Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-07-25
DIHRAELI'S PROPHECIES
For BeaeOnsfieId The Career and
Latest Triumph of the Great Eng
Iish Premier EOreshadOwed by
Himself I'm his own Novels.

| now IOnu ue was OF introducing DIS OrdC6
into his writings. One of his earliest works
was the oteag Duke, and the wits of the
London clubs are already saying it would be
natural that his last work should be an old
duke-Old, however; only as re-
ry," although a hardy vine, yields
fruit only for a short season. Half century
ago Disraeli printed anonymously, under the
sign of the Greek delta, Count Alarcos, a
| tragedy" which has since been collected
among his acknowledged works. This poetic
drama opens with the arrival of the count as
prime minister in CASTLE. Amid a royal
pageant attending this arrival is described
the prince who rides
Most royalty nor seemed man more fit
To claim kingdom for dover. He looked
Our Gadon Hercules, as the advancing peers
Their homage paid
The count is next alluded to. Says one
courtier, "a very potent lord" Answers
another courtier POSSIBLY a Liberal }, Near
| to the throne; too nea-, perchance, for peace.
In another scene this Castiliau prime minister
hints to his countess that there may be some
danger to his footing at court; but she
answers:
" But why should there be dangerP
And why shoudst thou the foremost prince of SPAIN
Fear or make foes? Thou StdndsSt an light
To XIX 5Ss and 05e To- 9G: Th0 art st con
The King atone a6oUe thee and thy friend"
When Beaconsfeld shall enter London this
week, why may he not apply these lines of
his fifty year-old pen to himself, and weigh
their appropriateness OF prophecy to his high
est position as subject? Or may he not re-
| call these sentences from ''Contarini Elem
ing in the opening of chapter twelfth in his
second book: 81 had achieved by this time
what is called great reputation. do not
know that there was any one more talked of
self; it was the zenith OF my pop
ularity and power" In the next chapter the
novelist depicts a scene between the hero
always by critics deemed to represent himself
and his parents: 81 heard my name The
hall was now darkened In the distance
stood my father. l joined him. He placed
his arm affectionately in mine and said to
me: My son, you will be prime minister of
there come dots representing the number OF
letters in the word England), and perhaps
something greater" In the concluding
chapter "Contarini' is about to quit public
life and to live in indifferent repose, when a
comrade recalls him to ambition by exclaim
ing: "Action is now yocpr part; act, act With
out ceasing, and you will no longer talk of the
vanity of life. but how am | TO act?"
Create. Man is made to create, from the
poet to the potter Almost the final para
graph in the novel is this one: when l ex
anime the state of European society per-
ceive that it Is IN d state of transition from
feuda to federal principles, which | conceive
to be the sole and secret cause of all the con-
vulsions that have occurred and are to occur. !"
The hero is resolving to become again
leader, and adds: circumstances may be
beyond the control of a man, but his conduct
is in his own power" In Tiancred appears
dialogue between dignitaries in the Orient,
and in it may be found these sentences: eff
your government only understood the eastern
question" said "Mr. Consul General Lau-
rell." 81 could settle the eastern
question in month if l were disposed"
,1r-S~e;o-. ea;d +he ssE-.i-,', '..~A.. oL~H
gOUern the Mediterranean" This question
put by Disraeli as novelist In London, Bea-
consheld, as a treaty maker In Berlin, has re-
Gently practically answered and precisely in
following the terms which made up his fcti-
tious response of more than a quarter CEN
fury ago. In the same novel there is another
convers ton, and at Jerusalem, about public
affairs, during which "Barizy of
the Tower "The English will
not do the business of the Turks again for
nothing. They will take this city, and they
will keep it. They want a new
market for cotton. Mark me, England will
never be satisfied till the people OF Jerusalem
wear calico turbans." Many pages in Con-
tarini are devoted to an account of a meet
ing Of diplomatIsts from the very powers who
were represented in Berlin, and of which i'm
aginary conference 'Contarini" DisraelI is
secretary. 1t is impossible to peruse the long
narrative without identifying it in a great
many respects with the newspaper accounts
of the one IN which Beaconsfeld has Just tri-
umphanty participated. Yet the most Won
derful parallel and apt prophecy from his
own works that can occur to the great man
when he is journeying homeward, must come
from the last chapter of his first book IN the
NelO Crusade. The Duke of Bellamont and
his son who has just come of age, are de-
plcted standing upon platform, sur
rounded by an immense concourse, and
listening to a congratulatory address from
the mayor and corporation. The lion of the
occasion is described as with 'hair in those
hyacinthine curls which Grecian sculptors
have immortaized clustered over his brow,
which, however, they only partially con-
cealed. His whole countenance was pale, but
the liquid richness of the dark brown eye
and the color of the lip denoted anything
but a languid circulation There was
"deep meditation on the brow, and the lower |
part of the visage ia mated indomitable will |
and an iron resolution. = Nothing |
was more remarkable in the demeanor of |
Lord Montacute 1.-THE hero of the reception) |
than his self-possess ion. Every movement or |
gesture was distinguished by what may be |
called a graceful gravity. 1t would appear
that he duly estimated the Importance of the |
event they were commemorating, yet was not |
of habit of mind that over-estimated any
thing" 1t is not new thing to point out |
the condolences between individuality in the
novelist and the statesman-Disraeli. Critics
have often essayed that. Nor is it strange
that an ambitious writer should express opin-
ions that sfterward in public life he might re-
affirm by action. But It is certainly most re-
among biographical circumstances,
that Disraei's eastern views, his participation
in momentous congress of nations and his
triumphal entry should have been so precisely
foreshadowed IN his own early poem and
novels.
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