ng what he had shown himself capable of doing in the way of
physical exertion, could feel much anxiety on the score of the failure of
his strength."

He was touched by a visit from the son of an old farmer, who brought him
as an offering from his father to Mr. Gladstone a curiously carved
Norwegian bowl three hundred years old, with two horse-head handles.
Strolling about Aalesund, he was astonished to find in the bookshop of the
place a Norse translation of Mill's _Logic_. He was closely observant of
all religious services whenever he had the chance, and noticed that at
Laurvig all the tombstones had prayers for the dead. He read perhaps a
little less voraciously than usual, and on one or two days, being unable
to read, he "meditated and reviewed"--always, I think, from the same point
of view--the point of view of Bunyan's _Grace Abounding_, or his own
letters to his father half a century before. Not seldom a vision of the
coming elections flitted before the mind's eye, and he made notes for what
he calls an _abbozzo_ or sketch of his address to Midlothian.

BOOK IX. 1885-1886

Chapter I. Leadership And The General Election. (1885)

Our understanding of history is spoiled by our knowledge of the
event.--HELPS.

I

Mr. Gladstone came back from his cruise in the _Sunbeam_ at the beginning
of September; leaving the yacht at Fort George and proceeding to Fasque to
celebrate his elder brother's golden wedding. From Fasque he wrote to Lord
Hartington (Sept. 3): "I have returned to terra firma extremely well in
general health, and with a better throat; in full expectation of having to
consider anxious and doubtful matters, and now finding them rather more
anxious and doubtful than I had anticipated. As yet I am free to take a
share or not in the coming political issues, and I must weigh many things
before finally surrendering this freedom." His first business, he wrote to
Sir W. Harcourt (Sept. 12), was to throw his thoughts into order for an
address to his constituents, framed only for the dissolution, and "written
with my best care to avoid treading on the toes of either the right or the
left wing." He had communicated, he said, with Granville, Hartington, and
Chamberlain; by both of the two latter he had been a good deal buffeted;
and having explained the general idea with which he proposed to write, he
asked each of the pair whether upon the whole their wish was that he
should go on or