atues of the late Mr.
Gladstone."--H. G. Wells, _The New Machiavelli_.

[46] "Speaking generally, I should say there could not be a less
interesting occasion than the laying of the foundation-stone of a Club
in London. For, after all, what are the Clubs of London? I am afraid
little else than temples of luxury and ease. This, however, is a club of
a very different character."

[47] The others were the late Duke of Argyll and the eighth Lord Elgin.

[48] "I had to speak in the House of Lords last night. It is a really
terrible place for the unaccustomed. Frigid impatience and absolute
goodwill, combined with a thorough conviction of the infallibility of
laymen (if not too religious) on all sacred subjects, are the tone,
_morale_, and reason, of the House as a living being. My whole
self-possession departs, and ejection from the House seems the best
thing which could happen to one."--Archbishop Benson to the Rev. B. F.
Westcott, March 22, 1884.

XIII

LITERATURE

There was Captain Sumph, an ex-beau, still about town, and related
in some indistinct manner to Literature and the Peerage. He was
said to have written a book once, to have been a friend of Lord
Byron, to be related to Lord Sumphington.... This gentleman was
listened to with great attention by Mrs. Bungay; his anecdotes of
the Aristocracy, of which he was a middle-aged member, delighted
the publisher's lady.
W. M. THACKERAY, _Pendennis_.

When I am writing Reminiscences, I always feel dreadfully like Captain
Sumph; but, in order to make the resemblance quite exact, I must devote
a chapter to Literature.

I seem, from my earliest conscious years, to have lived in a world of
books; and yet my home was by no means "bookish." I was trained by
people who had not read much, but had read thoroughly; who regarded good
literature with unfeigned admiration; and who, though they would never
have dreamt of forcing or cramming, yet were pleased when they saw a boy
inclined to read, and did their best to guide his reading aright. As I
survey my early life and compare it with the present day, one of the
social changes which impresses me most is the general decay of
intellectual cultivation. This may sound paradoxical in an age which
habitually talks so much about Education and Culture; but I am persuaded
that it is true. Dilettantism is universal, and a smattering of
erudition, infinite