ce of the mighty monuments of Jerusalem, Disraeli
forgets that he is a Christian and an ambitious member of the English
Parliament. His only solicitude is to recover his privileges as a Jew,
and to recollect that he stands in the majestic cradle of his race. He
becomes interpenetrated with solemn mysticism; a wind of faith blows in
his hair. He cries, "God never spoke except to an Arab," and we are
therefore not surprised to find an actual Divine message presently
pronounced in Tancred's ears as he stands on the summit of Mount Sinai.
This is, perhaps, the boldest flight of imagination which occurs in the
writings of Disraeli. Tancred endeavours to counteract the purely
Hebraic influences of Palestine by making a journey of homage to
Astarte, a mysterious and beautiful Pagan queen--an "Aryan," as he loves
to put it--who reigns in the mountains of Syria. But even she does not
encourage him to put his trust in the progress of Western Europe.

_Tancred_ is written in Disraeli's best middle style, full, sonorous,
daring, and rarely swelling into bombast. It would even be too uniformly
grave if the fantastic character of Facredeen did not relieve the
solemnity of the discourse with his amusing tirades. Like that of all
Disraeli's novels, the close of this one is dim and unsatisfactory. If
there is anything that the patient reader wants to know it is how the
Duke and Duchess of Bellemont behaved to the Lady of Bethany when they
arrived at Jerusalem and found their son in the kiosk under her
palm-tree. But this is curiosity of a class which Disraeli is not
unwilling to awaken, but which he never cares to satisfy. He places the
problems in a heap before us, and he leaves us to untie the knots. It is
a highly characteristic trait of his mind as a writer that he is for
ever preoccupied with the beginnings of things, and as little as
possible with their endings.

It is not, however, from _Tancred_ but from _Coningsby_, that we take
our example of Disraeli's second manner:--

"Even to catch Lord Monmouth's glance was not an easy affair; he
was much occupied on one side by the great lady, on the other were
several gentlemen who occasionally joined in the conversation. But
something must be done.

"There ran through Coningsby's character, as we have before
mentioned, a vein of simplicity which was not its least charm. It
resulted, no doubt, in a great degree from the earnestness of his
natu