,,thomas ,,carlyle         99       99  
99       99       99  ,,famous ,,scots  
,,series   ,the following ,volumes are  
now ready3--  ,,thomas ,,carlyle4 ,by   
,hector ,c4 ,macpherson4 ,,allan        
,,ramsay4 ,by ,oliphant ,smeaton4 ,,hugh
 ,,miller4 ,by ,w4 ,keith ,leask4 ,,john
 ,,knox4 ,by ,a4 ,taylor ,innes4        
,,robert ,,burns4 ,by ,gabriel ,setoun4 
,,the ,,balladists4 ,by ,john ,geddie4  
,,richard ,,cameron4 ,by ,professor     
,herkless4 ,,sir ,,james ,y4 ,,simpson4 
,by ,eve ,blantyre ,simpson4 ,,thomas   
,,chalmers4 ,by ,professor ,w4 ,garden  
,blaikie4 ,,james ,,boswell4 ,by ,w4    
,keith ,leask4 ,,tobias ,,smollett4 ,by 
,oliphant ,smeaton4 ,,fletcher ,,of     
,,saltoun4 ,by ,g4 ,w4 ,t4 ,omond4 ,,the
 ,,blackwood ,,group4 ,by ,sir ,george  
,douglas4 ,,norman ,,macleod4 ,by ,john 
,wellwood4 ,,sir ,,walter ,,scott4 ,by  
,professor ,saintsbury4 ,,kirkcaldy ,,of
 ,,grange4 ,by ,louis ,a4 ,barb4        
,,robert ,,fergusson4 ,by ,a4 ,b4       
,grosart4 ,,james ,,thomson4 ,by        

,william ,bayne4 ,,mungo ,,park4 ,by ,t4
 ,banks ,maclachlan4 ,,david ,,hume4 ,by
 ,professor ,calderwood4         99     
99       99       99       99   ,,thomas
 ,,carlyle  by  ,,hector ,c ,,macpherson
  ,famous ,scots ,series                
,published by ,oliphant ,anderson       
,ferrier ,edinburgh and ,london  ,the   
designs and ornaments of this volume are
 by ,mr ,joseph ,brown1 and the printing
 from the press of ,messrs ,turnbull    
,spears1 ,edinburgh4  ,second ,edition  
completing ,seventh ,thousand4          
,,preface ,,to ,,the ,,second ,,edition 
,of the writing of books on ,carlyle    
there is no end4 ,why1 then1 it may     
pertinently be asked1 add another stone 
to the ,carlylean cairn8 ,the reply is  
obvious4 ,in a series dealing with      
famous ,scotsmen1 ,carlyle has a        
rightful claim to a niche in the temple 
of ,fame4 ,while prominence has been    
given in the book to the ,scottish side 
of ,carlyle's life1 the fact has not    
been lost sight of that ,carlyle owed   

much to ,germany2 indeed1 if we could   
imagine the spirit of a ,german         
philosopher inhabiting the body of a    
,covenanter of dyspeptic and sceptical  
tendencies1 a good idea would be had of 
,thomas ,carlyle4 ,needless to say1 ,i  
have been largely indebted to the       
biography by ,mr ,froude1 and to        
,carlyle's ,reminiscences4 ,after all   
has been said1 the fact remains that    
,froude's portrait1 though truthful in  
the main1 is somewhat deficient in light
 and shade--qualities which the student 
will find admirably supplied in         
,professor ,masson's charming little    
book1 ,carlyle ,personally1 and in his  
,writings4 ,to the ,professor ,i am     
under deep obligation for the interest  
he has shown in the book4 ,in the course
 of his perusal of the proofs1          
,professor ,masson made valuable        
corrections and suggestions1 which      
deserve more than a formal              
acknowledgment4 ,to ,mr ,haldane1       
,m4,p41 my thanks are also due for his  

suggestive criticism of the chapter on  
,german thought1 upon which he is an    
acknowledged authority4  ,i have also to
 express my deep obligations to ,mr     
,john ,morley1 who1 in the midst of     
pressing engagements1 kindly found time 
to read the proof sheets4 ,in a private 
note ,mr ,morley has been good enough to
 express his general sympathy and       
concurrence with my estimate of         
,carlyle4  ,,edinburgh1 ,october #ahig4 
,,contents                              
,,page ,,chapter ,i  ,,early ,,life     
#i   ,,chapter ,,ii                     
,,craigenputtock--,,literary ,,efforts  
#bi   ,,chapter ,,iii  ,,carlyle',s     
,,mental ,,development                  
#db   ,,chapter ,,iv  ,,life ,,in       
,,london                                
#fe   ,,chapter ,v  ,,holiday           
,,journeyings--,,literary ,,work        
#gi   ,,chapter ,,vi  ,,rectorial       
,,address--,,death ,,of ,,mrs ,,carlyle 
#aab   ,,chapter ,,vii  ,,last ,,years  
,,and ,,death ,,of ,,carlyle            

#abi   ,,chapter ,,viii  ,,carlyle ,,as 
,a ,,social ,,and ,,political ,,thinker 
#ach   ,,chapter ,,ix  ,,carlyle ,,as   
,,an ,,inspirational ,,force            
#aeb      ,,thomas ,,carlyle            
,,chapter ,i  ,,early ,,life   ',a great
 man1' says ,hegel1 'condemns the world 
to the task of explaining him4'         
,emphatically does the remark apply to  
,thomas ,carlyle4 ,when he began to     
leave his impress in literature1 he was 
treated as a confusing and inexplicable 
element4 ,opinion oscillated between the
 view of ,james ,mill1 that ,carlyle was
 an insane rhapsodist1 and that of      
,jeffrey1 that he was afflicted with a  
chronic craze for singularity4          
,jeffrey's verdict sums up pretty       
effectively the attitude of the critics 
of the time to the new writer3--',i     
suppose that you will treat me as       
something worse than an ass1 when ,i say
 that ,i am firmly persuaded the great  
source of your extravagance1 and all    
that makes your writings intolerable to 

many and ridiculous to not a few1 is not
 so much any real peculiarity of        
opinion1 as an unlucky ambition to      
appear more original than you are4' ,the
 blunder made by ,jeffrey in regard both
 to ,carlyle and ,wordsworth emphasises 
the truth which critics seem reluctant  
to bear in mind1 that1 before the great 
man can be explained1 he must be        
appreciated4 ,emphatically true of      
,carlyle it is that he creates the      
standard by which he is judged4 ,carlyle
 resembles those products of the natural
 world which biologists call            
'sports'--products which1 springing up  
in a spontaneous and apparently erratic 
way1 for a time defy classification4    
,the time is appropriate for an attempt 
to classify the great thinker1 whose    
birth took place one hundred years ago4 
,towards the close of the last century a
 stone-mason1 named ,james ,carlyle1    
started business on his own account in  
the village of ,ecclefechan1            
,dumfriesshire4 ,he was an excellent    

tradesman1 and frugal withal2 and in the
 year #agia he married a distant        
kinswoman of his own1 ,janet ,carlyle1  
who died after giving birth to a son4   
,in the beginning of #agie he married   
one ,margaret ,aitken1 a worthy1        
intelligent woman2 and on the #dth of   
,december following a son was born1 whom
 they called ,thomas1 after his paternal
 grandfather4 ,this child was destined  
to be the most original writer of his   
time4  ,little ,thomas was early taught 
to read by his mother1 and at the age of
 five he learnt to 'count' from his     
father4 ,he was then sent to the village
 school2 and in his seventh year he was 
reported to be 'complete' in ,english4  
,as the schoolmaster was weak in the    
classics1 ,tom was taught the rudiments 
of ,latin by the burgher minister1 of   
which strict sect ,james ,carlyle was a 
zealous member4 ,one summer morning1 in 
#ahjf1 his father took him to ,annan    
,academy4 ',it was a bright morning1' he
 wrote long years thereafter1 'and to me

 full of moment1 of fluttering boundless
 ,hopes1 saddened by parting with       
,mother1 with ,home1 and which          
afterwards were cruelly disappointed4'  
,at that 'doleful and hateful ,academy1'
 to use his own words1 ,thomas ,carlyle 
spent three years1 learning to read     
,french and ,latin1 and the ,greek      
alphabet1 as well as acquiring a        
smattering of geometry and algebra4  ,it
 was in the ,academy that he got his    
first glimpse of ,edward                
,irving--probably in ,april or ,may     
#ahjh--who had called to pay his        
respects to his old teacher1 ,mr ,hope4 
,thomas's impression of him was that of 
a 'flourishing slip of a youth1 with    
coal-black hair1 swarthy clear          
complexion1 very straight on his feet1  
and except for the glaring squint alone1
 decidedly handsome4' ,years passed     
before young ,carlyle saw ,irving's face
 again4  ,james ,carlyle1 although an   
austere man1 and the reverse of         
demonstrative1 was bound up in his son1 

sparing no expense upon the youth's     
education4 ,on one occasion he          
exclaimed1 with an unwonted outburst of 
glee1 ',tom1 ,i do not grudge thy       
schooling1 now when thy ,uncle ,frank   
owns thee to be a better ,arithmetician 
than himself4' ,early recognising the   
natural talent and aptitude of his son1 
he determined to send him to the nearest
 university1 with a view to ,thomas     
studying for the ministry4 ,one crisp   
winter's morning1 in #ahji1 found       
,thomas ,carlyle on his way to          
,edinburgh1 trudging the entire         
distance--one hundred miles or so4  ,he 
went through the usual university       
course1 attended the divinity classes1  
and delivered the customary discourses  
in ,english and ,latin4 ,but ,tom was   
not destined to 'wag his head in a      
pulpit1' for he had conscientious       
objections which parental control in no 
way interfered with4 ,referring to this 
vital period of his life1 ,carlyle      
wrote3 ',his father's tolerance for me1 

his trust in me1 was great4 ,when ,i    
declined going forward into the ,church 
7though his heart was set upon it71 he  
respected my scruples1 my volition1 and 
patiently let me have my way4' ,carlyle 
never looked back to his university life
 with satisfaction4 ,in his interesting 
recollections ,mr ,moncure ,conway      
represents ,carlyle1 describing his     
experiences as follows3--',very little  
help did ,i get from anybody in those   
years1 and1 as ,i may say1 no sympathy  
at all in all this old town4 ,and if    
there was any difference1 it was found  
least where ,i might most have hoped for
 it4 ,there was ,professor ----4 ,for   
years ,i attended his lectures1 in all  
weathers and all hours4 ,many and many a
 time1 when the class was called        
together1 it was found to consist of one
 individual--to wit1 of him now         
speaking2 and still oftener1 when others
 were present1 the only person who had  
at all looked into the lesson assigned  
was the same humble individual4 ,i      

remember no instance in which these     
facts elicited any note or comment from 
that instructor4 ,he once requested me  
to translate a mathematical paper1 and  
,i worked through it the whole of one   
,sunday1 and it was laid before him1 and
 it was received without remark or      
thanks4 ,after such long years1 ,i came 
to part with him1 and to get my         
certificate4 ,without a word1 he wrote  
on a bit of paper3 ,i certify that ,mr  
,thomas ,carlyle has been in my class   
during his college course1 and has made 
good progress in his studies4 ,then he  
rang a bell1 and ordered a servant to   
open the front door for me4 ,not the    
slightest sign that ,i was a person whom
 he could have distinguished in any     
crowd4 ,and so ,i parted from old ----4'
  ,professor ,masson1 who in loving1    
painstaking style has ferreted all the  
facts about ,carlyle's university life1 
sums up in these words3 ',without       
assuming that he meant the university   
described in ,sartor ,resartus to stand 

literally for ,edinburgh ,university1 of
 his own experience1 we have seen enough
 to show that any specific training of  
much value he considered himself to owe 
to his four years in the ,arts classes  
in ,edinburgh ,university1 was the      
culture of his mathematical faculty     
under ,leslie1 and that for the rest he 
acknowledged merely a certain benefit   
from being in so many class-rooms where 
matters intellectual were professedly in
 the atmosphere1 and where he learned to
 take advantage of books4' ,as ,carlyle 
put it in his ,rectorial ,address of    
#ahff1 ',what ,i have found the         
university did for me is that it taught 
me to read in various languages1 in     
various sciences1 so that ,i go into the
 books which treated of these things1   
and gradually penetrate into any        
department ,i wanted to make myself     
master of1 as ,i found it suit me4'  ,in
 #ahad1 ,carlyle obtained the           
mathematical tutorship at ,annan4 ,out  
of his slender salary of #fj or #gj he  

was able to save something1 so that he  
was practically independent4 ,by and by 
,james ,carlyle gave up his trade1 and  
settled on a small farm at ,mainhill1   
about two miles from ,ecclefechan4      
,thither ,thomas hied with unfeigned    
delight at holiday time1 for he led the 
life of a recluse at ,annan1 his books  
being his sole companions4  ,edward     
,irving1 to whom ,carlyle was introduced
 in college days1 was now settled as a  
dominie in ,kirkcaldy4 ,his teaching was
 not favourably viewed by some of the   
parents1 who started a rival school1 and
 resolved to import a second master1    
with the result that ,carlyle was       
selected4 ,irving1 with great           
magnanimity1 gave him a cordial welcome 
to the ',lang ,toon1' and the two       
,annandale natives became fast friends4 
,the elder placed his well-selected     
library at the disposal of the younger1 
and together they explored the whole    
countryside4 ,short visits to ,edinburgh
 had a special attraction for both1     

where they met with a few kindred       
spirits4 ,on one of those visits1       
,carlyle1 who had not cut off his       
connection with the university1 called  
at the ,divinity ,hall to put down his  
name formally on the annual register4   
,in his own words3 ',old ,dr ,ritchie   
not at home when ,i called to enter     
myself4 ,good6 answered ,i2 let the omen
 be fulfilled4' ,carlyle's studies in   
,kirkcaldy made him eager to contribute 
to the fulfilment of the omen4 ,among   
the authors which he read out of the    
,edinburgh ,university library was      
,gibbon1 who pushed ,carlyle's sceptical
 questionings to a definite point4 ,in a
 conversation with ,professor ,masson1  
,carlyle stated that to his reading of  
,gibbon he dated the extirpation from   
his mind of the last remnant that had   
been left in it of the orthodox belief  
in miracles4  ,in the space of two      
years1 ,carlyle and ,irving 'got tired  
of schoolmastering and its mean         
contradictions and poor results4' ,they 

bade ,kirkcaldy farewell and made for   
,edinburgh1--,irving to lodge in ,bristo
 ,street1 'more expensive rooms than    
mine1' naively remarks ,carlyle1 where  
he gave breakfasts to                   
',intellectualities he fell in with1 ,i 
often a guest with them4 ,they were but 
stupid ,intellectualities1 etc4' ,as for
 their prospects1 this is what ,carlyle 
says3 ',irving's outlooks in ,edinburgh 
were not of the best1 considerably      
checkered with dubiety1 opposition1 or  
even flat disfavour in some quarters2   
but at least they were far superior to  
mine1 and indeed1 ,i was beginning my   
four or five most miserable1 dark1 sick1
 and heavy-laden years2 ,irving1 after  
some staggerings aback1 his seven or    
eight healthiest and brightest4 ,he had1
 ,i should guess1 as one item several   
good hundreds of money to wait upon4 ,my
 peculium ,i don't recollect1 but it    
could not have exceeded #ajj4 ,i was    
without friends1 experience1 or         
connection in the sphere of human       

business1 was of shy humour1 proud      
enough and to spare1 and had begun my   
long curriculum of dyspepsia which has  
never ended since6'#a ,carlyle's        
intention was to study for the ,bar1 if 
perchance he could eke out a livelihood 
by private teaching4 ,he obtained one or
 two pupils1 wrote a stray article or so
 for the ',encyclopdias'2 but as he     
barely managed to pay his way1 he       
speedily gave up his law studies4 ,he   
was at this time--the winter of         
#ahai--';advancing1' as he phrases it1  
'towards huge instalments of bodily and 
spiritual wretchedness in this my       
,edinburgh purgatory4' ,it was about a  
couple of years thereafter ere ,carlyle 
went through what he has described as   
his 'spiritual new birth4'  ,when       
,carlyle was in diligent search for     
congenial employment1 a certain ,captain
 ,basil ,hall crossed his path1 to whom 
,edward ,irving had given lessons in    
mathematics4 ,the 'small lion1' as he   
calls the captain1 came to ,carlyle1 and

 wished the latter to go out with him   
'to ,dunglas1' and there do 'lunars' in 
his name1 he looking on and learning of 
,carlyle 'what would come of its own    
will4' ,the said 'lunars' meanwhile were
 to go to the ,admiralty1 'testifying   
there what a careful studious ,captain  
he was1 and help to get him promotion1  
so the little wretch smilingly told me4'
 ,carlyle adds3 ',i remember the figure 
of him in my dim lodging as a gay1      
crackling1 sniggering spectre1 one dusk1
 endeavouring to seduce me by affability
 in lieu of liberal wages into this     
adventure4 ,wages1 ,i think1 were to be 
smallish 7so poor are we71 but then the 
great ,playfair is coming on visit4 ,you
 will see ,professor ,playfair4 ,i had  
not the least notion of such an         
enterprise on these shining terms1 and  
,captain ,basil with his great ,playfair
 in posse vanished for me into the      
shades of dusk for good4'#b ,when       
private teaching would not come         
,carlyle's way1 he timorously aimed     

towards 'literature4' ,he had taken to  
the study of ,german1 and conscious of  
his own powers in that direction1 he    
applied in vain to more than one ,london
 bookseller1 proposing a complete       
translation of ,schiller4 ,irving not   
only did his utmost to comfort ,carlyle 
in his spiritual wrestlings1 but he     
tried to find him employment4 ,the two  
friends continued to make pleasant      
excursions1 and in ,june #ahba ,irving  
brought ,carlyle to ,haddington1 an     
event which was destined to colour all  
his subsequent life2 for it was then and
 there he first saw ,jane ,welsh1 a     
sight1 he acknowledged1 for ever        
memorable to him4  ',in the ancient     
,county ,town of ,haddington1 ,july #ad1
 #ahja1 there was born1' wrote ,thomas  
,carlyle in #ahfi1 'to a lately wedded  
pair1 not natives of the place but      
already reckoned among the best class of
 people there1 a little ,daughter whom  
they named ,jane ,baillie ,welsh1 and   
whose subsequent and final name 7her own

 common signature for many years7 was   
,jane ,welsh ,carlyle1 and now so       
stands1 now that she is mine in death   
only1 on her and her ,father's          
,tombstone in the ,abbey ,kirk of that  
,town4 ,july #adth1 #ahja2 ,i was then  
in my sixth year1 far away in every     
sense1 now near and infinitely          
concerned1 trying doubtfully after some 
three years' sad cunctation1 if there is
 anything that ,i can profitably put on 
record of her altogether bright1        
beneficent and modest little ,life1 and 
,her1 as my final task in this world4'#c
 ,the picture was never completed by the
 master-hand2 the 'effort was too       
distressing'2 so all his notes and      
letters were handed over to a literary  
executor4  ,at the time of ,carlyle's   
introduction to ,miss ,welsh1 she was   
living with her widowed mother4 ,her    
father1 ,dr ,john ,welsh1 came of a good
 family1 and was a popular country      
physician4 ,her mother was ,grace ,welsh
 of ,capelgill1 and was reckoned a      

beautiful1 but haughty woman4 ,their    
marriage took place in #ahjj1 and their 
only child1 ,jane1 was born1 as we have 
seen1 the year following4 ,her most     
intimate friend1 ,miss ,geraldine       
,jewsbury1 tells us that ,miss ,welsh   
had 'a graceful and beautifully-formed  
figure1 upright and supple1 a delicate  
complexion of creamy white1 with a pale 
rose tint in the cheeks1 lovely eyes    
full of fire and softness1 and with     
great depths of meaning4' ,she had a    
musical voice1 was a good talker1       
extremely witty1 and so fascinating in  
every way that a relative of hers told  
,miss ,jewsbury that every man who spoke
 to her for five minutes felt impelled  
to make her an offer of marriage4 ,be   
that as it may1 it is certain that ,miss
 ,jane ,welsh had troops of suitors in  
and around the quiet country town4 ,she 
always spoke of her mother with deep    
affection and great admiration4 ,her    
father she reverenced1 and he was the   
only person during her girlhood who had 

any real influence over her4 ,this1     
then1 was the young lady of whom ,thomas
 ,carlyle carried back to ,edinburgh a  
sweet and lasting impression4 ,they     
corresponded at intervals1 and ,thomas  
was permitted to send her books         
occasionally4  ,edward ,irving used to  
live in ,dr ,welsh's house when he      
taught in the local school1 and he led  
,jeannie--a winsome1 wilful lass--to    
take an interest in the classics4 ,she  
entertained a girlish passion for the   
handsome youth1 and there can be little 
doubt that they would have ultimately   
been married1 were it not that the      
eldest daughter of a ,kirkcaldy parson1 
,miss ,martin1 had 'managed to charm    
,irving for the time being1' and an     
engagement followed4  ,before ,carlyle  
had drifted into ,edinburgh he had1 of  
course1 heard of the fame of ,francis   
,jeffrey4 ,he heard him once speaking in
 the ,general ,assembly 'on some poor   
cause4' ,jeffrey's pleading seemed to   
,carlyle 'abundantly clear1 full of     

liveliness1 free flowing ingenuity4'    
',my admiration1' he adds1 'went frankly
 with that of others1 but ,i think it   
was hardly of very deep character4'     
,when ,carlyle was in the 'slough of    
despond1' he bethought him of ,jeffrey1 
this time as editor of the ,edinburgh   
,review4 ,he resolved to try the 'great 
man' with an actual contribution4 ,the  
subject was a condemnation of a new     
,french book1 in which a mechanical     
theory of gravitation was elaborately   
worked out by the author4 ,he got 'a    
certain feeble but enquiring            
quasi-disciple' of his own to act as    
amanuensis1 from whom he kept his       
ulterior purpose quite secret4 ,looking 
back through the dim vista of           
seven-and-forty years1 this is what     
,carlyle says of that anxious time3     
',well do ,i remember those dreary      
evenings in ,bristo ,street2 oh1 what   
ghastly passages and dismal successive  
spasms of attempt at literary           
enterprise6444 ,my ,review of ,pictet   

all fairly written out in ,george       
,dalgliesh's good clerk hand1 ,i penned 
some brief polite ,note to the great    
,editor1 and walked off with the small  
,parcel one night to his address in     
,george ,street4 ,i very well remember  
leaving it with his valet there1 and    
disappearing in the night with various  
thoughts and doubts6 ,my hopes had never
 risen high1 or in fact risen at all2   
but for a fortnight or so they did not  
quite die out1 and then it was in       
absolute zero2 no answer1 no return of  
,,ms41 absolutely no notice taken1 which
 was a form of catastrophe more complete
 than even ,i had anticipated6 ,there   
rose in my head a pungent little ,note  
which might be written to the great man1
 with neatly cutting considerations     
offered him from the small unknown      
ditto2 but ,i wisely judged it was still
 more dignified to let the matter lie as
 it was1 and take what ,i had got for my
 own benefit only4 ,nor did ,i ever     
mention it to almost anybody1 least of  

all to ,jeffrey in subsequent changed   
times1 when at anyrate it was fallen    
extinct4'#d  ,carlyle's star was1       
however1 in the ascendant1 for in #ahbb 
he became tutor to the two sons of a    
wealthy lady1 ,mrs ,charles ,buller1 at 
a salary of #bjj a year4 ,it was through
 ,irving that this appointment came4    
,the young lads boarded with 'a good old
 ,dr ,fleming' in ,george ,square1      
whither ,carlyle went daily from his    
lodgings at#ec ,moray ,street1 ,pilrig  
,street4 ,the ,bullers finally returned 
to ,london1 ,carlyle staying at his     
father's little homestead of ,mainhill  
to finish a translation of ',wilhelm    
,meister4' ,he followed the ,bullers to 
,london1 where he resigned the tutorship
 in the hope of getting some literary   
work4  ,irving introduced him to the    
proprietor of the ,london ,magazine1 who
 offered ,carlyle sixteen guineas a     
sheet for a series of ',portraits of    
,men of ,genius and ,character4' ,the   
first was to be a life of ,schiller1    

which appeared in that periodical in    
#ahbc-d4 ,mr ,boyd1 the ,edinburgh      
publisher1 accepted the translation of  
',wilhelm ,meister4' ',two years        
before1' wrote ,carlyle in his          
,reminiscences1 ',i had at length1 after
 some repulsions1 got into the heart of 
,wilhelm ,meister1 and eagerly read it  
through2 my sally out1 after finishing1 
along the vacant streets of ,edinburgh1 
7a windless1 ,scotch-misty ,saturday    
night71 is still vivid to me4 ,grand1   
surely1 harmoniously built together1    
far-seeing1 wise1 and true3 when1 for   
many years1 or almost in my life before1
 have ,i read such a book8' ,a short    
letter from ,goethe in ,weimar1 in      
acknowledgment of a copy of his         
',wilhelm ,meister1' was peculiarly     
gratifying to ,carlyle4  ,carlyle was   
not happy in ,london2 dyspepsia and 'the
 noises' sorely troubled him4 ,he was   
anxious to be gone4 ,to the surprise of 
,irving--who was now settled in the     
metropolis--and everybody else1 he      

resolutely decided to return to         
,annandale1 where his father had leased 
for him a compact little farm at ,hoddam
 ,hill1 three miles from ,mainhill1 and 
visible from the fields at the back of  
it4 ',perhaps it was the very day before
 my departure1' wrote ,carlyle1 'at     
least it is the last ,i recollect of him
 ,irving1 we were walking in the streets
 multifariously discoursing2 a dim grey 
day1 but dry and airy2--at the corner of
 ,cockspur ,street we paused for a      
moment1 meeting ,sir ,john ,sinclair    
7,statistical ,account of ,scotland     
etc471 whom ,i had never seen before and
 never saw again4 ,a lean old man1 tall 
but stooping1 in tartan cloak1 face very
 wrinkly1 nose blue1 physiognomy vague  
and with distinction as one might have  
expected it to be4 ,he spoke to ,irving 
with benignant respect1 whether to me at
 all ,i don't recollect4'  ,carlyle     
shook the dust of ,london from off his  
feet1 and by easy stages made his way   
northwards4 ,arrived at ,ecclefechan1   

within two miles of his father's house1 
while the coach was changing horses1    
,carlyle noticed through the window his 
little sister ,jean earnestly looking up
 for him4 ,she1 with ,jenny1 the        
youngest of the family1 was at school in
 the village1 and had come out daily to 
inspect the coach in hope of seeing him4
 ',her bonny little blush and radiancy  
of look when ,i let down the window and 
suddenly disclosed myself1' wrote       
,carlyle in #ahfg1 'are still present to
 me4' ,on the #bfth of ,may #ahbe1 he   
established himself at ,hoddam ,hill1   
and set about ',german ,romance4' ,his  
brother ,alick managed the farm1 and his
 mother1 with one of the girls1 was     
generally there to look after his       
comforts4  ,during the intervening      
years1 ,carlyle's intimacy with ,miss   
,jane ,welsh gradually increased1 with  
occasional differences4 ,she had        
promised to marry him if he could       
'achieve independence4' ,carlyle's idea 
was that after their marriage they      

should settle upon the farm of          
,craigenputtock1 which had been in the  
possession of the ,welsh family for     
generations1 and devote himself to      
literary work4 ,by and by ,miss ,welsh  
accepted his offer of marriage1 but not 
until she had acquainted him of the     
,irving incident4 ,the wedding took     
place on the #agth of ,october #ahbe1   
and the young couple took up            
housekeeping in a quiet cottage at      
,comely ,bank1 ,edinburgh4 ,of his life 
at this period1 the best description is 
given by ,carlyle himself1 in a letter  
to ,mrs ,basil ,montague1 dated         
,christmas ,day #ahbf3--  ',in spite of 
ill-health ,i reckon myself moderately  
happy here1 much happier than men       
usually are1 or than such a fool as ,i  
deserve to be4 ,my good wife exceeds all
 my hopes1 and is1 in truth1 ,i believe1
 among the best women that the world    
contains4 ,the philosophy of the heart  
is far better than that of the          
understanding4 ,she loves me with her   

