have hundreds of keen eyes been turned at critical moments toward that face, to read, if it might be possible, something of the mysterious thoughts of the man himself; but never once, not even in the most exciting crisis of personal or political conflict, has the face unwittingly relaxed, or friend or foe been able to read aught there. It is the face of a sphinx, inscrutable and unfathomable; it is, as men of every party will admit, the most remarkable face in England.

Mr. Disraeli's mind is no more to be analyzed than his countenance is to be fathomed. He is here; we know what he has done, we have seen his labors, we acknowledge his genius, we believe him to be intellectually one of the greatest men, not of his own time, only, but of all English history. Beyond that we can not go, and we must leave to future critics, who will see him through a clearer medium than that through which it is possible for us to behold him, and who may have new lights thrown upon his character which are withheld from us, to decide what he is, and what precisely is the motive-power of his life. All that we know at present is, that he is an intellectual prodigy, and, like other prodigies, he must be tried by exceptional rules and standards. But this has nothing to do with the mere sketch which we propose to attempt of the man himself, of the place he holds in the House of Commons, of the work he does there, and of the qualities he displays in doing it.

He is a great party-leader. That is beyond dispute. To him belongs the honor of having, with an exquisite tact and skill, led the House of Commons, when he had only a minority of supporters at his back, and of having led it in such a way that the most watchful of foes were unable to trip him up, or even to change the secretly formed purpose of his mind. Those who saw him first as chancellor of the exchequer, then as prime-minister during the last conservative administration, leading his party and the house of commons at the same time, witnessed a spectacle the like of which has perhaps never before been seen; for we have no previous record of such generalship as that which Mr. Disraeli then displayed.

He was himself engaged in a task which, to the most sanguine of his own followers, had but a short time before seemed an utterly hopeless one, and which, to those of them who were unable to see as far as he did, seemed worse than hopeless-suicidal.

But he went on, in spite of difficulties and discouragements which would have broken the spirit and destroyed the strength or any other party-leader of modern times. And he went on with wonderful success. Past rocks and shoals and quicksands without number, and by a channel on which it had never before entered, he steered the vessel of the state; he faced obstacles which seemed insurmountable, and which, to any other man, would have been what they seemed, and lo! they vanished under his marvelous manipulation. With a party sorely reduced in strength, he kept at bay the overwhelming numbers of the enemy -nay, he even used them as instruments of his own, and it was by their aid that he passed the great reform bill which will henceforth be associated with his name, and balked his rivals. This is what Mr. Disraeli has accomplished within the last few years; and no impartial man will deny that it is one of the greatest political achievements recorded in the history of Parliament.

It was during the trying period between 1866-'69 that he developed his ripest powers. Until he became the leader of the House of Commons on the last occasion, he had never shown his remarkable fitness for such a post. On previous occasions he had done well; but then he did his work superlatively well. It is true, that, when he had formally been leader of the house, he had labored under the disadvantage of having opposed to him a skilled veteran who was the most popular party-man ever seated within the walls of parliament.

But, making allowances for the difference in his position which was made by Lord Palmerston's death, we yet can not doubt that there was a ripening and maturing of his powers during the long interval of opposition through which he passed, while that nobleman and Lord Russell were at the helm of the State for the last time, which contributed materially to his success when he himself was recalled to the leadership. It was not until he was recalled that, in addition to all his other great qualities, he displayed that geniality and humor which the House of Commons is so quick to appreciate in its leader, and the absence of which in the present prime minister it feels so strongly.

And somewhat akin to this humor is that higher power of sarcasm for which Mr. Disraeli has been famous throughout his whole public life. He is not, in one sense of the word, a good debater.

It can not be denied that at times he contrasts unfavorably with Mr. Gladstone. But upon some subjects he makes speeches which are far above the level reached by any other man in the House of Commons. No one has the power of investing a great political event with more of the interest attaching to domestic affairs than he has. Over and over again he has brought down incidents which were so far above the ordinary level of the House of Commons as to be beyond the reach of its sympathy, to the region of everyday life—as, for instance, in the case of Mr. Lincoln's assassination, when he made the speech of all the speeches made, the world over, upon that most terrible, most touching of tragedies, and brought tears to the eyes of men to whom, before that moment, the President of the United States had been a mere abstraction.

