e master-key, unless it be simplicity, or freedom
from the curse of affectation. What is certain is that nobody of his
time was a finer example of high good manners and genuine courtesy than
Mr. Gladstone himself. He has left a little sheaf of random jottings
which, without being subtle or recondite, show how he looked on this
side of human things. Here is an example or two:--

There are a class of passages in Mr. Wilberforce's _Journals_,
_e.g._, some of those recording his successful speeches, which
might in many men be set down to vanity, but in him are more fairly
I should think ascribable to a singlemindedness which did not
inflate. Surely with _most_ men it is the safest rule, to make
scanty records of success achieved, and yet more rarely to notice
praise, which should pass us like the breeze, enjoyed but not
arrested. There must indeed be some sign, a stone as it were set
up, to remind us that such and such were occasions for
thankfulness; but should not the memorials be restricted wholly and
expressly for this purpose? For the fumes of praise are rapidly and
fearfully intoxicating; it comes like a spark to the tow if once
we give it, as it were, admission within us. (1838.)

There are those to whom vanity brings more of pain than of
pleasure; there are also those whom it oftener keeps in the
background, than thrusts forward. The same man who to-day
volunteers for that which he is not called upon to do, may
to-morrow flinch from his obvious duty from one and the same
cause,--vanity, or regard to the appearance he is to make, for its
own sake, and perhaps that vanity which shrinks is a more subtle
and far-sighted, a more ethereal, a more profound vanity than that
which presumes. (1842.)

A question of immense importance meets us in ethical inquiries, as
follows: is there a sense in which it is needful, right, and
praiseworthy, that man should be much habituated to look back upon
himself and keep his eye upon himself; a self-regard, and even a
self-respect, which are compatible with the self-renunciation and
self-distrust which belong to Christianity? In the observance of a
single distinction we shall find, perhaps, a secure and sufficient
answer. We are to respect our responsibilities, not ourselves. We
are to respect the duties of which we are capable, but n