whole soul1 and this one sentiment has  
taught her much that ,i have long been  
vainly at the schools to learn4444 ,on  
the whole1 what ,i chiefly want is      
occupation2 which1 when the times grow  
better1 or my own genius gets more alert
 and thorough-going1 will not fail1 ,i  
suppose1 to present itself4444 ,some    
day--oh1 that the day were here6--,i    
shall surely speak out those things that
 are lying in me1 and give me no sleep  
till they are spoken6 ,or else1 if the  
,fates would be so kind as to shew      
me--that ,i had nothing to say6 ,this1  
perhaps1 is the real secret of it after 
all2 a hard result1 yet not intolerable1
 were it once clear and certain4        
,literature1 it seems1 is to be my      
trade1 but the present aspects of it    
among us seem to me peculiarly perplexed
 and uninviting4'#f;,here1 as in        
undertone1 we discover what ,professor  
,masson calls the constitutional sadness
 of ,carlyle--a sadness which1 along    
with indifferent health1 led him to be  

impatient at trifles1 morbid1 proud1 and
 at times needlessly aggressive in      
speech and demeanour4 ,these traits1    
however1 in the early years of married  
life were not specially visible2 and on 
the whole the ,comely ,bank period may  
be described as one of calm happiness4  
,carlyle's forecast was correct4        
,literature was to be his trade4  ,in   
the following spring came a letter to   
,carlyle from ,procter 7,barry          
,cornwall71 whom he had met in ,london1 
offering to introduce him formally to   
,jeffrey1 whom he certified to be a     
'very fine fellow4' ,one evening        
,carlyle sallied forth from ,comely     
,bank for ,jeffrey's house in ,george   
,street1 armed with ,procter's letter4  
,he was shown into the study4 ',fire1   
pair of candles1' he relates1 'were     
cheerfully burning1 in the light of     
which sate my famous little gentleman2  
laid aside his work1 cheerfully invited 
me to sit1 and began talking in a       
perfectly human manner4' ,the interview 

lasted for about twenty minutes1 during 
which time ,jeffrey had made kind       
enquiries what his visitor was doing and
 what he had published2 adding1 ',we    
must give you a lift1' an offer1        
,carlyle says1 which in 'some           
complimentary way' he managed to        
,jeffrey's satisfaction to decline4     
,jeffrey returned ,carlyle's call1 when 
he was captivated by ,mrs ,carlyle4 ,the
 intimacy rapidly increased1 and a short
 paper by ,carlyle on ,jean ,paul       
appeared in the very next issue of the  
,edinburgh ,review4 ',it made1' says the
 author1 'what they call a sensation    
among the ,edinburgh buckrams2 which was
 greatly heightened next ,number by the 
more elaborate and grave article on     
,german ,literature generally1 which set
 many tongues wagging1 and some few     
brains considering1 what this strange   
monster could be that was come to       
disturb their quiescence and the        
established order of ,nature6 ,some     
,newspapers or ,newspaper took to       

denouncing the ,mystic ,school1 which my
 bright little ,woman declared to       
consist of me alone1 or of her and me1  
and for a long while after merrily used 
to designate us by that title4'  ,mrs   
,carlyle proved an admirable hostess2   
,jeffrey became a frequent visitor at   
,comely ,bank1 and they discovered      
'mutual old cousinships' by the maternal
 side4 ,jeffrey's friendship was an     
immense acquisition to ,carlyle1 and    
everybody regarded it as his highest    
good fortune4 ,the literati of          
,edinburgh came to see her1 and 'listen 
to her husband's astonishing            
monologues4' ,to ,carlyle's regret1     
,jeffrey would not talk in their        
frequent rambles of his experiences in  
the world1 'nor of things concrete and  
current1' but was 'theoretic generally'2
 and seemed bent on converting ,carlyle 
from his ',german mysticism1' back      
merely1 as the latter could perceive1   
into 'dead ,edinburgh ,whiggism1        
scepticism1 and materialism'2 'what ,i  

felt1' says ,carlyle1 'to be a forever  
impossible enterprise4' ,they had long  
discussions1 'parryings1 and            
thrustings1' which ',i have known       
continue night after night1' relates    
,carlyle1 'till two or three in the     
morning 7when ,i was his guest at       
,craigcrook1 as once or twice happened  
in coming years72 there he went on in   
brisk logical exercise with all the rest
 of the house asleep1 and parted usually
 in good humour1 though after a game    
which was hardly worth the candle4 ,i   
found him infinitely witty1 ingenious1  
sharp of fence1 but not in any sense    
deep2 and used without difficulty to    
hold my own with him4' ,jeffrey did     
everything in his power to further      
,carlyle's prospects and projects4 ,he  
tried to obtain for him the             
professorship of ,moral ,philosophy at  
,st ,andrews ,university1 vacated by ,dr
 ,chalmers4 ,testimonials were given by 
,irving1 ,brewster1 ,buller1 ,wilson1   
,jeffrey1 and ,goethe4 ,they failed1    

however1 in consequence of the          
opposition of the ,principal1 ,dr       
,nicol4  ,to ,carlyle1 doubtless1 the   
most memorable incidents of the         
,edinburgh period was his correspondence
 with ,goethe4 ,the magnetic spell      
thrown over ,carlyle by ,goethe will    
ever remain a mystery4 ,between the two 
men there was no intellectual affinity4 
,one would have expected ,goethe the    
,pagan to have repelled ,carlyle the    
,puritan1 unless we have recourse to the
 philosophy of opposites1 and conclude  
that the tumultuous soul of ,carlyle    
found congenial repose in the           
,greek-like restfulness of ,goethe4 ,the
 great ,german had been deeply impressed
 by the profound grasp which ,carlyle   
was displaying of ,german literature4   
,after reading a letter which he had    
received from ,walter ,scott1 ,goethe   
remarked to ,eckermann3 ',i almost      
wonder that ,walter ,scott does not say 
a word about ,carlyle1 who has so       
decided a ,german tendency that he must 

certainly be known to him4 ,it is       
admirable in ,carlyle1 that1 in his     
judgment of our ,german authors1 he has 
especially in view the mental and moral 
core as that which is really            
influential4 ,carlyle is a moral force  
of great importance2 there is in him    
much for the future and we cannot       
foresee what he will produce and        
effect4'  ,,footnotes3  #a              
,reminiscences1 vol4 i4 p4 #ada4  #b    
,reminiscences1 vol4 i4 p4 #adb4  #c    
,reminiscences1 vol4 ii4 p4 #fi4  #d    
,reminiscences1 vol4 ii4 pp4 #ah1 #ai4  
#e ,now #b ,spey ,street4  #f ,masson's 
',edinburgh ,sketches and ,memories1'   
pp4 #cbi-cj4     ,,chapter ,,ii         
,,craigenputtock--,,literary ,,efforts  
,carlyle was feeling the force of       
,scott's remark that literature was a   
bad crutch--his prospects being far from
 bright4 ,the ,carlyles had been a      
little over eighteen months at ,comely  
,bank1 when their extensive circle of   
friends were surprised to hear of their 

intended withdrawal to ,craigenputtock4 
,efforts were made to dissuade ,carlyle 
from pursuing what at the time appeared 
a suicidal course4 ,he was the intimate 
associate of the brilliant ,jeffrey2 he 
was within the charmed circle of        
,edinburgh ,reviewers2 he had laid the  
foundation of a literary reputation4    
,outwardly all seemed well with         
,carlyle2 but 'the step1' himself says1 
'had been well meditated1 saw itself to 
be founded on irrefragable              
considerations of health1 finance1 c41  
c41 unknown to bystanders1 and could not
 be forborne or altered4' ,next to his  
marriage with ,miss ,welsh1 ,carlyle's  
retirement to the howling wilds of      
,craigenputtock at that juncture was the
 most momentous step in his long life4  
,he was conscious of his own powers1 and
 he clearly discerned how those powers  
could best be utilised and developed4   
,hence his determination to bid adieu to
 ,edinburgh4 ,and in that resolve he was
 fortified by the loyal support of his  

wife4  ,jeffrey promised to visit the   
,carlyles at ,craigenputtock as soon as 
they got settled4 ,meanwhile1 they      
stayed a week at his own house in ,moray
 ,place1 after their furniture was on   
the road1 and they were waiting till it 
should arrive and 'render a new home    
possible amid the moors and the         
mountains4' ',of our history at         
,craigenputtock1' says ,carlyle1 'there 
might a great deal be written which     
might amuse the curious2 for it was in  
fact a very singular scene and arena for
 such a pair as my ,darling and me1 with
 such a ,life ahead4444 ,it is a        
,history ,i by no means intend to write1
 with such or with any object4 ,to me   
there is a sacredness of interest in it 
consistent only with silence4 ,it was   
the field of endless nobleness and      
beautiful talent and virtue in ,her who 
is now gone2 also of good industry1 and 
many loving and blessed thoughts in     
myself1 while living there by her side4 
,poverty and mean ,obstruction had given

 origin to it1 and continued to preside 
over it1 but were transformed by human  
valour of various sorts into a kind of  
victory and royalty3 something of high  
and great dwelt in it1 though nothing   
could be smaller and lower than very    
many of the details4'#g  ,the ,jeffreys 
were not slow in appearing at           
,craigenputtock4 ,their 'big ,carriage1'
 narrates the humorous host1 'climbed   
our rugged ,hill-roads1 landed the      
,three ,guests--young ,charlotte        
7,sharlie71 with ,pa and ,ma--and the   
clever old ,valet maid that waited on   
them2 444 but ,i remember nothing so    
well as the consummate art with which my
 ,dear ,one played the domestic         
field-marshal1 and spread out our       
exiguous resources1 without fuss or     
bustle2 to cover everything with a coat 
of hospitality and even elegance and    
abundance4 ,i have been in houses ten   
times1 nay1 a hundred times1 as rich1   
where things went not so well4 ,though  
never bred to this1 but brought up in   

opulent plenty by a mother that could   
bear no partnership in housekeeping1    
she1 finding it become necessary1       
loyally applied herself to it1 and soon 
surpassed in it all the women ,i have   
ever seen4'#h ,of ,mrs ,carlyle's       
frankness her husband gives this amusing
 glimpse3 ',one day at dinner1 ,i       
remember1 ,jeffrey admired the fritters 
or bits of pancake he was eating1 and   
she let him know1 not without some      
vestige of shock to him1 that she had   
made them4 ,what1 you6 twirl up the     
frying-pan1 and catch them in the air8  
,even so1 my high friend1 and you may   
turn it over in your mind6' ,when the   
,jeffreys were leaving1 ',i remarked1'  
says ,carlyle1 that they 'carried off   
our little temporary paradise2 444 to   
which bit of pathos ,jeffrey answered by
 a friendly little sniff of             
quasi-mockery or laughter through the   
nose1 and rolled prosperously away4'    
,the ,carlyles in course of time visited
 the ,jeffreys at ,craigcrook1 the last 

occasion being for about a fortnight4   
,carlyle says it was 'a shining sort of 
affair1 but did not in effect accomplish
 much for any of us4 ,perhaps1 for one  
thing1 we stayed too long1 ,jeffrey was 
beginning to be seriously incommoded in 
health1 had bad sleep1 cared not how    
late he sat1 and we had now more than   
ever a series of sharp fencing bouts1   
night after night1 which could decide   
nothing for either of us1 except our    
radical incompatibility in respect of   
,world ,theory1 and the incurable       
divergence of our opinions on the most  
important matters4 ,you are so          
dreadfully in earnest6 said he to me    
once or oftener4 ,besides1 ,i own now ,i
 was deficient in reverence to him1 and 
had not then1 nor1 alas6 have ever      
acquired1 in my solitary and mostly     
silent existence1 the art of gently     
saying strong things1 or of insinuating 
my dissent1 instead of uttering it right
 out at the risk of offence or          
otherwise4' ,then he adds3 ',these      

stormy sittings1 as ,mrs ,jeffrey       
laughingly called them1 did not improve 
our relation to one another4 ,but these 
were the last we had of that nature4 ,in
 other respects ,edinburgh had been     
barren2 effulgences of ,edinburgh       
,society1 big dinners1 parties1 we in   
due measure had2 but nothing there was  
very interesting either to ,her or to   
me1 and all of it passed away as an     
obliging pageant merely4 ,well do ,i    
remember our return to ,craigenputtock1 
after nightfall1 amid the clammy yellow 
leaves and desolate rains with the clink
 of ,alick's stithy alone audible of    
human4'#i  ,it was during his first two 
years' residence at ,craigenputtock that
 ,carlyle wrote his famous essay on     
,burns2 but his principal work was upon 
,german literature1 especially upon     
,goethe4 ,his magazine writings being   
his only means of support1 and as he    
devoted much time to them1 it is not    
surprising that financial matters       
worried him4 ,about this time ,jeffrey1 

to whom doubtless he confided his       
trouble1 generously offered to confer   
upon him an annuity of #ajj1 which      
,carlyle declined to accept4 ,jeffrey   
repeated the offer on two subsequent    
occasions1 with a like result4 ,carlyle 
in his ,reminiscences says that he could
 not doubt but ,jeffrey had intended an 
act of real generosity2 and yet ,carlyle
 penned the ungracious remark1 that     
'perhaps there was something in the     
manner of it that savoured of           
consciousness and of screwing one's self
 up to the point2 less of god-like pity 
for a fine fellow and his struggles1    
than of human determination to do a fine
 action of one's own1 which might add to
 the promptitude of my refusal4' ,it is 
not surprising1 therefore1 to find      
,carlyle suspecting that ,jeffrey's     
feelings were cooling towards him4      
,jeffrey had powers of penetration as   
well as the friend whom he was anxious  
to assist4  ,by the month of ,february  
#ahca1 ,carlyle's finances fell so low  

that he had only #e in his possession1  
and expected no more for months4 ,then  
he borrowed #ajj from ,jeffrey1 as his  
'pitiful bits of periodical literature  
incomings1' as he puts it1 'having gone 
awry 7as they were liable to do71 but   
was able1 ,i still remember with what   
satisfaction1 to repay punctually within
 a few weeks'2 adding1 'and this was all
 of pecuniary chivalry we two ever had  
between us4' ,the chivalry was all on   
the one side--of ,jeffrey4 ,the outcome 
of his labours at ,craigenputtock1 in   
addition to the fragmentary articles    
already referred to1 was the essays     
which form the first three volumes of   
the ',miscellanies4' ,they appeared     
chiefly in the ,edinburgh ,review1 the  
,foreign ,review1 and ,fraser's         
,magazine4 ,jeffrey's resignation of the
 editorship of the ',review' was a great
 disappointment to ,carlyle1 because it 
stopped a regular source of income4     
,german literature1 of which ,carlyle   
had begun a history1 not being a        

'marketable commodity1' he cut it up    
into articles4 ',my last considerable   
bit of ,writing at ,craigenputtock1'    
says ,carlyle1 'was ,sartor ,resartus2  
done1 ,i think1 between ,january and    
,august #ahcj2 7my sister ,margaret had 
died while it was going on74 ,i well    
remember where and how 7at ,templand one
 morning7 the germ of it rose above     
ground4 ,nine months1 ,i used to say1 it
 had cost me in writing4 ,had the       
perpetual fluctuation1 the uncertainty  
and unintelligible whimsicality of      
,review ,editors not proved so          
intolerable1 we might have lingered     
longer at ,craigenputtock1 perfectly    
left alone1 and able to do more work1   
beyond doubt1 than elsewhere4 ,but a    
,book did seem to promise some respite  
from that1 and perhaps further          
advantages4 ,teufelsdrckh was ready2 and
 7first days of ,august7 ,i decided to  
make for ,london4 ,night before going1  
how ,i still remember it6 ,i was lying  
on my back on the sofa in the           

drawing-room2 she sitting by the table  
7late at night1 packing all done1 ,i    
suppose72 her words had a guise of      
sport1 but were profoundly plaintive in 
meaning4 ,about to part1 who knows for  
how long2 and what may have come in the 
interim6 this was her thought1 and she  
was evidently much out of spirits4      
,courage1 ,dearie1 only for a month6 ,i 
would say to her in some form or other4 
,i went next morning early4'#aj         
,jeffrey1 who was by that time ,lord    
,advocate1 ,carlyle found much          
preoccupied in ,london1 but willing to  
assist him with ,murray1 the bookseller4
 ,jeffrey1 with his wife and daughter1  
lived in ,jermyn ,street in lodgings1   
'in melancholy contrast to the beautiful
 tenements and perfect equipments they  
had left in the north4' ',if1' says     
,carlyle1 ',i called in the morning1 in 
quest perhaps of ,letters 7though ,i    
don't recollect much troubling him in   
that way71 ,i would find the family     
still at breakfast1 ten ,a4,m4 or later2

 and have seen poor ,jeffrey emerge in  
flowered dressing-gown1 with a most     
boiled and suffering expression of face1
 like one who had slept miserably1 and  
now awoke mainly to paltry misery and   
bother2 poor ,official man6 ,i am made a
 mere ,post-,office of6 ,i heard him    
once grumble1 after tearing open several
 ,packets1 not one of which was         
internally for himself4'#aa  ,mrs       
,carlyle joined her husband on the #ast 
of ,october #ahca1 and they took        
lodgings at #d ,ampton ,street1 ,gray's 
,inn ,lane1 with a family of the name of
 ,miles1 belonging to ,irving's         
congregation4 ,jeffrey was a frequent   
visitor there1 and sometimes the        
,carlyles called at ,jermyn ,street4    
,carlyle says that they were at first   
rather surprised that ,jeffrey did not  
introduce him to some of his 'grand     
literary figures1' or try in some way to
 be of help to one for whom he evidently
 had a value4 ,the explanation1 ,carlyle
 thinks1 was that he himself 'expressed 

no trace of aspiration that way'2 that  
,jeffrey's 'grand literary or other     
figures' were clearly by no means 'so   
adorable to the rustic hopelessly       
,germanised soul as an introducer of one
 might have wished4' ,besides1 ,jeffrey 
was so 'heartily miserable1' as to think
 ,carlyle and his other fellow-creatures
 happy in comparison1 and to have no    
care left to bestow upon them4  ,here is
 a characteristic outburst in the       
',reminiscences'3 ',the beggarly history
 of poor ,sartor among the blockheadisms
 is not worth my recording or           
remembering--least of all here6 ,in     
short1 finding that whereas ,i had got  
#ajj 7if memory serve7 for ,schiller six
 or seven years before1 and for ,sartor1
 at least thrice as good1 ,i could not  
only not get #bjj1 but even get no      
,murray1 or the like1 to publish it on  
half-profits 7,murray1 a most stupendous
 object to me2 tumbling about1 eyeless1 
with the evidently strong wish to say   
yes and no2 my first signal experience  

of that sad human predicament72 ,i said1
 ,we will make it ,no1 then2 wrap up our
 ,,ms42 wait till this ,reform ,bill    
uproar abate4'#ab  ,on ,tuesday1        
,january #bfth1 #ahcb1 ,carlyle received
 tidings of the death of his father4 ,he
 departed on the ,sunday morning        
previous 'almost without a struggle1'   
wrote his favourite sister ,jane4 ,it   
was a heavy stroke for ,carlyle4        
',natural tears1' he exclaimed shortly  
afterwards1 'have come to my relief4 ,i 
can look at my dear ,father1 and that   
section of the ,past which he has made  
alive for me1 in a certain sacred1      
sanctified light1 and give way to what  
thoughts rise in me without feeling that
 they are weak and useless4' ,carlyle   
determined that the time till the       
funeral was past 7,friday7 should be    
spent with his wife only4 ,all others   
were excluded4 ,he walked 'far and      
much1' chiefly in the ,regent's ,park1  
and considered about many things1 his   
object being to see clearly what his    

calamity meant--what he lost1 and what  
lesson that loss was to teach him4      
,carlyle considered his father as one of
 the most interesting men he had known4 
',were you to ask me1' he said1 'which  
had the greater natural faculty1'       
,robert ,burns or my father1 ',i might1 
perhaps1 actually pause before replying4
 ,burns had an infinitely wider         
,education1 my ,father a far wholesomer4
 ,besides1 the one was a man of ,musical
 ,utterance2 the other wholly a man of  
,action1 even with ,speech subservient  
thereto4 ,never1 of all the men ,i have 
seen1 has one come personally in my way 
in whom the endowment from ,nature and  
the ,arena from ,fortune were so utterly
 out of all proportion4 ,i have said    
this often1 and partly know it4 ,as a   
man of ,speculation--had ,culture ever  
unfolded him--he must have gone wild and
 desperate as ,burns2 but he was a man  
of ,conduct1 and ,work keeps all right4 
,what strange shapeable creatures we    
are6'#ac ,nothing that the elder        

,carlyle undertook to do but he did it  
faithfully1 and like a true man4 ',i    
shall look1' said his distinguished son1
 'on the houses he built with a certain 
proud interest4 ,they stand firm and    
sound to the heart all over his little  
district4 ,no one that comes after him  
will ever say1 ,here was the finger of a
 hollow eye-servant4 ,they are little   
texts for me of the gospel of man's free
 will4 ,nor will his deeds and sayings  
in any case be found unworthy--not false
 and barren1 but genuine and fit4 ,nay1 
am not ,i also the humble ,james        
,carlyle's work8 ,i owe him much more   
than existence2 ,i owe him a noble      
inspiring example 7now that ,i can read 
it in that rustic character74 ,it was he
 exclusively that determined on         
educating me2 that from his small       
hard-earned funds sent me to school and 
college1 and made me whatever ,i am or  
may become4 ,let me not mourn for my    
father1 let me do worthily of him4 ,so  
shall he still live even here in me1 and

 his worth plant itself honourably forth
 into new generations4'#ad ,one of the  
wise men about ,ecclefechan told ,james 
,carlyle3 ',educate a boy1 and he grows 
up to despise his ignorant parents4'    
,his father once told ,carlyle this1 and
 added3 ',thou hast not done so2 ,god be
 thanked for it4' ,when ,james ,carlyle 
first entered his son's house at        
,craigenputtock1 ,mrs ,carlyle was      
greatly struck with him1 'and still     
farther1' says her husband1 'opened my  
eyes to the treasure ,i possessed in a  
father4'  ,the last time ,carlyle saw   
his father was a few days before leaving
 for ,london4 ',he was very kind1' wrote
 ,carlyle1 'seemed prouder of me than   
ever4 ,what he had never done the like  
of before1 he said1 on hearing me       
express something which he admired1     
,man1 it's surely a pity that thou      
should sit yonder with nothing but the  
eye of ,omniscience to see thee1 and    
thou with such a gift to speak4' ,in    
closing his affectionate tribute1       

,carlyle exclaims3 ',thank ,heaven1 ,i  
know and have known what it is to be a  
son2 to love a father1 as spirit can    
love spirit4'  ,the last days of ,march 
#ahcb found the ,carlyles back at       
,craigenputtock4 ,a new tenant occupied 
the farm1 and their days were lonelier  
than ever4 ,meanwhile ',sartor          
,resartus' was appearing in ,fraser's   
,magazine4 ,the ,editor reported that it
 'excited the most unqualified          
disapprobation4' ,nothing daunted1      
,carlyle pursued the 'noiseless tenor of
 his way1' throwing off articles on     
various subjects4 ,finding that ,mrs    
,carlyle's health suffered from the     
gloom and solitude of ,craigenputtock1  
they removed to ,edinburgh in ,january  
#ahcc4 ,jeffrey was absent in 'official 
regions1' and ,carlyle notes that they  
found a 'most dreary contemptible kind  
of element' in ,edinburgh4 ,but their   
stay there was not without its uses1 for
 in the ,advocates' ,library ,carlyle   
found books which had a great effect    

upon his line of study4 ,he collected   
materials for his articles upon         
',cagliostro' and the ',diamond         
,necklace4' ,at the end of four months1 
the ,carlyles were back again at        
,craigenputtock4  ,august was a bright  
month for ,thomas ,carlyle1 for it was  
then that ,ralph ,waldo ,emerson visited
 him at his rural retreat4 ,the         
,carlyles thought him 'one of the most  
lovable creatures' they had ever seen1  
and an unbroken friendship of nearly    
fifty years was begun4 ,as winter       
approached1 ,carlyle's prospects were   
not very bright1 and he once more turned
 his eyes towards ,london1 where the    
remainder of his life was to be spent4  
,before following him thither1 it may be
 well to turn from the outer to the     
inner side of ,carlyle's life1 and study
 the forces which went to the making of 
his unique personality4  ,,footnotes3   
#g ,reminiscences1 vol4 ii4 p4 #cj4  #h 
,reminiscences1 vol4 ii4 p4 #ca4  #i    
,reminiscences1 vol4 ii4 pp4 #dj1 #da4  

