“To the Best and Greatest of Men.
He for whom it is intended will accept and appreciate the compliment,
Those for whom it is not intended will do the same.”
[179] Vivian Grey.
[180] Contarini Fleming.
[181] Venetia.
[182] Cf. Bolingbroke’s “Compare the situations without comparing the characters.”
[183] This idea was emphasised by Bolingbroke.
[184] Hume’s election support, the challenge of O’Connell, the cultivation of Chandos, the “Canning” episode, the surrender of “protection,” and the delay in producing the Indian despatches, respectively.
[185] Notably in 1855.
[186] This is told in one of Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff’s “Diaries.”
[187] It is noticeable, as regards the habitual recurrence of his phrases, that in his early letters he always nicknames this first illness “the enemy,” the same as he used to his physicians in his last. His early ill health quickened his continual sympathy with suffering. No better instance could be read than his speech at the opening of the Hospital for Consumption, with his beautiful references to Jenny Lind, as song ministering to sorrow.