have been
Emperor of Mauretania. Gaston de Foix was only twenty-two when he stood
a victor on the plain of Ravenna. Every one remembers Conde and Rocroy
at the same age. Gustavus Adolphus--look at his captains; that wonderful
Duke of Weimar, only thirty-six when he died. Banier himself, after all
his miracles, died at forty-five. Cortes was little more than thirty
when he gazed upon the golden cupolas of Mexico. When Maurice of Saxony
died, at thirty-two, all Europe acknowledged the loss of the greatest
captain and the profoundest statesman of the age. Then there is Nelson,
Clive; but these are warriors, and perhaps you may think there are
greater things than war. I do not: I worship the Lord of Hosts. But take
the most illustrious achievements of civil prudence. Innocent III., the
greatest of the Popes, was the despot of Christendom at thirty-seven.
John de Medici was a Cardinal at fifteen, and, according to
Guicciardini, baffled with his statecraft Ferdinand of Aragon himself.
He was Pope as Leo X. at thirty-seven. Luther robbed even him of his
richest province at thirty-five. Take Ignatius Loyola and John Wesley;
they worked with young brains. Ignatius was only thirty when he made his
pilgrimage and wrote the "Spiritual Exercises." Pascal wrote a great
work at sixteen, and died at thirty-seven, the greatest of Frenchmen.

"Ah, that fatal thirty-seven, which reminds me of Byron, greater even as
a man than a writer. Was it experience that guided the pencil of Raphael
when he painted the palaces of Rome? He, too, died at thirty-seven.
Richelieu was Secretary of State at thirty-one. Well then, there were
Bolingbroke and Pitt, both ministers before other men left off cricket.
Grotius was in great practice at seventeen, and Attorney-General at
twenty-four. And Acquaviva; Acquaviva was General of the Jesuits, ruled
every Cabinet in Europe, and colonised America before he was
thirty-seven. What a career!" exclaimed the stranger; rising from his
chair and walking up and down the room; "the secret sway of Europe! That
was indeed a position! But it is needless to multiply instances! The
history of Heroes is the history of Youth."

GUARDIAN ANGELS
[Sidenote: _Disraeli in "Tancred"_]

"What should I be without my debts?" he would sometimes exclaim; "dear
companions of my life that never desert me! All my knowledge of human
nature is owing to them: it is in managing my affairs that I have
sounded the depths of the human hear