indeed were wanting, that there is no incentive
to exertion like the passion for a noble renown. Nor should it be
forgotten, that, in all he accomplished, he had but one final purpose,
and that the highest. The debate, the committee, the article in the
Journal or the Review, the public meeting, the private research, these
were all means to advance that which he had proposed as the object of
his public life, namely, to elevate the condition of the people.

Although there was no public man whose powers had more rapidly ripened,
still it was interesting to observe that their maturity had been
faithful to the healthy sympathies of his earlier years. The boy, whom
we have traced intent upon the revival of the pastimes of the people,
had expanded into the statesman, who, in a profound and comprehensive
investigation of the elements of public wealth, had shown that a jaded
population is not a source of national prosperity. What had been a
picturesque emotion had now become a statistical argument. The material
system that proposes the supply of constant toil to a people as the
perfection of polity, had received a staggering blow from the exertions
of a young patrician, who announced his belief that labour had its
rights as well as its duties. What was excellent about Lord Henry
was, that he was not a mere philanthropist, satisfied to rouse public
attention to a great social evil, or instantly to suggest for it some
crude remedy.

A scholar and a man of the world, learned in history and not
inexperienced in human nature, he was sensible that we must look to the
constituent principles of society for the causes and the cures of great
national disorders. He therefore went deeply into the question, nor
shrank from investigating how far those disorders were produced by the
operation or the desuetude of ancient institutions, and how far it might
be necessary to call new influences into political existence for
their remedy. Richly informed, still studious, fond of labour and
indefatigable, of a gentle disposition though of an ardent mind, calm
yet energetic, very open to conviction, but possessing an inflexibility
amounting even to obstinacy when his course was once taken, a ready and
improving speaker, an apt and attractive writer, affable and sincere,
and with the undesigning faculty of making friends, Lord Henry seemed
to possess all the qualities of a popular leader, if we add to them
the golden ones: high lineage, an engaging ap