MARY MA G DA LE N E.
THE NORTON plotters having failed to prove any criminal act against Lund MELnouRNE, have been anxious to create the im- pression that his conversation was improper, and that he laboured at any rate to debauch the mind of the lady. For this purpose they refer to the following passage in one of Mrs. NORTON'S letters to—her husband be it remembered.
" Lord Melbourne has lent Me a curious book—Dr. Lardner's Letters ; in which the 1)0etar proves that Nlary 11.1gilalen was the most virtuous of her sex. I have not yet looked at it. ias I do not wish to lose the post to you, but am very curious to sCI! it proved." This passage has been referred to by the Times and other organs of the baffled conspirators, in such a way ns to give the idea that Lord MELnotnizsrE bad recommended to Mrs. NORTON'S perusal an indecent book, or one which went toconfound the dis- tinction between vice and virtue. Now, live minutes' attention to the subject will convince our readers—such of them as are not already acquainted with the portion of Lynn:Nimes Works referrtd to—that the 1). Hoes " Letter is a perfectly innocent produc- tion, which any lady married or unmarried might read with per- fect propriety. The tract is to be found in the Eleventh Volume of A R DNER'S Works, JoiixsoN's edition, published in 1788. It is entitled " Letter to ,Jonas Hanway, esquire : in which some reasons arc assigned why Houses for the reception of Penitent Women, who have been disorderly in their lives, ought not to be called Magda- len Houses." It will be guessed from this title, that the Doctor's object was not to prove that Mary the "sinner" to whom "match was forgiven'' %vas It virtuous woman, but that. she and Mary Magdalene were different persons. And nothing can be more satisfactory than the manner in which he makes out his ease. We Lave not room, nor for the general reader is it necessary, to go at any length into the elaborate argument of the learned anther of the " t'redihility,- to whose storehouse of facts and au- thorities Piere is indebted for the most valuable part of his work on the " Evidences of Christianity." Rut we will refer to the ith chapter of St. Lake's Gospel; a here it is stated that the Mary commonly called Magdalene was "a woman in the city,-- 1, it is, it wuman of :Fain, in which Jesus was sojourning at the time. Bet it is stated in the very next chapter, that after leaving Nein, " he went throughout every city and village preach- Lee : eel then Mary Magdalene, Joanna the wifh of Ilenid's
:,l, :.nil elesanna and many others. mittistered to him " of heir oatiee." This of itself is sullicient to mink the distine-
lien Wl'el1 the Mary who was bid " to go in peace." and the
lady who a hit ether persons of "substance" and d.stiaction ministered to Jesus in his journies.
But Dr. LA oNeot moves by many learned quotations; that Mary Matedalene was not a "woman t f the city" of Nein, but of Magtlala in Galilee— w hence she derived her name; and that site was a person of vvealth and irreproachable chat acler. Besides the twitter of Jesus, there are four Maries owntioned in the New Testtitnr.Ht,—. Mary the sister of Lazarus, Mary the sister of Mari ha, Mai y Matzdale!ne (pronounced in four syllables, the accent ou the penultimate), and Mery the "sinner," who only apps ars on one oreasion, and is then bid "to go io peace: Dr. 1..Aeureex reinforces his opinion by citing the authorities of inte;y Ibeolegians, :mettle whom are MACKNMIIT, GROTIUS, out Ti f.f.EmoNT; but it seems to us that the narrative in St. Gospel alone is sullietent to show that there is Ito ground wlettever for suppoeieg that Mary Abed:dem! was tic sinaer. The crew is almost universal, however ; and it is plain front her latter that Mrs. Noerree had fallen into it.
The " Letter" is writteo in that dry, argumentative, serious, and elabotitte style, by which all Dr. Lotto:es:it's works are cha- racterized. ']'here is not a siiiele expression in it which can raise an itnenw or ir eligimus thought, any more than in the Gospel of Luke itself. The New Testament should be a sealed book to molest newel], if the tart in question can do them any harm.
