good of humanity. This caused his intense The Prince's sympathy with all human work, from that of the artisan to that of the statesman. We have in this age used the word "philan

sympathy

for work.

66

thropy" till we are tired of it, till it has become a mawkish word with us; but still

The Prince a there is something very beautiful correspond

philanthro

pist.

The Prince helpful in times of trouble.

His aversion to flattery.

ing to that word, and that was what the
Prince possessed. We all recognize in our
respective spheres the distinction I have
drawn above between these two classes.
We all know, for instance, when any public
or private disaster happens, who will really
grieve over it and endeavour to retrieve

it;
and who will make it a subject for vain
comment, pretended lamentation, or boasting
censure. And a nation, like a man, would
have come to the Prince when in real
trouble, and have found in him one whose
sole thought would have been, “what can
"now be done for the best?" For he was, as
I said before, pre-eminently on the side of
humanity, and all that touched other men,
touched him, too, very nearly.

The Prince had a horror of flattery. I use the word "horror" advisedly. Dr. Johnson

somewhere says that flattery shows, at any rate, a desire to please, and may, therefore, be estimated as worth something on that account. But the Prince could not view it in that light. He shuddered at it: he tried to get away from it as soon as he could. It was simply nauseous to him.

to vice.

He had the same feeling with regard to His aversion vice generally. Its presence depressed him, grieved him, horrified him. His tolerance allowed him to make excuses for the vices of individual men; but the evil itself he hated.

odious to him.

What, however, was especially repugnant Low motives to the Prince was lowness. He could not bear men to be actuated by low motives. A remarkably unselfish man himself, he scarcely understood selfishness in others; and, when he recognized it, he felt an abhorrence for it. The conditions that the Prince drew up for the prize that is given by Her Majesty at Wellington College are very characteristic of him. This prize is not to be awarded to the most bookish boy, to the least faulty boy, to the boy who should be most precise, diligent, and prudent; but to the noblest boy, to the boy

religious feelings.

who should afford most promise of becoming a large-hearted, high-motived man.

The Prince was a deeply religious man, yet was entirely free from the faintest tinge The Prince's of bigotry or sectarianism. His strong faith in the great truths of religion coexisted with a breadth of tolerance for other men struggling in their various ways to attain those truths. His views of Religion did not lead him to separate himself from other men; and in these high matters he rather sought to find unity in diversity, than to magnify small differences. Thus he endeavoured to associate himself with all earnest seekers after religious truth.

Some men acquire knowledge without loving it.

It must have occurred to every observer of mankind to notice that there are persons who acquire knowledge without loving it. They have read all the noblest works in literature without being profoundly touched by any of them. They may be excellent classical scholars, and yet they do not seem to love their Horace or their Virgil. Their minds are not penetrated with a sense of the beauty of these authors. They do not see that an idea has been expressed once

and for ever, in the choicest language, by these masters of expression: whereas, some humble student perceives all this; and Virgil, Horace, and Ovid belong to him. The same thing occurs in science; the same in law; the same in medicine. You see men who know all about their art, or their science, but who do not seem to love it. They are not led up to all nature by it. It is with them a business, rather than a science or an art.

66

Such was not the case

with the Prince. He was singularly impressed with the intellectual beauty of knowledge; for, as he once remarked to Her who most sympathised with him, "To me, a long, closely-connected train "of reasoning is like a beautiful strain "of music. You can hardly imagine my delight in it." But this was not all with him. He was one of those rare seekers after truth who carry their affections into their acquisitions of knowledge. He loved knowledge on account of what it could do for mankind; and no man of our time sympathized more intimately with that splendid outburst of Bacon, where the great Chancellor exclaims,

Bacon on knowledge.

The Prince's care for the

"Knowledge is not a couch, whereupon "to rest a searching and restless spirit; or "a terrace for a wandering and variable "mind to walk up and down with a fair

66

prospect; or a tower of state for a proud "mind to raise itself upon; or a fort or

66

commanding ground for strife and con❝tention; or a shop for profit or sale; but "a rich storehouse for the glory of the "Creator, and the relief of man's estate. “But this is that which will indeed dignify "and exalt knowledge, if contemplation "and action may be more nearly and

66

straitly conjoined and united together "than they have been; a conjunction like "unto that of the two highest planets"Saturn, the planet of rest and contemplation, and Jupiter, the planet of civil society and action."

66

66

It was with a feeling similar to that expoorer classes. pressed in the foregoing passage that the Prince would comment, for instance, upon an improvement in manufacture, as bearing, especially, upon the health and strength of the poorest classes. It was for "the "relief of Man's estate" that this amiable