felt myself carried away, and convinced almost against my
will." Not at all! Wonder what he meant by that? Why "against his
will"? That's what Liberal Unionists, and other preposterous and
illogical opponents of mine say in House, when they compliment me on
my "eloquence," _and then vote against me!_ Absurd! Wish they'd drop
their compliments and vote straight.

"Small and exotic contribution" to Oriental Congress! Neat description
of paper running to nearly four columns of _Times_. "Intense sentiment
of nationality, which led the Greeks of later days to covet the title
of Autochthones." Wonder if that reminded MAX, or anyone else, of
_another_ race with "an intense sentiment of nationality," and a
passionate love of the land from which they sprang. Wonder whether,
if Nationalists were to call themselves "Auctochthones" instead of
Home-Rulers, we should get along better? Must consult JUSTIN on this
point. Should have to teach some of them to _pronounce_ their new
name, though. "Autochthones," spoken in wrath, with a rich brogue,
after dinner, would, I should think, beat Phillippopolis, or "Ri'
l'il, ti' li'l Isl'l" hollow.

_Anax andron_, too, might be useful. Say, as substitute for that
everlasting G.O.M., of which I admit I'm heartily sick, Lord of Men!
_Not_ King of Men, of course. LABBY might kick at latter. "Nothing
can be simpler than the meaning of the two words." Exactly. Must get
HARCOURT to popularise these. Applied to AGAMEMNON. Why not to "strong
men" who live _after_ AGAMEMNON? "Evidence from extraneous sources
of connection between title of _Anax andron_ and great Egyptian
Empire." Aha! I may yet have to play the _Anax andron_ in Egypt as
before. Allegory--I mean _Anax andron_ on banks of Nile! Good--and
not a Malapropism, whatever WOLSELEY may say. "Title of _Anax
andron_ descendible" (good word, "descendible") "from father to
son, and accorded in the poems to personages altogether secondary,
_viz._, EUMELOS and EUPHETES." Wonder what my EUMELOS--HERBERT--will
say to that!

Enjoyed it much whilst MAX was "mouthing out" (as Mrs. BROWNING
says) my eulogy of that man of "Phoenician stamp," the "universal
ODYSSEUS," who expressed the many-sided, the all-accomplished man;
the _polutropos_, the _polumetis_, the _tlemon_, the _polutlas_, the
_polumekanos_, the _poikilometis_, the _poluphron_, the _daiphron_,
the _talasiphron._ (What a peck of p's!) In battle never foiled! In
council supreme! His oratory lik