e. All that can be done here is to
indicate the more salient characteristics which a study of his career
as a statesman and a parliamentarian sets before us.

The most remarkable of these characteristics was the openness,
freshness, and eagerness of mind which he preserved down to the end of
his life. Most men form few new opinions after thirty-five, just as
they form few new intimacies. Intellectual curiosity may remain even
after fifty, but its range narrows as a man abandons the hope of
attaining any thorough knowledge of subjects other than those which
make the main business of his life. It is impossible to follow the
progress of all the new ideas that are set afloat in the world,
impossible to be always examining the foundations of one's political
or religious beliefs. Repeated disappointments and disillusionments
make a man expect less from changes the older he grows; while
indolence deters him from entering upon new enterprises. None of these
causes seemed to affect Mr. Gladstone. He was as much excited over a
new book (such as Cardinal Manning's Life) at eighty-four as when at
fourteen he insisted on compelling little Arthur Stanley (afterwards
Dean of Westminster, and then aged nine) forthwith to procure and
study Gray's poems, which he had just perused himself. His reading
covered almost the whole field of literature, except physical and
mathematical science. While frequently declaring that he must confine
his political thinking and leadership to a few subjects, he was so
observant of current events that the course of talk brought up
scarcely any topic in which he did not seem to know what was the
latest thing that had been said or done. Neither the lassitude nor the
prejudices that usually accompany old age prevented him from giving a
fair consideration to any new doctrines. But though his intellect was
restlessly at work, and though his curiosity disposed him to relish
novelties, except in theology, that bottom rock in his mind of caution
and reserve, which has already been referred to, made him refuse to
part with old views even when he was beginning to accept new ones. He
allowed both to "lie on the table" together, and while declaring
himself open to conviction, felt it safer to speak and act on the old
lines till the process of conviction had been completed. It took
fourteen years, from 1846 to 1860, to carry him from the Conservative
into the Liberal camp. It took five stormy years to bring him round to