What I then learned makes it necessary to considerably modify the earlier chapter dealing with the Gordon episode. I feel that it will be impossible for me to sacrifice all the fine phrases and pleasing paragraphs I have written about Gordon, but Cromer was very bitter about him and begged me not to pander to the popular belief on the subject. Of course there is no doubt that Gordon as a political figure was absolutely hopeless. He was so erratic, capricious, utterly unreliable, his mood changed so often, his temper was abominable, he was frequently drunk, and yet with all he had a tremendous sense of honour and great abilities, and a still greater obstinacy.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "What I then learned makes it necessary to considerably modify the earlier chapter dealing with the Gordon episode. I feel that it will be impossible for me to sacrifice all the fine phrases and pleasing paragraphs I have written about Gordon, but Cromer was very bitter about him and begged me not to pander to the popular belief on the subject. Of course there is no doubt that Gordon as a political figure was absolutely hopeless. He was so erratic, capricious, utterly unreliable, his mood changed so often, his temper was abominable, he was frequently drunk, and yet with all he had a tremendous sense of honour and great abilities, and a still greater obstinacy." in the context of "Winston Churchill to Lady Randolph (30 March [1899]), quoted in Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill, Volume I: Youth 1874–1900 (1966), p. 440" to mean that wisdom is timeless.