Poor as the greater part of Mr. Disraeli's speech was,
the peror- ation contained a really fine rendering of Mr. Arnold's simile for England as the Titan with deaf ears and labour-dimmed eyes staggering on to her goal,—
" Bearing on shoulders immense Atlautean the load,
Well nigh not to be borne, Of the too vast orb of her fate."
"Indeed, when I remember the elements and interests of these British Isles, so vast, so various, so complicated—when I even call to recollection the differences of race, which, however it may be blended, leaves a very significant characteristic—when I recollect that the great majority of the population of the United King- dom rise every day and depend for their daily bread on their
daily labour when I remember that it is upon the common sense, and prudence, and the courage of the community thus circumstanced that depend the fate of uncounted millions in Asian provinces, and that around the globe there is a circle of domestic settlements that watches us for exarnple,—and when we know that not a sun rises upon a British Minister that do:.s not bring him care, often inexpressible anxiety, unexpected war, a disturbed or discontented colony, a pestilence, a famine, a mutiny, a declining trade, a decaying revenue, a collapsed credit, perhaps some insensate, fantastic conspiracy,—I declare I feel very often I wonder where there is the strength of thought and the fund of feeling that enable him to deal with such colossal circumstances." Mr. Arnold's fine lines could not possibly have been better rendered into English rhetoric.
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