s which are in most men subdued or
expelled by the hard discipline of life. Brought into impulsive
collision with all kinds of authorities, he set up a kind of schoolboy
republicanism, and used all his poetic eloquence to give it an air of
reality. But he never cared to bring it into harmony with any definite
system of thought, or let his outbursts of temper transport him into
settled antagonism with accepted principles. He troubled himself just as
little about theological as about political theories; he was as utterly
impervious as the dullest of squires to the mystic philosophy imported
by Coleridge, and found the world quite rich enough in sources of
enjoyment without tormenting himself about the unseen, and the ugly
superstitions which thrive in mental twilight. But he had quarrelled
with parsons as much as with lawyers, and could not stand the thought of
a priest interfering with his affairs or limiting his amusements. And so
he set up as a tolerant and hearty disciple of Epicurus. Chivalrous
sentiment and an exquisite perception of the beautiful saved him from
any gross interpretation of his master's principles; although, to say
the truth, he shows an occasional laxity on some points which savours of
the easy-going pagan, or perhaps of the noble of the old school. As he
grew up he drank deep of English literature, and sympathised with the
grand republican pride of Milton--as sturdy a rebel as himself, and a
still nobler because more serious rhetorician. He went to Italy, and, as
he imbibed Italian literature, sympathised with the joyous spirit of
Boccaccio and the eternal boyishness of classical art. Mediaevalism and
all mystic philosophies remained unintelligible to this true-born
Englishman. Irritated rather than humbled by his incapacity, he cast
them aside, pretty much as a schoolboy might throw a Plato at the head
of a pedantic master.

The best and most attractive dialogues are those in which he can give
free play to this Epicurean sentiment; forget his political mouthing,
and inoculate us for the moment with the spirit of youthful enjoyment.
Nothing can be more perfectly charming in its way than Epicurus in his
exquisite garden, discoursing on his pleasant knoll, where, with
violets, cyclamens, and convolvuluses clustering round, he talks to his
lovely girl-disciples upon the true theory of life--temperate enjoyment
of all refined pleasures, forgetfulness of all cares, and converse with
true chosen spirits