WITH LORD BEACONSFIELD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11687, 2 May 1916, Page 4

WITH LORD BEACONSFIELD.

"Dreams! Dreams! Dreams!" answered Lord Beaconsfield, bending over the fire, when Lord Ronald asked him, just, before the end, liow ho regarded his life of triumph. And then, characteristically enough, smoking a cigarette which he had just accepted, the statesman &aid, " I have not smoked, dearest, sinco vou wero here last": " Life," Lord Bcaconsiield saul to me that last time I was with him at Himhenden (wrote Lord Ronald aferwards), '-'life is an ennui, or an anxiety," and ho enlarged on his text by saying that for the self-made lifo if full of troubles and anxieties, for fear of losing the position or the wealth they have obtained, and for those born with position and wealth there is nothing to strive for, and lifo then Becomes u mere bore, an ennui, and a burden. "My idea," he added, "of a happy future state is one of those long midsummer days when one dines at nine o'clock!" .Lord Beacgnsfield had left out the majority of mankind, those who cannot afford either to be anxious or to bo bored, and, indeed, in that halfway state I believe the truest earthly happiness exists. " Life," added Lorcf Ronald, " when those we have loyed and cherished in it are taken from us, is a long sadness; but, thank God, we may humbly hope that in His good time we shall again meet with our lost and loved."

Wife: "In a battle of tongues r» woman can bold her own." Husband: "31- yes, pV;ip.-> -he can; but she never dee*-"