. . The space between is occupied by other pictures of Raphael's, a portrait by Titian, a

Domenichino, etc., etc., al these within the circumference of a smal semi-circle no larger than one of your own rooms. This is a spot where a man feels his own insignificance and may wel learn to be humble." The Tribune is a slippery place for people like Mendelssohn to study humility in. They general y take two steps away from it for one they take towards it. I wonder how many chalks Mendelssohn gave himself for having sat two hours on that chair. I wonder how often he looked at his watch to see if his two hours were up. I wonder how often he told himself that he was quite as big a gun, if the truth were known, as any of the men whose works he saw before him, how often he wondered whether any of the visitors were recognizing him and admiring him for sitting such a long time in the same chair, and how often he was vexed at seeing them pass him by and take no notice of him. But perhaps if the truth were known his two hours was not quite two hours.Returning to Mr Pontifex, whether he liked what he believed to be the masterpieces of Greek and Italian art or no he brought back some copies by Italian artists, which I have no doubt he satisfied himself would bear the strictest examination with the originals. Two of these copies fel to Theobald's share on the division of his father's furniture, and I have often seen them at Battersby on my visits to Theobald and his wife. The one was a Madonna by Sassoferrato with a blue hood over her head which

threw it half into shadow. The other was a Magdalen by Carlo Dolci with a very fine head of hair and a marble vase in her hands. When I was a

young man I used to think these pictures were beautiful, but with each successive visit to Battersby I got to dislike them more and more and to see "George Pontifex" written al over both of them. In the end I ventured after a tentative fashion to blow on them a little, but Theobald and his wife were up in arms at once. They did not like their father and father-in-law, but there could be no question about his power and general Page 10

Butler, Samuel: The Way of All Flesh

ability, nor about his having been a man of consummate taste both in literature and art--indeed the diary he kept during his foreign tour was enough to prove this. With one more short extract I wil leave this

diary and proceed with my story. During his stay in Florence Mr Pontifex wrote: "I have just seen the Grand Duke and his family pass by in two carriages and six, but little more notice is taken of them than if I, who am utterly unknown here, were to pass by." I don't think that he half believed in his being utterly unknown in Florence or anywhere else!CHAPTER VFortune, we are told, is a blind and fickle foster-mother, who showers her gifts at random upon her nurslings. But we do her a grave injustice if we believe such an accusation. Trace a man's career from his cradle

to his grave and mark how Fortune has treated him. You wil find that when he is once dead she can for the most part be vindicated from the charge of any but very superficial fickleness. Her blindness is the merest fable; she can espy her favourites long before they are born. We are as days and have had our parents for our yesterdays, but through al the fair weather of a clear parental sky the eye of Fortune can discern the coming storm, and she laughs as she places her favourites it may be in a London al ey or those whom she is resolved to ruin in kings'

palaces. Seldom does she relent towards those whom she has suckled unkindly and seldom does she completely fail a favoured nursling.Was George Pontifex one of Fortune's favoured nurslings or not? On the

whole I should say that he was not, for he did not consider himself so; he was too religious to consider Fortune a deity at al ; he took whatever she gave and never thanked her, being firmly convinced that whatever he got to his own advantage was of his own getting. And so it was, after

Fortune had made him able to get it."Nos te, nos facimus, Fortuna, deam," exclaimed the poet. "It is we who make thee, Fortune, a goddess"; and so it is, after Fortune has made us able to make her. The poet says nothing as to the making of the "nos." Perhaps some men are independent of antecedents and surroundings and have an initial force within themselves which is in no way due to causation; but this is supposed to be a difficult question and it may be as wel to avoid it. Let it suffice that George Pontifex did not consider himself

fortunate, and he who does not consider himself fortunate is unfortunate.True, he was rich, universal y respected and of an excel ent natural

constitution. If he had eaten and drunk less he would never have known a day's indisposition. Perhaps his main strength lay in the fact that

though his capacity was a little above the average, it was not too much so. It is on this rock that so many clever people split.