THE GOLDEN BOOK OF
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farmers and agriculturists depend upon a kind wife who cheers them by the fireside at the end of their day's work, and to lighten by female influence the load of difficulties.
But the keynote of King Edward's character and reign is summed up, as has been truly said, in the word Humanity—humanity in its widest as well as its narrowest sense. His life was not only a constant devotion to the broader issues of the State—(for the love of England, with him, was a veritable passion),—but the endeavour to bring light into dark places—comfort the sick and sorrowful—help to the needy and the poor. Whether,—as in 1884—he mixed freely among thousands of British working classes at the Bethnal Green Museum, talking to them, they said, just as if he were a working man himself,—or whether, as on the occasion of his Coronation, he gave a dinner to over half a million London poor: to every variety and calling he extended that amazing sympathy which found its vent in the most carefully detailed practical kindness.
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