The Press. — London, England, 1855-10-27 00:00:00

1030 which trial turned out white and polished in a way that caused me such joy as made me think I was become a new creature ; and I thought that from that time I had the full perfection of the white enamel, but I was very far from having what I thought. This trial was a very happy one in one sense, but very unhappy in another—happy, be cause it gave me entrance upon the ground which I have since gained ; but unhappy, because it was not made with substances in the right measure or proportion. I was so great an ass in those days, that directly I had made the said enamel, which was singularly beautiful, I set myself to make vessels of earth, although I had never understood earths ; and having employed the space of seven or eight months in making the said vessels, I began to erect for myself a furnace like that of the glass-workers, which I built with more labour than I can tell ; for it was requisite that I should be the mason to myself, that I should temper my own mortar, that 1 should draw the water with which it was tempered ; also it was requisite that I should go myself to seek the bricks and carry them upon my back, because I had no means to pay a single man for aid in this affair. I succeeded with my pots in the first baking, but when it came to the second baking, I endured suffering and labour such as no man would believe. For, instead of reposing after my past toil, I was obliged to work for the space of more than a month, night and day, to grind the materials of which I had made that beau tiful enamel at the glass furnace ; and when 1 had ground them, I covered therewith the vessels that I had made. This done, I put the fire into my furnace by two mouths, as I had seen done at the glass-houses ; I also put my vessels into the furnace to bake and melt the enamel which I had spread over them ; but it was an unhappy thing for me, for though I spent six days and six nights before the said furnace, feeding it with wood incessantly through its two mouths, it was not possible to make the said enamel melt, and I was like a man in desperation. And although quite stupified with labour I cuuncilled to myself, that in my enamel there might be too little of the substance which should make the others melt, and, seeing this, I began once more to pound and grind the before-named materials, all the time without letting my furnace cool In this way 1 had double labour, to pound, grind, and maintain the fire. When I had thus compounded my enamel, I was forced to go again and purchase pots, in order to prove the said compound, seeing that I had lost all the vessels which I had made myself. And having covered the new pieces with the said enamel, I put them into the furnace, keep ing the fire still at its height ; but thereupon occurred to me a new misfortune, which caused great mortification — namely, that the wood having failed me, I was forced to burn the palings which maintained the boundaries of my garden, which being burnt also, I was forced to burn the tables and the flooring of my house to cause the melting of the second composition. I suffered an anguish that I cannot speak, for I was quite exhausted and dried up by the heat of the furnace. It was more than a month since my shirt had been dry upon me. Further to console me I was the object of mockery, and even those from whom solace was due ran crying through the town that I was burning my floors! And in this way my credit was taken from me, and I was regarded as a madman. For years he continued his labours with littl e success : ---- - While labouring at such affairs, I was, for the space of ten years, so wasted in my person, that there was no form nor prominence of muscle on my arms or legs : also the said legs were throughout of one size, so that the garters with which I tied my stockings were at once, when I walked, down upon my heels, with the stockings too. I often walked about the fields of Xaintes considering my miseries and weariness, and, above all things, that in my owu house I could have no peace, nor do anything that was considered good. I was despised and mocked by all. But at length, with incredible pains, he sue ceededin bringing his work to perfection. His ware was patronised by many noble and wealthy persons, by the Constable Montmo renci, among others ; and subsequently he removed to Paris to superintend some works in the gardens of the Tuileries, leaving his pottery at Saintes to the care of his sons. They wanted the artistic skill of their father, however, and the manufacture soon perished. At Paris Palissy gained great reputation, and for several years lectured on natural his tory to distinguished audiences. Mr. Morley, in his narrative, quoting from contemporary authority, says : The philosopher, vigorous of mind and body, at the age of sixty-six exhibited no trace of bodily decay ; he was still noted, nine years afterwards, for his remarkably acute and ready wit ; and his age, when it was seventy•tive, seemed little more than sixty. The vigorous old man, passing from the furnace and the chamber in which shelves and tables were resplendent with the rich creations of his fancy, went into his cabinet, and poured out the lessons he had learned by the roadsides, by the seashore, and among the mountains, before a grave assemblage of men, paled by study, or grown grey with years The motto prefixed to this volume explains the nature of Palissy's teaching, and shows the character of the man : Je n'ai point en d'autre liure le ciel et la terre, lequel est conneu de tour, et est donne a tons de connoistre et lire ce beau litire.