The Revolution of 1688, which overthrew15 absolutism in the State, overthrew it also in the Church. The political principles of William of Orange, and the Whigs who brought him in, were not more opposed to the absolutism of the Stuarts than the ecclesiastical principles of the new king and queen, and the prelates whom they introduced into the Church, were to the high-churchism of Laud16, Sancroft, Atterbury, and their section of the Establishment. When Parliament, on the accession of William and Mary, presented the Oath of Allegiance to the Lords and Commons, eight of the bishops17, including Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, refused it; and of these, five were of the number of the seven who had refused to sign James II.'s Declaration of Indulgence, and thus gave the immediate18 occasion to the outbreak ending in the Revolution. Thus a fresh faction19 was produced in the Establishment, that of the Non-jurors, who were,[142] after much delay and patience, finally excluded from their livings. As the existing law could not touch the non-juring bishops so long as they absented themselves from Parliament, where the oath had to be put to them, a new Act was passed, providing that all who did not take the new oaths before the 1st of August, 1689, should be suspended six months, and at the end of that time, in case of non-compliance, should be ejected from their sees. Still the Act was not rigorously complied with; they were indulged for a year longer, when, continuing obstinate20, they were, on the 1st of February, 1691, excluded from their sees. Two of the eight had escaped this sentence by dying in the interim—namely, the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester. The remaining six who were expelled were Sancroft, the Primate21, Ken22 of Bath and Wells, Turner of Ely, Frampton of Gloucester, Lloyd of Norwich, and White of Peterborough. In the room of these were appointed prelates of Whig principles, the celebrated23 Dr. Tillotson being made Primate. Other vacancies24 had recently or did soon fall out; so that, within three years of his accession, William had put in sixteen new bishops, and the whole body was thus favourable25 to his succession, and, more or less, to the new views of Church administration.
Having obtained a favourable episcopal bench, King William now endeavoured to introduce measures of the utmost wisdom and importance—measures of the truest liberality and the profoundest policy—namely, an Act of Toleration of dissent26, and an Act of Comprehension, by which it was intended to allow Presbyterian ministers to occupy livings in the Church without denying the validity of their ordination27, and also to do away with various things in the ritual of the Church which drove great numbers from its community. By the Act of Toleration—under the name of "An Act for exempting29 their Majesties31' Protestant subjects dissenting32 from the Church of England from the penalties of certain laws"—dissenters were exempt30 from all penalties for not attending church and for attending their own chapels34, provided that they took the new oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy35, and subscribed37 to the declaration against Transubstantiation, and also that their chapels were registered, and their services conducted without the doors being locked or barred. As the Quakers would take no oaths, they were allowed to subscribe36 a declaration of fidelity39 to the Government, and a profession of their Christian40 belief.
But the Comprehension Bill was not so fortunate. Ten bishops, with twenty dignified41 clergymen, were appointed as a commission to make such alterations43 in the liturgy45 and canons, and such plans for the reformation of the ecclesiastical courts as, in their opinion, best suited the exigencies46 of the times, and were necessary to remove the abuses, and render more efficient the services of the Church. The list of these commissioners47 comprised such men as Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Sharp, Kidder, Hall, Tenison, and Fowler. They met in the Jerusalem Chamber48, and began their labours preparatory to this great comprehensive bill. In order to sanction these changes, Convocation was summoned, and then the storm broke loose. The Jacobites and the discontented cried out they were going to pull the Church down; the High Churchmen declared it was a scheme to hand over the Church to the Presbyterians; the Universities cried that all the men engaged in the plan were traitors50 to the true faith, and the king himself was not spared. The High Churchmen who were included in the commission fled out of it amain, and Convocation threw out the whole reform as an abomination. Convocation having given this blow to all hopes of ecclesiastical reform, was prorogued51 to the 24th of January, 1690, and on the 6th of February was dissolved with the Parliament, nor was it suffered to meet again for business till the last year of the reign9 of William.
Burnet describes the state of religion and intelligence in the nation at the period of Anne's reign as most lamentable52, the clergy42 as "dead and lifeless: the most remiss53 in their labours in private, and the least severe in their lives," of all that he had seen amongst all religions at home or abroad; the gentry54 "the worst instructed and the least knowing of any of their rank that he ever went amongst;" and the common people beyond all conception "ignorant in matters of religion." The words of Atterbury, a high Tory, were quite as strong. A description of the state of religion in the country, drawn55 up by him, was presented by Convocation to the queen, which stated that "the manifest growth of immorality56 and profaneness," "the relaxation57 and decay of the discipline of the Church," the "disregard to all religious places, persons, and things," had scarcely had a parallel in any age. Dr. Calamy, a great Nonconformist, equally complains that the "decay of real religion, both in and out of the Church," was most visible. Under the Georges much the same state of affairs[143] prevailed. The episcopal bench was Whig, though very apathetic58; while the clergy were Tory, and disinclined to listen to their superiors.
It was at this era of religious apathy59 that John Wesley (b. 1703; d. 1791), and Charles, his brother (b. 1708; d. 1788), and George Whitefield (b. 1714), came forward to preach a revival61, and laid the foundation of Methodism. These young men, students at Oxford62, all of them originally of clerical families but Whitefield—who was the son of an innkeeper—with Hervey, afterwards the author of the well-known "Meditations63 amongst the Tombs," and some others of their fellow-collegians, struck by the dearth64 of religious life of the time, met in their rooms for prayer and spiritual improvement. They were soon assailed65 with the nicknames of "Sacramentarians," "Bible Moths," and finally, "Methodists," a term current against the Puritans in those days, and suggested by the appellative Methodist?, given to a college of physicians in ancient Rome, in consequence of the strict regimen which they prescribed to their patients.
In 1734 the Wesleys commenced their career as preachers to the people, and were soon followed by Whitefield. This may, therefore, be considered the date of the foundation of Methodism. None of them had any the remotest idea of separating from the Church, or founding new sects66. The Wesleys made a voyage to Georgia, in America, and, on their return, found their little party not only flourishing in Oxford but in London, where they had a meeting-house in Fetter67 Lane. Whitefield, however, was the first to commence the practice of field-preaching, amongst the colliers at Kingswood, near Bristol; but in this he was soon imitated by Wesley. As they began to attract attention by the ardour of their preaching and the wonderful effect on the people, this became necessary, for speedily all church doors were closed against them. John Wesley had a peculiar68 genius for the construction of a new religious community, and he was ready to collect hints for its organisation69 from any quarter. The most prolific70 source of his ordinances71 for his new society was the system of the Moravians, whose great settlement at Herrnhuth, in Germany, he visited, and had much consultation72 with its head, Count Zinzendorf. From it he drew his class-meetings, his love-feasts, and the like. In framing the constitution of his society, Wesley displayed a profound knowledge of human nature. He took care that every man and woman in his society counted for something more than a mere73 unit. The machinery74 of class-meetings and love-feasts brought members together in little groups, where every one was recognised and had a personal interest. Numbers of men, who had no higher ambition, could enjoy the distinction of class-leaders. It did not require a man to go to college and take orders to become a preacher. Thomas Maxwell with Wesley, and Howel Harris with Whitefield, led the way from the plane of the laity75 into the pulpits of Methodism, and have been followed by tens of thousands who have become able if not learned, and eloquent76 if not Greek-imbued, preachers. Wesley divided the whole country into districts, into which he sent one or more well-endowed preachers, who were called circuit preachers, or round preachers, from their going their rounds in particular circuits. Under the ministry77 of these men sprang up volunteer preachers, who first led prayer-meetings, and then ascended78 to the pulpit in the absence of the circuit preachers, and most of them soon discovered unexpected talents, and edifying79 their own local and often remote or obscure little auditories, became styled local preachers. Out of these local preachers ever and anon grew men of large minds and fertilising eloquence80, who became the burning and shining lights of the whole firmament81 of Methodism. It was Wesley's object not to separate from the Church, and it was only after his death that the Wesleyans were reckoned as Nonconformists.
Whitefield and Wesley soon separated into distinct fields of labour, as was inevitable82, from Whitefield embracing Calvinism and Wesley Arminianism. Whitefield grew popular amongst the aristocracy, from the Countess of Huntingdon becoming one of his followers83, and, at the same time, his great patron. Whitefield, like the Wesleys, made repeated tours in America, and visited all the British possessions there. When in England, he generally made an annual tour in it, extending his labours to Scotland and several times to Ireland. On one of his voyages to America he made some stay at Lisbon. Everywhere he astonished his hearers by his vivid eloquence; and Benjamin Franklin relates a singular triumph of Whitefield over his prejudices and his pocket. He died at Newbury Port, near Boston, United States, on the 30th of September, 1770. If Whitefield did not found so numerous a body as Wesley, he yet left a powerful impression on his age; and we still trace his steps, in little bodies of Calvinistic Methodists[144] in various quarters of the United Kingdom, especially in Wales.
JOHN WESLEY.
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The literature of this period is more distinguished84 for learning and cleverness than for genius. There are a few names that rise above the smartness and mere accomplishment85 of the time into the regions of pure genius; but, with very few exceptions, even they bear the stamp of the period. We have here no Milton, no Shakespeare, no Herbert, no Herrick even, to produce; but De Foe4, Addison, Steele, Thomson, and Pope, if they do not lift us to the highest creative plane, give us glimpses and traits of what is found there. For the rest, however full of power, there hangs a tone of "town," of a vicious and sordid86 era, about them, of an artificial and by no means refined life, a flavour of the grovelling87 of the politics which distinguished the period, and of the low views and feelings which occupied and surrounded the throne during the greater portion of this term.
Some of the writers of the last period were still existing in this. Dryden was living, and wrote some of his most perfect works, as his "Fables88," and his "Alexander's Feast," as well as translated Virgil after the Revolution. He was still hampered89 by his miserable90 but far more successful dramatic rivals, Shadwell and Elkanah Settle. Nathaniel Lee produced in William's time his tragedies, "The Princess of Cleves," and his "Massacre91 of Paris." Etherege was yet alive; Wycherley still poured out his licentious92 poems; and Southern wrote the greater part of his plays. His "Oronooko" and his "Fatal Marriage" were produced now, and he received such prices as astonished Dryden. Whilst "Glorious John" never obtained more than a hundred pounds for a play, Southern obtained his six or seven hundred.
[145]
From the Picture in the National Gallery of British Art.
DOCTOR JOHNSON IN THE ANTE-ROOM OF LORD CHESTERFIELD, WAITING FOR AN AUDIENCE, 1748.
By E. M. WARD60, R.A.
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We may satisfy ourselves as to William's appreciation93 of poetry by the fact that Shadwell was his first poet-laureate and Nahum Tate the next. Dr. Nicholas Brady and Nahum Tate made the version of the Psalms94 which long disgraced the Church Service. Sir William Temple, Baxter, Sir George Mackenzie, Stillingfleet, and Evelyn, as well as some others flourishing at the end of the last period, still remained.
INTERIOR OF THE JERUSALEM CHAMBER, WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
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Amongst the earliest of the prose writers may be mentioned the theological authors. Cumberland was the author of a Latin treatise96, "De Legibus Natur?," in which he successfully combated the infidelity of Hobbes. Bull, who, as well as Cumberland, became a bishop, distinguished himself before the Revolution by his "Harmonia Apostolica," an anti-Calvinistic work, and by his "Defensio Fidei Nicen?." In 1694 he published his "Judicium Ecclesi? Catholic?." John Norris, of the school of Cudworth and Henry More, and nearly the last of that school called the English Platonists, published, besides many other works, his "Essay on the Ideal World" in 1701 and 1702. He also wrote some religious poetry of no particular mark.
Tillotson and South were the great authors of sermons of this period. Tillotson was one of the most popular preachers of the time, but may be said to have done more good by his liberal and amiable97 influence at the head of the Church than by his preaching. There is a solid and genuinely pious98 character about the sermons of Tillotson which suited the better-trained class of mind of his age, but which would now be deemed rather heavy. South has more life and a more popular style; he was therefore more attractive to the courtiers of his day than to the sober citizens, and he has larded his text with what were then deemed sprightly99 sallies and dashing phrases, but which are now felt as vulgarisms. Both divines, however, furnished succeeding preachers with much gleaning100.
Dr. Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury (b. 1643)[146] who figures so prominently in the reign of William and Mary, and who rendered such essential service to the establishment of religious liberty, is the great historian of his time. Without his narratives101 of his own period, we should have a very imperfect idea of it. With all his activity at Court and in Parliament, he was a most voluminous writer. His publications amount to no less than a hundred and forty-five, though many of these are mere tracts102, and some of them even only single sermons. His earliest productions date from 1669, and they continued, with little intermission, to the time of his death in 1715—a space of forty-six years. His great works are "The Reformation of the Church," in three volumes, folio, 1679, 1681, and 1715; and his "History of His Own Times," in two volumes, published after his death in 1724. Burnet lays no claim to eloquence or to much genius, and he has been accused of a fondness for gossip, and for his self-importance; but the qualities which sink all these things into mere secondary considerations are his honesty and heartiness103 in the support of sound and liberal principles far beyond the majority of his fellow prelates and churchmen. Whilst many of these were spending their energies in opposing reform and toleration, Burnet was incessantly104, by word and pen, engaged in assisting to build up and establish those broad and Christian principles under which we now live. Besides the great works named, he wrote also "Memoirs105 of James and William, Dukes of Hamilton;" "Passages in the Life and Death of Wilmot, Earl of Rochester;" a "Life of Bishop Bedell;" "Travels on the Continent;" "An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles," etc. etc.
Dr. Thomas Burnet is known for his eloquent and able History of the Earth, "Telluris Sacra Theoria," first published in Latin, and afterwards in English. This work, on which his fame rests, was greatly read and admired at the time, but the discoveries of modern science have reduced it to mere ingenious but unfounded theory. He was also author of "Arch?ologica Philosophica," and some lesser106 treatises107.
The great philosopher of this period was John Locke (b. 1632; d. 1704). Locke had much to do with the governments of his time, and especially with that extraordinary agitator108 and speculator, Ashley, Lord Shaftesbury, whom he attended in his banishment109, and did not return till the Revolution. Yet, though so much connected with government, office, and the political schemers, Locke remained wonderfully unworldly in his nature. His philosophical110 bias111, no doubt, preserved him from the corrupt112 influences around him. He was a staunch advocate of toleration, and wrote three letters on Toleration, and left another unfinished at his death. In these he defended both religious and civil liberty against Jonas Proast and Sir Robert Filmer, advocates of the divine right of kings. His "Thoughts on Education" and his "Treatises on Government" served as the foundations of Rousseau's "Emile" and his "Contrat Social." Besides these he wrote numerous works of a theological kind, as "The Vindication113 of the Reasonableness of Christianity;" and in his last years, "A Discourse114 upon Miracles," "Paraphrases116 of St. Paul," and "An Essay for the Understanding of St. Paul's Epistles;" a work "On the Conduct of the Understanding," and "An Examination of Father Malebranche's Opinion of Seeing all Things in God." But his great work is his "Essay concerning the Human Understanding." This may be considered the first pure and systematic117 treatise on metaphysics in the English language; and though the pursuit of the science since his time has led to the rejection118 of many of his opinions, the work will always remain as an able and clearly-reasoned attempt to follow the method of Bacon in tracing the nature and operations of the understanding.
