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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32626-8.txt b/32626-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..288b801 --- /dev/null +++ b/32626-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3938 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Thomas Carlyle, by Hector Carsewell Macpherson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Thomas Carlyle + Famous Scots Series + + +Author: Hector Carsewell Macpherson + + + +Release Date: May 31, 2010 [eBook #32626] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS CARLYLE*** + + +E-text prepared by Susan Skinner and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THOMAS CARLYLE + + * * * * * + +FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES + + +_The following Volumes are now ready_:-- + +THOMAS CARLYLE. By Hector C. Macpherson. +ALLAN RAMSAY. By Oliphant Smeaton. +HUGH MILLER. By W. Keith Leask. +JOHN KNOX. By A. Taylor Innes. +ROBERT BURNS. By Gabriel Setoun. +THE BALLADISTS. By John Geddie. +RICHARD CAMERON. By Professor Herkless. +SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. By Eve Blantyre Simpson. +THOMAS CHALMERS. By Professor W. Garden Blaikie. +JAMES BOSWELL. By W. Keith Leask. +TOBIAS SMOLLETT. By Oliphant Smeaton. +FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. By G. W. T. Omond. +THE BLACKWOOD GROUP. By Sir George Douglas. +NORMAN MACLEOD. By John Wellwood. +SIR WALTER SCOTT. By Professor Saintsbury. +KIRKCALDY OF GRANGE. By Louis A. Barbé. +ROBERT FERGUSSON. By A. B. Grosart. +JAMES THOMSON. By William Bayne. +MUNGO PARK. By T. Banks Maclachlan. +DAVID HUME. By Professor Calderwood. + + * * * * * + + +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 Brown, and the +printing from the press of Messrs Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh. + +Second Edition completing Seventh Thousand. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION + + +Of the writing of books on Carlyle there is no end. Why, then, it may +pertinently be asked, add another stone to the Carlylean cairn? The +reply is obvious. In a series dealing with famous Scotsmen, Carlyle has +a rightful claim to a niche in the temple of Fame. While prominence has +been given in the book to the Scottish side of Carlyle's life, the fact +has not been lost sight of that Carlyle owed much to Germany; indeed, if +we could imagine the spirit of a German philosopher inhabiting the body +of a Covenanter of dyspeptic and sceptical tendencies, a good idea would +be had of Thomas Carlyle. Needless to say, I have been largely indebted +to the biography by Mr Froude, and to Carlyle's _Reminiscences_. After +all has been said, the fact remains that Froude's portrait, though +truthful in the main, is somewhat deficient in light and +shade--qualities which the student will find admirably supplied in +Professor Masson's charming little book, "Carlyle Personally, and in his +Writings." To the Professor I am under deep obligation for the interest +he has shown in the book. In the course of his perusal of the proofs, +Professor Masson made valuable corrections and suggestions, which +deserve more than a formal acknowledgment. To Mr Haldane, M.P., my +thanks are also due for his suggestive criticism of the chapter on +German thought, upon which he is an acknowledged authority. + +I have also to express my deep obligations to Mr John Morley, who, in +the midst of pressing engagements, kindly found time to read the proof +sheets. In a private note Mr Morley has been good enough to express his +general sympathy and concurrence with my estimate of Carlyle. + +_EDINBURGH, October 1897._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE +CHAPTER I + +EARLY LIFE 9 + + +CHAPTER II + +CRAIGENPUTTOCK--LITERARY EFFORTS 29 + + +CHAPTER III + +CARLYLE'S MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 42 + + +CHAPTER IV + +LIFE IN LONDON 65 + + +CHAPTER V + +HOLIDAY JOURNEYINGS--LITERARY WORK 79 + + +CHAPTER VI + +RECTORIAL ADDRESS--DEATH OF MRS CARLYLE 112 + + +CHAPTER VII + +LAST YEARS AND DEATH OF CARLYLE 129 + + +CHAPTER VIII + +CARLYLE AS A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THINKER 138 + + +CHAPTER IX + +CARLYLE AS AN INSPIRATIONAL FORCE 152 + + + + + +THOMAS CARLYLE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +EARLY LIFE + + +'A great man,' says Hegel, 'condemns the world to the task of explaining +him.' Emphatically does the remark apply to Thomas Carlyle. When he +began to leave his impress in literature, he was treated as a confusing +and inexplicable element. Opinion oscillated between the view of James +Mill, that Carlyle was an insane rhapsodist, and that of Jeffrey, that +he was afflicted with a chronic craze for singularity. Jeffrey's verdict +sums up pretty effectively the attitude of the critics of the time to +the new writer:--'I suppose that you will treat me as something worse +than an ass, when I say that I am firmly persuaded the great source of +your extravagance, and all that makes your writings intolerable to many +and ridiculous to not a few, is not so much any real peculiarity of +opinion, as an unlucky ambition to appear more original than you are.' +The blunder made by Jeffrey in regard both to Carlyle and Wordsworth +emphasises the truth which critics seem reluctant to bear in mind, that, +before the great man can be explained, he must be appreciated. +Emphatically true of Carlyle it is that he creates the standard by which +he is judged. Carlyle resembles those products of the natural world +which biologists call 'sports'--products which, springing up in a +spontaneous and apparently erratic way, for a time defy classification. +The time is appropriate for an attempt to classify the great thinker, +whose birth took place one hundred years ago. + +Towards the close of the last century a stone-mason, named James +Carlyle, started business on his own account in the village of +Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire. He was an excellent tradesman, and frugal +withal; and in the year 1791 he married a distant kinswoman of his own, +Janet Carlyle, who died after giving birth to a son. In the beginning of +1795 he married one Margaret Aitken, a worthy, intelligent woman; and on +the 4th of December following a son was born, whom they called Thomas, +after his paternal grandfather. This child was destined to be the most +original writer of his time. + +Little Thomas was early taught to read by his mother, and at the age of +five he learnt to 'count' from his father. He was then sent to the +village school; and in his seventh year he was reported to be 'complete' +in English. As the schoolmaster was weak in the classics, Tom was +taught the rudiments of Latin by the burgher minister, of which strict +sect James Carlyle was a zealous member. One summer morning, in 1806, +his father took him to Annan Academy. 'It was a bright morning,' he +wrote long years thereafter, 'and to me full of moment, of fluttering +boundless Hopes, saddened by parting with Mother, with Home, and which +afterwards were cruelly disappointed.' At that 'doleful and hateful +Academy,' to use his own words, Thomas Carlyle spent three years, +learning to read French and Latin, and the Greek alphabet, as well as +acquiring a smattering of geometry and algebra. + +It was in the Academy that he got his first glimpse of Edward +Irving--probably in April or May 1808--who had called to pay his +respects to his old teacher, Mr Hope. Thomas's impression of him was +that of a 'flourishing slip of a youth, with coal-black hair, swarthy +clear complexion, very straight on his feet, and except for the glaring +squint alone, decidedly handsome.' Years passed before young Carlyle saw +Irving's face again. + +James Carlyle, although an austere man, and the reverse of +demonstrative, was bound up in his son, sparing no expense upon the +youth's education. On one occasion he exclaimed, with an unwonted +outburst of glee, 'Tom, I do not grudge thy schooling, now when thy +Uncle Frank owns thee to be a better Arithmetician than himself.' Early +recognising the natural talent and aptitude of his son, he determined +to send him to the nearest university, with a view to Thomas studying +for the ministry. One crisp winter's morning, in 1809, found Thomas +Carlyle on his way to Edinburgh, trudging the entire distance--one +hundred miles or so. + +He went through the usual university course, attended the divinity +classes, and delivered the customary discourses in English and Latin. +But Tom was not destined to 'wag his head in a pulpit,' for he had +conscientious objections which parental control in no way interfered +with. Referring to this vital period of his life, Carlyle wrote: 'His +[father's] tolerance for me, his trust in me, was great. When I declined +going forward into the Church (though his heart was set upon it), he +respected my scruples, my volition, and patiently let me have my way.' +Carlyle never looked back to his university life with satisfaction. In +his interesting recollections Mr Moncure Conway represents Carlyle, +describing his experiences as follows:--'Very little help did I get from +anybody in those years, and, as I may say, no sympathy at all in all +this old town. And if there was any difference, it was found least where +I might most have hoped for it. There was Professor ----. For years I +attended his lectures, in all weathers and all hours. Many and many a +time, when the class was called together, it was found to consist of one +individual--to wit, of him now speaking; and still oftener, when others +were present, the only person who had at all looked into the lesson +assigned was the same humble individual. I remember no instance in which +these facts elicited any note or comment from that instructor. He once +requested me to translate a mathematical paper, and I worked through it +the whole of one Sunday, and it was laid before him, and it was received +without remark or thanks. After such long years, I came to part with +him, and to get my certificate. Without a word, he wrote on a bit of +paper: "I certify that Mr Thomas Carlyle has been in my class during his +college course, and has made good progress in his studies." Then he rang +a bell, and ordered a servant to open the front door for me. Not the +slightest sign that I was a person whom he could have distinguished in +any crowd. And so I parted from old ----.' + +Professor Masson, who in loving, painstaking style has ferreted all the +facts about Carlyle's university life, sums up in these words: 'Without +assuming that he meant the university described in _Sartor Resartus_ to +stand literally for Edinburgh University, of his own experience, 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 University, was the culture of his mathematical faculty under +Leslie, 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 atmosphere, and where he learned to take advantage +of books.' As Carlyle put it in his Rectorial Address of 1866, 'What I +have found the university did for me is that it taught me to read in +various languages, in various sciences, so that I go into the books +which treated of these things, and gradually penetrate into any +department I wanted to make myself master of, as I found it suit me.' + +In 1814, Carlyle obtained the mathematical tutorship at Annan. Out of +his slender salary of £60 or £70 he was able to save something, so that +he was practically independent. By and by James Carlyle gave up his +trade, and settled on a small farm at Mainhill, about two miles from +Ecclefechan. Thither Thomas hied with unfeigned delight at holiday time, +for he led the life of a recluse at Annan, his books being his sole +companions. + +Edward Irving, to whom Carlyle was introduced in college days, was now +settled as a dominie in Kirkcaldy. His teaching was not favourably +viewed by some of the parents, who started a rival school, and resolved +to import a second master, with the result that Carlyle was selected. +Irving, with great magnanimity, gave him a cordial welcome to the 'Lang +Toon,' and the two Annandale natives became fast friends. The elder +placed his well-selected library at the disposal of the younger, and +together they explored the whole countryside. Short visits to Edinburgh +had a special attraction for both, where they met with a few kindred +spirits. On one of those visits, Carlyle, who had not cut off his +connection with the university, called at the Divinity Hall to put down +his name formally on the annual register. In his own words: 'Old Dr +Ritchie "not at home" when I called to enter myself. "Good!" answered I; +"_let the omen be fulfilled_."' Carlyle's studies in Kirkcaldy made him +eager to contribute to the fulfilment of the omen. Among the authors +which he read out of the Edinburgh University library was Gibbon, who +pushed Carlyle's sceptical questionings to a definite point. In a +conversation with Professor Masson, 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 miracles. + +In the space of two years, Carlyle and Irving 'got tired of +schoolmastering and its mean contradictions and poor results.' They bade +Kirkcaldy farewell and made for Edinburgh,--Irving to lodge in Bristo +Street, 'more expensive rooms than mine,' naively remarks Carlyle, where +he gave breakfasts to 'Intellectualities he fell in with, I often a +guest with them. They were but stupid Intellectualities, etc.' As for +their prospects, this is what Carlyle says: 'Irving's outlooks in +Edinburgh were not of the best, considerably checkered with dubiety, +opposition, or even flat disfavour in some quarters; but at least they +were far superior to mine, and indeed, I was beginning my four or five +most miserable, dark, sick, and heavy-laden years; Irving, after some +staggerings aback, his seven or eight healthiest and brightest. He had, +I should guess, as one item several good hundreds of money to wait upon. +My _peculium_ I don't recollect, but it could not have exceeded £100. I +was without friends, experience, or connection in the sphere of human +business, was of shy humour, proud enough and to spare, and had begun my +long curriculum of _dyspepsia_ which has never ended since!'[1] +Carlyle's intention was to study for the Bar, if perchance he could eke +out a livelihood by private teaching. He obtained one or two pupils, +wrote a stray article or so for the 'Encyclopædias'; but as he barely +managed to pay his way, he speedily gave up his law studies. He was at +this time--the winter of 1819--'advancing,' as he phrases it, 'towards +huge instalments of bodily and spiritual wretchedness in this my +Edinburgh purgatory.' It was about a couple of years thereafter ere +Carlyle went through what he has described as his 'spiritual new birth.' + +When Carlyle was in diligent search for congenial employment, a certain +Captain Basil Hall crossed his path, to whom Edward Irving had given +lessons in mathematics. The 'small lion,' as he calls the captain, came +to Carlyle, and wished the latter to go out with him 'to Dunglas,' and +there do 'lunars' in his name, he looking on and learning of Carlyle +'what would come of its own will.' The said 'lunars' meanwhile were to +go to the Admiralty, 'testifying there what a careful studious Captain +he was, and help to get him promotion, so the little wretch smilingly +told me.' Carlyle adds: 'I remember the figure of him in my dim lodging +as a gay, crackling, sniggering spectre, one dusk, endeavouring to +seduce me by affability in lieu of liberal wages into this adventure. +Wages, I think, were to be smallish ("so poor are we"), but then the +great Playfair is coming on visit. "You will see Professor Playfair." I +had not the least notion of such an enterprise on these shining terms, +and Captain Basil with his great Playfair _in posse_ vanished for me +into the shades of dusk for good.'[2] When private teaching would not +come Carlyle's way, he timorously aimed towards 'literature.' He had +taken to the study of German, and conscious of his own powers in that +direction, he applied in vain to more than one London bookseller, +proposing a complete translation of Schiller. Irving not only did his +utmost to comfort Carlyle in his spiritual wrestlings, but he tried to +find him employment. The two friends continued to make pleasant +excursions, and in June 1821 Irving brought Carlyle to Haddington, an +event which was destined to colour all his subsequent life; for it was +then and there he first saw Jane Welsh, a sight, he acknowledged, for +ever memorable to him. + +'In the ancient County Town of Haddington, July 14, 1801, there was +born,' wrote Thomas Carlyle in 1869, 'to a lately wedded pair, not +natives of the place but already reckoned among the best class of people +there, a little Daughter whom they named _Jane Baillie Welsh_, and whose +subsequent and final name (her own common signature for many years) was +_Jane Welsh Carlyle_, and now so stands, now that she is mine in death +only, on her and her Father's Tombstone in the Abbey Kirk of that Town. +July 14th, 1801; I was then in my sixth year, far away in every sense, +now near and infinitely concerned, trying doubtfully after some three +years' sad cunctation, if there is anything that I can profitably put on +record of her altogether bright, beneficent and modest little Life, and +Her, as my final task in this world.'[3] The picture was never completed +by the master-hand; the 'effort was too distressing'; so all his notes +and letters were handed over to a literary executor. + +At the time of Carlyle's introduction to Miss Welsh, she was living with +her widowed mother. Her father, Dr John Welsh, came of a good family, +and was a popular country physician. Her mother was Grace Welsh of +Capelgill, and was reckoned a beautiful, but haughty woman. Their +marriage took place in 1800, and their only child, Jane, was born, as we +have seen, the year following. Her most intimate friend, Miss Geraldine +Jewsbury, tells us that Miss Welsh had 'a graceful and beautifully-formed +figure, upright and supple, a delicate complexion of creamy white, with +a pale rose tint in the cheeks, lovely eyes full of fire and softness, +and with great depths of meaning.' She had a musical voice, was a good +talker, extremely witty, 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 marriage. Be that as it +may, it _is_ certain that Miss Jane Welsh had troops of suitors in and +around the quiet country town. She always spoke of her mother with deep +affection and great admiration. Her father she reverenced, and he was +the only person during her girlhood who had any real influence over her. +This, then, was the young lady of whom Thomas Carlyle carried back to +Edinburgh a sweet and lasting impression. They corresponded at +intervals, and Thomas was permitted to send her books occasionally. + +Edward Irving used to live in Dr Welsh's house when he taught in the +local school, and he led Jeannie--a winsome, wilful lass--to take an +interest in the classics. She entertained a girlish passion for the +handsome youth, and there can be little doubt that they would have +ultimately been married, were it not that the eldest daughter of a +Kirkcaldy parson, Miss Martin, had 'managed to charm Irving for the time +being,' and an engagement followed. + +Before Carlyle had drifted into Edinburgh he had, of course, heard of +the fame of Francis Jeffrey. He heard him once speaking in the General +Assembly 'on some poor cause.' Jeffrey's pleading seemed to Carlyle +'abundantly clear, full of liveliness, free flowing ingenuity.' 'My +admiration,' he adds, 'went frankly with that of others, but I think it +was hardly of very deep character.' When Carlyle was in the 'slough of +despond,' he bethought him of Jeffrey, this time as editor of the +_Edinburgh Review_. He resolved to try the 'great man' with an actual +contribution. The subject was a condemnation of a new French book, in +which a mechanical theory of gravitation was elaborately worked out by +the author. He got 'a certain feeble but enquiring quasi-disciple' of +his own to act as amanuensis, from whom he kept his ulterior purpose +quite secret. Looking back through the dim vista of seven-and-forty +years, this is what Carlyle says of that anxious time: 'Well do I +remember those dreary evenings in Bristo Street; oh, what ghastly +passages and dismal successive spasms of attempt at "literary +enterprise"!... My "Review of Pictet" all fairly written out in George +Dalgliesh's good clerk hand, I penned some brief polite Note to the +great Editor, and walked off with the small Parcel one night to his +address in George Street. I very well remember leaving it with his valet +there, and disappearing in the night with various thoughts and doubts! +My hopes had never risen high, or in fact risen at all; but for a +fortnight or so they did not quite die out, and then it was in absolute +zero; no answer, no return of MS., absolutely no notice taken, which was +a form of catastrophe more complete than even I had anticipated! There +rose in my head a pungent little Note which might be written to the +great man, with neatly cutting considerations offered him from the small +unknown ditto; but I wisely judged it was still more dignified to let +the matter lie as it was, and take what I had got for my own benefit +only. Nor did I ever mention it to almost anybody, least of all to +Jeffrey in subsequent changed times, when at anyrate it was fallen +extinct.'[4] + +Carlyle's star was, however, in the ascendant, for in 1822 he became +tutor to the two sons of a wealthy lady, Mrs Charles Buller, at a salary +of £200 a year. It was through Irving that this appointment came. The +young lads boarded with 'a good old Dr Fleming' in George Square, +whither Carlyle went daily from his lodgings at[5]3 Moray Street, +Pilrig Street. The Bullers finally returned to London, Carlyle staying +at his father's little homestead of Mainhill to finish a translation of +'Wilhelm Meister.' He followed the Bullers to London, where he resigned +the tutorship in the hope of getting some literary work. + +Irving introduced him to the proprietor of the _London Magazine_, who +offered Carlyle sixteen guineas a sheet for a series of 'Portraits of +Men of Genius and Character.' The first was to be a life of Schiller, +which appeared in that periodical in 1823-4. Mr Boyd, the Edinburgh +publisher, accepted the translation of 'Wilhelm Meister.' 'Two years +before,' wrote Carlyle in his _Reminiscences_, 'I had at length, after +some repulsions, got into the heart of "Wilhelm Meister," and eagerly +read it through; my sally out, after finishing, along the vacant streets +of Edinburgh, (a windless, Scotch-misty Saturday night), is still vivid +to me. "Grand, surely, harmoniously built together, far-seeing, wise, +and true: when, for many years, or almost in my life before, have I read +such a book?"' A short letter from Goethe in Weimar, in acknowledgment +of a copy of his 'Wilhelm Meister,' was peculiarly gratifying to +Carlyle. + +Carlyle was not happy in London; dyspepsia and 'the noises' sorely +troubled him. He was anxious to be gone. To the surprise of Irving--who +was now settled in the metropolis--and everybody else, he resolutely +decided to return to Annandale, where his father had leased for him a +compact little farm at Hoddam Hill, three miles from Mainhill, and +visible from the fields at the back of it. 'Perhaps it was the very day +before my departure,' wrote Carlyle, 'at least it is the last I +recollect of him [Irving], we were walking in the streets multifariously +discoursing; a dim grey day, but dry and airy;--at the corner of +Cockspur Street we paused for a moment, meeting Sir John Sinclair +("Statistical Account of Scotland" etc.), whom I had never seen before +and never saw again. A lean old man, tall but stooping, in tartan cloak, +face very wrinkly, nose blue, physiognomy vague and with distinction as +one might have expected it to be. He spoke to Irving with benignant +respect, whether to me at all I don't recollect.' + +Carlyle shook the dust of London from off his feet, and by easy stages +made his way northwards. Arrived at Ecclefechan, within two miles of his +father's house, while the coach was changing horses, Carlyle noticed +through the window his little sister Jean earnestly looking up for him. +She, with Jenny, the youngest of the family, was at school in the +village, and had come out daily to inspect the coach in hope of seeing +him. 'Her bonny little blush and radiancy of look when I let down the +window and suddenly disclosed myself,' wrote Carlyle in 1867, 'are still +present to me.' On the 26th of May 1825, he established himself at +Hoddam Hill, and set about 'German Romance.' His brother Alick managed +the farm, and his mother, with one of the girls, was generally there to +look after his comforts. + +During the intervening years, Carlyle's intimacy with Miss Jane Welsh +gradually increased, with occasional differences. She had promised to +marry him if he could 'achieve independence.' Carlyle's idea was that +after their marriage they should settle upon the farm of Craigenputtock, +which had been in the possession of the Welsh family for generations, +and devote himself to literary work. By and by Miss Welsh accepted his +offer of marriage, but not until she had acquainted him of the Irving +incident. The wedding took place on the 17th of October 1825, and the +young couple took up housekeeping in a quiet cottage at Comely Bank, +Edinburgh. Of his life at this period, the best description is given by +Carlyle himself, in a letter to Mrs Basil Montague, dated Christmas Day +1826:-- + +'In spite of ill-health I reckon myself moderately happy here, much +happier than men usually are, or than such a fool as I deserve to be. My +good wife exceeds all my hopes, and is, in truth, I believe, among the +best women that the world contains. The philosophy of the heart is far +better than that of the understanding. She loves me with her whole soul, +and this one sentiment has taught her much that I have long been vainly +at the schools to learn.... On the whole, what I chiefly want is +occupation; which, when the times grow better, or my own genius gets +more alert and thorough-going, will not fail, I suppose, to present +itself.... Some day--oh, that the day were here!--I shall surely speak +out those things that are lying in me, and give me no sleep till they +are spoken! Or else, if the Fates would be so kind as to shew me--that I +had nothing to say! This, perhaps, is the real secret of it after all; +a hard result, yet not intolerable, were it once clear and certain. +Literature, it seems, is to be my trade, but the present aspects of it +among us seem to me peculiarly perplexed and uninviting.'[6]Here, as in +undertone, we discover what Professor Masson calls the constitutional +sadness of Carlyle--a sadness which, along with indifferent health, led +him to be impatient at trifles, morbid, proud, and at times needlessly +aggressive in speech and demeanour. These traits, however, in the early +years of married life were not specially visible; and on the whole the +Comely Bank period may be described as one of calm happiness. Carlyle's +forecast was correct. Literature was to be his trade. + +In the following spring came a letter to Carlyle from Procter (Barry +Cornwall), whom he had met in London, offering to introduce him formally +to Jeffrey, whom he certified to be a 'very fine fellow.' One evening +Carlyle sallied forth from Comely Bank for Jeffrey's house in George +Street, armed with Procter's letter. He was shown into the study. 'Fire, +pair of candles,' he relates, 'were cheerfully burning, in the light of +which sate my famous little gentleman; laid aside his work, cheerfully +invited me to sit, and began talking in a perfectly human manner.' The +interview lasted for about twenty minutes, during which time Jeffrey had +made kind enquiries what his visitor was doing and what he had +published; adding, 'We must give you a lift,' an offer, Carlyle says, +which in 'some complimentary way' he managed to Jeffrey's satisfaction +to decline. Jeffrey returned Carlyle's call, when he was captivated by +Mrs Carlyle. The intimacy rapidly increased, and a short paper by +Carlyle on Jean Paul appeared in the very next issue of the _Edinburgh +Review_. 