[Illustration: _From a_] AGE 6. [_Painting._] [Illustration: _From a Picture by_] AGE 18. [_F. Winterhalter._] [Illustration: _From a Photo by_] PRESENT DAY. [_Byrne & Co., Richmond._] THE DUKE OF ARGYLL. Born 1823. AT the age of eight-and-twenty the Duke of Argyll, who had succeeded to the dukedom four years earlier, was already well known as a writer, a politician, and a public speaker, and as one who took keen interest in all Scottish questions which came before the public. At this age, also, he was elected Chancellor of the University of St. Andrews, and was already, what he has since remained, one of the most prominent figures in the House of Lords. The Duke, who has held many of the highest offices, in various Governments, was, at the age at which he is represented in our second picture, Secretary of State for India under Mr. Gladstone. But as a politician the Duke's position is not easy to define; he has been described as "Whig by family, Liberal by intellect, Independent by nature, and Conservative by inclination." But it is in questions of science and theology rather than in politics that the Duke's name is known, and his most celebrated book, "The Reign of Law," was considered by Darwin himself so powerful an attack upon the Theory of Descent as to call for special refutation. [Illustration: _From a Drawing by_] AGE 28. [_J. E. Swinton._] [Illustration: _From a Photo. by_] AGE 45. [_Messrs. Elliott & Fry._] [Illustration: _From a Photo. by_] AGE 67. [_Messrs. Elliott & Fry._] H. BEERBOHM TREE. THE first photograph we give of Mr. Herbert Beerbohm Tree, shows him at the age of five, then a cherubic and rosy boy of seemingly serious disposition. The second likeness represents him at seventeen, soon after he had left the college of Schnepfenthal in Thuringia, where he received his education, but where, according to his own modest statement, he acquired no distinction in the walks of learning. But so great was his evident talent for acting that he was persuaded to adopt the stage as a profession, with what instant success we all know. He became manager of the Haymarket in 1887. As a manager he has shown not only enterprise, but an almost quixotic liberality. His latest Monday night venture has proved one of the happiest of his many happy thoughts. For leave to reproduce these portraits we have to thank the kindness of Mr. Beerbohm Tree. [Illustration: _From a_] AGE 5. [_Photograph._] [Illustration: _From a Photo. by_] AGE 17. [_The Stereoscopic Co._] [Illustration: _From a Photo. by_] AGE 29. [_A. Bassano_.] [Illustration: _From a Photo. by_] AGE 36. [_The Stereoscopic Co._] WILLIAM BLACK. BORN 1841.