Villiers (who died in January, 1898), who could remember its
beginning. He had been opposed in 1833 to men who might have been
his grandfathers; he was opposed in 1893 to men who might have been
his grandchildren. In a sketch like this, it is impossible to
describe or comment on the events of such a life. All that can be
done is to indicate the more salient characteristics which a study
of his career as a statesman and a parliamentarian sets before us.

The most remarkable of these characteristics is the sustained
freshness, openness, eagerness of mind, which he preserved down to
the end of his life. Most of us, just as we make few intimate
friends, so we form few new opinions after thirty-five.
Intellectual curiosity may remain fresh and strong even after fifty,
but its range steadily narrows as one abandons the hope of attaining
any thorough knowledge of subjects other than those which make the
main business of one's life. One cannot follow the progress of all
the new ideas that are set afloat in the world. One cannot be
always examining the foundations of one's political or religious
beliefs. Repeated disappointments and disillusionments make a man
expect less from changes the older he grows; and mere indolence adds
its influence in deterring us from entering upon new enterprises.
None of these causes seemed to affect Mr. Gladstone. He was as much
excited over a new book (such as Cardinal Manning's Life) at eighty-
six as when at fourteen he insisted on compelling little Arthur
Stanley (afterward Dean of Westminster, and then aged nine) to
procure Gray's poems, which he had just perused himself. His
reading covered almost the whole field of literature, except
physical and mathematical science. While frequently declaring that
he must confine his political thinking and leadership to a few
subjects, he was so observant of the movements of opinion that the