who boycott her to-day, and that he preached, a doctrine who promise to give her "lead" to which all decent history to-morrow, she has wrecked gives the lie, but it chimed the peace not only of the harmoniously with the temper Empire but of the world. of our time, and he who preached it thought, no doubt, that he was justified in his enterprise by the applause of the world. Such maxims as "nothing succeeds like success bring a kind of solace to the greedy, who are not so foolish as to care what it is that success means. However, we live in an age when "money talks," and though the pathways to success are many and devious, they end one and all at the same goals a large balance at the bank and a seat in the House of Lords. One of the most "successful " men of our time has won a vast fortune and all the honours which attend upon wealth by carrying down into the cottage homes of England the glad tidings of crime and outrage. He has lightened the dulness of our British Sabbath by showing the innocent once a week how the vicious live. Thus he ensures himself a vast circulation. The successful men of our day generally depend upon such a "circulation" as Harvey never dreamed of, and a newspaper is the easiest stepping-stone to grandeur. It matters not much what is said in it. What does matter is that it read by three millions of foolish citizens. And then success is instantly assured. One thing only remains to be done the Unionist Party, or its honourable remnants, must be dissociated instantly from Mr Lloyd George and his colleagues. It matters not that we lose the inestimable privilege of being governed by a Welsh opportunist. It matters not that we split the Unionist Party from top to bottom. At least we shall rid ourselves of those who, pretending to be our friends, are the friends of our enemies. At least we shall restore to politics something of our ancient habit of dividing right from wrong, of distinguishing dimly between Home Rule and Unionism. Whatever happens in the near future, one thing is certain that if we give way to the revolver and the bomb in Ireland, we cannot hope to hold in peace and security any of our dominions. This belief was, indeed, once the pivot of Unionism, and there can be no doubt that, if for the mere hope of ease or the indulgence of superstition, we yield and invite others to yield to the assassin, our prestige will be destroyed, as it should be, in every corner of the world. There was once a man who, at the top of his voice, told the aspiring youth of of this this country "to get on or get should be Indeed there are a hundred Soap is very fertile in pro- of enchanted paradise where ducing wealth, though some prefer to "play the stock market." But by whatever means the precious gold is collected, the result is sanctified to the collector. He hastens to place upon his head a gilded crown. He believes very speedily that he is not as other men. The clay of which a rich man is compounded is of a finer quality than that which encloses the starved soul of the wretch who looks forward to nothing better than "a pension of £2000 a year." Here, for instance, is Lord Beaverbrook, who has written a religious tract called 'Success,' and who, after a strenuous and triumphant career, still speaks of "money" with a with a pious fervour and an ardent enthusiasm. It is touching to note with what reverence he approaches the hard substance gold — which he has spent his life in gathering. He is kind enough to recognise, so he tells us, the existence of other ambitions in the walks of Art, Religion, or Literature." But these are not practical affairs," and it is practical affairs" which engross this noble author. Nor can "practical affairs" be expressed otherwise than in the currency of gold and silver. It is money that is at once our guest and our goddess. "Money," says Lord Beaverbrook, in a tender passage "money-the word has a magical sound. It conjures up 66 66 to wish is to have-Aladdin's lamp brought down to earth." Alas for the vanity of human wishes! The whole pleasure of money is in the heart. The richest man upon earth cannot eat or drink more than the poor fool who is content with a moderate income, and all the garnered wealth of the East could not help its possessor to taste the finer flavours of life and art if he had not been born with a palate and an eye. 66 Thus it is a simple scale of measuring success to look at a man's banking account, and it is clear that Lord Beaverbrook gives advice to others because he is absolutely satisfied with his own career. "The first key which opens the door of success," says he in his simple style, is the trading instinct; the knowledge and sense of the real value of any article. Without it a man need not trouble to enter business at all, but if he possesses it even in a rudimentary form, he can cultivate it in the early days when the mind is still plastic, until it develops beyond all recognition." There is a lofty ideal to set before the rising generation! Lord Beaverbrook was, of course, peculiarly gifted, or he could not have attained the eminent position which is his to-day. "When I was a boy," he confesses, "I knew the value in exchange of every marble in my village." Thus was he marked out for he turned his austere mind from marbles to objects of greater