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    as we persist in solving the problems of our infimcyi it is idle to reject the w « V » e method which our youngimagination applied to them , and which alone suit their ¦ nature . , . . . Atheists may therefore be regarded as the most inconsequent' 6 f theologians , since they attempt the same problems while rejecting the only suitable method . " That passage is sixrely ea ^ p Ucit enough , if nothing else . I quoted it , less to . remove amisconception current In England , than to anticipate the objection of those who , reading inthe Times and elsewhere that Comte is an atheist , would ask me what I meant by saying he aspired to the character of founder of a new- Religion . That done , I may now address myself to the consideration of his Fundamental Law of Human Evolution .

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    THE LAST DAY . One day , my darling lake beside , In a low reedy marsh I walkt , When swans , like snowy shadows glide , And as with wildering thoughts I talkt , With scornful wail the swans replied . It was a dull still afternoon , No human voice was in the air , Nor warbled note nor whistled tune , Nor shout of one that hath no care , From sunrise till eve ' s mellow moon . The reeds stood round me , stiff and lank , The green-gold beetle on a stone Lay motionless , and rank on rank , m Red hips and ruby berries shone , Yet shook not on their mossy bank . The elm trees crost their arms ofv green , And stood erect , like men resigned To see what never should be seen , And bear their fate with equal mind , Both what will be , and what hath been . There were no shadows in the grass , a No spots of brightness near the trees . No birds to pass me or repass ; - There was no motion , was no breeze : ~ All lifeless stretcht the whole morass . Dense , grey , and" sullen o ' er me spread The low near level of the sky , No cloud was sailing overhead ; But here and there I saw on high , Blue breaks , yet blue of greenish dye . There was a smell of mild decay . Of withering fragrance , mouldering wood , But how or whence it came that way I know not ; in my strange wild mood I did not know the hour of day . To me it seemed there were no hours , Was neither After nor Before , Were neither men nor heavenly powers , And never would be any more , That Qod was dead , and all was o ' er . It was the last , last day I thought , Here ended all our bliss and pain , What God and man had wrought was wrought , And nothing could be changed again , Nothing be either lost or sought . All is eternal now , I said . , The swans Will ever wail and scream , The flat grey Bky still o ' er me spread ; And life , One fixed and endless dream , Shall bring no change to heart or head . M .

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    VIVIAN AT THE EASTER PIECES . ^ hbistmas and Eastbb are two terrible periods in my existence , simply * rom the surfeit of dramatic attraction . Consider ! I have but one pair of ^ yes , and there are but four evenings in the week available . Now , if you iiave " worked with your pencil and slate , Master Thomas , " you can calculate the possibility of my seeing ten or eleven Easter pieces , not , to mention operas and French plays , in four nights ! I have to make a cuoico , and that % invidious , so that , on the whole , I find myself not going a nywhere . My favourite theatre , the Lyceum , terrified me byi announcing u < lHHnatie story in eight acts . In eight acts ! why not in eighty P I eouidn t in cold blood be asked to assist at that , untu I knew whether the ® jgnt acts were amusing ; and as the authorship was whispered to bo •? v me <* ty my intimate enemy , Slingsby Lawrence , X preferred sending either my critique blond , the Screech Owl ( Le Chat-Meant ) , or the majestio Z . ; because , if I abused thepiece , it would be supposed that I was moved by " personal motives . " 33 y the way , how strange it is that one is never abused by a critic , but one always knows " the motive I" No work ib abused on account of iia badness , but on account of the " envy , "

    or " enmity , " of the critic 1 Talking of critics , tiiere was a passage in one of the daily papers which made me almost burn my pen , and quit the profession in despan * : it was the ut de poitrine of our aortr / Die wnter had to mention the performance of the Merchant of Venice , at the Olympic , and this brilliant phrase escaped him-- * ' This play ( like iaosfc of the works of this gifted author ) is too well known to need any lengthened , criticism . " Shakspeare has come to this complexion at last ! He . is , > a ¦ •* gifted author !? a " talented dramatist , " perhaps ? O swan 1 O bard of

    Avon ! O great" Williams ! { that phrase belongs to Eugene Sue ) , hotr your Shade must tremble with delight as it glides through the world of Hades , and catches faint echoes of our chorus of admiration , a chorus with , climbing crescendo bursting into the " gifted author ! " After reading" that passage , I felt that criticism must become tame and spiritless in comparison : and instead of harassing my " brain b y vain efforts to achieve new comhinations in our beautiful language , I had immediate recourse to my Christian Fathers , and in their vellum folios found a solace and abontotot , which / if it were not in Greek , I would quote .