'It made,' says the author, 'what they call a sensation among +the Edinburgh buckrams; which was greatly heightened next Number by the +more elaborate and grave article on "German Literature" generally, which +set many tongues wagging, and some few brains considering, _what_ this +strange monster could be that was come to disturb their quiescence and +the established order of Nature! Some Newspapers or Newspaper took to +denouncing "the Mystic School," which my bright little Woman declared to +consist of me alone, or of her and me, and for a long while after +merrily used to designate us by that title.' + +Mrs Carlyle proved an admirable hostess; Jeffrey became a frequent +visitor at Comely Bank, and they discovered 'mutual old cousinships' by +the maternal side. Jeffrey's friendship was an immense acquisition to +Carlyle, and everybody regarded it as his highest good fortune. The +_literati_ of Edinburgh came to see her, and 'listen to her husband's +astonishing monologues.' To Carlyle's regret, Jeffrey would not talk in +their frequent rambles of his experiences in the world, 'nor of things +concrete and current,' but was 'theoretic generally'; and seemed bent +on converting Carlyle from his 'German mysticism,' back merely, as the +latter could perceive, into 'dead Edinburgh Whiggism, scepticism, and +materialism'; 'what I felt,' says Carlyle, 'to be a forever impossible +enterprise.' They had long discussions, 'parryings, and thrustings,' +which 'I have known continue night after night,' relates Carlyle, 'till +two or three in the morning (when I was his guest at Craigcrook, as once +or twice happened in coming years); there he went on in brisk logical +exercise with all the rest of the house asleep, and parted usually in +good humour, though after a game which was hardly worth the candle. I +found him infinitely witty, ingenious, sharp of fence, but not in any +sense deep; and used without difficulty to hold my own with him.' +Jeffrey did everything in his power to further Carlyle's prospects and +projects. He tried to obtain for him the professorship of Moral +Philosophy at St Andrews University, vacated by Dr Chalmers. +Testimonials were given by Irving, Brewster, Buller, Wilson, Jeffrey, +and Goethe. They failed, however, in consequence of the opposition of +the Principal, Dr Nicol. + +To Carlyle, doubtless, the most memorable incidents of the Edinburgh +period was his correspondence with Goethe. The magnetic spell thrown +over Carlyle by Goethe will ever remain a mystery. Between the two men +there was no intellectual affinity. One would have expected Goethe the +Pagan to have repelled Carlyle the Puritan, unless we have recourse to +the philosophy of opposites, and conclude that the tumultuous soul of +Carlyle found congenial repose in the Greek-like restfulness of Goethe. +The great German had been deeply impressed by the profound grasp which +Carlyle was displaying of German literature. After reading a letter +which he had received from Walter Scott, Goethe remarked to Eckermann: +'I almost wonder that Walter Scott does not say a word about Carlyle, +who has so decided a German tendency that he must certainly be known to +him. It is admirable in Carlyle, that, in his judgment of our German +authors, he has especially in view the _mental and moral core_ as that +which is really influential. Carlyle is a _moral force of great +importance_; there is in him much for the future and we cannot foresee +what he will produce and effect.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Reminiscences_, vol. i. p. 141. + +[2] _Reminiscences_, vol. i. p. 142. + +[3] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 69. + +[4] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. pp. 18, 19. + +[5] Now 2 Spey Street. + +[6] Masson's 'Edinburgh Sketches and Memories,' pp. 329-30. + + + + +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 bright. The Carlyles had been a +little over eighteen months at Comely Bank, when their extensive circle +of friends were surprised to hear of their intended withdrawal to +Craigenputtock. Efforts were made to dissuade Carlyle from pursuing what +at the time appeared a suicidal course. He was the intimate associate of +the brilliant Jeffrey; he was within the charmed circle of Edinburgh +Reviewers; he had laid the foundation of a literary reputation. +Outwardly all seemed well with Carlyle; but 'the step,' himself says, +'had been well meditated, saw itself to be founded on irrefragable +considerations of health, _finance_, &c., &c., unknown to bystanders, +and could not be forborne or altered.' Next to his marriage with Miss +Welsh, Carlyle's retirement to the howling wilds of Craigenputtock at +that juncture was the most momentous step in his long life. He was +conscious of his own powers, and he clearly discerned how those powers +could best be utilised and developed. Hence his determination to bid +adieu to Edinburgh. And in that resolve he was fortified by the loyal +support of his wife. + +Jeffrey promised to visit the Carlyles at Craigenputtock as soon as they +got settled. Meanwhile, they stayed a week at his own house in Moray +Place, after their furniture was on the road, and they were waiting till +it should arrive and 'render a new home possible amid the moors and the +mountains.' 'Of our history at Craigenputtock,' says Carlyle, 'there +might a great deal be written which might amuse the curious; for it was +in fact a very singular scene and arena for such a pair as my Darling +and me, with such a Life ahead.... It is a History I by no means intend +to write, with such or with any object. To me there is a _sacredness_ of +interest in it consistent only with _silence_. It was the field of +endless nobleness and beautiful talent and virtue in Her who is now +gone; also of good industry, and many loving and blessed thoughts in +myself, while living there by her side. Poverty and mean Obstruction had +given origin to it, and continued to preside over it, but were +transformed by human valour of various sorts into a kind of victory and +royalty: something of high and great dwelt in it, though nothing could +be smaller and lower than very many of the details.'[7] + +The Jeffreys were not slow in appearing at Craigenputtock. Their 'big +Carriage,' narrates the humorous host, 'climbed our rugged Hill-roads, +landed the Three Guests--young Charlotte ("Sharlie"), with Pa and +Ma--and the clever old Valet maid that waited on them; ... but I +remember nothing so well as the consummate art with which my Dear One +played the domestic field-marshal, and spread out our exiguous +resources, without fuss or bustle; to cover everything with a coat of +hospitality and even elegance and abundance. I have been in houses ten +times, nay, a hundred times, as rich, where things went not so well. +Though never bred to this, but brought up in opulent plenty by a mother +that could bear no partnership in housekeeping, she, finding it become +necessary, loyally applied herself to it, and soon surpassed in it all +the women I have ever seen.'[8] Of Mrs Carlyle's frankness her husband +gives this amusing glimpse: 'One day at dinner, I remember, Jeffrey +admired the fritters or bits of pancake he was eating, and she let him +know, not without some vestige of shock to him, that she had made them. +"What, you! twirl up the frying-pan, and catch them in the air?" Even +so, my high friend, and you may turn it over in your mind!' When the +Jeffreys were leaving, 'I remarked,' says Carlyle, that they 'carried +off our little temporary paradise; ... to which bit of pathos Jeffrey +answered by a friendly little sniff of quasi-mockery or laughter +through the nose, and rolled prosperously away.' + +The Carlyles in course of time visited the Jeffreys at Craigcrook, the +last occasion being for about a fortnight. Carlyle says it was 'a +shining sort of affair, but did not in effect accomplish much for any of +us. Perhaps, for one thing, we stayed too long, Jeffrey was beginning to +be seriously incommoded in health, had bad sleep, cared not how late he +sat, and we had now more than ever a series of sharp fencing bouts, +night after night, which could decide nothing for either of us, except +our radical incompatibility in respect of World Theory, and the +incurable divergence of our opinions on the most important matters. "You +are so dreadfully in earnest!" said he to me once or oftener. Besides, I +own now I was deficient in reverence to him, and had not then, nor, +alas! have ever acquired, in my solitary and mostly silent existence, +the art of gently saying strong things, or of insinuating my dissent, +instead of uttering it right out at the risk of offence or otherwise.' +Then he adds: 'These "stormy sittings," as Mrs Jeffrey laughingly called +them, did not improve our relation to one another. But these were the +last we had of that nature. In other respects Edinburgh had been barren; +effulgences of "Edinburgh Society," big dinners, parties, we in due +measure had; but nothing there was very interesting either to _Her_ or +to me, and all of it passed away as an obliging pageant merely. Well do +I remember our return to Craigenputtock, after nightfall, amid the +clammy yellow leaves and desolate rains with the clink of Alick's stithy +alone audible of human.'[9] + +It was during his first two years' residence at Craigenputtock that +Carlyle wrote his famous essay on Burns; but his principal work was upon +German literature, especially upon Goethe. His magazine writings being +his only means of support, and as he devoted much time to them, it is +not surprising that financial matters worried him. About this time +Jeffrey, to whom doubtless he confided his trouble, generously offered +to confer upon him an annuity of £100, which Carlyle declined to accept. +Jeffrey repeated the offer on two subsequent occasions, with a like +result. Carlyle in his _Reminiscences_ says that he could not doubt but +Jeffrey had intended an act of real generosity; and yet Carlyle penned +the ungracious remark, that 'perhaps there was something in the manner +of it that savoured of consciousness and of screwing one's self up to +the point; less of god-like pity for a fine fellow and his struggles, +than of human determination to do a fine action of one's own, which +might add to the promptitude of my refusal.' It is not surprising, +therefore, to find Carlyle suspecting that Jeffrey's feelings were +cooling towards him. Jeffrey had powers of penetration as well as the +friend whom he was anxious to assist. + +By the month of February 1831, Carlyle's finances fell so low that he +had only £5 in his possession, and expected no more for months. Then he +borrowed £100 from Jeffrey, as his 'pitiful bits of periodical +literature incomings,' as he puts it, 'having gone awry (as they were +liable to do), but was able, I still remember with what satisfaction, to +repay punctually within a few weeks'; adding, 'and this was all of +pecuniary chivalry _we_ two ever had between us.' The chivalry was all +on the one side--of Jeffrey. The outcome of his labours at +Craigenputtock, in addition to the fragmentary articles already referred +to, was the essays which form the first three volumes of the +'Miscellanies.' They appeared chiefly in the _Edinburgh Review_, the +_Foreign Review_, and _Fraser's Magazine_. Jeffrey's resignation of the +editorship of the 'Review' was a great disappointment to Carlyle, +because it stopped a regular source of income. + +German literature, of which Carlyle had begun a history, not being a +'marketable commodity,' he cut it up into articles. 'My last +considerable bit of _Writing_ at Craigenputtock,' says Carlyle, 'was +"Sartor Resartus"; done, I think, between January and August 1830; (my +sister Margaret had died while it was going on). I well remember where +and how (at Templand one morning) the _germ_ of it rose above ground. +"Nine months," I used to say, "it had cost me in writing." Had the +perpetual fluctuation, the uncertainty and unintelligible whimsicality +of Review Editors not proved so intolerable, we might have lingered +longer at Craigenputtock, perfectly left alone, and able to do _more_ +work, beyond doubt, than elsewhere. But a Book did seem to promise some +_respite_ from that, and perhaps further advantages. Teufelsdröckh was +ready; and (first days of August) I decided to make for London. Night +before going, how I still remember it! I was lying on my back on the +sofa in the drawing-room; she sitting by the table (late at night, +packing all done, I suppose); her words had a guise of sport, but were +profoundly plaintive in meaning. "About to part, who knows for how long; +and what may have come in the interim!" this was her thought, and she +was evidently much out of spirits. "Courage, Dearie, only for a month!" +I would say to her in some form or other. I went next morning +early.'[10] + +Jeffrey, who was by that time Lord Advocate, Carlyle found much +preoccupied in London, but willing to assist him with Murray, the +bookseller. Jeffrey, with his wife and daughter, lived in Jermyn Street +in lodgings, 'in melancholy contrast to the beautiful tenements and +perfect equipments they had left in the north.' 'If,' says Carlyle, 'I +called in the morning, in quest perhaps of Letters (though I don't +recollect much troubling _him_ in that way), I would find the family +still at breakfast, ten A.M. or later; and have seen poor Jeffrey +emerge in flowered dressing-gown, with a most boiled and suffering +expression of face, like one who had slept miserably, and now awoke +mainly to paltry misery and bother; poor Official man! "I am made a mere +Post-Office of!" I heard him once grumble, after tearing open several +Packets, not one of which was internally for himself.'[11] + +Mrs Carlyle joined her husband on the 1st of October 1831, and they took +lodgings at 4 Ampton Street, Gray's Inn Lane, with a family of the name +of Miles, belonging to Irving's congregation. Jeffrey was a frequent +visitor there, and sometimes the Carlyles called at Jermyn Street. +Carlyle says that they were at first rather surprised that Jeffrey did +not introduce him to some of his 'grand literary figures,' or try in +some way to be of help to one for whom he evidently had a value. The +explanation, Carlyle thinks, was that he himself 'expressed no trace of +aspiration that way'; 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 wished.' Besides, +Jeffrey was so 'heartily miserable,' as to think Carlyle and his other +fellow-creatures happy in comparison, and to have no care left to bestow +upon them. + +Here is a characteristic outburst in the 'Reminiscences': 'The beggarly +history of poor "Sartor" _among the blockheadisms_ is not worth my +recording or remembering--least of all here! In short, finding that +whereas I had got £100 (if memory serve) for "Schiller" six or seven +years before, and for "Sartor," at least _thrice_ as good, I could not +only _not_ get £200, but even get no Murray, or the like, to publish it +on half-profits (Murray, a most stupendous object to me; tumbling about, +eyeless, with the evidently strong wish to say "yes and no"; my first +signal experience of that sad human predicament); I said, "We will make +it No, then; wrap up our MS.; wait till this Reform Bill uproar +abate."'[12] + +On Tuesday, January 26th, 1832, Carlyle received tidings of the death of +his father. He departed on the Sunday morning previous 'almost without a +struggle,' wrote his favourite sister Jane. It was a heavy stroke for +Carlyle. 'Natural tears,' he exclaimed shortly afterwards, 'have come to +my relief. I can look at my dear Father, and that section of the Past +which he has made alive for me, in a certain sacred, sanctified light, +and give way to what thoughts rise in me without feeling that they are +weak and useless.' Carlyle determined that the time till the funeral was +past (Friday) should be spent with his wife only. All others were +excluded. He walked 'far and much,' chiefly in the Regent's Park, and +considered about many things, his object being to see clearly what his +calamity meant--what he lost, and what lesson that loss was to teach +him. Carlyle considered his father as one of the most interesting men he +had known. 'Were you to ask me,' he said, 'which had the greater natural +faculty,' Robert Burns or my father, 'I might, perhaps, actually pause +before replying. Burns had an infinitely wider Education, my Father a +far wholesomer. Besides, the one was a man of Musical Utterance; the +other wholly a man of Action, even with Speech subservient thereto. +Never, of all the men I have seen, has one come personally in my way in +whom the endowment from Nature and the Arena from Fortune were so +utterly out of all proportion. I have said this often, and partly _know_ +it. As a man of Speculation--had Culture ever unfolded him--he must have +gone wild and desperate as Burns; but he was a man of Conduct, and Work +keeps all right. What strange shapeable creatures we are!'[13] Nothing +that the elder Carlyle undertook to do but he did it faithfully, and +like a true man. 'I shall look,' said his distinguished son, 'on the +houses he built with a certain proud interest. They stand firm and sound +to the heart all over his little district. No one that comes after him +will ever say, "Here was the finger of a hollow eye-servant." They are +little texts for me of the gospel of man's free will. Nor will his deeds +and sayings in any case be found unworthy--not false and barren, but +genuine and fit. Nay, am not I also the humble James Carlyle's work? I +owe him much more than existence; I owe him a noble inspiring example +(now that I can read it in that rustic character). It was he +_exclusively_ that determined on _educating_ me; that from his small +hard-earned funds sent me to school and college, and made me whatever I +am or may become. Let me not mourn for my father, let me do worthily of +him. So shall he still live even here in me, and his worth plant itself +honourably forth into new generations.'[14] One of the wise men about +Ecclefechan told James Carlyle: 'Educate a boy, and he grows up to +despise his ignorant parents.' His father once told Carlyle this, and +added: 'Thou hast not done so; God be thanked for it.' When James +Carlyle first entered his son's house at Craigenputtock, Mrs Carlyle was +greatly struck with him, 'and still farther,' says her husband, 'opened +my eyes to the treasure I possessed in a father.' + +The last time Carlyle saw his father was a few days before leaving for +London. 'He was very kind,' wrote Carlyle, 'seemed prouder of me than +ever. What he had never done the like of before, he said, on hearing me +express something which he admired, "Man, it's surely a pity that thou +should sit yonder with nothing but the eye of Omniscience to see thee, +and thou with such a gift to speak."' In closing his affectionate +tribute, Carlyle exclaims: 'Thank Heaven, I know and have known what it +is to be a _son_; to _love_ a father, as spirit can love spirit.' + +The last days of March 1832 found the Carlyles back at Craigenputtock. A +new tenant occupied the farm, and their days were lonelier than ever. +Meanwhile 'Sartor Resartus' was appearing in _Fraser's Magazine_. The +Editor reported that it 'excited the most unqualified disapprobation.' +Nothing daunted, Carlyle pursued the 'noiseless tenor of his way,' +throwing off articles on various subjects. Finding that Mrs Carlyle's +health suffered from the gloom and solitude of Craigenputtock, they +removed to Edinburgh in January 1833. Jeffrey was absent in 'official +regions,' and Carlyle notes that they found a 'most dreary contemptible +kind of element' in Edinburgh. But their stay there was not without its +uses, for in the Advocates' Library Carlyle found books which had a +great effect upon his line of study. He collected materials for his +articles upon 'Cagliostro' and the 'Diamond Necklace.' At the end of +four months, the Carlyles were back again at Craigenputtock. + +August was a bright month for Thomas Carlyle, for it was then that Ralph +Waldo Emerson visited him at his rural retreat. The Carlyles thought him +'one of the most lovable creatures' they had ever seen, and an unbroken +friendship of nearly fifty years was begun. As winter approached, +Carlyle's prospects were not very bright, and he once more turned his +eyes towards London, where the remainder of his life was to be spent. +Before following him thither, it may be well to turn from the outer to +the inner side of Carlyle's life, and study the forces which went to the +making of his unique personality. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 30. + +[8] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 31. + +[9] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. pp. 40, 41. + +[10] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. pp. 161, 162. + +[11] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 47. + +[12] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 162. + +[13] _Reminiscences_, vol. i. p. 19. + +[14] _Reminiscences_, vol. i. p. 6. + + + + +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 Man, from +which he drew inspiration in his future life work. 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 +literature. Carlyle's studies and musings took coherent, or, as some +would say incoherent, shape in _Sartor Resartus_,--a book which +appropriately was written in the stern solitude of Craigenputtock. + +In order to acquire an adequate understanding of Carlyle as a thinker, +attention has to be paid to the two dominating influences of his mental +life--his early home training and German literature. In regard to the +former, ancestry with Carlyle counts for much. He came of a sturdy +Covenanting stock. Carlyle himself has left a graphic description of the +religious environment of the Burghers, to which sect his father +belonged. The congregation, under the ministry of a certain John +Johnston, who taught Carlyle his first Latin, worshipped in a little +house thatched with heath. Of the simple faith, the stern piety and the +rugged heroism of the old Seceders, Carlyle himself has left a +photograph: 'Very venerable are those old Seceder clergy to me now when +I look back.... Most figures of them in my time were hoary old men; 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 world.... Strangely vivid are some twelve or twenty of +those old faces whom I used to see every Sunday, whose names, +employments or precise dwellingplaces I never knew, but whose portraits +are yet clear to me as in a mirror. Their heavy-laden, patient, +ever-attentive faces, fallen solitary most of them, children all away, +wife away for ever, or, it might be, wife still there and constant like +a shadow and grown very like the old man, the thrifty cleanly poverty of +these good people, their well-saved coarse old clothes, tailed +waistcoats down to mid-thigh--all this I occasionally see as with eyes +sixty or sixty-five years off, and hear the very voice of my mother upon +it, whom sometimes I would be questioning about these persons of the +drama and endeavouring to describe and identify them.' And what a +glimpse we have into the inmost heart of the primitive Covenanting +religion in the portrait drawn by Carlyle of old David Hope, the farmer +who refused to postpone family worship in order to take in his grain. +David was putting on his spectacles when somebody rushed in with the +words: 'Such a raging wind risen will drive the stooks into the sea if +let alone.' 'Wind!' answered David, 'wind canna get ae straw that has +been appointed mine. Sit down and let us worship God.' Far away from the +simple Covenanting creed of his father and mother Carlyle wandered, but +to the last the feeling of life's mystery and solemnity remained vivid +with him, though fed from quite other sources than the Bible and the +_Shorter Catechism_. + +Much has been said of Carlyle's father, but it is highly probable that +to his mother he owed most during his early years. The temperament of +the Covenanter was of the non-conductor type. Men like James Carlyle +were essentially stern, self-centred, unemotional. Fighting like the +Jews, with sword in one hand and trowel in the other, they had no time +for cultivating the softer side of human nature. Ready to go to the +stake on behalf of religious liberty, they exercised a repressive, not +to say despotic, influence in their own households. With them education +meant not the unfolding of the individual powers of the children, but +the ruthless crushing of them into a theological mould. Religion in such +an atmosphere became loveless rather than lovely, and might have had +serious influences of a reactionary nature but for the caressing +tenderness of the mother. With a heart which overflowed the ordinary +theological boundaries, the mother in many sweet and hidden ways +supplied the emotional element, which had been crushed out of the father +by a narrow conception of life and duty. Carlyle's experience may be +judged from his references to his parents. He always speaks of his +father with profound respect and admiration; towards his mother his +heart goes forth with a devotion which became stronger as the years +rolled on. Carlyle's love of his mother was as beautiful as it was +sacred. Long after Carlyle had parted with the creed of his childhood, +his heart tremulously responded to the old symbols. His system of +thought, indeed, might well be defined as Calvinism minus Christianity. +Had Carlyle not come into contact with German thought, he would probably +have jogged along the path of literature in more or less conventional +fashion. In fact, nothing is more remarkable than the comparatively +commonplace nature of Carlyle's early contributions to literature. +Germany touched the deepest chords of his nature. With German ideas and +emotions his mind was saturated, and _Sartor Resartus_ was the outcome. +To that book students must go for a glance into Carlyle's mind while he +was wrestling with the great mysteries of Existence. In June 1821, as Mr +Froude tells us, took place what may be called Carlyle's conversion--his +triumph over his doubts, and the beginning of a new life. To understand +this phase of Carlyle's life, we must pause for a little to consider +German literature, whence Carlyle derived spiritual relief and +consolation. + +What, then, was the nature of the message of peace which Germany, +through Kant, Fichte, and Goethe, brought to the storm-tossed soul of +Carlyle? When Carlyle began to think seriously, two antagonistic +conceptions of life, the orthodox and the rationalist, were struggling +for mastery in the field of thought. The orthodox conception, into which +he had been born, and with which his father and mother had fronted the +Eternities, had given way under the solvent of modern thought. Carlyle's +belief in Christianity as a revelation seems to have dropped from him +without much of a struggle, somewhat after the style of George Eliot. +His mental tortures appear to have arisen from spiritual hunger, from an +inability to fill the place vacated by the old beliefs. Had he lived +fifty years earlier, Carlyle would have been invited to find salvation +in the easy-going, drawing-room rationalism of Hume and Gibbon, or to +content himself with the ecclesiastical placidity known as Moderatism. + +Much had occurred since the arm-chair philosophers of Edinburgh taught +that this was the best possible world, and that the highest wisdom +consisted in frowning upon enthusiasm and cultivating the comfortable. +The French Revolution had revolutionised men's thoughts and feelings. +There had been revealed to man the inadequacy of the old Deistical or +Mechanical philosophy, which, spreading from England to France, had +done so much to hasten the revolutionary epoch. Carlyle could find no +spiritual sustenance in the purely mechanical theory of life which was +offered as the substitute for the theory of the Churches. There was +another theory, which had its rise in Germany, and to which Carlyle +clung when he could no longer keep hold of the Supernatural. In +Transcendentalism, Carlyle found salvation. + +What are the leading conceptions of the German form of salvation? The +answer to this will give the key to _Sartor Resartus_, and to Carlyle's +whole mental outlook. In the eyes of thinkers like Carlyle, the great +objection to Christianity was the breach it made between the natural and +the supernatural. Between them there was a great gulf which could only +fitfully and temporarily be bridged by the miraculous. Students who were +being inoculated with scientific ideas of law and order, were bewildered +by a theory of life which had no organic relation to the great germinal +ideas of the day. In their desire to abolish the supernatural, the +French thinkers constructed a theory of Nature in which everything, from +the movements of solar masses to the movements of the soul, were +interpreted in terms of matter. By adopting a mechanical view of the +Universe, the French thinkers robbed Nature of much of its charm, and +stunted the emotions on the side of wonder and admiration. The world was +reduced to a vast machine, man himself being simply a temporary +embodiment of material particles in a highly complex and unique form. +Instead of being what it was to the Greeks, a temple of beauty, the +Universe to the materialist resembled a prison in