The epic of _King Arthur_ is scarcely worthy of mention; but Lytton's lyrics deserve a few words, if only because they are in danger of being forgotten. They are not original; perhaps indeed it is as echoes that they are most interesting. We have already seen how Lytton appears to veer with every breath of popular taste; and it is curious to detect in a man so different by nature the occasional echo of the pensive reflexion of Arnold, and sometimes even a suggestion of the philosophy of Browning. It will appear hereafter that this faculty proved hereditary and descended to Owen Meredith. Two stanzas from _Is it all Vanity?_ deserve to be quoted, because the modern note sounds so clear in them: 'Rise, then, my soul, take comfort from thy sorrow; Thou feel'st thy treasure when thou feel'st thy load; Life without thought, the day without the morrow, God on the brute bestow'd; 'Longings obscure as for a native clime, Flight from what is to live in what may be, God gave the Soul;--thy discontent with time Proves thine eternity.' [Sidenote: Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881).] Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, was the man of letters most closely related in spirit and methods to Lytton; but even from the beginning his ambition was for eminence in the state. Political interests and a political purpose are features in his earlier works, and they are the essence of the intermediate novels, _Coningsby_ and _Sybil_. Disraeli began his career with _Vivian Grey_, the first part of which was published in 1826, and the second in the following year. He next spent three years in the south of Europe; after which, in the interval between his return and his entrance into Parliament in 1837, came the period of his greatest literary activity. Between 1831 and 1837 there appeared, besides some minor works, five novels,--_The Young Duke_, _Contarini Fleming_, _The Wondrous Tale of Alroy_, _Venetia_ and _Henrietta Temple_. Parliamentary work checked his pen and profoundly influenced what he did write, as we see in _Coningsby_ (1844), _Sybil_ (1845), and _Tancred_ (1847). After _Tancred_ Disraeli wrote no fiction till _Lothair_ appeared in 1870, followed by the disappointing _Endymion_ (1880).