21st, 1835 {p.292}

Yesterday I fell in with Lyndhurst, just getting out of his
carriage at his door in George Street. He asked me to come in and
look at his house, which I did. I asked him what would happen
about the Bill. He said, 'Oh, they will take it. What can they
do? If they choose to throw it out, let them do so, I don't care
whether they do or not. But they will take it, because they know
it does their business, though not so completely as they desire.'
He said he would alter the qualification, though he did not think
it objectionable. I told him I hoped there might be some
compromise, and that he and his friends would give way on some of
their amendments, and that the Commons would take the rest. Even
the 'Times,' which _goes the whole hog_ with the Opposition,
won't swallow this (the aldermen), and suggests that it should be
withdrawn. Nothing ever was like the outrageous indecency of the
attacks upon the House of Lords in the Ministerial papers, and it
is not clear that they won't overdo the thing; this kind of fury
generally defeats its own object.

August 25th, 1835

[Page Head: WHAT IS HAPPINESS?]

At Hillingdon from Saturday till Monday last; began the Life of
Mackintosh, and was delighted with Sydney Smith's letter which is
prefixed to it; read and walked all day on Sunday--the two things
I do least, viz. exercise my mind and body; therefore both grow
gross and heavy. Shakespeare says fat paunches make lean pates,
but this is taken from a Greek proverb. I admire this family of
Cox's at Hillingdon, and after casting my eyes in every direction,
and thinking much and often of the theory of happiness, I am
convinced that it is principally to be found in contented
mediocrity, accompanied with an equable temperament and warm
though not excitable feelings. When I read such books as
Mackintosh's Life, and see what other men have done, how they have
read and thought, a sort of despair comes over me, a deep and
bitter sensation of regret 'for time misspent and talents
misapplied,' not the less bitter from being coupled with a
hopelessness of remedial industry and of doing better things. Nor
do I know that such men as these were happy; that they possessed
sources of enjoyment inaccessible to less gifted minds is not to
be doubted, but whether knowledge and conscious ability and
superiority generally bring with them content of mind and the
sunshine of self-satisfaction to the possessors is anything but
ce