79 



about ten yards. At the termination of these lines (or avenues, 

 as they are called,) are found dolmens, cromlechs, menhirs, and 

 other kinds of Keltic or Druidical erections. Interesting partic- 

 ulars were given of other remains in the neighbourhood, and the 

 paper thus concluded :—" Though there is nothing in Brittany 

 of the grandeur of the Eastern Karnak, though there are no 

 tokens of mechanical ability such as are displayed at Stonehenge. 

 the place is one of great interest, suggesting by its weird aspect 

 thoughts of the buried past and of the forgotten dead." 



3. Some of the anomaUes and inequalities of the Income Tax 

 were dealt with in this paper, and remedies suggested. 



4. Burnley, though an unlovely town is placed in the midst 

 of a lovely country. In its picturesque natural surroundings 

 Burnley possesses spots adapted to any mood that would stir a 

 Poet's mind. Such scenes were to be found in Ogden Clough, 

 on the summits of Pendle and Boulsworth, in Moorhiles Clough, 

 or in Pendle Forest. 



AN EVENING WITH MOLIERE. 



By W. WILLEY. October 18th, 1887. 



MoHere was a man of his time, but did his work so as to make 

 it serviceable for all time. He was an artist of human nature 

 and painted it so well and truly that mankind can never be weary 

 of contemplating his portraitures. Though of hypochondriac 

 temperament, he must be classed amongst the laughing philoso- 

 phers. He proclaimed comic war against all shams and all the 

 men and women who aided and abetted them. Bores, bullies, 

 prigs, pedants, snobs, blue-stockings, dandies, chatterboxes! 

 scandal-mongers, misers, hypocrites, toadies, quacks, spinners of 

 doggerel, parasites of the court, men about town,— Mohere "ran 

 a-muck " among them all. 



One mortal only did he condescend to spare— the King. Louis 

 XIV, who was his stedfast patron, and whom he flattered almost 

 to the extent of servility. The King's inspiration, he says in 

 the letter prefacing Les Facheux, was of more efficacy to him 

 than that of Apollo and all the muses. The Naiad who recites 

 the prologue says that she has come from her grotto to see the 

 greatest of kings. He is a miracle in purple. Heaven could 

 refuse him nothing. If he desired it, the very trees would sing. 

 He outshines the demigods. 



While abjectly complaisant to royalty, however, Mohere must 

 be regarded as a great democratic force, because he poured un- 

 stinted derision upon the privileged classes which constitute the 