which the walls +gradually closed upon the poor wretch till he was crushed under the +ruins. Goethe has left on record the impression made upon him by the +materialistic view of life. As he says, 'The materialistic theory, which +reduces all things to matter and motion, appeared to me so grey, so +Cimmerian, and so dead that we shuddered at it as at a ghost.' + +_Sartor Resartus_ is studded with vigorous protests against the +mechanical view of Nature and Man. Just as distasteful to Carlyle, and +equally mechanical in spirit, was the Deistical conception of Nature as +a huge clock, under the superintendence of a Divine clock-maker, whose +duty consisted in seeing that the clock kept good time and was in all +respects thoroughly reliable. The Germans attacked the problem from the +other side. They did not abolish the supernatural with the materialists, +or seek it in another world with the theologians; they found the +supernatural in the natural. To the materialists, Kant, Fichte, +Schelling, Hegel and Goethe had one reply:--Reduce matter to its +constituent atoms, they argued, and you never seize the principle of +life; it evades you like a spirit; in this principle everything lives +and moves and has its being. German philosophy from Kant has been +occupied in attempts to trace the spiritual principle in the great +process of cosmic evolution. In poetry, Goethe attempted to represent +this as the energising principle of life and duty. The spiritual cannot +be weighed in the scales of logic; it refuses to be put upon the +dissecting-table. As a consequence, the truth of things is best seen by +the poet. The owl-like logic-chopper, from his mechanical and +utilitarian standpoint, sees not the Divine vision. This has been called +Pantheism. Call it what we please, it is contradictory to Deism and +Materialism, and is the root thought of _Sartor Resartus_, which may be +taken as Carlyle's Confession of Faith. A few extracts will justify the +foregoing analysis. The transcendental view of Nature is expressed by +Carlyle thus:--'Atheistic science babbles poorly of it with scientific +nomenclature, experiments and what not, as if it were a poor dead thing, +to be bottled up in Leyden jars, and sold over counter; but the native +sense of man in all times, if he will himself apply his sense, proclaims +it to be a living thing--ah, an unspeakable, God-like thing, towards +which the best attitude for us, after never so much science, is awe, +devout prostration and humility of soul, worship, if not in words, then +in silence.' Here, again, is a passage quite Hegelian in its tone: 'For +Matter, were it never so despicable, is Spirit; the manifestation of +Spirit, were it never so honourable, can it be more? The thing Visible, +nay, the thing Imagined, the thing in any way conceived as Visible, +what is it but a Garment, a Clothing of the higher celestial Invisible, +unimaginable, formless, dark with excess of bright.' + +The defects of Carlyle, and they are many, 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 weakness. It +is not meant that Carlyle's mind remained anchored to the philosophic +idealism of _Sartor_. In later days he professed contempt for +transcendental moonshine, but his contempt was for the form and jargon +of the schools, not for the spirit, which dominated Carlyle to the end. +After Carlyle passed the early poetic stage, his views took more and +more an anthropomorphic mould, till in many of his writings he seems +practically a Theist. But at root Carlyle's thought was more +Pantheistical than Deistical. What, then, is the German conception of +the Ultimate Reality? The German answer grew out of an attempt to get +rid of the difficulties propounded by Hume. Hume, the father of all the +Empiricists, in giving logical effect to Berkeleyism, concluded that +just as we know nothing of the outer world beyond sense impressions, so +of the inner world of mind we know nothing beyond mental impressions. We +can combine and recombine these impressions as we choose, but from them +we cannot deduce any ultimate laws, either of the world or of mind. +Hume would not sanction belief in causation as a universal law. All that +could be said was that certain things happened in a certain manner so +frequently as to give rise to a law of expectation. But this is not to +solve, but to evade the problem? We are still driven to ask, What is +matter? What is motion? What is force? How do we get our knowledge of +the material world, and is that knowledge reliable? These are wide +questions that cannot be adequately handled here. It was a favourite +argument of Comte and his followers, that man's first conceptions of +Nature were necessarily erroneous, because they were anthropomorphic. +Theology was, therefore, dethroned without ceremony. But science is as +anthropomorphic as theology. We have no guarantee that the great facts +of Nature are as we think them. We talk of Force, but our idea of Force +is taken from experiences which may have no counterpart in Nature. It is +well known, for example, that the secondary qualities of objects, +colour, &c., do not exist in Nature. Our personality is so inextricably +mixed with the material universe that it is impossible to formulate a +philosophy like Naturalism, which makes mind a product of Nature, and +which sharply defines the provinces of the two. + +But what Naturalism fails to do, Idealism or Transcendentalism promises +to perform. Idealism is simply Materialism turned upside down. The only +difference between the evolution of Spencer and of Hegel is that the +one puts matter, the other mind, first. For all practical purposes, it +signifies little whether mind is the temporary embodiment of an idea, or +the temporary product of a highly specialised form of matter. In either +case, man has no more freedom than the bubble upon the surface of the +stream. We may discourse of the bubble as poetically or as practically +as we please, the result is the same--absorption in the universal. +Hegelianism as much as Naturalism leaves man a prisoner in the hands of +Fate. The only difference is, that while Naturalism puts round the +prisoner's neck a plain, unpretentious noose, Hegelianism adds fringes +and embroidery. If there is no appeal from Nature's dread sentence, the +less poetry and embroidery there is about the doleful business the +better. + +In _Sartor Resartus_, Carlyle talks finely but vaguely, of the peace +which came over his soul when he discovered that the universe was not +mechanical but Divine. The peace was not of long duration. What +consolation Carlyle derived from Idealism did not appear in his life. +What a contrast between the poetic optimism of _Sartor_ and the +heavily-charged pessimism of old age, when Carlyle, with wailing pathos, +exclaims that God does nothing. Carlyle's life abundantly illustrates +the fact that whenever it leaves cloudland, Idealism sinks into +scepticism more bitter and gloomy than the unbelief of Naturalism. +Carlyle approached the question of the Ultimate Reality from the wrong +standpoint. He had no reasoned philosophic creed. A poet, he had the +poetic dread of analysis, and his spirit revolted at the spectacle of +Nature on the dissecting-table. He waged a life-long warfare against +science. As the present writer has elsewhere remarked:--'Carlyle never +could tolerate the evolution theory. He always spoke with the utmost +contempt of Darwin, and everything pertaining to the development +doctrines. It is somewhat startling to find that Carlyle was an +evolutionist without knowing it. The antagonism between Carlyle and +Spencer disappears on closer inspection. When Carlyle speaks of the +universe as in very truth the star-domed city of God, and reminds us +that through every crystal and through every grass blade, but most +through every living soul, the glory of a present God still beams, he is +simply saying in the language of poetry what Spencer says in the +language of science, that the world of phenomena is sustained and +energised by an infinite Eternal Power. Evolution is as emphatic as +Carlyle on the absolute distinction between right and wrong. Carlyle and +all the German school confront the evolutionary ethics with the Kantian +categorical imperative. Surely the Evolutionists in the matter of an +imperative out-rival the Intuitionalists, when, in addition to the +dictates of conscience, they can call as a witness and sanction to +morality the testimony of all-embracing experience. In his famous +saying, Might is Right, Carlyle was unconsciously formulating one aspect +of evolutionary ethics. Carlyle did not mean anything so silly as that +brute force and ethical sanctions are identical; what he meant was that +in the long run Righteousness will prove the mightiest force in the +universe. What is this but another version of the Spencerian doctrine of +the survival of the fittest, which, in the most highly evolved state of +society, will mean the survival of the best? In the highest social state +the only Might that will survive will be the Might which is rooted in +Right. Carlyle's contemptuous attitude towards science is deeply to be +deplored. He waged bitter warfare against the evolution theory, quite +oblivious of the fact that by means of it there was revealed a deeper +insight into the Power behind Nature, and into the ethical constitution +of the universe, than ever entered into the minds of transcendental +philosophers.' + +It is taken for granted that Carlyle's thoughts have no organic unity. +He is looked upon as a stimulating, but confused, writer, as a thinker +of original, but incoherent, power. True, he has not a logical mind, and +pays no deference to the canons of the schools or the market-place. But +there is a method in Carlyle's apparent caprice. When analysed, his +thoughts are discovered to have unity. His transcendentalism embraces +the ethic as well as the cosmic side of life. In the sphere of morals, +as of science, his writings are one long tumultuous protest against the +mechanical philosophy and the utilitarian theory of morals. From his +essay on Voltaire we take the following:--'It is contended by many that +our mere love of personal Pleasure or Happiness, as it is called, acting +in every individual with such clearness as he may easily have, will of +itself lead him to respect the rights of others, and wisely employ his +own.... Without some belief in the necessary eternal, or, which is the +same thing, in the supra mundane divine nature of Virtue existing in +each individual, could the moral judgment of a thousand or a thousand +thousand individuals avail us'? More picturesquely, Carlyle denounces +the utilitarian system in these words: 'What then? Is the heroic +inspiration we name Virtue but some passion, some bubble of the blood, +bubbling in the direction others profit by? I know not; only this I +know. If what thou namest Happiness be our true aim, then are we all +astray. With Stupidity and sound Digestion, man may front much. But what +in these dull, unimaginative days are the terrors of conscience to the +diseases of the Liver? Not on Morality, but on Cookery, let us build our +stronghold: there, brandishing our frying-pan as censer, let us offer +sweet incense to the Devil, and live at ease on the fat things _he_ has +provided for his Elect'! The exponent of such a theory of ethics will +have a natural distaste for the rational or calculating side of conduct. +He will depreciate the mechanical, and give undue emphasis to the +inspirational. His heroes will be not men of placid temperament, +methodical habits, and utilitarian aims, but men of mystical and +passionate natures, spasmodic in action, and guided by ideas not easily +justified at the bar of utility. + +Just as in the sphere of speculative thought, he has profound contempt +for the Diderots and Voltaires, with their mechanical views of the +Universe, 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 methods. Specially opposed is he to the tendency of +the age to rely for progress, not upon appeals to the great elemental +forces of human nature, but upon organisations, committees, and all +kinds of mechanism. In his remarkable essay, 'Signs of the Times,' we +have ample verification of our exposition. After talking depreciatingly +of the mechanical tendency of the prevailing philosophies, Carlyle +comments upon the mechanical nature of the reforming agencies of +civilisation. The intense Egoism of his nature rebels against any kind +of Socialism or Collectivism. He says: 'Were we required to characterise +this age of ours by any single epithet, we should be tempted to call it, +not a Heroical, Devotional, Philosophical, or Heroic Age, but, above +all, the Mechanical Age. It is the age of machinery in every outward and +inward sense of that word.... Men are grown mechanical in head and +heart, as well as in hand. They have lost faith in individual endeavour, +and in natural force of any kind.... We may trace this tendency in all +the great manifestations of our time: in its intellectual aspect, the +studies it most favours, and its manner of conducting them; in its +practical aspects, its politics, art, religious work; in the whole +sources, and throughout the whole current of its spiritual, no less than +its material, activity.' With Carlyle the secrets of Nature and Life +were discoverable, not so much by the intellect as by the heart. The man +with the large heart, rather than the clear head, saw furthest into the +nature of things. The history of German thought is strewn with the wreck +of systems based upon the Carlylian doctrine of intuition. Schelling and +Hegel showed the puerility to which great men are driven when they +started to construct science out of their own intuitions, instead of +patiently and humbly sitting down to study Nature. Tyndall has left on +record his gratitude to Carlyle. Tyndall had grip of the scientific +method, and was able to allow Carlyle's inspiration to play upon his +mind without fear of harm; but how many waverers has Carlyle driven from +the path of reason into the bogs of mysticism? + +Carlyle's impatience with reasoning and his determination to follow the +promptings of _a priori_ conceptions gave his system of ethics a +one-sided cast, and made him needlessly aggressive towards what in his +day was called Utilitarianism, but what has now come to be known as +Evolutionary Ethics. What is the chief end of man considered as a moral +agent? The answer of the Christian religion is as intelligible as it is +comprehensive. Man's duty consists in obeying the laws of God revealed +in Nature and in the Bible. But apart from revelation, where is the +basis of ethical authority? Debarred from accepting the Christian view, +and instinctively repelled from Utilitarianism, Carlyle found refuge in +the Fichtean and similar systems of ethics. By substituting Blessedness +for Happiness as the aim of ethical endeavour, Carlyle endeavoured to +preserve the heroic attitude which was associated with Supernaturalism. +In his view, 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 therefrom. + +In his 'Data of Ethics,' Herbert Spencer shows the hollowness of +Carlyle's distinction between Blessedness and Happiness. As Spencer puts +it: 'Obviously the implication is that Blessedness is not a kind of +Happiness, and this implication at once suggests the question, What mode +of feeling is this? If it is a state of consciousness at all, it is +necessarily one of three states--painful, indifferent, or +pleasurable.... If the pleasurable states are in excess, then the +blessed life can be distinguished from any other pleasurable life only +by the relative amount or the quality of its pleasures. It is a life +which makes happiness of a certain kind and degree its end, and the +assumption that blessedness is not a form of happiness lapses.... In +brief, blessedness has for its necessary condition of existence +increased happiness, positive or negative in some consciousness or +other; 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 actor.' + +To German philosophy and literature Carlyle owed his critical method, by +which he all but revolutionised criticism as understood by his Edinburgh +and London contemporaries. Carlyle began his apprenticeship with the +Edinburgh Reviewers, in whose hand criticism never lost its political +bias. Apart from that, criticism up till the time of Carlyle was mainly +statical. The critic was a kind of literary book-keeper who went upon +the double-entry system. On one page were noted excellences, on the +other defects, and when the two columns were _totalled_ the debtor and +creditor side of the transaction was set forth. Where, as in the cases +of Burns and Byron, genius was complicated with moral aberration, +anything like a correct estimate was impossible. The result was that in +Scotland criticism oscillated between the ethical severity of the pulpit +and the daring laxity of free thought. As the Edinburgh Reviewers could +not afford to set the clergy at defiance, they had to pay due respect to +conventional tastes and standards. Carlyle faced the question from a +different standpoint. He introduced into criticism the dynamic principle +which he found in the Germans, particularly in Goethe. In contemplating +a work of Art, the Germans talk much of the importance of seizing upon +the creative spirit, what Hegel called the Idea. The thought of Goethe +and Hegel, though differently expressed, resolves itself into the +conception of a life principle which shapes materials into harmony with +innate forms. In the sphere of life the determining factors are the +inner vitalities, which, however, are susceptible to the environment. +The critic who would realise his ideal does not go about with literary +and ethical tape-lines: he seeks to understand the spirit which animated +the author as shewn in his works and his life, and then studies the +influence of his environment. That this is a correct description of +Carlyle's critical method is evidenced by his own remarks in his essay +on Burns. He says: 'If an individual is really of consequence enough to +have his life and character recorded for public remembrance, we have +always been of opinion that the public ought to be made acquainted with +all the springs and relations of his character. How did the world and +man's life from his particular position represent themselves to his +mind? How did co-existing circumstances modify him from without: how +did he modify these from within?' + +This attention to the inner springs of character gives the key to +Carlyle's critical work. How fruitful this was is seen in his essay on +Burns. He steered an even course between the stern moralists, whose +indignation at the sins of Burns the man blinded them to the genius of +Burns the poet, and the flippant Bohemians, who thought that by bidding +defiance to the conventionalities and moralities Burns proved his title +to the name of genius, and whose voices are yet unduly with us in much +spirituous devotion and rhymeless doggerel at the return of each 25th of +January. While laying bare the springs of Burns' genius, Carlyle, with +unerring precision, also puts his finger on the weak point in the poet's +moral nature. So faithfully did Carlyle apply his critical method that +he may be considered to have said the final word about Burns. + +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 determined, +not by isolated deviations from conventional or even ethical standards, +but by consideration of the deep springs of character from which flow +aspirations and ideals. In his _Heroes and Hero-Worship_ Carlyle +elaborates his critical theory thus: 'On the whole, we make too much of +faults; the details of the business hide the real centre of it. Faults? +The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. +Readers of the Bible above all, one would think, might know better. Who +is called there "the man according to God's own heart?" David, the +Hebrew King, had fallen into sins enough--blackest crimes--there was no +want of sins. And thereupon the unbelievers sneer and ask: Is this your +man according to God's heart? The sneer, I must say, seems to me but a +shallow one. What are faults? What are the outward details of a life, if +the inner secret of it, the remorse, temptations, true, often-baffled, +never-ended struggle of it, be forgotten?... The deadliest sin, I say, +were that same supercilious consciousness of no sin: that is death.... +David's life and history, as written for us in those Psalms of his, I +consider to be the truest emblem ever given of a man's moral progress +and warfare here below.' + +This canon faithfully applied enabled Carlyle to invest with a new and +living interest large sections of literary criticism. Burns, Johnson, +Cromwell and others of like calibre, were rescued by Carlyle from the +hands of Pedants and Pharisees. To readers wearied with the facile +criticism of conventional reviewers, it was a revelation to come into +contact with a writer like Carlyle, who not only gave to the mind great +inspirational impetus, but also a larger critical outlook; it was like +stepping out of a museum, or a dissecting-room into the free, fresh, +breezy air of Nature. + +Moreover, Carlyle's interest in the soul is not of an antiquarian +nature; he studies his heroes as if they were ancestors of the Carlyle +family. He broods over their letters as if they were the letters of his +own flesh and blood, and his comments resemble the soliloquisings of a +pathos stricken kinsman rather than the conscious reflections of a +literary man. It is noteworthy that Carlyle's critical powers are +limited by his sympathies. His method, though suggestive of scientific +criticism, is largely influenced by the personal equation. Face to face +with writers like Scott and Voltaire, he flounders in helpless +incompetency. He tries Scott, the writer of novels, by purely Puritan +standards. Because there is in Scott no signs of soul-struggles, no +conscious devotion to heroic ends, no introspective torturings, Carlyle +sets himself to a process of belittling. So with Voltaire. Carlyle's +failure in this sphere was due to the fact that he overdid the ethical +side of criticism and became a pulpiteer; he was false to his own +principle of endeavouring to seize the dominant idea. Because Scott and +Voltaire were not dominated by the Covenanting idea, Carlyle dealt with +them in a tone of disparagement. Carlyle admired Goethe, but he +certainly made no attempt to cultivate Goethe's catholicity. Let us not +fall into Carlyle's mistake, and condemn him for qualities which were +incompatible with his temperament. After all has been said, English +literature stands largely indebted to Carlyle the critic. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +LIFE IN LONDON + + +Mrs Carlyle entered heartily into her husband's proposal to remove to +London. 'Burn our ships!' she gaily said to him one day (_i.e._, +dismantle our house); 'carry all our furniture with us'; which they +accordingly did. 'At sight of London,' Carlyle wrote, 'I remember +humming to myself a ballad-stanza of "Johnnie o' Braidislea," which my +dear old mother used to sing, + + "For there's seven foresters in yon forest; + And them I want to see, see, + And them I want to _see_ (and shoot down)!" + +Carlyle lodged at Ampton Street again; but presently did 'immense +stretches of walking in search of houses.' He found his way to Chelsea +and there secured a small old-fashioned house at 5 (now numbered 24) +Cheyne Row, at a rent of £35 a year. Mrs Carlyle followed in a short +time and approved of his choice. They took possession on the 10th June +1834, and Carlyle recounts the 'cheerful gipsy life' they had there +'among the litter and carpenters for three incipient days.' Leigh Hunt +was in the next street 'sending kind, _un_practical messages,' dropping +in to see them in the evenings. + +When in London on a former occasion, Carlyle became acquainted with John +Stuart Mill, and the intimacy was kept alive by correspondence to and +from Craigenputtock. It was through Mill's letters that Carlyle's +thoughts were turned towards the French Revolution. When he returned to +London, Mill was very useful to him, lending him a fine collection of +books on that subject. Mill's evenings in Cheyne Row were 'sensibly +agreeable for most part,' remarks Carlyle. 'Talk rather wintry +("sawdustish," as old Sterling once called it), but always well-informed +and sincere.' Carlyle was making rapid progress with the first volume of +his _French Revolution_. Stern necessity gave a spurt to his pen, for in +February 1835 he notes that 'some twenty-three months' had passed since +he earned a single penny by the 'craft of literature.' The volume was +completed and he lent the only copy to Mill. The MS. was unfortunately +burnt by a servant-maid. 'How well do I still remember,' writes Carlyle +in his _Reminiscences_, 'that night when he came to tell us, pale as +Hector's ghost.... It was like _half_ sentence of death to us both, and +we had to pretend to take it lightly, so dismal and ghastly was _his_ +horror at it, and try to talk of other matters. He stayed three mortal +hours or so; his departure quite a relief to us. Oh, the burst of +sympathy my poor darling then gave me, flinging her arms round my neck, +and openly lamenting, condoling, and encouraging like a nobler second +self! Under heaven is nothing beautifuller. We sat talking till late; +'_shall_ be written again,' my fixed word and resolution to her. Which +proved to be such a task as I never tried before or since. I wrote out +"Feast of Pikes" (Vol. II.), and then went at it. Found it fairly +_impossible_ for about a fortnight; passed three weeks (reading +Marryat's novels), tried, cautious-cautiously, as on ice paper-thin, +once more; and in short had a job more like breaking my heart than any +other in my experience. Jeannie, alone of beings, burnt like a steady +lamp beside me. I forget how much of money we still had. I think there +was at first something like £300, perhaps £280, to front London with. +Nor can I in the least remember where we had gathered such a sum, except +that it was our own, no part of it borrowed or _given us_ by anybody. +"Fit to last till _French Revolution_ is ready!" and she had no +misgivings at all. Mill was penitently liberal; sent me £200 (in a day +or two), of which I kept £100 (actual cost of house while I had written +burnt volume); upon which he bought me "Biographie Universelle," which I +got bound, and still have. Wish I could find a way of getting the now +much macerated, changed, and fanaticised John Stuart Mill to take that +£100 back; but I fear there is no way.'[15] + +Carlyle went diligently to work at the _French Revolution_. Some +conviction he had that the book was worth something. Once or twice among +the flood of equipages at Hyde Park Corner, when taking his afternoon +stroll, he thought to himself, 'Perhaps none of _you_ could do what I am +at!' But generally his feeling was, 'I will finish this book, throw it +at your feet, buy a rifle and spade, and withdraw to the Transatlantic +Wildernesses, far from human beggaries and basenesses!' 'This,' he says, +'had a kind of comfort to me; yet I always knew too, in the background, +that this would not practically do. In short, my nervous system had got +dreadfully irritated and inflamed before I quite ended, and my desire +was _intense_, beyond words, to have done with it.' Then he adds: 'The +_last_ paragraph I well remember writing upstairs in the drawing-room +that now is, which was then my writing-room; beside _her_ there in a +grey evening (summer, I suppose), soon after tea (perhaps); and +thereupon, with her dear blessing on me, going out to walk. I had said +before going out, "What they will do with this book, none knows, my +Jeannie, lass; but they have not had, for a two hundred years, any book +that came more truly from a man's very heart, and so let them trample it +under foot and hoof as _they_ see best!" "Pooh, pooh! they cannot +trample that!" she would cheerily answer; for her own approval (I think +she had read always regularly behind me) especially in Vol. III., was +strong and decided.' Mrs Carlyle was right. No critic or clique of +critics could trample the _French Revolution_. + +A month before the completion of the first book of the _French +Revolution_, Carlyle wrote in his journal: 'My first friend Edward +Irving is dead. I am friendless here or as good as that.' In a week or +two thereafter he met Southey, whom he describes as a 'lean, +grey-white-headed man of dusky complexion, unexpectedly tall when he +rises and still leaner then--the shallowest chin, prominent snubbed +Roman nose, small carelined brow, huge brush of white-grey-hair on high +crown and projecting on all sides, the most vehement pair of faint hazel +eyes I have ever seen--a well-read, honest, limited (straitlaced even), +kindly-hearted, most irritable man. We parted kindly, with no great +purpose on either side, I imagine, to meet again.'