stake if you
do not rise. Perseverance and tact are the two qualities most valuable
for all men who would mount, but especially for those who have to step
out of the crowd. I am sure no one can say you are not assiduous, but I
am glad always to observe that you have tact. Without tact you can learn
nothing. Tact teaches you when to be silent. Inquirers who are always
inquiring never learn anything."

CHAPTER LXII

Lancashire was not so wonderful a place forty years ago as it is at
present, but, compared then with the rest of England, it was infinitely
more striking. For a youth like Endymion, born and bred in our southern
counties, the Berkshire downs varied by the bustle of Pall-Mall and the
Strand--Lancashire, with its teeming and toiling cities, its colossal
manufactories and its gigantic chimneys, its roaring engines and its
flaming furnaces, its tramroads and its railroads, its coal and its
cotton, offered a far greater contrast to the scenes in which he had
hitherto lived, than could be furnished by almost any country of the
European continent.

Endymion felt it was rather a crisis in his life, and that his future
might much depend on the fulfilment of the confidential office which
had been entrusted to him by his chief. He summoned all his energies,
concentrated his intelligence on the one subject, and devoted to its
study and comprehension every moment of his thought and time. After a
while, he had made Manchester his head-quarters. It was even then the
centre of a network of railways, and gave him an easy command of the
contiguous districts.

Endymion had more than once inquired after the Anti-Corn-Law League,
but had not as yet been so fortunate as to attend any of their meetings.
They were rarer than they afterwards soon became, and the great
manufacturers did not encourage them. "I do not like extreme views,"
said one of the most eminent one day to Endymion. "In my opinion, we
should always avoid extremes;" and he paused and looked around, as if
he had enunciated a heaven-born truth, and for the first time. "I am a
Liberal; so we all are here. I supported Lord Grey, and I support Lord
Melbourne, and I am, in everything, for a liberal policy. I don't like
extremes. A wise minister should take off the duty on cotton wool. That
is what the country really wants, and then everybody would be satisfied.
No; I know nothing about this League you ask about, and I do not know
any one--that is to say, any one r