#aj ,reminiscences1 vol4 ii4 pp4 #afa1  
#afb4  #aa ,reminiscences1 vol4 ii4 p4  
#dg4  #ab ,reminiscences1 vol4 ii4 p4   
#afb4  #ac ,reminiscences1 vol4 i4 p4   
#ai4  #ad ,reminiscences1 vol4 i4 p4 #f4
     ,,chapter ,,iii  ,,carlyle',s      
,,mental ,,development   ,through all   
the material struggles ,carlyle's mind  
at ,craigenputtock was gradually shaping
 itself round a theory of the ,universe 
and ,man1 from which he drew inspiration
 in his future life work4 ,through his  
contributions to ,magazines and ,reviews
 there is traceable an original vein of 
thought and feeling which had its origin
 in the study of ,german literature4    
,carlyle's studies and musings took     
coherent1 or1 as some would say         
incoherent1 shape in ,sartor            
,resartus1--a book which appropriately  
was written in the stern solitude of    
,craigenputtock4  ,in order to acquire  
an adequate understanding of ,carlyle as
 a thinker1 attention has to be paid to 
the two dominating influences of his    

mental life--his early home training and
 ,german literature4 ,in regard to the  
former1 ancestry with ,carlyle counts   
for much4 ,he came of a sturdy          
,covenanting stock4 ,carlyle himself has
 left a graphic description of the      
religious environment of the ,burghers1 
to which sect his father belonged4 ,the 
congregation1 under the ministry of a   
certain ,john ,johnston1 who taught     
,carlyle his first ,latin1 worshipped in
 a little house thatched with heath4 ,of
 the simple faith1 the stern piety and  
the rugged heroism of the old ,seceders1
 ,carlyle himself has left a photograph3
 ',very venerable are those old ,seceder
 clergy to me now when ,i look back4444 
,most figures of them in my time were   
hoary old men2 men so like evangelists  
in modern vesture and poor scholars and 
gentlemen of ,christ ,i have nowhere met
 with among ,protestant or ,papal clergy
 in any country in the world4444        
,strangely vivid are some twelve or     
twenty of those old faces whom ,i used  

to see every ,sunday1 whose names1      
employments or precise dwellingplaces ,i
 never knew1 but whose portraits are yet
 clear to me as in a mirror4 ,their     
heavy-laden1 patient1 ever-attentive    
faces1 fallen solitary most of them1    
children all away1 wife away for ever1  
or1 it might be1 wife still there and   
constant like a shadow and grown very   
like the old man1 the thrifty cleanly   
poverty of these good people1 their     
well-saved coarse old clothes1 tailed   
waistcoats down to mid-thigh--all this  
,i occasionally see as with eyes sixty  
or sixty-five years off1 and hear the   
very voice of my mother upon it1 whom   
sometimes ,i would be questioning about 
these persons of the drama and          
endeavouring to describe and identify   
them4' ,and what a glimpse we have into 
the inmost heart of the primitive       
,covenanting religion in the portrait   
drawn by ,carlyle of old ,david ,hope1  
the farmer who refused to postpone      
family worship in order to take in his  

grain4 ,david was putting on his        
spectacles when somebody rushed in with 
the words3 ',such a raging wind risen   
will drive the stooks into the sea if   
let alone4' ',wind6' answered ,david1   
'wind canna get ae straw that has been  
appointed mine4 ,sit down and let us    
worship ,god4' ,far away from the simple
 ,covenanting creed of his father and   
mother ,carlyle wandered1 but to the    
last the feeling of life's mystery and  
solemnity remained vivid with him1      
though fed from quite other sources than
 the ,bible and the ,shorter ,catechism4
  ,much has been said of ,carlyle's     
father1 but it is highly probable that  
to his mother he owed most during his   
early years4 ,the temperament of the    
,covenanter was of the non-conductor    
type4 ,men like ,james ,carlyle were    
essentially stern1 self-centred1        
unemotional4 ,fighting like the ,jews1  
with sword in one hand and trowel in the
 other1 they had no time for cultivating
 the softer side of human nature4 ,ready

 to go to the stake on behalf of        
religious liberty1 they exercised a     
repressive1 not to say despotic1        
influence in their own households4 ,with
 them education meant not the unfolding 
of the individual powers of the         
children1 but the ruthless crushing of  
them into a theological mould4 ,religion
 in such an atmosphere became loveless  
rather than lovely1 and might have had  
serious influences of a reactionary     
nature but for the caressing tenderness 
of the mother4 ,with a heart which      
overflowed the ordinary theological     
boundaries1 the mother in many sweet and
 hidden ways supplied the emotional     
element1 which had been crushed out of  
the father by a narrow conception of    
life and duty4 ,carlyle's experience may
 be judged from his references to his   
parents4 ,he always speaks of his father
 with profound respect and admiration2  
towards his mother his heart goes forth 
with a devotion which became stronger as
 the years rolled on4 ,carlyle's love of

 his mother was as beautiful as it was  
sacred4 ,long after ,carlyle had parted 
with the creed of his childhood1 his    
heart tremulously responded to the old  
symbols4 ,his system of thought1 indeed1
 might well be defined as ,calvinism    
minus ,christianity4 ,had ,carlyle not  
come into contact with ,german thought1 
he would probably have jogged along the 
path of literature in more or less      
conventional fashion4 ,in fact1 nothing 
is more remarkable than the             
comparatively commonplace nature of     
,carlyle's early contributions to       
literature4 ,germany touched the deepest
 chords of his nature4 ,with ,german    
ideas and emotions his mind was         
saturated1 and ,sartor ,resartus was the
 outcome4 ,to that book students must go
 for a glance into ,carlyle's mind while
 he was wrestling with the great        
mysteries of ,existence4 ,in ,june      
#ahba1 as ,mr ,froude tells us1 took    
place what may be called ,carlyle's     
conversion--his triumph over his doubts1

 and the beginning of a new life4 ,to   
understand this phase of ,carlyle's     
life1 we must pause for a little to     
consider ,german literature1 whence     
,carlyle derived spiritual relief and   
consolation4  ,what1 then1 was the      
nature of the message of peace which    
,germany1 through ,kant1 ,fichte1 and   
,goethe1 brought to the storm-tossed    
soul of ,carlyle8 ,when ,carlyle began  
to think seriously1 two antagonistic    
conceptions of life1 the orthodox and   
the rationalist1 were struggling for    
mastery in the field of thought4 ,the   
orthodox conception1 into which he had  
been born1 and with which his father and
 mother had fronted the ,eternities1 had
 given way under the solvent of modern  
thought4 ,carlyle's belief in           
,christianity as a revelation seems to  
have dropped from him without much of a 
struggle1 somewhat after the style of   
,george ,eliot4 ,his mental tortures    
appear to have arisen from spiritual    
hunger1 from an inability to fill the   

place vacated by the old beliefs4 ,had  
he lived fifty years earlier1 ,carlyle  
would have been invited to find         
salvation in the easy-going1            
drawing-room rationalism of ,hume and   
,gibbon1 or to content himself with the 
ecclesiastical placidity known as       
,moderatism4  ,much had occurred since  
the arm-chair philosophers of ,edinburgh
 taught that this was the best possible 
world1 and that the highest wisdom      
consisted in frowning upon enthusiasm   
and cultivating the comfortable4 ,the   
,french ,revolution had revolutionised  
men's thoughts and feelings4 ,there had 
been revealed to man the inadequacy of  
the old ,deistical or ,mechanical       
philosophy1 which1 spreading from       
,england to ,france1 had done so much to
 hasten the revolutionary epoch4        
,carlyle could find no spiritual        
sustenance in the purely mechanical     
theory of life which was offered as the 
substitute for the theory of the        
,churches4 ,there was another theory1   

which had its rise in ,germany1 and to  
which ,carlyle clung when he could no   
longer keep hold of the ,supernatural4  
,in ,transcendentalism1 ,carlyle found  
salvation4  ,what are the leading       
conceptions of the ,german form of      
salvation8 ,the answer to this will give
 the key to ,sartor ,resartus1 and to   
,carlyle's whole mental outlook4 ,in the
 eyes of thinkers like ,carlyle1 the    
great objection to ,christianity was the
 breach it made between the natural and 
the supernatural4 ,between them there   
was a great gulf which could only       
fitfully and temporarily be bridged by  
the miraculous4 ,students who were being
 inoculated with scientific ideas of law
 and order1 were bewildered by a theory 
of life which had no organic relation to
 the great germinal ideas of the day4   
,in their desire to abolish the         
supernatural1 the ,french thinkers      
constructed a theory of ,nature in which
 everything1 from the movements of solar
 masses to the movements of the soul1   

were interpreted in terms of matter4 ,by
 adopting a mechanical view of the      
,universe1 the ,french thinkers robbed  
,nature of much of its charm1 and       
stunted the emotions on the side of     
wonder and admiration4 ,the world was   
reduced to a vast machine1 man himself  
being simply a temporary embodiment of  
material particles in a highly complex  
and unique form4 ,instead of being what 
it was to the ,greeks1 a temple of      
beauty1 the ,universe to the materialist
 resembled a prison in which the walls  
gradually closed upon the poor wretch   
till he was crushed under the ruins4    
,goethe has left on record the          
impression made upon him by the         
materialistic view of life4 ,as he says1
 ',the materialistic theory1 which      
reduces all things to matter and motion1
 appeared to me so grey1 so ,cimmerian1 
and so dead that we shuddered at it as  
at a ghost4'  ,sartor ,resartus is      
studded with vigorous protests against  
the mechanical view of ,nature and ,man4

 ,just as distasteful to ,carlyle1 and  
equally mechanical in spirit1 was the   
,deistical conception of ,nature as a   
huge clock1 under the superintendence of
 a ,divine clock-maker1 whose duty      
consisted in seeing that the clock kept 
good time and was in all respects       
thoroughly reliable4 ,the ,germans      
attacked the problem from the other     
side4 ,they did not abolish the         
supernatural with the materialists1 or  
seek it in another world with the       
theologians2 they found the supernatural
 in the natural4 ,to the materialists1  
,kant1 ,fichte1 ,schelling1 ,hegel and  
,goethe had one reply3--,reduce matter  
to its constituent atoms1 they argued1  
and you never seize the principle of    
life2 it evades you like a spirit2 in   
this principle everything lives and     
moves and has its being4 ,german        
philosophy from ,kant has been occupied 
in attempts to trace the spiritual      
principle in the great process of cosmic
 evolution4 ,in poetry1 ,goethe         

attempted to represent this as the      
energising principle of life and duty4  
,the spiritual cannot be weighed in the 
scales of logic2 it refuses to be put   
upon the dissecting-table4 ,as a        
consequence1 the truth of things is best
 seen by the poet4 ,the owl-like        
logic-chopper1 from his mechanical and  
utilitarian standpoint1 sees not the    
,divine vision4 ,this has been called   
,pantheism4 ,call it what we please1 it 
is contradictory to ,deism and          
,materialism1 and is the root thought of
 ,sartor ,resartus1 which may be taken  
as ,carlyle's ,confession of ,faith4 ,a 
few extracts will justify the foregoing 
analysis4 ,the transcendental view of   
,nature is expressed by ,carlyle        
thus3--',atheistic science babbles      
poorly of it with scientific            
nomenclature1 experiments and what not1 
as if it were a poor dead thing1 to be  
bottled up in ,leyden jars1 and sold    
over counter2 but the native sense of   
man in all times1 if he will himself    

apply his sense1 proclaims it to be a   
living thing--ah1 an unspeakable1       
,god-like thing1 towards which the best 
attitude for us1 after never so much    
science1 is awe1 devout prostration and 
humility of soul1 worship1 if not in    
words1 then in silence4' ,here1 again1  
is a passage quite ,hegelian in its     
tone3 ',for ,matter1 were it never so   
despicable1 is ,spirit2 the             
manifestation of ,spirit1 were it never 
so honourable1 can it be more8 ,the     
thing ,visible1 nay1 the thing          
,imagined1 the thing in any way         
conceived as ,visible1 what is it but a 
,garment1 a ,clothing of the higher     
celestial ,invisible1 unimaginable1     
formless1 dark with excess of bright4'  
,the defects of ,carlyle1 and they are  
many1 take their root in his speculative
 view of the ,universe--a view which    
demands careful analysis if the student 
hopes to understand ,carlyle's strength 
and weakness4 ,it is not meant that     
,carlyle's mind remained anchored to the

 philosophic idealism of ,sartor4 ,in   
later days he professed contempt for    
transcendental moonshine1 but his       
contempt was for the form and jargon of 
the schools1 not for the spirit1 which  
dominated ,carlyle to the end4 ,after   
,carlyle passed the early poetic stage1 
his views took more and more an         
anthropomorphic mould1 till in many of  
his writings he seems practically a     
,theist4 ,but at root ,carlyle's thought
 was more ,pantheistical than           
,deistical4 ,what1 then1 is the ,german 
conception of the ,ultimate ,reality8   
,the ,german answer grew out of an      
attempt to get rid of the difficulties  
propounded by ,hume4 ,hume1 the father  
of all the ,empiricists1 in giving      
logical effect to ,berkeleyism1         
concluded that just as we know nothing  
of the outer world beyond sense         
impressions1 so of the inner world of   
mind we know nothing beyond mental      
impressions4 ,we can combine and        
recombine these impressions as we       

choose1 but from them we cannot deduce  
any ultimate laws1 either of the world  
or of mind4 ,hume would not sanction    
belief in causation as a universal law4 
,all that could be said was that certain
 things happened in a certain manner so 
frequently as to give rise to a law of  
expectation4 ,but this is not to solve1 
but to evade the problem8 ,we are still 
driven to ask1 ,what is matter8 ,what is
 motion8 ,what is force8 ,how do we get 
our knowledge of the material world1 and
 is that knowledge reliable8 ,these are 
wide questions that cannot be adequately
 handled here4 ,it was a favourite      
argument of ,comte and his followers1   
that man's first conceptions of ,nature 
were necessarily erroneous1 because they
 were anthropomorphic4 ,theology was1   
therefore1 dethroned without ceremony4  
,but science is as anthropomorphic as   
theology4 ,we have no guarantee that the
 great facts of ,nature are as we think 
them4 ,we talk of ,force1 but our idea  
of ,force is taken from experiences     

which may have no counterpart in        
,nature4 ,it is well known1 for example1
 that the secondary qualities of        
objects1 colour1 c41 do not exist in    
,nature4 ,our personality is so         
inextricably mixed with the material    
universe that it is impossible to       
formulate a philosophy like ,naturalism1
 which makes mind a product of ,nature1 
and which sharply defines the provinces 
of the two4  ,but what ,naturalism fails
 to do1 ,idealism or ,transcendentalism 
promises to perform4 ,idealism is simply
 ,materialism turned upside down4 ,the  
only difference between the evolution of
 ,spencer and of ,hegel is that the one 
puts matter1 the other mind1 first4 ,for
 all practical purposes1 it signifies   
little whether mind is the temporary    
embodiment of an idea1 or the temporary 
product of a highly specialised form of 
matter4 ,in either case1 man has no more
 freedom than the bubble upon the       
surface of the stream4 ,we may discourse
 of the bubble as poetically or as      

practically as we please1 the result is 
the same--absorption in the universal4  
,hegelianism as much as ,naturalism     
leaves man a prisoner in the hands of   
,fate4 ,the only difference is1 that    
while ,naturalism puts round the        
prisoner's neck a plain1 unpretentious  
noose1 ,hegelianism adds fringes and    
embroidery4 ,if there is no appeal from 
,nature's dread sentence1 the less      
poetry and embroidery there is about the
 doleful business the better4  ,in      
,sartor ,resartus1 ,carlyle talks finely
 but vaguely1 of the peace which came   
over his soul when he discovered that   
the universe was not mechanical but     
,divine4 ,the peace was not of long     
duration4 ,what consolation ,carlyle    
derived from ,idealism did not appear in
 his life4 ,what a contrast between the 
poetic optimism of ,sartor and the      
heavily-charged pessimism of old age1   
when ,carlyle1 with wailing pathos1     
exclaims that ,god does nothing4        
,carlyle's life abundantly illustrates  

the fact that whenever it leaves        
cloudland1 ,idealism sinks into         
scepticism more bitter and gloomy than  
the unbelief of ,naturalism4 ,carlyle   
approached the question of the ,ultimate
 ,reality from the wrong standpoint4 ,he
 had no reasoned philosophic creed4 ,a  
poet1 he had the poetic dread of        
analysis1 and his spirit revolted at the
 spectacle of ,nature on the            
dissecting-table4 ,he waged a life-long 
warfare against science4 ,as the present
 writer has elsewhere                   
remarked3--',carlyle never could        
tolerate the evolution theory4 ,he      
always spoke with the utmost contempt of
 ,darwin1 and everything pertaining to  
the development doctrines4 ,it is       
somewhat startling to find that ,carlyle
 was an evolutionist without knowing it4
 ,the antagonism between ,carlyle and   
,spencer disappears on closer           
inspection4 ,when ,carlyle speaks of the
 universe as in very truth the          
star-domed city of ,god1 and reminds us 

that through every crystal and through  
every grass blade1 but most through     
every living soul1 the glory of a       
present ,god still beams1 he is simply  
saying in the language of poetry what   
,spencer says in the language of        
science1 that the world of phenomena is 
sustained and energised by an infinite  
,eternal ,power4 ,evolution is as       
emphatic as ,carlyle on the absolute    
distinction between right and wrong4    
,carlyle and all the ,german school     
confront the evolutionary ethics with   
the ,kantian categorical imperative4    
,surely the ,evolutionists in the matter
 of an imperative out-rival the         
,intuitionalists1 when1 in addition to  
the dictates of conscience1 they can    
call as a witness and sanction to       
morality the testimony of all-embracing 
experience4 ,in his famous saying1      
,might is ,right1 ,carlyle was          
unconsciously formulating one aspect of 
evolutionary ethics4 ,carlyle did not   
mean anything so silly as that brute    

force and ethical sanctions are         
identical2 what he meant was that in the
 long run ,righteousness will prove the 
mightiest force in the universe4 ,what  
is this but another version of the      
,spencerian doctrine of the survival of 
the fittest1 which1 in the most highly  
evolved state of society1 will mean the 
survival of the best8 ,in the highest   
social state the only ,might that will  
survive will be the ,might which is     
rooted in ,right4 ,carlyle's            
contemptuous attitude towards science is
 deeply to be deplored4 ,he waged bitter
 warfare against the evolution theory1  
quite oblivious of the fact that by     
means of it there was revealed a deeper 
insight into the ,power behind ,nature1 
and into the ethical constitution of the
 universe1 than ever entered into the   
minds of transcendental philosophers4'  
,it is taken for granted that ,carlyle's
 thoughts have no organic unity4 ,he is 
looked upon as a stimulating1 but       
confused1 writer1 as a thinker of       

original1 but incoherent1 power4 ,true1 
he has not a logical mind1 and pays no  
deference to the canons of the schools  
or the market-place4 ,but there is a    
method in ,carlyle's apparent caprice4  
,when analysed1 his thoughts are        
discovered to have unity4 ,his          
transcendentalism embraces the ethic as 
well as the cosmic side of life4 ,in the
 sphere of morals1 as of science1 his   
writings are one long tumultuous protest
 against the mechanical philosophy and  
the utilitarian theory of morals4 ,from 
his essay on ,voltaire we take the      
following3--',it is contended by many   
that our mere love of personal ,pleasure
 or ,happiness1 as it is called1 acting 
in every individual with such clearness 
as he may easily have1 will of itself   
lead him to respect the rights of       
others1 and wisely employ his own4444   
,without some belief in the necessary   
eternal1 or1 which is the same thing1 in
 the supra mundane divine nature of     
,virtue existing in each individual1    

could the moral judgment of a thousand  
or a thousand thousand individuals avail
 us'8 ,more picturesquely1 ,carlyle     
denounces the utilitarian system in     
these words3 ',what then8 ,is the heroic
 inspiration we name ,virtue but some   
passion1 some bubble of the blood1      
bubbling in the direction others profit 
by8 ,i know not2 only this ,i know4 ,if 
what thou namest ,happiness be our true 
aim1 then are we all astray4 ,with      
,stupidity and sound ,digestion1 man may
 front much4 ,but what in these dull1   
unimaginative days are the terrors of   
conscience to the diseases of the       
,liver8 ,not on ,morality1 but on       
,cookery1 let us build our stronghold3  
there1 brandishing our frying-pan as    
censer1 let us offer sweet incense to   
the ,devil1 and live at ease on the fat 
things he has provided for his ,elect'6 
,the exponent of such a theory of ethics
 will have a natural distaste for the   
rational or calculating side of conduct4
 ,he will depreciate the mechanical1 and

 give undue emphasis to the             
inspirational4 ,his heroes will be not  
men of placid temperament1 methodical   
habits1 and utilitarian aims1 but men of
 mystical and passionate natures1       
spasmodic in action1 and guided by ideas
 not easily justified at the bar of     
utility4  ,just as in the sphere of     
speculative thought1 he has profound    
contempt for the ,diderots and          
,voltaires1 with their mechanical views 
of the ,universe1 so in practical       
affairs ,carlyle has contempt for the   
men who endeavour to further their aims 
by appealing to commonplace motives by  
means of commonplace methods4 ,specially
 opposed is he to the tendency of the   
age to rely for progress1 not upon      
appeals to the great elemental forces of
 human nature1 but upon organisations1  
committees1 and all kinds of mechanism4 
,in his remarkable essay1 ',signs of the
 ,times1' we have ample verification of 
our exposition4 ,after talking          
depreciatingly of the mechanical        

tendency of the prevailing philosophies1
 ,carlyle comments upon the mechanical  
nature of the reforming agencies of     
civilisation4 ,the intense ,egoism of   
his nature rebels against any kind of   
,socialism or ,collectivism4 ,he says3  
',were we required to characterise this 
age of ours by any single epithet1 we   
should be tempted to call it1 not a     
,heroical1 ,devotional1 ,philosophical1 
or ,heroic ,age1 but1 above all1 the    
,mechanical ,age4 ,it is the age of     
machinery in every outward and inward   
sense of that word4444 ,men are grown   
mechanical in head and heart1 as well as
 in hand4 ,they have lost faith in      
individual endeavour1 and in natural    
force of any kind4444 ,we may trace this
 tendency in all the great              
manifestations of our time3 in its      
intellectual aspect1 the studies it most
 favours1 and its manner of conducting  
them2 in its practical aspects1 its     
politics1 art1 religious work2 in the   
whole sources1 and throughout the whole 

current of its spiritual1 no less than  
its material1 activity4' ,with ,carlyle 
the secrets of ,nature and ,life were   
discoverable1 not so much by the        
intellect as by the heart4 ,the man with
 the large heart1 rather than the clear 
head1 saw furthest into the nature of   
things4 ,the history of ,german thought 
is strewn with the wreck of systems     
based upon the ,carlylian doctrine of   
intuition4 ,schelling and ,hegel showed 
the puerility to which great men are    
driven when they started to construct   
science out of their own intuitions1    
instead of patiently and humbly sitting 
down to study ,nature4 ,tyndall has left
 on record his gratitude to ,carlyle4   
,tyndall had grip of the scientific     
method1 and was able to allow ,carlyle's
 inspiration to play upon his mind      
without fear of harm2 but how many      
waverers has ,carlyle driven from the   
path of reason into the bogs of         
mysticism8  ,carlyle's impatience with  
reasoning and his determination to      

follow the promptings of a priori       
conceptions gave his system of ethics a 
one-sided cast1 and made him needlessly 
aggressive towards what in his day was  
called ,utilitarianism1 but what has now
 come to be known as ,evolutionary      
,ethics4 ,what is the chief end of man  
considered as a moral agent8 ,the answer
 of the ,christian religion is as       
intelligible as it is comprehensive4    
,man's duty consists in obeying the laws
 of ,god revealed in ,nature and in the 
,bible4 ,but apart from revelation1     
where is the basis of ethical authority8
 ,debarred from accepting the ,christian
 view1 and instinctively repelled from  
,utilitarianism1 ,carlyle found refuge  
in the ,fichtean and similar systems of 
ethics4 ,by substituting ,blessedness   
for ,happiness as the aim of ethical    
endeavour1 ,carlyle endeavoured to      
preserve the heroic attitude which was  
associated with ,supernaturalism4 ,in   
his view1 it was more consistent with   
human dignity to trust for inspiration  

to a light within than painfully to     
piece together fragments of human       
experience and ponder the inferences to 
be drawn therefrom4  ,in his ',data of  
,ethics1' ,herbert ,spencer shows the   
hollowness of ,carlyle's distinction    
between ,blessedness and ,happiness4 ,as
 ,spencer puts it3 ',obviously the      
implication is that ,blessedness is not 
a kind of ,happiness1 and this          
implication at once suggests the        
question1 ,what mode of feeling is this8
 ,if it is a state of consciousness at  
all1 it is necessarily one of three     
states--painful1 indifferent1 or        
pleasurable4444 ,if the pleasurable     
states are in excess1 then the blessed  
life can be distinguished from any other
 pleasurable life only by the relative  
amount or the quality of its pleasures4 
,it is a life which makes happiness of a
 certain kind and degree its end1 and   
the assumption that blessedness is not a
 form of happiness lapses4444 ,in brief1
 blessedness has for its necessary      

condition of existence increased        
happiness1 positive or negative in some 
consciousness or other2 and disappears  
utterly if we assume that the actions   
called blessed are known to cause       
decrease of happiness in others as well 
as in the actor4'  ,to ,german          
philosophy and literature ,carlyle owed 
his critical method1 by which he all but
 revolutionised criticism as understood 
by his ,edinburgh and ,london           
contemporaries4 ,carlyle began his      
apprenticeship with the ,edinburgh      
,reviewers1 in whose hand criticism     
never lost its political bias4 ,apart   
from that1 criticism up till the time of
 ,carlyle was mainly statical4 ,the     
critic was a kind of literary           
book-keeper who went upon the           
double-entry system4 ,on one page were  
noted excellences1 on the other defects1
 and when the two columns were totalled 
the debtor and creditor side of the     
transaction was set forth4 ,where1 as in
 the cases of ,burns and ,byron1 genius 

was complicated with moral aberration1  
anything like a correct estimate was    
impossible4 ,the result was that in     
,scotland criticism oscillated between  
the ethical severity of the pulpit and  
the daring laxity of free thought4 ,as  
the ,edinburgh ,reviewers could not     
afford to set the clergy at defiance1   
they had to pay due respect to          
conventional tastes and standards4      
,carlyle faced the question from a      
different standpoint4 ,he introduced    
into criticism the dynamic principle    
which he found in the ,germans1         
particularly in ,goethe4 ,in            
contemplating a work of ,art1 the       
,germans talk much of the importance of 
seizing upon the creative spirit1 what  
,hegel called the ,idea4 ,the thought of
 ,goethe and ,hegel1 though differently 
expressed1 resolves itself into the     
conception of a life principle which    
shapes materials into harmony with      
innate forms4 ,in the sphere of life the
 determining factors are the inner      

vitalities1 which1 however1 are         
susceptible to the environment4 ,the    
critic who would realise his ideal does 
not go about with literary and ethical  
tape-lines3 he seeks to understand the  
spirit which animated the author as     
shewn in his works and his life1 and    
then studies the influence of his       
environment4 ,that this is a correct    
description of ,carlyle's critical      
method is evidenced by his own remarks  
in his essay on ,burns4 ,he says3 ',if  
an individual is really of consequence  
enough to have his life and character   
recorded for public remembrance1 we have
 always been of opinion that the public 
ought to be made acquainted with all the
 springs and relations of his character4
 ,how did the world and man's life from 
his particular position represent       
themselves to his mind8 ,how did        
co-existing circumstances modify him    
from without3 how did he modify these   
from within8'  ,this attention to the   
inner springs of character gives the key

 to ,carlyle's critical work4 ,how      
fruitful this was is seen in his essay  
on ,burns4 ,he steered an even course   
between the stern moralists1 whose      
indignation at the sins of ,burns the   
man blinded them to the genius of ,burns
 the poet1 and the flippant ,bohemians1 
who thought that by bidding defiance to 
the conventionalities and moralities    
,burns proved his title to the name of  
genius1 and whose voices are yet unduly 
with us in much spirituous devotion and 
rhymeless doggerel at the return of each
 #beth of ,january4 ,while laying bare  
the springs of ,burns' genius1 ,carlyle1
 with unerring precision1 also puts his 
finger on the weak point in the poet's  
moral nature4 ,so faithfully did        
,carlyle apply his critical method that 
he may be considered to have said the   
final word about ,burns4  ,when ,goethe 
spoke of ,carlyle as a great moral force
 he must have had in his mind the       
ethical tone of ,carlyle's critical     
writing--a tone which had its roots in  

the idea that judgment upon a man should
 be determined1 not by isolated         
deviations from conventional or even    
ethical standards1 but by consideration 
of the deep springs of character from   
which flow aspirations and ideals4 ,in  
his ,heroes and ,hero-,worship ,carlyle 
elaborates his critical theory thus3    
',on the whole1 we make too much of     
faults2 the details of the business hide
 the real centre of it4 ,faults8 ,the   
greatest of faults1 ,i should say1 is to
 be conscious of none4 ,readers of the  
,bible above all1 one would think1 might
 know better4 ,who is called there the  
man according to ,god's own heart8      
,david1 the ,hebrew ,king1 had fallen   
into sins enough--blackest crimes--there
 was no want of sins4 ,and thereupon the
 unbelievers sneer and ask3 ,is this    
your man according to ,god's heart8 ,the
 sneer1 ,i must say1 seems to me but a  
shallow one4 ,what are faults8 ,what are
 the outward details of a life1 if the  
inner secret of it1 the remorse1        

temptations1 true1 often-baffled1       
never-ended struggle of it1 be          
forgotten8444 ,the deadliest sin1 ,i    
say1 were that same supercilious        
consciousness of no sin3 that is        
death4444 ,david's life and history1 as 
written for us in those ,psalms of his1 
,i consider to be the truest emblem ever
 given of a man's moral progress and    
warfare here below4'  ,this canon       
faithfully applied enabled ,carlyle to  
invest with a new and living interest   
large sections of literary criticism4   
,burns1 ,johnson1 ,cromwell and others  
of like calibre1 were rescued by        
,carlyle from the hands of ,pedants and 
,pharisees4 ,to readers wearied with the
 facile criticism of conventional       
reviewers1 it was a revelation to come  
into contact with a writer like         
,carlyle1 who not only gave to the mind 
great inspirational impetus1 but also a 
larger critical outlook2 it was like    
stepping out of a museum1 or a          
dissecting-room into the free1 fresh1   

breezy air of ,nature4  ,moreover1      
,carlyle's interest in the soul is not  
of an antiquarian nature2 he studies his
 heroes as if they were ancestors of the
 ,carlyle family4 ,he broods over their 
letters as if they were the letters of  
his own flesh and blood1 and his        
comments resemble the soliloquisings of 
a pathos stricken kinsman rather than   
the conscious reflections of a literary 
man4 ,it is noteworthy that ,carlyle's  
critical powers are limited by his      
sympathies4 ,his method1 though         
suggestive of scientific criticism1 is  
largely influenced by the personal      
equation4 ,face to face with writers    
like ,scott and ,voltaire1 he flounders 
in helpless incompetency4 ,he tries     
,scott1 the writer of novels1 by purely 
,puritan standards4 ,because there is in
 ,scott no signs of soul-struggles1 no  
conscious devotion to heroic ends1 no   
introspective torturings1 ,carlyle sets 
himself to a process of belittling4 ,so 
with ,voltaire4 ,carlyle's failure in   

this sphere was due to the fact that he 
overdid the ethical side of criticism   
and became a pulpiteer2 he was false to 
his own principle of endeavouring to    
seize the dominant idea4 ,because ,scott
 and ,voltaire were not dominated by the
 ,covenanting idea1 ,carlyle dealt with 
them in a tone of disparagement4        
,carlyle admired ,goethe1 but he        
certainly made no attempt to cultivate  
,goethe's catholicity4 ,let us not fall 
into ,carlyle's mistake1 and condemn him
 for qualities which were incompatible  
with his temperament4 ,after all has    
been said1 ,english literature stands   
largely indebted to ,carlyle the critic4
     ,,chapter ,,iv  ,,life ,,in        
,,london   ,mrs ,carlyle entered        
heartily into her husband's proposal to 
remove to ,london4 ',burn our ships6'   
she gaily said to him one day 7i4e41    
dismantle our house72 'carry all our    
furniture with us'2 which they          
accordingly did4 ',at sight of ,london1'
 ,carlyle wrote1 ',i remember humming to

 myself a ballad-stanza of ,johnnie o'  
,braidislea1 which my dear old mother   
used to sing1      ,for there's seven   
foresters in yon forest2       ,and them
 ,i want to see1 see1     ,and them ,i  
want to see 7and shoot down76  ,carlyle 
lodged at ,ampton ,street again2 but    
presently did 'immense stretches of     
walking in search of houses4' ,he found 
his way to ,chelsea and there secured a 
small old-fashioned house at #e 7now    
numbered #bd7 ,cheyne ,row1 at a rent of
 #ce a year4 ,mrs ,carlyle followed in a
 short time and approved of his choice4 
,they took possession on the #ajth ,june
 #ahcd1 and ,carlyle recounts the       
'cheerful gipsy life' they had there    
'among the litter and carpenters for    
three incipient days4' ,leigh ,hunt was 
in the next street 'sending kind1       
unpractical messages1' dropping in to   
see them in the evenings4  ,when in     
,london on a former occasion1 ,carlyle  
became acquainted with ,john ,stuart    
,mill1 and the intimacy was kept alive  

by correspondence to and from           
,craigenputtock4 ,it was through ,mill's
 letters that ,carlyle's thoughts were  
turned towards the ,french ,revolution4 
,when he returned to ,london1 ,mill was 
very useful to him1 lending him a fine  
collection of books on that subject4    
,mill's evenings in ,cheyne ,row were   
'sensibly agreeable for most part1'     
remarks ,carlyle4 ',talk rather wintry  
7sawdustish1 as old ,sterling once      
called it71 but always well-informed and
 sincere4' ,carlyle was making rapid    
progress with the first volume of his   
,french ,revolution4 ,stern necessity   
gave a spurt to his pen1 for in         
,february #ahce he notes that 'some     
twenty-three months' had passed since he
 earned a single penny by the 'craft of 
literature4' ,the volume was completed  
and he lent the only copy to ,mill4 ,the
 ,,ms4 was unfortunately burnt by a     
servant-maid4 ',how well do ,i still    
remember1' writes ,carlyle in his       
,reminiscences1 'that night when he came

 to tell us1 pale as ,hector's ghost4444
 ,it was like half sentence of death to 
us both1 and we had to pretend to take  
it lightly1 so dismal and ghastly was   
his horror at it1 and try to talk of    
other matters4 ,he stayed three mortal  
hours or so2 his departure quite a      
relief to us4 ,oh1 the burst of sympathy
 my poor darling then gave me1 flinging 
her arms round my neck1 and openly      
lamenting1 condoling1 and encouraging   
like a nobler second self6 ,under heaven
 is nothing beautifuller4 ,we sat       
talking till late2 'shall be written    
again1' my fixed word and resolution to 
her4 ,which proved to be such a task as 
,i never tried before or since4 ,i wrote
 out ,feast of ,pikes 7,vol4 ,,ii471 and
 then went at it4 ,found it fairly      
impossible for about a fortnight2 passed
 three weeks 7reading ,marryat's        
novels71 tried1 cautious-cautiously1 as 
on ice paper-thin1 once more2 and in    
short had a job more like breaking my   
heart than any other in my experience4  