[16] Later on Carlyle +admits to his brother John that his prospects in London were not +brightening; which fact left him gloomy and morose. + +During his enforced leisure after the destruction of the first book of +the _French Revolution_, Carlyle saw more of his friends, among whom he +numbered John Sterling, fresh from Cambridge and newly ordained a +clergyman. Sterling was of a 'vehement but most noble nature,' and he +was one of the few who had studied _Sartor Resartus_ seriously. He had +been also caught by the Radical epidemic on the spiritual side. +Although dissenting from much of what Carlyle taught, Sterling +recognised in him 'a man not only brilliantly gifted, but differing from +the common run of people in this, that he would not lie, that he would +not equivocate, that he would say always what he actually thought, +careless whether he pleased or offended.' He introduced Carlyle to his +father, who was then the 'guiding genius' of the _Times_, and who +offered Carlyle work there on the usual conditions. 'Carlyle,' says +Froude, 'though with poverty at his door, and entire penury visible in +the near future, turned away from a proposal which might have tempted +men who had less excuse for yielding to it. He was already the sworn +soldier of another chief. His allegiance from first to last was to +_truth_, truth as it presented itself to his own intellect and his own +conscience.' + +On the 16th of February 1835 Carlyle wrote to his brother John: 'I +positively do not care that periodical literature shuts her fist against +me in these months. Let her keep it shut for ever, and go to the devil, +which she mostly belongs to. The matter had better be brought to a +crisis. There is perhaps a finger of Providence in it.... My only new +scheme, since last letter, is a hypothesis--little more yet--about +National Education. The newspapers had an advertisement about a Glasgow +"Educational Association" which wants a man that would found a Normal +School, first going over England and into Germany to get light on that +matter. I wrote to that Glasgow Association afar off, enquiring who they +were, what manner of man they expected, testifying myself very friendly +to their project, and so forth--no answer as yet. It is likely they will +want, as Jane says, a "Chalmers and Welsh" kind of character, in which +case _Va ben, felice notte_. If otherwise, and they (almost by miracle) +had the heart, I am the man for them. Perhaps my name is so heterodox in +that circle, I shall not hear at all.'[17] Carlyle also remarks, in the +same letter, that John Stuart Mill is very friendly: 'He is the nearest +approach to a real man that I find here--nay, as far as negativeness +goes, he _is_ that man, but unhappily not very satisfactory much +farther.' + +Not long thereafter Carlyle met Wordsworth. 'I did not expect much,' he +said in a letter, 'but got mostly what I expected. The old man has a +fine shrewdness and naturalness in his expression of face, a long +Cumberland figure; one finds also a kind of _sincerity_ in his speech. +But for prolixity, thinness, endless dilution, it excels all the other +speech I had heard from mortals. A genuine man, which is much, but also +essentially a small, genuine man.' + +Early in October 1835 Carlyle started for his old home. His +mother-in-law had arrived on a visit at Cheyne Row, and remained there +with her daughter during Carlyle's absence in Scotland. He returned +improved in health and spirits. Nothing came of the National Education +scheme. Carlyle was not a person to push himself into notice, remarks +Froude; and his friends did not exert themselves for him, or they tried +and failed; 'governments, in fact, do not look out for servants among +men who are speculating about the nature of the Universe. Then, as +always, the doors leading into regular employment remained closed.' +Shortly after his return from the North, he was offered the editorship +of a newspaper at Lichfield. This was unaccepted for the same reason +that weighed with him when he refused a post on the _Times_. In the +following summer money matters had become so pressing that Carlyle wrote +the article on Mirabeau, now printed among the _Miscellanies_, for +Mill's review, which brought him £50. Mrs Carlyle's health began to +suffer, and a visit to Annandale became imperative. She returned 'mended +in spirits.' Writing of her arrival in London, she said: 'I had my +luggage put on the backs of two porters, and walked on to Cheapside, +when I presently found a Chelsea omnibus. By-and-bye the omnibus +stopped, and amid cries of "No room, sir; can't get in," Carlyle's face, +beautifully set off by a broad-brimmed white hat, gazed in at the door +like the peri "who, at the gate of heaven, stood disconsolate." In +hurrying along the Strand, his eye had lighted on my trunk packed on the +top of the omnibus, and had recognised it. This seems to me one of the +most indubitable proofs of genius which he ever manifested.' + +On the 22nd of January 1837 Carlyle wrote to his mother: 'The book +[_French Revolution_] is actually done; all written to the last line; +and now, after much higgling and maffling, the printers have got fairly +afloat, and we are to go on with the wind and the sea.' But no money +could be expected from the book for a considerable time. Meanwhile, Miss +Harriet Martineau (who had introduced herself into Cheyne Row), and Miss +Wilson, another accomplished friend, thought that Carlyle should begin a +course of lectures in London, and thereby raise a little money. Carlyle, +it seems, gave 'a grumbling consent.' Nothing daunted, the ladies found +two hundred persons ready each to subscribe a guinea to hear a course of +lectures from him. The end of it was that he delivered six discourses on +German literature, which were 'excellent in themselves, and delivered +with strange impressiveness,' and £135 went into his purse. + +In the summer the _French Revolution_ appeared. The sale at first was +slow, almost nothing, for it was not 'subscribed for' among the +booksellers. Alluding to the criticisms which appeared, Carlyle said: +'Some condemn me, as is very natural, for affectation; others are +hearty, even passionate, in their estimation; on the whole, it strikes +me as not unlikely that the book may take some hold of the English +people, and do them and itself a little good.' He was right. Other +historians have described the Revolution: Carlyle reproduces the +Revolution. He approaches history like a dramatist. Give him, as in the +French Revolution, a weird, tragic, awe-inspiring theme, and he will +utilise his characters, scenes, and circumstances in artistic +subordination to the central idea. Carlyle might be called a subjective +dramatist--that is to say, his own spirit, thoughts, and reflections get +so mixed up with the history that it is difficult to imagine the one +without the other. Every now and then the dramatist interrupts the +tragedy to interject his own reflections; in the history the Carlylean +philosophy plays the part of a Greek chorus. As an example of Carlyle's +genius for a dramatic situation, take his opening of the great drama +with the death scene of Louis XV. Who does not feel, in reading that +scene, as if the Furies were not far off? who does not detect in the +grotesque jostling of the comedy and tragedy of life premonitions of the +coming storm? + +'But figure his thought, when Death is now clutching at his own +heart-strings; unlooked for, inexorable! Yes, poor Louis, Death has +found thee. No palace walls or lifeguards, gorgeous tapestries or gilt +buckram of stiffest ceremonial could keep him out; but he is here, here +at thy very life-breath, and will extinguish it. Thou, whose whole +existence hitherto was a chimera and scenic show, at length becomest a +reality; sumptuous Versailles bursts asunder, like a dream, into void +Immensity: Time is done, and all the scaffolding of Time falls wrecked +with hideous clangour round thy soul: the pale Kingdoms yawn open; there +must thou enter, naked, all unking'd, and await what is appointed +thee!... There are nods and sagacious glances, go-betweens, silk +dowagers mysteriously gliding, with smiles for this constellation, sighs +for that: there is tremor, of hope or desperation, in several hearts. +There is the pale, grinning Shadow of Death, ceremoniously ushered along +by another grinning Shadow, of Etiquette; at intervals the growl of +Chapel Organs, like prayer by machinery; proclaiming, as in a kind of +horrid diabolic horse-laughter, _Vanity of vanities, all is Vanity!_' + +At every stage in the narrative, the reader is impressed with the +dramatic texture of Carlyle's mind. No dramatic writer surpasses him in +the art of producing effects by contrasts. In the midst of a vigorous +description of the storming of the Bastille, he rings down the curtain +for a moment in order to introduce the following scene of idyllic +beauty: 'O evening sun of July, how, at this hour, thy beams fall slant +on reapers amid peaceful woody fields; on old women spinning in +cottages; on ships far out in the silent main; on Balls at the Orangerie +of Versailles, where high-rouged Dames of the Palace are even now +dancing with double-jacketed Hussar officers;--and also on this roaring +Hell-porch of a Hotel-de-Ville!' + +Equally effective is Carlyle in rendering vivid the doings of the +individual actors in the drama. For photographic minuteness and +startling realism what can equal the following:--'But see Camille +Desmoulins, from the Café de Foy, rushing out, sibylline in face; his +hair streaming, in each hand a pistol! He springs to a table: the police +satellites are eyeing him; alive they shall not take him, not they alive +him alive. This time he speaks without stammering:--Friends! shall we +die like hunted hares? Like sheep hounded into their pinfold; bleating +for mercy, where is no mercy, but only a whetted knife? The hour is +come, the supreme hour of Frenchman and Man; when Oppressors are to try +conclusions with Oppressed; and the word is, swift Death, or Deliverance +forever. Let such hour be _well_-come! Us, meseems, one cry only befits: +To Arms! Let universal Paris, universal France, as with the throat of +the whirlwind, sound only: To arms!--"To arms!" yell responsive the +innumerable voices; like one great voice, as of a Demon yelling from the +air: for all faces wax fire-eyed, all hearts burn up into madness. In +such, or fitter words does Camille evoke the Elemental Powers, in this +great moment--"Friends," continues Camille, "some rallying-sign! +Cockades; green ones--the colour of Hope!"--As with the flight of +locusts, these green tree-leaves; green ribands from the neighbouring +shops: all green things are snatched, and made cockades of. Camille +descends from his table; "stifled with embraces, wetted with tears;" has +a bit of green riband handed him; sticks it in his hat. And now to +Curtius' Image-shop there; to the Boulevards; to the four winds, and +rest not till France be on fire!' + +As a historical work, the _French Revolution_ is unique. It is precisely +the kind of book Isaiah would have written had there been a like +Revolution in the Jewish kingdom; and just as we go to Isaiah, not for +sociological guidance, but for ethical inspiration, 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 battery. +From a historian a student expects light as well as heat, guidance as +well as inspiration. It is not enough to have the great French explosion +vividly photographed before his eyes; it is equally necessary to know +the causes which led to the catastrophe. Here, as a historian, Carlyle +is conspicuously weak. His habit of looking for dramatic situations, his +passion for making commonplace incidents and commonplace men merely the +satellites of commanding personalities, in a word, his theory that +history should deal with the doings of great men, prevents Carlyle from +dwelling upon the politico-economic side of national life. So absorbed +is he in painting the Revolution, that he forgets to explain the +Revolution. We have abundance of vague declamations against shams in +high places, plenty of talk about God's judgments, in the style of the +Hebrew prophets, but of patient diagnosis, there is none. As Mr Morley +puts it in his luminous essay on Carlyle: 'To the question whether +mankind gained or lost by the French Revolution, Carlyle nowhere gives a +clear answer; indeed, on this subject more than any other, he clings +closely to his favourite method of simple presentation, streaked with +dramatic irony.... He draws its general moral lesson from the +Revolution, and with clangorous note warns all whom it concerns from +King to Church that imposture must come to an end. But for the precise +amount and kind of dissolution which the West owes to it, for the +political meaning of it, as distinguished from its moral or its dramatic +significance, we seek in vain, finding no word on the subject, nor even +evidence of consciousness that such word is needed.' Had Carlyle, in +addition to his genius as a historical dramatist, possessed the patient +diagnosing power of the writers and thinkers whom he derided, his +_French Revolution_ would have taken its place in historical literature +as an epoch-making book. As it stands, the reader who desires to have an +intelligible knowledge of the subject, is compelled to shake himself +free of the Carlylean mesmerism, and have recourse to those writers whom +Carlyle, under the opprobrious names of 'logic-choppers' and +'dry-as-dusts,' held up to public ridicule. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. pp. 178-79. + +[16] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 20. + +[17] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 24. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HOLIDAY JOURNEYINGS--LITERARY WORK + + +Carlyle was so broken down with his efforts upon the _French Revolution_ +that a trip to Annandale became necessary. He stayed at Scotsbrig two +months, 'wholly idle, reading novels, smoking pipes in the garden with +his mother, hearing notices of his book from a distance, but not looking +for them or caring about them.' Autumn brought Carlyle back to Cheyne +Row, when he found his wife in better health, delighted to have him +again at her side. She knew, as Froude points out, though Carlyle, so +little vain was he, had failed as yet to understand it, that he had +returned to a changed position, that he was no longer lonely and +neglected, but had taken his natural place among the great writers of +his day. He sent bright accounts of himself to Scotsbrig. 'I find John +Sterling here, and many friends, all kinder each than the other to me. +With talk and locomotion the days pass cheerfully till I rest and gird +myself together again. They make a great talk about the book, which +seems to have succeeded in a far higher degree than I looked for. +Everybody is astonished at every other body's being pleased with this +wonderful performance.'[18] + +Carlyle did nothing all the winter except to write his essay on Sir +Walter Scott. His next task was to prepare for a second course of +lectures in the spring on 'Heroes.' The course ended with 'a blaze of +fire-works--people weeping at the passionately earnest tone in which for +once they heard themselves addressed.' The effort brought Carlyle £300 +after all expenses had been paid. 'A great blessing,' he remarked, 'to a +man that had been haunted by the squalid spectre of beggary.' + +Carlyle had no intention of visiting Scotland that autumn, but having +received a pressing invitation from old friends at Kirkcaldy, he took +steamer to Leith in August. While at Kirkcaldy he crossed to Edinburgh +and called on Jeffrey. 'He sat,' says Carlyle, 'waiting for me at Moray +Place. We talked long in the style of literary and philosophic +clitter-clatter. Finally it was settled that I should go out to dinner +with him at Craigcrook, and not return to Fife till the morrow.' They +dined and abstained from contradicting each other, Carlyle admitting +that Jeffrey was becoming an amiable old fribble, 'very cheerful, very +heartless, very forgettable and tolerable.' + +On his return to London, equal to work again, Carlyle found all well. He +was gratified to hear that the eighth edition of the _French +Revolution_ was almost sold, and that another would be called for, while +there were numerous applications from review editors for articles if he +would please to supply them. Mill about this time asked him to +contribute a paper on Cromwell to the _London and Westminster Review_. +Carlyle agreed, and was preparing to begin when the negotiations were +broken off. Mill had gone abroad, leaving a Mr Robertson to manage the +_Review_. Robertson coolly wrote to say that he need not go on with the +article, 'for he meant to do Cromwell himself.' Carlyle was wroth, and +that incident determined him to 'throw himself seriously into the +history of the Commonwealth, and to expose himself no more to cavalier +treatment from "able editors."' But for that task he required books. +Then it was that the idea of founding a London library occurred to him. +Men of position took up the matter warmly, and Carlyle's object was +accomplished. 'Let the tens of thousands,' says Mr Froude, 'who, it is +to be hoped, "are made better and wiser" by the books collected there, +remember that they owe the privilege entirely to Carlyle.' + +One of Carlyle's new acquaintances was Monckton Milnes, who asked him to +breakfast. Carlyle used to say that if Christ were again on earth Milnes +would ask Him to breakfast, and the clubs would all be talking of the +'good things' that Christ had said. He also became familiar with Mr +Baring, afterwards Lord Ashburton, and his accomplished wife, who in +course of time exercised a disturbing influence over the Carlyle +household. It would not tend to edification to dwell upon the domestic +misunderstandings at Cheyne Row; besides, are not they to be found +detailed at great length in Froude's _Life_, the _Reminiscences_, and +_Letters and Memorials_? Although Carlyle was taking life somewhat easy, +he was making preparations for his third course of lectures, his subject +being the 'Revolutions of Modern Europe.' They did not please the +lecturer, but the audiences were as enthusiastic as ever, and he made a +clear gain of £200. + +About this time Emerson was pressing him to go to Boston on a lecturing +tour. But Carlyle thought better of it. More important work awaited him +in London. 'All his life,' says Froude, 'he had been meditating on the +problem of the working-man's existence in this country at the present +epoch.... He had seen the Glasgow riots in 1819. He had heard his father +talk of the poor masons, dining silently upon water and water-cresses. +His letters are full of reflections on such things, sad or indignant, as +the humour might be. He was himself a working-man's son. He had been +bred in a peasant home, and all his sympathies were with his own class. +He was not a revolutionist; he knew well that violence would be no +remedy; that there lay only madness and deeper misery. But the fact +remained, portending frightful issues. The Reform Bill was to have +mended matters but the Reform Bill had gone by and the poor were none +the happier. The power of the State had been shifted from the +aristocracy to the mill-owners, and merchants, and shopkeepers. That was +all. The handicraftsman remained where he was, or was sinking, rather, +into an unowned Arab, to whom "freedom" meant freedom to work if the +employer had work to offer him conveniently to himself, or else freedom +to starve. The fruit of such a state of society as this was the +Sansculottism on which he had been lecturing, and he felt that he must +put his thoughts upon it in a permanent form. He had no faith in +political remedies, in extended suffrages, recognition of "the rights of +man," etc.--absolutely none. That was the road on which the French had +gone; and, if tried in England, it would end as it ended with them--in +anarchy, and hunger, and fury. The root of the mischief was the +forgetfulness on the part of the upper classes, increasing now to flat +denial, that they owed any duty to those under them beyond the payment +of contract wages at the market price. The Liberal theory, as formulated +in Political Economy, was that every one should attend exclusively to +his own interests, and that the best of all possible worlds would be the +certain result. His own conviction was that the result would be the +worst of all possible worlds, a world in which human life, such a life +as _human_ beings ought to live, would become impossible.'[19] + +He wrote to his brother when his lectures were over: "Guess what +immediate project I am on; that of writing an article on the +working-classes for the "Quarterly." It is verily so. I offered to do +the thing for Mill about a year ago. He durst not. I felt a kind of call +and monition of duty to do it, wrote to Lockhart accordingly, was +altogether invitingly answered, had a long interview with the man +yesterday, found him a person of sense, good-breeding, even kindness, +and great consentaneity of opinion with myself on the matter. Am to get +books from him to-morrow, and so shall forthwith set about telling the +Conservatives a thing or two about the claims, condition, rights, and +mights of the working order of men." + +When the annual exodus from London came, the Carlyles went north for a +holiday. They returned much refreshed at the end of two months. His +presence, moreover, was required in London, as _Wilhelm Meister_ was now +to be republished. He set about finishing his article for the +"Quarterly," but as he progressed he felt some misgiving as to its ever +appearing in that magazine. "I have finished," he wrote on November 8, +1839, "a long review article, thick pamphlet, or little volume, entitled +"Chartism." Lockhart has it, for it was partly promised to him; at +least the refusal of it was, and that, I conjecture, will be all he +will enjoy of it." Lockhart sent it back, 'seemingly not without +reluctance,' saying he dared not. Mill was shown the pamphlet and was +'unexpectedly delighted with it.' He was willing to publish it, but +Carlyle's wife and brother insisted that the thing was too good for a +magazine article. Fraser undertook to print it, and before the close of +the year _Chartism_ was in the hands of the public. + +The sale was rapid, an edition of a thousand copies being sold +immediately. 'Chartism,' Froude narrates, was loudly noticed: +"considerable reviewing, but very daft reviewing." Men wondered; how +could they choose but wonder, when a writer of evident power stripped +bare the social disease, told them that their remedies were quack +remedies, and their progress was progress to dissolution? The Liberal +journals, finding their "formulas" disbelieved in, clamoured that +Carlyle was unorthodox; no Radical, but a wolf in sheep's clothing. Yet +what he said was true, and could not be denied to be true. "They approve +generally," he said, "but regret very much that I am a Tory. Stranger +Tory, in my opinion, has not been fallen in with in these later +generations." Again a few weeks later (February 11): "The people are +beginning to discover that I am not a Tory. Ah, no! but one of the +deepest, though perhaps the quietest, of all the Radicals now extant in +the world--a thing productive of small comfort to several persons. They +have said, and they will say, and let them say." + +His final course of lectures now confronted him, and these he entitled +_Heroes and Hero Worship_. He tells his mother (May 26, 1840): 'The +lecturing business went off with sufficient _éclat_. The course was +generally judged, and I rather join therein myself, to be the bad _best_ +I have yet given. On the last day--Friday last--I went to speak of +Cromwell with a head _full of air_; you know that wretched physical +feeling; I had been concerned with drugs, had awakened at five, etc. It +is absolute martyrdom. My tongue would hardly wag at all when I got +done. Yet the good people sate breathless, or broke out into all kinds +of testimonies of goodwill.... In a word, we got right handsomely +through.' That was Carlyle's last appearance as a public lecturer. He +was now the observed of all observers in London society; but he was +weary of lionising and junketings. 'What,' he notes in his journal on +June 15, 1840, 'are lords coming to call on one and fill one's head with +whims? They ask you to go among champagne, bright glitter, +semi-poisonous excitements which you do not like even for the moment, +and you are sick for a week after. As old Tom White said of whisky, +"Keep it--Deevil a ever I'se better than when there's no a drop on't i' +my weam." So say I of dinner popularity, lords and lionism--Keep it; +give it to those that like it.' + +Carlyle was much refreshed at this period by visits from Tennyson. Here +is what he says of the poet: 'A fine, large-featured, dim-eyed, +bronze-coloured, shaggy-headed man is Alfred; dusty, smoky, free and +easy, who swims outwardly and inwardly with great composure in an +inarticulate element of tranquil chaos and tobacco smoke. Great now and +then when he does emerge--a most restful, brotherly, solid-hearted man.' + +In a note to his brother John on September 11, 1840, he says: 'I have +again some notions towards writing a book--let us see what comes of +that. It is the one use of living, for me. Enough to-day.' The book he +had in view was _Cromwell_. Journalising on the day after Christmas he +laments--'Oliver Cromwell will not prosper with me at all. I began +reading about that subject some four months ago. I learn almost nothing +by reading, yet cannot as yet heartily begin to write. Nothing on paper +yet. I know not where to begin.' + +At the end of the year Mrs Carlyle wrote: 'Carlyle is reading +voraciously, preparatory to writing a new book. For the rest, he growls +away much in the old style. But one gets to feel a certain indifference +to his growling; if one did not, it would be the worse for one.' A month +or two later, Carlyle writes: 'Think not hardly of me, dear Jeannie. In +the mutual misery we often are in, we do not know how dear we are to one +another. By the help of Heaven, I shall get a little better, and +somewhat of it shall abate. Last night, at dinner, Richard Milnes made +them all laugh with a saying of yours. "When the wife has influenza, it +is _a slight cold_--when the man has it, it is, &c., &c."' Writing to +Sterling he exclaims, 'I shall verily fly to Craigenputtock again before +long. Yet I know what solitude is, and imprisonment among black cattle +and peat bogs. The truth is, we are never right as we are. "Oh, the +devil burn it"! said the Irish drummer flogging his countryman; "there's +no pleasing of you, strike where one will."' + +Milnes prevailed on Carlyle, instead of flying to the bleak expanse of +Craigenputtock, to accompany him to his father's house at Fryston, in +Yorkshire, whence he sent a series of affectionate and graphic letters +to Mrs Carlyle. Being so far north, he took a run to Dumfriesshire to +see his mother, who had been slightly ailing. He was back in London, +however, in May, but not improved in mind or body. It was a hot summer, +and the Carlyles went to Scotsbrig, and took a cottage at Newby, close +to Annan. By the end of September, Carlyle was back in Cheyne Row. His +latest hero still troubled him. 'Ought I,' he asks, 'to write now of +Oliver Cromwell?... I cannot yet see clearly.' + +Carlyle at one time had a hankering after a Scottish professorship, but +the 'door had been shut in his face,' sometimes contemptuously. He was +now famous, and the young Edinburgh students, having looked into his +lectures on Heroes, began to think that, whatever might be the opinions +of the authorities and patrons, they for their part must consider +lectures such as these a good exchange for what was provided for them. A +'History Chair' was about to be established. A party of them, +represented by a Mr Dunipace, presented a requisition to the Faculty of +Advocates to appoint Carlyle. When asked his consent to be nominated, +Carlyle replied: 'Accept my kind thanks, you and all your associates, +for your zeal to serve me.... Ten years ago such an invitation might +perhaps have been decisive of much for me, but it is too late now; too +late for many reasons, which I need not trouble you with at present.' + +A very severe blow now fell upon Mrs Carlyle, who received news from +Templand that her mother had been struck by apoplexy, and was +dangerously ill. Although unfit for travelling, she caught the first +train from Euston Square to Liverpool, but at her uncle's house there +she learnt that all was over. Mrs Carlyle lay ill in Liverpool, unable +to stir. After a while she was able to go back to London, where Carlyle +joined her in the month of May. It was on his return journey that he +paid a visit to Dr Arnold at Rugby, when he had an opportunity, under +his host's genial guidance, to explore the field of Naseby. + +His sad occupations in Scotland, and the sad thoughts they suggested, +made Carlyle disinclined for society. He had a room arranged for him at +the top of his house, and there he sate and smoked, and read books on +Cromwell, 'the sight of Naseby having brought the subject back out of +"the abysses."' Meanwhile he had a pleasant trip to Ostend with Mr +Stephen Spring Rice, Commissioner of Customs, of which he wrote vivid +descriptions. + +On October 25, 1842, Carlyle wrote in his journal: 'For many months +there has been no writing here. Alas! what was there to write? About +myself, nothing; or less, if that was possible. I have not got one word +to stand upon paper in regard to Oliver. The beginnings of work are even +more formidable than the executing of it.' But another subject was to +engross his attention for a little while. The distress of the poor +became intense; less in London, however, than in other large towns. 