of the exterior etiquette of life. Why he fatigued himself by these
formal exercises, in which he seems to have found no pleasure, it is
impossible to conceive, but a sense of the necessity of parade was
strangely native to him.

He had, however, one close and constant friend. John Forster was by far
the most intimate of all his associates throughout his career.
Bulwer-Lytton seems to have met him first about 1834, when he was
twenty-eight and Forster only twenty-two. In spite of this disparity in
age, the younger man almost at once took a tone of authority such as the
elder seldom permitted in an acquaintance. Forster had all the gifts
which make a friend valuable. He was rich in sympathy and resource, his
temper was reasonable, he comprehended a situation, he knew how to hold
his own in argument and yet yield with grace. Lord Lytton prints a very
interesting character-sketch of Forster, which he has found among his
grandfather's MSS. It is a tribute which does equal credit to him who
makes it and to him of whom it is made:--

"John Forster.... A most sterling man, with an intellect at once
massive and delicate. Few, indeed, have his strong practical sense
and sound judgment; fewer still unite with such qualities his
exquisite appreciation of latent beauties in literary art. Hence,
in ordinary life, there is no safer adviser about literary work,
especially poetry; no more refined critic. A large heart naturally
accompanies so masculine an understanding. He has the rare capacity
for affection which embraces many friendships without loss of depth
or warmth in one. Most of my literary contemporaries are his
intimate companions, and their jealousies of each other do not
diminish their trust in him. More than any living critic, he has
served to establish reputations. Tennyson and Browning owed him
much in their literary career. Me, I think, he served in that way
less than any of his other friends. But, indeed, I know of no
critic to whom I have been much indebted for any position I hold in
literature. In more private matters I am greatly indebted to his
counsels. His reading is extensive. What faults he has lie on the
surface. He is sometimes bluff to rudeness. But all such faults of
manner (and they are his only ones) are but trifling inequalities
in a nature solid and valuable as a block of gold."

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