,jeannie1 alone of beings1 burnt like a 
steady lamp beside me4 ,i forget how    
much of money we still had4 ,i think    
there was at first something like #cjj1 
perhaps #bhj1 to front ,london with4    
,nor can ,i in the least remember where 
we had gathered such a sum1 except that 
it was our own1 no part of it borrowed  
or given us by anybody4 ,fit to last    
till ,french ,revolution is ready6 and  
she had no misgivings at all4 ,mill was 
penitently liberal2 sent me #bjj 7in a  
day or two71 of which ,i kept #ajj      
7actual cost of house while ,i had      
written burnt volume72 upon which he    
bought me ,biographie ,universelle1     
which ,i got bound1 and still have4     
,wish ,i could find a way of getting the
 now much macerated1 changed1 and       
fanaticised ,john ,stuart ,mill to take 
that #ajj back2 but ,i fear there is no 
way4'#ae  ,carlyle went diligently to   
work at the ,french ,revolution4 ,some  
conviction he had that the book was     
worth something4 ,once or twice among   

the flood of equipages at ,hyde ,park   
,corner1 when taking his afternoon      
stroll1 he thought to himself1 ',perhaps
 none of you could do what ,i am at6'   
,but generally his feeling was1 ',i will
 finish this book1 throw it at your     
feet1 buy a rifle and spade1 and        
withdraw to the ,transatlantic          
,wildernesses1 far from human beggaries 
and basenesses6' ',this1' he says1 'had 
a kind of comfort to me2 yet ,i always  
knew too1 in the background1 that this  
would not practically do4 ,in short1 my 
nervous system had got dreadfully       
irritated and inflamed before ,i quite  
ended1 and my desire was intense1 beyond
 words1 to have done with it4' ,then he 
adds3 ',the last paragraph ,i well      
remember writing upstairs in the        
drawing-room that now is1 which was then
 my writing-room2 beside her there in a 
grey evening 7summer1 ,i suppose71 soon 
after tea 7perhaps72 and thereupon1 with
 her dear blessing on me1 going out to  
walk4 ,i had said before going out1     

,what they will do with this book1 none 
knows1 my ,jeannie1 lass2 but they have 
not had1 for a two hundred years1 any   
book that came more truly from a man's  
very heart1 and so let them trample it  
under foot and hoof as they see best6   
,pooh1 pooh6 they cannot trample that6  
she would cheerily answer2 for her own  
approval 7,i think she had read always  
regularly behind me7 especially in ,vol4
 ,,iii41 was strong and decided4' ,mrs  
,carlyle was right4 ,no critic or clique
 of critics could trample the ,french   
,revolution4  ,a month before the       
completion of the first book of the     
,french ,revolution1 ,carlyle wrote in  
his journal3 ',my first friend ,edward  
,irving is dead4 ,i am friendless here  
or as good as that4' ,in a week or two  
thereafter he met ,southey1 whom he     
describes as a 'lean1 grey-white-headed 
man of dusky complexion1 unexpectedly   
tall when he rises and still leaner     
then--the shallowest chin1 prominent    
snubbed ,roman nose1 small carelined    

brow1 huge brush of white-grey-hair on  
high crown and projecting on all sides1 
the most vehement pair of faint hazel   
eyes ,i have ever seen--a well-read1    
honest1 limited 7straitlaced even71     
kindly-hearted1 most irritable man4 ,we 
parted kindly1 with no great purpose on 
either side1 ,i imagine1 to meet        
again4'#af ,later on ,carlyle admits to 
his brother ,john that his prospects in 
,london were not brightening2 which fact
 left him gloomy and morose4  ,during   
his enforced leisure after the          
destruction of the first book of the    
,french ,revolution1 ,carlyle saw more  
of his friends1 among whom he numbered  
,john ,sterling1 fresh from ,cambridge  
and newly ordained a clergyman4         
,sterling was of a 'vehement but most   
noble nature1' and he was one of the few
 who had studied ,sartor ,resartus      
seriously4 ,he had been also caught by  
the ,radical epidemic on the spiritual  
side4 ,although dissenting from much of 
what ,carlyle taught1 ,sterling         

recognised in him 'a man not only       
brilliantly gifted1 but differing from  
the common run of people in this1 that  
he would not lie1 that he would not     
equivocate1 that he would say always    
what he actually thought1 careless      
whether he pleased or offended4' ,he    
introduced ,carlyle to his father1 who  
was then the 'guiding genius' of the    
,times1 and who offered ,carlyle work   
there on the usual conditions4          
',carlyle1' says ,froude1 'though with  
poverty at his door1 and entire penury  
visible in the near future1 turned away 
from a proposal which might have tempted
 men who had less excuse for yielding to
 it4 ,he was already the sworn soldier  
of another chief4 ,his allegiance from  
first to last was to truth1 truth as it 
presented itself to his own intellect   
and his own conscience4'  ,on the #afth 
of ,february #ahce ,carlyle wrote to his
 brother ,john3 ',i positively do not   
care that periodical literature shuts   
her fist against me in these months4    

,let her keep it shut for ever1 and go  
to the devil1 which she mostly belongs  
to4 ,the matter had better be brought to
 a crisis4 ,there is perhaps a finger of
 ,providence in it4444 ,my only new     
scheme1 since last letter1 is a         
hypothesis--little more yet--about      
,national ,education4 ,the newspapers   
had an advertisement about a ,glasgow   
,educational ,association which wants a 
man that would found a ,normal ,school1 
first going over ,england and into      
,germany to get light on that matter4 ,i
 wrote to that ,glasgow ,association    
afar off1 enquiring who they were1 what 
manner of man they expected1 testifying 
myself very friendly to their project1  
and so forth--no answer as yet4 ,it is  
likely they will want1 as ,jane says1 a 
,chalmers and ,welsh kind of character1 
in which case ,va ben1 felice notte4 ,if
 otherwise1 and they 7almost by miracle7
 had the heart1 ,i am the man for them4 
,perhaps my name is so heterodox in that
 circle1 ,i shall not hear at all4'#ag  

,carlyle also remarks1 in the same      
letter1 that ,john ,stuart ,mill is very
 friendly3 ',he is the nearest approach 
to a real man that ,i find here--nay1 as
 far as negativeness goes1 he is that   
man1 but unhappily not very satisfactory
 much farther4'  ,not long thereafter   
,carlyle met ,wordsworth4 ',i did not   
expect much1' he said in a letter1 'but 
got mostly what ,i expected4 ,the old   
man has a fine shrewdness and           
naturalness in his expression of face1 a
 long ,cumberland figure2 one finds also
 a kind of sincerity in his speech4 ,but
 for prolixity1 thinness1 endless       
dilution1 it excels all the other speech
 ,i had heard from mortals4 ,a genuine  
man1 which is much1 but also essentially
 a small1 genuine man4'  ,early in      
,october #ahce ,carlyle started for his 
old home4 ,his mother-in-law had arrived
 on a visit at ,cheyne ,row1 and        
remained there with her daughter during 
,carlyle's absence in ,scotland4 ,he    
returned improved in health and spirits4

 ,nothing came of the ,national         
,education scheme4 ,carlyle was not a   
person to push himself into notice1     
remarks ,froude2 and his friends did not
 exert themselves for him1 or they tried
 and failed2 'governments1 in fact1 do  
not look out for servants among men who 
are speculating about the nature of the 
,universe4 ,then1 as always1 the doors  
leading into regular employment remained
 closed4' ,shortly after his return from
 the ,north1 he was offered the         
editorship of a newspaper at ,lichfield4
 ,this was unaccepted for the same      
reason that weighed with him when he    
refused a post on the ,times4 ,in the   
following summer money matters had      
become so pressing that ,carlyle wrote  
the article on ,mirabeau1 now printed   
among the ,miscellanies1 for ,mill's    
review1 which brought him #ej4 ,mrs     
,carlyle's health began to suffer1 and a
 visit to ,annandale became imperative4 
,she returned 'mended in spirits4'      
,writing of her arrival in ,london1 she 

said3 ',i had my luggage put on the     
backs of two porters1 and walked on to  
,cheapside1 when ,i presently found a   
,chelsea omnibus4 ,by-and-bye the       
omnibus stopped1 and amid cries of ,no  
room1 sir2 can't get in1 ,carlyle's     
face1 beautifully set off by a          
broad-brimmed white hat1 gazed in at the
 door like the peri who1 at the gate of 
heaven1 stood disconsolate4 ,in hurrying
 along the ,strand1 his eye had lighted 
on my trunk packed on the top of the    
omnibus1 and had recognised it4 ,this   
seems to me one of the most indubitable 
proofs of genius which he ever          
manifested4'  ,on the #bbnd of ,january 
#ahcg ,carlyle wrote to his mother3     
',the book ,french ,revolution is       
actually done2 all written to the last  
line2 and now1 after much higgling and  
maffling1 the printers have got fairly  
afloat1 and we are to go on with the    
wind and the sea4' ,but no money could  
be expected from the book for a         
considerable time4 ,meanwhile1 ,miss    

,harriet ,martineau 7who had introduced 
herself into ,cheyne ,row71 and ,miss   
,wilson1 another accomplished friend1   
thought that ,carlyle should begin a    
course of lectures in ,london1 and      
thereby raise a little money4 ,carlyle1 
it seems1 gave 'a grumbling consent4'   
,nothing daunted1 the ladies found two  
hundred persons ready each to subscribe 
a guinea to hear a course of lectures   
from him4 ,the end of it was that he    
delivered six discourses on ,german     
literature1 which were 'excellent in    
themselves1 and delivered with strange  
impressiveness1' and #ace went into his 
purse4  ,in the summer the ,french      
,revolution appeared4 ,the sale at first
 was slow1 almost nothing1 for it was   
not 'subscribed for' among the          
booksellers4 ,alluding to the criticisms
 which appeared1 ,carlyle said3 ',some  
condemn me1 as is very natural1 for     
affectation2 others are hearty1 even    
passionate1 in their estimation2 on the 
whole1 it strikes me as not unlikely    

that the book may take some hold of the 
,english people1 and do them and itself 
a little good4' ,he was right4 ,other   
historians have described the           
,revolution3 ,carlyle reproduces the    
,revolution4 ,he approaches history like
 a dramatist4 ,give him1 as in the      
,french ,revolution1 a weird1 tragic1   
awe-inspiring theme1 and he will utilise
 his characters1 scenes1 and            
circumstances in artistic subordination 
to the central idea4 ,carlyle might be  
called a subjective dramatist--that is  
to say1 his own spirit1 thoughts1 and   
reflections get so mixed up with the    
history that it is difficult to imagine 
the one without the other4 ,every now   
and then the dramatist interrupts the   
tragedy to interject his own            
reflections2 in the history the         
,carlylean philosophy plays the part of 
a ,greek chorus4 ,as an example of      
,carlyle's genius for a dramatic        
situation1 take his opening of the great
 drama with the death scene of ,louis   

,,xv4 ,who does not feel1 in reading    
that scene1 as if the ,furies were not  
far off8 who does not detect in the     
grotesque jostling of the comedy and    
tragedy of life premonitions of the     
coming storm8  ',but figure his thought1
 when ,death is now clutching at his own
 heart-strings2 unlooked for1           
inexorable6 ,yes1 poor ,louis1 ,death   
has found thee4 ,no palace walls or     
lifeguards1 gorgeous tapestries or gilt 
buckram of stiffest ceremonial could    
keep him out2 but he is here1 here at   
thy very life-breath1 and will          
extinguish it4 ,thou1 whose whole       
existence hitherto was a chimera and    
scenic show1 at length becomest a       
reality2 sumptuous ,versailles bursts   
asunder1 like a dream1 into void        
,immensity3 ,time is done1 and all the  
scaffolding of ,time falls wrecked with 
hideous clangour round thy soul3 the    
pale ,kingdoms yawn open2 there must    
thou enter1 naked1 all unking'd1 and    
await what is appointed thee6444 ,there 

are nods and sagacious glances1         
go-betweens1 silk dowagers mysteriously 
gliding1 with smiles for this           
constellation1 sighs for that3 there is 
tremor1 of hope or desperation1 in      
several hearts4 ,there is the pale1     
grinning ,shadow of ,death1             
ceremoniously ushered along by another  
grinning ,shadow1 of ,etiquette2 at     
intervals the growl of ,chapel ,organs1 
like prayer by machinery2 proclaiming1  
as in a kind of horrid diabolic         
horse-laughter1 ,vanity of vanities1 all
 is ,vanity6'  ,at every stage in the   
narrative1 the reader is impressed with 
the dramatic texture of ,carlyle's mind4
 ,no dramatic writer surpasses him in   
the art of producing effects by         
contrasts4 ,in the midst of a vigorous  
description of the storming of the      
,bastille1 he rings down the curtain for
 a moment in order to introduce the     
following scene of idyllic beauty3 ',o  
evening sun of ,july1 how1 at this hour1
 thy beams fall slant on reapers amid   

peaceful woody fields2 on old women     
spinning in cottages2 on ships far out  
in the silent main2 on ,balls at the    
,orangerie of ,versailles1 where        
high-rouged ,dames of the ,palace are   
even now dancing with double-jacketed   
,hussar officers2--and also on this     
roaring ,hell-porch of a                
,hotel-de-,ville6'  ,equally effective  
is ,carlyle in rendering vivid the      
doings of the individual actors in the  
drama4 ,for photographic minuteness and 
startling realism what can equal the    
following3--',but see ,camille          
,desmoulins1 from the ,caf de ,foy1     
rushing out1 sibylline in face2 his hair
 streaming1 in each hand a pistol6 ,he  
springs to a table3 the police          
satellites are eyeing him2 alive they   
shall not take him1 not they alive him  
alive4 ,this time he speaks without     
stammering3--,friends6 shall we die like
 hunted hares8 ,like sheep hounded into 
their pinfold2 bleating for mercy1 where
 is no mercy1 but only a whetted knife8 

,the hour is come1 the supreme hour of  
,frenchman and ,man2 when ,oppressors   
are to try conclusions with ,oppressed2 
and the word is1 swift ,death1 or       
,deliverance forever4 ,let such hour be 
well-come6 ,us1 meseems1 one cry only   
befits3 ,to ,arms6 ,let universal       
,paris1 universal ,france1 as with the  
throat of the whirlwind1 sound only3 ,to
 arms6--,to arms6 yell responsive the   
innumerable voices2 like one great      
voice1 as of a ,demon yelling from the  
air3 for all faces wax fire-eyed1 all   
hearts burn up into madness4 ,in such1  
or fitter words does ,camille evoke the 
,elemental ,powers1 in this great       
moment--,friends1 continues ,camille1   
some rallying-sign6 ,cockades2 green    
ones--the colour of ,hope6--,as with the
 flight of locusts1 these green         
tree-leaves2 green ribands from the     
neighbouring shops3 all green things are
 snatched1 and made cockades of4        
,camille descends from his table2       
stifled with embraces1 wetted with      

tears2 has a bit of green riband handed 
him2 sticks it in his hat4 ,and now to  
,curtius' ,image-shop there2 to the     
,boulevards2 to the four winds1 and rest
 not till ,france be on fire6'  ,as a   
historical work1 the ,french ,revolution
 is unique4 ,it is precisely the kind of
 book ,isaiah would have written had    
there been a like ,revolution in the    
,jewish kingdom2 and just as we go to   
,isaiah1 not for sociological guidance1 
but for ethical inspiration1 so we turn 
to the ,french ,revolution when the mind
 and heart are in a state of torpor in  
order to get a series of shocks from the
 ,carlylean electric battery4 ,from a   
historian a student expects light as    
well as heat1 guidance as well as       
inspiration4 ,it is not enough to have  
the great ,french explosion vividly     
photographed before his eyes2 it is     
equally necessary to know the causes    
which led to the catastrophe4 ,here1 as 
a historian1 ,carlyle is conspicuously  
weak4 ,his habit of looking for dramatic

 situations1 his passion for making     
commonplace incidents and commonplace   
men merely the satellites of commanding 
personalities1 in a word1 his theory    
that history should deal with the doings
 of great men1 prevents ,carlyle from   
dwelling upon the politico-economic side
 of national life4 ,so absorbed is he in
 painting the ,revolution1 that he      
forgets to explain the ,revolution4 ,we 
have abundance of vague declamations    
against shams in high places1 plenty of 
talk about ,god's judgments1 in the     
style of the ,hebrew prophets1 but of   
patient diagnosis1 there is none4 ,as   
,mr ,morley puts it in his luminous     
essay on ,carlyle3 ',to the question    
whether mankind gained or lost by the   
,french ,revolution1 ,carlyle nowhere   
gives a clear answer2 indeed1 on this   
subject more than any other1 he clings  
closely to his favourite method of      
simple presentation1 streaked with      
dramatic irony4444 ,he draws its general
 moral lesson from the ,revolution1 and 

with clangorous note warns all whom it  
concerns from ,king to ,church that     
imposture must come to an end4 ,but for 
the precise amount and kind of          
dissolution which the ,west owes to it1 
for the political meaning of it1 as     
distinguished from its moral or its     
dramatic significance1 we seek in vain1 
finding no word on the subject1 nor even
 evidence of consciousness that such    
word is needed4' ,had ,carlyle1 in      
addition to his genius as a historical  
dramatist1 possessed the patient        
diagnosing power of the writers and     
thinkers whom he derided1 his ,french   
,revolution would have taken its place  
in historical literature as an          
epoch-making book4 ,as it stands1 the   
reader who desires to have an           
intelligible knowledge of the subject1  
is compelled to shake himself free of   
the ,carlylean mesmerism1 and have      
recourse to those writers whom ,carlyle1
 under the opprobrious names of         
'logic-choppers' and 'dry-as-dusts1'    

held up to public ridicule4             
,,footnotes3  #ae ,reminiscences1 vol4  
ii4 pp4 #agh-gi4  #af ,froude's ',life  
in ,london1' vol4 i4 p4 #bj4  #ag       
,froude's ',life in ,london1' vol4 i4 p4
 #bd4     ,,chapter ,v  ,,holiday       
,,journeyings--,,literary ,,work        
,carlyle was so broken down with his    
efforts upon the ,french ,revolution    
that a trip to ,annandale became        
necessary4 ,he stayed at ,scotsbrig two 
months1 'wholly idle1 reading novels1   
smoking pipes in the garden with his    
mother1 hearing notices of his book from
 a distance1 but not looking for them or
 caring about them4' ,autumn brought    
,carlyle back to ,cheyne ,row1 when he  
found his wife in better health1        
delighted to have him again at her side4
 ,she knew1 as ,froude points out1      
though ,carlyle1 so little vain was he1 
had failed as yet to understand it1 that
 he had returned to a changed position1 
that he was no longer lonely and        
neglected1 but had taken his natural    

place among the great writers of his    
day4 ,he sent bright accounts of himself
 to ,scotsbrig4 ',i find ,john ,sterling
 here1 and many friends1 all kinder each
 than the other to me4 ,with talk and   
locomotion the days pass cheerfully till
 ,i rest and gird myself together again4
 ,they make a great talk about the book1
 which seems to have succeeded in a far 
higher degree than ,i looked for4       
,everybody is astonished at every other 
body's being pleased with this wonderful
 performance4'#ah  ,carlyle did nothing 
all the winter except to write his essay
 on ,sir ,walter ,scott4 ,his next task 
was to prepare for a second course of   
lectures in the spring on ',heroes4'    
,the course ended with 'a blaze of      
fire-works--people weeping at the       
passionately earnest tone in which for  
once they heard themselves addressed4'  
,the effort brought ,carlyle #cjj after 
all expenses had been paid4 ',a great   
blessing1' he remarked1 'to a man that  
had been haunted by the squalid spectre 

of beggary4'  ,carlyle had no intention 
of visiting ,scotland that autumn1 but  
having received a pressing invitation   
from old friends at ,kirkcaldy1 he took 
steamer to ,leith in ,august4 ,while at 
,kirkcaldy he crossed to ,edinburgh and 
called on ,jeffrey4 ',he sat1' says     
,carlyle1 'waiting for me at ,moray     
,place4 ,we talked long in the style of 
literary and philosophic                
clitter-clatter4 ,finally it was settled
 that ,i should go out to dinner with   
him at ,craigcrook1 and not return to   
,fife till the morrow4' ,they dined and 
abstained from contradicting each other1
 ,carlyle admitting that ,jeffrey was   
becoming an amiable old fribble1 'very  
cheerful1 very heartless1 very          
forgettable and tolerable4'  ,on his    
return to ,london1 equal to work again1 
,carlyle found all well4 ,he was        
gratified to hear that the eighth       
edition of the ,french ,revolution was  
almost sold1 and that another would be  
called for1 while there were numerous   

applications from review editors for    
articles if he would please to supply   
them4 ,mill about this time asked him to
 contribute a paper on ,cromwell to the 
,london and ,westminster ,review4       
,carlyle agreed1 and was preparing to   
begin when the negotiations were broken 
off4 ,mill had gone abroad1 leaving a   
,mr ,robertson to manage the ,review4   
,robertson coolly wrote to say that he  
need not go on with the article1 'for he
 meant to do ,cromwell himself4'        
,carlyle was wroth1 and that incident   
determined him to 'throw himself        
seriously into the history of the       
,commonwealth1 and to expose himself no 
more to cavalier treatment from able    
editors4' ,but for that task he required
 books4 ,then it was that the idea of   
founding a ,london library occurred to  
him4 ,men of position took up the matter
 warmly1 and ,carlyle's object was      
accomplished4 ',let the tens of         
thousands1' says ,mr ,froude1 'who1 it  
is to be hoped1 are made better and     

wiser by the books collected there1     
remember that they owe the privilege    
entirely to ,carlyle4'  ,one of         
,carlyle's new acquaintances was        
,monckton ,milnes1 who asked him to     
breakfast4 ,carlyle used to say that if 
,christ were again on earth ,milnes     
would ask ,him to breakfast1 and the    
clubs would all be talking of the 'good 
things' that ,christ had said4 ,he also 
became familiar with ,mr ,baring1       
afterwards ,lord ,ashburton1 and his    
accomplished wife1 who in course of time
 exercised a disturbing influence over  
the ,carlyle household4 ,it would not   
tend to edification to dwell upon the   
domestic misunderstandings at ,cheyne   
,row2 besides1 are not they to be found 
detailed at great length in ,froude's   
,life1 the ,reminiscences1 and ,letters 
and ,memorials8 ,although ,carlyle was  
taking life somewhat easy1 he was making
 preparations for his third course of   
lectures1 his subject being the         
',revolutions of ,modern ,europe4' ,they

 did not please the lecturer1 but the   
audiences were as enthusiastic as ever1 
and he made a clear gain of #bjj4       
,about this time ,emerson was pressing  
him to go to ,boston on a lecturing     
tour4 ,but ,carlyle thought better of   
it4 ,more important work awaited him in 
,london4 ',all his life1' says ,froude1 
'he had been meditating on the problem  
of the working-man's existence in this  
country at the present epoch4444 ,he had
 seen the ,glasgow riots in #ahai4 ,he  
had heard his father talk of the poor   
masons1 dining silently upon water and  
water-cresses4 ,his letters are full of 
reflections on such things1 sad or      
indignant1 as the humour might be4 ,he  
was himself a working-man's son4 ,he had
 been bred in a peasant home1 and all   
his sympathies were with his own class4 
,he was not a revolutionist2 he knew    
well that violence would be no remedy2  
that there lay only madness and deeper  
misery4 ,but the fact remained1         
portending frightful issues4 ,the       