In the department of philosophy flourished also Bishop Berkeley (b. 1684; d. 1753), author of "The Principles of Human Knowledge," whostartled the world with the theory that matter has no existence in the universe, but is merely a fixed119 idea of the mind; Dr. Mandeville, a Dutchman by birth, who settled in London, and published various medical and metaphysical works of a freethinking character; Hutchinson, an opponent of Dr. Woodward in natural history, and Newton in natural philosophy; and David Hartley, author of "Observations on Man." Bishop Butler, Warburton, Hoadley, Middleton, author of "A Free Inquiry120 into the Miraculous121 Powers of the Church," and Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury, were the leading theologians in the Church; but Dissent could also boast of its men of light and leading in Dr. Isaac Watts122, author of a system of Logic95 and of the popular Hymns124; Calamy, the opponent of Hoadley; Doddridge, and others.
In the department of novel writing, no age had yet produced such a constellation125 as Fielding, Richardson, Sterne, and Smollett. Their works[147] are still read with admiration126 by all who have a relish127 for vivid and masterly delineations of life; their only drawback being, that they are all more or less stained with the grossness and licentiousness128 of the age. From these faults Samuel Richardson (b. 1689; d. 1761) is most free, and in his "Sir Charles Grandison" he hasshown himself ahead of his age in the wisdom and liberality of his ideas. He discountenanced duelling, and taught the soundest principles of honour and morality. The photographic minuteness of his style prevents the general reading of his works in the present day of abundant new literature. The principal novels of Henry Fielding (b. 1707; d. 1754), "Joseph Andrews," "Tom Jones," and "Amelia," abound130 in wit, vigour131, and knowledge of human nature. He wrote also some plays, and edited several periodicals. His sister, Sarah, also wrote "David Simple," a novel, and translated Xenophon's "Memoirs of Socrates." Tobias Smollett (b. 1721; d. 1771) paints life in strong, bold, but somewhat coarse lines, full of vigour, but with even more grossness than Fielding uses. "Peregrine Pickle," "Count Fathom," "Roderick Random," "Humphrey Clinker," and "Sir Launcelot Greaves," if not now generally read, have been carefully studied and made use of by some of our modern novelists. Smollett, besides, wrote plays, satires132, poems, and edited "The Briton," a weekly newspaper. Laurence Sterne (b. 1713; d. 1768) struck out a style of writing peculiar to himself, and which still defies all successful imitation. Notwithstanding attempts to represent his pathos134 as grimace135, and his humour as tinsel, the felicity of touch in "Tristram Shandy," and the flashes of wit and feeling in his "Sentimental137 Journey," will, in spite of detractors, and of the occasional indecency of the author, always send readers to Sterne.
One of the pioneers of the science of political economy at this time was Dr. Davenant, the son of Sir William Davenant, the poet. He had no genius for drawing principles and theories from accumulated facts, but he was a diligent138 collector of them, and his porings amongst State documents and accounts have served essentially139 the historians and political economists140 of our day.
During this period Richard Bentley, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and archdeacon of Ely, figures prominently as one of the most profound classical scholars that Great Britain has produced, and, at the same time, as one of the most quarrelsome, arrogant141, and grasping of men. The circumstance which made the most noise in his career was his controversy142 with the Hon. Charles Boyle regarding the authenticity143 of the Epistles of Phalaris and the Fables of ?sop3. In this dispute he had to contend with Drs. Atterbury, French, King, and Smallridge, who made the reply to him in their "Examination of Bentley's Dissertation144 on the Epistles," in the name of Boyle. Swift also attacked him in "The Battle of the Books." The controversy made an immense noise at the time, and Bentley completely proved his assertion, that both the Epistles of Phalaris and the Fables of ?sop, in their present form, are spurious. The services of Bentley in publishing corrected editions of various classical works are of no ordinary kind. Amongst the authors who have received the benefit of his critical touches are Aristophanes, Cicero, Menander, Philemon, Horace, Nicander, Ph?drus, and Homer. In his editions of Horace and Homer, however, he laid himself open to severe criticism by his rash and arbitrary emendations of the text, and still more so by his edition of Milton's "Paradise Lost," from the same cause. In this case he showed that he was as deficient145 in the Italian and romantic learning, which Milton had made himself master of, as he was great in his own classical field. Bentley displayed himself as a theologian of great distinction by his refutation of Collins's "Discourse of Freethinking," and his lectures at Oxford in defence of the Christian religion.
With "The Battle of the Books" appeared "The Tale of a Tub;" and though these were anonymous146, it was soon well known that they were from the hand of Jonathan Swift, a friend of Harley and Bolingbroke, who now assumed a position in the public eye destined147 to be rendered yet more remarkable148. Swift was of English parentage, but born in Dublin in 1667. He was educated at Kilkenny and the University of Dublin. In early life he became private secretary to Sir William Temple, and at this time he wrote his "Tale of a Tub," which cut off all his hopes of a bishopric. He edited a selection from the papers of Temple, and then accompanied Lord Berkeley to Ireland as chaplain. Disappointed of the preferment which he had hoped for, he went over from the Whigs to the Tories in 1710, and thenceforward was an unscrupulous adherent149 of Harley and Bolingbroke, defending all their measures in the "Examiner," and pouring out his vengeance150 on all opponents with unflinching truculence151. In his political[148] character Swift has been styled the great blackguard of the age, and certainly with too much truth. In spite of rare intellectual power, wit, and sarcasm152, no principle or tenderness of feeling restrained him in his attacks on his enemies. If Harley and Bolingbroke are guilty of inflicting153 the disgraceful peace of Utrecht on the nation, simply to avenge155 themselves on the Whigs, no man so thoroughly156 abetted157 them in that business as Swift. His "Conduct of the Allies," his "Public Spirit of the Whigs," and other political tracts and articles, bear testimony158 to his unscrupulous political rancour. His "Drapier's Letters," and his treatment of Wood in the affair of the Irish halfpence, show that no means, however base and false, came amiss to him in serving the objects of his ambition. The great work of Swift is his "Gulliver's Travels," a work characterised by a massive intellect and a fertile invention, but defiled159 by the grossness that was inseparable from his mind, and that equally pollutes his poems, in which there is much wit and humour, but not a trace of pathos or tenderness. There is none of that divine glow of love and human sympathy, mingled160 with the worship of beauty and truth, which courts our affections in the works of the greatest masters. When we are told that Swift's grossness is merely the grossness of the time, we point to "Robinson Crusoe," to "The Seasons" and "Castle of Indolence" of Thomson, and to the works of Addison, for the most admirable contrast. Swift—who died in the famous year of the '45—was one of the most vigorous writers of the age, but he was one of the most unamiable. He was the Mephistopheles of the eighteenth century.
What a contrast immediately presents itself in the generous nature of Steele, in the genial161 and pure writings of Addison! Both Addison and Steele were poets, Steele principally a dramatic poet, of considerable success; Addison was the author of "Cato," a tragedy, and the "Campaign," celebrating the victory of Blenheim, with other poems. But the reputation of both Steele and Addison rests on their prose. They were the introducers of essay and periodical writings, and carried these to a perfection which has never been surpassed. Richard Steele (b. 1671; d. 1729) has the honour of originating this new department of literature—a departmentwhich has grown into such importance, that the present age would scarcely know how to exist without it. He started the "Tatler" in 1709, issuing it three times a week, and was joined by Addison in about six weeks. The interest with which this new literary paper was expected at the breakfast tables of that day, can only be likened to that which the morning papers now excite. In 1711, the "Tatler" having come to an end, the "Spectator" was started on the same plan, jointly162 by Steele and Addison, and, this ceasing in 1712, in the following year the "Guardian163" took its place. Steele was the largest contributor to the "Tatler" and "Guardian," Addison to the "Spectator." Various of their contemporaries furnished papers, Swift amongst the rest, but there are none which can compare with the vigorous, manly164 writing of Steele, and the elegant, and often noble, compositions of Addison. The mixture of grave and gay was admirable. In these papers we find abundant revelations of the spirit and manners of the times. The characters of Sir Roger de Coverley, Will Wimble, etc., have an imperishable English interest. The poetic165 and generous nature of Joseph Addison (b. 1672) was demonstrated by his zealous166 criticisms on Milton's "Paradise Lost," which mainly contributed to rescue it from the neglect which it had experienced. Addison, after Sir Philip Sidney, was the first to call attention to our old popular ballads167, "Chevy Chase" and "The Babes in the Wood," the eulogies169 on which probably led Bishop Percy to the collection of the precious "Reliques" of the ballad168 lore170 of former ages. The "Spectator" and "Guardian" were published daily. Steele afterwards published the "Englishman," with which Addison had no concern, and it only reached to fifty-seven numbers. These two fellow-labourers, both in literature and Parliament, after nearly fifty years' friendship, were sundered171 by a mere political difference—the question of limiting the royal prerogative172 of creating peers, in 1719, the last year of Addison's life.
Bolingbroke (b. 1678; d. 1751) must be named with the prose writers of the age. Amongst his writings there is little that will now interest the reader. He wrote in a brilliant and pretentious173 style, as he acted; and his writings, like his policy, are more showy than sound. As a cold sceptic in religion, and a Jacobite in politics, proud and essentially selfish in his nature, we are not likely to find anything from his pen which can strongly attract us, or is calculated to benefit us. In the Tory party, to which he belonged, he was one of those brilliant and self-complacent apparitions175, which have all the[149] qualities of the meteor—dazzling, but speedily sinking into darkness, though his "Patriot176 King" had some temporary influence, and even furnishes the keynote to some of the earlier writings of Lord Beaconsfield.
HENRY FIELDING. (The Portrait by Hogarth; the Border by James Basire.)
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A very different man was patriotic177 Daniel Defoe (b. 1663; d. 1731). Defoe, who was engaged in trade, and was the introducer of pantiles, was a thorough Whig, or, as we should now call him, a Radical178 in politics. He was one of those rare men who look only at the question before them, and who are, therefore, found almost as often calling to account the party to which they nominally179 belong, as rebuking180 the faction to which they are opposed. His principle was essentially "measures, not men," and thus[150] he was one of the zealous supporters of Godolphin and his ministry in accomplishing the union with Scotland; and equally so of Harley and Bolingbroke, for establishing a commercial treaty with France. He was much more useful to reform than liked by so-called reformers, and was continually getting into trouble for his honest speaking. From the age of twenty-three to that of fifty-eight, his pen had scarcely a moment's rest from advocating important political and social subjects, and there was a force of reason, a feeling of reality, a keenness of wit and satire133, in his compositions that gave them interest and extensive attention.
But whilst his political efforts did their work in his lifetime, his literary labours are the basis of his present fame. These were almost all produced after his sixtieth year; "Robinson Crusoe," by far the most popular of all his writings and one of the most popular in all the world's literature, "The Dumb Philosopher," "Captain Singleton," "Duncan Campbell," "Moll Flanders," "Colonel Jacque," "The Journal of the Plague," "The Memoirs of a Cavalier," "The Fortunate Mistress; or, Roxana," "The New Voyage round the World," and "Captain Carleton." The life and fidelity to human nature with which these are written have continually led readers to believe them altogether real narratives. The "Journal of the Plague" was quoted as a relation of facts by Dr. Mead181; Chatham used to recommend "The Memoirs of a Cavalier" as the best account of the Civil War; Dr. Johnson read the life of "Captain Carleton" as genuine, and we continually see the story of "Mrs. Veal's Ghost," written by Defoe to puff182 Drelincourt's heavy "Essay on Death," included in collections as a matter-of-fact account of an apparition174. This quality of verisimilitude is one of the greatest charms of his inimitable "Crusoe," which is the delight of the young from age to age.
Amongst the prose writers of this period a lady stands prominent, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (b. 1690; d. 1762), the daughter of the Duke of Kingston, and mother of Lady Bute, the wife of the Earl of Bute, the celebrated Minister of George III. Lady Mary derives183 her chief fame from her Letters, which were not published till after her death. They are as remarkable for their wit, brilliancy, and clear, thorough sense, as any of the writings of the age. In these we have a most graphic129 picture of life in the East, as she had lived some years at Constantinople with her husband. She thence conferred one of the greatest boons184 on her country, by the introduction of inoculation185 for the smallpox186. Lady Mary translated the "Enchiridion of Epictetus," and wrote many verses, including satirical ones, called "Town Eclogues;" but her fame must always rest upon her clear and sparkling letters. She was celebrated for her wit and beauty, and was a leading figure in the fashionable as well as the literary world. Pope and she were long great friends, but quarrelled irreconcilably188.
