It is the first essay which he ever published, but it abounds in
clearness and force, and is entirely free from the whimsicality which in
later years sometimes marred his prose. Above all it shows a sympathetic
insight into foreign aspirations which is rare indeed even among
cultivated Englishmen. In reference to this pamphlet he truly observed:
"The worst of the English is that on foreign politics they search so
very much more for what they like and wish to be true, than for what
_is_ true. In Paris there is certainly a larger body of people than in
London who treat foreign politics as a science, as a matter to _know_
upon before _feeling_ upon."

As regards the diplomatic life, it seems certain that he would have
enjoyed it thoroughly, and one would think that he was exactly the man
to conduct a delicate negotiation with tact, good humour, and good
sense. Some glimmering of these gifts seems to have dawned from time to
time on the unimaginative minds of his official chiefs; for three times
he was sent by the Education Office on Foreign Missions, half diplomatic
in their character, to enquire into the condition and methods of Public
Instruction on the Continent. The ever-increasing popularity which
attended him on these Missions, and his excellent judgment in handling
Foreign Ministers and officials, might perhaps suggest the thought that
in renouncing diplomacy he renounced his true vocation. But the thought,
though natural, is superficial, and must give way to the absolute
conviction that he never could have known true happiness--never realized
his own ideal of life--without a wife, a family, and a home. And these
are luxuries which, as a rule, diplomatists cannot attain till

youth and bloom and this delightful world

have lost something of their freshness. In renouncing diplomacy he