--PAussy. As a natural philosopher he bears some re semblance to Lord Bacon. Like him, he based all his teaching on observation and experi ment ; and, like him, had a great fancy for magnificent gardens. THE PRESS. With the simplicity of Palissy there was mingled great shrewdness. In that one of his books from which we have quoted he represents himself as " Practice " pressed by " Theory " to discover his art of manufacture. Though, he replies, he were to employ a thousand reams of paper to write out all his accidents, yet Theory would have much to learn for himself ; but, being further pressed, he pretends that he will comply. When, however, he has detailed his mischances, and explained the general principles on which he worked, he shrewdly adds : The errors I committed in mixing the proportions of my enamels, gave me knowledge of more than of what things were not suitable. Therefore, I am of opinion that you should work to find the said proportions as I have done, otherwise you will have science too cheap, and perhaps that may cause you to despise it; for I know well that there are no people in the world who give easy bargains of their mysteries and their arts, excepting those who got them at almost no cost ; but they who have practised them through great expense and toil do not part with them so lightly. The troubles of the period did not spare Palissy. He made little secret of his Hugue not opinions, yet was protected by the power of his patrons. But, under Henry 111., Palissy, then "an old man of seventy•six, " still teaching philosophy, and still superin " tending his workshop in the abandoned " palace of the Tuileries," was accused as a heretic and sent to the Bastille. Two fair girls of good station shared his captivity. The King was desirous to spare the Potter, and had this discourse with him : " My good man," said the King, " you have been forty five years in the service of the Queen my mother, or fn mine, and we have suffered you to live in your own reli gion, amidst all the executions and massacres. Now,how ever, I am so pressed by the Guise party and my people, that I have been compelled in spite of myself to imprison these two poor women and you ; they are to be burnt to morrow, and you also, if you will not be converted." " Sire," answered the old man," the Count de Maulevrier came yesterday, on your part, promising life to these two sisters, if they would each give you a night. They replied that they would now be martyrs for their own honour, as well as for the honour of God. You have said several times that you feel pity for me ; but it is I who pity you, who have said lam compelled.' That is not speaking like a king. These girls and I, who have part in the kingdom of heaven, we will teach you to talk royally. The Guisarta, all your people, and yourself, cannot compel a potter to bow down to images of clay." The girls were burnt a few months after wards, and Palissy died in confinement. The extracts from Palissy's works would alone make this an excellent library book. Mr. Morley's narrative is, besides, carefully compiled, though, we think, in parts, too ambitious. The dissertations on manners interfere too much with the biographical sketch, and might have been better thrown into an appendix, as the reader, anxious for the personal history of Palissy, is impatient at meeting with so many checks. But the episodes are useful, as revealing the character of the times in which the Potter's life was cast. How curious are some of the glimpses we catch here of the social state of France in the middle of the sixteenth century. "It is a " common thing to see men lying dead of " want by the roadside," says a writer of that day ; and we, who fancy that adulteration is a vice of modern society, may learn better from a fragment of Palissy's experience : Of the trader he desires to know what he has put into his pepper, that enables him to buy it in Rochelle at thirty-five sole the pound, and to make a great profit by selling it again in the fair of Niord at seventeen sole, " in consequence of the adulteration added to the said pepper. Then I asked why he was so foolish and withoutjudgment as to deceive thus wickedly the customers; but, without any shame, this rascal maintained that the folly of which he was guilty was a piece of wisdom ; and I urged upon him then that he was damning himself, and that he could afford better to be poor than damned; but this insensate said that poor men were of no esteem, and that he would not be poor, follow what might : then 1 was constrained to leave him in his folly." In this respect, at least, the world has not much changed during the last three hundred years. The volume is carefully produced, and has the advantage of a good index. COVENT GARDEN.