Chamberlain, I never felt any political difference, except in the matter
of speed of action. Yet even when one was most impatient with the Duke's
slowness in uptake, one often admired him most and felt at the back of
one's mind that he was most in the right.
In selecting these five men from among my friends I must remind people
that this does not show that they were my only close and intimate
friends in public life. There were plenty of others, but I am thankful
to say I am prevented from mentioning most of them because of my rule
not to write of the living. Indeed, I have been so fortunate in my
friends that but for this rule I could fill not a single volume but a
series of vast tomes.
In moments of mental elation I had planned to direct my executors to
place upon the tablet which will be fixed to the wall of the Strachey
Chapel in Chew Magna Church, nothing but the words: "His friends were
many and true-hearted." I admit that this is a piece of self-laudation
that a man could hardly be justified in bestowing upon himself. If you
can read their "history in a people's eyes," you can certainly best read
a man's history by asking who were his friends and how did they treat
him and feel towards him.
Pages:
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518