The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-01-10
What Great Men have been
fond OF.

Who would have imagined that the
grave, phi 'osophic Socrates, during
his hours of leisure took pleasure in
dancing? Yet it was so. Many other
wise men besides Socrstes have tax
IN great delight in music. Epamin-
ondas used to take pleasure in sing
ing at village festivals. The cruel
Nero "tiddled while Ro he was burn
ing;" at least he played the harp, for
there were not, as yet, fiddles in
those days. Luther delighted :. in
play ing the flute, and thus used to
100 he his excited feelings. Fred
erick II of Prussia aIlaS ed The most
violent agonies of mind with the
same instrument. An hours playing
gen rally suficed to reduce him to
perfect tranquility. Milton delight.
ed i'll playing the organ, and compos-
ed several fine psalm tunes, which
are to this day sung in our churches.
Benthdm was passionateiy fond of
musir, and play ed the organ; there
was scarcely g. room in his house
without II piano. marlborough, Il Q
painter, was a capital performer OH
the violin. Byron's great delight was
in flowers; and lille in Italy he
purchased Il fresh bouquet every day.
Byron was also fond of animals; in
his youth he made friend of boar.
Goethe rarely passed day without
bringing out from the chimney COR
ner live snake, which he kept there,
and caressing it ike a hosonl-friend.
Tiberius, Roman Emperor, also
made an intimate companion of a
serpent. Augustus was exceedingly
fond of parrot, but still more SO OF
quail, the loss of which made him
as sad as if he had lost q battle. Ho-
nOrius, another Roman Emperor,
WAS so grieVed at the loss of q hen,
named Roma, that he would willing
ly have given Rome itself to bring it
back; but Alaric had taken Rome,
Louis XI., when i'll at Plessis-Ie.
Tours, only found pleasure in an ex-
hibiticn of dancing pigs, oddly dress
ed up, which were trained for L;s
spaci entertainment. Richter was
very fond Of tame animals, which he
constantly had about him. Rem
brandt loved nothing so much in tt
world as his monkey. Henry III. of
France was so foolishly fond of span-
iels, that he used to carry litter of
them in basket suspended around
his neck, when giving his audiences.
Charles ]. of England was also excess
sively fond ot spaniels. Frederick
the Great was. also a great dog-fan-
cier. The painter Razzi formed
friendships with all SORTS of animals,
and ne filed his house with SQUIRRELS,
monkeys. Angora cats, dwarf assts.
he-goats, tortoises, and EIbs ponies
Poisson, confined in the Bastile.
made friend of spider, W hich he
tanned. The Marquis de Montespan
had tie extraordinary taste TO amuse
himself with mice, when occupying
the gi!ded apartments ut Versailles.
Cardinal NszaTin employed his leis-
ire in playing with an ape: and Car
dinal Ricbe!ieu amused himself with
his collection Of Cats. The poet Al
fri was proud OF Ills hors e.. and
took great delight In fondiing and
caressing them. Cowper was at no
time SO happy as when eeding his
tame hares. Among the relaxaIions
Of learned and great men may be
mentioned Calvin's game CT throwing
dice along table, whereas Luther
was great In nine-plns. Bojleau was
also very fond Of the same game.
Massillion used to assemble OratC-
rians and Jesuirs in his room, and set
them TO play ing chess together, mean
while exhortiug them never to en-
gage in any less innocent warfare.
Buttons great delight was in CLEAN
ing the village go sip from the village
barrier during his morning toilet.
Charlemagne's chief relaxation aud
pleasure consisted il swimming in
bath, together with his sons, officers
and others. Boyle's-the philoso-
pher's-great de light, like Curran's,
was to watch the exhibition of pup
pet-show.