,reform ,bill was to have mended matters
 but the ,reform ,bill had gone by and  
the poor were none the happier4 ,the    
power of the ,state had been shifted    
from the aristocracy to the mill-owners1
 and merchants1 and shopkeepers4 ,that  
was all4 ,the handicraftsman remained   
where he was1 or was sinking1 rather1   
into an unowned ,arab1 to whom freedom  
meant freedom to work if the employer   
had work to offer him conveniently to   
himself1 or else freedom to starve4 ,the
 fruit of such a state of society as    
this was the ,sansculottism on which he 
had been lecturing1 and he felt that he 
must put his thoughts upon it in a      
permanent form4 ,he had no faith in     
political remedies1 in extended         
suffrages1 recognition of the rights of 
man1 etc4--absolutely none4 ,that was   
the road on which the ,french had gone2 
and1 if tried in ,england1 it would end 
as it ended with them--in anarchy1 and  
hunger1 and fury4 ,the root of the      
mischief was the forgetfulness on the   

part of the upper classes1 increasing   
now to flat denial1 that they owed any  
duty to those under them beyond the     
payment of contract wages at the market 
price4 ,the ,liberal theory1 as         
formulated in ,political ,economy1 was  
that every one should attend exclusively
 to his own interests1 and that the best
 of all possible worlds would be the    
certain result4 ,his own conviction was 
that the result would be the worst of   
all possible worlds1 a world in which   
human life1 such a life as human beings 
ought to live1 would become             
impossible4'#ai  ,he wrote to his       
brother when his lectures were over3    
,guess what immediate project ,i am on2 
that of writing an article on the       
working-classes for the ,quarterly4 ,it 
is verily so4 ,i offered to do the thing
 for ,mill about a year ago4 ,he durst  
not4 ,i felt a kind of call and monition
 of duty to do it1 wrote to ,lockhart   
accordingly1 was altogether invitingly  
answered1 had a long interview with the 

man yesterday1 found him a person of    
sense1 good-breeding1 even kindness1 and
 great consentaneity of opinion with    
myself on the matter4 ,am to get books  
from him to-morrow1 and so shall        
forthwith set about telling the         
,conservatives a thing or two about the 
claims1 condition1 rights1 and mights of
 the working order of men4  ,when the   
annual exodus from ,london came1 the    
,carlyles went north for a holiday4     
,they returned much refreshed at the end
 of two months4 ,his presence1 moreover1
 was required in ,london1 as ,wilhelm   
,meister was now to be republished4 ,he 
set about finishing his article for the 
,quarterly1 but as he progressed he felt
 some misgiving as to its ever appearing
 in that magazine4 ,i have finished1 he 
wrote on ,november #h1 #ahci1 a long    
review article1 thick pamphlet1 or      
little volume1 entitled ,chartism4      
,lockhart has it1 for it was partly     
promised to him2 at least the refusal of
 it was1 and that1 ,i conjecture1 will  

be all he will enjoy of it4 ,lockhart   
sent it back1 'seemingly not without    
reluctance1' saying he dared not4 ,mill 
was shown the pamphlet and was          
'unexpectedly delighted with it4' ,he   
was willing to publish it1 but          
,carlyle's wife and brother insisted    
that the thing was too good for a       
magazine article4 ,fraser undertook to  
print it1 and before the close of the   
year ,chartism was in the hands of the  
public4  ,the sale was rapid1 an edition
 of a thousand copies being sold        
immediately4 ',chartism1' ,froude       
narrates1 was loudly noticed3           
considerable reviewing1 but very daft   
reviewing4 ,men wondered2 how could they
 choose but wonder1 when a writer of    
evident power stripped bare the social  
disease1 told them that their remedies  
were quack remedies1 and their progress 
was progress to dissolution8 ,the       
,liberal journals1 finding their        
formulas disbelieved in1 clamoured that 
,carlyle was unorthodox2 no ,radical1   

but a wolf in sheep's clothing4 ,yet    
what he said was true1 and could not be 
denied to be true4 ,they approve        
generally1 he said1 but regret very much
 that ,i am a ,tory4 ,stranger ,tory1 in
 my opinion1 has not been fallen in with
 in these later generations4 ,again a   
few weeks later 7,february #aa73 ,the   
people are beginning to discover that ,i
 am not a ,tory4 ,ah1 no6 but one of the
 deepest1 though perhaps the quietest1  
of all the ,radicals now extant in the  
world--a thing productive of small      
comfort to several persons4 ,they have  
said1 and they will say1 and let them   
say4  ,his final course of lectures now 
confronted him1 and these he entitled   
,heroes and ,hero ,worship4 ,he tells   
his mother 7,may #bf1 #ahdj73 ',the     
lecturing business went off with        
sufficient clat4 ,the course was        
generally judged1 and ,i rather join    
therein myself1 to be the bad best ,i   
have yet given4 ,on the last            
day--,friday last--,i went to speak of  

,cromwell with a head full of air2 you  
know that wretched physical feeling2 ,i 
had been concerned with drugs1 had      
awakened at five1 etc4 ,it is absolute  
martyrdom4 ,my tongue would hardly wag  
at all when ,i got done4 ,yet the good  
people sate breathless1 or broke out    
into all kinds of testimonies of        
goodwill4444 ,in a word1 we got right   
handsomely through4' ,that was          
,carlyle's last appearance as a public  
lecturer4 ,he was now the observed of   
all observers in ,london society2 but he
 was weary of lionising and junketings4 
',what1' he notes in his journal on     
,june #ae1 #ahdj1 'are lords coming to  
call on one and fill one's head with    
whims8 ,they ask you to go among        
champagne1 bright glitter1              
semi-poisonous excitements which you do 
not like even for the moment1 and you   
are sick for a week after4 ,as old ,tom 
,white said of whisky1 ,keep it--,deevil
 a ever ,i'se better than when there's  
no a drop on't i' my weam4 ,so say ,i of

 dinner popularity1 lords and           
lionism--,keep it2 give it to those that
 like it4'  ,carlyle was much refreshed 
at this period by visits from ,tennyson4
 ,here is what he says of the poet3 ',a 
fine1 large-featured1 dim-eyed1         
bronze-coloured1 shaggy-headed man is   
,alfred2 dusty1 smoky1 free and easy1   
who swims outwardly and inwardly with   
great composure in an inarticulate      
element of tranquil chaos and tobacco   
smoke4 ,great now and then when he does 
emerge--a most restful1 brotherly1      
solid-hearted man4'  ,in a note to his  
brother ,john on ,september #aa1 #ahdj1 
he says3 ',i have again some notions    
towards writing a book--let us see what 
comes of that4 ,it is the one use of    
living1 for me4 ,enough to-day4' ,the   
book he had in view was ,cromwell4      
,journalising on the day after          
,christmas he laments--',oliver         
,cromwell will not prosper with me at   
all4 ,i began reading about that subject
 some four months ago4 ,i learn almost  

nothing by reading1 yet cannot as yet   
heartily begin to write4 ,nothing on    
paper yet4 ,i know not where to begin4' 
,at the end of the year ,mrs ,carlyle   
wrote3 ',carlyle is reading voraciously1
 preparatory to writing a new book4 ,for
 the rest1 he growls away much in the   
old style4 ,but one gets to feel a      
certain indifference to his growling2 if
 one did not1 it would be the worse for 
one4' ,a month or two later1 ,carlyle   
writes3 ',think not hardly of me1 dear  
,jeannie4 ,in the mutual misery we often
 are in1 we do not know how dear we are 
to one another4 ,by the help of ,heaven1
 ,i shall get a little better1 and      
somewhat of it shall abate4 ,last night1
 at dinner1 ,richard ,milnes made them  
all laugh with a saying of yours4 ,when 
the wife has influenza1 it is a slight  
cold--when the man has it1 it is1 c41   
c4' ,writing to ,sterling he exclaims1  
',i shall verily fly to ,craigenputtock 
again before long4 ,yet ,i know what    
solitude is1 and imprisonment among     

black cattle and peat bogs4 ,the truth  
is1 we are never right as we are4 ,oh1  
the devil burn it6 said the ,irish      
drummer flogging his countryman2 there's
 no pleasing of you1 strike where one   
will4'  ,milnes prevailed on ,carlyle1  
instead of flying to the bleak expanse  
of ,craigenputtock1 to accompany him to 
his father's house at ,fryston1 in      
,yorkshire1 whence he sent a series of  
affectionate and graphic letters to ,mrs
 ,carlyle4 ,being so far north1 he took 
a run to ,dumfriesshire to see his      
mother1 who had been slightly ailing4   
,he was back in ,london1 however1 in    
,may1 but not improved in mind or body4 
,it was a hot summer1 and the ,carlyles 
went to ,scotsbrig1 and took a cottage  
at ,newby1 close to ,annan4 ,by the end 
of ,september1 ,carlyle was back in     
,cheyne ,row4 ,his latest hero still    
troubled him4 ',ought ,i1' he asks1 'to 
write now of ,oliver ,cromwell8444 ,i   
cannot yet see clearly4'  ,carlyle at   
one time had a hankering after a        

,scottish professorship1 but the 'door  
had been shut in his face1' sometimes   
contemptuously4 ,he was now famous1 and 
the young ,edinburgh students1 having   
looked into his lectures on ,heroes1    
began to think that1 whatever might be  
the opinions of the authorities and     
patrons1 they for their part must       
consider lectures such as these a good  
exchange for what was provided for them4
 ,a ',history ,chair' was about to be   
established4 ,a party of them1          
represented by a ,mr ,dunipace1         
presented a requisition to the ,faculty 
of ,advocates to appoint ,carlyle4 ,when
 asked his consent to be nominated1     
,carlyle replied3 ',accept my kind      
thanks1 you and all your associates1 for
 your zeal to serve me4444 ,ten years   
ago such an invitation might perhaps    
have been decisive of much for me1 but  
it is too late now2 too late for many   
reasons1 which ,i need not trouble you  
with at present4'  ,a very severe blow  
now fell upon ,mrs ,carlyle1 who        

received news from ,templand that her   
mother had been struck by apoplexy1 and 
was dangerously ill4 ,although unfit for
 travelling1 she caught the first train 
from ,euston ,square to ,liverpool1 but 
at her uncle's house there she learnt   
that all was over4 ,mrs ,carlyle lay ill
 in ,liverpool1 unable to stir4 ,after a
 while she was able to go back to       
,london1 where ,carlyle joined her in   
the month of ,may4 ,it was on his return
 journey that he paid a visit to ,dr    
,arnold at ,rugby1 when he had an       
opportunity1 under his host's genial    
guidance1 to explore the field of       
,naseby4  ,his sad occupations in       
,scotland1 and the sad thoughts they    
suggested1 made ,carlyle disinclined for
 society4 ,he had a room arranged for   
him at the top of his house1 and there  
he sate and smoked1 and read books on   
,cromwell1 'the sight of ,naseby having 
brought the subject back out of the     
abysses4' ,meanwhile he had a pleasant  
trip to ,ostend with ,mr ,stephen       

,spring ,rice1 ,commissioner of         
,customs1 of which he wrote vivid       
descriptions4  ,on ,october #be1 #ahdb1 
,carlyle wrote in his journal3 ',for    
many months there has been no writing   
here4 ,alas6 what was there to write8   
,about myself1 nothing2 or less1 if that
 was possible4 ,i have not got one word 
to stand upon paper in regard to        
,oliver4 ,the beginnings of work are    
even more formidable than the executing 
of it4' ,but another subject was to     
engross his attention for a little      
while4 ,the distress of the poor became 
intense2 less in ,london1 however1 than 
in other large towns4 ',i declare1' he  
wrote to his mother early in ,january   
#ahdc1 ',i declare ,i begin to feel as  
if ,i should not hold my peace any      
longer1 as if ,i should perhaps open my 
mouth in a way that some of them are not
 expecting--we shall see if this book   
were done4' ,on the #bjth he wrote3 ',i 
hope it will be a rather useful kind of 
book4' ,he could not go on with         

,cromwell till he had unburdened his    
soul4 ',the look of the world1' he said1
 'is really quite oppressive to me4     
,eleven thousand souls in ,paisley alone
 living on threehalfpence a day1 and the
 governors of the land all busy shooting
 partridges and passing corn-laws the   
while6 ,it is a thing no man with a     
speaking tongue in his head is entitled 
to be silent about4' ,the outcome of all
 his soul-burnings and cogitations was  
,past and ,present1 which appeared at   
the beginning of ,april4 ,the reviewers 
set to work1 'wondering1 admiring1      
blaming1 chiefly the last4'  ,carlyle   
then undertook several journeys1 chiefly
 in order to visit ,cromwellian         
battlefields1 the sight of which made   
the ,oliver enterprise no longer        
impossible4 ,he found a renovated house 
on his return1 and ,mrs ,carlyle writing
 on ,november #bhth1 describes him as   
'over head and ears in ,cromwell1' and  
'lost to humanity for the time being4'  
,six months later1 he makes this        

admission in his journal--',my progress 
in ,cromwell is frightful4 ,i am no day 
absolutely idle1 but the confusions that
 lie in my way require far more fire of 
energy than ,i can muster on most days1 
and ,i sit not so much working as       
painfully looking on work4' ,four months
 later1 when ,cromwell was progressing  
slowly1 ,carlyle suffered a severe      
personal loss by the death of ,john     
,sterling4 ',sterling1' says ,froude1   
'had been his spiritual pupil1 his      
first1 and also his noblest and best4   
,consumption had set its fatal mark upon
 him4' ,carlyle drowned his sorrow in   
hard work1 and in ,july #ahde the end of
 ,cromwell was coming definitely in     
sight4 ,in his journal under date       
,august #bfth1 is to be found this      
entry3 ',i have this moment ended       
,oliver2 hang it6 ,he is ended1 thrums  
and all4 ,i have nothing more to write  
on the subject1 only mountains of wreck 
to burn4 ,not 7any more7 up to the chin 
in paper clippings and chaotic litter1  

hatefuller to me than most4 ,i am to    
have a swept floor now again4' ,and thus
 the herculean labours of five years    
were ended4 ,his desire was to be in    
,scotland1 and he made his way          
northwards by the usual sea route to    
,annan and ,scotsbrig4 ,he did not      
remain long away1 and upon his return   
,cromwell was just issuing from the     
press4 ,it was received with great      
favour1 the sale was rapid1 and         
additional materials came from          
unexpected quarters4 ,in ,february #ahdf
 a new edition was needed in order to   
insert fresh letters of ,oliver         
according to date2 a process1 ,carlyle  
said 'requiring one's most excellent    
talent1 as of shoe-cobbling1 really that
 kind of talent carried to a high       
pitch4' ,when completed1 ,carlyle       
presented a copy of it to the ,prime    
,minister1 ,sir ,robert ,peel1 a step he
 never took before or after with any of 
his writings1--a compliment which ,peel 
gracefully acknowledged4  ,carlyle's    

plans for the summer of #ahdf were1 a   
visit to his mother and a run across to 
,ireland4 ,charles ,gavan ,duffy of the 
,nation newspaper saw him in ,london in 
consequence of what he had written in   
,chartism about misgovernment in        
,ireland4 ,he had promised to go over   
and see what the ',young ,ireland'      
movement was doing4 ,on the #cast of    
,august he left ,scotsbrig1 and landed  
in due course at ,belfast1 where he was 
to have been met by ,john ,mitchel and  
,gavan ,duffy and driven to ,drogheda4  
,he missed his two friends through a    
mistake at the post-office1 and hurried 
on by railway to ,dublin4 ,he met them  
at ,dundrum1 and was there entertained  
at a large dinner-party4 ,next day he   
dined at ,mitchel's4 ,his stay was      
remarkably short4 ,he took steamer at   
,kingstown1 and in the early morning of 
,september #ajth 'he was sitting smoking
 a cigar before the door of his wife's  
uncle's house in ,liverpool till the    
household should awake and let him in4' 

,in ,june #ahdg ,carlyle relates that   
they had a flying visit from ,jeffrey4  
',a much more interesting visitor than  
,jeffrey was old ,dr ,chalmers1 who came
 down to us also last week1 whom ,i had 
not seen before for1 ,i think1          
five-and-twenty years4 ,it was a        
pathetic meeting4 ,the good old man is  
grown white-headed1 but is otherwise    
wonderfully little altered--grave1      
deliberate1 very gentle in his          
deportment1 but with plenty too of soft 
energy2 full of interest still for all  
serious things1 full of real kindliness1
 and sensible even to honest mirth in a 
fair measure4 ,he sate with us an hour  
and a half1 went away with our blessings
 and affections4 ,it is long since ,i   
have spoken to so good and really       
pious-hearted and beautiful old man4'   
,in a week or two ,chalmers was suddenly
 called away4 ',i believe1' wrote       
,carlyle to his mother1 'there is not in
 all ,scotland1 or all ,europe1 any such
 ,christian priest left4 ,it will long  

be memorable to us1 the little visit we 
had from him4'  ,early in #ahdh1 the    
,jew ,bill was before ,parliament1 and  
the fate of it doubtful1 narrates ,mr   
,froude4 ,baron ,rothschild wrote to ask
 ,carlyle to write a pamphlet in its    
favour1 and intimated that he might name
 any sum which he liked to ask as       
payment4 ,froude enquired how he        
answered4 ',well1' he said1 ',i had to  
tell him it couldn't be2 but ,i         
observed1 too1 that ,i could not        
conceive why he and his friends1 who    
were supposed to be looking out for the 
coming of ,shiloh1 should be seeking    
seats in a ,gentile legislature4'       
,froude asked what the ,baron said to   
that4 ',why1' said ,carlyle1 'he seemed 
to think the coming of ,shiloh was a    
dubious business1 and that meanwhile1   
etc41 etc4'  ,on ,february #i1 #ahdh1   
,carlyle wrote in his journal3          
',chapman's money ,chapman  ,hall were  
his publishers all paid1 lodged now in  
the ,dumfries ,bank4 ,new edition of    

,sartor to be wanted soon4 ,my poor     
books of late have yielded me a certain 
fluctuating annual income2 at all       
events1 ,i am quite at my ease as to    
money1 and that on such low terms4 ,i   
often wonder at the luxurious ways of   
the age4 ,some #aejj1 ,i think1 is what 
has accumulated in the bank4 ,of fixed  
income 7from ,craigenputtock7 #aej a    
year4 ,perhaps as much from my books may
 lie fixed amid the huge fluctuation    
7last year1 for instance1 it was #hjj3  
the year before1 #ajj2 the year before  
that1 about #gjj2 this year1 again1 it  
is like to be #ajj2 the next perhaps    
nothing--very fluctuating indeed7--some 
#cjj in all1 and that amply suffices me4
 ,for my wife is the best of housewives2
 noble1 too1 in reference to the        
property1 which is hers1 which she has  
never once in the most distant way      
seemed to know to be hers4 ,be this     
noted and remembered2 my thrifty little 
lady--every inch a lady--ah me6 ,in     
short1 ,i authentically feel indifferent

 to money2 would not go this way or that
 to gain more money4'#bj  ,the          
,revolution of ,february #bdth at ,paris
 surprised ,carlyle less than most of   
his contemporaries1 as it confirmed what
 he had been saying for years4 ,he did  
not believe1 we are told1 in immediate  
convulsion in ,england2 but he did      
believe that1 unless ,england took      
warning and mended her ways1 her turn   
would come4 ,the excitement in ,london  
was intense1 and leading men expressed  
themselves freely1 but ,carlyle's       
general thoughts were uttered in a      
lengthy letter to ,thomas ,erskine of   
,linlathen1 for whom he entertained a   
warm regard4 ,on ,march #ad he met      
,macaulay at ,lord ,mahon's at          
breakfast2 ',niagara of eloquent        
commonplace talk1' he says1 'from       
,macaulay4 ,very good-natured man2 man  
cased in official mail of proof2 stood  
my impatient fire-explosions with much  
patience1 merely hissing a little steam 
up1 and continued his ,niagara--supply  

and demand2 power ruinous to powerful   
himself2 impossibility of ,government   
doing more than keep the peace2 suicidal
 distraction of new ,french ,republic1  
etc4 ,essentially irremediable1         
commonplace nature of the man2 all that 
was in him now gone to the tongue2 a    
squat1 thickset1 low-browed1 short1     
grizzled little man of fifty4'  ,one of 
the few men ,carlyle was anxious to see 
was ,sir ,robert ,peel4 ,he was         
introduced by the ,barings at a dinner  
at ,bath ,house4 ,carlyle sat next to   
,peel1 whom he describes as 'a          
finely-made man of strong1 not heavy1   
rather of elegant1 stature2 stands      
straight1 head slightly thrown back1 and
 eyelids modestly drooping2 every way   
mild and gentle1 yet with less of that  
fixed smile than the portraits give him4
 ,he is towards sixty1 and1 though not  
broken at all1 carries1 especially in   
his complexion1 when you are near him1  
marks of that age2 clear1 strong blue   
eyes which kindle on occasion1 voice    

extremely good1 low-toned1 something of 
cooing in it1 rustic1 affectionate1     
honest1 mildly persuasive4 ,spoke about 
,french ,revolutions new and old2 well  
read in all that2 had seen ,general     
,dumouriez2 reserved seemingly by       
nature1 obtrudes nothing of diplomatic  
reserve4 ,on the contrary1 a vein of    
mild fun in him1 real sensibility to the
 ludicrous1 which feature ,i liked best 
of all4444 ,i consider him by far our   
first public man--which1 indeed1 is     
saying little--and hope that ,england in
 these frightful times may still get    
some good of him4 ,n4,b4--,this night   
with ,peel was the night in which       
,berlin city executed its last terrible 
battle1 7#aith of ,march to ,sunday     
morning the #bjth1 five o'clock47 ,while
 we sate there the streets of ,berlin   
city were all blazing with grape-shot   
and the war of enraged men4 ,what is to 
become of all that8 ,i have a book to   
write about it4 ,alas6 ,we hear of a    
great ,chartist petition to be presented

 by #bjj1jjj men4 ,people here keep up  
their foolish levity in speaking of     
these things2 but considerate persons   
find them to be very grave2 and indeed  
all1 even the laughers1 are in          
considerable secret alarm4'#ba  ,at such
 a time ,carlyle knew that he1 the      
author of ,chartism1 ought to say       
something4 ,foolish people1 too1 came   
pressing for his opinions4 ,not seeing  
his way to a book upon ',democracy1' he 
wrote a good many newspaper articles1   
chiefly in the ,examiner and the        
,spectator1 to deliver his soul4 ,even  
,fonblanque and ,rintoul 7the editors71 
remarks ,froude1 friendly though they   
were to him1 could not allow him his    
full swing4 ',there is no established   
journal1' complained ,carlyle1 'that can
 stand my articles1 no single one they  
would not blow the bottom out of4'  ,on 
,july #ab occurs this entry in his      
journal3 ',chartist concern1 and ,irish 
,repeal concern1 and ,french ,republic  
concern have all gone a bad way since   

the ,march entry--,april #bj 7immortal  
day already dead71 day of ,chartist     
monster petition2 #bjj1jjj special      
constables swore themselves in1 etc41   
and ,chartism came to nothing4 ,riots   
since1 but the leaders all lodged in    
gaol1 tried1 imprisoned for two years1  
etc41 and so ends ,chartism for the     
present4 ,irish ,mitchel1 poor fellow6  
is now in ,bermuda as a felon2 letter   
from him1 letter to him1 letter to and  
from ,lord ,clarendon--was really sorry 
for poor ,mitchel4 ,but what help8      
,french ,republic cannonaded by ,general
 ,cavaignac2 a sad outlook there4'#bb   
,carlyle's ,cromwell had created a set  
of enthusiastic admirers who were bent  
on having a statue of the great         
,protector set up4 ,carlyle was asked to
 give his sanction to the proposal4     
,writing to his mother1 he said3 ',the  
people having subscribed #be1jjj for a  
memorial to an ugly bullock of a        
,hudson1 who did not even pretend to    
have any merit except that of being     

suddenly rich1 and who is now discovered
 to be little other than at heart a     
horse-coper and dishonest fellow1 ,i    
think they ought to leave ,cromwell     
alone of their memorials1 and try to    
honour him in some more profitable      
way--by learning to be honest men like  
him1 for example4 ,but we shall see what
 comes of all this ,cromwell work--a    
thing not without value either4'#bc     
',ireland1' says ,froude1 'of all the   
topics on which ,carlyle had meditated  
writing1 remained painfully fascinating4
 ,he had looked at the beggarly scene1  
he had seen the blighted fields1 the    
ragged misery of the wretched race who  
were suffering for other's sins as well 
as for their own4 ,since that brief     
visit of his1 the famine had been       
followed by the famine-fever1 and the   
flight of millions from a land which was
 smitten with a curse4 ,those ardent    
young men with whom he had dined at     
,dundrum were working as felons in the  
docks at ,bermuda4 ,gavan ,duffy1 after 

a near escape from the same fate1 had   
been a guest in ,cheyne ,row2 and the   
story which he had to tell of cabins    
torn down by crowbars1 and shivering    
families1 turned out of their miserable 
homes1 dying in the ditches by the      
roadside1 had touched ,carlyle to the   
very heart4 ,he was furious at the      
economical commonplaces with which      
,england was consoling itself4 ,he      
regarded ,ireland as the breaking-point 
of the huge suppuration which all       
,british and all ,european society then 
was4'#bd ,carlyle paid a second visit to
 ,ireland4 ,he was anxious to write a   
book on the subject4 ,he noted down what
 he had seen1 and 'then dismissed the   
unhappy subject from his mind1' giving  
his manuscript to a friend1 which was   
published after his death4  ,the #gth of
 ,august found ,carlyle among his 'ain  
folk' at ,scotsbrig1 and this was his   
soliloquy3 ',thank ,heaven for the sight
 of real human industry1 with human     
fruits from it1 once more4 ,the sight of

 fenced fields1 weeded crops1 and human 
creatures with whole clothes on their   
back--it was as if one had got into     
spring water out of dunghill puddles4'  
,mrs ,carlyle had also gone to          
,scotland1 and 'wandered like a returned
 spirit about the home of her           
childhood4' ,of her numerous lively     
letters1 room must be found for a       
characteristic epistle to her           
brother-in-law1 ,john ,carlyle4 ,his    
translation of ,dante's ,inferno was    
just out1 and her uncle's family at     
,auchtertool ,manse1 in ,fife1 where she
 was staying1 were busy reading and     
discussing it4 ',we had been talking    
about you1' she says1 'and had sunk     
silent4 ,suddenly my uncle turned his   
head to me and said1 shaking it gravely1
 ,he has made an awesome plooster o'    
that place4 ,who8 ,what place1 uncle8   
,whew6 the place ye'll maybe gang to1 if
 ye dinna tak' care4 ,i really believe  
he considers all those circles of your  
invention4 ,walter a cousin1 just       

ordained performed the marriage service 
over a couple of colliers the day after 
,i came4 ,i happened to be in his study 
when they came in1 and asked leave to   
remain4 ,the man was a good-looking man 
enough1 dreadfully agitated1 partly with
 the business he was come on1 partly    
with drink4 ,he had evidently taken a   
glass too much to keep his heart up4    
,the girl had one very large inflamed   
eye and one little one1 which looked    
perfectly composed1 while the large eye 
stared wildly1 and had a tear in it4    
,walter married them very well indeed2  
and his affecting words1 together with  
the bridegroom's pale1 excited face1 and
 the bride's ugliness1 and the poverty1 
penury1 and want imprinted on the whole 
business1 and above all fellow-feeling  
with the poor wretches then rushing on  
their fate--all that so overcame me that
 ,i fell crying as desperately as if ,i 
had been getting married to the collier 
myself1 and1 when the ceremony was over1
 extended my hand to the unfortunates1  

and actually 7in such an enthusiasm of  
pity did ,i find myself7 ,i presented   
the new husband with a snuff-box which  
,i happened to have in my hand1 being   
just about presenting it to ,walter when
 the creatures came in4 ,this unexpected
 ,himmelsendung finished turning the    
man's head2 he wrung my hand over and   
over1 leaving his mark for some hours   
after1 and ended his grateful speeches  
with1 ,oh1 ,miss6 ,oh1 ,liddy6 may ye   
hae mair comfort and pleasure in your   
life than ever you have had yet6 which  
might easily be4'  ,carlyle was full of 
wrath at what he considered the cant    
about the condition of the wage-earners 
in ,manchester and elsewhere1 and his   
indignation found vent in the           
,latter-day ,pamphlets4 ,froude once    
asked him if he had ever thought of     
going into ,parliament1 for the former  
knew that the opportunity must have been
 offered him4 ',well1' he said1 ',i did 
think of it at the time of the          
,latter-day ,pamphlets4 ,i felt that    

nothing could prevent me from getting up
 in the ,house and saying all that4'    
',he was powerful1' adds ,froude1 'but  
he was not powerful enough to have      
discharged with his single voice the    
vast volume of conventional electricity 
with which the collective wisdom of the 
nation was1 and remains charged4 ,it is 
better that his thoughts should have    
been committed to enduring print1 where 
they remain to be reviewed hereafter by 
the light of fact4'#be  ,the printing of
 the ,pamphlets commenced at the        
beginning of #ahej1 and went on month   
after month1 each separately published1 
no magazine daring to become responsible
 for them4 ,when the ,pamphlets         
appeared1 they were received with       
'astonished indignation4' ',carlyle     
taken to whisky1' was the popular       
impression--or perhaps he had gone mad4 
',punch1' says ,froude1 'the most       
friendly to him of all the ,london      
periodicals1 protested affectionately4  
,the delinquent was brought up for trial

 before him1 ,i think for injuring his  
reputation4 ,he was admonished1 but     
stood impenitent1 and even called the   
worthy magistrate a windbag and a sham4 
,i suppose it was ,thackeray who wrote  
this2 or some other kind friend1 who    
feared1 like ,emerson1 that the world   
would turn its back on him4 ,he was     
under no illusion himself as to the     
effect which he was producing4'#bf      
,amid the general storm1 ,carlyle was   
'agreeably surprised' to receive an     
invitation to dine with ,peel at        
,whitehall ,gardens1 where he met a     
select company4 ',after all the servants
 but the butler were gone1' narrates    
,carlyle1 'we began to hear a little of 
,peel's quiet talk across the table1    
unimportant1 distinguished by its sense 
of the ludicrous shining through a      
strong official rationality and even    
seriousness of temper4 ,distracted      
address of a letter from somebody to    
,queen ,victoria2 ,the most noble       
,george ,victoria1 ,queen of ,england1  