    You see how I " dally with the faint surmise , " and shrink from coming to the Easter pieces—as I shrunk from going to them . So it is ! I haven't seen the pieces , and yet I must swagger in critical confidence , and make you admire the acumen , the profundity , the all-embracing knowledge , the all-encompassing sympathy of your " gifted friend , " the > " talented Vivian . " I must tell you all about Tom Taylor ' s fairy tale at the PEitfCESs ' s , which will give me a fine opportunity for displaying any erudition I may have on the subject of German fairy lore , and tfieir grim collector , ( and if I have none , which may be the case , there is still open to me the resource of Mr . Potts ' s immortal contributor on Chinese Metaphysics , who " read up for it under the heads of C , for China , and JS / L , for Metaphysics , and combined his information , sir I" ) moreover , there is some do all

    of Tom ' s happy verse , and Herr Stopel ' s pleasant music . But to this I must see the piece . The same condition is affixed to the treatment of the Haymabket burlesque upon the Capsicum Brothers , and to the drama , at the Adelphi , wherein IVfos . Keeley ( incomparable actress !) plays the Queen of the Market . At Sadlebs Wells there is no Easter piece , but what isbetter—John Saville of Haysted , Mr . White's best play , and one of Phelps ' s finest parts . Mr . Phelps is now the only steady supporter of the " legitimate" drama , and he finds it answer his purpose ; could he but secure a theatre westward he would make a fortune , for he has all the qualities which ensure managerial success . Dbttby Lane has happily not ventured on an Easter piece ; " a novelty ? JTi done / for whom do yau take me P Am I to produce new pieces jwhile there are any worn out pieces shabby enough to warrant revival P for you observe it is with pieces as with coats—the " reviver , " the glossy charm is only applied when

    the seams show white ! So reasons the enterpriser . Instead of an Easter pieee , he offers the . public a " decisive reduction of prices . " I think the reduction will be decisive . The Mabionet * es are still in full vigour . The trotibles and exasperations which beset a legitimate dramatist at the rehearsal of his play , are illustrated , I am told , in a most ludicrous and side-shaking style , by one of the brightest of our gay writers ; and Aladdin is a gorgeous spectacle . Finally , the Olympic not only holds out to me the attraction of " the gifted author , " but a burlesque * The Camberwell Brothers , or The Mystic Milkman , with Compton as JJranky . At tie Fben . ch Plays we have had to welcome Kegnier , the admirable actor ; Lafont , who reappears before an audience thoroughly devoted to him ; Mdlle . Denain , of the Francois , and Mdlle . Marquet . Of them you shall hear next week .

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    THE OPERAS . The great talk of £ he operatic town is the pending quarrel , law suit , or whatever shape it may take , about Joanna Wagner , claimed by both houses , as Jenny Lind was claimed by Bunn and Lumley . Apart from thafc there has been little interest . Angri has made her dSbut at Heb Majesty ' s in Bossini ' s charming opera , L'ltaliana in Algieri , and produced a decided impression by the dash and bravura of her acting and singing , Belletti , an excellent singer , with- a metallic but agreeable voice , appeared as Mustapha ; and the impudent Ferranti , who assumes all the airs of a great singer , if he does not sing them , played Taddeo . Now Easter is over , we may expect the operas to put forth all their attractions in good earnest . Hitherto they have not been attractive . At the Royal Italian , Donizetti ' s opera , I Martiri , has been deferred , : 4 . * n ^ , « A i , « ™ / i ^/> nn « f T \ i-mViaiOilr fill -ruwf . wpaV . On Tlrursdftv

    we had Ghtillaume Tell ; and this evening , Signor Galvani ( who , if his name means anything , ought to " produce a sensation , " ) makes himself known to us as Mlvino to Castellan ' s Sonnambula . Vivian .

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    A CHAIN OF EVENTS . The new drama at the Lyceum is , no doubt , an innovation on the conventional usages of the theatre , but it is justified both by the canona of art and by the test of succesB . That a drama should be " in eight acts " sounds like a wonderment ; but if the story is naturally divisible into eight actions , the acts are but fitting . And it is a division which enables every scene in an eventful tale to be a " set" scene , with a marvellous increase to the illusion . Such reality aa we have known to be attained at other housos , in the principal points of the drama , with isolated eiTorts > is here attained throughout the piece without any effort at all .

    The first act -or scene discloses to you the distresses ojt a nobleman in disgrace , who is obliged to fly from Paris , but is accidentall y killed in a fire . In the meanwhile ,, a rascally lawyer has been abstracting the nobleman ' s will by a ruse on the commissary of police , and sets out to find a market for it in San Domingo . # The next act is a shipwreck : a ship dashes wildly on the rooks in tne foreground—tho rocks of San Domingo : the vessel heaves and toeses on the tempestuous billows , striked , and sinks bodily . The sailors that oling to her hull and spars are evidently no cockneys , or they would not display , in that tremendous storm , such excellent sea stomachs . They are all lost , save the lawyer and a young fellow-paasenger whom he drags exhausted from the very jawu of death to the craggy » hore .

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    Afbii , 17 ^ 1852 j TMm % mAU ^ - ^ 7

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 17, 1852, page 377, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1931/page/21/