please Aram, and afford him the opportunity to shine. The Earl had
imported from Italy some of the most beautiful specimens of classic
sculpture which this country now possesses. These were disposed in niches
around the magnificent apartment in which the guest were assembled, and
as the Earl pointed them out, and illustrated each from the beautiful
anecdotes and golden allusions of antiquity, he felt that he was
affording to Aram a gratification he could never have experienced before;
and in the expression of which, the grace and copiousness of his learning
would find vent. Nor was he disappointed. The cheek, which till then had
retained its steady paleness, now caught the glow of enthusiasm; and in a
few moments there was not a person in the group, who did not feel, and
cheerfully feel, the superiority of the one who, in birth and fortune,
was immeasureably the lowest of all.

The English aristocracy, whatever be the faults of their education, (and
certainly the name of the faults is legion!) have at least the merit of
being alive to the possession, and easily warmed to the possessor, of
classical attainment: perhaps even from this very merit spring many of
the faults we allude to; they are too apt to judge all talent by a
classical standard, and all theory by classical experience. Without,--
save in very rare instances,--the right to boast of any deep learning,
they are far more susceptible than the nobility of any other nation to
the spiritum Camoenae. They are easily and willingly charmed back to the
studies which, if not eagerly pursued in youth, are still entwined with
all their youth's brightest recollections; the schoolboy's prize, and the
master's praise,--the first ambition, and its first reward. A felicitous
quotation, a delicate allusion, is never lost upon their ear; and the
veneration which at Eton they bore to the best verse-maker in the school,
tinctures their judgment of others throughout life, mixing I know not
what, both of liking and esteem, with their admiration of one who uses