* * * * *

Soon after his return to England Macaulay was elected to a seat in
Parliament from Edinburgh, a city that he had scarcely so much as visited,
but to whose interest he had been loyal in that, up to this time,
nine-tenths of all he had written had been printed there.

To represent Edinburgh in the House of Commons was no small matter, and we
know that Macaulay was not unmindful of the honor.

His next preferment was his appointment as Secretary of War, and a seat in
the Cabinet.

During all these busy years he ever had on hand some piece of literary
work. In fact, all of the "Essays" on which his literary fame so largely
rests, were composed on "stolen time" in the lull seized from the official
and social whirl in which he lived.

If you want a piece of work well and thoroughly done, pick a busy man. The
man of leisure postpones and procrastinates, and is ever making
preparations and "getting things in shape"; but the ability to focus on a
thing and do it is the talent of the man seemingly o'erwhelmed with work.
Women in point lace and diamonds, club habitues and "remittance
men"--those with all the time there is--can never be entrusted to carry
the message to Gomez.

Pin your faith to the busy person.

Macaulay's first and only political rebuff came with his defeat the second