'I +declare,' he wrote to his mother early in January 1843, 'I declare I +begin to feel as if I should not hold my peace any longer, 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 done.' On the 20th he wrote: +'I hope it will be a rather useful kind of book.' He could not go on +with Cromwell till he had unburdened his soul. 'The look of the world,' +he said, 'is really quite oppressive to me. Eleven thousand souls in +Paisley alone living on threehalfpence a day, and the governors of the +land all busy shooting partridges and passing corn-laws the while! It +is a thing no man with a speaking tongue in his head is entitled to be +silent about.' The outcome of all his soul-burnings and cogitations was +_Past and Present_, which appeared at the beginning of April. The +reviewers set to work, 'wondering, admiring, blaming, chiefly the last.' + +Carlyle then undertook several journeys, chiefly in order to visit +Cromwellian battlefields, the sight of which made the Oliver enterprise +no longer impossible. He found a renovated house on his return, and Mrs +Carlyle writing on November 28th, describes him as 'over head and ears +in Cromwell,' and 'lost to humanity for the time being.' Six months +later, he makes this admission in his journal--'My progress in +"Cromwell" is frightful. I am no day absolutely idle, but the confusions +that lie in my way require far more fire of energy than I can muster on +most days, and I sit not so much working as painfully looking on work.' +Four months later, when _Cromwell_ was progressing slowly, Carlyle +suffered a severe personal loss by the death of John Sterling. +'Sterling,' says Froude, 'had been his spiritual pupil, his first, and +also his noblest and best. Consumption had set its fatal mark upon him.' +Carlyle drowned his sorrow in hard work, and in July 1845 the end of +_Cromwell_ was coming definitely in sight. In his journal under date +August 26th, is to be found this entry: 'I have this moment _ended_ +Oliver; hang it! He is ended, thrums and all. I have nothing more to +write on the subject, only mountains of wreck to burn. Not (any more) up +to the chin in paper clippings and chaotic litter, hatefuller to me than +most. I _am_ to have a swept floor now again.' And thus the herculean +labours of five years were ended. His desire was to be in Scotland, and +he made his way northwards by the usual sea route to Annan and +Scotsbrig. He did not remain long away, and upon his return _Cromwell_ +was just issuing from the press. It was received with great favour, the +sale was rapid, and additional materials came from unexpected quarters. +In February 1846 a new edition was needed in order to insert fresh +letters of Oliver according to date; a process, Carlyle said 'requiring +one's most excellent talent, as of shoe-cobbling, really that kind of +talent carried to a high pitch.' When completed, Carlyle presented a +copy of it to the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, a step he never took +before or after with any of his writings,--a compliment which Peel +gracefully acknowledged. + +Carlyle's plans for the summer of 1846 were, a visit to his mother and a +run across to Ireland. Charles Gavan Duffy of the _Nation_ newspaper saw +him in London in consequence of what he had written in _Chartism_ about +misgovernment in Ireland. He had promised to go over and see what the +'Young Ireland' movement was doing. On the 31st of August he left +Scotsbrig, and landed in due course at Belfast, where he was to have +been met by John Mitchel and Gavan Duffy and driven to Drogheda. He +missed his two friends through a mistake at the post-office, and hurried +on by railway to Dublin. He met them at Dundrum, and was there +entertained at a large dinner-party. Next day he dined at Mitchel's. His +stay was remarkably short. He took steamer at Kingstown, and in the +early morning of September 10th '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 in.' + +In June 1847 Carlyle relates that they had a flying visit from Jeffrey. +'A much more interesting visitor than Jeffrey was old Dr Chalmers, who +came down to us also last week, whom I had not seen before for, I think, +five-and-twenty years. It was a pathetic meeting. The good old man is +grown white-headed, but is otherwise wonderfully little altered--grave, +deliberate, very gentle in his deportment, but with plenty too of soft +energy; full of interest still for all serious things, full of real +kindliness, and sensible even to honest mirth in a fair measure. He sate +with us an hour and a half, went away with our blessings and affections. +It is long since I have spoken to so _good_ and really pious-hearted and +beautiful old man.' In a week or two Chalmers was suddenly called away. +'I believe,' wrote Carlyle to his mother, 'there is not in all Scotland, +or all Europe, any such Christian priest left. It will long be memorable +to us, the little visit we had from him.' + +Early in 1848, the Jew Bill was before Parliament, and the fate of it +doubtful, narrates Mr Froude. Baron Rothschild wrote to ask Carlyle to +write a pamphlet in its favour, and intimated that he might name any sum +which he liked to ask as payment. Froude enquired how he answered. +'Well,' he said, 'I had to tell him it couldn't be; but I observed, too, +that I could not conceive why he and his friends, who were supposed to +be looking out for the coming of Shiloh, should be seeking seats in a +Gentile legislature.' Froude asked what the Baron said to that. 'Why,' +said Carlyle, 'he seemed to think the coming of Shiloh was a dubious +business, and that meanwhile, etc., etc.' + +On February 9, 1848, Carlyle wrote in his journal: 'Chapman's money +[Chapman & Hall were his publishers] all paid, lodged now in the +Dumfries Bank. New edition of "Sartor" to be wanted soon. My poor books +of late have yielded me a certain fluctuating annual income; at all +events, I am quite at my ease as to money, and that on such low terms. I +often wonder at the luxurious ways of the age. Some £1500, I think, is +what has accumulated in the bank. Of fixed income (from Craigenputtock) +£150 a year. Perhaps as much from my books may lie fixed amid the huge +fluctuation (last year, for instance, it was £800: the year before, +£100; the year before that, about £700; this year, again, it is like to +be £100; the next perhaps nothing--very fluctuating indeed)--some £300 +in all, and that amply suffices me. For my wife is the best of +housewives; noble, too, in reference to the property, which is _hers_, +which she has never once in the most distant way seemed to know to be +hers. Be this noted and remembered; my thrifty little lady--every inch a +lady--ah me! In short, I authentically feel indifferent to money; would +not go this way or that to gain more money.'[20] + +The Revolution of February 24th at Paris surprised Carlyle less than +most of his contemporaries, as it confirmed what he had been saying for +years. He did not believe, we are told, in immediate convulsion in +England; but he did believe that, unless England took warning and mended +her ways, her turn would come. The excitement in London was intense, and +leading men expressed themselves freely, but Carlyle's general thoughts +were uttered in a lengthy letter to Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, for +whom he entertained a warm regard. On March 14 he met Macaulay at Lord +Mahon's at breakfast; 'Niagara of eloquent commonplace talk,' he says, +'from Macaulay. "Very good-natured man"; man cased in official mail of +proof; stood my impatient fire-explosions with much patience, merely +hissing a little steam up, and continued his Niagara--supply and demand; +power ruinous to powerful himself; _im_possibility of Government doing +more than keep the peace; suicidal distraction of new French Republic, +etc. Essentially irremediable, commonplace nature of the man; all that +was in him now gone to the tongue; a squat, thickset, low-browed, short, +grizzled little man of fifty.' + +One of the few men Carlyle was anxious to see was Sir Robert Peel. He +was introduced by the Barings at a dinner at Bath House. Carlyle sat +next to Peel, whom he describes as 'a finely-made man of strong, not +heavy, rather of elegant, stature; stands straight, head slightly thrown +back, and eyelids modestly drooping; every way mild and gentle, yet with +less of that fixed smile than the portraits give him. He is towards +sixty, and, though not broken at all, carries, especially in his +complexion, when you are _near_ him, marks of that age; clear, strong +blue eyes which kindle on occasion, voice extremely good, low-toned, +something of _cooing_ in it, rustic, affectionate, honest, mildly +persuasive. Spoke about French Revolutions new and old; well read in all +that; had seen General Dumouriez; reserved seemingly by nature, obtrudes +nothing of _diplomatic_ reserve. On the contrary, a vein of mild _fun_ +in him, real sensibility to the ludicrous, which feature I liked best of +all.... I consider him by far our first public man--which, indeed, is +saying little--and hope that England in these frightful times may still +get some good of him. N.B.--This night with Peel was the night in which +Berlin city executed its last terrible battle, (19th of March to Sunday +morning the 20th, five o'clock.) While we sate there the streets of +Berlin city were all blazing with grape-shot and the war of enraged men. +What is to become of all that? I have a book to write about it. Alas! We +hear of a great Chartist petition to be presented by 200,000 men. People +here keep up their foolish levity in speaking of these things; but +considerate persons find them to be very grave; and indeed all, even the +laughers, are in considerable secret alarm.'[21] + +At such a time Carlyle knew that he, the author of _Chartism_, ought to +say something. Foolish people, too, came pressing for his opinions. Not +seeing his way to a book upon 'Democracy,' he wrote a good many +newspaper articles, chiefly in the _Examiner_ and the _Spectator_, to +deliver his soul. Even Fonblanque and Rintoul (the editors), remarks +Froude, friendly though they were to him, could not allow him his full +swing. 'There is no established journal,' complained Carlyle, 'that can +stand my articles, no single one they would not blow the bottom out of.' + +On July 12 occurs this entry in his journal: 'Chartist concern, and +Irish Repeal concern, and French Republic concern have all gone a bad +way since the March entry--April 20 (immortal day already dead), day of +Chartist monster petition; 200,000 special constables swore themselves +in, etc., and Chartism came to nothing. Riots since, but the leaders +all lodged in gaol, tried, imprisoned for two years, etc., and so ends +Chartism for the present. Irish Mitchel, poor fellow! is now in Bermuda +as a felon; letter from him, letter to him, letter to and from Lord +Clarendon--was really sorry for poor Mitchel. But what help? French +Republic _cannonaded_ by General Cavaignac; a sad outlook there.'[22] + +Carlyle's _Cromwell_ had created a set of enthusiastic admirers who were +bent on having a statue of the great Protector set up. Carlyle was asked +to give his sanction to the proposal. Writing to his mother, he said: +'The people having subscribed £25,000 for a memorial to an ugly bullock +of a Hudson, who did not even pretend to have any merit except that of +being suddenly rich, and who is now discovered to be little other than +at heart a horse-coper and dishonest fellow, I think they ought to leave +Cromwell alone of their memorials, and try to honour him in some more +profitable way--by learning to be honest men like him, for example. But +we shall see what comes of all this Cromwell work--a thing not without +value either.'[23] + +'Ireland,' says Froude, 'of all the topics on which Carlyle had +meditated writing, remained painfully fascinating. He had looked at the +beggarly scene, he had seen the blighted fields, the ragged misery of +the wretched race who were suffering for other's sins as well as for +their own. Since that brief visit of his, the famine had been followed +by the famine-fever, and the flight of millions from a land which was +smitten with a curse. Those ardent young men with whom he had dined at +Dundrum were working as felons in the docks at Bermuda. Gavan Duffy, +after a near escape from the same fate, had been a guest in Cheyne Row; +and the story which he had to tell of cabins torn down by crowbars, and +shivering families, turned out of their miserable homes, dying in the +ditches by the roadside, had touched Carlyle to the very heart. He was +furious at the economical commonplaces with which England was consoling +itself. He regarded Ireland as "the breaking-point of the huge +suppuration which all British and all European society then was."'[24] +Carlyle paid a second visit to Ireland. He was anxious to write a book +on the subject. He noted down what he had seen, and 'then dismissed the +unhappy subject from his mind,' giving his manuscript to a friend, which +was published after his death. + +The 7th of August found Carlyle among his 'ain folk' at Scotsbrig, and +this was his soliloquy: 'Thank Heaven for the sight of real human +industry, with human fruits from it, once more. The sight of fenced +fields, weeded crops, and human creatures with whole clothes on their +back--it was as if one had got into spring water out of dunghill +puddles.' Mrs Carlyle had also gone to Scotland, and 'wandered like a +returned spirit about the home of her childhood.' Of her numerous lively +letters, room must be found for a characteristic epistle to her +brother-in-law, John Carlyle. His translation of Dante's _Inferno_ was +just out, and her uncle's family at Auchtertool Manse, in Fife, where +she was staying, were busy reading and discussing it. 'We had been +talking about you,' she says, 'and had sunk silent. Suddenly my uncle +turned his head to me and said, shaking it gravely, "He has made an +awesome plooster o' that place." "Who? What place, uncle?" "Whew! the +place ye'll maybe gang to, if ye dinna tak' care." I really believe he +considers all those circles of your invention. Walter [a cousin, just +ordained] performed the marriage service over a couple of colliers the +day after I came. I happened to be in his study when they came in, and +asked leave to remain. The man was a good-looking man enough, dreadfully +agitated, partly with the business he was come on, partly with drink. He +had evidently taken a glass too much to keep his heart up. The girl had +one very large inflamed eye and one little one, which looked perfectly +composed, while the large eye stared wildly, and had a tear in it. +Walter married them very well indeed; and his affecting words, together +with the bridegroom's pale, excited face, and the bride's ugliness, and +the poverty, penury, and want imprinted on the whole business, 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 myself, and, when the ceremony +was over, extended my hand to the unfortunates, and actually (in such an +enthusiasm of pity did I find myself) I presented the new husband with a +snuff-box which I happened to have in my hand, being just about +presenting it to Walter when the creatures came in. This unexpected +_Himmelsendung_ finished turning the man's head; he wrung my hand over +and over, leaving his mark for some hours after, and ended his grateful +speeches with, "Oh, Miss! Oh, Liddy! may ye hae mair comfort and +pleasure in your life than ever you have had yet!" which might easily +be.' + +Carlyle was full of wrath at what he considered the cant about the +condition of the wage-earners in Manchester and elsewhere, and his +indignation found vent in the _Latter-day Pamphlets_. Froude once asked +him if he had ever thought of going into Parliament, for the former knew +that the opportunity must have been offered him. 'Well,' he said, 'I did +think of it at the time of the "Latter-day Pamphlets." I felt that +nothing could prevent me from getting up in the House and saying all +that.' 'He was powerful,' adds Froude, '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 was, and +remains charged. It is better that his thoughts should have been +committed to enduring print, where they remain to be reviewed hereafter +by the light of fact.'[25] + +The printing of the _Pamphlets_ commenced at the beginning of 1850, and +went on month after month, each separately published, no magazine daring +to become responsible for them. When the _Pamphlets_ appeared, they were +received with 'astonished indignation.' 'Carlyle taken to whisky,' was +the popular impression--or perhaps he had gone mad. '_Punch_,' says +Froude, 'the most friendly to him of all the London periodicals, +protested affectionately. The delinquent was brought up for trial before +him, I think for injuring his reputation. He was admonished, but stood +impenitent, and even "called the worthy magistrate a windbag and a +sham." I suppose it was Thackeray who wrote this; or some other kind +friend, who feared, like Emerson, "that the world would turn its back on +him." He was under no illusion himself as to the effect which he was +producing.'[26] + +Amid the general storm, Carlyle was 'agreeably surprised' to receive an +invitation to dine with Peel at Whitehall Gardens, where he met a select +company. 'After all the servants but the butler were gone,' narrates +Carlyle, 'we began to hear a little of Peel's quiet talk across the +table, unimportant, distinguished by its sense of the ludicrous shining +through a strong official _rationality_ and even seriousness of temper. +Distracted _address_ of a letter from somebody to Queen Victoria; "The +most noble George Victoria, Queen of England, Knight and Baronet," or +something like that. A man had once written to Peel himself, while +secretary, "that he was weary of life, that if any gentleman wanted for +his park-woods a hermit, he, etc.", all of which was very pretty and +human as Peel gave it us.'[27] Carlyle was driven home by the Bishop of +Oxford, 'Soapy Sam' Wilberforce, whom he had probably met before at the +Ashburton's. The Bishop once told Froude that he considered Carlyle a +most eminently religious man. 'Ah, Sam,' said Carlyle to Froude one day, +'he is a very clever fellow; I do not hate him near as much as I fear I +ought to do.' Carlyle and Peel met once more, at Bath House, and there, +too, he was first introduced to the Duke of Wellington. Writing at the +time, Carlyle said: 'I had never seen till now how beautiful, and what +an expression of graceful simplicity, veracity, and nobleness there is +about the old hero when you see him close at hand.... Except for Dr +Chalmers, I have not for many years seen so beautiful an old man.' + +Carlyle intended, some time or other, writing a 'Life of Sterling,' but +meanwhile he accepted an invitation to visit South Wales. Thence he +made his way to Scotsbrig. On the 27th September 1850, he 'parted +sorrowfully with his mother.' When he reached London, the autumn +quarterlies were reviewing the _Pamphlets_, and the 'shrieking tone was +considerably modified.' 'A review of them,' says Froude, 'by Masson in +the _North British_ distinctly pleased Carlyle. A review in the _Dublin_ +he found "excellently serious," and conjectured that it came from some +Anglican pervert or convert. It was written, I believe, by Dr Ward.' + +After a few more wanderings, Carlyle set about the _Life of Sterling_, +and on April 5, 1851, he informs his mother: 'I told the Doctor about +"John Sterling's Life," a small, insignificant book or pamphlet I have +been writing. The booksellers got it away from me the other morning, to +see how much there is of it, in the first place. I know not altogether +myself whether it is worth printing or not, but rather think it will be +the end of it whether or not. It has cost little trouble, and need not +do much ill, if it do no great amount of good.' Another visit had to be +paid to Scotsbrig, where he read the "Life of Chalmers." 'An excellent +Christian man,' he said. 'About as great a contrast to himself in all +ways as could be found in these epochs under the same sky.' + +When he got back to Cheyne Row, he took to reading the "Seven Years' +War," with a view to another book. He determined to go to Germany, and +on August 30, 1852, Carlyle embarked 'on board the greasy little wretch +of a Leith steamer, laden to the water's edge with pig-iron and +herrings.' The journey over, he set to work on 'Frederick,' but was +driven almost to despair by the cock-crowing in his neighbourhood. +Writing to Mrs Carlyle, he says: 'I foresee in general these cocks will +require to be abolished, entirely silenced, whether we build the new +room or not. I would cheerfully shoot them, and pay the price if +discovered, but I have no gun, should be unsafe for hitting, and indeed +seldom see the wretched animals.' + +He took refuge at the Ashburton's house, the Grange, but on the 20th of +December, news came that his mother was seriously ill, and could not +last long. He hurried off to Scotsbrig, and reached there in time to see +her once more alive. In his journal, this passage is to be found under +date January 8, 1854: 'The stroke has fallen. My dear old mother is gone +from me, and in the winter of the year, confusedly under darkness of +weather and of mind, the stern final epoch--_epoch of old age_--is +beginning to unfold itself for me.... It is matter of perennial +thankfulness to me, and beyond my desert in that matter very far, that I +found my dear old mother still alive; able to recognise me with a faint +joy; her former _self_ still strangely visible there in all its +lineaments, though worn to the uttermost thread. The brave old mother +and the good, whom to lose had been my fear ever since intelligence +awoke in me in this world, arrived now at the final bourn.... She was +about 84 years of age, and could not with advantage to any side remain +with us longer. Surely it was a good Power that gave us such a mother; +and good though stern that took her away from amid such grief and labour +by a death beautiful to one's thoughts. "All the days of my appointed +time will I wait till my change come." This they heard her muttering, +and many other less frequent pious texts and passages. Amen, Amen! +Sunday, December 25, 1853--a day henceforth for ever memorable to me.... +To live for the shorter or longer remainder of my days with the simple +bravery, veracity, and piety of her that is gone: that would be a right +learning from her death, and a right honouring of her memory. But alas +all is yet _frozen_ within me; even as it is without me at present, and +I have made little or no way. God be helpful to me! I myself am very +weak, confused, fatigued, entangled in poor _worldlinesses_ too. +Newspaper paragraphs, even as this sacred and peculiar thing, are not +indifferent to me. Weak soul! and I am fifty-eight years old, and the +tasks I have on hand, Frederick, &c., are most ungainly, incongruous +with my mood--and the night cometh, for me too is not distant, which for +her is come. I must try, I must try. Poor brother Jack! Will he do his +Dante now? For him also I am sad; and surely he has deserved gratitude +in these last years from us all.'[28] + +When he returned to London, Carlyle lived in strict seclusion, making +repeated efforts at work on what he called 'the unexecutable book,' +_Frederick_. In the spring of 1854, tidings reached Carlyle of the death +of Professor Wilson. Between them there had never been any cordial +relation, says Froude. 'They had met in Edinburgh in the old days; on +Carlyle's part there had been no backwardness, and Wilson was not +unconscious of Carlyle's extraordinary powers. But he had been shy of +Carlyle, and Carlyle had resented it, and now this April the news came +that Wilson was gone, and Carlyle had to write his epitaph. 'I knew his +figure well,' wrote Carlyle in his journal on April 29; 'remember well +first seeing him in Princes Street on a bright April afternoon--probably +1814--exactly forty years ago.... A tall ruddy figure, with plenteous +blonde hair, with bright blue eyes, fixed, as if in haste towards some +distant object, strode rapidly along, clearing the press to the left of +us, close by the railings, near where Blackwood's shop now is. Westward +he in haste; we slowly eastward. Campbell whispered me, "That is Wilson +of the _Isle of Palms_," which poem I had not read, being then quite +mathematical, scientific, &c., for extraneous reasons, as I now see them +to have been. The broad-shouldered stately bulk of the man struck me; +his flashing eye, copious, dishevelled head of hair, and rapid, +unconcerned progress, like that of a plough through stubble. I really +liked him, but only from the distance, and thought no more of him. It +must have been fourteen years later before I once saw his figure again, +and began to have some distant straggling acquaintance of a personal +kind with him. Glad could I have been to be better and more familiarly +acquainted; but though I liked much in him, and he somewhat in me, it +would not do. He was always very kind to me, but seemed to have a +feeling I should--could--not become wholly his, in which he was right, +and that on other terms he could not have me; so we let it so remain, +and for many years--indeed, even after quitting Edinburgh--I had no +acquaintance with him; occasionally got symptoms of his ill-humour with +me--ink-spurts in _Blackwood_, read or heard of, which I, in a surly, +silent manner, strove to consider _flattering_ rather.... So far as I +can recollect, he was once in my house (Comely Bank, with a testimonial, +poor fellow!), and I once in his, De Quincey, &c., a little while one +afternoon.'[29] + +On September 16, 1854, Carlyle breaks out in his journal: '"The harvest +is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."' What a fearful +word! I cannot find how to take up that miserable "Frederick," or what +on earth to do with it.' He worked hard at it, nevertheless, for +eighteen months, and by the end of May 1858, the first instalment was +all in type. Froude remarks that a fine critic once said to him that +Carlyle's Friedrich Wilhelm was as peculiar and original as Sterne's +Tristram Shandy; certainly as distinct a personality as exists in +English fiction. Carlyle made a second journey to Germany. Shortly after +his return, the already finished volumes of _Frederick_ appeared, and +they met with an immediate welcome. The success was great; 2000 copies +were sold at the first issue, and a second 2000 were disposed of almost +as rapidly, and a third 2000 followed. Mrs Carlyle's health being +unsatisfactory, Carlyle took a house for the summer at Humbie, near +Aberdour in Fife. They returned to Cheyne Row in October, neither of +them benefited by their holiday in the north. + +While many of Carlyle's intimate friends were passing away, he formed +Ruskin's acquaintance, which turned out mutually satisfactory. On the +23rd April 1861, Carlyle writes to his brother John: 'Friday last I was +persuaded--in fact had unwarily compelled myself, as it were--to a +lecture of Ruskin's at the Institution, Albemarle Street. Lecture on +Tree Leaves as physiological, pictorial, moral, symbolical objects. A +crammed house, but tolerable to me even in the gallery. The lecture was +thought to "break down," and indeed it quite did "_as a lecture_"; but +only did from _embarras des richesses_--a rare case. Ruskin did blow +asunder as by gunpowder explosions his leaf notions, which were +manifold, curious, genial; and, in fact, I do not recollect to have +heard in that place any neatest thing I liked so well as this chaotic +one.'