,knight and ,baronet1 or something like 
that4 ,a man had once written to ,peel  
himself1 while secretary1 that he was   
weary of life1 that if any gentleman    
wanted for his park-woods a hermit1 he1 
etc41 all of which was very pretty and  
human as ,peel gave it us4'#bg ,carlyle 
was driven home by the ,bishop of       
,oxford1 ',soapy ,sam' ,wilberforce1    
whom he had probably met before at the  
,ashburton's4 ,the ,bishop once told    
,froude that he considered ,carlyle a   
most eminently religious man4 ',ah1     
,sam1' said ,carlyle to ,froude one day1
 'he is a very clever fellow2 ,i do not 
hate him near as much as ,i fear ,i     
ought to do4' ,carlyle and ,peel met    
once more1 at ,bath ,house1 and there1  
too1 he was first introduced to the     
,duke of ,wellington4 ,writing at the   
time1 ,carlyle said3 ',i had never seen 
till now how beautiful1 and what an     
expression of graceful simplicity1      
veracity1 and nobleness there is about  
the old hero when you see him close at  

hand4444 ,except for ,dr ,chalmers1 ,i  
have not for many years seen so         
beautiful an old man4'  ,carlyle        
intended1 some time or other1 writing a 
',life of ,sterling1' but meanwhile he  
accepted an invitation to visit ,south  
,wales4 ,thence he made his way to      
,scotsbrig4 ,on the #bgth ,september    
#ahej1 he 'parted sorrowfully with his  
mother4' ,when he reached ,london1 the  
autumn quarterlies were reviewing the   
,pamphlets1 and the 'shrieking tone was 
considerably modified4' ',a review of   
them1' says ,froude1 'by ,masson in the 
,north ,british distinctly pleased      
,carlyle4 ,a review in the ,dublin he   
found excellently serious1 and          
conjectured that it came from some      
,anglican pervert or convert4 ,it was   
written1 ,i believe1 by ,dr ,ward4'     
,after a few more wanderings1 ,carlyle  
set about the ,life of ,sterling1 and on
 ,april #e1 #ahea1 he informs his       
mother3 ',i told the ,doctor about ,john
 ,sterling's ,life1 a small1            

insignificant book or pamphlet ,i have  
been writing4 ,the booksellers got it   
away from me the other morning1 to see  
how much there is of it1 in the first   
place4 ,i know not altogether myself    
whether it is worth printing or not1 but
 rather think it will be the end of it  
whether or not4 ,it has cost little     
trouble1 and need not do much ill1 if it
 do no great amount of good4' ,another  
visit had to be paid to ,scotsbrig1     
where he read the ,life of ,chalmers4   
',an excellent ,christian man1' he said4
 ',about as great a contrast to himself 
in all ways as could be found in these  
epochs under the same sky4'  ,when he   
got back to ,cheyne ,row1 he took to    
reading the ,seven ,years' ,war1 with a 
view to another book4 ,he determined to 
go to ,germany1 and on ,august #cj1     
#aheb1 ,carlyle embarked 'on board the  
greasy little wretch of a ,leith        
steamer1 laden to the water's edge with 
pig-iron and herrings4' ,the journey    
over1 he set to work on ',frederick1'   

but was driven almost to despair by the 
cock-crowing in his neighbourhood4      
,writing to ,mrs ,carlyle1 he says3 ',i 
foresee in general these cocks will     
require to be abolished1 entirely       
silenced1 whether we build the new room 
or not4 ,i would cheerfully shoot them1 
and pay the price if discovered1 but ,i 
have no gun1 should be unsafe for       
hitting1 and indeed seldom see the      
wretched animals4'  ,he took refuge at  
the ,ashburton's house1 the ,grange1 but
 on the #bjth of ,december1 news came   
that his mother was seriously ill1 and  
could not last long4 ,he hurried off to 
,scotsbrig1 and reached there in time to
 see her once more alive4 ,in his       
journal1 this passage is to be found    
under date ,january #h1 #ahed3 ',the    
stroke has fallen4 ,my dear old mother  
is gone from me1 and in the winter of   
the year1 confusedly under darkness of  
weather and of mind1 the stern final    
epoch--epoch of old age--is beginning to
 unfold itself for me4444 ,it is matter 

of perennial thankfulness to me1 and    
beyond my desert in that matter very    
far1 that ,i found my dear old mother   
still alive2 able to recognise me with a
 faint joy2 her former self still       
strangely visible there in all its      
lineaments1 though worn to the uttermost
 thread4 ,the brave old mother and the  
good1 whom to lose had been my fear ever
 since intelligence awoke in me in this 
world1 arrived now at the final         
bourn4444 ,she was about #hd years of   
age1 and could not with advantage to any
 side remain with us longer4 ,surely it 
was a good ,power that gave us such a   
mother2 and good though stern that took 
her away from amid such grief and labour
 by a death beautiful to one's thoughts4
 ,all the days of my appointed time will
 ,i wait till my change come4 ,this they
 heard her muttering1 and many other    
less frequent pious texts and passages4 
,amen1 ,amen6 ,sunday1 ,december #be1   
#ahec--;a day henceforth for ever       
memorable to me4444 ,to live for the    

shorter or longer remainder of my days  
with the simple bravery1 veracity1 and  
piety of her that is gone3 that would be
 a right learning from her death1 and a 
right honouring of her memory4 ,but alas
 all is yet frozen within me2 even as it
 is without me at present1 and ,i have  
made little or no way4 ,god be helpful  
to me6 ,i myself am very weak1 confused1
 fatigued1 entangled in poor            
worldlinesses too4 ,newspaper           
paragraphs1 even as this sacred and     
peculiar thing1 are not indifferent to  
me4 ,weak soul6 and ,i am fifty-eight   
years old1 and the tasks ,i have on     
hand1 ,frederick1 c41 are most ungainly1
 incongruous with my mood--and the night
 cometh1 for me too is not distant1     
which for her is come4 ,i must try1 ,i  
must try4 ,poor brother ,jack6 ,will he 
do his ,dante now8 ,for him also ,i am  
sad2 and surely he has deserved         
gratitude in these last years from us   
all4'#bh  ,when he returned to ,london1 
,carlyle lived in strict seclusion1     

making repeated efforts at work on what 
he called 'the unexecutable book1'      
,frederick4 ,in the spring of #ahed1    
tidings reached ,carlyle of the death of
 ,professor ,wilson4 ,between them there
 had never been any cordial relation1   
says ,froude4 ',they had met in         
,edinburgh in the old days2 on          
,carlyle's part there had been no       
backwardness1 and ,wilson was not       
unconscious of ,carlyle's extraordinary 
powers4 ,but he had been shy of         
,carlyle1 and ,carlyle had resented it1 
and now this ,april the news came that  
,wilson was gone1 and ,carlyle had to   
write his epitaph4 ',i knew his figure  
well1' wrote ,carlyle in his journal on 
,april #bi2 'remember well first seeing 
him in ,princes ,street on a bright     
,april afternoon--probably              
#ahad--;exactly forty years ago4444 ,a  
tall ruddy figure1 with plenteous blonde
 hair1 with bright blue eyes1 fixed1 as 
if in haste towards some distant object1
 strode rapidly along1 clearing the     

press to the left of us1 close by the   
railings1 near where ,blackwood's shop  
now is4 ,westward he in haste2 we slowly
 eastward4 ,campbell whispered me1 ,that
 is ,wilson of the ,isle of ,palms1     
which poem ,i had not read1 being then  
quite mathematical1 scientific1 c41 for 
extraneous reasons1 as ,i now see them  
to have been4 ,the broad-shouldered     
stately bulk of the man struck me2 his  
flashing eye1 copious1 dishevelled head 
of hair1 and rapid1 unconcerned         
progress1 like that of a plough through 
stubble4 ,i really liked him1 but only  
from the distance1 and thought no more  
of him4 ,it must have been fourteen     
years later before ,i once saw his      
figure again1 and began to have some    
distant straggling acquaintance of a    
personal kind with him4 ,glad could ,i  
have been to be better and more         
familiarly acquainted2 but though ,i    
liked much in him1 and he somewhat in   
me1 it would not do4 ,he was always very
 kind to me1 but seemed to have a       

feeling ,i should--could--not become    
wholly his1 in which he was right1 and  
that on other terms he could not have   
me2 so we let it so remain1 and for many
 years--indeed1 even after quitting     
,edinburgh--,i had no acquaintance with 
him2 occasionally got symptoms of his   
ill-humour with me--ink-spurts in       
,blackwood1 read or heard of1 which ,i1 
in a surly1 silent manner1 strove to    
consider flattering rather4444 ,so far  
as ,i can recollect1 he was once in my  
house 7,comely ,bank1 with a            
testimonial1 poor fellow671 and ,i once 
in his1 ,de ,quincey1 c41 a little while
 one afternoon4'#bi  ,on ,september #af1
 #ahed1 ,carlyle breaks out in his      
journal3 ',the harvest is past1 the     
summer is ended1 and we are not saved4' 
,what a fearful word6 ,i cannot find how
 to take up that miserable ,frederick1  
or what on earth to do with it4' ,he    
worked hard at it1 nevertheless1 for    
eighteen months1 and by the end of ,may 
#aheh1 the first instalment was all in  

type4 ,froude remarks that a fine critic
 once said to him that ,carlyle's       
,friedrich ,wilhelm was as peculiar and 
original as ,sterne's ,tristram ,shandy2
 certainly as distinct a personality as 
exists in ,english fiction4 ,carlyle    
made a second journey to ,germany4      
,shortly after his return1 the already  
finished volumes of ,frederick appeared1
 and they met with an immediate welcome4
 ,the success was great2 #bjjj copies   
were sold at the first issue1 and a     
second #bjjj were disposed of almost as 
rapidly1 and a third #bjjj followed4    
,mrs ,carlyle's health being            
unsatisfactory1 ,carlyle took a house   
for the summer at ,humbie1 near         
,aberdour in ,fife4 ,they returned to   
,cheyne ,row in ,october1 neither of    
them benefited by their holiday in the  
north4  ,while many of ,carlyle's       
intimate friends were passing away1 he  
formed ,ruskin's acquaintance1 which    
turned out mutually satisfactory4 ,on   
the #bcrd ,april #ahfa1 ,carlyle writes 

to his brother ,john3 ',friday last ,i  
was persuaded--in fact had unwarily     
compelled myself1 as it were--to a      
lecture of ,ruskin's at the             
,institution1 ,albemarle ,street4       
,lecture on ,tree ,leaves as            
physiological1 pictorial1 moral1        
symbolical objects4 ,a crammed house1   
but tolerable to me even in the gallery4
 ,the lecture was thought to break down1
 and indeed it quite did as a lecture2  
but only did from embarras des          
richesses--a rare case4 ,ruskin did blow
 asunder as by gunpowder explosions his 
leaf notions1 which were manifold1      
curious1 genial2 and1 in fact1 ,i do not
 recollect to have heard in that place  
any neatest thing ,i liked so well as   
this chaotic one4'#cj  ,frederick was   
progressing1 though slowly1 as he found 
the ore in the ,german material at his  
disposal nowhere smelted out of it4 ,the
 third volume was finished and published
 in the summer of #ahfb2 the fourth     
volume was getting into type2 and the   

fifth and last was finished in ,january 
#ahfe4 ',it nearly killed me1' ,carlyle 
writes in his journal1 'it1 and my poor 
,jane's dreadful illness1 now happily   
over4 ,no sympathy could be found on    
earth for those horrid struggles of     
twelve years1 nor happily was any       
needed4 ,on ,sunday evening in the end  
of ,january 7#ahfe7 ,i walked out1 with 
the multiplex feeling--joy not very     
prominent in it1 but a kind of solemn   
thankfulness traceable1 that ,i had     
written the last sentence of that       
unutterable book1 and1 contrary to many 
forebodings in bad hours1 had actually  
got done with it for ever4'  ,in        
,england it was at once admitted1 says  
,froude1 that a splendid addition had   
been made to the national literature4   
',the book contained1 if nothing else1 a
 gallery of historical figures executed 
with a skill which placed ,carlyle at   
the head of literary portrait           
painters4444 ,no critic1 after the      
completion of ,frederick1 challenged    

,carlyle's right to a place beside the  
greatest of ,english authors1 past or   
present4' ,the work was translated      
instantly into ,german1 calling forth   
the warmest appreciation4  ,,footnotes3 
#ah ,froude's ',life in ,london1' vol4  
i4 p4 #aae4  #ai ,froude's ,life in     
,london1 vol4 i4 pp4 #afa-fb4  #bj      
,froude's ',life in ,london1' vol4 i4 p4
 #dbj4  #ba ,froude's ',life in         
,london1' vol4 i4 pp4 #dcc-d4  #bb      
,froude's ',life in ,london1' vol4 i4 p4
 #dda4  #bc ,ibid41 vol4 i4 p4 #dea4    
#bd ,froude's ',life in ,london1' vol4  
i4 p4 #def4  #be ,froude's ',life in    
,london1' vol4 ii4 p4 #bf4  #bf ,ibid41 
vol4 ii4 p4 #cf4  #bg ,froude's ',life  
in ,london1' vol4 ii4 p4 #dc4  #bh      
,froude's ',life in ,london1' vol4 ii4  
pp4 #adb-de4  #bi ,froude's ',life in   
,london1' vol4 ii4 pp4 #aef-g4  #cj     
,froude's ',life in ,london1' vol4 ii4  
p4 #bde4     ,,chapter ,,vi  ,,rectorial
 ,,address--,,death ,,of ,,mrs ,,carlyle
   ,after a round of holiday visits1    

including one to ,annandale1 the        
,carlyles settled down once more at     
,cheyne ,row in the summer of #ahfe4    
',the great outward event of ,carlyle's 
own life1' observes ,froude1            
',scotland's public recognition of him1 
was now lying close ahead4 ,this his    
wife was to live to witness as her final
 happiness in this world4' ,here is an  
eloquent passage from the same pen3 ',i 
had been at ,edinburgh1' writes ,froude1
 'and had heard ,gladstone make his     
great oration on ,homer there1 on       
retiring from office as ,rector4 ,it was
 a grand display4 ,i never recognised   
before what oratory could do2 the       
audience being kept for three hours in a
 state of electric tension1 bursting    
every moment into applause4 ,nothing was
 said which seemed of moment when read  
deliberately afterwards2 but the voice  
was like enchantment1 and the street1   
when we left the building1 was ringing  
with a prolongation of cheers4 ,perhaps 
in all ,britain there was not a man     

whose views on all subjects1 in heaven  
and earth1 less resembled ,gladstone's  
than those of the man whom this same    
applauding multitude elected to take his
 place4 ,the students too1 perhaps1 were
 ignorant how wide the contradiction    
was2 but if they had been aware of it   
they need not have acted differently4   
,carlyle had been one of themselves4 ,he
 had risen from among them--not by birth
 or favour1 not on the ladder of any    
established profession1 but only by the 
internal force that was in him--to the  
highest place as a modern man of        
letters4 ,in ,frederick he had given the
 finish to his reputation2 he stood now 
at the summit of his fame2 and the      
,edinburgh students desired to mark     
their admiration in some signal way4 ,he
 had been mentioned before1 but he had  
declined to be nominated1 for a party   
only were then in his favour4 ,on this  
occasion1 the students were unanimous1  
or nearly so4 ,his own consent was all  
that was wanting4'#ca ,this consent was 

obtained1 and ,carlyle was chosen       
,rector of ,edinburgh ,university4 ,but 
the ,address troubled him4 ,he resolved1
 however1 as his father used to say1 to 
'gar himself go through with the thing1'
 or at least to try4 ,froude says he was
 very miserable1 but that ,mrs ,carlyle 
'kept up his spirits1 made fun of his   
fears1 bantered him1 encouraged him1    
herself at heart as much alarmed as he  
was1 but conscious1 too1 of the         
ridiculous side of it4' ,she thought of 
accompanying him1 but her health would  
not permit of the effort4 ,both ,huxley 
and ,tyndall were going down1 and       
,tyndall promised ,mrs ,carlyle to take 
care of her husband4  ,on ,monday       
morning1 the #bith of ,march1 #ahff1    
,carlyle and his wife parted4 ',the last
 ,i saw of her1' he said1 'was as she   
stood with her back to the parlour door 
to bid me good-bye4 ,she kissed me      
twice1 she me once1 ,i her a second     
time4' ,they parted for ever4           
,edinburgh was reached in due course1   

and what happened there had best be told
 by an eye-witness1 ,professor ,masson4 
',on the night following ,carlyle's     
arrival in town1' he says1 'after he had
 settled himself in ,mr ,erskine of     
,linlathen's house1 where he was to stay
 during his visit1 he and his brother   
,john came to my house in ,rosebery     
,crescent1 that they might have a quiet 
smoke and talk over matters4 ,they sat  
with me an hour or more1 ,carlyle as    
placid and hearty as could be1 talking  
most pleasantly1 a little dubious1      
indeed1 as to how he might get through  
his ,address1 but for the rest          
unperturbed4 ,as to the ,address itself1
 when the old man stood up in the ,music
 ,hall before the assembled crowd1 and  
threw off his ,rectorial robes1 and     
proceeded to speak1 slowly1 connectedly1
 and nobly raising his left hand at the 
end of each section or paragraph to     
stroke the back of his head as he       
cogitated what he was to say next1 the  
crowd listening as they had never       

listened to a speaker before1 and       
reverent even in those parts of the hall
 where he was least audible1--who that  
was present will ever forget that sight8
 ,that day1 and on the subsequent days  
of his stay1 there were1 of course1     
dinners and other gatherings in         
,carlyle's honour4 ,one such dinner1    
followed by a larger evening gathering1 
was in my house4 ,then1 too1 he was in  
the best of possible spirits1 courteous 
in manner and in speech to all1 and     
throwing himself heartily into whatever 
turned up4 ,at the dinner-table1 ,i     
remember1 ,lord ,neaves favoured us with
 one or two of his humorous songs or    
recitatives1 including his clever quiz  
called ,stuart ,mill on ,mind and       
,matter1 written to the tune of ,roy's  
wife of ,aldivalloch4 ,no one enjoyed   
the thing more than ,carlyle2 and he    
surprised me by doing what ,i had never 
heard him do before1--actually joining  
with his own voice in the chorus4       
,stuart ,mill on ,mind and ,matter1     

,stuart ,mill on ,mind and ,matter1 he  
chaunted laughingly along with ,lord    
,neaves every time the chorus came      
round1 beating time in the air          
emphatically with his fist4 ,it was     
hardly otherwise1 or only otherwise     
inasmuch as the affair was more         
ceremonious and stately1 at the dinner  
given to him in the ,douglas ,hotel by  
the ,senatus ,academicus1 and in which  
his old friend ,sir ,david ,brewster    
presided4 ,there1 too1 while dignified  
and serene1 ,carlyle was thoroughly     
sympathetic and convivial4 ,especially  
,i remember how he relished and         
applauded the songs of our academic     
laureate and matchless chief in such    
things1 ,professor ,douglas ,maclagan1  
and how1 before we broke up1 he         
expressly complimented ,professor       
,maclagan on having contributed so      
greatly to the hilarity of the          
evening4'#cb  ,the most graphic account 
of ,carlyle's installation as ,lord     
,rector is that by ,alexander ,smith1   

the author of ',a ,life ,drama1'        
',summer in ,skye1' c41 c41 whose       
lamented death took place a few months  
after that event4 ',curious stories1' he
 wrote1 'are told of the eagerness on   
every side manifested to hear ,mr       
,carlyle4 ,country clergymen from beyond
 ,aberdeen came to ,edinburgh for the   
sole purpose of hearing and seeing4     
,gentlemen came down from ,london by    
train the night before1 and returned to 
,london by train the night after4 ,nay1 
it was even said that an enthusiast1    
dwelling in the remote west of ,ireland1
 intimated to the officials who had     
charge of the distribution1 that if a   
ticket should be reserved for him1 he   
would gladly come the whole way to      
,edinburgh4 ,let us hope a ticket was   
reserved4 ,on the day of the address1   
the doors of the ,music ,hall were      
besieged long before the hour of opening
 had arrived2 and loitering about there 
on the outskirts of the crowd1 one could
 not help glancing curiously down ,pitt 

,street1 towards the lang toun of       
,kirkcaldy1 dimly seen beyond the       
,forth2 for on the sands there1 in the  
early years of the century1 ,edward     
,irving was accustomed to pace up and   
down solitarily1 and as if the sands    
were his own1 people say1 who remember1 
when they were boys1 seeing the tall1   
ardent1 black-haired1 swift-gestured1   
squinting man1 often enough4 ,and to    
,kirkcaldy1 too1 444 came young ,carlyle
 from ,edinburgh ,college1 wildly in    
love with ,german and mathematics2 and  
the schoolroom in which these men       
taught1 although incorporated in        
,provost ,swan's manufactory1 is yet    
kept sacred and intact1 and but little  
changed these fifty years--an act of    
hero-worship for which the present and  
other generations may be thankful4 ,it  
seemed to me that so glancing           
,fife-wards1 and thinking of that noble 
friendship--of the ,david and ,jonathan 
of so many years agone--was the best    
preparation for the man ,i was to see1  

and the speech ,i was to hear4 ,david   
and ,jonathan6 ,jonathan stumbled and   
fell on the dark hills1 not of ,gilboa1 
but of ,vanity2 and ,david sang his     
funeral song3 ,but for him ,i had never 
known what the communion of man with man
 means4 ,his was the freest1            
brotherliest1 bravest human soul mine   
ever came in contact with4 ,i call him1 
on the whole1 the best man ,i have ever1
 after trial enough1 found in this      
world1 or now hope to find4  ',in a very
 few minutes after the doors were       
opened1 the large hall was filled in    
every part2 and when up the central     
passage the ,principal1 the ,lord       
,rector1 the ,members of the ,senate1   
and other gentlemen advanced towards the
 platform1 the cheering was vociferous  
and hearty4 ,the ,principal occupied the
 chair1 of course2 the ,lord ,rector on 
his right1 the ,lord ,provost on his    
left4 ,when the platform gentlemen had  
taken their seats1 every eye was fixed  
on the ,rector4 ,to all appearance1 as  

he sat1 time and labour had dealt       
tenderly with him4 ,his face had not yet
 lost the country bronze which he       
brought up with him from ,dumfriesshire 
as a student1 fifty-six years ago4 ,his 
long residence in ,london had not       
touched his ,annandale look1 nor had    
it--as we soon learned--touched his     
,annandale accent4 ,his countenance was 
striking1 homely1 sincere1 truthful--the
 countenance of a man on whom the burden
 of the unintelligible world had weighed
 more heavily than on most4 ,his hair   
was yet almost dark2 his moustache and  
short beard were iron-grey4 ,his eyes   
were wide1 melancholy1 sorrowful2 and   
seemed as if they had been at times     
a-weary of the sun4 ,altogether1 in his 
aspect there was something aboriginal1  
as of a piece of unhewn granite1 which  
had never been polished to any approved 
pattern1 whose natural and original     
vitality had never been tampered with4  
,in a word1 there seemed no passivity   
about ,mr ,carlyle2 he was the diamond1 

and the world was his pane of glass2 he 
was a graving tool1 rather than a thing 
graven upon--a man to set his mark on   
the world--a man on whom the world could
 not set its mark4444 ,the proceedings  
began by the conferring of the degree of
 ,,ll4,d4 on ,mr ,erskine of            
,linlathen--an old friend of ,mr        
,carlyle's--on ,professors ,huxley1     
,tyndall1 and ,ramsay1 and on ,dr ,rae1 
the ,arctic explorer4 ,that done1 amid a
 tempest of cheering and hats           
enthusiastically waved1 ,mr ,carlyle1   
slipping off his ,rectorial robe--which 
must have been a very shirt of ,nessus  
to him--advanced to the table1 and began
 to speak in low1 wavering1 melancholy  
tones1 which were in accordance with the
 melancholy eyes1 and in the ,annandale 
accent with which his play-fellows must 
have been familiar long ago4 ,so        
self-centred was he1 so impregnable to  
outward influences1 that all his years  
of ,edinburgh and ,london life could not
 impair1 even in the slightest degree1  

that4 ,the opening sentences were lost  
in the applause1 and when it subsided1  
the low1 plaintive1 quavering voice was 
heard going on3 ,your enthusiasm towards
 me is very beautiful in itself1 however
 undeserved it may be in regard to the  
object of it4 ,it is a feeling          
honourable to all men1 and one well     
known to myself when in a position      
analogous to your own4 ,and then came   
the ,carlylean utterance1 with its      
far-reaching reminiscence and sigh over 
old graves--,father's and ,mother's1    
,edward ,irving's1 ,john ,sterling's1   
,charles ,buller's1 and all the noble   
known in past time--and with its flash  
of melancholy scorn4 ,there are now     
fifty-six years gone1 last ,november1   
since ,i first entered your city1 a boy 
of not quite fourteen--fifty-six years  
ago--to attend classes here1 and gain   
knowledge of all kinds1 ,i knew not     
what--with feelings of wonder and       
awe-struck expectation2 and now1 after a
 long1 long course1 this is what we have

 come to4444 ,there is something        
touching and tragic1 and yet at the same
 time beautiful1 to see the third       
generation1 as it were1 of my dear old  
native land1 rising up1 and saying3     
,well1 you are not altogether an        
unworthy labourer in the vineyard4 ,you 
have toiled through a great variety of  
fortunes1 and have had many judges4 ,and
 thereafter1 without aid of notes1 or   
paper preparation of any kind1 in the   
same wistful1 earnest1 hesitating voice1
 and with many a touch of quaint humour 
by the way1 which came in upon his      
subject like glimpses of pleasant       
sunshine1 the old man talked to his vast
 audience about the origin and function 
of ,universities1 the ,old ,greeks and  
,romans1 ,oliver ,cromwell1 ,john ,knox1
 the excellence of silence as compared  
with speech1 the value of courage and   
truthfulness1 and the supreme importance
 of taking care of one's health4 ,there 
is no kind of achievement you could make
 in the world that is equal to perfect  

health4 ,what to it are nuggets and     
millions8 ,the ,french financier said1  
',alas6 why is there no sleep to be     
sold8' ,sleep was not in the market at  
any quotation4 ,but what need of quoting
 a speech which by this time has been   
read by everybody8 ,appraise it as you  
please1 it was a thing per se4 ,just as1
 if you wish a purple dye1 you must fish
 up the ,murex2 if you wish ivory1 you  
must go to the ,east2 so if you desire  
an address such as ,edinburgh listened  
to the other day1 you must go to        
,chelsea for it4 ,it may not be quite to
 your taste1 but1 in any case1 there is 
no other intellectual warehouse in which
 that kind of article is kept in        
stock4'#cc  ,another eye-witness1 ,mr   
,moncure ,d4 ,conway1 says3 ',when      
,carlyle sat down there was an audible  
sound1 as of breath long held1 by all   
present2 then a cry from the students1  
an exultation2 they rose up1 all arose1 
waving their arms excitedly2 some       
pressed forward1 as if wishing to       

embrace him1 or to clasp his knees2     
others were weeping2 what had been heard
 that day was more than could be        
reported2 it was the ineffable spirit   
that went forth from the deeps of a     
great heart and from the ages stored up 
in it1 and deep answered unto deep4'    
,immediately after the delivery of the  
address1 ,tyndall telegraphed to ,mrs   
,carlyle this brief message1 ',a perfect
 triumph4' ,that evening she dined at   
,forster's1 where she met ,dickens and  
,wilkie ,collins4 ,they drank ,carlyle's
 health1 and to her it was 'a good joy4'
 ,it was ,carlyle's intention to have   
returned at once to ,london1 but he     
changed his mind1 and went for a few    
quiet days at ,scotsbrig4 ,when ,tyndall
 was back in ,london ,mrs ,carlyle got  
all the particulars of the rectorial    
address from him1 and was made perfectly
 happy about it4  ,numberless           
congratulations poured in upon ,mrs     
,carlyle1 and for ,saturday1 ,april     
#bast1 she had arranged a small         

tea-party4 ,in the morning she wrote her
 daily letter to ,carlyle1 and in the   
afternoon she went out in her brougham  
for a drive1 taking her little dog with 
her4 ,when near ,victoria ,gate1 ,hyde  
,park1 she put the dog out to run4 ',a  
passing carriage1' says ,froude1 'went  
over its foot4444 ,she sprang out1      
caught the dog in her arms1 took it with
 her into the brougham1 and was never   
more seen alive4 ,the coachman went     
twice round the drive1 by ,marble ,arch 
down to ,stanhope ,gate1 along the      
,serpentine and round again4 ,coming a  
second time near to the ,achilles       
statue1 and surprised to receive no     
directions1 he turned round1 saw        
indistinctly that something was wrong1  
and asked a gentleman near to look into 
the carriage4 ,the gentleman told him   
briefly to take the lady to ,st4        
,george's ,hospital1 which was not #bjj 
yards distant4 ,she was sitting with her
 hands folded in her lap dead4'#cd  ,at 
the hour she died ,carlyle was enjoying 

the 'green solitudes and fresh spring   
breezes' of ,annandale1 'quietly but far
 from happily4' ,about nine o'clock the 
same night his brother-in-law1 ,mr      
,aitken1 broke the news to him4 ',i was 
sitting in sister ,jean's at ,dumfries1'
 ,carlyle wrote a fortnight after1      
'thinking of my railway journey to      
,chelsea on ,monday1 and perhaps of a   
sprained ankle ,i had got at ,scotsbrig 
two weeks or so before1 when the fatal  
telegrams1 two of them in succession1   
came4 ,it had a kind of stunning effect 
upon me4 ,not for above two days could  
,i estimate the immeasurable depths of  
it1 or the infinite sorrow which had    
peeled my life all bare1 and in a moment
 shattered my poor world to universal   
ruin4 ,they took me out next day to     
wander1 as was medically needful1 in the
 green sunny ,sabbath fields1 and ever  
and anon there rose from my sick heart  
the ejaculation1 ,my poor little woman6 
but no full gust of tears came to my    
relief1 nor has yet come4 ,will it ever8

