ll drove towards Bayonne to watch the ships struggle
over the bar at high water. As it happened we only saw one pass out, a
countryman for Cardiff. A string of others were waiting to go, but a
little steamer from Nantes came first, and having secured her station,
found she had not force enough to make the bar, and the others remained
swearing impatiently behind her. The Nantes steamer was like Ireland. The
scene was very fresh and fine, and the cold most exhilarating after the
mugginess of the last two or three days. Mr. G., who has a dizzy head, did
not venture on the jetty, but watched things from the sands. He and I
drove home together, at a good pace. "I am inclined," he said laughingly,
"to agree with Dr. Johnson that there is no pleasure greater than sitting
behind four fast-going horses."(293) Talking of Johnson generally, "I
suppose we may take him as the best product of the eighteenth century."
Perhaps so, but is he its most characteristic product?

_Wellington._--Curious that there should be no general estimate of W.'s
character; his character not merely as a general but as a man. No love of
freedom. His sense of duty very strong, but military rather than civil.

_Montalembert._--Had often come into contact with him. A very amiable and
attractive man. But less remarkable than Rio.

_Latin Poets._--Would you place Virgil first?

_J. M._--Oh, no, Lucretius much the first for the greatest and sublimest of
poetic qualities. Mr. G. seemed to assent to this, though disposed to make
a fight for the second _Aeneid_ as equal to anything. He expressed his
admiration for Catullus, and then he was strong that Horace would run
anybody else very hard, breaking out with the lines about Regulus--

"Atqui sciebat quae sibi barbarus
Tortor pararet;" etc.(294)

_Blunders in Government._--How right Napoleon was when he said, reflecting
on all the vast complexities of government, that the best to be said of a
statesman is that he has avoided the biggest blunders.

It is not easy to define the charm of these conversations. Is charm the
right word? They are in the highest degree stimulating, bracing, widening.
That is certain. I return to my room with the sensations of a man who has
taken delightful exercise in fresh air. He is so wholly free from the
_ergoteur_. There's all the difference between the _ergoteur_ and the
great debater. He fits his tone to the thing; he can be as playful as
anybody. In truth I have m