lay to their imagination.

We may now ask again the question asked at first: How did a man,
whatever his natural gifts, who was weighted in his course by such
disadvantages as Disraeli's, by his Jewish origin, by the escapades of
his early career, by the want of confidence which his habitual
cynicism inspired, by the visionary nature of so many of his
views,--how did he, in a conservative and aristocratic country like
England, triumph over so many prejudices and enmities, and raise
himself to be the head of the Conservative and aristocratic party, the
trusted counsellor of the Crown, the ruler, almost the dictator, of a
free people?

However high be the estimate formed of Disraeli's gifts, secondary
causes must have been at work to enable him to overcome the obstacles
that blocked his path. The ancients were not wrong in ascribing to
Fortune a great share in human affairs. Now, among the secondary
causes of success, that "general minister and leader set over worldly
splendours," as Dante calls her,[15] played no insignificant part. One
of these causes lay in the nature of the party to which he belonged.
The Tory party of the years between 1848 and 1865 contained a
comparatively small number of able men. When J. S. Mill once called it
the stupid party, it did not repudiate the name, but pointed to its
cohesion and its resolution as showing how many things besides mere
talent go to make political greatness. A man of shining gifts had
within its ranks few competitors; and this was signally the case
immediately after Peel's defection. That statesman had carried off
with him the intellectual flower of the Conservatives. Those who were
left behind to form the Protectionist Opposition in the House of
Commons were broad-acred squires, of solid character but slender
capacity. Through this heavy atmosphere Mr. Disraeli rose like a
balloon. Being practically the only member of his party in the Commons
with either strategical or debating power, he became indispensable,
and soon established a supremacy which years of patient labour might
not have given him in a rivalry with the distinguished band who
surrounded Peel. During the twenty years that followed the great Tory
schism of 1846 no man arose in the Tory ranks capable of disputing his
throne. The conspiracies hatched against him might well have prospered
could a candidate for the leadership have been found capable of
crossing swords with the chieftain in possession. Fortune, t