[March, 1894.] ... Yes, the going out of Gladstone is very strange - how dull it will be. Who cares who is made chief minister or who not? Nobody else for many a day will fill the stage as he has done - create enthusiasm and hatred as he has. It is better to go out so than to go out because a general election will force it. Since the most dramatic things so seldom happen, this must serve us; he has been a mighty part of this country - now let us see how they like it when the big one has gone. They always quarrel with their big ones - always - hate them and pretend they wish they had them back. It will never be a really happy world until the last one is gone and the flat ones can have a fool's paradise, and all things their own way. It's coming; presently there will be no more big ones at all in any side of human life, and everything will be smug and comfortable. ...