pends upon two things, the
witness of contemporaries to the impression produced upon them, and
the written or printed record of his speeches. Few are the famous
speakers who would be famous if they were tried by this latter test
alone, and Mr. Gladstone was not one of them. It is only by a rare
combination of gifts that one who speaks with so much force and
brilliance as to charm his listeners is also able to deliver thoughts
so valuable in words so choice that posterity will read them as
literature. Some of the ancient orators did this; but we seldom know
how far those of their speeches which have been preserved are the
speeches which they actually delivered. Among moderns, a few French
preachers, Edmund Burke, Macaulay, and Daniel Webster are perhaps the
only speakers whose discourses have passed into classics and find new
generations of readers.[65] Twenty years hence Mr. Gladstone's will
not be read, except, of course, by historians. Indeed, they ceased to
be read even in his lifetime. They are too long, too diffuse, too
minute in their handling of details, too elaborately qualified in
their enunciation of general principles. They contain few epigrams and
few of those weighty thoughts put into telling phrases which the
Greeks called +gnomai+. The style, in short, is not sufficiently rich
or polished to give an enduring interest to matter whose practical
importance has vanished. The same oblivion has overtaken all but a few
of the best speeches (or parts of speeches) of Grattan, Sheridan,
Pitt, Fox, Erskine, Canning, Plunket, Brougham, Peel, Bright. It may,
indeed, be said--and the examples of Burke and Macaulay show that this
is no paradox--that the speakers whom posterity most enjoys are rarely
those who most affected the audiences that listened to them.[66]

If, on the other hand, Mr. Gladstone be judged by the impression he
made on his own time, his place will be high in the front rank. His
speeches were neither so concisely telling as Mr. Bright's nor so
finished in diction; but no other man among his contemporaries--neither
Lord Derby nor Mr. Lowe, nor Lord Beaconsfield nor Lord Cairns, nor
Bishop Wilberforce nor Bishop Magee--taken all round, could be ranked
beside him. And he rose superior to Mr. Bright himself in readiness,
in variety of knowledge, in persuasive ingenuity. Mr. Bright spoke
seldom and required time for preparation. Admirable in the breadth and
force with which he set forth his own position, o