At the head of the poets of this period stands Alexander Pope, who became the founder189 of a school which has had followers down to our own time. Pope was the poet of society, of art, and polish. His life was spent in London and in the country, chiefly between Binfield, in Windsor Forest, and Twickenham; and his poetry partakes very much of the qualities of that scenery—rich, cultivated, and beautiful, but having no claims to the wild or the sublime190. He is opposed to poets like Milton and Shakespeare as pastures and town gardens are opposed to seas, forests, and mountains. In style he is polished to the highest degree, piquant191, and musical; but, instead of being profound and creative, he is sensible, satiric187, and didactic. He failed in "the vision and the faculty192 divine," but he possessed193 fancy, a moderate amount of passion, and a clear and penetrating194 intellect. He loved nature, but it was such only as he knew—the home-scenes of Berkshire and the southern counties, the trained and polished beauties in his gardens, the winding195 walks and grottoes at Twickenham. Mountains he had never seen, and there are none in his poetry. He was born in the year of the Revolution, and died in 1744, aged49 fifty-six; and, considering that he suffered from a feeble constitution and defective196 health, he was a remarkably197 industrious198 man. His pastorals appeared in Tonson's "Miscellany" when he was only twenty-one years old. Before this he had translated the first book of the "Thebais," and Ovid's "Epistle from Sappho to Phaon;" paraphrased199 Chaucer's "January and May," and the prologue200 to "The Wife of Bath's Tale." In two years after his "Pastorals" appeared his "Essay on Criticism" (1711). "The Messiah" and "The Rape201 of the Lock" were published in 1712—the year in which the "Spectator" died. "The Rape of the Lock" celebrated the mighty202 event of the clipping of a lock of hair from the head of Miss Belle203 Fermor by Lord Petre.[151] This act, adorned204 with a great machinery of sylphs and gnomes206, a specimen207 of elegant trifling208, enchanted209 the age, which would have less appreciated grander things, and placed Pope on the pinnacle210 of fame. In 1713 he published "Windsor Forest," a subject for a pleasant but not a great poem, yet characteristic of Pope's genius, which delighted in the level and ornate rather than the splendid and the wild. In 1715 appeared the first four books of his translation of Homer's "Iliad," which was not completed till 1720. This still continues the most popular translation of the great heroic poet of Greece; for although it is rather a paraphrase115 of this colossal211 yet simple poem, and therefore not estimated highly by Greek scholars who can go to the original, it has that beauty and harmony of style which render it to the English reader an ever-fascinating work. In 1717 appeared his "Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard," a poem displaying more passion than any other of Pope's writings, but too sensuous212, and the subject itself far from well chosen. Next succeeded his "Odyssey213" of Homer, in conjunction with Fenton and Broome, and in 1728 the first three books of "The Dunciad," in which he took a sweeping214 vengeance on the critics and poetasters of the time, who had assailed him fiercely on all sides, with John Dennis at their head. The vigour with which Pope wielded215 the satiric lash136 excited the wonder of the public, which had seen no such trenchant216 production hitherto in the language, and filled the whole host of flayed217 and scalded dunces with howls of wrath218 and agony. Pope was not sparing of foul219 language in his branding of others, and they were still more obscene and scurrilous220 in their retorts. It is questionable221 whether they or Pope felt the most torture; for, so far from silencing them, they continued to kick, sting, and pelt222 him with dirt so long as he lived. So late as 1742 he published a fourth book of the satire, to give yet one more murderous blow to the blackguard crew. Besides this satire, he modernised an edition of Donne's Satires, and produced his "Essay on Man," his "Epistle on Taste," his "Moral Essays," and other poems, down to 1740. His "Essay on Man," "Moral Essays," etc., display shrewd sense, and a keen perception of the characteristics of human nature and of the world; yet they do not let us into any before unknown depths of life or morals, but, on the contrary, are, in many particulars, unsound. In fact, these productions belong by no means to poetry, of which they exhibit no quality, and might just as well have been given in prose. On the whole, Pope is a poet whose character is that of cleverness, strong intellect, carefully-elaborative art, much malice223, and little warmth or breadth of genuine imagination. He reflects the times in which he lived, which were corrupt, critical, but not original, and he had no conception of the heavens of poetry and soul into which Milton and Shakespeare soared before him, and Keats, Shelley, Coleridge, Wordsworth and Tennyson in our time have wandered at large.
The strong sense, lively fancy, and smart style of his satires, distinguished also Pope's prose, as in his "Treatise of the Bathos; or, the Art of Sinking in Poetry;" his "Memoirs of P. P., Clerk of this Parish"—in ridicule224 of Burnet's "Own Times"—his Letters, etc. In some of the last he describes the country and country seats, and the life there of his friends; which shows that, in an age more percipient of the charm of such things, he would have probably approached nearer to the heart of Nature, and given us something more genial and delightful225 than anything that he has left us.
Dr. Arbuthnot, a great friend of Pope and Swift, was also one of the ablest prose writers, "The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus," published in Pope's and Swift's works, and the political satire of "John Bull," a masterly performance, being attributed to him.
John Gay, a contemporary of Pope, Swift, and Arbuthnot, is now best known by his "Fables" and his "Beggar's Opera." His "Fables" have been extremely popular, and still make him a general name; but, in his own time, his "Beggar's Opera" was his great success. Its wit, its charming music, its popular characters, gave it a universal favour; and it is the only English opera that even to this time has become permanent. Gay's "Trivia; or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London," is still amusing, and some of his ballads have a lightness and buoyancy about them which justify226 the esteem227 in which he was held.
Matthew Prior had a high reputation in his day as a poet, but his poetry has little to recommend it now. He was the more popular as a poet, no doubt, because he was much employed as a diplomatist in Queen Anne's reign by the Tory party. His "City and Country Mouse," written in conjunction with Lord Halifax, in ridicule of Dryden's "Hind228 and Panther," may be considered as one of his happiest efforts.
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Sir Samuel Garth, author of "The Dispensary," a mock-heroic poem in six cantos, and Sir Richard Blackmore, another physician, and author of a whole heap of epics229 in ten or twelve books each—as "King Arthur," "King Alfred," "Eliza," "The Redeemer," etc.—may still be found in our collections of verse, but are rarely read. Dr. Young's "Night Thoughts" yet maintain their place, and are greatly admired by many, notwithstanding his stilted230 style and violent antithesis231, for amid these there are many fine and striking ideas.
Still more have "The Seasons" and "The Castle of Indolence" of James Thomson retained, and are likely to retain, the public favour. "The Seasons" is a treasury232 of the life and imagery of the country, animated233 by a true love of Nature and of God, and abounding234 in passages of fire, healthy feeling, and strong sense, often of sublime conceptions, in a somewhat stiff and vicious style. "The Castle of Indolence" is a model of metrical harmony and luxurious235 fancy, in the Spenserian stanza236. Another poet of the same time and country—Scotland—is Allan Ramsay, who, in his native dialect, has painted the manners and sung the rural loves of Scotland in his "Gentle Shepherd" and his rustic237 lyrics238. Till Burns, no Scottish poet so completely embodied239 the spirit, feelings, and popular life of his country. Amongst a host of verse-makers, then deemed poets, but who were merely imitators of imitators, we must except Gray, with his nervous lyrics, and, above all, his ever-popular "Elegy240 in a Country Churchyard." Gray also has a genuine vein241 of wit and merriment in his verse. Collins was a poet who under happier conditions might have done the greatest things. Parnell's "Hermit," Blair's "Grave," Shenstone's "School Mistress," Akenside's "Imagination," can yet charm some readers, and there are others in great numbers whose works yet figure in collections of the poets, or whose individual poems are selected in anthologies, as Smith, King, Sprat Bishop of Rochester, Duke, Montague Earl of Halifax, Nicholas Rowe, Dyer—author of the "Fleece," "Grongar Hill," and "Ruins of Rome,"—Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, Fenton, Somerville—author of "The Chase," "Field Sports," etc.,—Hammond—author of "Love Elegies,"—Lord Lyttelton, Mallet242, Mickle—author of the ballads of "Cumnor Hall," "There's Nae Luck about the House," and translator of the "Lusiad" of Camoens,—Shaw, Harte, West, Cawthorne, Lloyd, Gilbert Cooper, Grainger—author of "The Sugar Cane," and the once popular ballad of "Bryan and Pereene,"—Dodsley, poet and bookseller, Boyse—author of "The Deity," a poem, etc.,—Smollett—more remarkable as a novelist and historian,—Michael Bruce, Walsh, Falconer—author of "The Shipwreck,"—Yalden, Pattison, Aaron Hill, Broome, Pitt—the translator of Virgil,—John Philips—author of "Cider," a poem, "The Splendid Shilling," etc.,—West, and others. In fact, this age produced poets enough to have constituted the rhythmical243 literature of a nation, had they had as much genius as they had learning.
Besides the miscellaneous poets, the dramatic ones numbered Congreve, Vanbrugh, Farquhar, Colley Cibber, Nicholas Rowe—already mentioned—Savage244, Lansdowne, Ambrose Philips, and others. In many of the plays of these authors there is great talent, wit, and humour, but mingled with equal grossness. Congreve's dramas are principally "The Old Bachelor," "The Incognita," "The Double Dealer," "The Way of the World," comedies, and "The Mourning Bride," a tragedy. Vanbrugh, the celebrated architect, produced "The Relapse," "The Provoked Wife," "The Confederacy," "The Journey to London," and several other comedies. Farquhar's principal plays are "The Beaux's Stratagem," "Love and a Bottle," and "The Constant Couple." Savage was the author of the tragedy of "Sir Thomas Overbury;" Nicholas Rowe, of five or six tragedies and one comedy, the most popular of which are "The Fair Penitent245" and "Jane Shore." Rowe also translated Lucan's "Pharsalia." As for Colley Cibber, he was a mere playwright246, and turned out above two dozen comedies, tragedies, and other dramatic pieces. Lord Lansdowne was the author of "The She-gallants," a comedy, and "Heroic Love," a tragedy of some merit; and John Hughes wrote "The Siege of Damascus," a tragedy, which long remained on the stage.
James Bradley (b. 1692), who succeeded Halley as the third Astronomer6 Royal, held that post till 1762, when he died. He had in 1728 distinguished himself by his discovery of an unanswerable proof of the motion of the earth by his observations on the apparent alteration44 in the place of a fixed star. His second great discovery was that of the mutation247 of the earth's axis248, showing that the pole of the equator moves round the pole of the elliptic, not in a straight but in a waving line. Bradley gave important assistance to the Ministry in their alteration of the calendar in 1751, and the vast mass of his[153] observations was published after his death, by the University of Oxford, in two volumes, in 1798.
COSTUMES OF THE PERIOD OF GEORGE II.
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Halley's quadrant was constructed and made known by him to the Philosophical Society, in 1731, though Thomas Godfrey, a glazier, of Philadelphia, is said to have made a similar instrument a year before. As early, however, as 1727 Newton had described such an instrument to Halley, that is, a very little time before his death. This invaluable249 instrument has since been improved, first into a sextant, and ultimately into a complete circle. In 1758 appeared John Dollond's corrections of Newton's views of the dispersion of refracted light, and in the following year his achromatic telescope, based on his accurate discoveries.
In 1720 Colin Maclaurin, the successor of James Gregory in the mathematical chair at Edinburgh, published his "Geometrical Organica," a treatise on curves; in 1742 his admirable treatise on Fluxions; and in 1748 his treatise on Algebra250. Dr. Robert Simson, professor of mathematics at Glasgow, published a restoration of the "Loci" of Apollonius, and an English translation of Euclid, which continued down to a late period in use, both in Scotland and England. In 1717 James Stirling published a Latin treatise on lines of the third order, and another on Fluxions, called "Methodus Differentialis," in 1730. William Emerson, a mathematician7 and mechanist, wrote on fluxions, trigonometry, mechanics, navigation, algebra, optics, astronomy, geography, dialling, etc., but a considerable portion was only in part published during this period. Thomas Simpson, a weaver251, of Market Bosworth, at the age of seven-and-twenty suddenly discovered himself as an extraordinary mathematician, and went on till his death, in 1761, publishing works on fluxions, the nature and laws of chance, on mixed mathematics, on the doctrine252 of annuities253 and reversions, on algebra, elementary geometry, trigonometry, etc. James Ferguson, also, the son of a day-labourer, in Banffshire, studied mathematics whilst tending sheep, and published a number of works on the phenomena254 of the harvest moon, astronomy, mechanics, hydrostatics,[154] pneumatics, and optics. Ferguson had a remarkably lucid255 and demonstrative style, both in writing and lecturing, and his example excited a keen spirit of inquiry amongst the working classes, so that he is said to have diffused256 the knowledge of physical science amongst the class from which he sprang more than any other man.
In electricity great strides were made. Between the years 1705 and 1711 Francis Hawksbee published in the Transactions of the Royal Society several experiments, in which he had, for the first time, discovered the production of the electric spark by friction257, and electrical attraction and repulsion. In 1720 Stephen Gray, a pensioner258 of the Charterhouse, published the result of his experiments on this subject, with a list of the substances which showed electricity under friction; and in 1732 he discovered the conducting property of non-electrical bodies. Before 1739, Dufray, keeper of the King's Garden at Paris, discovered the repellent power of two similarly-electrified bodies, and the attraction of these positively259 and negatively electrified—or, as he termed it, possessing the vitreous and the resinous260 electricity. Cuneus and Lallemand discovered the mode of accumulating the electric fluid in what was called the Leyden jar in 1745. This discovery gave a new impetus261 to inquiry, and Nollet, in France, and Watson, in England, conceived the hypothesis of the jar being overcharged on one side and undercharged on the other. This growing perception of the positive and negative conditions of the electric fluid received confirmation262 from the experiments of Benjamin Franklin, in America. Franklin soon improved the Leyden jar into an electrical battery; and, in 1752, he proved the identity of electricity and lightning by his grand experiment of the kite. On this he recommended lightning conductors, which, however, were not used in England till ten years afterwards.
On the laws of heat and cold, and atmospheric263 changes under their influence, many interesting facts were ascertained264 by the aid of the thermometers of Fahrenheit265 and Réaumur. Dr. Martin, of St. Andrews, distinguished himself in these inquiries266, and published his discoveries and deductions267 in 1739 and 1740. In 1750 Dr. Cullen drew attention to some curious facts connected with the production of cold by evaporation268. Dr. Joseph Black discovered what he called latent heat, and continued his researches on this subject beyond the present period.
Chemistry also received valuable extensions of its field. Dr. John Mayow published new facts respecting nitre, and on the phenomena of respiration269 and combustion270, as revealed by experiments on this and other substances. At the commencement of the eighteenth century Stahl, a German chemist, propounded271 his theory of phlogiston as the principle of combustion, which was only exploded by the further discoveries of Dr. Black, Cavendish, and Priestley. Soon after, Dr. Hales threw new light on a?riform bodies, or, as they are now termed, gases; and finally, Dr. Black demonstrated the presence of a gas in magnesia, lime, and the alkalies, which had long before been noticed by Van Helmont, but had been forgotten. This was then termed fixed air, but has now acquired the name of carbonic acid gas, or carbon dioxide. At the end of this period chemistry was extensively studied, and was rapidly revealing its secrets.
The kindred science of medicine was also in marked advance. Dr. Thomas Sydenham, who died in 1689, at the very commencement of this period, had prepared the way for a more profound knowledge of the science by his careful and persevering272 observation of facts and symptoms; and the improvements he introduced guided medical men in the treatment of disease till the end of this period. Anatomical science was greatly advanced at this era by Malpighi, Steno, Ruysch, Duverney, Morgagni, Albinus, Haller, and other Continental273 physicians. In England Humphrey Ridley published a work on the brain in 1695, and William Cowper, in 1698, his anatomical tables, said to be borrowed from the Dutch anatomist, Bidloo. In 1726 Alexander Munro published his "Osteology;" he was also founder of the Medical School of Edinburgh. In 1733 William Cheselden, the most expert operator of his day, published his "Osteography." In 1727 Stephen Hales published his "Vegetable Statics," and in 1733 his "H?mastatics," which carried both vegetable and animal physiology274 beyond all preceding knowledge either here or abroad. Zoology275 and comparative anatomy276 also received some progress from the labours of Nehemiah Grew, Tyson, Collins, and other members of the Royal Society.
Music advanced at an equal rate with its sister arts, and during this period added to its conquests the compositions of Purcell and Handel. William was too much engaged in war to become a patron of music, or of any of the fine arts, and his queen, Mary, does not appear to have possessed much taste for it. She is related by Sir[155] John Hawkins to have sent for Purcell and Mrs. Arabella Hunt, a famous singer, to entertain her. Mrs. Hunt sang some of Purcell's splendid compositions, and Purcell accompanied them on the harpsichord277; but Mary soon grew weary of these, and called on Mrs. Hunt to sing the Scottish ballad, "Cold and Raw!"
Henry Purcell (b. 1658; d. 1695) produced the bulk of his works in William's reign. He composed the music to "The Tempest," "Dioclesian," "King Arthur," "Don Quixote," "Bonduca," and "Orpheus Britannicus." Many parts of these, and his sonatas278, anthems279, catches, rounds, glees, etc., are as much enjoyed now as in his own day. The music to Davenant's "Circe," by Banister, of Shadwell's "Psyche," by Lock, and of Dryden's "Albion and Albanius," by Grabut, had increased in England the liking281 for the lyrical drama; but Purcell's compositions wonderfully strengthened it, and from "King Arthur" may properly be dated the introduction of the English opera. Gay's "Beggar's Opera," six-and-thirty years after, however, was the first complete and avowed282 opera, and this did not establish that kind of entertainment in England. The wonderful success of this production, which was performed for sixty-two nights (not consecutive), was chiefly derived283 from the wit and satire of the composition itself, the abundance of popular airs introduced, and the party feeling which it gratified. The airs were selected and adapted by Dr. Pepusch, a German, who settled in London, and became celebrated there. He also furnished the overture284, and wrote accompaniments to the airs. Eleven years after, Milton's "Comus" was adapted to the stage by the Rev1. Dr. Dalton, with music by Dr. Arne, who afterwards composed the music for "Artaxerxes," and thence derived a high reputation.
The taste for Italian music was now every day increasing; singers of that nation appeared with great applause at most concerts. In 1703 Italian music was introduced into the theatres as intermezzi, or interludes, consisting of singing and dancing; then whole operas appeared, the music Italian, the words English; and, in 1707, Urbani, a male soprano, and two Italian women, sang their parts all in Italian, the other performers using English. Finally, in 1710, a complete Italian opera was performed at the Queen's Theatre, Haymarket, and from that time the Italian opera was regularly established in London. This led to the arrival of the greatest composer whom the world had yet seen. George Frederick Handel was born at Halle, in Germany, in 1685. He had displayed wonderful genius for music as a mere child, and having, at the age of seven years, astonished the Duke of Saxe Weissenfels—at whose court his brother-in-law was a valet—who found him playing the organ in the chapel33, he was, by the Duke's recommendation, regularly educated for the profession of music. At the age of ten, Handel composed the church service for voices and instruments; and after acquiring a great reputation in Hamburg—where, in 1705, he brought out his "Almira"—he proceeded to Florence, where he produced the opera of "Rodrigo," and thence to Venice, Rome, and Naples. After remaining in Italy four years, he was induced to come to England in 1710, at the pressing entreaties285 of many of the English nobility, to superintend the opera. But, though he was enthusiastically received, the party spirit which raged at that period soon made it impossible to conduct the opera with any degree of self-respect and independence. He therefore abandoned the attempt, having sunk nearly all his fortune in it, and commenced the composition of his noble oratorios286. Racine's "Esther," abridged288 and altered by Humphreys, was set by him, in 1720, for the chapel of the Duke of Chandos at Cannons289. It was, however, only by slow degrees that the wonderful genius of Handel was appreciated, yet it won its way against all prejudices and difficulties. In 1731 his "Esther" was performed by the children of the chapel-royal at the house of Bernard Gates, their master, and the following year, at the king's command, at the royal theatre in the Haymarket. It was fortunate for Handel that the monarch290 was German too, or he might have quitted the country in disgust before his fame had triumphed over faction and ignorance. So far did these operate, that in 1742, when he produced his glorious "Messiah," it was so coldly received that it was treated as a failure. Handel, in deep discouragement, however, gave it another trial in Dublin, where the warm imaginations of the Irish caught all its sublimity291, and gave it an enthusiastic reception. On its next presentation in London his audience reversed the former judgment292, and the delighted composer then presented the manuscript to the Foundling Hospital, where it was performed annually293 for the benefit of that excellent institution, and added to its funds ten thousand three hundred pounds. It became the custom, from 1737, to perform oratorios[156] on the Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent. Handel, whose genius has never been surpassed for vigour, spirit, invention, and sublimity, became blind in his latter years. He continued to perform in public, and to compose, till within a week of his death, which took place on April 13, 1759.
MRS. ARABELLA HUNT SINGING TO QUEEN MARY. (See p. 155.)
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Whilst this progress in operatic and sacred music was being made, the Church Service had received some admirable additions. Jeremiah Clarke, the Rev. Henry Aldrich, D.D., dean of Christ Church, John Weldon, organist to Queen Anne, and Georges I. and II., and the Rev. Dr. Robert Creighton, canon of Salisbury, composed many admirable pieces. William Croft, Mus. Doc., is the author of thirty-one splendid anthems, and Maurice Greene, Mus. Doc., of forty, which are still heard with solemn delight in old choirs295. William Boyce, Mus. Doc., organist to Georges II. and III., added to these numerous anthems and services the oratorio287 of "Solomon," and many other compositions of a superb character—one of them the grand anthem280 performed annually at the Feast of the Sons of the Clergy. Boyce also composed a variety of secular296 pieces of rare merit.
In 1710 was established the Academy of Ancient Music, the object of which was to promote the study of vocal297 and instrumental harmony. Drs. Pepusch, Greene, and other celebrated musicians were amongst its founders298. They collected a very valuable musical library, and gave annual concerts till 1793, when more fashionable ones attracted the public, and the society was dissolved. In 1741 was established the Madrigal299 Society, the founder of which was John Immyns, an attorney. It embraced men of the working classes, and held meetings on Wednesday evenings for the singing of madrigals, glees, catches, etc. Immyns sometimes read them a lecture on a musical subject, and the society gradually grew rich. The composers of such pieces at this period were such men as Purcell, Eccles, Playford, Leveridge, Carey, Haydn, Arne, etc. Public gardens became very much the fashion, and in these, at first, oratorios, choruses, and grand musical pieces were performed, but, by degrees, gave way to songs and catches.[157] Vauxhall, originally called Spring Garden, established before the Revolution, became all through this period the fashionable resort of the aristocracy, and to this was added Ranelagh, near Chelsea College, a vast rotunda300, to which crowds used to flock from the upper classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings, to hear the music and singing. These performances spread greatly the taste for music, and probably excited the alarm of the puritanically301 religious, for there arose a loud outcry against using music in churches, as something vain and unhallowed. Amongst the best publications on the science of music during this period were Dr. Holder's "Treatise on the Natural Grounds and Principles of Harmony," 1694; Malcolm's "Treatise on Music, Speculative302, Practical, and Historical," 1721; Dr. Pepusch's "Treatise on Harmony," 1731; Dr. Smith's "Harmonics; or, the Philosophy of Musical Sounds;" Avison's "Essay on Musical Expression," 1752. Avison also published twenty-six concertos303 for a band, which were much admired.
HANDEL.
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At this period, both the grand old styles of architecture, the Gothic for ecclesiastical buildings, and the Tudor and Elizabethan for palaces and mansions304, had, for a time, run their course. A classical or Italian fashion had come in, and the picturesque305 churches and halls of our ancestors were deemed barbarous. Inigo Jones had introduced the semi-classical style, and now Sir Christopher Wren and Vanbrugh arose to render it predominant. Wren had the most extraordinary opportunity for distinguishing himself. The fire of London had swept away a capital, and to him was assigned the task of restoring it. Wren (b. 1632; d. 1723) was descended306 from a clerical family. In 1651 he was appointed to the chair of astronomy at Gresham College; three years afterwards to that of the Savilian professor at Oxford. In 1661 he was appointed by Charles II. to assist Sir John Denham, the surveyor-general, and in 1663 he was commissioned to examine the old cathedral of St. Paul, with a view to its restoration in keeping with the Corinthian colonnade307 which Inigo Jones had, with a strange blindness to unity28, tagged on to a Gothic church. The old church was found to be so thoroughly dilapidated, that Wren recommended its entire removal and the erection of another. This created a terrible outcry amongst the clergy and citizens, who regarded the old fabric309 as a model of beauty.
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Whilst these contentions310 were going on, Wren had entered fairly on his profession of architect. He built the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford, begun in 1663, and completed in 1669; and the fine library of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the beautiful square, Neville's Court, to the same college. He also built the chapels of Pembroke and Emmanuel Colleges, in the same university. In the erection of these, he suffered, from the conceit311 and conflicting opinions of parties concerned, a foretaste of the squabbles and contradictions which rendered the whole period of the building of St. Paul's miserable. In 1665 he found leisure to visit Paris, and study the magnificent palaces and churches with which Louis XIV. was embellishing312 his capital. There he got a glimpse of the design for the Louvre, which Bernini, the architect, showed him, but only for a moment; and he was in communication with Mansard, Le Vau, and Le Pautre.
On his return, the contentions regarding pulling down old St. Paul's were rife313 as ever; but the following year the fire occurred, and Wren was commissioned to make a plan for the rebuilding of the City. He proposed to restore it on a regular plan, with wide streets and piazzas314, and for the banks of the river to be kept open on both sides with spacious315 quays316. But these designs were defeated by the ignorance and selfishness of the inhabitants and traders, and the banks of the Thames became once more blocked up with wharves317 and warehouses318, narrow and winding lanes; and Wren could only devote his architectural talent to the churches, the Royal Exchange, and Custom House. These latter buildings were completed in the three following years; they have since both been burnt down and rebuilt. Temple Bar, a hideous319 erection, was finished in the fourth year, 1670. All this time the commencement of the new St. Paul's was impeded320 by the attempts of the commissioners to restore the old tumbling fabric, and it was only by successive fallings-in of the ruins that they were compelled to allow Wren to remove the whole decayed mass, and clear the ground for the foundations of his cathedral. These were laid in 1675, nine years after the fire, and the building was only terminated in thirty-five years, the stone on the summit of the lantern being laid by Wren's son, Christopher, 1710. The choir294, however, had been opened for divine service in 1697, in the twenty-second year of the erection.
During this long period Sir Christopher had been busily employed in raising many other buildings; amongst these, the Royal Observatory321, Greenwich; St. Bride's; St. Swithin's; the Gateway322 Tower, Christ Church, Oxford; St. Antholin's, Watling Street; the palace at Winchester, never completed; Ashmolean Museum, and Queen's College Chapel, Oxford; St. James's, Westminster; St. Clement's, Eastcheap; St. Martin's, Ludgate Hill; St. Andrew's, Holborn; Christ Church, Newgate Street; Hampton Court Palace, an addition; Morden College, Blackheath; Greenwich Hospital; St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, tower and spire323; Buckingham House, since pulled down; and Marlborough House.
His plan for his chef-d'?uvre, St. Paul's, like his grand plan for the City, with its principal streets ninety feet wide, its second-rate streets sixty, and its third-rate thirty, was rejected. This cathedral was a composition compact and simple, consisting of a single general octagonal mass, surmounted324 by a dome325, and extended on its west side by a portico326, and a short nave327 or vestibule within. The great idea of Wren was to adapt it to Protestant worship, and therefore he produced a design for the interior, the parts of which were beautifully grouped together so as to produce at once regularity328 and intricacy, yet without those long side aisles329 and recesses330, which the processions and confessionals of Roman Catholic worship require. The whole long period of Wren's erection of this noble pile was one continued battle with the conceit, ignorance, and dogmatism of the commissioners, who made his life a bitter martyrdom; and when we read the admired inscription331 in St. Paul's, "Si monumentum requiris, circumspice," we behold332, on obeying its injunction, only what Wren did, not what he suffered in doing it.
The style of St. Paul's, and, indeed, of all Wren's churches, is neither Grecian nor Gothic, but Italian, influenced by the fashion which Bernini, the Italian architect of Louis XIV., had introduced into France. It is a class of architecture of which the Grecian is the basis, but which is so freely innovated333 upon as to leave little general resemblance. In its different parts we have columns and pilasters of every Grecian and, indeed, Roman order, pediments, peristyles, architraves, and friezes334, mingled up with windows of all sorts, and all kinds of recesses and projections335, the fa?ades and intercolumniations ornamented337 with festoons, and wreaths, and human masks, and the whole surmounted by a great Eastern dome, and by campaniles partaking of[159] all the compilations338 of the main buildings. St. Paul's itself is a noble building, notwithstanding the manifest gleanings from the antique and the medi?val, and their combination into a whole which has nothing original but their combination into one superb design. Besides St. Paul's, the rest of Wren's churches are disappointing, and we cannot avoid lamenting339 that he had lost the sense of the beauty of Gothic architecture, especially when we call to mind the exquisite340 churches of that style which adorn205 so many of the Continental cities. Whilst the exteriors341 of Wren's churches show heavily in their huddled-up situations in London streets, their interiors, in which much more of the Grecian and Roman styles is introduced, are equally heavy, and wanting in that pliant342 grace which distinguishes the interiors of Gothic cathedrals. Perhaps the noblest work of Wren next to St. Paul's is Greenwich Hospital, which is more purely343 Grecian, and therefore displays a more graceful154 and majestic344 aspect. The Palace of Hampton Court, attached to the fine old Tudor pile of Cardinal345 Wolsey, is a great square mass, in which the Dutch taste of William is said to have set aside Wren's original design. But surely William did not compel him to erect308 that (in such circumstances) ponderous346 barbarism of a Grecian colonnade in the second quadrangle of Hampton Court, attaching it to a Gothic building. In fact, neither Wren nor Inigo Jones appears to have had the slightest sense of the incongruity347 of such conjunctions. Jones actually erected348 a Grecian screen to the beautiful Gothic choir of Winchester Cathedral, and placed a Grecian bishop's throne in it, amid the glorious canopy-work of that choir. The return to a better taste swept these monstrosities away.
