Lord Hartington soon found himself pushed aside from his position of titular leadership. For four years, from 1876 to 1880, Gladstone maintained the strife with a courage, a persistence and a versatility which raised the enthusiasm of his followers to the highest pitch.
Abauzit was a man of great learning and of wonderful versatility.
This accounts for his bewildering versatility, and for his apparent want of grasp on conditions of fact.
Neither Pope nor Swift, who perhaps excelled him in particular branches of literary production, approached him in range of genius, or in encyclopaedic versatility.
Three other volumes followed in 1894, 1895 and 1897, each displaying to further advantage the versatility and sensuous splendour of Frdding's talent, as well as its somewhat scandalous recklessness.