Apart from his professional gifts, Irving is assuredly one of those figures which fill the public eye, and of which there are but few. This is owing to a sort of sympathetic attraction, and to an absence of affectation. He plays many parts in the social scheme, and always does so with judiciousness, contributing to the effect of the situation. His utterances on most subjects are thoughtful and well considered, and contribute to the enlightenment of the case. At his examination by the London County Council, when many absurd questions were put to him, he answered with much sagacity. His views on the employment of children in theatres are truly sensible. More remarkable, however, are his opinions on the science of acting, the art of management, and of dealing with audiences and other kindred topics, which show much thought and knowledge. He has, in truth, written a great deal, and his various “discourses,” recently collected in a pretty little volume, do credit to his literary style and power of expression.[59] Here we must pause. We have seen what our actor has done, what a change he has worked in the condition of the stage: what an elegant education he has furnished during all these years. And though he has been associated with the revival of the stage, and a complete reform in all that concerns its adornment, it will be his greatest glory that he has presented SHAKESPEARE on a grand scale, under the sumptuous and judicious conditions and methods that have made the poet acceptable to English audiences of our day. There have been many laments over the fleeting, evanescent character of an actor’s efforts. If his success be triumphant, it is like a dream for those who have not seen. Description gives but the faintest idea of his gifts. The writer, as it were, continues to write after his death, and is read, as he was in his lifetime. But the player gone, the play is over. The actor, it is true, if he be a personality, has another audience outside his theatre. As I have shown in these pages, he can attract by force of character the interest and sympathies of the general community. Whatever he does, or wherever he appears, eyes are turned to him as they would be to one on a stage. There is a sort of indulgent partiality in the case of Irving. He is a dramatic figure, much as was Charles Dickens. Eyes are idly bent on him that enters next. And this high position is not likely to be disturbed; and though all popularity is precarious enough, he has the art and tact to adapt his position to the shifty, capricious changes of taste, and in the hackneyed phrase is more “up to date” than any person of his time. The fine lines in ‘Troilus and Cressida’—the most magnificent in Shakespeare, as they seem to me—should ring in every actor’s ear, or indeed in that of everyone that enjoys public favour. Alas! it must be his lot to be ever at the oar. There is no relaxing, no repose; no coy retirement, or yielding to importunate rivalry: