Ellesmere. I have been looking over the essay. I think you may put
in somewhere--that that age would probably be the greatest in which
there was the least difference between great men and the people in
general--when the former were only neglected, not hunted down.

Milverton. Yes.

Ellesmere. You are rather lengthy here about the cruelties to be
found in history; but we are apt to forget these matters.

Milverton. They always press upon my mind.

Dunsford. And on mine. I do not like to read much of history for
that very reason. I get so sick at heart about it all.

Milverton. Ah, yes, history is a stupendous thing. To read it is
like looking at the stars; we turn away in awe and perplexity. Yet
there is some method running through the little affairs of man as
through the multitude of suns, seemingly to us as confused as routed
armies in full flight.

Dunsford. Some law of love.

Ellesmere. I am afraid it is not in the past alone that we should
be awestruck with horrors: we, who have a slave-trade still on
earth. But, to go back to the essay, I like what you say about the
theory of constructing the Christian character without geniality;
only you do not go far enough. You are afraid. People are for ever
talking, especially you philanthropical people, about making others