assist him in his labours for the Society. He was not a profound
admirer of the Society of Jesus for nothing, and although he would
scorn to exercise tact in regard to his own concerns, he was fully
prepared to make use of it in connection with those of the Bible
Society. He was a Jesuit at heart, and would in all probability have
preferred a good compositor who had been guilty of sacrilege to a bad
one who had not. He saw that besides being something of a
diplomatist, an agent of the Bible Society had also to be a good
business man. He has been called tactless, until the word seems to
have become permanently identified with his name; how unjustly is
shown by a very hasty examination of his masterly diplomacy, both in
Russia and Spain. Diplomacy, as Borrow understood it, was the art of
being persuasive when persuasion would obtain for him his object, and
firm, even threatening, when strong measures were best calculated to
suit his ends. It is only the fool who defines tact as the gentle
art of pleasing everybody. Diplomacy is the art of getting what you
want at the expense of displeasing as few people as possible.

"The affair is settled--thank God!!! and we may begin to print
whenever we think proper." With these words Borrow announces the
success of his enterprise. "Perhaps you have thought," he continues,
"that I have been tardy in accomplishing the business which brought
me to Spain; but to be able to form a correct judgment you ought to
be aware of all the difficulties which I have had to encounter, and
which I shall not enumerate. I shall content myself with observing
that for a thousand pounds I would not undergo again all the
mortifications and disappointments of the last two months." {181a}

There were moments when Borrow forgot the idiom of Earl Street and
reverted to his old, self-confident style, which had so alarmed some