thirty-five. Take Ignatius Loyola and John Wesley, they worked with young
brains. Ignatius was only thirty when he made his pilgrimage and wrote the
"Spiritual Exercises." Pascal wrote a great work at sixteen, and died at
thirty-seven, the greatest of Frenchmen.

'Ah! that fatal thirty-seven, which reminds me of Byron, greater even as a
man than a writer. Was it experience that guided the pencil of Raphael
when he painted the palaces of Rome? He, too, died at thirty-seven.
Richelieu was Secretary of State at thirty-one. Well then, there were
Bolingbroke and Pitt, both ministers before other men left off cricket.
Grotius was in great practice at seventeen, and Attorney-General at
twenty-four. And Acquaviva; Acquaviva was General of the Jesuits, ruled
every cabinet in Europe, and colonised America before he was thirty-seven.
What a career!' exclaimed the stranger; rising from his chair and walking
up and down the room; 'the secret sway of Europe! That was indeed a
position! But it is needless to multiply instances! The history of Heroes
is the history of Youth.'

'Ah!' said Coningsby, 'I should like to be a great man.'

The stranger threw at him a scrutinising glance. His countenance was
serious. He said in a voice of almost solemn melody:

'Nurture your mind with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes
heroes.'

'You seem to me a hero,' said Coningsby, in a tone of real feeling, which,
half ashamed of his emotion, he tried to turn into playfulness.

'I am and must ever be,' said the stranger, 'but a dreamer of dreams.'