—M. Jullien has announced the commencement of his winter concert campaign on Monday week, the sth of November, at this opera house. SATURDAY, Itst gram. OLYMPIC THEATRE. TLUR theatre, after a thorough renovation of the in tenor, was reopened to the public on Saturday last.. The season commenced with The School for Scandal, the cast being the same as on the night of Mr.. Wigan's last benefit. The performance having been , fully noticed by us on that occasion, we shall say but little at present. A word more of praise is due, how ever, to the fine acting of the manager in the great scene ; the sudden change from intense anxiety, while Joseph is doubtful whether or no Sir Peter has caught a glimpse of Lady Teazle behind the screen, to the forced and almost ghastly merriment which he assumes in inventing the story of the little French milliner, was finely conceived and executed. Mrs. Stirling, too, has improved upon her notion of Lady Teazle's manner, while listening to Joseph's dishonour able insinuations : the country-breeding, which is too simple to see at once whither his advice is tending, was much more strongly marked than before. Most. actresses make Lady Teazle display such a very pal pable intelligence of her situation throughout, that. the scene becomes almost unfit for presentation to a mixed audience. The points of dialogue and situa tion were appreciated throughout by an audience which filled the house as soon as the doors were opened. After the comedy Mr. Robson appeared in a trifle, dignified by the name of a new farce, called Catching a Mermaid. It is of the very slightest materials, and would be unbearably stupid but for the introduction of the " Country Fair," the song which first brought Mr. Robson into notice, and in which he displays, in a most striking manner, his. wonderfully versatile power of imitation. In the spoken supplement the actor introduces, as is usual, different characters among the visitors and perform ers in the lair, identifying himself with each in suc cession, with all the rapidity and accuracy of a ventriloquist : now the anile proprietress of the wax work, with a tart temper and an audible want of palate ; now the hoarse and voluble exhibitor of the peep-show, with that indescribable voice which sounds, as Hood says, " as if it passed over a nutmeg-grater," indicative of hard weather and hollands ; then the child, " with childish treble," screaming out his delight at a first sight of the wonders of the booths, the indignant mother of nine, the old lady inarticulate from swelled face, and the all believing lout who swallows all the lies of the exhibitors, and abuses his more rational and sceptical companion for a" spooley,' feature, voice, gesture, and bearing, contributing to the surprising reality of the ensemble in each charac ter assumed by the actor. It is certainly a most remarkable exhibition of a special faculty rarely possessed (or at least displayed) in such comprehen siveness. PRINCESS'S. A RATHER amusing trifle, called ?Don't Judge from Appearances, was brought out ou Monday, the open ing night. The plot is very simple an old officer has resolved to marry his two nieces, twins, but of entirely opposite dispositions, one sentimental and one sporting, to two young gentlemen, one fast and one a " reading man," of course intending the fast gentleman for the fast lady, and vice versa. Unfor tunately, however, a previous attachment exists be tween the slow lady and the fast gentleman, and the fast lady, on her side, having ridden over the reading man and his pony, and dislocated the gentleman's shoulder, conceives a violent attachment for the in teresting patient, who, again, refuses to take Ins barley-water from any hands but hers. A violent family dispute ensues on the discovery of this game at cross purposes by the uncle ; the hitherto gentle young lady goes into a violent rage, and positively refuses to marry the invalid ; while her sister is sud denly converted into a model of gentleness and for bearance, with a reserve on the subject of her fast lover. Of course everything comes right at last, rather too soon, indeed, fer the piece is unusually short. Miss Leclerq played the fast lady with great fun and spirit, and Mr. Meadows, as a stupid country servant, at whom all the characters in succession " have a slap," metaphorically and literally, created much amusement. The great changing diorama, illustrative of the architecture, costume, and pageantry, of the reign of King Henry VIII., accompanied by extracts from Shakspeare ' s lay of' that title, is still open, and still, we believe, attracts crowds of that extensive class of persons who cannot say, with Hamlet, that they "have that within which passeth show." LYCEUM.—" The tricks and 'changes " which are nightly exhibited at this house by Mr. Anderson, that Wizard of the World, appear to lose nothing in point of attraction. Whether the numerous gifts which he dispenses to the audience have anything to du with his popularity, or whether the Generous British Public, so fond of being taken in, prefer: being mystified with his eyes and ears open, it ti;