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tions are insipid as compared with the triumph and satisfaction of conferring on his fellow-townsmen a real and lasting good."

In the following passage we find the sentiment of progress brought into reference with the individual. The Firth College is specified as one of the best illustrations which England has to show of her boast that, in however low a level of life an Englishman may be born, his country affords him a means of rising by education to whatever position his talents and character fit him to fill."

Taking Lord Beaconsfield's epigrammatic picture of "The two nations, the nation of the rich and the nation of the poor," as a text, Prince Leopold showed the nature of his own aspirations and the meaning of his enthusiasm for the more extended culture of the nation. "The wide gulf that has existed between class and class has, I trust, been in great measure bridged over now throughout all England, thanks to the statesmen of all parties alike." And the secret by which this gulf has been bridged to the extent it has, he found to be the open secret of "that sound education which has always proved to be so powerful an agent in reconciling the different classes and teaching them to understand one another."

It would be reasonable to fear that a prince of delicate constitution, and, owing to the circumstances of his exalted position, having "a mind not immersed in daily cares," would, if he devoted himself to thought, come forth from his study a mere doctrinaire. That, with the innocence of a Rasselas, he would prove to be lost in amiable dreams having no applicability to average human life. Fortunately, however, the life of our Royal Family has not been one of seclusion, and we must not forget how many avenues of experience are open to a prince who cares to cultivate his powers of observation. The number of thoughtful minds of all classes with which royal persons of the present English pattern. come in contact is very large, and such contact must constitute in itself a liberal education and an absolute preventive of narrow or exclusive views. A young student who can, in the most natural way, hold familiar converse with men so different as, for example, Lord Beaconsfield and Mr. Ruskin, is almost forced, if he turn to think at all, to find his own level, and discover his own originality. And with an example so near at hand of a Sovereign who so many years has personally superintended the conduct of the affairs of State, and embodies in herself a longer official tradition and experience than any of her ministers, the Queen's youngest son might have even found some difficulty in hugging to himself a pet sphere of impracticable dreams. Just as the best definition of what, in a true and good sense, is described as mystical, is that it is something which, though not at once or superficially apparent, can come to be understood, so with the ideals which Prince Leopold

conjures up to stimulate men, they are eminently ideals which are realisable by heroic effort.

Were any proof needed, we have but to make extracts from his published speeches. It cannot be said, for instance, that the ideal of simplicity, were it only pursued, is a difficult ideal to draw down into daily life. It is an ideal which includes not only poetry but practicability. It is a fruit of culture which as much as any will add gracefulness to that bridge which Prince Leopold hopes to see yet further extended between class and class. To this result of culture we find his references in the following passages from his Sheffield speech: "There will naturally be the intellectual benefits which invariably attend the progress of learning, philosophy, and general culture, of the opening out of new realms of thought, and of pleasures which the ignorant cannot know." "But another," said the Prince, "and, as it seems to me, an equally valuable effect of the culture is to make us shrink from and hate all that is vulgar and false, and to prefer pure and simple pleasures-such as are open to all, and can never be exhausted by any-to ostentation, vanity, and self-indulgence."

A study of the following passage also will show that, although a Liberal, Prince Leopold is a Conservative as well, as all good men should be: "Those men who, with great wealth at their disposal, elect to spend it in mere sumptuousness and luxury, are repaid, indeed, by admiration from certain persons and of a certain kind; but how far richer is the reward of those who, after spending what is needed to maintain with dignity their place in society, devote the remainder towards furthering the happiness of their fellow men! Far-off generations shall rise up and call such men blessed." A nice discrimination, too, is shown, in what way and how far men of different classes can contribute public offerings. "After saying that there is full room for gifts, need I add how great is the inducement to be a giver? And this privilege of making a marked and visible difference in human well-being, and of seeing some great institution rise and flourish at your bidding, is one that can perhaps be more readily enjoyed by the great magnates of commerce and manufacture than by any other class. They, with their unfettered fortunes, must seem enviable in this respect to men who, apparently, perhaps, in possession of large incomes, are hampered by the extensive claims made on them by their landed estates, or other hereditary duties, who are compelled to restrict the aid they give to causes such as this to small and fitful donations."

Another evidence that he is not a mere intellectualist is afforded by Prince Leopold in the expression of his views on the subject of University education. He notes with a cordial interest what the University of London is doing in the enlargement of educational facilities for women, and what steps Oxford and Cambridge are taking in the same direction.

He is enthusiastic on the subject of University extension generally, but that does not blind him to the fact that a curriculum of study and a successful examination do not constitute the be all and end

all of University education. To those interested in the progress of new colleges he points out the advantages of affiliation to the elder Universities, as "enabling many students to enter wellprepared and on easier terms on residence in one or other of these Universities." "Such residence," he says, "I cannot but think may be made in itself an education such as no new institution can imitate or equal; and when I say this, I am not thinking only of the unrivalled aids to study of a material kind which Oxford and Cambridge offer in the way of museums and laboratories and libraries, but rather of their timehonoured traditions and of the memories which they call up of the best and ablest spirits of bygone days."

