n, not having so resolved, our thin vein of youthful
knowledge and experience has been worked to the rock; when grey hairs are
here and there upon us, how slow we are to stoop to that! How unwilling
we are to let it light on our hearts that our time is past; that we are
no longer able to understand, or interest, or attract the young; and,
besides, that that is not all their blame, no, nor ours either, but
simply the order and method of Divine Providence. How slow we are to see
that Divine Providence has other men standing ready to take up our work
if we would only humbly lay it down;--how loth we are to stoop to see all
that! How unwilling we are to make up our minds, we old and ageing
ministers, and to humble our hearts to accept an assistant or to submit
to a colleague to stand alongside of us in our unaccomplished work!

4. In public life also, as we call it, what disasters to the state, to
the services, and to society, are constantly caused by this same Loth-to-
stoop! When he holds any public office; when he becomes the leader of a
party; when he is promoted to be an adviser of the Crown; when he is put
at the head of a fleet of ships, or of an army of men, what untold evils
does Loth-to-stoop bring both on himself and on the nation! An old
statesman will have committed himself to some line of legislation or of
administration; a great captain will have committed himself to some
manoeuvre of a squadron or of a division, or to some plan of battle, and
some subordinate will have discovered the error his leader has made, and
will be bold to point it out to him. But stiff old Loth-to-stoop has
taken his line and has passed his word. His honour, as he holds it, is
committed to this announced line of action; and, if the Crown itself
should perish before his policy, he will not stoop to change it. How
often you see that in great affairs as well as in small. How seldom you
see a public man openly confessing that he has hitherto all along been
wrong, and that he has at last and by others been set right. Not once in
a generation. But even that once redeems public life; it ennobles public
life; and it saves the nation and the sovereign who possess such a true
patriot. Consistency and courage, independence and dignity, are high-
sounding words; but openness of mind, teachableness, diffidence, and
humility always go with true nobility as well as with ultimate success
and lasting honour.

CHAPTER XII--THAT VARL