Mr. Erskine was entitled, as the son of the tenth Earl of Buchan, to
speak such words of warning and exhortation to the aristocracy of
England to which he belonged, and the lapse of a century and a quarter
has not rendered the exhortation vain, though it may be hoped that the
condemnatory clauses of the speech would not at the present time be
so well justified as when they were delivered.

Great names carry great obligations, and, for the most part, those who
bear them to-day recognise those great obligations and endeavour
without ostentation to fulfil them.

The silly fribbles who posture before the photographic cameras for
penny newspapers do not represent the real aristocracy of England.

We must not, Antony, mistake a cockatoo for an eagle.

Your loving old
G.P.



16


MY DEAR ANTONY,

I shall not expect you in your reading often to penetrate into the
innumerable dusty octavos that contain sermons. The stoutest heart
may fail, without blame, before the flat-footed pedestrianism of these
platitudinous volumes. But there does occasionally arise above the dull