The fame of Wren must rest on St. Paul's, for in palaces he was less happy than in churches. His additions to Windsor Castle and St. James's Palace, and his erection of Marlborough House are by no means calculated to do him high honour, whilst all lovers of architecture must deplore349 the removal of a great part of Wolsey's palace at Hampton Court to make way for Wren's structure. A glorious view, if old drawings are to be believed, must all that vast and picturesque variety of towers, battlements, tall mullioned windows, cupolas, and pinnacles350, have made, as they stood under the clear heaven glittering in the sun. The writers who saw it in its glory describe it in its entireness as the most splendid palace in Europe. Of the campaniles of Wren, that of St. Bride's, Fleet Street; of Bow Church, Cheapside; of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East; and the tower of St. Michael's, Cornhill, are the finest. The last is almost his only Gothic one, and would have been a fine tower had the ornament336 been equally diffused over it, and not all been crowded too near the top. Wren was thwarted351 in his design for the London Monument. He drew a plan for one with gilt352 flames issuing from the loop-holes, and surmounted by a ph?nix, but as no such design could be found in the five Orders, it was rejected, and the existing commonplace affair erected. One of his last undertakings353 was the repair of Westminster Abbey, to which he added the towers at the west end, and proposed to erect a spire in the centre. Sir Christopher left a large quantity of drawings, which are preserved in All Souls' College library, Oxford.
The next great architect of this period is Sir John Vanbrugh, who, when in the zenith of his fame as a dramatic writer, suddenly started forth354 as an architect, and had the honour of erecting355 Castle Howard, the seat of the Earl of Carlisle; Blenheim House, built for the Duke of Marlborough, in reward of his victories; Duncomb Hall, Yorkshire; King's Weston, in Gloucestershire; Oulton Hall, Cheshire; Grimsthorpe, in Lincolnshire; Eastbury, in Dorsetshire, now destroyed; and Seaton Delaval, in Northumberland, since partly destroyed by fire. Besides these, he built the opera house, also destroyed by fire. In all these there is a strong similarity, and as a general effect, a certain magnificence; but, when examined in detail, they too frequently resolve themselves into a row of individual designs merely arranged side by side. This is very much the case with the long fa?ade of Blenheim. There is a barbaric splendour, but it has no pervading356 unity, and only differs from the Italian manner of Wren by a much bolder and profuser use of the Grecian columns and pilasters. In fact, the architecture of the whole of this period is of a hybrid357 character, the classical more or less modified and innovated to adapt it to modern purposes and the austerity of a northern climate.
Amongst the most distinguished of this series of architects is James Gibbs, who, after studying in Italy, returned to England in time to secure the erection of some of the fifty churches ordered to be built in the metropolis358 and its vicinity in the tenth year of Queen Anne. The first which he built is his finest—St. Martin's, at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square.[160] Besides St. Martin's, Gibbs was the architect of St. Mary's, in the Strand359; of Marylebone Chapel; of the body of All Saints', Derby—an incongruous addition to a fine old Gothic tower; of the Radcliffe Library, at Oxford; of the west side of the quadrangle of King's College, and of the Senate House, Cambridge, left incomplete. In these latter works Sir James Burrows360, the designer of the beautiful chapel of Clare Hall, in the same university, was also concerned. Gibbs was, moreover, the architect of St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
Nicholas Hawksmoor, a pupil of Wren's, and an assistant of Vanbrugh's in building Castle Howard and Blenheim House, was the architect of St. George's-in-the-East, Ratcliff Highway, begun in 1715; of St. Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street; of St. George's, Bloomsbury; St. Anne's, Limehouse; of Easton Norton House, in Northamptonshire; and of some other works, including a mausoleum at Castle Howard, and repairs of the west front of Westminster Abbey. St. George's, Bloomsbury, is perhaps his finest structure. It has a Corinthian portico, like St. Martin's, and the steeple is surmounted by a statue of George II.
During this period, St. John the Evangelist, Westminster, was built by Thomas Archer361. The churches of Greenwich, of St. George's, Hanover Square, and St. Luke's, Middlesex, were designed by John James. To this time likewise belong St. Giles's-in-the-Fields; St. Olave's, Southwark, and Woburn Abbey, by Flitcroft; Chatsworth House and Thoresby, by Salmon362; Montagu House, by the French architect, Pouget; All Saints' Church, and the Peckwater Quadrangle of Christ Church, Oxford, by Dean Aldrich; and the library of Christ Church, designed by Dr. George Clarke, M.P. for Oxford, in the reign of Anne. After these the Earl of Burlington, a worshipper of Palladio and Inigo Jones, became a very fashionable architect, and built the dormitory at Westminster School; Petersham House, and other noblemen's mansions. The fine colonnade in the courtyard of Burlington House is also his work. Burlington was essentially a copyist, as was his protégé Kent, who built Holkham, in Norfolk, and the Horse Guards, but acquired as much reputation by his landscape gardening as he gained little by his architecture. Towards the end of this period several foreign artists were employed in England. We have already named Pouget; Giacomo Leoni was much employed; and Labelye, a Swiss, built Westminster Bridge, which was completed in 1747. Thomas Ripley, originally a carpenter, built the Admiralty.
Painting, like architecture, was at a very low ebb363 during this period, with one or two brilliant exceptions. Foreign artists were in demand, and there was no native talent, except that of Thornhill and Hogarth, which could claim to be unjustly overlooked in that preference. Sir Peter Lely was still living, but Sir Godfrey Kneller, another foreigner, was already taking his place. Kneller was a German, born at Lübeck, and educated under the best Flemish masters of the day. As he had chosen portrait-painting as his department, he hastened over to England after a visit to Rome and Venice, as the most profitable field for his practice, and being introduced to Charles II. by the Duke of Monmouth, he became at once the fashion. Kneller had talents of the highest order, and, had not his passion for money-making been still greater, he would have taken rank with the great masters; but, having painted a few truly fine pictures, he relied on them to secure his fame, and commenced an actual manufacture of portraits for the accumulation of money. Like Rubens, he sketched364 out the main figure, and painted the head and face, leaving his pupils to fill in all the rest. He worked with wonderful rapidity, and had figures often prepared beforehand, on which he fitted heads as they were commissioned. Sir John Medina, a Fleming, was the chief manufacturer of ready-made figures and postures365 for him, the rest filled in the draperies and backgrounds. Kneller had a bold, free, and vigorous hand, painting with wonderful rapidity, and much of the grace of Vandyck, but only a few of his works show what he was capable of. The beauties of the Court of William and Mary, which may be seen side by side with those of the Court of Charles II. by Lely at Hampton Court, are far inferior to Lely's.
During this time foreign painters of various degrees of merit flourished in England. Amongst these were John Baptist Vanloo, brother of the celebrated Carl Vanloo, a careful artist; Joseph Vanaken, a native of Antwerp, who did for Hudson what his countrymen did for Kneller—furnished draperies and attitudes. He worked for many others, so that Hogarth painted his funeral as followed by all the painters of the day in despair. The celebrated battle-painter, Peter Vander Meulen, Hemskerk, Godfrey Schalcken, famous for his candle-light effects, John Van Wyck, a famous painter of horses, James Bogdani, a Hungarian flower, bird, and fruit painter, Balthazar Denner, famous for his wonderfully finished heads, especially of old people, and Theodore Netscher, the son of Gaspar Netscher, all painted in England in the earlier part of the eighteenth century. Boit—a painter of French parentage—Liotard, and Zincke, were noted366 enamel367 painters. Peter Tillemans, who painted English landscapes, seats, busts368, roses, etc., died in 1734; and the celebrated Canaletti came to England in 1746, and stayed about two years, but was not very successful, the English style of architecture, and, still more, the want of the transparent369 atmosphere of Italy, being unfavourable to his peculiar talent.
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ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON, AND LUDGATE HILL, AS IT WAS.
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There was also a vast deal of decorations of ceilings and staircases still going on, and foreign artists flocked over to execute it. Laguerre, a Frenchman, succeeded Verrio in this department, and his works yet remain at Hampton Court, Burleigh, Blenheim, and other places. Laguerre was appointed to paint the cupola of St. Paul's, designs having been offered also by Antonio Pellegrini, who had thus embellished370 Castle Howard; but their claims were overruled in favour of Sir James Thornhill. Besides these, there were Lafosse, who had decorated Montagu House, Amiconi, a Venetian, and others, who executed many hundred square yards of such work in England. Such was the fashion for these foreign decorators, that when a native artist appeared equal to any one of them in skill and talent, and superior to most, he found himself paid at a very inferior and invidious rate.
This was the case with Sir James Thornhill, of Thornhill, near Weymouth. His father, however, had spent his fortune and sold the estate, and Sir James, being fond of art, determined371 to make it his profession to regain372 his property. His uncle, the celebrated Dr. Sydenham, assisted him in the scheme. He studied in London, and then travelled through Flanders, Holland, and France. On his return he was appointed by Queen Anne to paint the history of St. Paul in the dome of the new cathedral of St. Paul, in eight pictures in chiaroscuro373, with the lights hatched in gold. So much was the work approved, that he was made historical painter to the queen. The chief works of the kind by Sir James were the Princess's apartment at Hampton Court, the gallery and several ceilings in Kensington Palace, a hall at Blenheim, a chapel at Lord Oxford's, at Wimpole, a saloon of Mr. Styles's, at Moorpark, and the ceilings of the great hall at Greenwich Hospital. On the ceiling of the lower hall appear, amid much allegorical scenery, the portraits of William and Mary, of Tycho Brahe, Copernicus, Newton, and others; on that of the upper hall appear the portraits of Queen Anne and her husband, the Prince of Denmark; and paintings of the landing of William at Torbay, and the arrival of George I. There are, in addition, portraits of George I., and two generations of his family. Sir James also painted the altar-piece of All Souls', Oxford, and one presented to his native town, Weymouth.
Other English artists of this period were John Riley, an excellent and original painter, who died in 1691; Murray, a Scotsman; Charles Jervas, the friend of Pope, a man much overrated by his acquaintance; and Jonathan Richardson, a much superior artist to Jervas, and author of the valuable "Essay on the Art of Criticism, as it relates to Painting." Thomas Hudson, a pupil of Richardson, and his son-in-law, was an admirable painter of heads, and had the honour of being the instructor374 of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Henry Cook, like Thornhill, was a decorator, and painted the choir of New College Chapel, at Oxford, and the ceiling of a large room at the New River head. Among other artists of repute there may be named Luke Cradock, a flower and fruit painter; John Wootton, an animal painter; Francis Hayman, an historical painter and designer for book-plates—those for "Don Quixote" being his best; and George Lambert, one of the first English landscape painters of any mark.
Far above all other English artists of this period, however, stood William Hogarth (b. 1697). There is no artist of that or any former age who is so thoroughly English. He is a John Bull from head to foot—sturdy, somewhat headstrong, opinionated, and satirical. He is, indeed, the great satirist375 of the brush; but his satire, keen as it is, is employed as the instrument of the moralist; the things which he denounces and derides376 are crimes, follies377, and perverted378 tastes. In his own conduct, as on his canvas, he displayed the same spirit, often knocking down his own interests rather than not express his indignant feeling of what was spurious in art, or unjust towards himself. Hogarth was the first English painter who attracted much notice amongst foreigners, and he still remains379 one of the most original in genius of the British school. His subjects are not chosen from the loftier regions of life and imagination, but from the very lowest or the most corrupted380 ones of the life of his country and time. "The Harlot's Progress," "The Rake's Progress," "Marriage à la Mode,"[163] "The March to Finchley," "Gín Lane," "Beer Lane," etc., present a series of subjects from which the delicate and sensitive will always revolt, and which have necessarily an air of vulgarity about them, but the purpose consecrates381 them; for they are not selected to pander382 to vice38 and folly383, but to expose, to brand, to extirpate384 them.
He first published an engraving385 of "The Small Masquerade Ticket, or Burlington Gate," in ridicule of Lord Burlington's architecture, and of Pope's eulogiums on Burlington and satire of the Duke of Chandos. He illustrated386 "Hudibras," and produced a satirical plate, "The Taste of the Times," in 1724; and, some years after, "The Midnight Conversation" and "Southwark Fair." Not content with the fame which this vein, so peculiarly his own, was bringing him, he had the ambition to attempt the historical style, but this was a decided387 failure. In 1734, however, he came out in his full and peculiar strength in "The Harlot's Progress." The melancholy388 truth of this startling drama, mingled with touches of genuine humour, seized at once on the minds of all classes. It became at once immensely popular; it was put on the stage, and twelve hundred subscriptions389 for the engravings produced a rich harvest of profit. In the following year he produced "The Rake's Progress," which, though equally clever, had not the same recommendation of novelty. In 1744 he offered for sale the original paintings of these subjects, as well as "The Four Times of the Day," and "The Strolling Actresses Dressing390 in a Barn;" but here he felt the effects of the sturdy English expression of his sentiments on art, and his distributing of an engraving of "The Battle of the Pictures," as a ticket of admission, gave great offence to painters and their patrons. The whole sum received was only four hundred and twenty-seven pounds. Undaunted by his self-injuring avowal391 of his opinions, he offered in 1750 the pictures of "Marriage à la Mode" for sale, but put forth an advertisement in such caustic392 terms, as he reflected on the result of his former auction393, that he effectually kept away purchasers, and obtained only a hundred and twenty pounds for what Mr. Angerstein afterwards gave a thousand pounds for. His "March to Finchley" being sent for the royal inspection394, so impressed George II. with the idea that it was a caricature of his Guards, that, though the engraving of it was dedicated395 to him, he ordered the picture out of his sight, with expressions of great indignation. Hogarth quietly substituted the name of the King of Prussia in the dedication396, as "an encourager of the arts."
Soon after appeared his twelve plates of "Industry and Idleness," and in 1753 he published a work called "The Analysis of Beauty," in which he attempted to prove that the foundation of beauty and grace consists in a flowing serpentine397 line. He gave numerous examples of it, and supported his theory with much ingenious argument. The book brought down upon him a perfect tempest of critical abuse from his envious398 and enraged399 contemporaries. In 1757 he visited France, and being engaged in sketching400 in Calais, he was seized and underwent very rough treatment from "the politest nation in the world," under an impression that he was employed by the English government to make drawings of the fortifications. This adventure he has commemorated401 in his picture of "Calais Gate." In the following year he painted his "Sigismunda."
Besides those enumerated402, "The Four Election Scenes," "The Enraged Musician," "The Distressed403 Poet," and "England and France"—all made familiar to the public by engravings—are amongst his best works. In 1760 occurred the first exhibition of pictures by British artists, the works of Hogarth being an actuating cause. He had presented to the Foundling Hospital, besides his "March to Finchley," his "Marriage à la Mode," and his "Moses brought before Pharaoh's Daughter," his most successful picture of that kind; and Hayman and other artists having followed his example, a company of artists conceived the idea that an exhibition of the works of living artists might be made profitable. Hogarth fell readily into the plan, till it was proposed to add to this a royal academy of arts, which he opposed with all his might. He died in 1764, and was buried in the churchyard at Chiswick, where also lies by his side his wife, who survived him twenty-five years.