[30] + +_Frederick_ was progressing, though slowly, as he found the ore in the +German material at his disposal "nowhere smelted out of it." The third +volume was finished and published in the summer of 1862; the fourth +volume was getting into type; and the fifth and last was finished in +January 1865. 'It nearly killed me,' Carlyle writes in his journal, 'it, +and my poor Jane's dreadful illness, now happily over. No sympathy could +be found on earth for those horrid struggles of twelve years, nor +happily was any needed. On Sunday evening in the end of January (1865) I +walked out, with the multiplex feeling--joy not very prominent in it, +but a kind of solemn thankfulness traceable, that I had written the last +sentence of that unutterable book, and, contrary to many forebodings in +bad hours, had actually got done with it for ever.' + +In England it was at once admitted, says Froude, that a splendid +addition had been made to the national literature. 'The book contained, +if nothing else, a gallery of historical figures executed with a skill +which placed Carlyle at the head of literary portrait painters.... No +critic, after the completion of _Frederick_, challenged Carlyle's right +to a place beside the greatest of English authors, past or present.' The +work was translated instantly into German, calling forth the warmest +appreciation. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 115. + +[19] Froude's "Life in London," vol. i. pp. 161-62. + +[20] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 420. + +[21] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. pp. 433-4. + +[22] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 441. + +[23] Ibid., vol. i. p. 451. + +[24] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 456. + +[25] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 26. + +[26] Ibid., vol. ii. p. 36. + +[27] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 43. + +[28] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. pp. 142-45. + +[29] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. pp. 156-7. + +[30] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 245. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +RECTORIAL ADDRESS--DEATH OF MRS CARLYLE + + +After a round of holiday visits, including one to Annandale, the +Carlyles settled down once more at Cheyne Row in the summer of 1865. +'The great outward event of Carlyle's own life,' observes Froude, +'Scotland's public recognition of him, was now lying close ahead. This +his wife was to live to witness as her final happiness in this world.' +Here is an eloquent passage from the same pen: 'I had been at +Edinburgh,' writes Froude, 'and had heard Gladstone make his great +oration on Homer there, on retiring from office as Rector. It was a +grand display. I never recognised before what oratory could do; the +audience being kept for three hours in a state of electric tension, +bursting every moment into applause. Nothing was said which seemed of +moment when read deliberately afterwards; but the voice was like +enchantment, and the street, when we left the building, was ringing with +a prolongation of cheers. Perhaps in all Britain there was not a man +whose views on all subjects, in heaven and earth, less resembled +Gladstone's than those of the man whom this same applauding multitude +elected to take his place. The students too, perhaps, were ignorant how +wide the contradiction was; but if they had been aware of it they need +not have acted differently. Carlyle had been one of themselves. He had +risen from among them--not by birth or favour, not on the ladder of any +established profession, but only by the internal force that was in +him--to the highest place as a modern man of letters. In _Frederick_ he +had given the finish to his reputation; he stood now at the summit of +his fame; and the Edinburgh students desired to mark their admiration in +some signal way. He had been mentioned before, but he had declined to be +nominated, for a party only were then in his favour. On this occasion, +the students were unanimous, or nearly so. His own consent was all that +was wanting.'[31] This consent was obtained, and Carlyle was chosen +Rector of Edinburgh University. But the Address troubled him. He +resolved, however, as his father used to say, to 'gar himself go through +with the thing,' or at least to try. Froude says he was very miserable, +but that Mrs Carlyle 'kept up his spirits, made fun of his fears, +bantered him, encouraged him, herself at heart as much alarmed as he +was, but conscious, too, of the ridiculous side of it.' She thought of +accompanying him, but her health would not permit of the effort. Both +Huxley and Tyndall were going down, and Tyndall promised Mrs Carlyle to +take care of her husband. + +On Monday morning, the 29th of March, 1866, Carlyle and his wife parted. +'The last I saw of her,' he said, 'was as she stood with her back to the +parlour door to bid me good-bye. She kissed me twice, she me once, I her +a second time.' They parted for ever. + +Edinburgh was reached in due course, and what happened there had best be +told by an eye-witness, Professor Masson. 'On the night following +Carlyle's arrival in town,' he says, 'after he had settled himself in Mr +Erskine of Linlathen's house, where he was to stay during his visit, he +and his brother John came to my house in Rosebery Crescent, that they +might have a quiet smoke and talk over matters. They sat with me an hour +or more, Carlyle as placid and hearty as could be, talking most +pleasantly, a little dubious, indeed, as to how he might get through his +Address, but for the rest unperturbed. As to the Address itself, when +the old man stood up in the Music Hall before the assembled crowd, and +threw off his Rectorial robes, and proceeded to speak, slowly, +connectedly, 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 next, the crowd listening as they had never listened to a speaker +before, and reverent even in those parts of the hall where he was least +audible,--who that was present will ever forget that sight? That day, +and on the subsequent days of his stay, there were, of course, dinners +and other gatherings in Carlyle's honour. One such dinner, followed by a +larger evening gathering, was in my house. Then, too, he was in the best +of possible spirits, courteous in manner and in speech to all, and +throwing himself heartily into whatever turned up. At the dinner-table, +I remember, Lord Neaves favoured us with one or two of his humorous +songs or recitatives, including his clever quiz called "Stuart Mill on +Mind and Matter," written to the tune of "Roy's wife of Aldivalloch." No +one enjoyed the thing more than Carlyle; and he surprised me by doing +what I had never heard him do before,--actually joining with his own +voice in the chorus. "Stuart Mill on Mind and Matter, Stuart Mill on +Mind and Matter," he chaunted laughingly along with Lord Neaves every +time the chorus came round, beating time in the air emphatically with +his fist. It was hardly otherwise, or only otherwise inasmuch as the +affair was more ceremonious and stately, at the dinner given to him in +the Douglas Hotel by the Senatus Academicus, and in which his old friend +Sir David Brewster presided. There, too, while dignified and serene, +Carlyle was thoroughly sympathetic and convivial. Especially I remember +how he relished and applauded the songs of our academic laureate and +matchless chief in such things, Professor Douglas Maclagan, and how, +before we broke up, he expressly complimented Professor Maclagan on +having "contributed so greatly to the hilarity of the evening."'[32] + +The most graphic account of Carlyle's installation as Lord Rector is +that by Alexander Smith, the author of 'A Life Drama,' 'Summer in Skye,' +&c., &c., whose lamented death took place a few months after that event. +'Curious stories,' he wrote, 'are told of the eagerness on every side +manifested to hear Mr Carlyle. Country clergymen from beyond Aberdeen +came to Edinburgh for the sole purpose of hearing and seeing. Gentlemen +came down from London by train the night before, and returned to London +by train the night after. Nay, it was even said that an enthusiast, +dwelling in the remote west of Ireland, intimated to the officials who +had charge of the distribution, that if a ticket should be reserved for +him, he would gladly come the whole way to Edinburgh. Let us hope a +ticket _was_ reserved. On the day of the address, the doors of the Music +Hall were besieged long before the hour of opening had arrived; and +loitering about there on the outskirts of the crowd, one could not help +glancing curiously down Pitt Street, towards the "lang toun of +Kirkcaldy," dimly seen beyond the Forth; for on the sands there, in the +early years of the century, Edward Irving was accustomed to pace up and +down solitarily, and "as if the sands were his own," people say, who +remember, when they were boys, seeing the tall, ardent, black-haired, +swift-gestured, squinting man, often enough. And to Kirkcaldy, too, ... +came young Carlyle from Edinburgh College, wildly in love with German +and mathematics; and the schoolroom in which these men taught, although +incorporated in Provost Swan's manufactory, is yet kept sacred and +intact, and but little changed these fifty years--an act of hero-worship +for which the present and other generations may be thankful. It seemed +to me that so glancing Fife-wards, 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 see, and the speech I was to hear. +David and Jonathan! Jonathan stumbled and fell on the dark hills, not of +Gilboa, but of Vanity; and David sang his funeral song: "But for him I +had never known what the communion of man with man means. His was the +freest, brotherliest, bravest human soul mine ever came in contact with. +I call him, on the whole, the best man I have ever, after trial enough, +found in this world, or now hope to find." + +'In a very few minutes after the doors were opened, the large hall was +filled in every part; and when up the central passage the Principal, the +Lord Rector, the Members of the Senate, and other gentlemen advanced +towards the platform, the cheering was vociferous and hearty. The +Principal occupied the chair, of course; the Lord Rector on his right, +the Lord Provost on his left. When the platform gentlemen had taken +their seats, every eye was fixed on the Rector. To all appearance, as he +sat, time and labour had dealt tenderly with him. His face had not yet +lost the country bronze which he brought up with him from Dumfriesshire +as a student, fifty-six years ago. His long residence in London had not +touched his Annandale look, nor had it--as we soon learned--touched his +Annandale accent. His countenance was striking, homely, sincere, +truthful--the countenance of a man on whom "the burden of the +unintelligible world" had weighed more heavily than on most. His hair +was yet almost dark; his moustache and short beard were iron-grey. His +eyes were wide, melancholy, sorrowful; and seemed as if they had been at +times a-weary of the sun. Altogether, in his aspect there was something +aboriginal, as of a piece of unhewn granite, which had never been +polished to any approved pattern, whose natural and original vitality +had never been tampered with. In a word, there seemed no passivity about +Mr Carlyle; he was the diamond, and the world was his pane of glass; he +was a graving tool, 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_ mark.... +The proceedings began by the conferring of the degree of LL.D. on Mr +Erskine of Linlathen--an old friend of Mr Carlyle's--on Professors +Huxley, Tyndall, and Ramsay, and on Dr Rae, the Arctic explorer. That +done, amid a tempest of cheering and hats enthusiastically waved, Mr +Carlyle, slipping off his Rectorial robe--which must have been a very +shirt of Nessus to him--advanced to the table, and began to speak in +low, wavering, melancholy tones, which were in accordance with the +melancholy eyes, and in the Annandale accent with which his play-fellows +must have been familiar long ago. So self-centred was he, so impregnable +to outward influences, that all his years of Edinburgh and London life +could not impair, even in the slightest degree, _that_. The opening +sentences were lost in the applause, and when it subsided, the low, +plaintive, quavering voice was heard going on: "Your enthusiasm towards +me is very beautiful in itself, however undeserved it may be in regard +to the object of it. It is a feeling honourable to all men, and one well +known to myself when in a position analogous to your own." And then came +the Carlylean utterance, with its far-reaching reminiscence and sigh +over old graves--Father's and Mother's, Edward Irving's, John +Sterling's, Charles Buller's, and all the noble known in past time--and +with its flash of melancholy scorn. "There are now fifty-six years gone, +last November, since I first entered your city, a boy of not quite +fourteen--fifty-six years ago--to attend classes here, and gain +knowledge of all kinds, I knew not what--with feelings of wonder and +awe-struck expectation; and now, after a long, long course, this is what +we have come to.... There is something touching and tragic, and yet at +the same time beautiful, to see the third generation, as it were, of my +dear old native land, rising up, and saying: Well, you are not +altogether an unworthy labourer in the vineyard. You have toiled through +a great variety of fortunes, and have had many judges." And thereafter, +without aid of notes, or paper preparation of any kind, in the same +wistful, earnest, hesitating voice, and with many a touch of quaint +humour by the way, which came in upon his subject like glimpses of +pleasant sunshine, the old man talked to his vast audience about the +origin and function of Universities, the Old Greeks and Romans, Oliver +Cromwell, John Knox, the excellence of silence as compared with speech, +the value of courage and truthfulness, and the supreme importance of +taking care of one's health. "There is no kind of achievement you could +make in the world that is equal to perfect health. What to it are +nuggets and millions? The French financier said, 'Alas! why is there no +sleep to be sold?' Sleep was not in the market at any quotation." But +what need of quoting a speech which by this time has been read by +everybody? Appraise it as you please, it was a thing _per se_. Just as, +if you wish a purple dye, you must fish up the Murex; if you wish ivory, +you must go to the East; so if you desire an address such as Edinburgh +listened to the other day, you must go to Chelsea for it. It may not be +quite to your taste, but, in any case, there is no other intellectual +warehouse in which that kind of article is kept in stock.'[33] + +Another eye-witness, Mr Moncure D. Conway, says: 'When Carlyle sat down +there was an audible sound, as of breath long held, by all present; then +a cry from the students, an exultation; they rose up, all arose, waving +their arms excitedly; some pressed forward, as if wishing to embrace +him, or to clasp his knees; others were weeping; what had been heard +that day was more than could be reported; it was the ineffable spirit +that went forth from the deeps of a great heart and from the ages stored +up in it, and deep answered unto deep.' + +Immediately after the delivery of the address, Tyndall telegraphed to +Mrs Carlyle this brief message, 'A perfect triumph.' That evening she +dined at Forster's, where she met Dickens and Wilkie Collins. They drank +Carlyle's health, and to her it was 'a good joy.' It was Carlyle's +intention to have returned at once to London, but he changed his mind, +and went for a few quiet days at Scotsbrig. When Tyndall was back in +London Mrs Carlyle got all the particulars of the rectorial address from +him, and was made perfectly happy about it. + +Numberless congratulations poured in upon Mrs Carlyle, and for Saturday, +April 21st, she had arranged a small tea-party. In the morning she wrote +her daily letter to Carlyle, and in the afternoon she went out in her +brougham for a drive, taking her little dog with her. When near Victoria +Gate, Hyde Park, she put the dog out to run. 'A passing carriage,' says +Froude, 'went over its foot.... She sprang out, caught the dog in her +arms, took it with her into the brougham, and was never more seen alive. +The coachman went twice round the drive, by Marble Arch down to Stanhope +Gate, along the Serpentine and round again. Coming a second time near to +the Achilles statue, and surprised to receive no directions, he turned +round, saw indistinctly that something was wrong, and asked a gentleman +near to look into the carriage. The gentleman told him briefly to take +the lady to St. George's Hospital, which was not 200 yards distant. She +was sitting with her hands folded in her lap _dead_.'[34] + +At the hour she died Carlyle was enjoying the 'green solitudes and fresh +spring breezes' of Annandale, 'quietly but far from happily.' About nine +o'clock the same night his brother-in-law, Mr Aitken, broke the news to +him. 'I was sitting in sister Jean's at Dumfries,' Carlyle wrote a +fortnight after, 'thinking of my railway journey to Chelsea on Monday, +and perhaps of a sprained ankle I had got at Scotsbrig two weeks or so +before, when the fatal telegrams, two of them in succession, came. It +had a kind of _stunning_ effect upon me. Not for above two days could I +estimate the immeasurable depths of it, or the infinite sorrow which had +peeled my life all bare, and in a moment shattered my poor world to +universal ruin. They took me out next day to wander, as was medically +needful, in the green sunny Sabbath fields, and ever and anon there rose +from my sick heart the ejaculation, "My poor little woman!" but no full +gust of tears came to my relief, nor has yet come. Will it ever? A stony +"Woe's me, woe's me!" sometimes with infinite tenderness and pity, not +for myself, is my habitual mood hitherto.'[35] + +On Monday morning Carlyle and his brother John set off for London. On +the Wednesday he was on his way to Haddington with the remains, his +brother and John Forster accompanying him. At 1 P.M. on Thursday the +funeral took place. 'In the nave of the old Abbey Kirk,' wrote her +disconsolate husband, 'long a ruin, now being saved from further decay, +with the skies looking down on her, there sleeps my little Jeannie, and +the light of her face will never shine on me more.' When Mr Conway saw +him on his return to Cheyne Row, Carlyle said, 'Whatever triumph there +may have been in that now so darkly overcast day, was indeed _hers_. +Long, long years ago, she took her place by the side of a poor man of +humblest condition, against all other provisions for her, undertook to +share his lot for weal or woe; and in that office what she has been to +him and done for him, how she has placed, as it were, velvet between him +and all the sharp angularities of existence, remains now only in the +knowledge of one man, and will presently be finally hid in his grave.' +As he touchingly expressed it in the beautiful epitaph he wrote, the +'light of his life' had assuredly 'gone out.' Universal sympathy was +felt for the bereaved husband, and he was very much affected by 'a +delicate, graceful, and even affectionate' message from the Queen, +conveyed by Lady Augusta Stanley through his brother John. + +One who knew Mrs Carlyle intimately thus speaks of her: 'Her intellect +was as clear and incisive as his, yet altogether womanly in character; +her heart was as truthful, and her courage as unswerving. She was a wife +in the noblest sense of that sacred name. She had a gift of literary +expression as unique as his; as tender a sympathy with human sorrow and +need; as clear an eye for all conventional hypocrisies and folly; as +vivid powers of description and illustration; and also, it must be +confessed, when the spirit of mockery was strong upon her, as keen an +edge to her flashing wit and humour, and as scornful a disregard of the +conventional proprieties. But she was no literary hermaphrodite. She +never intellectually strode forth before the world upon masculine +stilts; nor, in private life, did she frowardly push to the front, in +the vanity of showing she was as clever and considerable as her +husband. She longed, with a true woman's longing heart, to be +appreciated by him, and by those she loved; and, for her, all extraneous +applause might whistle with the wind. But if her husband was a king in +literature, so might she have been a queen. Her influence with him for +good cannot be questioned by any one having eyes to discern. And if she +sacrificed her own vanity for personal distinction, in order to make his +work possible for him, who shall say she did not choose the nobler and +better part?'[36] + +On the other hand, Carlyle was too exacting, 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 side. 'Even with that mother whom he so dearly loved,' +observes Mrs Ireland, 'the intercourse was mainly composed of a silent +sitting by the fireside of an evening in the old "houseplace," with a +tranquillising pipe of tobacco, or of his returning from his long +rambles to a simple meal, partaken of in comparative silence; and now +and then, at meeting or parting, some pious and earnest words from the +good soul to her son.'[37] And it never occurred to Carlyle to act +differently with his wife, who was pining for his society. In addition +to all that, we have Froude's brief but accurate diagnosis of Carlyle's +character. 'If,' he wrote, 'matters went well with himself, it never +occurred to him that they could be going ill with any one else; and, on +the other hand, if he was uncomfortable, he required everybody to be +uncomfortable along with him.' + +There was a strong element of selfishness in that phase of Carlyle's +nature; and throughout his letters and journal he appears wholly wrapt +up in himself and in his literary projects, without even a passing +allusion to the courageous woman who had shared his lot. Now and again +we alight upon a passage where special mention is made of her efforts, +but these have all a direct or indirect bearing upon _his_ work, _his_ +plans, _his_ comforts.[38] + +Carlyle never fully realised what his wife had been to him until she was +suddenly snatched from his side. And this was his testimony: 'I say +deliberately, her part in the stern battle, and except myself none +knows how stern, was brighter and braver than my own.' In one of those +terrible moments of self-upbraiding the grief-stricken husband exclaims: +'Blind and deaf that we are; oh, think, if thou yet love anybody living, +wait not till death sweep down the paltry little dust-clouds and idle +dissonances of the moment, and all be at last so mournfully clear and +beautiful, _when it is too late_!' + +In a pamphlet quoted by Mrs Ireland we have a pathetic picture of +Carlyle in his lonely old age. A Mr Swinton, an American gentleman on a +visit to this country, went to see the grave of Mrs Carlyle. + +In conversation the grave-digger said: 'Mr Carlyle comes here from +London now and then to see this grave. He is a gaunt, shaggy, weird kind +of old man, looking very old the last time he was here.' 'He is +eighty-six now,' said I. 'Ay,' he repeated, 'eighty-six, and comes here +to this grave all the way from London.' And I told him that Carlyle was +a great man, the greatest man of the age in books, and that his name was +known all over the world; but he thought there were other great men +lying near at hand, though I told him their fame did not reach beyond +the graveyard, and brought him back to talk of Carlyle. 'Mr Carlyle +himself,' said the gravedigger softly, 'is to be brought here to be +buried with his wife. Ay, he comes here lonesome and alone,' continued +the gravedigger, 'when he visits the wife's grave. His niece keeps him +company to the gate, but he leaves her there, and she stays there for +him. The last time he was here I got a sight of him, and he was bowed +down under his white hairs, and he took his way up by that ruined wall +of the old cathedral, and round there and in here by the gateway, and he +tottered up here to this spot.' Softly spake the gravedigger, and +paused. Softer still, in the broad dialect of the Lothians, he +proceeded:--"And he stood here awhile in the grass, and then he kneeled +down and stayed on his knees at the grave; then he bent over and I saw +him kiss the ground--ay, he kissed it again and again, and he kept +kneeling, and it was a long time before he rose and tottered out of the +cathedral, and wandered through the graveyard to the gate, where his +niece was waiting for him." This is the epitaph composed by Carlyle, and +engraved on the tombstone of Dr John Welsh in the chancel of Haddington +Church:-- + + 'HERE LIKEWISE NOW RESTS JANE WELSH CARLYLE, SPOUSE OF THOMAS + CARLYLE, CHELSEA, LONDON. SHE WAS BORN AT HADDINGTON, 14TH JULY + 1801, ONLY DAUGHTER OF THE ABOVE JOHN WELSH, AND OF GRACE + WELSH, CAPELGILL, DUMFRIESSHIRE, HIS WIFE. IN HER BRIGHT + EXISTENCE SHE HAD MORE SORROWS THAN ARE COMMON; BUT ALSO A SOFT + INVINCIBILITY, A CLEARNESS OF DISCERNMENT, AND A NOBLE LOYALTY + OF HEART WHICH ARE RARE. FOR FORTY YEARS SHE WAS THE TRUE AND + EVER-LOVING HELPMATE OF HER HUSBAND, AND, BY ACT AND WORD, + UNWEARIEDLY FORWARDED HIM AS NONE ELSE COULD, IN ALL OF WORTHY + THAT HE DID OR ATTEMPTED. SHE DIED AT LONDON, 21ST APRIL 1866, + SUDDENLY SNATCHED AWAY FROM HIM, AND THE LIGHT OF HIS LIFE AS + IF GONE OUT.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 295. + +[32] Masson's 'Carlyle Personally and in his Writings,' pp. 27-9. + +[33] Alexander Smith's 'Sketches and Criticisms,' pp. 101-8. + +[34] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 312. + +[35] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 314. + +[36] Larkin's 'Carlyle and the Open Secret of his Life,' pp. 334-5. + +[37] 'Life of Jane Welsh Carlyle,' pp. 191-2. + +[38] After reading the above estimate in the proof sheets, Professor +Masson writes to me as follows:-- + + 'May I hint that, in the passage about his character and + domestic relations, you seem hardly to do justice to the depths + of real kindness and tenderness in him, and the actual + _couthiness_ of his manner and fireside conversation in his + most genial hours? He was delightful and loveable at such + hours, with a fund of the raciest Scottish humour.' + +This is a side of Carlyle's nature which would naturally be hidden from +the general reader, and from Mr Froude. It is easy to imagine how +Carlyle's genial humour, frozen at its source in the company of the +solemnly pessimistic Froude, should be thawed by the presence of 'a +brither Scot.' + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +LAST YEARS AND DEATH OF CARLYLE + + +In presence of the pathetically tragic spectacle of Carlyle in his old +age, who can have the heart to enter into his domestic life and weigh +with pedantic scales the old man's blameworthiness? Carlyle survived his +wife fifteen years. His brother John, himself a widower, was anxious +that they should live together, but it was otherwise arranged. John +returned to Scotland, and Carlyle remained alone in Cheyne Row. He was +prevailed on to visit Ripple Court, near Walmer, and on his return to +London he wrote, 'My home is very gaunt and lonesome; but such is my +allotment henceforth in this world. I have taken loyally to my vacant +circumstances, and will try to do my best with them.' + +Carlyle's first public appearance after his sore bereavement was as +chairman of the Eyre Committee as a protest against Governor Eyre's +recall. 