In Charles
I.'s time it grew to be known or said that if a man was by birth a
gentleman, and was worth L10,000 a-year, and bestowed his gifts up and
down among courtiers, he could be made a peer. Under Charles II. it
went on with still more rapidity, and has been going on with ever
increasing velocity until we see the perfect break-neck pace at which
they are now going. (A laugh.) And now a peerage is a paltry kind of
thing to what it was in these old times, I could go into a great many
more details about things of that sort, but I must turn to another
branch of the subject.
One remark more about your reading. I do not know whether it has been
sufficiently brought home to you that there are two kinds of books.
When a man is reading on any kind of subject, in most departments of
books--in all books, if you take it in a wide sense--you will find
that there is a division of good books and bad books--there is a good
kind of a book and a bad kind of a book. I am not to assume that you
are all ill acquainted with this; but I may remind you that it is a
very important consideration at present.
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