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TVen the common people took to gay-coloured dresses as before ; and a freedom of oirits > r endered familiar % early recollection , and only half subdued by Presbvterian persecution , was confirmed by a licence of tongue which the young men bout court had acquired while in exile with their sovereign . « Not the least striking effect of the restoration of the King was the revival of the English theatres . They had been closed and the players silenced for three-and-twenty vearW and in that space a new generation had arisen , to whom the entertainments of the stages were known but by name . The theatres were now re-opened , and with every advantage which stage properties , new and improved scenery , and the co stliest dresses , could lend to help them forward . But there were other advantages equally new , and of still greater importance , but for which the name of Eleanor Gwyn would in all likelihood never have reached us .
« From the earliest epoch of the stage in England till the theatres were silenced at the outbreak of the Civil War , female characters had invariably been played by men , and during the same brilliant period of our dramatic history there is but one instance of a sovereign , witnessing a performance at a public theatre . Henrietta Mar ia » though so great a favourer of theatrical exhibitions , was present once , and once only , at the theatre in the Blackfriars . The plays of Shakespeare and Ben 1 Which so did * take Eliza and our James /
were invariably seea by those sovereigns , as afterwards by Charles I ., in the halls , "banqueting houses , and cockpits attached to their palaces . With the ^ Restoration came women on the stage , and the King and Queen , the Dukes of York and Buckingham , the chief courtiers , and the maids of honour , were among the constant frequen ters of the public theatres . " Nelly became an actress * a pet of the town , and the mistress of Lord Buckhurst ; the details of which , with much else that is curious , you must seek in the volume before us , Here is one we will introduce for its
piquancy : — « The citizens of London were hated by the players . They had successfully opposed them in all their early attempts in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I . to erect a theatre within the jurisdiction of the city ; and at no time had they ever encouraged t he drama by their presence . The poets arid actors lived by the King and court , while they repaid their opponents and gratified the courtiers by holding up every citizen as a cuckold and a fool . So long was this feeling perpetuated on the stage ( it still lives in our literature ) , that Garrick , in his endeavour to supplant the usual performance of the * London Cuckolds / on the 9 th of November ( Lord Mayor ' s day ) , was reduced to play first to a noisy and next to an empty house . "
How she passed from Lord Bucthurst to the King is also told ; and the introduction of Charles upon the scene gives the author an occasion for sketching- his character , and collecting together his " sayings . " The orange-girl had become a mother ^—mother of the Duke , of St . Albahs , and her behaviour in this position has won universal praise . " There is no reason to suspect that either Nelly or Louise was ever unfaithful to the light-hearteA , King , or that Charles did not appreciate the fidelity of his mistresses . The people ( it was an age of confirmed immorality ) rather rejoiced than otherwise at their sovereign ' s loose and disorderly life . Nelly became the idol of ' the town / and was known far and near as the Protestant Mistress ; while Mrs . Carwell , or the Duchess of Portsmouth as she had now become , was hated by the
people , and was known , wherever Nelly was known , as the Popish Mistress . It is this contrast of position which has given to Nell Gwyn much of the odd and particular favour connected with her name . Nelly was an English girl—of humble origin—a favourite actress—a beauty , and a wit . The Duchess was a foreignerof noble origin—with beauty certainly , but without wit ; and , worse still , sufficiently suspected to be little better than a pensioner from France , sent to enslave the English King and the English nation . " But the King died ; her reign ceased ; and in her thirty-eighth year this loving , joyous Nelly died of apoplexy . . . To Peter CunninghaTnXbook we refer the curious reader . It is lull ol agreeable antiquarian prattoeiLandJjrmgs the period before us in a style seldom achieved by antiquaries . > ^
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^ BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . The Suitor ' s County Court Guide . By W . W . Charnock . ° . Mitchell . We sincerely hopo none of our readers will have any need of the information so clearl y and carefully compiled for them in this little Hand-book to the County Court ; but should they need it , hero it is , compact , c lear , detailed , nmple . AH necessary directions for the recovery of debts , damages , &c ., with the forms to bo used , and the amounts of the fees ( ugly sound !) payable on such occasions . Mr . Charnock is a County Court Attorney , and teaches us how to do without tarn . The Emphatic Neto Testament , according to the ^^ ^ ^ ° XS ^\^ the Various Readings of the Vatican MS . The Four GosdoIb . fcditoA with an Essay on Greek Eufphi , by John Taylor , Author tf « £ ^« ^^^^ Although somewhat beyond our competence—our jurisdiction not extending ; to Geology when it traverses the limit of Philosophy-we wiH not withhoId our verdic t o n this extremely ingenious and curious work , whoroin the subtle authorot ***** Identified , han endeavoured to restore to the English tort of the Gospe s « r tain peculiarities of oxpresmon noticeable in the Greek text , which arc not ; witliy t their significance as ' affecting the meaning of the text In tl y xecuo «* cleaign , Mr . Taylor has undertaken a most laborious collation of toxte an V the introductory essay ho has enabled the unlearned reader to follow hm ? »« imth . It is a curious book : to tho theologian both » suggestive and usoftd hook . . . OH *** Boot * . . ' „ Addv « dOo . ?» was „„ oxcollont idcft to Wng out a collection of Grimm ' s fouMd Stone , m shilli ng : ports , « oli part complete in itself ; and Moem ^ "jj" ^ J ^ ? r ^^ ^ asr : ;^ : & £ ^^™ sx % ^ utiZZ ^ lFJ ^ stones and useful information .
