“. . .  Lord Beaconsfield wore a mask to the generality of mankind.  It was only when I read Lothair that I could form any notion to myself of the personality which was behind.  I once alluded to that book in a speech at a Royal Academy banquet.  Lord Beaconsfield was present, and was so far interested in what I said that he wished me to review Endymion in the Edinburgh, and sent me the proof-sheets of it before publication.  Edymion did not take hold of me as Lothair did, and I declined, but I have never lost the impression which I gathered out of Lothair.  It is worse than useless to attempt the biography of a man unless you know, or think you know, what his inner nature was ....  I am quite sure that Lord Beaconsfield had a clearer insight than most men into the contemporary constitution of Europe—­that he had a real interest in the welfare and prospects of mankind; and while perhaps he rather despised the great English aristocracy, he probably thought better of them than of any other class in England.  I suppose that like Cicero he wished to excel, or perhaps more like Augustus to play his part well in the tragic comedy of life.  I do not suppose that he had any vulgar ambition at all .... "

The feelings with which he approached this not altogether congenial task are described in the following passages from letters to Lady Derby: 

....  “The Molt, September 14th, 1889.

“If my wonderful adventure into the Beaconsfield country comes off, I shall want all the help which Lord D. offered to give me.  I do not wonder that he and you were both startled at the proposition, and I am not at all sure that in a respectable series of Victorian Prime Ministers I should be allowed to treat the subject in the way that I wish.  The point is to make out what there was behind the mask.  Had it not been for Lothair I should have said nothing but a charlatan.  But that altered my opinion, and the more often I read it the more I want to know what his real nature was.  The early life is a blank filled up by imaginative people out of Vivian Grey.  I am feeling my way indirectly with his brother, Ralph D’Israeli, and whether I go on or not will depend on whether he will help me.”

“The Molt, November 12th, 1889,

“The difficulty is to find out the real man that lay behind the sphynx-like affectations.  I have come to think that these affectations (natural at first) came to be themselves affected as a useful defensive armour which covered the vital parts.  Anyway, the study of him is extremely amusing.  I had nothing else to do, and I can easily throw what I write into the fire if it turns out unsatisfactory.”