ook or some periodical, English or foreign, with which
Waldershare had supplied him, and which he assured Endymion it was
absolutely necessary that he should read and master.

Nor was his acquaintance with Baron Sergius less valuable, or less
fruitful of results. He too became interested in Endymion, and poured
forth to him, apparently without reserve, all the treasures of his vast
experience of men and things, especially with reference to the conduct
of external affairs. He initiated him in the cardinal principles of the
policies of different nations; he revealed to him the real character
of the chief actors in the scene. "The first requisite," Baron Sergius
would say, "in the successful conduct of public affairs is a personal
acquaintance with the statesmen engaged. It is possible that events
may not depend now, so much as they did a century ago, on individual
feeling, but, even if prompted by general principles, their application
and management are always coloured by the idiosyncrasy of the chief
actors. The great advantage which your Lord Roehampton, for example, has
over all his colleagues in _la haute politique_, is that he was one of
your plenipotentiaries at the Congress of Vienna. There he learned to
gauge the men who govern the world. Do you think a man like that, called
upon to deal with a Metternich or a Pozzo, has no advantage over an
individual who never leaves his chair in Downing Street except to kill
grouse? Pah! Metternich and Pozzo know very well that Lord Roehampton
knows them, and they set about affairs with him in a totally different
spirit from that with which they circumvent some statesman who has
issued from the barricades of Paris."

Nor must it be forgotten that his debating society and the acquaintance
which he had formed there, were highly beneficial to Endymion. Under
the roof of Mr. Bertie Tremaine he enjoyed the opportunity of forming
an acquaintance with a large body of young men of breeding, of high
education, and full of ambition, that was a substitute for the society,
becoming his youth and station, which he had lost by not going to the
university.

With all these individuals, and with all their circles, Endymion was a
favourite. No doubt his good looks, his mien--which was both cheerful
and pensive--his graceful and quiet manners, all told in his favour,
and gave him a good start, but further acquaintance always sustained
the first impression. He was intelligent and well-informed,