New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-02-15

familiar story Of delay that he should
have published, late in 1910, but one
volume. carrying Disraeli only to the
threshold Of his public life. Now the
second volume traverses but scant
nine years. and the authors untimcly
death has left the major part OF
great subject to be treated by still an
other hand. Just when the full MARIA
tive will he available remains, as IT
has for years remained, teasing PROB
lem. Our only consolation lies in the
fact thot Mr. Monypenny proved him
self, so far as he went, sound bog
rapher, full of good sense and properly
dsdainful of mere hero worship.
In the preparation Of his second vol
ume he continued the policy for which
he had been criticised on the publica-
ton of the first. using much material
which had been printed before but Ne
may repeat here what we said two
years ago, that if the documents are
not all new they are, at any rate. lust
~ co-ordinated for the first time in
turn too often TO those letters of Dis
raelis to his sister, his beloved Sa'
i'm which he plays the part OF chorus 10
his own performance. They not only
mirror his personality, but they are
packed with political and social gossip
and with those marvellous vignettes IN
which Disraeli the politician hit OF MS
contemporaries with the art OF DIS
raeli the novelist. There is a brief
passage in one Of the first OF the let
tiers in the present volume which we"
illustrates mis- "seeeing' eye and MS
powers of terse, vivid expression.
"Leveson made a crammed speech Ike
a schoolboy; Gibson Craig, Of whom the
Wings had hopes, rose, stared like d
stuck pig and said nothing; his 1rich1s
cheered, he stammered, all cheered,
then there was a dead and awful pause,
and then he sat down, and that was MS
performance" Constantly he is throw
ing off these keen descriptions, utterly
casual, but with the warmth or truth
about them, and with their aid MI
Nonypenny gives us a remarKaoie I'M
pression of the young adventurer
genius.
Ordinerily those last two epithe's
might seem to be mutually Destructive
hut they 60 we'll =. harness where lis
rae,; Is concerned. His extraordinary
career was. In the most exact sense ot
the term. a great adventure, and from
beginning to end 1t was governed ny
what we can only describe as the VI
spirstjon Of genius. His political Sd
cacitv was profound, too profound 10
he attributed to the humdrum processes
~ ordinary reasoning. Long after ne
had won his own spurs he said 10
Young Member Of Parliament: Leu
me tell you how to get on in the HOUSE
of Commons When the House is SIT
ting be always in your place; wneh u
a. not sitting read Hansard.' Such
cour.el smacks Of the purely indus
trious oracle, and, to tell the uu'"'
Disraeli had industry and TO spare'
hut It was instinct that carried MN
,brouph. IN his life OF Lord George
Bentinck he has a saying on Peel when
throws light on his own charac'c''
Peel. in his opinion, had great de-
oc,ency. he was without Imagination
and. says Disraeli, wanting magma
ton. he wanted prescience.' The man
,,,ho wrote these words was himself
full OF Imagination. Mr.. Monypenny
somewhere calls him "a social artist.
He was an artist In all that he did.
The political transactions in which ne
dealt were 50 much plastic stuff in his
hands. out OF which he moulded ais
destiny. 1t is this feeling that he In