worth, he "always had an intuitive perception of the real and not the face value of any article." So he chose for himself the only sound method of education. When other boys confused their starveling brains with the Latin grammar or the works of Shakespeare, he knew how to exchange marbles, and we may well believe that he did not get the worse of his bargains. Beaverbrook Nor is Lord haunted by any doubts. "Money which is striven for brings with it the real qualities of life," says he dogmatically. "Here are the counters which mark character and brains. The money brain is, in the modern world, the supreme brain." There you have the plain truth, stripped of all embellishment. Poetry will scarcely feed the sad poet himself. The self-denial and devotion of the artist are wasted upon a barren age. A circulation of three millions, with the solid profit that it brings, is a better thing to achieve, even though the best of its news comes from the Old Bailey. Why? Because it gives clear proof of the money brain, and "because that which the greatest number of men strive for will produce the fiercest competition of intellect." As, then, it is to the moneybags we must look for intellect, it follows that there is the money brain. Lord Beaverbrook's own education was " of a most rudimentary description," and what he rejected need not be esteemed by any one of us. Indeed, we are told by the great hero himself that if a young man is not stamped with the hall-mark of Oxford or Cambridge, he has 66 possibly escaped a grave danger." The boy who is kept too busy with his books may overlook the exchange value of marbles, and he will lose at the outset all chance of becoming great with the only greatness that is worth achieving. And when he leaves marbles behind, he is not likely ever to know the thrill of the first £10,000. There is the real struggle," says Lord Beaverbrook, "the test of character, and the warranty of success. Youth and strength are given us to use in that first struggle, and a man must feel those early deals right down to the pit of his stomach if he is going to be a great man of business." How we have been misguided! misguided! We have always believed that youth and strength were given us to discover as best we could the meaning and the beauty of the world about us, to learn the lofty lessons taught us by the past, to delight in the mighty-mouthed harmonies of the poets. Not a bit of it! Youth and strength were given us to make the first £10,000, which counts, and unless grandeur and success are to perish taught by Lord Beaverbrook exchange value of every marble must not be forgotten. The apostles of success are never more interesting than when they point their moral with snippets of biography, and Lord Beaverbrook does not disappoint us. "Shelley had genius," he is kind enough to say, "but he would not have been a success in Wall Street, though the poet showed a flash of business knowledge in refusing to lend Byron money." There is the practical kind of literary criticism which all aspirants to success will appreciate. With a light hand also and a profound knowledge of history, Lord Beaverbrook has sketched his friend the Prime Minister. "He sips a single glass of burgundy at dinner for the obvious reason that he enjoys it, and not because it might stimulate his activities. He has given up the use of tobacco. Bolingbroke, as a master of manœuvres, would have had a poor chance against him." Is there anything else that you would wish to know about our Prime Minister than is expressed in these few intimate words? We think not; and if only Lord Beaverbrook had not in his boyhood learned the in the village, he might have been a profound historian. But Success with a capital cannot be achieved in the world of letters. Admirable also is the following brief sketch of the Lord Chancellor : "Although the most formidable enemy of the Pussyfooters and the most powerful protector of freedom in the social habits of the people that the Cabinet contains, he is, like Mr Bonar Law, a teetotaller. It is this capacity for governing himself which is pointing upwards to still greater heights of power." Who is there so churlish as not to rejoice that Lord Birkenhead, by governing himself, still points upward to the heights of power? The sketch is drawn by the master hand of a practical and successful man. And yet when we laid aside Lord Beaverbrook's book, we could not but wonder whether in the world of art and literature there is not a beauty which escapes the trading instinct, and which, if only he were sensitive to its influence, would persuade even our noble author himself that the value of marbles was not the best or the only lesson fit for a boy to learn. INDEX TO VOL. CCX. DAWLISH, HOPE: Two HOTELS. I. Henry Maine on. ib.-Viscount Bryce DESERT BLADes, 565. Devil, a truce of the, 283. ELEPHANTS, ON THE MARCH WITH, 251. EMERALD ISLE, A SHOOTING TRIP IN Esher, Lord, 'The Tragedy' of, 562. FELICITAS-A Tale of Mexico, 655. "FIGHT FANS"- —AND "THE Fourth," FISHING TRIP IN THE EMERALD ISLE, FORESTS, BARE, 319. FROM THE OUTPOSTS :- ON THE MARCH WITH ELEPHANTS, JOTTINGS FROM BARATARIA, 255. THE HIGHER EDUCATION, 410. GRAHAM, ALAN: THE VOYAGE HOME, GOLDSMITH, Oliver, 221. Greek literature for the Greek less, 421. HANNAY, DAVID: THE LORD PHAULKON, |