matters. He always stood to them in the relation of a much older man. He
had none of the frailties of youth, and, though very capable of enjoying
its diversions, life with him from a very early date was "sicklied o'er
with the pale cast of thought." Its practical aspect to him was one of
anxiety and difficulty, while his intellect was attracted to high and
abstract speculation, and took little interest in the every-day routine
which is sufficient occupation for ordinary minds. Like all men of
original mind, he lived a life apart from his fellows.

'He looked upon the family estate rather as a trust than as an
inheritance--as far more valuable than money on account of the family
traditions, and the position which in our state of society is given to a
family connected historically with the country. Elgin felt this deeply,
and he clung to it in spite of difficulties which would have deterred a
man of more purely selfish views.'

'It is melancholy to reflect,' adds Sir F. Bruce, 'how those have
disappeared who could have filled up this gap in his history.' It is a
reflection even more melancholy, that the loved and trusted brother, who
shared so many of his labours and his aspirations, no longer lives to
write that history, and to illustrate in his own person the spirit by
which it was animated.

The sense of the difficulties above referred to strongly impressed his
mind even before he went to Oxford, and laid the foundation of that habit
of self-denial in all personal matters, which enabled him through life to
retain a feeling of independence, and at the same time to give effect to
the promptings of a generous nature. 'You tell me,' he writes to his
father from college, 'I coin money. I uncoined your last order by putting
it into the fire, having already supplied myself.'