Tracing out the same practical, as opposed to transcendental, element in his eloquent counsels, we shall find that the unworldliness he advocates is a spiritual unworldliness, and not a lack of power to touch the world, or hold one's place within it. "I remember, too, that in these ancient seats of learning are still to be found men who are examples of unworldliness and meditation in the midst of a hurrying age, and who teach us that it is still possible to love truth and wisdom more than fame and fortune.'

Prince Leopold has passed beyond the fond dream of youth that great institutions rise up like Aladdin's palace in a day. While congratulating the people of Sheffield upon what they had accomplished, he added this provident advice: "But more gifts are needed to carry out the scheme of instruction in a worthy way, and, by raising your institution to the level of the great foundations that have been the slow formation of centuries, to form in your midst a nucleus of intellectual life such as shall exercise a sensible influence in this great city."

There is something pathetic in connection with such a town as Sheffield in the Prince's expression of his consciousness that it is to nature and not only to book study that the educational aim ought to be extended. With the large beauty of Nature almost banished from the great manufacturing centres, some kind of compromise in the way of museums and of horticulture under glass is perhaps all that can be expected. Still, it would be wrong to shirk the attempt, however difficult, "to give to the children who are compelled, in the busy city, to pass many hours each day amid dark and gloomy surroundings, an opportunity of learning from Nature those lessons which are the rightful inheritance of childhood, and without which no man can be said to have had his fair chance in the world."

We have put these speeches to a difficult test, and one which three speeches delivered at intervals would not bear in the case of every

politician. We have read and quoted from them in sequence, as if they formed part of only one. And the question is, are they homogeneous, one-minded, do they reflect singleness of purpose, and so indicate manifestly the natural outcome of the speaker's heart and mind? In this respect, and tried by this crucial touchstone, we may reasonably challenge the critic to find a flaw. Plain citizens whom a citizen of London has addressed, and persons of princely power toward whom a prince has directed so many an inspiring suggestion, may well refresh their memory by reading these speeches once again, in the assurance that they will find in them much that is honestly worthy of their study. In so dwelling upon them they will find themselves led into regions of deeper feeling than common wont, they will find much that is encouraging and much that is elevating, in all a fine example of the enthusiasm that engenders activity of purpose and makes direct for use, controlled by temperance and governed by a wisdom and breadth far from common in so young a worker, or indeed in any worker, among the hills of noble endeavour.

We will conclude with a hope that, when Prince Leopold returns from the tour round the world which it is understood he contemplates, he will go on in the path in which he has so well begun, continuing to add the stores of his gathering experience, the energy of his mind and heart, and the eloquence which is his gift, to the higher influences-never too many or too high-which affect our national and individual life.

K. C.

ART WORK IN GLASS.

WHEN Pompey returned to Rome in triumph from his Asiatic campaign against Mithridates, Pliny tells us that, of all the countless spoils displayed, those which attracted most attention from the dazzled populace were the Murrhine Vases-ten of which the hero consecrated, as the richest fruits of his victory, to Jupiter Capitolinus. This was the first recorded appearance in the Seven-Hilled City of these vessels, so often referred to by classic writers as ranking amongst the most priceless art products of the ancient world. A consul, on their first advent, is said to have squandered his patrimony by giving 6000l. for one of them; but even this prodigality was eclipsed by Petronius, who paid 28,000l. for a basin, and Nero, who expended as much in the purchase of a twohandled vase. It is unfortunate that exact data are lacking as to their source and substance, for, though numerous hypotheses have been put forward, it is difficult to accept any one of them as conclusive. Propertius would imply that they came from the East, and were produced by artificial heat, and his words have given rise to the supposition that they were Chinese porcelain, reaching Rome through Asia Minor. But most commentators opine that they were wrought out of agate, sardonyx, spar, or opal. Pliny states that false or

artificial ones were made, especially in Egypt, and points at glass as the material of these. At any rate we gather that form, brilliancy and transparent colour were the characteristics of these vases from which the choicest Falernian wine was quaffed. Hence the appositeness of the title Vasa Murrhina, selected by Mons. P. R. F. D'Humy for the beautiful specimens of the glassworker's art, in which he has succeeded not only in achieving a brilliancy and variety of colouring hitherto unattained, but in resuscitating one of the lost arts of the ancients; namely, the union by fusion of gold with glass.

One of the prettiest of the fictions that go to make up what we call history is Pliny's account of the discovery of glass. We all remember how the Phoenician merchants landed at the mouth of the river Belus, how they supported the vessels in which they cooked their repast on blocks of nitre, and how, these being fused into the sand by the heat of the fire, the result was the formation of the beautiful and fragile substance which to-day in a thousand and one forms holds such a prominent place in the list of social requisites. Recent investigation has served to relegate this little story to the realms of fable, and to prove that glass was known in the real cradle of art and science -the land of Egypt-long before

* Murrheaque in Parthis pocula cocta focis.

+ Fit et album et murrhinum, aut hyacinthos saphirosque imitum, et omnibus aliis coloribus.

Ardenti murra Falerni convenit.-Martial.

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