Froude has nothing of Boswell in him except Bos-
well's power of reproducing the features of his hero in
the clearest light, and making the man visible and con-
ceivable. But he has wrought on the same lines in this
sense, that each believed that the man he loved could
20



306 STUDIES OF MEN

bear the full light of day on his life and acts and mo-
tives. Much of Carlyle's written work will perish, as
much of Johnson's has perished. Each toiled for his
own time chiefly; and a little for all time to come.
But when the . Latter Day Pamphlets and Past and
Present and much else have ceased to be read, the
figure of the stern old Scottish peasant will live in
Froude's pages, in his own letters, in his wife's letters,
and stand out as a figure which, whether you like him
or not, you cannot forget and cannot resist. His very
faults and defects have a fascination — those very faults
and defects and rugged traits which Froude was most
blamed for revealing.
I will end, though there is a great deal more to be
said than can be said in a newspaper, with a story of
Froude which I heard the day after his death from an
admirable lady in whose house in the country we had
met often — one of the two where he was most at home.