'Poor Eyre!' he wrote to a correspondent, 'I am heartily sorry +for him, and for the English nation, which makes such a dismal fool of +itself. Eyre, it seems, has fallen suddenly from £6000 a year into +almost zero, and has a large family and needy kindred dependent on him. +Such his reward for saving the West Indies, and hanging one incendiary +mulatto, well worth the gallows, if I can judge.' + +Carlyle accepted a pressing invitation to stay with the Ashburtons at +Mentone, and on the 22nd of December he started thither with Professor +Tyndall. He was greatly benefited in health, and at intervals made some +progress with his _Reminiscences_. He returned to London in March, and +on the 4th of April 1867 he writes in his journal: 'Idle! Idle! My +employments mere trifles of business, and that of dwelling on the days +that culminated on the 21st of last year.' About this time his thoughts +were directed to the estate of Craigenputtock, of which he became +absolute owner at his wife's death. All her relations on the father's +side were dead, and as Carlyle thought that it ought not to lapse to his +own family, he determined to leave it to the University of Edinburgh, +'the rents of it to be laid out in supporting poor and meritorious +students there, under the title of "the John Welsh Bursaries." Her name +he could not give, because she had taken his own. Therefore he gave her +father's.' + +On June 22nd, he writes in his journal: 'Finished off on Thursday last, +at three p.m. 20th of June, my poor _bequest_ of Craigenputtock to +Edinburgh University for bursaries. All quite ready there, Forster and +Froude as witnesses; the good Professor Masson, who had taken endless +pains, alike friendly and wise, being at the very last objected to in +the character of "witness," as "a party interested," said the Edinburgh +lawyer. I a little regretted this circumstance; so I think did Masson +secretly. He read us the deed with sonorous emphasis, bringing every +word and note of it home to us. Then I signed; then they two--Masson +witnessing only with his eyes and mind. I was deeply moved, as I well +might be, but held my peace and shed no tears. _Tears_ I think I have +done with; never, except for moments together, have I wept for that +catastrophe of April 21, to which whole days of weeping would have been +in other times a blessed relief.... This is my poor "Sweetheart Abbey," +"Cor Dulce," or New Abbey, a sacred casket and _tomb_ for the sweetest +"heart" which, in this bad, bitter world, was all my own. Darling, +darling! and in a little while we shall _both_ be at rest, and the Great +God will have done with us what was His will.'[39] + +When the Tories were preparing to 'dish the Whigs' over the Reform Bill, +Carlyle felt impelled to write a pamphlet, which he called _Shooting +Niagara, and After_. It was his final utterance on British politics. +Proof sheets and revisions for new editions of his works engrossed his +attention for some time. He went annually to Scotland, and devoted a +great deal of time on his return to Chelsea to the sorting and +annotating of his wife's letters. + +Early in 1869 the Queen expressed a wish, through Dean Stanley, to +become personally acquainted with Carlyle. The meeting took place at +Westminster Deanery: 'The Queen,' Carlyle said, 'was really very +gracious and pretty in her demeanour throughout; rose greatly in my +esteem by everything that happened; did not fall in any point. The +interview was quietly very mournful to me; the one point of real +interest, a sombre thought: "Alas! how would it have cheered her, bright +soul, for my sake, had she been there!"' + +When Carlyle was in constant expectation of his end, he--in June +1871--brought to Mr Froude's house a large parcel of papers. 'He put it +in my hands,' says Froude. 'He told me to take it simply and absolutely +as my own, without reference to any other person or persons, and to do +with it as I pleased after he was gone. He explained, when he saw me +surprised, that it was an account of his wife's history, that it was +incomplete, that he could himself form no opinion whether it ought to be +published or not, that he could do no more to it, and must pass it over +to me. He wished never to hear of it again. I must judge. I must publish +it, the whole, or part--or else destroy it all, if I thought that this +would be the wiser thing to do.'[40] + +Three years later Carlyle sent to Froude his own and his wife's private +papers, journals, correspondence, reminiscences, and other documents. +'Take them,' he said to Froude, 'and do what you can with them. All I +can say to you is, Burn freely. If you have any affection for me, the +more you burn the better.' Mr Froude burnt nothing, and it was well, he +says, that he did not, for a year before his death he desired him, when +he had done with the MSS., to give them to his niece. 'The new task +which had been laid upon me,' writes Froude in his biography of Carlyle, +'complicated the problem of the "Letters and Memorials." My first hope +was, that, in the absence of further definite instructions from himself, +I might interweave parts of Mrs Carlyle's letters with his own +correspondence in an ordinary narrative, passing lightly over the rest, +and touching the dangerous places only so far as was unavoidable. In +this view I wrote at leisure the greatest part of "the first forty +years" of his life. The evasion of the difficulty was perhaps cowardly, +but it was not unnatural. I was forced back, however, into the +straighter and better course.' The outcome of it all is too well-known +to call for recapitulation here. + +In February 1874, the Emperor of Germany conferred upon Carlyle the +Order of Merit which the great Frederick had himself founded. He could +not refuse it, but he remarked, 'Were it ever so well meant, it can be +of no value to me whatever. Do thee neither ill na gude.' Ten months +later, Mr Disraeli, then Premier, offered him the Grand Cross of the +Bath along with a pension. Carlyle gracefully declined both. + +Upon his 80th birthday, Carlyle was presented with a gold medal from +Scottish friends and admirers, and with a letter from Prince Bismarck, +both of which he valued highly. His last public act was to write a +letter of three or four lines to the _Times_, which he explains to his +brother in this fashion: 'After much urgency and with a dead-lift +effort, I have this day [5th May 1877] got issued through the _Times_ a +small indispensable deliverance on the Turk and Dizzy question. Dizzy, +it appears, to the horror of those who have any interest in him and his +proceedings, has decided to have a new war for the Turk against all +mankind; and this letter hopes to drive a nail through his mad and +maddest speculations on that side.' + +Froude tells us that Carlyle continued to read the Bible, 'the +significance of which' he found 'deep and wonderful almost as much as it +ever used to be.' The Bible and Shakespeare remained 'the best books' to +him that were ever written. + +The death of his brother John was a severe shock to Carlyle, for they +were deeply attached to each other. When he bequeathed Craigenputtock to +the University of Edinburgh, John Carlyle settled a handsome sum for +medical bursaries there, to encourage poor students. 'These two +brothers,' Froude remarks, 'born in a peasant's home in Annandale, +owing little themselves to an Alma Mater which had missed discovering +their merits, were doing for Scotland's chief University what Scotland's +peers and merchants, with their palaces and deer forests and social +splendour, had, for some cause, too imperfectly supplied.' + +In the autumn of 1880, Carlyle became very infirm; in January he was +visibly sinking; and on the 5th of February 1881, he passed away in his +eighty-fifth year. In accordance with his expressed wishes, they buried +him in the old kirkyard of Ecclefechan with his own people. + +At his death Carlyle's fame was at its zenith. A revulsion of feeling +was caused by the publication of Froude's _Life of Carlyle_ and the +_Reminiscences_. In regard to the former, great dissatisfaction was +created by the somewhat unflattering portrait painted by Froude. Was +Froude justified in presenting to the public Carlyle in all grim +realism? The answer to this depends upon one's notions of literary +ethics. The view of the average biographer is that he must suppress +faults and give prominence to virtues. The result is that the majority +of biographies are simply expanded funeral sermons; instead of a +life-like portrait we have a glorified mummy. Boswell's _Johnson_ stands +at the head of biographies; but, if Boswell had followed the +conventional method, his book would long since have passed into +obscurity. It is open to dispute whether Froude has not overdone the +sombre elements in Carlyle's life. Readers of Professor Masson's little +book, which shows Carlyle in a more genially human mood, have good +reason to suspect that Froude has given too much emphasis to the +Rembrandtesque element in Carlyle's life. In the main, however, Froude's +conception of biography was more correct than that of his critics. In +dealing with the reputation of a great man it is not enough to consider +the feelings of contemporaries; regard should be had to the rights of +posterity. In his usual forcible manner Johnson goes to the heart of +this question when he says in the _Rambler_:--'If the biographer writes +from personal knowledge, and makes haste to gratify the public +curiosity, there is danger lest his interest, his fear, his gratitude, +or his tenderness overpower his fidelity, and tempt him to conceal, if +not to invent. There are many who think it an act of piety to hide the +faults or failings of their friends, even when they can no longer suffer +by their detection; we therefore see whole ranks of characters adorned +with uniform panegyric and not to be known from one another, but by +extrinsic and casual circumstances. If we have regard to the memory of +the dead, there is yet more respect to be paid to knowledge, to virtue, +and to truth.' When Johnson's own biography came to be written, Boswell, +in spite of the expostulation of friends, resolved to be guided closely +by the literary ethics of his great hero. In reply to Hannah More who +begged that he would mitigate some of the asperities of Johnson, Boswell +said, 'he would not cut off his claws, nor make a tiger a cat, to please +anybody.' + +Some critics have insinuated that Froude took a curious kind of pleasure +in smirching the idol. The insinuation is as unworthy as it is false. +Froude had resolved to paint Carlyle as he was, warts and all, and all +that can be said is that in his anxiety to avoid the charge of idealism +he has given the warts undue prominence. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 346. + +[40] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. pp. 408-9. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +CARLYLE AS A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THINKER + + +In his essay on Carlyle, Mr John Morley utters a protest against the +habit of labelling great men with names. After making every allowance +for the waywardness of the men of intuitive and poetic insight, it +remains true that between the speculative and the practical sides of a +great thinker's mind there is a potent, though subtle, connection. For +those who take the trouble of searching, there is discoverable such a +connection between the speculative ideas of Carlyle and his practical +outlook upon civilisation. Given a thinker who lays stress upon the +emotional side of progress, and we have a thinker who will take for +heroes men of mystical tendencies, of strong dominating passions, a +thinker who will value progress not by the increase of worldly comfort, +but by the increase in the number of magnetic, epoch-making +personalities. Naturally, we hear Carlyle remark that the history of the +world is at bottom the history of its great men. + +Carlyle's fanatical adoption of intuitionalism has told banefully upon +his work in sociology. Trusting to his inner light, to what we might +call Mystical Quakerism, Carlyle has dispensed with a rational theory of +progress. Before a sociological problem, his attitude is not that of the +patient thinker, but of the hysterical prophet, whose emotions find +outlet in declamatory denunciation. Like the prophets of old, Carlyle +tends towards Pessimism. His golden age is in the past. When _Past and +Present_ appeared, many earnest-minded men, captivated by the style and +spirit of the book, hailed Carlyle as a social reformer. As an attempt +to solve the social problem, _Past and Present_ is not a success. +Carlyle could do no more than tell the modern to return to the spirit of +the feudal period, when the people were led by the aristocracy. It +showed considerable audacity on Carlyle's part to come to the +interpretation of history with no theory of progress, no message to the +world beyond the vaguely declamatory one that those nations will be +turned into hell which forget God. Of what value is such writing as +this, taken from the introduction to his _Cromwell_?:--'Here of our own +land and lineage in English shape were heroes on the earth once more, +who knew in every fibre and with heroic daring laid to heart that an +Almighty Justice does verily rule this world, that it is good to fight +on God's side, and bad to fight on the Devil's side! The essence of all +heroism and veracities that have been or will be.' This is simply a +reproduction of Jewish theocratic ideas; indeed, except for the details, +Carlyle might as readily have written a life of Moses as of Cromwell. +In the eyes of Carlyle, human life was what it was to Bunyan, a kind of +pilgrim's progress; only in the Carlylean creed it is all battle and no +victory, all Valley of Humiliation and no Delectable Mountain. +Naturally, where no stress is laid upon collective action, where +individual reason is depreciated, progress is associated with the rise +of abnormal individualities, men of strong wills like Cromwell and +Frederick. With Rousseau, Carlyle appears to look upon civilisation as a +disease. In one of his essays, _Characteristics_, he goes near the +Roussean idea when he declaims against self-consciousness, and +deliberately gives a preference to instinct. The uses of great men are +to lead humanity away from introspection back to energetic, rude, +instinctive action. When humanity will not listen to the voice of the +prophets, it must be treated to whip and scorpion. It never dawned upon +Carlyle that the highest life, individual and collective, has roots in +physical laws, that politico-economic forces must be reckoned with +before social harmony can be reached. + +Just as Carlyle's Idealism drove him into opposition to the utilitarian +theory of morals, so it drove him into opposition to the utilitarian +theory of society. Out of his idealistic way of looking upon life there +flowed a curious result. As early as _Sartor Resartus_ we find Carlyle +anticipating the evolutionary conception of society. Spencer has +familiarised us with the idea that society is an organism. The idea +which he received from the Germans that Nature is not a mere mechanical +collection of atoms, but the materialised expression of a spiritual +unity--that idea Carlyle extended to society. As he puts it in _Sartor +Resartus_: 'Yes, truly, if Nature is one, and a living indivisible +whole, much more is Mankind, the Image that reflects and creates Nature, +without which Nature were not.... Noteworthy also, and serviceable for +the progress of this same individual, wilt thou find his subdivisions +into Generations. Generations are as the Days of toilsome Mankind; Death +and Birth are the vesper and the matin bells, that summon Mankind to +sleep, and to rise refreshed for new advancement. What the Father has +made, the Son can make and enjoy; but has also work of his own appointed +him. Thus all things wax and roll onwards.... Find mankind where thou +wilt, thou findest it in living movement, in progress faster or slower; +the Phoenix soars aloft, hovers with outstretched wings, filling Earth +with her music; or as now, she sinks, and with spheral swan-song +immolates herself in flame, that she may soar the higher and sing the +clearer.' + +Philosophies of civilisation have a tendency to beget Fatalism. Bent +upon watching the resistless play of general laws, philosophers, in +their admiration of the products, are apt to ignore the frightful +suffering and waste involved in the process. Society being an organism, +a thing of development, the duty of thinkers is to demonstrate the +nature of sociological laws, and allow them free scope for operation. To +this is due much of the apparent hardness of Eighteenth Century +political speculation, which, beginning with the French Physiocratic +School, culminated in the works of Adam Smith, Ricardo, Bentham, and the +two Mills. With those thinkers, the one palpable lesson of the past was +the duty of abstaining from interference with the general process of +social development. Give man liberty, said the Utilitarian Radicals, and +he will work out his own salvation: from the play of individual +self-interest, social harmony will result. + +Carlyle is frequently thought of as a Conservative force in politics. In +some respects he was more Radical than the Benthams and the Mills. His +deeper ideal conception of society intensified his dissatisfaction with +society as it existed. In fact, to Carlyle's attack upon those +institutions, beliefs and ceremonies which had no better basis than mere +unreasoning authority, most of the Radicalism of the early 'forties' was +due. Conceive what effect language like this must have had upon +thoughtful, high-souled young men: 'Call ye that a Society, where there +is no longer any Social Idea extant; not so much as the Idea of a common +Home, but only of a common overcrowded Lodging-house? Where each, +isolated, regardless of his neighbour, turned against his neighbour, +clutches what he can get, and cries "Mine!" and calls it Peace because, +in the cut-purse and cut-throat Scramble, no steel knives, but only a +far cunninger sort, can be employed? Where Friendship, Communion, has +become an incredible tradition; and your holiest Sacramental Supper is a +smoking Tavern Dinner, with Cook for Evangelist? Where your Priest has +no tongue but for plate-licking; and your high Guides and Governors +cannot guide; but on all hands hear it passionately proclaimed: _Laissez +faire_; leave us alone of your guidance, such light is darker than +darkness; eat your wages and sleep. Thus, too, must an observant eye +discern everywhere that saddest spectacle: the Poor perishing, like +neglected, foundered Draught-Cattle, of Hunger and Overwork; the Rich, +still more wretchedly, of Idleness, Satiety, and Overgrowth. The Highest +in rank, at length, without honour from the Lowest; scarcely, with a +little mouth-honour, as from tavern-waiters who expect to put it in the +bill. Once sacred Symbols fluttering as empty Pageants, whereof men +grudge even the expense; a World becoming dismantled: in one word, the +CHURCH fallen speechless, from obesity and apoplexy; the STATE shrunken +into a Police-Office, straitened to get its pay!' + +It was when suggesting a remedy that Carlyle's Idealistic Radicalism +parted company with Utilitarian Radicalism. Failing to see that society +was in a transition period, a period so well described by Herbert +Spencer as the movement from Militarism to Industrialism, in which there +was a severe conflict of ideals, opinions, and interests, Carlyle sought +for the remedy in a return to a form of society which had been outgrown. +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 conceptions. 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 despotism. Equally irrelevant was the attempt in _Past and +Present_ to get reformers to model modern institutions on those of the +Middle Ages. Carlyle's remedy for the evils of liberty was a return to +the apron-strings of despotism. Carlyle, in fact, forgot his conception +of society as a developing organism; he endeavoured to arrest progress +at the autocratic stage, because of his ignorance of the laws of +progress and his lack of sympathy with democratic ideas. Still, the +value of Carlyle's political writings should not be overlooked. The +Utilitarian Radicals laid themselves open to the charge of intellectual +superstition. They worshipped human nature as a fetish. Lacking clear +views of social evolution, they overlooked the relativity of political +terms. Ignorant of the conception of human nature to which Spencer has +accustomed us, the old Radicals treated it as a constant quantity which +only needed liberty for its proper development. In their eagerness to +discard theology, they discarded the truth of man's depravity which +finds expression in the creed of the Churches. We have changed all that. +We now realise the fact that political institutions are good or bad, not +as they stand or fall when tested by the first principles of a +rationalistic philosophy, but as they harmonise or conflict with +existing phases of human nature. + +If in the sphere of industrialism Carlyle as a guide is untrustworthy, +great is his merit as an inspirer. His influence was needed to +counteract the cold prosaic narrowness of the Utilitarian teaching. He +called attention to an aspect of the economic question which the +Utilitarian Radicals ignored, namely, the inadequacy of self-interest as +a social bond. To Carlyle is largely due the higher ethical conceptions +and quickened sympathies which now exist in the spheres of social and +industrial relationships. Unhappily his implicit faith in intuitionalism +led him to deride political economy and everything pertaining to man's +material life. Much there was in the writings of the economists to call +for severe criticism, and if Carlyle had treated the subject with +discrimination he would have been a power for good; but he chose to pour +the vials of his contempt upon political economy as a science, and upon +modern industrial arrangements, with the result that many of the most +intelligent students of sociology have been repelled from his writings. +In this respect he contrasts very unfavourably with Mill, who, +notwithstanding the temptations to intellectual arrogance from his +one-sided training, with quite a chivalrous regard for truth, was ever +ready to accept light and leading from thinkers who differed from him in +temperament and methods. There may be conflicting opinions as to which +of the two men was intellectually the greater, 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 lived, moved, and +had his being. Between the saintly apostle of Progress and the barbaric +representative of Reaction there was a great gulf fixed. + +As was natural, the _Latter-day Pamphlets_ were treated as a series of +political ravings. For that estimate Carlyle himself was largely +responsible. He deprived himself of the sympathy of intelligent readers +by the violence of his invective and the lack of discrimination in his +abuse. Much of what Carlyle said is to be found in Mill's +_Representative Government_, said, too, in a quiet, rational style, +which commands attention and respect. Mill, no more than Carlyle, was a +believer in mob rule. He did not think that the highest wisdom was to +be had by the counting of heads. Thinkers like Mill and Spencer did not +deem it necessary to pour contempt on modern tendencies. They suggested +remedies on the lines of these tendencies. They did not try to put back +the hands on the clock of time; they sought to remove perturbing +influences. Much of the evil has arisen from men trying to do by +political methods what should not be done by these methods. Carlyle's +idea that Government should do this, that, and the other thing has +wrought mischief, inasmuch as it has led to an undue belief in the +virtues of Government interference. His writings are largely responsible +for the evils he predicted. + +It is curious to notice how, with all his belief in individualism, +Carlyle, in political matters, was unconsciously driven in the direction +of socialism. Get your great man, worship him, and render him +obedience--such was the Carlylean recipe for modern diseases. Suppose +the great man found, how is he to proceed? In these democratic days, he +can only proceed by ruling despotically with the popular consent; in +other words, there will follow a regime of paternalism and fraternalism, +the practical outcome of which would be Socialism. Carlyle himself never +suspected how childish was his conception of national life. He wrote of +his Great Man theory as if it was a discovery, whereas the most advanced +races had long since passed through it, and those which were not +advanced were precisely those which had not been able to shake +themselves free of paternal despotism. On this point the criticism of +the late Professor Minto goes to the heart of the matter: 'Carlyle's +doctrines are the first suggestions of an earnest man, adhered to with +unreasoning tenacity. As a rule, with no exception, that is worth +naming, they take account mainly of one side of a case. He was too +impatient of difficulties, and had too little respect for the wisdom and +experience of others to submit to be corrected: opposition rather +confirmed him in his own opinion. Most of his practical suggestions had +already been made before, and judged impracticable upon grounds which he +could not, or would not, understand. His modes of dealing with pauperism +and crime were in full operation under the despotism of Henry VII. and +Henry VIII. His theory of a hero-king, which means in practice an +accidentally good and able man in a series of indifferent or bad +despots, had been more frequently tried than any other political system; +Asia at this moment contains no government that is not despotic. His +views in other departments of knowledge are also chiefly determined by +the strength of his unreasoning impulses.' + +In his interesting _Recollections_ Mr Espinasse states that during the +time that Carlyle was writing on the labour question, not a single +blue-book was visible on his table! To Carlyle's influence must be +traced much of the sentimental treatment of social and industrial +questions which has followed the unpopularity of political economy. It +is only fair to Carlyle to note, that at times he had qualms as to the +superiority of his paternal theory of government over Laissez Faire. 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 nature. In the social sphere Carlyle was false to +his doctrine of spontaneity. In his early essays he was perpetually +condemning mechanical interference with society, and contending that +free play should be given to the dynamic agencies. Untrue to himself and +his creed, Carlyle in his later books was constantly denouncing +Government for neglecting to apply mechanical remedies for social +diseases. In his view, the duty of a ruler was not to work in harmony +with social impulses, but to cut and carve institutions in harmony with +the ideas of great men. Puritanism under Cromwell failed because it was +forgotten that society is an organism, not a piece of clay, to be +moulded according to the notions of heroic potters. Strictly speaking, +_Frederick_ and _Cromwell_ should be classed with the _Latter Day +Pamphlets_. In the _Pamphlets_ Carlyle declaims against democratic +methods, and in _Frederick_ and _Cromwell_ we are presented with +incarnations of autocratic methods. + +Of all the critics of Carlyle, 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 +questions. As Mr Morley says: 'The dictates of a kind heart are of +superior force to the maxims of political economy; swift and peremptory +resolution is a safer guide than a balancing judgment. If the will works +easily and surely, we may assume the rectitude of the moving impulse. +All this is no caricature of a system which sets sentiment, sometimes +hard sentiment, above reason and method. In other words, the writer who +in these days has done more than anybody else to fire men's hearts with +a feeling for right, and an eager desire for social activity, has, with +deliberate contempt, thrust away from him the only instruments by which +we can make sure what right is, and that our social action is effective. +A born poet, 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 singers, he has been driven by the +impetuosity of his sympathies to attack the scientific side of social +questions in an imaginative and highly emotional manner.' + +Had Carlyle confined himself to description of social, industrial, and +political diseases, he would have had an unsullied reputation in the +sphere of spiritual dynamics, but flaws immediately appeared when he +endeavoured to prescribe remedies. Many of his remedies were too vague +to be of use; where they were specific, they were so Quixotic as to be +useless. His proposals for dealing with labour and pauperism never +imposed on any sensible man on this side of cloud-land. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CARLYLE AS AN INSPIRATIONAL FORCE + + +It is the misfortune of the critic, the historian, and the sociologist +to be superseded. In the march of events the specialist is fated to be +left behind. The influence of the inspirationalist is ever-enduring. As +the present writer has elsewhere said:--Carlyle has been called a +prophet. The word in these days has only a vague meaning. Probably +Carlyle earned the name in consequence of the oracular and denunciatory +elements in his later writings. Then, again, the word prophet has come +to be associated with the thought of a foreteller of future events. A +prophet in the true sense of the word is not one who foretells the +future, but one who revives and keeps alive in the minds of his +contemporaries a vivid sense of the great elemental facts of life. Why +is it that the Bible attracts to its pages men of all kinds of +temperament and all degrees of culture? Because in it, especially in the +Psalms, Job, and the writings of Isaiah and his brother prophets, +serious people are brought face to face with the great mysteries, God, +Nature, Man, Death, etc.