and are so still,-to carry out which many believe, as I do, that I have been chosen by God."

Having no children, Michael Angelo, near the close of his life, said, "My works are the children I shall leave; and if they are not worth much, they will at least live for some time."

B. 1809.

COUNT CAVOUR.

D. 1860.

IN 1853, long before the revolution in Italy brought Count Cavour to the front, he wrote to a lady as follows:

"I am very grateful, madame, for the interest you. are kind enough to take in my misfortunes; but I assure you I shall make my way notwithstanding. I own I am ambitious, - enormously ambitious, — and when I am minister I hope I shall justify my ambition. In my dreams I see myself already Minister of the Kingdom of Italy."

That dream came to pass.

B. 1483.

MARTIN LUTHER.

D. 1546.

WHEN Martin Luther first denied the right of the Pope to grant indulgences or to forgive sins, his indignation was particularly excited by the traffic of John Tetzel, a Dominican friar who was active in raising funds by the sale of the Pope's indulgences; and Luther exclaimed, "God willing, I will beat a hole in his drum !"

B. 1571.

JOHANN KEPLER.

D. 1630.

KEPLER, after his immortal work of twenty-two years, and the discovery of the so-called harmonic laws, or the relations of the planets, could say with rapture, and without much vanity :

"The die is cast; I have written my book; it will be read either in the present age or by posterity, it matters not which; it may well await a reader, since God has waited six thousand years for an interpreter of his works."

CHRISTOPHER MARTIN WIELAND.

B. 1733. D. 1813.

"You, my friend, know me well enough to know that I am satisfied with my lot in every point of view. . . . But I shouid arrogate to myself a merit to which I have no claim, were I to deny that, after spending the greater part of my life in the service of the Muses, I have done more for myself than for others. It was pure truth, and will probably remain true to the end of my days, that I said to my Muse, from the fulness of my heart, more than fifteen years

1 The laws are: First, all planets describe ellipses around the sun; Second, a line joining the planet and sun sweeps over equal areas in equal times; Third, the squares of the periodic times of the planets are proportioned to the cubes of their mean distances from the sun.

ago, when living at the furthest extreme of South Germany, entirely excluded from our Parnassus, and without any literary connections,

'If thou pleasest not, if world and connoisseur agree

To disparage thy merit,

Let thy consolation be, in this calamity,

That with sweet pains thou hast conferred much joy on me.

Thou art still, O Muse! the happiness of my life,

And if no one listens to thee, thou singest to me alone.""

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE.

B. 1744. D. 1832.

THIS many-sided German author lived to a great age, and never seemed too old for good work. While fully conscious of his own leadership at Weimar, he had no jealousy of others whether at home or abroad. Of himself he says:

"If I were to say what I had really been to the Germans in general, and to the young German poets in particular, I should say I had been their liberator."

He has also repeatedly said: "As for what I have done as a poet, I take no pride in it whatever. But that in my century I am the only person who knows the truth in the difficult science of colors, of that, I say, I am not a little proud. There I have a consciousness of superiority to many."

How Goethe could have exalted his "Theory of Colors" above his "Wilhelm Meister" or above his "Faust," may be a marvel; but unquestionably he had

some claims to distinction in scientific pursuits, and he is not the only example of those who have overrated their dullest offspring.

"Where yet was ever found a mother

Who'd give her booby for another?"

B. 1770./

BEETHOVEN.

D. 1827.

THERE is no question as to the musical gifts and great genius of Ludwig van Beethoven; and when he was dying, he did not hesitate to assert the fact to his friend, the eminent pianist Hummel,

"Pourtant, Hummel, j'ai du génie !"

("For all that, Hummel, I have genius.")

B. 1773.

PRINCE METTERNICH.

D. 1859.

PRINCE METTERNICH of Austria, the great Chancellor of Francis I., wielded immense political power in Europe during great historical events, and for a great number of years. In questions of State he had to grapple with masters in diplomacy, -with Canning, Wellington, Nesselrode, and Napoleon; and there is no doubt that Austria under his lead reached its highest position among nations. Kings and emperors were battling for thrones, and Metternich was the prince of aristocrats, though the life-long slave of royalty, whose prerogatives he upheld with a vigor

and tenacity which secured the admiration of his masters and the hatred of all liberal-minded men.

The following is copied from a letter of Metternich to his wife, Aug. 26, 1818:

"I shall be at Frankfort on the 29th, and spend two days there. I shall have the entire Diet on my hands. I know already that most of the ministers there are trembling at my appearance; of my fortyeight hours, I shall take at least from twelve to fifteen to lecture the well-intentioned, and to do justice to those who are not. My two days at Frankfort will, however, be worth at least a hundred as far as business is concerned."

Having been foolishly lauded in the Paris " Moniteur," January, 1820, he wrote to one of his correspondents:

"To me undoubtedly, I openly allow, stupid blame is pleasanter than stupid praise: the first may amuse, but cannot anger me; the latter, on the contrary, might make me treat my awkward friend somewhat rudely.

"If any one wishes to write my history, let him have full freedom to the judgment of posterity, which alone can speak with authority of the men who have contributed to make the history of their time."

1820, April 19. "Posterity will judge me, — the only judgment which I covet; the only one to which I am not indifferent, and which I shall never know."

1820, May 15. "On this day, in the year 1773, precisely at twelve o'clock, I was presented to the world."