TJie Ttoo Books of FrancisBacon : of the Brqficience and Advancement of Learning Divine and Human . J . W . Parker and Son . Bacon ' s immortal treatise on the Advancement of Learning has here for the first time been properly edited : the text is carefully collated , the numerous quotations which vary it have their precise reference added in foot-notes , and the contents of each page are indicated by headings . In Bacon ' time it was thought sufficient to quote , without always indicating the source of the quotation ; the present editor has undertaken to supply the deficiency . The volume is compact , useful , and very cheap . . ' ¦"¦ ¦¦ • A Stroll through the Diggings of California . By W . Kelly , Esq . { The Bookcase . ) Simms and M'Jntyre . Thottgh forming a separate work in itself , this is really the continuation of Kelly ' s Side Across the Rocky Mountains , and is perhaps the most interesting account of the Diggings that has yet been published .
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We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourage itself . —Goethe .
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COMTE'S POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY . By G . H . Lewes . Part XI . —General considerations on Chemistry * With Chemistry we enter upon a science where the complexity of phenomena is greatly augmented , and where the nature of the phenomena are so sharply defined by peculiarities as to seem the result of essentially different forces , although , profoundly considered , there is no further difference than the variety of direction of the forces . Physics treats of Masses acting ar sensible distances ; Chemistry of Molecules acting at insensible distances . The Telescope and the Microscope are not more obviously separated , not more identical . Indeed , that conception of the German philosopher , which illustrates the chemical atom , by a sort of microscopic exaggeration , into the analogue of a planet , has deep meaning in it . He compares the atoms to the heavenly bodies , which are in truth but atoms in infinite space . Innumerable suns , with their planets and satellites , move at definite distances from each other , as the atoms of terrestrial masses do . The Methods in which these masses move , Science attempts to ascertain ; but in Astronomy we speak of Motion , in Chemistry of Combination : both are but Methods of the unknown unknowable Force , the variety of whose directions constitutes the variety of all phenomena . I am only hinting here at a conception which hereafter will find its application ; and hint it that the reader may follow out this long chain of scientific evolution with some sense of continuity , and of the grand unity of Nature . Having done so , let me open Comte ' s third volume , the first half of which is ( levoted to Chemistry . He commences by remarking how the science of Chemistry is less advanced in its progress and more wanting in positivism than the other parts of inorganic physics . This is owing to its greater complexity , and to tho fact that when the phenomena are intense in action they bear a striking resemblance to those of life , to which it is the very spirit of the Theological and Metaphysical philosophies to assimilate all phenomena . Chemistry labours also under this disadvantage , that a knowledge of its most important phenomena is only obtained by artificial means far from self-evident ; while those chemical phenomena spontaneously presented to observation , such as fermentation , arc the most complicated , and the last in the science to be analyzed . And , first , as to its definition . The general character of its phenomena distinguishes Chemistry very distinctly from Physics and Physiology , between which it stands . A comparison of the three makes the real nature of this science very apparent . The ensemble of the three sciences can be conceiv ed as having for its object the Btudy of the molecular activity of matter in all the different modes of which it is susceptible . Now , under this point of view , each of them corresponds to one of tho three principal and successive degrees of activity , which arc distinguished from each other
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The Italian Captain : a Drama . E . S . Ebers and Go . Chambers' * locket Miscellany . W . S . Orr and Co . Blacicwood ' t Edinburgh Magazine . W . Blackwood and Son . Mr . Sponge ' s Sporting Tour . Part VI . Bradbury and Evans . Writings of Douglas Jerrold—Cakes and Ale . Parti . Punch Office . The Bookcase—A Stroll through the Diggings of California . By W . Kelly . Part IV . Simms and M'Intyre . The Parlour Library—Forest Days . By G , P . B . James . Simms and M'lntyre . Bentley ' s Miscellany . K , Bentley . A Theory of Population . By H . Spencer . John Chapman . Latoson ' s Merchants' Magazine . K . Hastings . Witchcraft : a Tragedy . By C . Mathews . David Bogue . The JReasoner . Part LXXIV . J . Watson . Eraser ' s Magazine . 3 . W . Parker and Son . The British Journal . Aylott and Jones . Colbtim ' s United Service Magazine . Colburn . and Co . The Catacombs of Borne . By C . Macfarlane . George Eputledge . A Lifeof Marlborovgh . By C . Macfarlane . George Rputledge . The Biographical Mitqazine . Part VI . J . Passmore Edwards . Penny Maps . Part XXIII . Chapman and Hall . Tait's Edinburgh Magazine . Partridge and Oakey . The Charm . Part II . Addey and Co . The Valiant Little Tailor . Part II . Addey and Co . The Picture Pleasure Book . Part II . Addey and Co . Great Britain One Empire . By Captain M . H . Svnge . J . W . Parker and Son . Life of Napoleon Buonaparte . By W . Hazlitt . Vol . II . Illustrated Library . The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs . Illustrated Library . Life of Gilbert Arnold . By 8 . Earle . »• Bentley . CwneiUe and his Times . By M . Gidzot . K . Bentley . Hungary in 1851 . By C . L . Brace . ,, ^ E . Bentlfiy .. Why do the Clergy avoid Discussion , and the Philosophers diteountenance % t ? By G . J . Holyoake . Vol . II . ofthe Cabinet of Season . J . Watson .
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Jpite 12 > 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 567
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Leader (1850-1860), June 12, 1852, page 567, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1939/page/19/
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