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Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks. It was founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The ...
Historical novelist, born in London; wrote as many as a hundred novels, beginning with "Richelieu" in 1829, which brought him popularity, profit, and honor; was burlesqued by Thackeray (1801-1860).
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Horace Walpole's name for Oliver Goldsmith, an English man of letters, born at Pallas or Pallasmore, co. Longford, Ireland, and celebrated in English literature as the author of the "Vicar of Wakefield"; a born genius, but of careless ways, and could not be trained to any profession, either in the Church, in law, or in medicine, though more or less booked for all three in succession; set out on travel on the Continent without a penny, and supported himself by his flute and other unknown means; came to London, tried teaching, then literature, doing hack-work, his first work in that department being "An Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe," which was succeeded by his "Citizen of the World"; became a member of the "Literary Club," and associated with Johnson, Reynolds, Burke, and others; produced poems, "The Traveller" and the "Deserted Village," besides comedies, such as "She Stoops to Conquer"; lived extravagantly, and died in debt; wrote histories of Greece and Rome, and "Animated Nature"; was a charming writer (1728-1774).
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Hungarian dramatist, brother of the following, was founder of the national drama, and with his brother ranks high in the literature of the country (1788-1830).
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Hungarian patriot, born near Zemplen; studied for his father's profession, the law, but giving that up for politics, became editor of several Liberal papers in succession; elected member of the Diet at Pesth in 1847, he next year demanded autonomy for Hungary, and set himself to drive out the Hapsburgs and establish a republic; he raised a large army and large funds, but Russia aided Austria, and the struggle, though hopeful at first, proved in vain, defeated at Temesvar and escaping to Turkey, he came to England in 1851, was enthusiastically received, and lived there for many years; ultimately he resided in Turin, studied science, and died there (1802 or 1806-1894).
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Illustrious astronomer, born at Weil der Stadt, Wurtemberg, born in poverty; studied at Tubingen chiefly mathematics and astronomy, became lecturer on these subjects at Gratz; joined Tycho Brahé at Prague as assistant, who obtained a pension of £18 for him from the Austrian government, which was never paid; removed to Lintz, where Sir Henry Wotton saw him living in a camera obscura tent doing ingenious things, photographing the heavens, "inventing toys, writing almanacs, and being ill off for cash ... an ingenious person, if there ever was one among Adam's posterity ... busy discovering the system of the world—grandest conquest ever made, or to be made," adds Carlyle, "by the sons of Adam"; he was long occupied in studying the "'motions of the star' Mars, with calculations repeated seventy times, and with the discovery of the planetary laws of the Universe"; these last are called from his discovery of them Kepler's Laws; the first, that the planets move on elliptic orbits, the sun in one of the foci; the second, that, in describing its orbit, the radius vector of a planet traverses equal areas in equal times; and the third, that the square of the time of the revolution of a planet is proportional to the cube of its mean distance from the sun; poverty pursued Kepler all his days, and he died of fever at Ratisbon (1571-1630).
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Important seaport in the N. of Chili; exports nitrates, iodine, and silver.
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Important town in Little Russia, 350 m. NE. of Odessa; has immense horse and wool fairs, and manufactures sugar, soap, felt, and iron; it is a Greek bishopric, a university seat, and has various schools of learning.
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In ancient times this name was given to the northern slopes of the Taurus in Asia Minor, what is now Karamania; the Isaurians were a wild, savage people; from the 1st to the 4th centuries they were the terror of neighbouring States, and gave Rome herself considerable trouble; but from the 5th century they disappear from history.
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In Bechuanaland, 140 m. NW. of Kimberley; is the place where Livingstone and Moffat labored.
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In Durham, on the Tyne, 7 m. below Newcastle; is a coal-shipping port, and has extensive shipbuilding and iron manufactures; in ancient times its monastery was made famous by the Venerable Bede.
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