n Finlay (then Member for Glasgow), and other political
notabilities had now formed themselves,--with what specific objects I do
not know, nor with what result if any. I have heard vaguely, it was "to
open the trade to India." Of course they intended to stir up the public
mind into co-operation, whatever their goal or object was: Mr. Crawford,
an intimate in the Sterling household, recognized the fine literary
gift of John; and might think it a lucky hit that he had caught such a
Secretary for three hundred pounds a year. That was the salary agreed
upon; and for some months actually worked for and paid; Sterling
becoming for the time an intimate and almost an inmate in Mr. Crawford's
circle, doubtless not without results to himself beyond the secretarial
work and pounds sterling: so much is certain. But neither the
Secretaryship nor the Association itself had any continuance; nor can
I now learn accurately more of it than what is here stated;--in which
vague state it must vanish from Sterling's history again, as it in great
measure did from his life. From himself in after-years I never heard
mention of it; nor were his pursuits connected afterwards with those of
Mr. Crawford, though the mutual good-will continued unbroken.

In fact, however splendid and indubitable Sterling's qualifications for
a parliamentary life, there was that in him withal which flatly put
a negative on any such project. He had not the slow steady-pulling
diligence which is indispensable in that, as in all important pursuits
and strenuous human competitions whatsoever. In every sense, his
momentum depended on velocity of stroke, rather than on weight of metal;
"beautifulest sheet-lightning," as I often said, "not to be condensed
into thunder-bolts." Add to this,--what indeed is perhaps but the same
phenomenon in another form,--his bodily frame was thin, excitable,
already manifesting pulmonary symptoms; a body which the tear and wear
of Parliament would infallibly in few months have wrecked and ended.
By this path there was clearly no mounting. The far-darting, restlessly
coruscating soul, equips beyond all others to shine in the Talking
Era, and lead National Palavers with their _spolia opima_ captive, is
imprisoned in a fragile hectic body which quite forbids the adventure.
"_Es ist dafur gesorgt_," says Goethe, "Provision has been made that the
trees do not grow into the sky;"--means are always there to stop them
short of the sky.

CHAPTER