In a recent address delivered by Mr. Gladstone at Liverpool, he acknowledged the neglect of culture which is one of the shortcomings of our trading community, and held out the hope (perhaps in some degree illusory) that the same persons might become eminent in commerce and in learning. No doubt there have been instances of this; and when a "concern" has been firmly established by the energy of a predecessor, the heir to it may be satisfied with a royal sort of supervision, leaving the drudgery of detail to his managers, and so secure for himself that sufficient leisure without which high culture is not possible. But the _founders_ of great commercial fortunes have, I believe, in every instance thrown their _whole_ energy into their trade, making wealth their aim, and leaving culture to be added in another generation. The founders of commercial families are in this country usually men of great mother-wit and plenty of determination--but illiterate. FOOTNOTES: [12] The word "disinterested" is used here in the sense explained in Part II. Letter III. [13] "This work has at any rate the character of having come into the world like every really living creation. It has been produced by the heat of a gentle incubation." PART XII. _SURROUNDINGS._ LETTER I. TO A FRIEND WHO OFTEN CHANGED HIS PLACE OF RESIDENCE. An unsettled class of English people--Effect of localities on the mind--Reaction against surroundings--Landscape-painting a consequence of it--Crushing effect of too much natural magnificence--The mind takes color from its surroundings--Selection of a place of residence--Charles Dickens--Heinrich Heine--Dr. Arnold at Rugby--His house in the lake district--Tycho Brahe--His establishment on the island of Hween--The young Humboldts in the Castle of Tegel--Alexander Humboldt's appreciation of Paris--Dr. Johnson--Mr. Buckle--Cowper--Galileo. I find that there is a whole class of English subjects (you belong to that class) of whom it is utterly impossible to predict where they will be living in five years. Indeed, as you are the worst of correspondents, I only learned your present address, by sheer accident, from a perfect stranger, and he told me, of course, that you had plans for going somewhere else, but where that might be he knew not. The civilized English nomad is usually, like yourself, a person of independent means, rich enough to bear the expenses of frequent removals, but without the cares of property. His money is safely invested in the funds, or in railways; and so, wherever the postman can bring his dividends, he can live in freedom from material cares. When his wife is as unsettled as himself, the pair seem to live in a balloon, or in a sort of Noah's ark, which goes whither the wind lists, and takes ground in the most unexpected places.