ute power, treated their father at first with
disrespect, and soon with contumely. Refused at last even the comforts
necessary to his declining years, the old king, in a transport of
rage, left the palace, with, it is said, only the court fool for an
attendant, and wandered, frantic and half naked, during the storms of
winter, in the woods of Britain.

"Hearing of these events, his youngest daughter hastily collected an
army, and invaded the territory of her ungrateful sisters, with the
object of restoring her father to his throne; but, being met by a well
disciplined force, under the command of her eldest sister's paramour,
Edmund, bastard son of the Earl of Gloucester, was herself defeated,
thrown into prison, and soon afterwards strangled by the adulterer's
order. The old king expired on receiving the news of her death; and the
participators in these crimes soon after received their reward; for the
two wicked queens being rivals for the affections of the bastard, the
one of them who was regarded by him with less favour poisoned the other,
and afterwards killed herself. Edmund afterwards met his death at the
hand of his brother, the legitimate son of Gloucester, under whose rule,
with that of the Earl of Kent, the kingdom remained for several
succeeding years."

Imagine this succinctly graceful recital of what the historian
conceived to be the facts, adorned with violently black and white
woodcuts, representing the blinding of Gloucester, the phrenzy of
Lear, the strangling of Cordelia, and the suicide of Goneril, and you
have a type of popular history in the nineteenth century; which is,
you may perceive after a little reflection, about as profitable
reading for young persons (so far as regards the general colour and
purity of their thoughts) as the Newgate Calendar would be; with this
farther condition of incalculably greater evil, that, while the
calendar of prison-crime would teach a thoughtful youth the dangers of
low life and evil company, the calendar of kingly crime overthrows his
respect for any manner of government, and his faith in the ordinances
of Providence itself.

Books of loftier pretence, written by bankers, members of Parliament,
or orthodox clergymen, are of course not wanting; and show that the
progress of civilization consists in the victory of usury over
ecclesiastical prejudice, or in the establishment of the Parliamentary
privileges of the borough of Puddlecombe, or in the extinction of the