{"product_id":"2940012773661","title":"BYGONES WORTH REMEMBERING Volume II","description":"CHAPTER XXIV. CONVERSATIONS WITH MR. GLADSTONE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWere I to edit a new journal again I should call it _Open Thought_. I\u003cbr\u003eknow no characteristic of man so wise, so useful, so full of promise\u003cbr\u003eof progress as this. The great volume of Nature, of Man and of Society\u003cbr\u003eopens a new page every day, and Mr. Gladstone read it. It was this which\u003cbr\u003egave him that richness of information in which he excited the admiration\u003cbr\u003eof all who conversed with him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWere Plutarch at hand to write Historical Parallels of famous men of our\u003cbr\u003etime, he might compare Voltaire and Gladstone. Dissimilar as they were\u003cbr\u003ein nature, their points of resemblance were notable. Voltaire was\u003cbr\u003ethe most conspicuous man in Europe in the eighteenth century, as Mr.\u003cbr\u003eGladstone became in the nineteenth. Both were men of wide knowledge\u003cbr\u003ebeyond all their contemporaries. Each wrote more letters than any other\u003cbr\u003eman was ever known to write. Every Court in Europe was concerned\u003cbr\u003eabout the movements of each, in his day. Both were deliverers of the\u003cbr\u003eoppressed, where no one else moved on their behalf. Both attained great\u003cbr\u003eage, and were ceaselessly active to the last In decision of conviction\u003cbr\u003ethey were also alike. Voltaire was as determinedly Theistic as Mr.\u003cbr\u003eGladstone was Christian. They were alike also in the risks they\u003cbr\u003eundertook in defence of the right. Voltaire risked his life and\u003cbr\u003eGladstone his reputation to save others. Mr. Morley relates of the\u003cbr\u003ePhilosopher of Ferney, that when he made his triumphal journey through\u003cbr\u003eParis, some one asked a woman in the street \"why do so many people\u003cbr\u003efollow this man?\" \"Don't you know?\" was the reply. \"He was the deliverer\u003cbr\u003eof the Calas.\" No applause went to Voltaire's heart like that Mr.\u003cbr\u003eGladstone had also golden memories of deliverance no one else moved hand\u003cbr\u003eor foot to effect, and multitudes, even nations, followed him because of\u003cbr\u003ethat.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the first occasion of my going to breakfast with him he was living\u003cbr\u003ein Harley Street, in the house in which Sir Charles Lyell died. As Mr.\u003cbr\u003eGladstone entered the room, he apologised for not greeting me earlier,\u003cbr\u003eas his servant had indistinctly given him my name. He asked me to sit\u003cbr\u003enext to him at breakfast. There were seven or eight guests. The only one\u003cbr\u003eI knew was Mr. Walter. H. James, M.P., since Lord Northbourne--probably\u003cbr\u003epresent from consideration for me. One was the editor of the _Jewish\u003cbr\u003eWorld_ a journal opposed to Mr. Gladstone's anti-Turkish policy. Others\u003cbr\u003ewere military officers and travellers of contemporary renown. It was\u003cbr\u003ea breakfast to remember--Mr. Gladstone displayed such a bright,\u003cbr\u003eunembarrassed vivacity. He told amusing anecdotes of the experiences of\u003cbr\u003ethe wife of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, whose charm he said he could\u003cbr\u003eonly describe by the use of the English rural term \"buxom.\" On making a\u003cbr\u003etime-bargain with a cabman, he observed to her ladyship that \"he wished\u003cbr\u003ethe engagement was for life.\" Mr. Gladstone thought no English cabman\u003cbr\u003ewould have said that. Another pleasantry was of one of Lord Lyttelton's\u003cbr\u003esons, who was very tall and lank. He being in Birmingham and wishful to\u003cbr\u003eknow the distance to a place he sought, asked a boy in the street who\u003cbr\u003ewas passing, \"how far it was.\" \"Oh, not far,\" was the assuring but\u003cbr\u003eindefinite answer. \"But can you not give me some better idea of the\u003cbr\u003edistance?\" Mr. Lyttelton inquired. \"Well, sir,\" said the lad, looking up\u003cbr\u003eat the obelisk-like interrogator before him, \"if you was to fall down,\u003cbr\u003eyou would be half way there.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese incidents were not new to me, but I was glad to hear what was\u003cbr\u003eprobably the origin of them. From Mr. Gladstone's lips they had a sort\u003cbr\u003eof historic reality which was interesting to me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfterwards he spoke of the singular beauty of the \"Dream of Gerontius\"\u003cbr\u003eby Cardinal Newman, and turning to me asked if I knew of it, as though\u003cbr\u003ehe thought it unlikely my reading lay in that direction. He was very\u003cbr\u003emuch surprised when I said I had read it with great admiration. He said\u003cbr\u003eit was strange, as he had mentioned the poem at three or four breakfast\u003cbr\u003etables, without finding any one who knew it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs I left, Mr. Gladstone accompanied me downstairs. On the way I\u003cbr\u003etook occasion to thank him for a paper that had appeared in the\u003cbr\u003e_Contemporary_ containing definitions of heretical forms of thought, so\u003cbr\u003efair and accurate and actual, that Shakespeare or Bunyan, who had the\u003cbr\u003epower of possessing himself of the minds of those whose thoughts he\u003cbr\u003eexpressed, might have produced. There had been nothing to compare with\u003cbr\u003eit in my time. Theological writers described heterodox tenets from their\u003cbr\u003einferences of what they must be--never inquiring what they actually\u003cbr\u003estood for in the minds of those who held them--whereas he had written\u003cbr\u003ewith unimputative knowledge.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47166607950064,"sku":"2940012773661","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012773661","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}