in the necessity of the gentry as a virtuous example? Or did he merely
view the fact that the aristocracy were there in actual possession, and as
they could not be evicted, why then the next best thing was to cajole,
flatter and discreetly advise them? Who shall say what this man believed!

Sensible men never tell.

But this we know, this man had no vice but ambition. He conformed pretty
closely to England's ideals, and his thirst for power never caused him to
take the chances of a Waterloo. His novels show a close acquaintanceship
with the ways of society, and he knew the human heart as few men ever do.
The degradation of the average toiler in Great Britain, the infamy of the
policy extended toward Ireland, and the cruelty of imperialism--all these
he knew, for his books reveal it; but he was powerless as a leader to stem
the current of tendency. He acquiesced where he deemed action futile.

"Lothair" is his best novel, for in it he gets furthest away from himself.
It reveals a cleverness that is admirable, and this same brilliancy and
shifty play of intellect are found in "Endymion," written in his
seventy-fifth year. Whether these novels can ever take their place among
the books that endure is a question that is growing more easy to answer
each succeeding year. They owed their popularity more to their flippant
cleverness than to their insight, and their vogue was due, to a great
extent, to the veiled personalities that interline their pages.

That Disraeli did not carry out all the plans and reforms he attempted,
need not be set down to his discredit. It is fortunate he did not succeed
better than he did. He, however, safely piloted the great ship in the
direction the passengers desired to go; and his own personal ambition was
reached when he, a Jew at heart--member of a despised race--had made
himself master of the fleets, armies and treasury of the proudest nation
the world has ever known.

* * * * *

Bound into the life of Disraeli is a peculiar incident in the romantic
friendship that existed between him and Mrs. Willyums of Torquay,
Cornwall. About the year Eighteen Hundred Forty-nine, Disraeli began to
receive letters from an unknown admirer, who expressed a great desire for
an interview on "a most important business." All public men, especially if
they have the brilliant mental qualities of Disraeli, receive such
letters. The sensitive neurotic female who is ill-appreciated i