 ,a stony ,woe's me1 woe's me6 sometimes
 with infinite tenderness and pity1 not 
for myself1 is my habitual mood         
hitherto4'#ce  ,on ,monday morning      
,carlyle and his brother ,john set off  
for ,london4 ,on the ,wednesday he was  
on his way to ,haddington with the      
remains1 his brother and ,john ,forster 
accompanying him4 ,at #a ,p4,m4 on      
,thursday the funeral took place4 ',in  
the nave of the old ,abbey ,kirk1' wrote
 her disconsolate husband1 'long a ruin1
 now being saved from further decay1    
with the skies looking down on her1     
there sleeps my little ,jeannie1 and the
 light of her face will never shine on  
me more4' ,when ,mr ,conway saw him on  
his return to ,cheyne ,row1 ,carlyle    
said1 ',whatever triumph there may have 
been in that now so darkly overcast day1
 was indeed hers4 ,long1 long years ago1
 she took her place by the side of a    
poor man of humblest condition1 against 
all other provisions for her1 undertook 
to share his lot for weal or woe2 and in

 that office what she has been to him   
and done for him1 how she has placed1 as
 it were1 velvet between him and all the
 sharp angularities of existence1       
remains now only in the knowledge of one
 man1 and will presently be finally hid 
in his grave4' ,as he touchingly        
expressed it in the beautiful epitaph he
 wrote1 the 'light of his life' had     
assuredly 'gone out4' ,universal        
sympathy was felt for the bereaved      
husband1 and he was very much affected  
by 'a delicate1 graceful1 and even      
affectionate' message from the ,queen1  
conveyed by ,lady ,augusta ,stanley     
through his brother ,john4  ,one who    
knew ,mrs ,carlyle intimately thus      
speaks of her3 ',her intellect was as   
clear and incisive as his1 yet          
altogether womanly in character2 her    
heart was as truthful1 and her courage  
as unswerving4 ,she was a wife in the   
noblest sense of that sacred name4 ,she 
had a gift of literary expression as    
unique as his2 as tender a sympathy with

 human sorrow and need2 as clear an eye 
for all conventional hypocrisies and    
folly2 as vivid powers of description   
and illustration2 and also1 it must be  
confessed1 when the spirit of mockery   
was strong upon her1 as keen an edge to 
her flashing wit and humour1 and as     
scornful a disregard of the conventional
 proprieties4 ,but she was no literary  
hermaphrodite4 ,she never intellectually
 strode forth before the world upon     
masculine stilts2 nor1 in private life1 
did she frowardly push to the front1 in 
the vanity of showing she was as clever 
and considerable as her husband4 ,she   
longed1 with a true woman's longing     
heart1 to be appreciated by him1 and by 
those she loved2 and1 for her1 all      
extraneous applause might whistle with  
the wind4 ,but if her husband was a king
 in literature1 so might she have been a
 queen4 ,her influence with him for good
 cannot be questioned by any one having 
eyes to discern4 ,and if she sacrificed 
her own vanity for personal distinction1

 in order to make his work possible for 
him1 who shall say she did not choose   
the nobler and better part8'#cf  ,on the
 other hand1 ,carlyle was too exacting1 
and when domestic differences arose he  
abstained from paying those little      
attentions which a delicate and         
sensitive woman might naturally expect  
from a husband who was so lavish of     
terms of endearment in the letters he   
wrote to her when away from her side4   
',even with that mother whom he so      
dearly loved1' observes ,mrs ,ireland1  
'the intercourse was mainly composed of 
a silent sitting by the fireside of an  
evening in the old houseplace1 with a   
tranquillising pipe of tobacco1 or of   
his returning from his long rambles to a
 simple meal1 partaken of in comparative
 silence2 and now and then1 at meeting  
or parting1 some pious and earnest words
 from the good soul to her son4'#cg ,and
 it never occurred to ,carlyle to act   
differently with his wife1 who was      
pining for his society4 ,in addition to 

all that1 we have ,froude's brief but   
accurate diagnosis of ,carlyle's        
character4 ',if1' he wrote1 'matters    
went well with himself1 it never        
occurred to him that they could be going
 ill with any one else2 and1 on the     
other hand1 if he was uncomfortable1 he 
required everybody to be uncomfortable  
along with him4'  ,there was a strong   
element of selfishness in that phase of 
,carlyle's nature2 and throughout his   
letters and journal he appears wholly   
wrapt up in himself and in his literary 
projects1 without even a passing        
allusion to the courageous woman who had
 shared his lot4 ,now and again we      
alight upon a passage where special     
mention is made of her efforts1 but     
these have all a direct or indirect     
bearing upon his work1 his plans1 his   
comforts4#ch  ,carlyle never fully      
realised what his wife had been to him  
until she was suddenly snatched from his
 side4 ,and this was his testimony3 ',i 
say deliberately1 her part in the stern 

battle1 and except myself none knows how
 stern1 was brighter and braver than my 
own4' ,in one of those terrible moments 
of self-upbraiding the grief-stricken   
husband exclaims3 ',blind and deaf that 
we are2 oh1 think1 if thou yet love     
anybody living1 wait not till death     
sweep down the paltry little dust-clouds
 and idle dissonances of the moment1 and
 all be at last so mournfully clear and 
beautiful1 when it is too late6'  ,in a 
pamphlet quoted by ,mrs ,ireland we have
 a pathetic picture of ,carlyle in his  
lonely old age4 ,a ,mr ,swinton1 an     
,american gentleman on a visit to this  
country1 went to see the grave of ,mrs  
,carlyle4  ,in conversation the         
grave-digger said3 ',mr ,carlyle comes  
here from ,london now and then to see   
this grave4 ,he is a gaunt1 shaggy1     
weird kind of old man1 looking very old 
the last time he was here4' ',he is     
eighty-six now1' said ,i4 ',ay1' he     
repeated1 'eighty-six1 and comes here to
 this grave all the way from ,london4'  

,and ,i told him that ,carlyle was a    
great man1 the greatest man of the age  
in books1 and that his name was known   
all over the world2 but he thought there
 were other great men lying near at     
hand1 though ,i told him their fame did 
not reach beyond the graveyard1 and     
brought him back to talk of ,carlyle4   
',mr ,carlyle himself1' said the        
gravedigger softly1 'is to be brought   
here to be buried with his wife4 ,ay1 he
 comes here lonesome and alone1'        
continued the gravedigger1 'when he     
visits the wife's grave4 ,his niece     
keeps him company to the gate1 but he   
leaves her there1 and she stays there   
for him4 ,the last time he was here ,i  
got a sight of him1 and he was bowed    
down under his white hairs1 and he took 
his way up by that ruined wall of the   
old cathedral1 and round there and in   
here by the gateway1 and he tottered up 
here to this spot4' ,softly spake the   
gravedigger1 and paused4 ,softer still1 
in the broad dialect of the ,lothians1  

he proceeded3--,and he stood here awhile
 in the grass1 and then he kneeled down 
and stayed on his knees at the grave2   
then he bent over and ,i saw him kiss   
the ground--ay1 he kissed it again and  
again1 and he kept kneeling1 and it was 
a long time before he rose and tottered 
out of the cathedral1 and wandered      
through the graveyard to the gate1 where
 his niece was waiting for him4 ,this is
 the epitaph composed by ,carlyle1 and  
engraved on the tombstone of ,dr ,john  
,welsh in the chancel of ,haddington    
,church3--       ',,here ,,likewise     
,,now ,,rests ,,jane ,,welsh ,,carlyle1 
,,spouse ,,of ,,thomas      ,,carlyle1  
,,chelsea1 ,,london4 ,,she ,,was ,,born 
,,at ,,haddington1 #ad,,th ,,july       
#ahja1 ,,only ,,daughter ,,of ,,the     
,,above ,,john ,,welsh1 ,,and ,,of      
,,grace      ,,welsh1 ,,capelgill1      
,,dumfriesshire1 ,,his ,,wife4 ,,in     
,,her ,,bright      ,,existence ,,she   
,,had ,,more ,,sorrows ,,than ,,are     
,,common2 ,,but ,,also ,a ,,soft        

,,invincibility1 ,a ,,clearness ,,of    
,,discernment1 ,,and ,a ,,noble         
,,loyalty      ,,of ,,heart ,,which     
,,are ,,rare4 ,,for ,,forty ,,years     
,,she ,,was ,,the ,,true ,,and          
,,ever-,,loving ,,helpmate ,,of ,,her   
,,husband1 ,,and1 ,,by ,,act ,,and      
,,word1      ,,unweariedly ,,forwarded  
,,him ,,as ,,none ,,else ,,could1 ,,in  
,,all ,,of ,,worthy      ,,that ,,he    
,,did ,,or ,,attempted4 ,,she ,,died    
,,at ,,london1 #ba,,st ,,april #ahff1   
,,suddenly ,,snatched ,,away ,,from     
,,him1 ,,and ,,the ,,light ,,of ,,his   
,,life ,,as      ,,if ,,gone ,,out4'    
,,footnotes3  #ca ,froude's ',life in   
,london1' vol4 ii4 p4 #bie4  #cb        
,masson's ',carlyle ,personally and in  
his ,writings1' pp4 #bg-i4  #cc         
,alexander ,smith's ',sketches and      
,criticisms1' pp4 #aja-h4  #cd ,froude's
 ',life in ,london1' vol4 ii4 p4 #cab4  
#ce ,froude's ',life in ,london1' vol4  
ii4 p4 #cad4  #cf ,larkin's ',carlyle   
and the ,open ,secret of his ,life1' pp4

 #ccd-e4  #cg ',life of ,jane ,welsh    
,carlyle1' pp4 #aia-b4  #ch ,after      
reading the above estimate in the proof 
sheets1 ,professor ,masson writes to me 
as follows3--       ',may ,i hint that1 
in the passage about his character and  
domestic relations1 you seem hardly to  
do justice to the depths      of real   
kindness and tenderness in him1 and the 
actual      couthiness of his manner and
 fireside conversation in his      most 
genial hours8 ,he was delightful and    
loveable at such      hours1 with a fund
 of the raciest ,scottish humour4'      
,this is a side of ,carlyle's nature    
which would naturally be hidden from the
 general reader1 and from ,mr ,froude4  
,it is easy to imagine how ,carlyle's   
genial humour1 frozen at its source in  
the company of the solemnly pessimistic 
,froude1 should be thawed by the        
presence of 'a brither ,scot4'          
,,chapter ,,vii  ,,last ,,years ,,and   
,,death ,,of ,,carlyle   ,in presence of
 the pathetically tragic spectacle of   

,carlyle in his old age1 who can have   
the heart to enter into his domestic    
life and weigh with pedantic scales the 
old man's blameworthiness8 ,carlyle     
survived his wife fifteen years4 ,his   
brother ,john1 himself a widower1 was   
anxious that they should live together1 
but it was otherwise arranged4 ,john    
returned to ,scotland1 and ,carlyle     
remained alone in ,cheyne ,row4 ,he was 
prevailed on to visit ,ripple ,court1   
near ,walmer1 and on his return to      
,london he wrote1 ',my home is very     
gaunt and lonesome2 but such is my      
allotment henceforth in this world4 ,i  
have taken loyally to my vacant         
circumstances1 and will try to do my    
best with them4'  ,carlyle's first      
public appearance after his sore        
bereavement was as chairman of the ,eyre
 ,committee as a protest against        
,governor ,eyre's recall4 ',poor ,eyre6'
 he wrote to a correspondent1 ',i am    
heartily sorry for him1 and for the     
,english nation1 which makes such a     

dismal fool of itself4 ,eyre1 it seems1 
has fallen suddenly from #fjjj a year   
into almost zero1 and has a large family
 and needy kindred dependent on him4    
,such his reward for saving the ,west   
,indies1 and hanging one incendiary     
mulatto1 well worth the gallows1 if ,i  
can judge4'  ,carlyle accepted a        
pressing invitation to stay with the    
,ashburtons at ,mentone1 and on the     
#bbnd of ,december he started thither   
with ,professor ,tyndall4 ,he was       
greatly benefited in health1 and at     
intervals made some progress with his   
,reminiscences4 ,he returned to ,london 
in ,march1 and on the #dth of ,april    
#ahfg he writes in his journal3 ',idle6 
,idle6 ,my employments mere trifles of  
business1 and that of dwelling on the   
days that culminated on the #bast of    
last year4' ,about this time his        
thoughts were directed to the estate of 
,craigenputtock1 of which he became     
absolute owner at his wife's death4 ,all
 her relations on the father's side were

 dead1 and as ,carlyle thought that it  
ought not to lapse to his own family1 he
 determined to leave it to the          
,university of ,edinburgh1 'the rents of
 it to be laid out in supporting poor   
and meritorious students there1 under   
the title of the ,john ,welsh           
,bursaries4 ,her name he could not give1
 because she had taken his own4         
,therefore he gave her father's4'  ,on  
,june #bbnd1 he writes in his journal3  
',finished off on ,thursday last1 at    
three p4m4 #bjth of ,june1 my poor      
bequest of ,craigenputtock to ,edinburgh
 ,university for bursaries4 ,all quite  
ready there1 ,forster and ,froude as    
witnesses2 the good ,professor ,masson1 
who had taken endless pains1 alike      
friendly and wise1 being at the very    
last objected to in the character of    
witness1 as a party interested1 said the
 ,edinburgh lawyer4 ,i a little         
regretted this circumstance2 so ,i think
 did ,masson secretly4 ,he read us the  
deed with sonorous emphasis1 bringing   

every word and note of it home to us4   
,then ,i signed2 then they two--,masson 
witnessing only with his eyes and mind4 
,i was deeply moved1 as ,i well might   
be1 but held my peace and shed no tears4
 ,tears ,i think ,i have done with2     
never1 except for moments together1 have
 ,i wept for that catastrophe of ,april 
#ba1 to which whole days of weeping     
would have been in other times a blessed
 relief4444 ,this is my poor ,sweetheart
 ,abbey1 ,cor ,dulce1 or ,new ,abbey1 a 
sacred casket and tomb for the sweetest 
heart which1 in this bad1 bitter world1 
was all my own4 ,darling1 darling6 and  
in a little while we shall both be at   
rest1 and the ,great ,god will have done
 with us what was ,his will4'#ci  ,when 
the ,tories were preparing to 'dish the 
,whigs' over the ,reform ,bill1 ,carlyle
 felt impelled to write a pamphlet1     
which he called ,shooting ,niagara1 and 
,after4 ,it was his final utterance on  
,british politics4 ,proof sheets and    
revisions for new editions of his works 

engrossed his attention for some time4  
,he went annually to ,scotland1 and     
devoted a great deal of time on his     
return to ,chelsea to the sorting and   
annotating of his wife's letters4       
,early in #ahfi the ,queen expressed a  
wish1 through ,dean ,stanley1 to become 
personally acquainted with ,carlyle4    
,the meeting took place at ,westminster 
,deanery3 ',the ,queen1' ,carlyle said1 
'was really very gracious and pretty in 
her demeanour throughout2 rose greatly  
in my esteem by everything that         
happened2 did not fall in any point4    
,the interview was quietly very mournful
 to me2 the one point of real interest1 
a sombre thought3 ,alas6 how would it   
have cheered her1 bright soul1 for my   
sake1 had she been there6'  ,when       
,carlyle was in constant expectation of 
his end1 he--in ,june #ahga--;brought to
 ,mr ,froude's house a large parcel of  
papers4 ',he put it in my hands1' says  
,froude4 ',he told me to take it simply 
and absolutely as my own1 without       

reference to any other person or        
persons1 and to do with it as ,i pleased
 after he was gone4 ,he explained1 when 
he saw me surprised1 that it was an     
account of his wife's history1 that it  
was incomplete1 that he could himself   
form no opinion whether it ought to be  
published or not1 that he could do no   
more to it1 and must pass it over to me4
 ,he wished never to hear of it again4  
,i must judge4 ,i must publish it1 the  
whole1 or part--or else destroy it all1 
if ,i thought that this would be the    
wiser thing to do4'#dj  ,three years    
later ,carlyle sent to ,froude his own  
and his wife's private papers1 journals1
 correspondence1 reminiscences1 and     
other documents4 ',take them1' he said  
to ,froude1 'and do what you can with   
them4 ,all ,i can say to you is1 ,burn  
freely4 ,if you have any affection for  
me1 the more you burn the better4' ,mr  
,froude burnt nothing1 and it was well1 
he says1 that he did not1 for a year    
before his death he desired him1 when he

 had done with the ,,mss41 to give them 
to his niece4 ',the new task which had  
been laid upon me1' writes ,froude in   
his biography of ,carlyle1 'complicated 
the problem of the ,letters and         
,memorials4 ,my first hope was1 that1 in
 the absence of further definite        
instructions from himself1 ,i might     
interweave parts of ,mrs ,carlyle's     
letters with his own correspondence in  
an ordinary narrative1 passing lightly  
over the rest1 and touching the         
dangerous places only so far as was     
unavoidable4 ,in this view ,i wrote at  
leisure the greatest part of the first  
forty years of his life4 ,the evasion of
 the difficulty was perhaps cowardly1   
but it was not unnatural4 ,i was forced 
back1 however1 into the straighter and  
better course4' ,the outcome of it all  
is too well-known to call for           
recapitulation here4  ,in ,february     
#ahgd1 the ,emperor of ,germany         
conferred upon ,carlyle the ,order of   
,merit which the great ,frederick had   

himself founded4 ,he could not refuse   
it1 but he remarked1 ',were it ever so  
well meant1 it can be of no value to me 
whatever4 ,do thee neither ill na gude4'
 ,ten months later1 ,mr ,disraeli1 then 
,premier1 offered him the ,grand ,cross 
of the ,bath along with a pension4      
,carlyle gracefully declined both4      
,upon his #hjth birthday1 ,carlyle was  
presented with a gold medal from        
,scottish friends and admirers1 and with
 a letter from ,prince ,bismarck1 both  
of which he valued highly4 ,his last    
public act was to write a letter of     
three or four lines to the ,times1 which
 he explains to his brother in this     
fashion3 ',after much urgency and with a
 dead-lift effort1 ,i have this day #eth
 ,may #ahgg got issued through the      
,times a small indispensable deliverance
 on the ,turk and ,dizzy question4      
,dizzy1 it appears1 to the horror of    
those who have any interest in him and  
his proceedings1 has decided to have a  
new war for the ,turk against all       

mankind2 and this letter hopes to drive 
a nail through his mad and maddest      
speculations on that side4'  ,froude    
tells us that ,carlyle continued to read
 the ,bible1 'the significance of which'
 he found 'deep and wonderful almost as 
much as it ever used to be4' ,the ,bible
 and ,shakespeare remained 'the best    
books' to him that were ever written4   
,the death of his brother ,john was a   
severe shock to ,carlyle1 for they were 
deeply attached to each other4 ,when he 
bequeathed ,craigenputtock to the       
,university of ,edinburgh1 ,john        
,carlyle settled a handsome sum for     
medical bursaries there1 to encourage   
poor students4 ',these two brothers1'   
,froude remarks1 'born in a peasant's   
home in ,annandale1 owing little        
themselves to an ,alma ,mater which had 
missed discovering their merits1 were   
doing for ,scotland's chief ,university 
what ,scotland's peers and merchants1   
with their palaces and deer forests and 
social splendour1 had1 for some cause1  

too imperfectly supplied4'  ,in the     
autumn of #ahhj1 ,carlyle became very   
infirm2 in ,january he was visibly      
sinking2 and on the #eth of ,february   
#ahha1 he passed away in his            
eighty-fifth year4 ,in accordance with  
his expressed wishes1 they buried him in
 the old kirkyard of ,ecclefechan with  
his own people4  ,at his death          
,carlyle's fame was at its zenith4 ,a   
revulsion of feeling was caused by the  
publication of ,froude's ,life of       
,carlyle and the ,reminiscences4 ,in    
regard to the former1 great             
dissatisfaction was created by the      
somewhat unflattering portrait painted  
by ,froude4 ,was ,froude justified in   
presenting to the public ,carlyle in all
 grim realism8 ,the answer to this      
depends upon one's notions of literary  
ethics4 ,the view of the average        
biographer is that he must suppress     
faults and give prominence to virtues4  
,the result is that the majority of     
biographies are simply expanded funeral 

sermons2 instead of a life-like portrait
 we have a glorified mummy4 ,boswell's  
,johnson stands at the head of          
biographies2 but1 if ,boswell had       
followed the conventional method1 his   
book would long since have passed into  
obscurity4 ,it is open to dispute       
whether ,froude has not overdone the    
sombre elements in ,carlyle's life4     
,readers of ,professor ,masson's little 
book1 which shows ,carlyle in a more    
genially human mood1 have good reason to
 suspect that ,froude has given too much
 emphasis to the ,rembrandtesque element
 in ,carlyle's life4 ,in the main1      
however1 ,froude's conception of        
biography was more correct than that of 
his critics4 ,in dealing with the       
reputation of a great man it is not     
enough to consider the feelings of      
contemporaries2 regard should be had to 
the rights of posterity4 ,in his usual  
forcible manner ,johnson goes to the    
heart of this question when he says in  
the ,rambler3--',if the biographer      

writes from personal knowledge1 and     
makes haste to gratify the public       
curiosity1 there is danger lest his     
interest1 his fear1 his gratitude1 or   
his tenderness overpower his fidelity1  
and tempt him to conceal1 if not to     
invent4 ,there are many who think it an 
act of piety to hide the faults or      
failings of their friends1 even when    
they can no longer suffer by their      
detection2 we therefore see whole ranks 
of characters adorned with uniform      
panegyric and not to be known from one  
another1 but by extrinsic and casual    
circumstances4 ,if we have regard to the
 memory of the dead1 there is yet more  
respect to be paid to knowledge1 to     
virtue1 and to truth4' ,when ,johnson's 
own biography came to be written1       
,boswell1 in spite of the expostulation 
of friends1 resolved to be guided       
closely by the literary ethics of his   
great hero4 ,in reply to ,hannah ,more  
who begged that he would mitigate some  
of the asperities of ,johnson1 ,boswell 

said1 'he would not cut off his claws1  
nor make a tiger a cat1 to please       
anybody4'  ,some critics have insinuated
 that ,froude took a curious kind of    
pleasure in smirching the idol4 ,the    
insinuation is as unworthy as it is     
false4 ,froude had resolved to paint    
,carlyle as he was1 warts and all1 and  
all that can be said is that in his     
anxiety to avoid the charge of idealism 
he has given the warts undue prominence4
  ,,footnotes3  #ci ,froude's ',life in 
,london1' vol4 ii4 p4 #cdf4  #dj        
,froude's ',life in ,london1' vol4 ii4  
pp4 #djh-i4     ,,chapter ,,viii        
,,carlyle ,,as ,a ,,social ,,and        
,,political ,,thinker   ,in his essay on
 ,carlyle1 ,mr ,john ,morley utters a   
protest against the habit of labelling  
great men with names4 ,after making     
every allowance for the waywardness of  
the men of intuitive and poetic insight1
 it remains true that between the       
speculative and the practical sides of a
 great thinker's mind there is a potent1

 though subtle1 connection4 ,for those  
who take the trouble of searching1 there
 is discoverable such a connection      
between the speculative ideas of        
,carlyle and his practical outlook upon 
civilisation4 ,given a thinker who lays 
stress upon the emotional side of       
progress1 and we have a thinker who will
 take for heroes men of mystical        
tendencies1 of strong dominating        
passions1 a thinker who will value      
progress not by the increase of worldly 
comfort1 but by the increase in the     
number of magnetic1 epoch-making        
personalities4 ,naturally1 we hear      
,carlyle remark that the history of the 
world is at bottom the history of its   
great men4  ,carlyle's fanatical        
adoption of intuitionalism has told     
banefully upon his work in sociology4   
,trusting to his inner light1 to what we
 might call ,mystical ,quakerism1       
,carlyle has dispensed with a rational  
theory of progress4 ,before a           
sociological problem1 his attitude is   

not that of the patient thinker1 but of 
the hysterical prophet1 whose emotions  
find outlet in declamatory denunciation4
 ,like the prophets of old1 ,carlyle    
tends towards ,pessimism4 ,his golden   
age is in the past4 ,when ,past and     
,present appeared1 many earnest-minded  
men1 captivated by the style and spirit 
of the book1 hailed ,carlyle as a social
 reformer4 ,as an attempt to solve the  
social problem1 ,past and ,present is   
not a success4 ,carlyle could do no more
 than tell the modern to return to the  
spirit of the feudal period1 when the   
people were led by the aristocracy4 ,it 
showed considerable audacity on         
,carlyle's part to come to the          
interpretation of history with no theory
 of progress1 no message to the world   
beyond the vaguely declamatory one that 
those nations will be turned into hell  
which forget ,god4 ,of what value is    
such writing as this1 taken from the    
introduction to his ,cromwell83--',here 
of our own land and lineage in ,english 

shape were heroes on the earth once     
more1 who knew in every fibre and with  
heroic daring laid to heart that an     
,almighty ,justice does verily rule this
 world1 that it is good to fight on     
,god's side1 and bad to fight on the    
,devil's side6 ,the essence of all      
heroism and veracities that have been or
 will be4' ,this is simply a            
reproduction of ,jewish theocratic      
ideas2 indeed1 except for the details1  
,carlyle might as readily have written a
 life of ,moses as of ,cromwell4 ,in the
 eyes of ,carlyle1 human life was what  
it was to ,bunyan1 a kind of pilgrim's  
progress2 only in the ,carlylean creed  
it is all battle and no victory1 all    
,valley of ,humiliation and no          
,delectable ,mountain4 ,naturally1 where
 no stress is laid upon collective      
action1 where individual reason is      
depreciated1 progress is associated with
 the rise of abnormal individualities1  
men of strong wills like ,cromwell and  
,frederick4 ,with ,rousseau1 ,carlyle   

appears to look upon civilisation as a  
disease4 ,in one of his essays1         
,characteristics1 he goes near the      
,roussean idea when he declaims against 
self-consciousness1 and deliberately    
gives a preference to instinct4 ,the    
uses of great men are to lead humanity  
away from introspection back to         
energetic1 rude1 instinctive action4    
,when humanity will not listen to the   
voice of the prophets1 it must be       
treated to whip and scorpion4 ,it never 
dawned upon ,carlyle that the highest   
life1 individual and collective1 has    
roots in physical laws1 that            
politico-economic forces must be        
reckoned with before social harmony can 
be reached4  ,just as ,carlyle's        
,idealism drove him into opposition to  
the utilitarian theory of morals1 so it 
drove him into opposition to the        
utilitarian theory of society4 ,out of  
his idealistic way of looking upon life 
there flowed a curious result4 ,as early
 as ,sartor ,resartus we find ,carlyle  

anticipating the evolutionary conception
 of society4 ,spencer has familiarised  
us with the idea that society is an     
organism4 ,the idea which he received   
from the ,germans that ,nature is not a 
mere mechanical collection of atoms1 but
 the materialised expression of a       
spiritual unity--that idea ,carlyle     
extended to society4 ,as he puts it in  
,sartor ,resartus3 ',yes1 truly1 if     
,nature is one1 and a living indivisible
 whole1 much more is ,mankind1 the      
,image that reflects and creates        
,nature1 without which ,nature were     
not4444 ,noteworthy also1 and           
serviceable for the progress of this    
same individual1 wilt thou find his     
subdivisions into ,generations4         
,generations are as the ,days of        
toilsome ,mankind2 ,death and ,birth are
 the vesper and the matin bells1 that   
summon ,mankind to sleep1 and to rise   
refreshed for new advancement4 ,what the
 ,father has made1 the ,son can make and
 enjoy2 but has also work of his own    

appointed him4 ,thus all things wax and 
roll onwards4444 ,find mankind where    
thou wilt1 thou findest it in living    
movement1 in progress faster or slower2 
the ,phoenix soars aloft1 hovers with   
outstretched wings1 filling ,earth with 
her music2 or as now1 she sinks1 and    
with spheral swan-song immolates herself
 in flame1 that she may soar the higher 
and sing the clearer4'  ,philosophies of
 civilisation have a tendency to beget  
,fatalism4 ,bent upon watching the      
resistless play of general laws1        
philosophers1 in their admiration of the
 products1 are apt to ignore the        
frightful suffering and waste involved  
in the process4 ,society being an       
organism1 a thing of development1 the   
duty of thinkers is to demonstrate the  
nature of sociological laws1 and allow  
them free scope for operation4 ,to this 
is due much of the apparent hardness of 
,eighteenth ,century political          
speculation1 which1 beginning with the  
,french ,physiocratic ,school1          

culminated in the works of ,adam ,smith1
 ,ricardo1 ,bentham1 and the two ,mills4
 ,with those thinkers1 the one palpable 
lesson of the past was the duty of      
abstaining from interference with the   
general process of social development4  
,give man liberty1 said the ,utilitarian
 ,radicals1 and he will work out his own
 salvation3 from the play of individual 
self-interest1 social harmony will      
result4  ,carlyle is frequently thought 
of as a ,conservative force in politics4
 ,in some respects he was more ,radical 
than the ,benthams and the ,mills4 ,his 
deeper ideal conception of society      
intensified his dissatisfaction with    
society as it existed4 ,in fact1 to     
,carlyle's attack upon those            
institutions1 beliefs and ceremonies    
which had no better basis than mere     
unreasoning authority1 most of the      
,radicalism of the early 'forties' was  
due4 ,conceive what effect language like
 this must have had upon thoughtful1    
high-souled young men3 ',call ye that a 

