Lord Reading started his career on the Stock Exchange, where he failed utterly.  No doubt experience would have brought him a reasonable measure of success; but it was equally clear that this was not the sphere for his preeminent abilities.  He therefore broke boldly away and entered at the Bar, where his intellect secured him a reputation and an income, especially in commercial cases, which left his competitors divided between admiration and annoyance.  In a single year he made L40,000.  The peg had found the round hole.  His eminence procured him the Attorney-Generalship.  Yet with all his ability and his personal popularity he was not a real success in the House of Commons.  Parliamentary warfare was not his aptitude.  So he became Lord Chief Justice.  His great personal character and reputation gave Lord Reading in his new position a certain reputation as a great Lord Chief.  From my own limited experience I do not agree.  I had to watch closely a certain case he was trying, and I did not think Lord Reading was a great judge.  He failed to carry the jury with him; the final Court of Appeal ordered a new trial, which resulted in the reversal of the judgment.  Such a thing might happen to any judge, but a strong one would have put a prompt end to proceedings which were obviously vexatious and entailed great cost by the delay on defendants, who had obviously been dragged improperly into the action.  But his real opportunity came with his mission to the United States during the war.  No ambassador had ever achieved such popularity and influence or brought back such rich sheaves with him.  As a diplomatist, a man of law, and a man of business, he shone supreme.  Once more, since his days at the commercial bar, he had found the real field for his talents.

From the Law Courts he has journeyed to a position of great responsibility in India.  Some voices are already acclaiming the success of the new Viceroy.  It will be wiser to wait until it is clear whether his versatile genius will find successful play in its new environment.

But the moral of Lord Reading’s career is plain.  Do not despair over initial failure.  Seek a new opening more suited to your talents.  Fight on in the certain hope that a career waits for every man.

XII

CONSISTENCY

Nothing is so bad as consistency.  There exists no more terrible person than the man who remarks:  “Well, you may say what you like, but at any rate I have been consistent.”  This argument is generally advanced as the palliation for some notorious failure.  And this is natural For the man who is consistent must be out of touch with reality.  There is no consistency in the course of events, in history, in the weather, or in the mental attitude of one’s fellow-men.  The consistent man means that he intends to apply a single foot-rule to all the chances and changes of the universe.