Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 099.djvu/291

Rh England could you see such a sight as was presented that night by the streets of Dunkerque, for the English do not understand these things: and if they did, they would not bestow the energy necessary to accomplish them. We spend money upon in-door amusements: the French upon out.

It is asserted that the fireworks cost 8000 francs. The crowd assembled to witness them was immense, and several individuals were rendered insensible by the pressure. They commenced just before nine, and were indeed magnificent. To give an adequate description of them would be impossible. Now, the air would be filled with balls of the most brilliant and varied colours; now, would descend showers of golden rain; now, jets of silver. Ere one device had faded away, its beauties presenting a succession of wonders, ever chancing, another would break forth. Now, would be discovered the letter N, stationary in the midst of revolving stars and prisms of vivid brilliancy; now, as you looked, the letter dissolved itself into E: here, would be shining forth a resplendant crown; there, towering aloft, the Imperial eagle: and the last scene, the "bouquet," rising into the air, and almost seeming to touch the pale stars of hemisphere, was a sight worth having crossed the Channel to see. Never will that night, and its many beauties, be erased from the memory's eye of the amazed and delighted spectators.

May the Emperor and Empress come again to Dunkerque! is the sentence in everybody's mouth: and we heartily echo it. Never mind the money!

versatile—or rather, "comprehensive," to adopt Sir E. Bulwer Lytton's verbal amendment—is the talent which has been manifested,, by Mr. G. H. Lewes. "Je voudrais," once said Voltaire, in his familiar correspondence, "que Newton êut fait des vaudevilles, je l'en estimerais davantage. Celui qui n'a qu'un talent pent être un grand génie; celui qui en a plusieurs est plus aimable." Voltaire would have pronounced the lively author of "Blanche, Rose, and Violet," very aimable. That tale, and "Ranthorpe," are his ventures as a novelist. His play, "The Noble Heart," has elicited tears and plaudits on the stage, nor needs to deprecate reviewal in the closet/ In biography he is recognised by his Life of Robespierre—in criticism, by his "Spanish Drama," and a large miscellany of contributions to the quarterly and weekly press—in metaphysics, by his "Biographical History of Philosophy," by far the best compendium of the kind in the language,