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76
Hereditary Genius
because I shall hereafter have occasion to speak of physical gifts not
unfrequently accompanying intellectual ones.) He sometimes left his clothes
in charge of a porter below London Bridge, then ran naked upon the mud-
shore of the Thames up almost as high as Chelsea, for the pleasure of
swimming down to his clothes with the tide, and he loved to end by shooting
the cascade beneath old London Bridge. I often marvel at his feat, when I
happen to be on the river in a steamer.
I will now quote Macaulay's description of his first appearance, in his
after life, on the stage of English politics. Speaking, in his “History of
England,” of the period immediately following the accession of James II.,
Macaulay says—
“The person on whom devolved the task of devising ways and means was
Sir Dudley North, younger brother of the Lord Keeper. Dudley North was
one of the ablest men of his time. He had early in life been sent to the
Levant, where he had long been engaged in mercantile pursuits. Most men
would, in such a situation, have allowed their faculties to rust; for at Smyrna
and Constantinople there were few books and few intelligent companions.
But the young factor had one of those vigorous understandings which are
independent of external aids. In his solitude he meditated deeply on the
philosophy of trade, and thought out, by degrees, a complete and admirable
theory—substantially the same with that which a hundred years later was
expounded by Adam Smith.” North was brought into Parliament for
Banbury; and, though a new member, was the person on whom the Lord
Treasurer chiefly relied for the conduct of financial business in the Lower
House. “North's ready wit and perfect knowledge of trade prevailed, both
in the Treasury and the Parliament, against all opposition. The old members
were amazed at seeing a man who had not been a fortnight
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