THE STODDARD LIBRARY A THOUSAND HOURS OF ENTERTAINMENT WITH THE WORLD'S GREAT WRITERS BY JOHN L. STODDARD VOL. V ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO AND BOSTON GEO. L. SHUMAN & CO. MCMXIII GEORGE ELIOT GEORGE ELIOT (Marian Evans), an eminent English novelist. Born at South Farm, in Warwickshire, November 22, 1819; died in London, December 22, 1880. Her principal works were: "Adam Bede," "The Mill on the Floss," "Silas Marner," "Romola," "Felix Holt," "Middlemarch," "Daniel Deronda," "The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton,” “Mr. Gilfil's Love Story," "Janet's Repentance," "Scenes of Clerical Life," "The Legend of Jubal and other Poems." Also many papers contributed to the Reviews: "Carlyle's Life of Sterling," "Margaret Fuller," "Women in France," "Evangelical Teaching, Dr. Cumming," "German Wit, Heinrich Heine," "Silly Novels by Lady Novelists," "The Natural History of German Life," "Worldliness and Otherworldliness, the Poetry of Young." In these novels, the development of character is the author's main purpose. For mental breadth and depth, for intellectual insight and imaginative power, for exact observation of contemporary life, and for fullness of knowledge in historical work, no other novelist has surpassed George Eliot. THE CHOIR INVISIBLE O MAY I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence: live In pulses stirred to generosity, In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn For miserable aims that end with self, In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, So to live is heaven: To make undying music in the world, For which we struggled, failed, and agonized 3 PN 6013 57 v.5 Rebellious flesh that would not be subdued, And what may yet be better saw within A worthier image for the sanctuary, To higher reverence more mixed with love- This is life to come, Which martyred men have made more glorious So shall I join the choir invisible Whose music is the gladness of the world. (From "ROMOLA ") WAITING BY THE RIVER ABOUT the time when the two Compagnacci went on their errand, there was another man who, on the opposite side of the Arno, was also going out into the chill gray twilight. His errand, apparently, could have no relation to theirs; he was making his way to the brink of the river at a spot which, though within the city walls, was overlooked by no dwellings, and which |