His aversion to the counting-house was, however, as pronounced as ever. Benjamin Disraeli resigned himself to the inevitable--wound up his affairs and retired, as has been said, upon the fortune which he had realised. Isaac, assured of independence, if not of great wealth, went his own way; published a satire, which the old man overlived without a catastrophe, and entered the literary world of London. Before he was thirty he brought out his 'Curiosities of Literature,' which stepped at once into popularity and gave him a name. He wrote verses which were pretty and graceful, verses which were read and remembered by Sir Walter Scott, and were at least better than his son's. But he was too modest to overrate their value. He knew that poetry, unless it be the best of its kind, is better unproduced, and withdrew within the limits where he was conscious that he could excel. 'The poetical temperament was not thrown away upon him. Because he was a poet he was a popular writer, and made _belles-lettres_ charming to the multitude.... His destiny was to give his country a series of works illustrative of its literary and political history, full of new information and new views which time has ratified as just.' CHAPTER II Family of Isaac Disraeli--Life in London--Birth of his Children--Abandons Judaism and joins the Church of England--Education of Benjamin Disraeli--School Days--Picture of them in 'Vivian Grey' and 'Contarini Fleming'--Self-education at Home--Early Ambition. [Sidenote: BIRTH AND EDUCATION]