The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1876-10-19
Companions Of Famous Men.


We are told that Shakspeare's favor
ito writers were Plutaroh and Mon
aixne. Millions favorite books were
Homer, Ovid and Euripides. The lat
ter book was also the favorite book of
Charles James Fox, who regarded the
study Of it asespecially useful to public
speaker. On the other hand, Pitt took
espeeial delight in Milton, whom Fox
did not appreciate, taking pleasure in
reciting from Paradise Lost the grand
speech of Beiiai before the assembled
powers of Pandemonium. Another ia
. vorite book of Pitts was Newton's
Principia. Again, the:Earl of Chath-
ami fayorite book was Barrow's Ser
mons, which he read SO often that he
was able to repeat them from memory,
while Burke's companions were Dem
osthenes, Milton, Bolingbroke and
Young's Night Thoughts. Curran's ia
vorite was Homer, which he read
through once a year. Virgil was an
other of his favorites-his biogrspher,
Phillips, saying that he once saw him
reading the Eneid in the cabin OF e
Hollyhead packet while every one about
him was prostrated by sea sickness.
OF the poets, Dante's favorite was
Virgil; Corneille's Lucan; Schillers was
Shakespeare: Gray's was Spenser, while
Coleridge admired Collins and BoIles
Dante, himself, was a favorite with
most poets, from Chaucer to Byron and
Tennyson. Lord Brougham, Macauley
and Carlyle, have alike admired and
eulogized the great italian. The for
mer advised the students at Glasgow,
that next to Demosthenes the study of
Dante was the best preparative for the
eloquence of the pulpit or the bar
Robert Hall sought relief in Dante
from the rocking pains of spinal dis
ease, and Sydney Smith took to the
same poet for comfort and solace in his
old age. 1t was characteristic of Goethe
/ that his favorte book should have been
Speneza's Ethics. in which he found
peace and consolation such as he had
been able to find in no other work.
Barrow's favorite was St Chrysostom;
Bossuet's was Homer; Bunyans was
the old legend of Sir Bevis of South
ampton, which, in all probability, gave
him the first idea of his Pilgrims Pro
gress. One OF the best prelates that
ever sat on the English Bench, Dr.
John Sharpe, said: shakespeare and
the Bible have made me Archbishop
of York" The two books which most
impressed John Wesley, when a young
man, were The Imitation of Christ and
Tavlor's Holy Living and Dying. Yet
Wesley was accustomed to caution his
Young friends against over-much read
ing: "Beware you be not swallowed up
in books" he would say to them, "an
ounce of love is worth pound of
knowledge" Wesley's own life has
been great favorite with many
thoughtful readers.
Coleridge says in his preface to
Southey's life Of Wesley, that was
more often in his hands than any other
in his ragged book regiment "To this
work and to the life of Richard Baxter
he says, II was used to resort when
ever sickness and languor made me feel
the want of an old friend Of whose CON-
pany I could never be tired. How
many and many an hour of self-obliv-
ion do owe to this life of Wesley; and
how often have I argued with it, ques-
toned and demonstrated. been peevlsh,
cried. Right excellent! and in yet
heavier hours entreating it, as it were
to continue talking to me; for that L
heard and listened, and was soothed,
though | could make no reply" Sou
met had only few books in his Ii bras
rv. but they were OF the best
Homer, Virgil. Dante, Camoens, Tasso
and Milton. DeQuincey's favorite few
were Dome, Chillingworth, South,
Rarrow, Jeremy Taylor, Milton, and
Sir T. Browne. He described these
writer's as q pleiad or constellation OF
seven golden stars, such as, in their
class, no literature can match, and
from these works he would undertake
to build up an entire body of philoso-
ply. Frederick the Great manifested
his strong French leanings in his choice
of books, his principal favorites being
Bayle Rousseau, Voltsire, Rollin, Fleu-
ry, Malebranche, and one English au-
thor-Locke. His especial favorite was
Bayles Dictionary, which was the first
book that laid hold of his mind. and he
thought so highly of it that he himself
made an abridgment and tranlation OF it
into German, which was published.
1t WAS saying of Frederick's that
books made up no small part of true
happiness In his old age he said:
"My latest passion will be for litera-
ture." 1t seems odd that Marshal
Blucher's favorite book should have
been Klopstock' Messiah, and Napo-
leon Bonsparte's favorites Ossian 8
Poems and Sorrows of Werter. But
Napoleons s range of reading was very
extensive. It included Homer. Virgil,
Tasso, novels of all countries, histories
of all times, mathematics, legislation
and theology. He detested what he
called the bombast and tinsel OF VOL
taire. The praises of Homer and U.s.
sian he was never wearied of sounding.
Read again, he said to an officer on
board the Belterophon, ''read again the
poet of Achilles, devour Osslan. Those
are the poets who lift up the soul and
give to a man colossal greatness.
The Duke of Wellington was an extern