is but one
feeling and one opinion about the really courageous stand you have
made."

"I must gain confidence all the same in my own ability to keep my
resolves when they are clear to me. I once prided myself in that ability
as the one gem in my character."

"You may laugh at yourself as much as you please. Beauty is as well
worth admiring as anything on earth, and the world is better lost for
love, than love for the world. At least, let us say so. I met Reckage at
the Travellers' yesterday, and had some talk with him about his
Association. I think it far better that Aumerle should not resign, as he
could, and probably would, be very mischievous as a freelance. Reckage
is all for shaking him off, but these things, in any circumstances,
should never be forced."

"I advised Reckage myself to sound each member of the Committee
privately. Then, at the general meeting, he could form some just
estimate of the difficulties in his way, and in their way."

"Reckage, though a mean fellow, might give you an opportunity to work a
strong Sub-Committee," suggested Disraeli. "One cannot calculate on the
course of a man so variable and impulsive. He proposes to get rid of
Aumerle, and make concessions to his set. It is an unhappy policy, and
always unhappily applied, to imagine that men can be reconciled by
partial concessions. I attribute much of Reckage's behaviour to his fear
of society. Society itself, however, does not practise any of the
virtues which it demands from the individual. It ridicules the highest
motives, and degrades the most heroic achievements. It is fed with
emotions and spectacles: it cries, laughs, and condemns without
knowledge and without enthusiasm. Pitiable indeed is the politician who
makes society his moral barometer."

"I have urged him to be firm. Christianity was never yet at peace with
its age. There is no other Faith whose first teacher was persecuted and
crucified. Viewed solely as a point of administration, it is disastrous
to cut religious thought according to the fashionable pattern of the
hour. This has been the constant weakness of English Churchmen. They try
to match eternity with the times."

"My opinion is that Reckage must act with considerable caution, or he
will find himself repudiated by every party. The English like a fellow
to stand by his guns. I come now to your own business. Will you do me a
favour? Before you reply let me define it. I have been asked to send
some good speake