In sculpture at this period we stood much lower than in painting. Here we had no Hogarth, nor even a Thornhill. All that was of any value in this art proceeded from the chisels404 of foreigners, and even in that what an immense distance from the grand simplicity405 of the ancients! The sculpture of Italy and France was in the ascendant, but Bernini and Roubiliac had little in common with Phidias and Praxiteles, and our own sculptors presented a melancholy contrast to the work of artists of the worst age of Greece or Rome; there is scarcely a name that is worth mentioning. The best of the native sculptors was John[164] Bushnell, who was employed by Wren to execute the statues of the kings at Temple Bar; and Francis Bird, who was also employed later by Wren to execute "The Conversion406 of St. Paul," in the pediment of the new cathedral, the bas-reliefs under the portico, and the group in front, all of a very ordinary character. His best work is the monument of Dr. Busby in the transept of Westminster Abbey. Besides this he executed the monument of Sir Cloudesley Shovel407, also at Westminster, and the bronze statue of Henry VI., in the quadrangle of Eton College, both very indifferent. Gibbs and Bird executed the ponderous and tasteless monument of Holles, Duke of Newcastle, at Westminster, and the fine old minster is disgraced by a crowd of still more contemptible408 productions of this period. These can only be equalled in wretchedness by the works of a trading school, who supplied copies in lead of ancient gods, goddesses, shepherds, shepherdesses, etc., for the gardens of the nobility, which soon swarmed409 in legions in all the gardens and areas in and around the metropolis. Amongst the chief dealers410 in this traffic were Cheere and Charpentier, who employed foreign artists, even, for such images, and it was the fortune of Roubiliac to commence his English career with the former of these traders. The three chief foreigners of this period were Rysbraeck, Scheemakers, and Roubiliac, who were copyists of the French sculptors Coysevox, Bouchardon, and Le Moyne, as these had been of Bernini.
Notwithstanding the constant wars of this time, British shipping, commerce, colonies, and manufactures made considerable progress. At the commencement of this period the amount of shipping employed in our commerce was altogether 244,788 tons, being 144,264 tons English, and 100,524 foreign; in 1701 the amount of shipping employed was 337,328 tons, of which alone 293,703 were English. In 1702, the end of William's reign, the number of English mercantile vessels411 was about 3,281, employing 27,196 seamen412. The royal navy, at the end of William's reign, amounted to about 159,000 tons, employing some 50,000 sailors, so that the seamen of England must have amounted at that period to nearly 80,000.
At the end of the reign of Anne the shipping employed in commerce amounted to 448,000 tons, of which only 26,573 tons were foreign; so that the English mercantile shipping had increased, in little more than twelve years, 127,800 tons. At the end of the reign of George I. our mercantile shipping was only 456,000 tons, the foreign being 23,651 tons; so that the increase for the time was but slight. The royal navy had greatly decreased under George I. At the end of the reign of George II., the total amount of our commercial shipping was 573,978 tons, including 112,737 foreign. Thus, whilst the total shipping at the commencement of this period (in 1688) was only 244,788 tons, at the end of it (in 1760) the total was 573,978 tons, or a nett increase, in seventy-two years, of 329,190 tons: the increase being much larger than the total amount of tonnage possessed at the commencement of the period, the amount of foreign shipping remaining very nearly the same—in fact, only 12,000 tons more. The royal navy, which, at the commencement of the period, was reckoned at 101,892 tons, at the end of it was 321,104 tons, showing an increase of 219,212 tons; and, at the rate of men employed at the commencement, the number now employed in both our commercial and our national navy could not be fewer than 160,000 men.
The growth of our commerce during these seventy-two years is shown by the amount of our exports. In 1697—that is, nine years after the Revolution—the amount of exports was only £3,525,907; but in the three next years of peace they rose to £6,709,881. War reduced these again to little more than £5,000,000, and at the end of the reign of Anne, during peace, they rose to £8,000,000. At the end of the reign of George I. the war had so much checked our commerce, that the exports scarcely amounted to that sum, the average of the three years—1726, 1727, and 1728—being only £7,891,739. By the end of the reign of George II., however (1760), they had risen to £14,693,270. Having by this period driven the fleets of France and Spain from the ocean, we rather extended our commerce than injured it. Thus, during these seventy-two years, our exports had increased from about three millions and a half annually to more than fourteen millions and a half annually, or a yearly difference of upwards413 of eleven millions—a most substantial growth.
One great cause of this progress was the growth of our colonies. They began now to demand a considerable quantity of our manufactures and other articles of domestic comfort and convenience, and to supply us with a number of items of raw material. Towards the end of the reign of George I. our American colonies, besides the number of convicts that we sent thither414, especially to Virginia and Maryland, attracted[165] a considerable emigration of free persons, particularly to Pennsylvania, in consequence of the freedom of its constitution as founded by Penn, and the freedom for the exercise of religion.
WILLIAM HOGARTH. (After the Portrait begun by Weltdon and finished by himself.)
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New York, Jersey415, and the New England States traded in the same commodities: they also built a considerable number of ships, and manufactured, especially in Massachusetts, coarse linens and woollens, iron, hats, rum, besides drying great quantities of fish for Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean416 markets. Massachusetts already employed 40,000 tons of shipping. New England furnished the finest masts in the world for the navy; Virginia and Maryland furnished 50,000 hogsheads of tobacco, annually valued at £370,000; employing 24,000 tons of shipping. From these colonies we received also large quantities of skins, wool, furs, flax, etc. Carolina had become a great rice-growing country. By the year 1733 it had nearly superseded417 the supply of that article from Italy in Spain and Portugal; in 1740 it exported nearly 100,000 barrels of rice; and seven years afterwards, besides its rice, it sent to England 200,000 pounds of indigo418, rendering419 us independent of France for that article; and at the end of the present period its export of indigo had doubled that quantity, besides a very considerable exportation of pitch, sassafras, Brazil wood, skins, Indian corn, and other articles.
In 1732 the new colony of Georgia was founded by General Oglethorpe, and became a silk-growing country, exporting, by the end of this period, 10,000 pounds of raw silk annually.
The rapid growth of the commerce of the American colonies excited an intense jealousy420[166] in our West Indian Islands, which claimed a monopoly of supply of sugar, rum, molasses, and other articles to all the British possessions. The Americans trading with the French, Dutch, Spaniards, etc., took these articles in return; but the West Indian proprietors421 prevailed upon the British Government, in 1733, to impose a duty on the import of any produce of foreign plantations422 into the American colonies, besides granting a drawback on the re-exportation of West Indian sugar from Great Britain. This was one of the first pieces of legislation of which the American colonies had a just right to complain. At this period our West Indies produced about 85,000 hogsheads of sugar, or 1,200,000 cwts. About three hundred sail were employed in the trade with these islands, and some 4,500 sailors; the value of British manufactures exported thither being nearly £240,000 annually, but our imports from Jamaica alone averaged at that time £539,492. Besides rum, sugar, and molasses, we received from the West Indies cotton, indigo, ginger423, pimento, cocoa, coffee, etc.
During this period a vast empire was beginning to unfold itself in the East Indies, destined to produce a vast trade, and pour a perfect mine of wealth into Great Britain. The victories of Clive, Eyre Coote, and others, were telling on our commerce. During the early part of this period this effect was slow, and our exports to India and China up to 1741 did not average more than £148,000 per annum in value. Bullion424, however, was exported to pay expenses and to purchase tea to an annual amount of upwards of half a million. Towards the end of this period, however, our exports to India and China amounted annually to more than half a million; and the necessity for the export of bullion had sunk to an annual demand for less than £100,000. The amount of tea imported from China during this period rose from about 140,000 pounds annually to nearly 3,000,000 pounds annually—an enormous increase.
The progress of our manufactures was equally satisfactory. At the commencement of this period that great innovator425 and benefactor426, the steam-engine, was produced. The idea thrown out by the Marquis of Worcester, in his "Century of Inventions," in 1663, had been neglected as mere wild theory till Savery, in 1698, constructed a steam-engine for draining mines. This received successive improvements from Newcomen and Crawley, and further ones from Brindley in 1756, and Watt123 extended these at the end of this period, though this mighty agent has received many improvements since. Navigable canals, also, date their introduction by the Duke of Bridgewater, under the management of Brindley, from the latter end of this period, 1758. Other great men, Arkwright, Compton, Hargreaves, etc., were now busily at work in developing machinery, and applying steam to it, which has revolutionised the system of manufacture throughout the world. In 1754 the Society of Arts and Manufactures was established.
One great article of manufacture and export, however, down to this period, continued to be that of our woollens. To guard this manufacture many Acts had been passed at different times, prohibiting the exportation of the raw material. Immediately after the Revolution a fresh Act of this kind was passed, and such was the jealousy even of the Irish and of our American colonies weaving woollen cloths, that, in 1689, an Act was passed prohibiting the exportation of wool or woollen goods from Ireland or our plantations to any country except England. Having taken measures thus to confine as much as possible the profit of the woollen manufacture to England, the next year, which saw all protecting duties taken off corn, saw also leave given for the exportation of woollen cloths duty-free from England to any part of the world. Sir William Davenant estimates the value of the yearly growth of wool in England at this time at about £2,000,000, and the value of its woollen manufactures at £8,000,000. He calculates that one-fourth of this amount was exported. In 1738 Mr. John Kay invented the mode of casting the shuttle by what is called a "picking-peg," by which means the weaver was enabled to weave cloths of any width, and throw off twice the quantity in the same time. In 1758 the Leeds Cloth Hall was erected, and, about twenty years afterwards, a hall for white cloths.
The silk trade received a great impulse by the erection of a silk-mill at Derby, in 1719, by John Lombe and his brothers. Lombe had smuggled427 himself into a silk-mill in Italy, as a destitute428 workman, and had then copied all the machinery. To prevent the operation of this new silk factory in England—which was worked by a water-wheel on the river Derwent, had 97,746 wheels, movements, and individual parts, and employed three hundred persons—the King of Sardinia prohibited the exportation of the raw material, and thus, for a time, checked the progress of the manufacture. Parliament voted Sir Thomas Lombe[167] £14,000 as a compensation for loss of profits thus occasioned, on condition that the patent, which he had obtained for fourteen years, should expire, and the right to use the machinery should be thrown open to the public. By the middle of this period our silk manufactures were declared superior to those of Italy, and the tradesmen of Naples recommended their silk stockings as English ones. In 1755 great improvements were introduced by Mr. Jedediah Strutt in the stocking-loom of Lee.
As the woollen manufactures of Ireland had received a check from the selfishness of the English manufacturers, it was sought to compensate429 the Protestants of Ulster by encouraging the linen12 manufacture there, which the English did not value so much as their woollen. A Board was established in Dublin in 1711, and one also in Scotland in 1727, for the purpose of superintending the trade, and bounties430 and premiums431 on exportation were offered. In these favourable circumstances the trade rapidly grew, both in Ireland and Scotland. In 1750 seven and a half million yards of linen were annually woven in Scotland alone.
The lace manufacture was still prosecuted432 merely by hand, and chiefly in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and in the West of England. No lace was produced from machinery before 1768.
In the manufacture of iron a most material discovery of smelting433 the ore by the use of pit-coal was made. The forests of England were so much reduced by the consumption of wood in the iron furnaces, that it was contemplated434 removing the business to our American colonies. This necessity was obviated435 by the discovery by Dud Dudley of a mode of manufacturing bar-iron with coal instead of wood. This discovery had been patented in 1619, yet, singularly, had been neglected; but in 1740 the principle was applied436 at Coalbrookdale, and iron thus made tough or brittle437, as was wished. Iron works, now not confined to one spot by the necessity of wood, sprang up at various places in England and Wales, and the great works at Rotherham were established in 1750, and the famous Carron works in Scotland in 1760. The quantity of pig-iron made in 1740 was calculated at 17,000 tons, and the number of people employed in the iron trade at the end of this period is supposed to be little short of 300,000.
The production of copper during this period was so plentiful438, that, though the great mines in Anglesea were not yet discovered, full liberty was given to export it, except to France. From 1736 to 1745 the mines of Cornwall alone produced about 700 tons annually, and the yearly amount was constantly increasing. A manufactory of brass439—the secret of which mixture was introduced from Germany, in 1649—was established in Birmingham, in 1748; and, at the end of this period, the number of persons employed in making articles of copper and brass was, probably, not less than 50,000. The manufacture of tinned iron commenced in Wales about 1730, and in 1740 further improvements were made in this process. Similar improvements were making in the refinement440 of metals, and in the manufacture of silver plate, called Sheffield plate. English watches acquired great reputation, but afterwards fell into considerable disrepute from the employment of inferior foreign works. Printing types, which we had before imported from Holland, were first made in England in the reign of Queen Anne, by Caslon, an engraver441 of gun-locks and barrels. In 1725 William Ged, a Scotsman, discovered the art of stereotyping442, but did not introduce it without strong opposition443 from the working printers. Great strides were made in the paper manufacture. In 1690 we first made white paper, and in 1713 it is calculated that 300,000 reams of all kinds of paper were made in England. An excise444 duty was first laid on paper in 1711. Our best china and earthenware445 were still imported, and, both in style and quality, our own pottery446 was very inferior, for Wedgwood had not yet introduced his wonderful improvements. Defoe introduced pantiles at his manufactory at Tilbury, before which time we imported them from Holland. The war with France compelled us to encourage the manufacture of glass; in 1697 the excise duty, imposed three years before, was repealed447, but in 1746 duties were imposed on the articles used in its manufacture, and additional duties on its exportation. The manufacture of crown glass was not introduced till after this period.
The effects of the growth in our commerce and manufactures, and the consequent increase of the national wealth, were seen in the extension of London and other of our large towns. Eight new parishes were added to the metropolis during this period; the Chelsea Waterworks were established in 1721; and Westminster Bridge was completed in 1750. Bristol, Hull448, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Frome, Dublin, and several other towns, grew amazingly.
