It
is usually attributed to Thomas a Kempis but there is reason
to believe that he was merely its translator, and the book that
is really known to be his, (10) is in all respects so inferior,
that it is difficult to believe that 'The Imitation' proceeded
from the same pen. It is considered more probable that the
real author was John Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris,
a most learned and devout man, who died in 1429.
Some of the greatest men of genius have had the shortest
biographies. Of Plato, one of the great fathers of moral
philosophy, we have no personal account. If he had wife and
children, we hear nothing of them. About the life of Aristotle
there is the greatest diversity of opinion. One says he was a
Jew; another, that he only got his information from a Jew: one
says he kept an apothecary's shop; another, that he was only the
son of a physician: one alleges that he was an atheist; another,
that he was a Trinitarian, and so forth. But we know almost as
little with respect to many men of comparatively modern times.
Thus, how little do we know of the lives of Spenser, author of
'The Faerie Queen,' and of Butler, the author of 'Hudibras,'
beyond the fact that they lived in comparative obscurity, and died
in extreme poverty! How little, comparatively, do we know of the
life of Jeremy Taylor, the golden preacher, of whom we should like
to have known so much!
The author of 'Philip Van Artevelde' has said that "the world
knows nothing of its greatest men.
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