At the National Liberal Club on Wednesday, Mr. Gladstone formally
opened the " Gladstone Library," as it is to be called, a noble room, of which at present the wealth of shelves is, of course, very much more conspicuous than the wealth of books with which they ought to be filled. In speaking on the sub- ject, Mr. Gladstone quoted Macaulay's well-known panegyrics on books as the only friends never seen with new faces, friends remaining the same to us whether we are obscure or famous, rich or poor, who are soured by no change of fortune, and alienated by no change of temper. It was a fine eulogy, no doubt ; but it was the eulogy of a man who lived more with books than with human beings. Had it been otherwise with him, he would have known only too well the disgust with which these old companions can fill us when we come to them with utterly changed minds, and find them absolutely incapable of modifying even a note in their various literary effects. It is the very constancy in books so pleasing to the book-worm, that, like the mighty indifference of Nature to human joys and troubles, repels the human being who needs sympathy as an element in constancy. Mr. Gladstone dwelt especially on
the services books should render to politicians in fitting them for their responsible duties, which he did not think they could perform adequately without a careful study of the past, •said, without mastering the teaching of its accumulated experience.
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