点击收听单词发音
1 rev | |
v.发动机旋转,加快速度 | |
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2 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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3 sop | |
n.湿透的东西,懦夫;v.浸,泡,浸湿 | |
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4 foe | |
n.敌人,仇敌 | |
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5 minor | |
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
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6 astronomer | |
n.天文学家 | |
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7 mathematician | |
n.数学家 | |
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8 wren | |
n.鹪鹩;英国皇家海军女子服务队成员 | |
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9 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
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10 sculptors | |
雕刻家,雕塑家( sculptor的名词复数 ); [天]玉夫座 | |
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11 shipping | |
n.船运(发货,运输,乘船) | |
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12 linen | |
n.亚麻布,亚麻线,亚麻制品;adj.亚麻布制的,亚麻的 | |
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13 linens | |
n.亚麻布( linen的名词复数 );家庭日用织品 | |
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14 copper | |
n.铜;铜币;铜器;adj.铜(制)的;(紫)铜色的 | |
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15 overthrew | |
overthrow的过去式 | |
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16 laud | |
n.颂歌;v.赞美 | |
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17 bishops | |
(基督教某些教派管辖大教区的)主教( bishop的名词复数 ); (国际象棋的)象 | |
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18 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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19 faction | |
n.宗派,小集团;派别;派系斗争 | |
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20 obstinate | |
adj.顽固的,倔强的,不易屈服的,较难治愈的 | |
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21 primate | |
n.灵长类(目)动物,首席主教;adj.首要的 | |
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22 ken | |
n.视野,知识领域 | |
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23 celebrated | |
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
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24 vacancies | |
n.空房间( vacancy的名词复数 );空虚;空白;空缺 | |
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25 favourable | |
adj.赞成的,称赞的,有利的,良好的,顺利的 | |
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26 dissent | |
n./v.不同意,持异议 | |
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27 ordination | |
n.授任圣职 | |
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28 unity | |
n.团结,联合,统一;和睦,协调 | |
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29 exempting | |
使免除[豁免]( exempt的现在分词 ) | |
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30 exempt | |
adj.免除的;v.使免除;n.免税者,被免除义务者 | |
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31 majesties | |
n.雄伟( majesty的名词复数 );庄严;陛下;王权 | |
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32 dissenting | |
adj.不同意的 | |
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33 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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34 chapels | |
n.小教堂, (医院、监狱等的)附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 );(在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的)礼拜仪式 | |
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35 supremacy | |
n.至上;至高权力 | |
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36 subscribe | |
vi.(to)订阅,订购;同意;vt.捐助,赞助 | |
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37 subscribed | |
v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 );签署,题词;订阅;同意 | |
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38 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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39 fidelity | |
n.忠诚,忠实;精确 | |
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40 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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41 dignified | |
a.可敬的,高贵的 | |
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42 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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43 alterations | |
n.改动( alteration的名词复数 );更改;变化;改变 | |
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44 alteration | |
n.变更,改变;蚀变 | |
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45 liturgy | |
n.礼拜仪式 | |
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46 exigencies | |
n.急切需要 | |
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47 commissioners | |
n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 );长官;委员;政府部门的长官 | |
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48 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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49 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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50 traitors | |
卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 ); 叛徒; 背叛者; 背信弃义的人 | |
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51 prorogued | |
v.使(议会)休会( prorogue的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52 lamentable | |
adj.令人惋惜的,悔恨的 | |
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53 remiss | |
adj.不小心的,马虎 | |
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54 gentry | |
n.绅士阶级,上层阶级 | |
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55 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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56 immorality | |
n. 不道德, 无道义 | |
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57 relaxation | |
n.松弛,放松;休息;消遣;娱乐 | |
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58 apathetic | |
adj.冷漠的,无动于衷的 | |
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59 apathy | |
n.漠不关心,无动于衷;冷淡 | |
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60 ward | |
n.守卫,监护,病房,行政区,由监护人或法院保护的人(尤指儿童);vt.守护,躲开 | |
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61 revival | |
n.复兴,复苏,(精力、活力等的)重振 | |
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62 Oxford | |
n.牛津(英国城市) | |
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63 meditations | |
默想( meditation的名词复数 ); 默念; 沉思; 冥想 | |
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64 dearth | |
n.缺乏,粮食不足,饥谨 | |
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65 assailed | |
v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 );困扰;质问;毅然应对 | |
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66 sects | |
n.宗派,教派( sect的名词复数 ) | |
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67 fetter | |
n./vt.脚镣,束缚 | |
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68 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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69 organisation | |
n.组织,安排,团体,有机休 | |
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70 prolific | |
adj.丰富的,大量的;多产的,富有创造力的 | |
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71 ordinances | |
n.条例,法令( ordinance的名词复数 ) | |
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72 consultation | |
n.咨询;商量;商议;会议 | |
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73 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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74 machinery | |
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构 | |
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75 laity | |
n.俗人;门外汉 | |
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76 eloquent | |
adj.雄辩的,口才流利的;明白显示出的 | |
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77 ministry | |
n.(政府的)部;牧师 | |
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78 ascended | |
v.上升,攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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79 edifying | |
adj.有教训意味的,教训性的,有益的v.开导,启发( edify的现在分词 ) | |
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80 eloquence | |
n.雄辩;口才,修辞 | |
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81 firmament | |
n.苍穹;最高层 | |
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82 inevitable | |
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的 | |
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83 followers | |
追随者( follower的名词复数 ); 用户; 契据的附面; 从动件 | |
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84 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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85 accomplishment | |
n.完成,成就,(pl.)造诣,技能 | |
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86 sordid | |
adj.肮脏的,不干净的,卑鄙的,暗淡的 | |
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87 grovelling | |
adj.卑下的,奴颜婢膝的v.卑躬屈节,奴颜婢膝( grovel的现在分词 );趴 | |
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88 fables | |
n.寓言( fable的名词复数 );神话,传说 | |
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89 hampered | |
妨碍,束缚,限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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90 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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91 massacre | |
n.残杀,大屠杀;v.残杀,集体屠杀 | |
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92 licentious | |
adj.放纵的,淫乱的 | |
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93 appreciation | |
n.评价;欣赏;感谢;领会,理解;价格上涨 | |
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94 psalms | |
n.赞美诗( psalm的名词复数 );圣诗;圣歌;(中的) | |
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95 logic | |
n.逻辑(学);逻辑性 | |
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96 treatise | |
n.专著;(专题)论文 | |
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97 amiable | |
adj.和蔼可亲的,友善的,亲切的 | |
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98 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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99 sprightly | |
adj.愉快的,活泼的 | |
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100 gleaning | |
n.拾落穗,拾遗,落穗v.一点点地收集(资料、事实)( glean的现在分词 );(收割后)拾穗 | |
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101 narratives | |
记叙文( narrative的名词复数 ); 故事; 叙述; 叙述部分 | |
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102 tracts | |
大片土地( tract的名词复数 ); 地带; (体内的)道; (尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的)短文 | |
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103 heartiness | |
诚实,热心 | |
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104 incessantly | |
ad.不停地 | |
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105 memoirs | |
n.回忆录;回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
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106 lesser | |
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地 | |
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107 treatises | |
n.专题著作,专题论文,专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
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108 agitator | |
n.鼓动者;搅拌器 | |
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109 banishment | |
n.放逐,驱逐 | |
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110 philosophical | |
adj.哲学家的,哲学上的,达观的 | |
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111 bias | |
n.偏见,偏心,偏袒;vt.使有偏见 | |
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112 corrupt | |
v.贿赂,收买;adj.腐败的,贪污的 | |
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113 vindication | |
n.洗冤,证实 | |
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114 discourse | |
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述 | |
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115 paraphrase | |
vt.将…释义,改写;n.释义,意义 | |
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116 paraphrases | |
n.释义,意译( paraphrase的名词复数 )v.释义,意译( paraphrase的第三人称单数 ) | |
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117 systematic | |
adj.有系统的,有计划的,有方法的 | |
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118 rejection | |
n.拒绝,被拒,抛弃,被弃 | |
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119 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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120 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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121 miraculous | |
adj.像奇迹一样的,不可思议的 | |
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122 watts | |
(电力计量单位)瓦,瓦特( watt的名词复数 ) | |
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123 watt | |
n.瓦,瓦特 | |
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124 hymns | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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125 constellation | |
n.星座n.灿烂的一群 | |
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126 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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127 relish | |
n.滋味,享受,爱好,调味品;vt.加调味料,享受,品味;vi.有滋味 | |
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128 licentiousness | |
n.放肆,无法无天 | |
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129 graphic | |
adj.生动的,形象的,绘画的,文字的,图表的 | |
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130 abound | |
vi.大量存在;(in,with)充满,富于 | |
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131 vigour | |
(=vigor)n.智力,体力,精力 | |
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132 satires | |
讽刺,讥讽( satire的名词复数 ); 讽刺作品 | |
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133 satire | |
n.讽刺,讽刺文学,讽刺作品 | |
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134 pathos | |
n.哀婉,悲怆 | |
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135 grimace | |
v.做鬼脸,面部歪扭 | |
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136 lash | |
v.系牢;鞭打;猛烈抨击;n.鞭打;眼睫毛 | |
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137 sentimental | |
adj.多愁善感的,感伤的 | |
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138 diligent | |
adj.勤勉的,勤奋的 | |
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139 essentially | |
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
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140 economists | |
n.经济学家,经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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141 arrogant | |
adj.傲慢的,自大的 | |
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142 controversy | |
n.争论,辩论,争吵 | |
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143 authenticity | |
n.真实性 | |
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144 dissertation | |
n.(博士学位)论文,学术演讲,专题论文 | |
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145 deficient | |
adj.不足的,不充份的,有缺陷的 | |
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146 anonymous | |
adj.无名的;匿名的;无特色的 | |
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147 destined | |
adj.命中注定的;(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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148 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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149 adherent | |
n.信徒,追随者,拥护者 | |
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150 vengeance | |
n.报复,报仇,复仇 | |
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151 truculence | |
n.凶猛,粗暴 | |
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152 sarcasm | |
n.讥讽,讽刺,嘲弄,反话 (adj.sarcastic) | |
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153 inflicting | |
把…强加给,使承受,遭受( inflict的现在分词 ) | |
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154 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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155 avenge | |
v.为...复仇,为...报仇 | |
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156 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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157 abetted | |
v.教唆(犯罪)( abet的过去式和过去分词 );煽动;怂恿;支持 | |
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158 testimony | |
n.证词;见证,证明 | |
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159 defiled | |
v.玷污( defile的过去式和过去分词 );污染;弄脏;纵列行进 | |
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160 mingled | |
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
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161 genial | |
adj.亲切的,和蔼的,愉快的,脾气好的 | |
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162 jointly | |
ad.联合地,共同地 | |
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163 guardian | |
n.监护人;守卫者,保护者 | |
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164 manly | |
adj.有男子气概的;adv.男子般地,果断地 | |
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165 poetic | |
adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的 | |
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166 zealous | |
adj.狂热的,热心的 | |
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167 ballads | |
民歌,民谣,特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 ); 讴 | |
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168 ballad | |
n.歌谣,民谣,流行爱情歌曲 | |
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169 eulogies | |
n.颂词,颂文( eulogy的名词复数 ) | |
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170 lore | |
n.传说;学问,经验,知识 | |
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171 sundered | |
v.隔开,分开( sunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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172 prerogative | |
n.特权 | |
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173 pretentious | |
adj.自命不凡的,自负的,炫耀的 | |
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174 apparition | |
n.幽灵,神奇的现象 | |
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175 apparitions | |
n.特异景象( apparition的名词复数 );幽灵;鬼;(特异景象等的)出现 | |
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176 patriot | |
n.爱国者,爱国主义者 | |
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177 patriotic | |
adj.爱国的,有爱国心的 | |
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178 radical | |
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的 | |
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179 nominally | |
在名义上,表面地; 应名儿 | |
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180 rebuking | |
责难或指责( rebuke的现在分词 ) | |
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181 mead | |
n.蜂蜜酒 | |
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182 puff | |
n.一口(气);一阵(风);v.喷气,喘气 | |
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183 derives | |
v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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184 boons | |
n.恩惠( boon的名词复数 );福利;非常有用的东西;益处 | |
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185 inoculation | |
n.接芽;预防接种 | |
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186 smallpox | |
n.天花 | |
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187 satiric | |
adj.讽刺的,挖苦的 | |
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188 irreconcilably | |
(观点、目标或争议)不可调和的,不相容的 | |
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189 Founder | |
n.创始者,缔造者 | |
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190 sublime | |
adj.崇高的,伟大的;极度的,不顾后果的 | |
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191 piquant | |
adj.辛辣的,开胃的,令人兴奋的 | |
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192 faculty | |
n.才能;学院,系;(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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193 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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194 penetrating | |
adj.(声音)响亮的,尖锐的adj.(气味)刺激的adj.(思想)敏锐的,有洞察力的 | |
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195 winding | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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196 defective | |
adj.有毛病的,有问题的,有瑕疵的 | |
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197 remarkably | |
ad.不同寻常地,相当地 | |
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198 industrious | |
adj.勤劳的,刻苦的,奋发的 | |
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199 paraphrased | |
v.释义,意译( paraphrase的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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200 prologue | |
n.开场白,序言;开端,序幕 | |
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201 rape | |
n.抢夺,掠夺,强奸;vt.掠夺,抢夺,强奸 | |
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202 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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203 belle | |
n.靓女 | |
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204 adorned | |
[计]被修饰的 | |
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205 adorn | |
vt.使美化,装饰 | |
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206 gnomes | |
n.矮子( gnome的名词复数 );侏儒;(尤指金融市场上搞投机的)银行家;守护神 | |
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207 specimen | |
n.样本,标本 | |
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208 trifling | |
adj.微不足道的;没什么价值的 | |
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209 enchanted | |
adj. 被施魔法的,陶醉的,入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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210 pinnacle | |
n.尖塔,尖顶,山峰;(喻)顶峰 | |
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211 colossal | |
adj.异常的,庞大的 | |
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212 sensuous | |
adj.激发美感的;感官的,感觉上的 | |
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213 odyssey | |
n.长途冒险旅行;一连串的冒险 | |
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214 sweeping | |
adj.范围广大的,一扫无遗的 | |
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215 wielded | |
手持着使用(武器、工具等)( wield的过去式和过去分词 ); 具有; 运用(权力); 施加(影响) | |
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216 trenchant | |
adj.尖刻的,清晰的 | |
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217 flayed | |
v.痛打( flay的过去式和过去分词 );把…打得皮开肉绽;剥(通常指动物)的皮;严厉批评 | |
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218 wrath | |
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒 | |
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219 foul | |
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
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220 scurrilous | |
adj.下流的,恶意诽谤的 | |
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221 questionable | |
adj.可疑的,有问题的 | |
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222 pelt | |
v.投掷,剥皮,抨击,开火 | |
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223 malice | |
n.恶意,怨恨,蓄意;[律]预谋 | |
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224 ridicule | |
v.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄 | |
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225 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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226 justify | |
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护 | |
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227 esteem | |
n.尊敬,尊重;vt.尊重,敬重;把…看作 | |
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228 hind | |
