But if colloquial Spanish was not at first at his command, he had a very valuable instrument in his familiarity with Spanish literature. The man who knows and loves the best literature of the country to which he is accredited has the key wherewith to unlock the nature of the men with whom he has to deal. Lowell, to whom Calderon was as a nightingale in his study, was not taken unawares when asked to go to Spain. He did not need to cram for an examination. When qualifying himself for his post at Harvard, twenty years before, he had made himself acquainted with Spanish, and both his studies and his teaching since that day had led him into such an acquaintance with its language, literature, and history, that he could say playfully that he knew more Spanish than most Spaniards. At first sight it might seem that the somewhat isolated and secluded life he had led would have disqualified Lowell for the life of a diplomat; that greater commerce with men was essential to the training of one whose business it was to deal directly with men in matters possibly of high consequences. But if Lowell was a scholar and somewhat of a recluse, it must be remembered that his most frequent converse was with picked men, and that, moreover, in his studies and reading his attention had been concentrated on literature which was expressive of great thoughts, great emotions, and great dramatic situations, so that both in life and in literature he was at home and moved with ease in high society. In diplomatic life, the minister can scarcely escape the consciousness of his representative character. The men with whom he has most to do remind him of it; they are themselves in the same category. The reader of Shakespeare’s Histories is struck with the fine impersonation of their countries which the leading characters convey as it were in the tones of their voice. France, England, Scotland become in their impassioned language not geographical entities, nor even nations merely, but incarnate in them. So at courts, aided by the very trappings and ceremonies of their office, private gentlemen become for the nonce figures in a pageant and feel themselves such. They speak, it may be, in their natural voice, and talk for the most part with ministers of state as man to man, with friendly accent and in négligé forms even; but the consciousness of their representative function is never remote, it is always alert and ready against surprise. I suspect it becomes even more easy for a scholar than for a man of affairs to play the part well on such a stage. And it is this same sense which lies behind much of the sensitiveness as to rank and punctilio. The ambassador takes precedence of the minister; thus the minister of a great country is irritated at finding himself in the procession behind the ambassador of a country of a second order, not because his personal pride is wounded, but because his country has felt a slight. These things touch a man of the great