman Beecher, was a man distinguished for his sound theology and his great common sense. Of his boyish character his sister, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, says: "He had precisely the organization which passes in boyhood for dullness. He had great deficiency in verbal memory; ... he was excessively sensitive to praise and blame, extremely diffident, and with a power of yearning, undeveloped emotion which he neither understood nor could express. ... In forecasting his horoscope, had any one taken the trouble to do it, the last success that ever would have been predicted for him would have been that of an orator. But even while a boy he proved that, if he did not inherit the eloquence, he inherited at least something of the controversial ability of his father. A forward school-boy among the elder scholars had got hold of Paine's 'Age of Reason,' and was flourishing largely among the boys with objections to the Bible. Henry privately looked up Watson's 'Apology,' studied up the subject, and challenged a debate with the big boy, in which he came off victorious by the acclamation of his school-fellows." He entered Amherst College in 1834. Soon after he commenced the study of theology under the direction of his father. He began his ministry at Lawrenceburg,

Ind., but soon removed to Indianapolis. In 1847 he became pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church, of Brooklyn, N. Y. His congregation here is probably the largest in the United States. He is a popular writer and lecturer. In the cause of temperance, anti-slavery, etc., he has long stood in the foremost rank, and been a most efficient champion.

GEORGE BERKELEY.

EORGE BERKELEY was an English Bishop, and a metaphysical philosopher of rare merit. He was born at Kilerin, Ireland, on the 12th of March, 1684. He entered Trinity College, Dublin. His reputation as a philosopher was made about 1707 by "An Essay towards a New Theory of Vision." In 1710, he first published The Principles of Human Knowledge," in which he advanced his celebrated theory that there is no proof of the existence of matter anywhere but in our own perceptions. In 1713 he visited London, where he became intimate with Addison, Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, and other eminent men. He also wrote several essays for the "Guardian." He published in 1725 a "Proposal for Converting the Savage Americans to Christianity," and wished to found a college in America for that object. He received a promise of £20,000 from the government, and sailed for America, on this mission, in 1728. At this time he wrote those celebrated lines:

"Westward the course of empire takes its way;

The four first acts already past,

A fifth shall close the drama with the day;
Time's noblest offering is the last,"

He preached about two years in Newport, R. I., but abandoned the project of the college because the government failed to send the funds, and he returned to England. He was chosen Bishop of Cloyne in 1734. Among his later works is "The Analyst," addressed to an infidel mathematician. He finally removed to Oxford, and died there in January, 1753.

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BERNARD DE MORLAIX.

HIS famous Latin poet was called also the Monk of Cluni. He was of the Benedictine Order, and must be distinguished from St. Bernard of the Romish Calendar. Bernard de Morlaix flourished in the first half of the twelfth century, but where, and just when he was born and died are insoluble problems. Various places claim the honor of his birth, but Morlaix, in Bretagne, has most in its favor. De