e common, not to
say vulgar, ambition of the English _parvenu_, to found a "county
family." In his story of _Endymion_, published a few months before his
death, the hero, starting from small beginnings, ends by becoming
prime minister: this is the crown of his career, the noblest triumph
an Englishman can achieve. It might have been thought that one who had
been through it all, who had realised the dreams of his boyhood, who
had every opportunity of learning what power and fame come to, would
have liked to set forth some other conception of the end of human
life, or would not have told the world so naively of his self-content
at having attained the aim he had worked for. With most men the flower
they have plucked withers. It might have been expected that one who
was in other things an ironical cynic would at least have sought to
seem disillusionised.

To say that Disraeli's heart was somewhat cold is by no means to say
that he was heartless. He was one of those strong natures who
permit neither persons nor principles to stand in their way. His
doctrine was that politics had nothing to do with sentiment; so those
who appealed to him on grounds of humanity appealed in vain. No act
of his life ever so much offended English opinion as the airy
fashion in which he tossed aside the news of the Bulgarian massacre of
1876. It incensed sections who were strong enough, when thoroughly
roused, to bring about his fall. But he was far from being unkindly.
He knew how to attach men to him by friendly deeds as well as
friendly words. He seldom missed an opportunity of saying something
pleasant and cheering to a _debutant_ in Parliament, whether of his
own party or the opposite. He was not selfish in little things; was
always ready to consider the comfort and convenience of those who
surrounded him. Age and success, so far from making him morose or
supercilious, softened the asperities of his character and developed
the affectionate side of it. His last novel, published a few months
before his death, contains more human kindliness, a fuller
recognition of the worth of friendship and the beauty of sisterly
and conjugal love, than do the writings of his earlier manhood.
What it wants in intellectual power it makes up for in a mellower and
more tender tone. Of loyalty to his political friends he was a
model, and nothing did more to secure his command of the party than
its sense that his professional honour, so to speak, could be
implici