adj.后面的,后部的 | |
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229 epics | |
n.叙事诗( epic的名词复数 );壮举;惊人之举;史诗般的电影(或书籍) | |
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230 stilted | |
adj.虚饰的;夸张的 | |
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231 antithesis | |
n.对立;相对 | |
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232 treasury | |
n.宝库;国库,金库;文库 | |
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233 animated | |
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的 | |
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234 abounding | |
adj.丰富的,大量的v.大量存在,充满,富于( abound的现在分词 ) | |
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235 luxurious | |
adj.精美而昂贵的;豪华的 | |
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236 stanza | |
n.(诗)节,段 | |
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237 rustic | |
adj.乡村的,有乡村特色的;n.乡下人,乡巴佬 | |
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238 lyrics | |
n.歌词 | |
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239 embodied | |
v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 );象征;包括;包含 | |
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240 elegy | |
n.哀歌,挽歌 | |
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241 vein | |
n.血管,静脉;叶脉,纹理;情绪;vt.使成脉络 | |
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242 mallet | |
n.槌棒 | |
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243 rhythmical | |
adj.有节奏的,有韵律的 | |
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244 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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245 penitent | |
adj.后悔的;n.后悔者;忏悔者 | |
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246 playwright | |
n.剧作家,编写剧本的人 | |
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247 mutation | |
n.变化,变异,转变 | |
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248 axis | |
n.轴,轴线,中心线;坐标轴,基准线 | |
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249 invaluable | |
adj.无价的,非常宝贵的,极为贵重的 | |
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250 algebra | |
n.代数学 | |
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251 weaver | |
n.织布工;编织者 | |
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252 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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253 annuities | |
n.养老金;年金( annuity的名词复数 );(每年的)养老金;年金保险;年金保险投资 | |
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254 phenomena | |
n.现象 | |
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255 lucid | |
adj.明白易懂的,清晰的,头脑清楚的 | |
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256 diffused | |
散布的,普及的,扩散的 | |
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257 friction | |
n.摩擦,摩擦力 | |
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258 pensioner | |
n.领养老金的人 | |
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259 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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260 resinous | |
adj.树脂的,树脂质的,树脂制的 | |
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261 impetus | |
n.推动,促进,刺激;推动力 | |
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262 confirmation | |
n.证实,确认,批准 | |
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263 atmospheric | |
adj.大气的,空气的;大气层的;大气所引起的 | |
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264 ascertained | |
v.弄清,确定,查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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265 Fahrenheit | |
n./adj.华氏温度;华氏温度计(的) | |
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266 inquiries | |
n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 );疑问;探究;打听 | |
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267 deductions | |
扣除( deduction的名词复数 ); 结论; 扣除的量; 推演 | |
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268 evaporation | |
n.蒸发,消失 | |
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269 respiration | |
n.呼吸作用;一次呼吸;植物光合作用 | |
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270 combustion | |
n.燃烧;氧化;骚动 | |
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271 propounded | |
v.提出(问题、计划等)供考虑[讨论],提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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272 persevering | |
a.坚忍不拔的 | |
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273 continental | |
adj.大陆的,大陆性的,欧洲大陆的 | |
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274 physiology | |
n.生理学,生理机能 | |
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275 zoology | |
n.动物学,生态 | |
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276 anatomy | |
n.解剖学,解剖;功能,结构,组织 | |
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277 harpsichord | |
n.键琴(钢琴前身) | |
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278 sonatas | |
n.奏鸣曲( sonata的名词复数 ) | |
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279 anthems | |
n.赞美诗( anthem的名词复数 );圣歌;赞歌;颂歌 | |
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280 anthem | |
n.圣歌,赞美诗,颂歌 | |
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281 liking | |
n.爱好;嗜好;喜欢 | |
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282 avowed | |
adj.公开声明的,承认的v.公开声明,承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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283 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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284 overture | |
n.前奏曲、序曲,提议,提案,初步交涉 | |
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285 entreaties | |
n.恳求,乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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286 oratorios | |
n.(以宗教为主题的)清唱剧,神剧( oratorio的名词复数 ) | |
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287 oratorio | |
n.神剧,宗教剧,清唱剧 | |
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288 abridged | |
削减的,删节的 | |
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289 cannons | |
n.加农炮,大炮,火炮( cannon的名词复数 ) | |
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290 monarch | |
n.帝王,君主,最高统治者 | |
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291 sublimity | |
崇高,庄严,气质高尚 | |
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292 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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293 annually | |
adv.一年一次,每年 | |
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294 choir | |
n.唱诗班,唱诗班的席位,合唱团,舞蹈团;v.合唱 | |
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295 choirs | |
n.教堂的唱诗班( choir的名词复数 );唱诗队;公开表演的合唱团;(教堂)唱经楼 | |
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296 secular | |
n.牧师,凡人;adj.世俗的,现世的,不朽的 | |
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297 vocal | |
adj.直言不讳的;嗓音的;n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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298 founders | |
n.创始人( founder的名词复数 ) | |
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299 madrigal | |
n.牧歌;(流行于16和17世纪无乐器伴奏的)合唱歌曲 | |
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300 rotunda | |
n.圆形建筑物;圆厅 | |
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301 puritanically | |
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302 speculative | |
adj.思索性的,暝想性的,推理的 | |
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303 concertos | |
n. [音]协奏曲 | |
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304 mansions | |
n.宅第,公馆,大厦( mansion的名词复数 ) | |
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305 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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306 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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307 colonnade | |
n.柱廊 | |
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308 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
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309 fabric | |
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
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310 contentions | |
n.竞争( contention的名词复数 );争夺;争论;论点 | |
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311 conceit | |
n.自负,自高自大 | |
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312 embellishing | |
v.美化( embellish的现在分词 );装饰;修饰;润色 | |
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313 rife | |
adj.(指坏事情)充斥的,流行的,普遍的 | |
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314 piazzas | |
n.广场,市场( piazza的名词复数 ) | |
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315 spacious | |
adj.广阔的,宽敞的 | |
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316 quays | |
码头( quay的名词复数 ) | |
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317 wharves | |
n.码头,停泊处( wharf的名词复数 ) | |
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318 warehouses | |
仓库,货栈( warehouse的名词复数 ) | |
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319 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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320 impeded | |
阻碍,妨碍,阻止( impede的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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321 observatory | |
n.天文台,气象台,瞭望台,观测台 | |
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322 gateway | |
n.大门口,出入口,途径,方法 | |
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323 spire | |
n.(教堂)尖顶,尖塔,高点 | |
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324 surmounted | |
战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 ); 克服(困难); 居于…之上; 在…顶上 | |
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325 dome | |
n.圆屋顶,拱顶 | |
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326 portico | |
n.柱廊,门廊 | |
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327 nave | |
n.教堂的中部;本堂 | |
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328 regularity | |
n.规律性,规则性;匀称,整齐 | |
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329 aisles | |
n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
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330 recesses | |
n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 );(工作或业务活动的)中止或暂停期间;学校的课间休息;某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 );将(墙)做成凹形,在(墙)上做壁龛;休息,休会,休庭 | |
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331 inscription | |
n.(尤指石块上的)刻印文字,铭文,碑文 | |
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332 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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333 innovated | |
v.改革,创新( innovate的过去式和过去分词 );引入(新事物、思想或方法), | |
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334 friezes | |
n.(柱顶过梁和挑檐间的)雕带,(墙顶的)饰带( frieze的名词复数 ) | |
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335 projections | |
预测( projection的名词复数 ); 投影; 投掷; 突起物 | |
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336 ornament | |
v.装饰,美化;n.装饰,装饰物 | |
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337 ornamented | |
adj.花式字体的v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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338 compilations | |
n.编辑,编写( compilation的名词复数 );编辑物 | |
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339 lamenting | |
adj.悲伤的,悲哀的v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的现在分词 ) | |
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340 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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341 exteriors | |
n.外面( exterior的名词复数 );外貌;户外景色图 | |
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342 pliant | |
adj.顺从的;可弯曲的 | |
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343 purely | |
adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
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344 majestic | |
adj.雄伟的,壮丽的,庄严的,威严的,崇高的 | |
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345 cardinal | |
n.(天主教的)红衣主教;adj.首要的,基本的 | |
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346 ponderous | |
adj.沉重的,笨重的,(文章)冗长的 | |
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347 incongruity | |
n.不协调,不一致 | |
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348 ERECTED | |
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
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349 deplore | |
vt.哀叹,对...深感遗憾 | |
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350 pinnacles | |
顶峰( pinnacle的名词复数 ); 顶点; 尖顶; 小尖塔 | |
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351 thwarted | |
阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 ); 使受挫折; 挫败; 横过 | |
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352 gilt | |
adj.镀金的;n.金边证券 | |
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353 undertakings | |
企业( undertaking的名词复数 ); 保证; 殡仪业; 任务 | |
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354 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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355 erecting | |
v.使直立,竖起( erect的现在分词 );建立 | |
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356 pervading | |
v.遍及,弥漫( pervade的现在分词 ) | |
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357 hybrid | |
n.(动,植)杂种,混合物 | |
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358 metropolis | |
n.首府;大城市 | |
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359 strand | |
vt.使(船)搁浅,使(某人)困于(某地) | |
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360 burrows | |
n.地洞( burrow的名词复数 )v.挖掘(洞穴),挖洞( burrow的第三人称单数 );翻寻 | |
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361 archer | |
n.射手,弓箭手 | |
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362 salmon | |
n.鲑,大马哈鱼,橙红色的 | |
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363 ebb | |
vi.衰退,减退;n.处于低潮,处于衰退状态 | |
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364 sketched | |
v.草拟(sketch的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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365 postures | |
姿势( posture的名词复数 ); 看法; 态度; 立场 | |
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366 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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367 enamel | |
n.珐琅,搪瓷,瓷釉;(牙齿的)珐琅质 | |
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368 busts | |
半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 ); 妇女的胸部; 胸围; 突击搜捕 | |
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369 transparent | |
adj.明显的,无疑的;透明的 | |
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370 embellished | |
v.美化( embellish的过去式和过去分词 );装饰;修饰;润色 | |
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371 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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372 regain | |
vt.重新获得,收复,恢复 | |
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373 chiaroscuro | |
n.明暗对照法 | |
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374 instructor | |
n.指导者,教员,教练 | |
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375 satirist | |
n.讽刺诗作者,讽刺家,爱挖苦别人的人 | |
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376 derides | |
v.取笑,嘲笑( deride的第三人称单数 ) | |
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377 follies | |
罪恶,时事讽刺剧; 愚蠢,蠢笨,愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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378 perverted | |
adj.不正当的v.滥用( pervert的过去式和过去分词 );腐蚀;败坏;使堕落 | |
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379 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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380 corrupted | |
(使)败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)腐化; 引起(计算机文件等的)错误; 破坏 | |
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381 consecrates | |
n.把…奉为神圣,给…祝圣( consecrate的名词复数 );奉献v.把…奉为神圣,给…祝圣( consecrate的第三人称单数 );奉献 | |
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382 pander | |
v.迎合;n.拉皮条者,勾引者;帮人做坏事的人 | |
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383 folly | |
n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话 | |
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384 extirpate | |
v.除尽,灭绝 | |
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385 engraving | |
n.版画;雕刻(作品);雕刻艺术;镌版术v.在(硬物)上雕刻(字,画等)( engrave的现在分词 );将某事物深深印在(记忆或头脑中) | |
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386 illustrated | |
adj. 有插图的,列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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387 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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388 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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389 subscriptions | |
n.(报刊等的)订阅费( subscription的名词复数 );捐款;(俱乐部的)会员费;捐助 | |
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390 dressing | |
n.(食物)调料;包扎伤口的用品,敷料 | |
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391 avowal | |
n.公开宣称,坦白承认 | |
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392 caustic | |
adj.刻薄的,腐蚀性的 | |
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393 auction | |
n.拍卖;拍卖会;vt.拍卖 | |
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394 inspection | |
n.检查,审查,检阅 | |
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395 dedicated | |
adj.一心一意的;献身的;热诚的 | |
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396 dedication | |
n.奉献,献身,致力,题献,献辞 | |
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397 serpentine | |
adj.蜿蜒的,弯曲的 | |
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398 envious | |
adj.嫉妒的,羡慕的 | |
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399 enraged | |
使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 ); 歜; 激愤 | |
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400 sketching | |
n.草图 | |
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401 commemorated | |
v.纪念,庆祝( commemorate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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402 enumerated | |
v.列举,枚举,数( enumerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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403 distressed | |
痛苦的 | |
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404 chisels | |
n.凿子,錾子( chisel的名词复数 );口凿 | |
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405 simplicity | |
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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406 conversion | |
n.转化,转换,转变 | |
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407 shovel | |
n.铁锨,铲子,一铲之量;v.铲,铲出 | |
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408 contemptible | |
adj.可鄙的,可轻视的,卑劣的 | |
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409 swarmed | |
密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 ); 云集; 成群地移动; 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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410 dealers | |
n.商人( dealer的名词复数 );贩毒者;毒品贩子;发牌者 | |
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411 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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412 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
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413 upwards | |
adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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414 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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415 jersey | |
n.运动衫 | |
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416 Mediterranean | |
adj.地中海的;地中海沿岸的 | |
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417 superseded | |
[医]被代替的,废弃的 | |
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418 indigo | |
n.靛青,靛蓝 | |
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419 rendering | |
n.表现,描写 | |
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420 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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421 proprietors | |
n.所有人,业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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422 plantations | |
n.种植园,大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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423 ginger | |
n.姜,精力,淡赤黄色;adj.淡赤黄色的;vt.使活泼,使有生气 | |
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424 bullion | |
n.金条,银条 | |
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425 innovator | |
n.改革者;创新者 | |
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426 benefactor | |
n. 恩人,行善的人,捐助人 | |
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427 smuggled | |
水货 | |
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428 destitute | |
adj.缺乏的;穷困的 | |
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429 compensate | |
vt.补偿,赔偿;酬报 vi.弥补;补偿;抵消 | |
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430 bounties | |
(由政府提供的)奖金( bounty的名词复数 ); 赏金; 慷慨; 大方 | |
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431 premiums | |
n.费用( premium的名词复数 );保险费;额外费用;(商品定价、贷款利息等以外的)加价 | |
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432 prosecuted | |
a.被起诉的 | |
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433 smelting | |
n.熔炼v.熔炼,提炼(矿石)( smelt的现在分词 ) | |
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434 contemplated | |
adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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435 obviated | |
v.避免,消除(贫困、不方便等)( obviate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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436 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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437 brittle | |
adj.易碎的;脆弱的;冷淡的;(声音)尖利的 | |
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438 plentiful | |
adj.富裕的,丰富的 | |
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439 brass | |
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器 | |
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440 refinement | |
n.文雅;高尚;精美;精制;精炼 | |
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441 engraver | |
n.雕刻师,雕工 | |
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442 stereotyping | |
v.把…模式化,使成陈规( stereotype的现在分词 ) | |
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443 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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444 excise | |
n.(国产)货物税;vt.切除,删去 | |
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445 earthenware | |
n.土器,陶器 | |
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446 pottery | |
n.陶器,陶器场 | |
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447 repealed | |
撤销,废除( repeal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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448 hull | |
n.船身;(果、实等的)外壳;vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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