DELILLE, or DE LILLE, JACQUES, a French didactic poet, born at Aigueperse, Puy-de-Dome, June 22, 1738; died in Paris, May 1, 1813. He was educated in Paris, and became Professor of the Humanities at the College of Amiens. In 1769 he published a translation of the Georgics of Virgil, with which Voltaire was so well pleased that he recommended Delille to the French Academy, to which he was admitted in 1774. His next poem, The Gardens (1780), was received with great favor, and has been translated into several languages. Previous to the Revolution Delille was a professor of belles-lettres in the University of Paris, and of Latin poetry in the College of France. In 1789 he lost his property. His name was put upon the list of the proscribed, but was effaced, it is said, at the request of a workman, a mason, who begged his blood-thirsty colleagues not to kill all the poets; it might be well to preserve some of them, "if only to celebrate our victories." In 1793, when it was decided to reinstate a belief in the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul, Delille was appointed by Robespierre to celebrate those subjects in verse. The poet appeared before the President with the following verses: "O ye who seize the thunders of Olympus, Ye cowards, of the earth the base oppressors, O ye who suffer, victims of oppression, "That is well," said Robespierre to the poet, who expected punishment; "the time, however, has not come for the publication of these verses. You will be apprised of a suitable day." No message came; the silence was ominous; Delille withdrew from Paris to Saint Dié, and after the lapse of a year to Basel. He did not return to France until 1801. He had published in 1800 L'Homme des Champs. In 1803 he put forth another poem, Malheur et Petié, in 1804 a translation of the Eneid into French verse, and in 1805 a translation of Paradise Lost. His Æneid is regarded as the best French version of that poem. In the Paradise Lost he sacrificed many a beauty to the thraldom of rhyming verse, and gave Milton credit for sentiments not to be found in the English poem. In 1806 he published Imagination, a poem containing many beauties; in 1808 The Three Kingdoms of Nature, and in 1812 La Conversation. TO THE SEA. And thou, dread sea, tempestuous abode, What son of man can drain the exhaustless source? Thy might and thine immensity I sing : Have I thy wealth, thy fruitfulness, half told? Those countless nations, fluctuating hosts, Like thy vast billows ever newly born? Thine opulent bed encloses in its breast DE MILLE, JAMES, a Canadian novelist, born at St. John, New Brunswick, in August, 1837; died at Halifax, Nova Scotia, January 28, 1880. In 1860 he went to Acadia College as Professor of the Classical Languages, and retained this position until 1865, when he became Professor of History and Rhetoric in Dalhousie College, Halifax, where he remained until his death. He published Helena's Household, a Tale of Rome in the First Century (1858); The Dodge Club, a story of a party of Americans travelling in Italy (1866); Cord and Creese, or the Brandon Myth (1869); The Lady of the Ice (1870); The Cryptogram and A Comedy of Terrors (1871); The American Baron (1872); An Open Question (1873); Babes in the Wood (1874), and The Living Link. He also published two series of stories for boys, among which are The Boys of Grand Pre School, Lost in the Fog, Fire in the Woods, Picked Up Adrift, Among the Brigands, The Seven Hills of Rome, and The Winged Lion, or Stories of Venice. ARRIVAL IN NAPLES. At last their voyage ended, and they entered the harbor of Naples. Glorious Naples Naples the captivating! "Veda Napoli, e poi mori!" There was the Bay of Naples-the matchless, the peerless, the indescribable! there the rock of Ischia, the isle of Capri; there the slopes of Sorrento, where never-ending spring abides; there the long sweep of Naples and her sister cities; there Vesuvius, with its thin volume of smoke floating like a pennon in the air! About forty or fifty lazaroni surrounded the Dodge Club when they landed, but to their intense disgust the latter ignored them altogether, and carried their own umbrellas and carpet-bags. But the lazaroni revenged themselves. As the Doctor stooped to pick up his cane, which had fallen, a number of articles dropped from his breast-pocket, and among them was a revolver, a thing which was tabooed in Naples. A ragged rascal eagerly snatched it and handed it to a gendarm, and it was only after paying a piastre that the Doctor was permitted to retain it. Even after the travellers had started off on foot in search of lodgings the lazaroni did not desert them. Ten of them followed everywhere. At intervals they respectfully offered to carry their baggage, or show them to a hotel, whichever was most agreeable to their Noble Excellencies. Their Noble Excellencies were in despair. At length, stumbling upon the Café dell' Europa, they rushed in, and passed three hours over their breakfast. This done, they congratulated themselves on having got rid of their followers. In vain! Scarcely had they emerged from the café than Dick uttered a cry of horror. From behind a corner advanced their ten friends, with the same calm demeanor, the same unruffled and even cheerful patience, and the same respectful offer of their humble services.-The Dodge Club. THE GROTTO OF THE SIBYL. It was in this neighborhood that they found the Grotto of the Cumaan Sibyl. They followed the intelligent cicerone, armed with torches, into a gloomy tunnel. The intelligent cicerone walked before them with the air of one who had something to show. Seven stout peasants followed after. The cavern was as dark as possible, and extended apparently for an endless distance. After walking a distance of about two miles, according to the Senator's calculation, they came to the centre of interest. It was a hole in the wall of the tunnel. The Americans were given to understand that they must enter here. "But how?" |