and shrinks from all excitement.  But his understanding, his charity, his virtues, want a field for exercise and display; and we will procure it for him.  Besides, is it not a shame, that the genius of Adrian should fade from the earth like a flower in an untrod mountain-path, fruitless?  Do you think Nature composed his surpassing machine for no purpose?  Believe me, he was destined to be the author of infinite good to his native England.  Has she not bestowed on him every gift in prodigality?—­birth, wealth, talent, goodness?  Does not every one love and admire him? and does he not delight singly in such efforts as manifest his love to all?  Come, I see that you are already persuaded, and will second me when I propose him to-night in parliament.”

“You have got up all your arguments in excellent order,” I replied; “and, if Adrian consent, they are unanswerable.  One only condition I would make, —­that you do nothing without his concurrence.”

“I believe you are in the right,” said Raymond; “although I had thought at first to arrange the affair differently.  Be it so.  I will go instantly to Adrian; and, if he inclines to consent, you will not destroy my labour by persuading him to return, and turn squirrel again in Windsor Forest.  Idris, you will not act the traitor towards me?”

“Trust me,” replied she, “I will preserve a strict neutrality.”

“For my part,” said I, “I am too well convinced of the worth of our friend, and the rich harvest of benefits that all England would reap from his Protectorship, to deprive my countrymen of such a blessing, if he consent to bestow it on them.”

In the evening Adrian visited us.—­“Do you cabal also against me,” said he, laughing; “and will you make common cause with Raymond, in dragging a poor visionary from the clouds to surround him with the fire-works and blasts of earthly grandeur, instead of heavenly rays and airs?  I thought you knew me better.”

“I do know you better,” I replied “than to think that you would be happy in such a situation; but the good you would do to others may be an inducement, since the time is probably arrived when you can put your theories into practice, and you may bring about such reformation and change, as will conduce to that perfect system of government which you delight to portray.”

“You speak of an almost-forgotten dream,” said Adrian, his countenance slightly clouding as he spoke; “the visions of my boyhood have long since faded in the light of reality; I know now that I am not a man fitted to govern nations; sufficient for me, if I keep in wholesome rule the little kingdom of my own mortality.

“But do not you see, Lionel, the drift of our noble friend; a drift, perhaps, unknown to himself, but apparent to me.  Lord Raymond was never born to be a drone in the hive, and to find content in our pastoral life.  He thinks, that he ought to be satisfied; he imagines, that his present situation precludes the possibility of aggrandisement; he does not therefore, even in his own heart, plan change for himself.  But do you not see, that, under the idea of exalting me, he is chalking out a new path for himself; a path of action from which he has long wandered?