We Call fancy that it will be said, how came I he subject to be intrudticed at all inta the conversation of Lord MeootollItNE and Mrs. Nolo ON ? Certainly, if people choose, in utter ignorance of the eirctnstances, to say that the topic must have been im- modestly discussed, they cannot be contradicted positively ; but it would be only fair to recollect, that you cannot read a work o t painting, or go into a picture-gallery, without seeing some hill''-dozen Magdalens. So many suspicions have been proved to be unf■ainded with respect to the lady, that surely we may for 01103 indulge in the charitable conjecture, that criticism on a Raphael may have led to a discussion on the identity of Mary Magdalene with the " sinner."
SIMMER EVENING AMUSEMENTS.
WE have been indulging in a few evenings' respite front playgoing this hot weather; managers, out of pure compassion to the public, or per- haps in very despair of getting together crowded audiences, having for a fortnight past considerately forborne to produce arty novelty that could tempt people from bathing and boating, the twilight stroll, or a lounge before an open window with bode.; or music. Covent Garden actually closed altogether last week, out of pure inanition. Even harznAra., who must dream melodramas, was ex- hausted, tutu th, pooh, still more tired; coMedy there was none, and tragedy was nut of scason—/on was not cold enough. At Drury, the house on MALIIIRAN'S nights has overtlowed—with perspiratiom but has had time to get aired with emptiness on the others. We have resisted the fascinations of dirs. White at the Lyceum, laughter- moving dame though she be ; and the Rebel ('hie'llad a half-price set upon his head in vain. The very name of a ballet of action" hats kept us away from the Haymarket —besides, hay-fields are preferable just now. This state of felivity, however, can't last loag : we read our impend- ing doom in large h•tters at the foot of the playbills of the New Strand Theatre, where two Hew pieces are ialvortised for Monday, that almost agitate the diaphragm by anticipation of their eachinnatory effects. Then there are the Fiench Plays at the St. James's: Mademoiselle Pies:sus is just arrived, whew all who aporceiate French acting should see; M. ARN.11. makes his oppt armee: there ell Monday, whim all lovers of mirth trial see; and on Willie sday, (for the benefit of M. FABil:Nr MARS,) JENNY Matron al•ES all 1:110-11 eharacter, which all her admirers—and they are innumerable—meet see. We therefore resign ourselves to the necessity of exchanging glowing sunsets and mild moonrises for the glare of start'-lamps ; whistle of birds, the scent of hay-fields, and the coel shade of trees, for the painted scene, the blare of trombones, and the odours of gas, gunpowder, and gallery exhalations.
By way of preparing ourselves for the change, we repaired to the Colosseum; whose saloons are not so Oppressiye eyrn as a crowded drawing-room, and where Abe Tuostesos's living seettas and groups of ani:nated sculpture, and the ballet on the stage, the juaeler in the open air, and Monsieur SANKSOX—" the wooden l'aganini," as ho is absurdly called—afforded entertainment that cm be enjoyed leisurely and at ease, without fatigue to the senses. This lignum-vi Ire lyre can really boast of tones, hard yet liquid, like those that Menace Boat elicited from his chin. The Wooden ilarmoniema is composed of a few short bits of wood, about the bigness of a broometick, linked together in five rows, of three pieces each, the middle _piece Icing the shortest : these are laid on a table, resting on little bundles of straw, and are played upon with two little plectra, looking like block-lead-pencils. M. SANKSOM per_ forms with surprising expertness. From what substance next will the ingenious strike out sweet sounds? Shall we have the fabled music of Meinnon's statue mimicked in miniature by a ray of sunlight conceit- totted on a marble figure, through the focus of a lens? or a scien- tific concert of marrowbones and cleavers? or an orchestra of "harmonious blacksmiths," beating on bass and tenor anvils, with tuned hammers?
The light and splendour of the interior of the Colosseum are agree- ably varied by the illuminated conservatories ; and though the saloons are not disagreeably warm, it is a welcome change to the moist atmo- sphere freshened by the fountain, and the cool air out of doors, on the plank-built promenades and staircases among the plantations outside, where the moonlight is put out of countenance by the gas sunflower beacon held forth by the canvas colossus, and the Harlequin hues of the transparent pagodas. IlaAtiAst might make the Colosseum a Bane- lagh and Vauxhall in one, by tunnelling under the road through the Park, and filling JENKINS'S gardens with full-grown trees, transplanted by the new process, fur illuminated groves. and a screen for fireworks. Some such plan as this was talked about at one time.
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