,society1 where there is no longer any  
,social ,idea extant2 not so much as the
 ,idea of a common ,home1 but only of a 
common overcrowded ,lodging-house8      
,where each1 isolated1 regardless of his
 neighbour1 turned against his          
neighbour1 clutches what he can get1 and
 cries ,mine6 and calls it ,peace       
because1 in the cut-purse and cut-throat
 ,scramble1 no steel knives1 but only a 
far cunninger sort1 can be employed8    
,where ,friendship1 ,communion1 has     
become an incredible tradition2 and your
 holiest ,sacramental ,supper is a      
smoking ,tavern ,dinner1 with ,cook for 
,evangelist8 ,where your ,priest has no 
tongue but for plate-licking2 and your  
high ,guides and ,governors cannot      
guide2 but on all hands hear it         
passionately proclaimed3 ,laissez faire2
 leave us alone of your guidance1 such  
light is darker than darkness2 eat your 
wages and sleep4 ,thus1 too1 must an    
observant eye discern everywhere that   
saddest spectacle3 the ,poor perishing1 

like neglected1 foundered               
,draught-,cattle1 of ,hunger and        
,overwork2 the ,rich1 still more        
wretchedly1 of ,idleness1 ,satiety1 and 
,overgrowth4 ,the ,highest in rank1 at  
length1 without honour from the ,lowest2
 scarcely1 with a little mouth-honour1  
as from tavern-waiters who expect to put
 it in the bill4 ,once sacred ,symbols  
fluttering as empty ,pageants1 whereof  
men grudge even the expense2 a ,world   
becoming dismantled3 in one word1 the   
,,church fallen speechless1 from obesity
 and apoplexy2 the ,,state shrunken into
 a ,police-,office1 straitened to get   
its pay6'  ,it was when suggesting a    
remedy that ,carlyle's ,idealistic      
,radicalism parted company with         
,utilitarian ,radicalism4 ,failing to   
see that society was in a transition    
period1 a period so well described by   
,herbert ,spencer as the movement from  
,militarism to ,industrialism1 in which 
there was a severe conflict of ideals1  
opinions1 and interests1 ,carlyle sought

 for the remedy in a return to a form of
 society which had been outgrown4 ,there
 was surely something pathetically      
absurd in the spectacle of a great      
teacher endeavouring to cure social and 
political diseases by preaching the     
resuscitation of ,puritanism at a time  
when the intellect of the day was       
parting company with theocratic         
conceptions4 ,equally absurd was it to  
offer as a remedy for social anarchy the
 despotism of ambitious rulers at a time
 when society was suffering from the    
effects of previous despotism4 ,equally 
irrelevant was the attempt in ,past and 
,present to get reformers to model      
modern institutions on those of the     
,middle ,ages4 ,carlyle's remedy for the
 evils of liberty was a return to the   
apron-strings of despotism4 ,carlyle1 in
 fact1 forgot his conception of society 
as a developing organism2 he endeavoured
 to arrest progress at the autocratic   
stage1 because of his ignorance of the  
laws of progress and his lack of        

sympathy with democratic ideas4 ,still1 
the value of ,carlyle's political       
writings should not be overlooked4 ,the 
,utilitarian ,radicals laid themselves  
open to the charge of intellectual      
superstition4 ,they worshipped human    
nature as a fetish4 ,lacking clear views
 of social evolution1 they overlooked   
the relativity of political terms4      
,ignorant of the conception of human    
nature to which ,spencer has accustomed 
us1 the old ,radicals treated it as a   
constant quantity which only needed     
liberty for its proper development4 ,in 
their eagerness to discard theology1    
they discarded the truth of man's       
depravity which finds expression in the 
creed of the ,churches4 ,we have changed
 all that4 ,we now realise the fact that
 political institutions are good or bad1
 not as they stand or fall when tested  
by the first principles of a            
rationalistic philosophy1 but as they   
harmonise or conflict with existing     
phases of human nature4  ,if in the     

sphere of industrialism ,carlyle as a   
guide is untrustworthy1 great is his    
merit as an inspirer4 ,his influence was
 needed to counteract the cold prosaic  
narrowness of the ,utilitarian teaching4
 ,he called attention to an aspect of   
the economic question which the         
,utilitarian ,radicals ignored1 namely1 
the inadequacy of self-interest as a    
social bond4 ,to ,carlyle is largely due
 the higher ethical conceptions and     
quickened sympathies which now exist in 
the spheres of social and industrial    
relationships4 ,unhappily his implicit  
faith in intuitionalism led him to      
deride political economy and everything 
pertaining to man's material life4 ,much
 there was in the writings of the       
economists to call for severe criticism1
 and if ,carlyle had treated the subject
 with discrimination he would have been 
a power for good2 but he chose to pour  
the vials of his contempt upon political
 economy as a science1 and upon modern  
industrial arrangements1 with the result

 that many of the most intelligent      
students of sociology have been repelled
 from his writings4 ,in this respect he 
contrasts very unfavourably with ,mill1 
who1 notwithstanding the temptations to 
intellectual arrogance from his         
one-sided training1 with quite a        
chivalrous regard for truth1 was ever   
ready to accept light and leading from  
thinkers who differed from him in       
temperament and methods4 ,there may be  
conflicting opinions as to which of the 
two men was intellectually the greater1 
but there can be no doubt that ,mill    
dwelt in an atmosphere of intellectual  
serenity and nobility far removed from  
the foggy turbulence in which ,carlyle  
lived1 moved1 and had his being4        
,between the saintly apostle of         
,progress and the barbaric              
representative of ,reaction there was a 
great gulf fixed4  ,as was natural1 the 
,latter-day ,pamphlets were treated as a
 series of political ravings4 ,for that 
estimate ,carlyle himself was largely   

responsible4 ,he deprived himself of the
 sympathy of intelligent readers by the 
violence of his invective and the lack  
of discrimination in his abuse4 ,much of
 what ,carlyle said is to be found in   
,mill's ,representative ,government1    
said1 too1 in a quiet1 rational style1  
which commands attention and respect4   
,mill1 no more than ,carlyle1 was a     
believer in mob rule4 ,he did not think 
that the highest wisdom was to be had by
 the counting of heads4 ,thinkers like  
,mill and ,spencer did not deem it      
necessary to pour contempt on modern    
tendencies4 ,they suggested remedies on 
the lines of these tendencies4 ,they did
 not try to put back the hands on the   
clock of time2 they sought to remove    
perturbing influences4 ,much of the evil
 has arisen from men trying to do by    
political methods what should not be    
done by these methods4 ,carlyle's idea  
that ,government should do this1 that1  
and the other thing has wrought         
mischief1 inasmuch as it has led to an  

undue belief in the virtues of          
,government interference4 ,his writings 
are largely responsible for the evils he
 predicted4  ,it is curious to notice   
how1 with all his belief in             
individualism1 ,carlyle1 in political   
matters1 was unconsciously driven in the
 direction of socialism4 ,get your great
 man1 worship him1 and render him       
obedience--such was the ,carlylean      
recipe for modern diseases4 ,suppose the
 great man found1 how is he to proceed8 
,in these democratic days1 he can only  
proceed by ruling despotically with the 
popular consent2 in other words1 there  
will follow a regime of paternalism and 
fraternalism1 the practical outcome of  
which would be ,socialism4 ,carlyle     
himself never suspected how childish was
 his conception of national life4 ,he   
wrote of his ,great ,man theory as if it
 was a discovery1 whereas the most      
advanced races had long since passed    
through it1 and those which were not    
advanced were precisely those which had 

not been able to shake themselves free  
of paternal despotism4 ,on this point   
the criticism of the late ,professor    
,minto goes to the heart of the matter3 
',carlyle's doctrines are the first     
suggestions of an earnest man1 adhered  
to with unreasoning tenacity4 ,as a     
rule1 with no exception1 that is worth  
naming1 they take account mainly of one 
side of a case4 ,he was too impatient of
 difficulties1 and had too little       
respect for the wisdom and experience of
 others to submit to be corrected3      
opposition rather confirmed him in his  
own opinion4 ,most of his practical     
suggestions had already been made       
before1 and judged impracticable upon   
grounds which he could not1 or would    
not1 understand4 ,his modes of dealing  
with pauperism and crime were in full   
operation under the despotism of ,henry 
,,vii4 and ,henry ,,viii4 ,his theory of
 a hero-king1 which means in practice an
 accidentally good and able man in a    
series of indifferent or bad despots1   

had been more frequently tried than any 
other political system2 ,asia at this   
moment contains no government that is   
not despotic4 ,his views in other       
departments of knowledge are also       
chiefly determined by the strength of   
his unreasoning impulses4'  ,in his     
interesting ,recollections ,mr          
,espinasse states that during the time  
that ,carlyle was writing on the labour 
question1 not a single blue-book was    
visible on his table6 ,to ,carlyle's    
influence must be traced much of the    
sentimental treatment of social and     
industrial questions which has followed 
the unpopularity of political economy4  
,it is only fair to ,carlyle to note1   
that at times he had qualms as to the   
superiority of his paternal theory of   
government over ,laissez ,faire4 ,in one
 place he admits that even ,frederick   
could not have superintended the great  
emigration movement to such good effect 
as was done by the spontaneous efforts  
of nature4 ,in the social sphere        

,carlyle was false to his doctrine of   
spontaneity4 ,in his early essays he was
 perpetually condemning mechanical      
interference with society1 and          
contending that free play should be     
given to the dynamic agencies4 ,untrue  
to himself and his creed1 ,carlyle in   
his later books was constantly          
denouncing ,government for neglecting to
 apply mechanical remedies for social   
diseases4 ,in his view1 the duty of a   
ruler was not to work in harmony with   
social impulses1 but to cut and carve   
institutions in harmony with the ideas  
of great men4 ,puritanism under         
,cromwell failed because it was         
forgotten that society is an organism1  
not a piece of clay1 to be moulded      
according to the notions of heroic      
potters4 ,strictly speaking1 ,frederick 
and ,cromwell should be classed with the
 ,latter ,day ,pamphlets4 ,in the       
,pamphlets ,carlyle declaims against    
democratic methods1 and in ,frederick   
and ,cromwell we are presented with     

incarnations of autocratic methods4  ,of
 all the critics of ,carlyle1 no one has
 surpassed ,mr ,morley in indicating the
 mischievous effects which flow from the
 elevation of mere will power and       
emotional force into guides in social   
and political questions4 ,as ,mr ,morley
 says3 ',the dictates of a kind heart   
are of superior force to the maxims of  
political economy2 swift and peremptory 
resolution is a safer guide than a      
balancing judgment4 ,if the will works  
easily and surely1 we may assume the    
rectitude of the moving impulse4 ,all   
this is no caricature of a system which 
sets sentiment1 sometimes hard          
sentiment1 above reason and method4 ,in 
other words1 the writer who in these    
days has done more than anybody else to 
fire men's hearts with a feeling for    
right1 and an eager desire for social   
activity1 has1 with deliberate contempt1
 thrust away from him the only          
instruments by which we can make sure   
what right is1 and that our social      

action is effective4 ,a born poet1 only 
wanting perhaps a clearer feeling for   
form and a more delicate spiritual      
self-possession to have added another   
name to the illustrious band of ,english
 singers1 he has been driven by the     
impetuosity of his sympathies to attack 
the scientific side of social questions 
in an imaginative and highly emotional  
manner4'  ,had ,carlyle confined himself
 to description of social1 industrial1  
and political diseases1 he would have   
had an unsullied reputation in the      
sphere of spiritual dynamics1 but flaws 
immediately appeared when he endeavoured
 to prescribe remedies4 ,many of his    
remedies were too vague to be of use2   
where they were specific1 they were so  
,quixotic as to be useless4 ,his        
proposals for dealing with labour and   
pauperism never imposed on any sensible 
man on this side of cloud-land4         
,,chapter ,,ix  ,,carlyle ,,as ,,an     
,,inspirational ,,force   ,it is the    
misfortune of the critic1 the historian1

 and the sociologist to be superseded4  
,in the march of events the specialist  
is fated to be left behind4 ,the        
influence of the inspirationalist is    
ever-enduring4 ,as the present writer   
has elsewhere said3--,carlyle has been  
called a prophet4 ,the word in these    
days has only a vague meaning4 ,probably
 ,carlyle earned the name in consequence
 of the oracular and denunciatory       
elements in his later writings4 ,then1  
again1 the word prophet has come to be  
associated with the thought of a        
foreteller of future events4 ,a prophet 
in the true sense of the word is not one
 who foretells the future1 but one who  
revives and keeps alive in the minds of 
his contemporaries a vivid sense of the 
great elemental facts of life4 ,why is  
it that the ,bible attracts to its pages
 men of all kinds of temperament and all
 degrees of culture8 ,because in it1    
especially in the ,psalms1 ,job1 and the
 writings of ,isaiah and his brother    
prophets1 serious people are brought    

face to face with the great mysteries1  
,god1 ,nature1 ,man1 ,death1            
etc4--mysteries1 however1 which only    
rush in upon the soul of man in full    
force on special occasions1 in hours of 
lonely meditation1 or by the side of an 
open grave4 ,in the hurly-burly of life 
the sense of what ,carlyle calls the    
,immensities1 ,eternities1 and          
,silences1 become so weak that even good
 men have sorrowfully to admit that they
 live lives of practical materialism4   
,as ,arnold puts it3      ,each day     
brings its petty dust       ,our        
soon-choked souls to fill1     ,and we  
forget because we must1       ,and not  
because we will4  ,the mission of the   
,hebrew prophet was by passionate       
utterance to keep alive in the minds of 
his countrymen a deep1 abiding sense of 
life's mystery1 sacredness1 and         
solemnity4 ,what ,isaiah did for his    
day1 ,carlyle did for the moderns4 ,in  
the whole range of modern literature1 it
 is impossible to match ,carlyle's      

magnificent passages in ,sartor         
,resartus1 in which1 under a            
biographical guise1 he deals with the   
great primal emotions1 wonder1 awe1     
admiration1 love1 which form the warp   
and woof of human life4  ,nothing can be
 finer than the following rebuke to     
those mechanical scientists who imagine 
that ,nature can be measured by         
tape-lines1 and duly labelled in        
museums3--  ',system of ,nature6 ,to the
 wisest man1 wide as is his vision1     
,nature remains of quite infinite depth1
 of quite infinite expansion2 and all   
,experience thereof limits itself to    
some few computed centuries and measured
 square-miles4 ,the course of ,nature's 
phases1 on this our little fraction of a
 ,planet1 is partially known to us2 but 
who knows what deeper courses these     
depend on2 what infinitely larger ,cycle
 7of causes7 our little ,epicycle       
revolves on8 ,to the ,minnow every      
cranny and pebble1 and quality and      
accident1 of its little native ,creek   

may have become familiar3 but does the  
,minnow understand the ,ocean ,tides and
 periodic ,currents1 the ,trade-winds1  
and ,monsoons1 and ,moon's eclipses2 by 
all which the condition of its little   
,creek is regulated1 and may1 from time 
7unmiraculously enough71 be quite       
overset and reversed8 ,such a minnow is 
,man2 his ,creek this ,planet ,earth2   
his ,ocean the immeasurable ,all2 his   
,monsoons and periodic ,currents the    
mysterious ,course of ,providence       
through ons of ons4 ,we speak of the    
,volume of ,nature3 and truly a ,volume 
it is1--whose ,author and ,writer is    
,god4'  ,agree or disagree with         
,carlyle's views of the ,ultimate       
,reality as we may1 there can be nothing
 but harmony with the spirit which      
breathes in the following3--  ',nature8 
,ha6 ,why do ,i not name thee ,god8 ,art
 not thou the ,living ,garment of ,god8 
,o ,heavens1 is it in very deed1 ,he1   
then1 that ever speaks through thee2    
that lives and loves in thee1 that lives

 and loves in me8  ',fore-shadows1 call 
them rather fore-splendours1 of that    
,truth1 and ,beginning of ,truths1 fell 
mysteriously over my soul4 ,sweeter than
 ,dayspring to the ,shipwrecked in ,nova
 ,zembla2 ah6 like the mother's voice to
 her little child that strays           
bewildered1 weeping in unknown tumults2 
like soft streamings of celestial music 
to my too-exasperated heart1 came that  
,evangel4 ,the ,universe is not dead and
 demoniacal1 a charnel-house with       
spectres2 but godlike1 and my           
,father's6'  ,the mystery and           
fleetingness of life with its awful     
counterpart death1 are the commonplaces 
of every hour1 but who but ,carlyle has 
rendered them with such inspirational   
power8  ',generation after generation   
takes to itself the form of a ,body2 and
 forth-issuing from ,cimmerian ,night1  
on ,heaven's mission ,,appears4 ,what   
,force and ,fire is in each he expends3 
one grinding in the mill of ,industry2  
one hunter-like climbing the giddy      

,alpine heights of ,science2 one madly  
dashed to pieces on the rocks of        
,strife1 in war with his fellow3--and   
then the ,heaven-sent is recalled2 his  
earthly ,vesture falls away1 and soon   
even to sense becomes a vanished        
,shadow4 ,thus1 like some wild-flaming1 
wild-thundering train of ,heaven's      
,artillery1 does this mysterious        
,,mankind thunder and flame1 in         
long-drawn1 quick-succeeding grandeur1  
through the unknown ,deep4 ,thus1 like a
 ,god-created1 fire-breathing           
,spirit-host1 we emerge from the ,inane2
 haste stormfully across the astonished 
,earth2 then plunge again into the      
,inane4 ,earth's mountains are levelled1
 and her seas filled up1 in our passage2
 can the ,earth1 which is but dead and a
 vision1 resist ,spirits which have     
reality and are alive8 ,on the hardest  
adamant some footprint of us is stamped 
in2 the last ,rear of the host will read
 traces of the earliest ,van4 ,but      
whence8--,o ,heaven1 whither8 ,sense    

knows not2 ,faith knows not2 only that  
it is through ,mystery to ,mystery1 from
 ,god and to ,god4                      
',we are such stuff     ,as ,dreams are 
made of1 and our little ,life     ,is   
rounded with a sleep8'  ,a fervid       
perception of the evanescence and       
sorrows of life is the root of          
,carlyle's pathos1 which is unsurpassed 
in literature4 ,it leads him to some    
beautiful contrasts between childhood   
and manhood1 positively idyllic in their
 charm4  ',happy season of ,childhood6' 
exclaims ,teufelsdrckh3 ',kind ,nature1 
that art to all a bountiful mother2 that
 visitest the poor man's hut with       
auroral radiance2 and for thy ,nurseling
 hast provided a soft swathing of ,love 
and infinite ,hope1 wherein he waxes and
 slumbers1 danced-round 7umgukelt7 by   
sweetest ,dreams6 ,if the paternal      
,cottage still shuts us in1 its roof    
still screens us2 with a ,father we have
 as yet a prophet1 priest and king1 and 
an ,obedience that makes us ,free4 ,the 

young spirit has awakened out of        
,eternity1 and knows not what we mean by
 ,time2 as yet ,time is no fast-hurrying
 stream1 but a sportful sunlit ocean2   
years to the child are as ages2 ah6 the 
secret of ,vicissitude1 of that slower  
or quicker decay and ceaseless          
down-rushing of the universal           
,world-fabric1 from the granite mountain
 to the man or day-moth1 is yet unknown2
 and in a motionless ,universe1 we      
taste1 what afterwards in this          
quick-whirling ,universe is forever     
denied us1 the balm of ,rest4 ,sleep on1
 thou fair ,child1 for thy long rough   
journey is at hand6 ,a little while1 and
 thou too shalt sleep no more1 but thy  
very dreams shall be mimic battles2 thou
 too1 with old ,arnauld1 must say in    
stern patience3 ,rest8 ,rest8 ,shall ,i 
not have all ,eternity to rest in8      
,celestial ,nepenthe6 though a ,pyrrhus 
conquer empires1 and an ,alexander sack 
the world1 he finds thee not2 and thou  
hast once fallen gently1 of thy own     

accord1 on the eyelids1 on the heart of 
every mother's child4 ,for1 as yet1     
sleep and waking are one3 the fair      
,life-garden rustles infinite around1   
and everywhere is dewy fragrance1 and   
the budding of ,hope2 which budding1 if 
in youth1 too frostnipt1 it grow to     
flowers1 will in manhood yield no fruit1
 but a prickly1 bitter-rinded stone     
fruit1 of which the fewest can find the 
kernel4'  ,carlyle's pathos touches its 
most sombre mood when he is dwelling    
upon the common incidents of daily life 
as painted on the background of         
,eternity4 ,in his ',cromwell1' he      
breaks forth in a beautiful meditation  
while dealing with a commonplace        
reference in one of the letters of      
,cromwell3--',mrs ,st ,john came down to
 breakfast every morning in that summer 
visit of the year #afch1 and ,sir       
,william said grave grace1 and they     
spake polite devout things to one       
another1 and they are vanished1 they and
 their things and speeches1--all silent 

like the echoes of the old nightingales 
that sang that season1 like the blossoms
 of the old roses4 ,o ,death6 ,o ,time6'
  ,severe comment has been made upon    
,carlyle's attitude towards science4    
,there was this excuse for his          
contemptuous attitude--science in its   
early days fell into the hands of       
,dryasdusts4 ,so absorbed were these men
 in analysing ,nature1 that they missed 
the sense of mystery and beauty which is
 the essence of all poetry and all      
religion4 ,in the hands of the          
,dryasdusts1 ,nature was converted into 
a museum in which everything was duly   
labelled4 ,during the mania for         
analysis1 it was forgotten that there is
 a great difference between the         
description and the explanation of      
phenomena4 ,in ,sartor ,resartus        
,carlyle rescues science from the grip  
of the pedant and restores it to the    
poet4 ',wonder1 is the basis of         
,worship2 the reign of wonder is        
perennial1 indestructible in ,man2 only 

at certain stages 7as the present71 it  
is1 for some short season1 a reign in   
partibus infidelium4' ,that progress of 
,science1 which is to destroy ,wonder1  
and in its stead substitute ,mensuration
 and ,numeration1 finds small favour    
with ,teufelsdrckh1 much as he otherwise
 venerates these two latter processes4  
',shall your ,science1' exclaims he1    
'proceed in the small chink-lighted1 or 
even oil-lighted1 underground workshop  
of ,logic alone2 and man's mind become  
an ,arithmetical ,mill1 whereof ,memory 
is the ,hopper1 and mere ,tables of     
,sines and ,tangents1 ,codification1 and
 ,treatises of what you call ,political 
,economy1 are the ,meal8 ,and what is   
that ,science1 which the scientific head
 alone1 were it screwed off1 and 7like  
the ,doctor's in the ,arabian ,tale7 set
 in a basin to keep it alive1 could     
prosecute without shadow of a           
heart1--but one other of the mechanical 
and menial handicrafts1 for which the   
,scientific ,head 7having a ,soul in it7

 is too noble an organ8 ,i mean that    
,thought without ,reverence is barren1  
perhaps poisonous2 at best1 dies like   
,cookery with the day that called it    
forth2 does not live1 like sowing1 in   
successive tilths and wider-spreading   
harvests1 bringing food and plenteous   
increase to all ,time4'         99      
99       99       99       99  ',the man
 who cannot wonder1 who does not        
habitually wonder 7and worship71 were he
 ,president of innumerable ,royal       
,societies1 and carried the whole       
,mcanique ,cleste and ,hegel's          
,philosophy1 and the epitome of all     
,laboratories and ,observatories with   
their results1 in his single head1--is  
but a pair of ,spectacles behind which  
there is no ,eye4 ,let those who have   
,eyes look through him1 then he may be  
useful4'  ,in the sphere of ethics1     
,carlyle's influence has been           
inspirational in the highest sense4 ,to 
a generation which had to choose between
 the ethics of a conventional theology  

and the ethics of a cold1 prosaic       
utilitarianism1 ,carlyle's treatment of 
the whole subject of duty came as a     
revelation4 ,if in the sphere of social 
relationships he did not contribute to  
the settlement of the theoretic side of 
complex problems1 he did what was       
equally important--he roused earnest    
minds to a sense of the urgency and     
magnitude of the problem1 awakened the  
feeling of individual responsibility1   
and quickened the sense of social duty  
which had grown weak during the reign of
 laissez faire4 ,if ,carlyle had no     
final message for mankind1 if he brought
 no gospel of glad tidings1 he          
nevertheless did a work which was as    
important as it was pressing4 ,in the   
form of a modern ,john the ,baptist1 the
 ,chelsea ,prophet with not a little of 
the wilderness atmosphere about him1    
preached in grimly defiant mood to a    
pleasure-loving generation the great    
doctrines which lie at the root of all  
religions--the doctrines of ,repentance1

 ,righteousness1 and ,retribution4