But while upon such topics he is a perfect master of words and ideas, when he is speaking upor the mere party-question of the hour, he often fails to produce that impression upon his audience which one would expect from a man of his genius. No doubt many causes unite to produce this effect. Chief among them, we believe, is the fact that he has not the passion of the ordinary party-man. The range of his sympathies is so catholic, that his mind is seldom roused to passion upon a question which is only a question of party; it is not until he is really touched by one of those few topics which have power to move him deeply, that the fire of genius in his soul pours forth its sparks, and that he shows all the depths of passion and enthusiasm hidden within him. And yet even when he is in his coldest mood, what an intellectual treat it is to listen to him speaking upon one of the great questions of the day.

The political career of Mr. Disraeli is one of the most remarkable in English history. By force of talent, industry and perseverance, unaided by wealth or family relatives, with his Jewish origin working against him with terrible force, and the reputation of being a clever novelist, he has raised himself to the position of leader in the House of Commons and minister of finance in the greatest commercial empire of the world.

CHARLES DICKENS.

HARLES DICKENS was born at Portsmouth, England, February 12, 1812. His father was a retired Navy-department clerk, and in his latter years a reporter for the London daily press. Charles was intended for the profession of an attorney, but could never learn to love it, and though he plodded through a course of study, it was never of use to him except that it gave him a knowledge of law phrases, and a familiarity with the intricacies so dearly loved by the impartial goddess of Justice. He threw it aside without ceremony, for the more congenial duties of reporter to the London papers, and was afterwards attached to the "True Sun," then to the "Morning Chronicle," in which latter he won his first literary reputation under the signature of "Boz." He was possessed of rare powers of delineating character, and while some of his friends have regretted that he had given his talents to the portraiture of a class of the human family who would otherwise never be known to the world, it is here, perhaps, that he won more fame than in any other class of literature. The first of the "Pickwick Papers" was published in 1830, but the series was not complete until 1837, when it was brought out by Mr. Seymour. It was a favorite both in England and America, and is still considered his best work. His next was the "Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby," then "Oliver Twist." "The Old Curiosity Shop," more than any other work of his, paved the way for his enthusiastic reception in America, and when he came here in 1842, he had certainly nothing more to desire of our people. His views of American life were published on his return to England, but were too much of the Trollope school of criticism to be thoroughly relished, added little to his reputation, and nothing to his popularity. About this time he wrote several short Christmas stories which were very pretty, and the most amiable of his works.

In 1844 he published "Martin Chuzzlewit," and in the same year went to Italy and remained some time. Dombey & Son" came out in 1848, and “David Copperfield," his own favorite, in 1850. In 1853 he finished "Bleak House," and in 1857 "Little Dorritt," both of which were favorably read.

Dickens' wonderful success as a novelist lies in his humor and originality, and no one, not even the most selfish of critics, can deny this. Wordy he is—even to a fault, perhaps, but his words are so prettily chosen as to be forgiven by the charmed reader. As a public reader of his own writings, Mr. Dickens was certainly a success, and the stories already familiar to our mind borrowed a new grace from his pleasant intonation. His last visit to America is too recent for any to have forgotten the rapturous crowds who nightly listened to him. His domestic life has not been free from pain, and to this, perhaps, in a great measure may be attributed the under-current of deep pathos that is traceable in all his writings.

HOMER.

ISCUSSION and speculation have proven fruitless in locating the birth-place of Homer; even the exact age in which he lived is also lost. Seven cities of Asia claim the honor of having given the poet to the world, each with some show of truth, and seven more would be willing to share the honor had they a shadow to found their claim upon. Between the earliest and the latest dates in which he is said to have lived, lies a period of nearly five hundred years. It is impossible to state more than the probabilities of the case, which are, that he was a native of Smyrna, an Ionian city, on the coast of Asia Minor, and was therefore an Asiatic Greek; lived in the second century, after the taking of Troy by Achilles; most likely from B. C. 1019 to B. C. 984.