--mysteries, however, which only rush in upon +the soul of man in full force on special occasions, in hours of lonely +meditation, or by the side of an open grave. In the hurly-burly of life +the sense of what Carlyle calls the Immensities, Eternities, and +Silences, become so weak that even good men have sorrowfully to admit +that they live lives of practical materialism. As Arnold puts it: + + "Each day brings its petty dust + Our soon-choked souls to fill, + And we forget because we must, + And not because we will." + +The mission of the Hebrew prophet was by passionate utterance to keep +alive in the minds of his countrymen a deep, abiding sense of life's +mystery, sacredness, and solemnity. What Isaiah did for his day, Carlyle +did for the moderns. In the whole range of modern literature, it is +impossible to match Carlyle's magnificent passages in _Sartor Resartus_, +in which, under a biographical guise, he deals with the great primal +emotions, wonder, awe, admiration, love, which form the warp and woof of +human life. + +Nothing can be finer than the following rebuke to those mechanical +scientists who imagine that Nature can be measured by tape-lines, and +duly labelled in museums:-- + +'System of Nature! To the wisest man, wide as is his vision, Nature +remains of quite _infinite_ depth, of quite infinite expansion; and all +Experience thereof limits itself to some few computed centuries and +measured square-miles. The course of Nature's phases, on this our little +fraction of a Planet, is partially known to us; but who knows what +deeper courses these depend on; what infinitely larger Cycle (of causes) +our little Epicycle revolves on? To the Minnow every cranny and pebble, +and quality and accident, of its little native Creek may have become +familiar: but does the Minnow understand the Ocean Tides and periodic +Currents, the Trade-winds, and Monsoons, and Moon's eclipses; by all +which the condition of its little Creek is regulated, and may, from time +(_un_miraculously enough), be quite overset and reversed? Such a minnow +is Man; his Creek this Planet Earth; his Ocean the immeasurable All; his +Monsoons and periodic Currents the mysterious Course of Providence +through Æons of Æons. We speak of the Volume of Nature: and truly a +Volume it is,--whose Author and Writer is God.' + +Agree or disagree with Carlyle's views of the Ultimate Reality as we +may, there can be nothing but harmony with the spirit which breathes in +the following:-- + +'Nature? Ha! Why do I not name thee God? Art not thou the "Living +Garment of God"? O Heavens, is it in very deed, He, then, that ever +speaks through thee; that lives and loves in thee, that lives and loves +in me? + +'Fore-shadows, call them rather fore-splendours, of that Truth, and +Beginning of Truths, fell mysteriously over my soul. Sweeter than +Dayspring to the Shipwrecked in Nova Zembla; ah! like the mother's voice +to her little child that strays bewildered, weeping in unknown tumults; +like soft streamings of celestial music to my too-exasperated heart, +came that Evangel. The Universe is not dead and demoniacal, a +charnel-house with spectres; but godlike, and my Father's!' + +The mystery and fleetingness of life with its awful counterpart death, +are the commonplaces of every hour, but who but Carlyle has rendered +them with such inspirational power? + +'Generation after generation takes to itself the form of a Body; and +forth-issuing from Cimmerian Night, on Heaven's mission APPEARS. What +Force and Fire is in each he expends: one grinding in the mill of +Industry; one hunter-like climbing the giddy Alpine heights of Science; +one madly dashed to pieces on the rocks of Strife, in war with his +fellow:--and then the Heaven-sent is recalled; his earthly Vesture falls +away, and soon even to sense becomes a vanished Shadow. Thus, like some +wild-flaming, wild-thundering train of Heaven's Artillery, does this +mysterious MANKIND thunder and flame, in long-drawn, quick-succeeding +grandeur, through the unknown Deep. Thus, like a God-created, +fire-breathing Spirit-host, we emerge from the Inane; haste stormfully +across the astonished Earth; then plunge again into the Inane. Earth's +mountains are levelled, and her seas filled up, in our passage; can the +Earth, which is but dead and a vision, resist Spirits which have reality +and are alive? On the hardest adamant some footprint of us is stamped +in; the last Rear of the host will read traces of the earliest Van. But +whence?--O Heaven, whither? Sense knows not; Faith knows not; only that +it is through Mystery to Mystery, from God and to God. + + 'We _are such stuff_ + As Dreams are made of, and our little Life + Is rounded with a sleep?' + +A fervid perception of the evanescence and sorrows of life is the root +of Carlyle's pathos, which is unsurpassed in literature. It leads him to +some beautiful contrasts between childhood and manhood, positively +idyllic in their charm. + +'Happy season of Childhood!' exclaims Teufelsdröckh: 'Kind Nature, that +art to all a bountiful mother; that visitest the poor man's hut with +auroral radiance; and for thy Nurseling hast provided a soft swathing of +Love and infinite Hope, wherein he waxes and slumbers, danced-round +(_umgäukelt_) by sweetest Dreams! If the paternal Cottage still shuts us +in, its roof still screens us; with a Father we have as yet a prophet, +priest and king, and an Obedience that makes us Free. The young spirit +has awakened out of Eternity, and knows not what we mean by Time; as yet +Time is no fast-hurrying stream, but a sportful sunlit ocean; years to +the child are as ages; ah! the secret of Vicissitude, of that slower or +quicker decay and ceaseless down-rushing of the universal World-fabric, +from the granite mountain to the man or day-moth, is yet unknown; and in +a motionless Universe, we taste, what afterwards in this quick-whirling +Universe is forever denied us, the balm of Rest. Sleep on, thou fair +Child, for thy long rough journey is at hand! A little while, and thou +too shalt sleep no more, but thy very dreams shall be mimic battles; +thou too, with old Arnauld, must say in stern patience: "Rest? Rest? +Shall I not have all Eternity to rest in?" Celestial Nepenthe! though a +Pyrrhus conquer empires, and an Alexander sack the world, he finds thee +not; and thou hast once fallen gently, of thy own accord, on the +eyelids, on the heart of every mother's child. For, as yet, sleep and +waking are one: the fair Life-garden rustles infinite around, and +everywhere is dewy fragrance, and the budding of Hope; which budding, if +in youth, too frostnipt, it grow to flowers, will in manhood yield no +fruit, but a prickly, bitter-rinded stone fruit, of which the fewest can +find the kernel.' + +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 +Eternity. In his '_Cromwell_,' he breaks forth in a beautiful meditation +while dealing with a commonplace reference in one of the letters of +Cromwell:--'Mrs St John came down to breakfast every morning in that +summer visit of the year 1638, and Sir William said grave grace, and +they spake polite devout things to one another, and they are vanished, +they and their things and speeches,--all silent like the echoes of the +old nightingales that sang that season, like the blossoms of the old +roses. O Death! O Time!' + +Severe comment has been made upon Carlyle's attitude towards science. +There was this excuse for his contemptuous attitude--science in its +early days fell into the hands of Dryasdusts. So absorbed were these men +in analysing Nature, that they missed the sense of mystery and beauty +which is the essence of all poetry and all religion. In the hands of the +Dryasdusts, Nature was converted into a museum in which everything was +duly labelled. During the mania for analysis, it was forgotten that +there is a great difference between the description and the explanation +of phenomena. In _Sartor Resartus_ Carlyle rescues science from the grip +of the pedant and restores it to the poet. 'Wonder, is the basis of +Worship; the reign of wonder is perennial, indestructible in Man; only +at certain stages (as the present), it is, for some short season, a +reign _in partibus infidelium_.' That progress of Science, which is to +destroy Wonder, and in its stead substitute Mensuration and Numeration, +finds small favour with Teufelsdröckh, much as he otherwise venerates +these two latter processes. + +'Shall your Science,' exclaims he, 'proceed in the small chink-lighted, +or even oil-lighted, underground workshop of Logic alone; and man's mind +become an Arithmetical Mill, whereof Memory is the Hopper, and mere +Tables of Sines and Tangents, Codification, and Treatises of what you +call Political Economy, are the Meal? And what is that Science, which +the scientific head alone, were it screwed off, and (like the Doctor's +in the Arabian Tale) set in a basin to keep it alive, could prosecute +without shadow of a heart,--but one other of the mechanical and menial +handicrafts, for which the Scientific Head (having a Soul in it) is too +noble an organ? I mean that Thought without Reverence is barren, perhaps +poisonous; at best, dies like Cookery with the day that called it forth; +does not live, like sowing, in successive tilths and wider-spreading +harvests, bringing food and plenteous increase to all Time.' + + * * * * * + +'The man who cannot wonder, who does not habitually wonder (and +worship), were he President of innumerable Royal Societies, and carried +the whole _Mécanique Céleste_ and _Hegel's Philosophy_, and the epitome +of all Laboratories and Observatories with their results, in his single +head,--is but a pair of Spectacles behind which there is no Eye. Let +those who have Eyes look through him, then he may be useful.' + +In the sphere of ethics, Carlyle's influence has been inspirational in +the highest sense. To a generation which had to choose between the +ethics of a conventional theology and the ethics of a cold, prosaic +utilitarianism, Carlyle's treatment of the whole subject of duty came as +a revelation. If in the sphere of social relationships he did not +contribute to the settlement of the theoretic side of complex problems, +he did what was equally important--he roused earnest minds to a sense of +the urgency and magnitude of the problem, awakened the feeling of +individual responsibility, and quickened the sense of social duty which +had grown weak during the reign of _laissez faire_. If Carlyle had no +final message for mankind, if he brought no gospel of glad tidings, he +nevertheless did a work which was as important as it was pressing. In +the form of a modern John the Baptist, the Chelsea Prophet with not a +little of the wilderness atmosphere about him, preached in grimly +defiant mood to a pleasure-loving generation the great doctrines which +lie at the root of all religions--the doctrines of Repentance, +Righteousness, and Retribution. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS CARLYLE*** + + +******* This file should be named 32626-8.txt or 32626-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/6/2/32626 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Thomas Carlyle</p> +<p> Famous Scots Series</p> +<p>Author: Hector Carsewell Macpherson</p> +<p>Release Date: May 31, 2010 [eBook #32626]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS CARLYLE***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Susan Skinner<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<div class="figleft" style="width: 70px;"> +<img src="images/spine.jpg" width="70" height="600" alt="Spine" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 385px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="385" height="600" alt="Cover" title="" /> +</div> + +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<h1 style="margin-bottom: 10em;">THOMAS<br /> +CARLYLE</h1> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a></span></p> + + + +<h2>FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>The following Volumes are now ready</i>:—</p> +<p> +THOMAS CARLYLE. By <span class="smcap">Hector C. Macpherson</span>.<br /> +ALLAN RAMSAY. By <span class="smcap">Oliphant Smeaton</span>.<br /> +HUGH MILLER. By <span class="smcap">W. Keith Leask</span>.<br /> +JOHN KNOX. By <span class="smcap">A. Taylor Innes</span>.<br /> +ROBERT BURNS. By <span class="smcap">Gabriel Setoun</span>.<br /> +THE BALLADISTS. By <span class="smcap">John Geddie</span>.<br /> +RICHARD CAMERON. By Professor <span class="smcap">Herkless</span>.<br /> +SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. By <span class="smcap">Eve Blantyre Simpson</span>.<br /> +THOMAS CHALMERS. By Professor <span class="smcap">W. Garden Blaikie</span>.<br /> +JAMES BOSWELL. By <span class="smcap">W. Keith Leask</span>.<br /> +TOBIAS SMOLLETT. By <span class="smcap">Oliphant Smeaton</span>.<br /> +FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. By <span class="smcap">G. W. T. Omond</span>.<br /> +THE BLACKWOOD GROUP. By Sir <span class="smcap">George Douglas</span>.<br /> +NORMAN MACLEOD. By <span class="smcap">John Wellwood</span>.<br /> +SIR WALTER SCOTT. By Professor <span class="smcap">Saintsbury</span>.<br /> +KIRKCALDY OF GRANGE. By <span class="smcap">Louis A. Barbé</span>.<br /> +ROBERT FERGUSSON. By <span class="smcap">A. B. Grosart</span>.<br /> +JAMES THOMSON. By <span class="smcap">William Bayne</span>.<br /> +MUNGO PARK. By <span class="smcap">T. Banks Maclachlan</span>.<br /> +DAVID HUME. By Professor <span class="smcap">Calderwood</span>. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 356px;"> +<img src="images/title.jpg" width="356" height="600" alt="THOMAS +CARLYLE + +BY +HECTOR: C +MACPHERSON + +FAMOUS +SCOTS: +SERIES + +PUBLISHED BY +OLIPHANT ANDERSON +& FERRIER · EDINBURGH +AND LONDON" title="" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class='center' style="font-size: x-large;">THOMAS<br /> +CARLYLE</p> + +<p class='center' style="font-size: large;">BY<br /> +HECTOR: C<br /> +MACPHERSON</p> + +<p class='center' style="font-size: large;">FAMOUS<br /> +SCOTS:<br /> +SERIES</p> + +<p class='center' style="font-size: large;">PUBLISHED BY<br /> +OLIPHANT ANDERSON<br /> + +& FERRIER · EDINBURGH<br /> +AND LONDON</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a></span></p> + + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The designs and ornaments of this +volume are by Mr Joseph Brown, +and the printing from the press of +Messrs Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh.</p></div> + + +<p class="center"><i>Second Edition completing Seventh Thousand.</i></p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">{5}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE_TO_THE_SECOND_EDITION" id="PREFACE_TO_THE_SECOND_EDITION"></a>PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION</h2> + + +<p>Of the writing of books on Carlyle there is no end. +Why, then, it may pertinently be asked, add another +stone to the Carlylean cairn? The reply is obvious. +In a series dealing with famous Scotsmen, Carlyle has +a rightful claim to a niche in the temple of Fame. +While prominence has been given in the book to the +Scottish side of Carlyle's life, the fact has not been +lost sight of that Carlyle owed much to Germany; +indeed, if we could imagine the spirit of a German +philosopher inhabiting the body of a Covenanter of +dyspeptic and sceptical tendencies, a good idea would +be had of Thomas Carlyle. Needless to say, I +have been largely indebted to the biography by Mr +Froude, and to Carlyle's <i>Reminiscences</i>. After all has +been said, the fact remains that Froude's portrait, +though truthful in the main, is somewhat deficient +in light and shade—qualities which the student +will find admirably supplied in Professor Masson's +charming little book, "Carlyle Personally, and in +his Writings." To the Professor I am under deep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">{6}</a></span> +obligation for the interest he has shown in the +book. In the course of his perusal of the proofs, +Professor Masson made valuable corrections and suggestions, +which deserve more than a formal acknowledgment. +To Mr Haldane, M.P., my thanks are +also due for his suggestive criticism of the chapter on +German thought, upon which he is an acknowledged +authority.</p> + +<p>I have also to express my deep obligations to Mr +John Morley, who, in the midst of pressing engagements, +kindly found time to read the proof sheets. +In a private note Mr Morley has been good enough +to express his general sympathy and concurrence with +my estimate of Carlyle.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>, <i>October 1897</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">{7}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="right" colspan='2'>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Early Life</span></td><td align="left">9</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Craigenputtock—Literary Efforts</span></td><td align="left">29</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Carlyle's Mental Development</span></td><td align="left">42</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Life in London</span></td><td align="left">65</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Holiday Journeyings—Literary Work</span></td><td align="left">79</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Rectorial Address—Death of Mrs Carlyle</span></td><td align="left">112</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">{8}</a></span><span class="smcap">Last Years and Death of Carlyle</span></td><td align="left">129</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Carlyle as a Social and Political Thinker</span></td><td align="left">138</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Carlyle as an Inspirational Force</span></td><td align="left">152</td></tr> +</table></div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">{9}</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THOMAS_CARLYLE" id="THOMAS_CARLYLE"></a>THOMAS CARLYLE</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">EARLY LIFE</span></h2> + + +<p>'A great man,' says Hegel, 'condemns the world to +the task of explaining him.' Emphatically does the +remark apply to Thomas Carlyle. When he began to +leave his impress in literature, he was treated as a confusing +and inexplicable element. Opinion oscillated +between the view of James Mill, that Carlyle was an +insane rhapsodist, and that of Jeffrey, that he was +afflicted with a chronic craze for singularity. Jeffrey's +verdict sums up pretty effectively the attitude of the +critics of the time to the new writer:—'I suppose +that you will treat me as something worse than an ass, +when I say that I am firmly persuaded the great source +of your extravagance, and all that makes your writings +intolerable to many and ridiculous to not a few, is not +so much any real peculiarity of opinion, as an unlucky +ambition to appear more original than you are.' The +blunder made by Jeffrey in regard both to Carlyle and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">{10}</a></span> +Wordsworth emphasises the truth which critics seem +reluctant to bear in mind, that, before the great man +can be explained, he must be appreciated. Emphatically +true of Carlyle it is that he creates the standard +by which he is judged. Carlyle resembles those +products of the natural world which biologists call +'sports'—products which, springing up in a spontaneous +and apparently erratic way, for a time defy +classification. The time is appropriate for an attempt +to classify the great thinker, whose birth took place one +hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>Towards the close of the last century a stone-mason, +named James Carlyle, started business on his own +account in the village of Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire. +He was an excellent tradesman, and frugal withal; and +in the year 1791 he married a distant kinswoman of +his own, Janet Carlyle, who died after giving birth +to a son. In the beginning of 1795 he married one +Margaret Aitken, a worthy, intelligent woman; and on +the 4th of December following a son was born, whom +they called Thomas, after his paternal grandfather. +This child was destined to be the most original writer +of his time.</p> + +<p>Little Thomas was early taught to read by his +mother, and at the age of five he learnt to 'count' +from his father. He was then sent to the village school; +and in his seventh year he was reported to be 'complete' +in English. As the schoolmaster was weak in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">{11}</a></span> +the classics, Tom was taught the rudiments of Latin by +the burgher minister, of which strict sect James Carlyle +was a zealous member. One summer morning, in 1806, +his father took him to Annan Academy. 'It was a +bright morning,' he wrote long years thereafter, 'and +to me full of moment, of fluttering boundless Hopes, +saddened by parting with Mother, with Home, and +which afterwards were cruelly disappointed.' At that +'doleful and hateful Academy,' to use his own words, +Thomas Carlyle spent three years, learning to read +French and Latin, and the Greek alphabet, as well as +acquiring a smattering of geometry and algebra.</p> + +<p>It was in the Academy that he got his first glimpse +of Edward Irving—probably in April or May 1808—who +had called to pay his respects to his old teacher, +Mr Hope. Thomas's impression of him was that of +a 'flourishing slip of a youth, with coal-black hair, +swarthy clear complexion, very straight on his feet, +and except for the glaring squint alone, decidedly +handsome.' Years passed before young Carlyle saw +Irving's face again.</p> + +<p>James Carlyle, although an austere man, and the +reverse of demonstrative, was bound up in his son, +sparing no expense upon the youth's education. On +one occasion he exclaimed, with an unwonted outburst +of glee, 'Tom, I do not grudge thy schooling, now +when thy Uncle Frank owns thee to be a better Arithmetician +than himself.' Early recognising the natural<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">{12}</a></span> +talent and aptitude of his son, he determined to send him +to the nearest university, with a view to Thomas studying +for the ministry. One crisp winter's morning, in 1809, +found Thomas Carlyle on his way to Edinburgh, trudging +the entire distance—one hundred miles or so.</p> + +<p>He went through the usual university course, +attended the divinity classes, and delivered the customary +discourses in English and Latin. But Tom was +not destined to 'wag his head in a pulpit,' for he had +conscientious objections which parental control in no +way interfered with. Referring to this vital period of +his life, Carlyle wrote: 'His [father's] tolerance for +me, his trust in me, was great. When I declined +going forward into the Church (though his heart was +set upon it), he respected my scruples, my volition, +and patiently let me have my way.' Carlyle never +looked back to his university life with satisfaction. +In his interesting recollections Mr Moncure Conway +represents Carlyle, describing his experiences as follows:—'Very +little help did I get from anybody in those +years, and, as I may say, no sympathy at all in all this +old town. And if there was any difference, it was found +least where I might most have hoped for it. There +was Professor ——. For years I attended his lectures, +in all weathers and all hours. Many and many a time, +when the class was called together, it was found to +consist of one individual—to wit, of him now speaking; +and still oftener, when others were present, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">{13}</a></span> +only person who had at all looked into the lesson +assigned was the same humble individual. I remember +no instance in which these facts elicited any note or +comment from that instructor. He once requested +me to translate a mathematical paper, and I worked +through it the whole of one Sunday, and it was laid +before him, and it was received without remark or +thanks. After such long years, I came to part with +him, and to get my certificate. Without a word, he +wrote on a bit of paper: "I certify that Mr Thomas +Carlyle has been in my class during his college course, +and has made good progress in his studies." Then he +rang a bell, and ordered a servant to open the front +door for me. Not the slightest sign that I was a +person whom he could have distinguished in any +crowd. And so I parted from old ——.'</p> + +<p>Professor Masson, who in loving, painstaking style +has ferreted all the facts about Carlyle's university life, +sums up in these words: 'Without assuming that he +meant the university described in <i>Sartor Resartus</i> to +stand literally for Edinburgh University, of his own +experience, 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 +University, was the culture of his mathematical +faculty under Leslie, and that for the rest he acknowledged +merely a certain benefit from being in so many +class-rooms where matters intellectual were professedly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">{14}</a></span> +in the atmosphere, and where he learned to take advantage +of books.' As Carlyle put it in his Rectorial +Address of 1866, 'What I have found the university +did for me is that it taught me to read in various +languages, in various sciences, so that I go into the +books which treated of these things, and gradually +penetrate into any department I wanted to make +myself master of, as I found it suit me.'</p> + +<p>In 1814, Carlyle obtained the mathematical tutorship +at Annan. Out of his slender salary of £60 or +£70 he was able to save something, so that he was +practically independent. By and by James Carlyle gave +up his trade, and settled on a small farm at Mainhill, +about two miles from Ecclefechan. Thither Thomas +hied with unfeigned delight at holiday time, for he +led the life of a recluse at Annan, his books being his +sole companions.</p> + +<p>Edward Irving, to whom Carlyle was introduced in +college days, was now settled as a dominie in Kirkcaldy. +His teaching was not favourably viewed by +some of the parents, who started a rival school, and +resolved to import a second master, with the result +that Carlyle was selected. Irving, with great magnanimity, +gave him a cordial welcome to the 'Lang +Toon,' and the two Annandale natives became fast +friends. The elder placed his well-selected library at +the disposal of the younger, and together they explored +the whole countryside. Short visits to Edinburgh had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">{15}</a></span> +a special attraction for both, where they met with a +few kindred spirits. On one of those visits, Carlyle, +who had not cut off his connection with the university, +called at the Divinity Hall to put down his name +formally on the annual register. In his own words: +'Old Dr Ritchie "not at home" when I called to enter +myself. "Good!" answered I; "<i>let the omen be fulfilled</i>."' +Carlyle's studies in Kirkcaldy made him eager +to contribute to the fulfilment of the omen. Among the +authors which he read out of the Edinburgh University +library was Gibbon, who pushed Carlyle's sceptical +questionings to a definite point. In a conversation +with Professor Masson, 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 miracles.</p> + +<p>In the space of two years, Carlyle and Irving 'got +tired of schoolmastering and its mean contradictions +and poor results.' They bade Kirkcaldy farewell and +made for Edinburgh,—Irving to lodge in Bristo Street, +'more expensive rooms than mine,' naively remarks +Carlyle, where he gave breakfasts to 'Intellectualities +he fell in with, I often a guest with them. They were +but stupid Intellectualities, etc.' As for their prospects, +this is what Carlyle says: 'Irving's outlooks in Edinburgh +were not of the best, considerably checkered +with dubiety, opposition, or even flat disfavour in +some quarters; but at least they were far superior to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">{16}</a></span> +mine, and indeed, I was beginning my four or five +most miserable, dark, sick, and heavy-laden years; +Irving, after some staggerings aback, his seven or eight +healthiest and brightest. He had, I should guess, as +one item several good hundreds of money to wait upon. +My <i>peculium</i> I don't recollect, but it could not have +exceeded £100. I was without friends, experience, or +connection in the sphere of human business, was of shy +humour, proud enough and to spare, and had begun +my long curriculum of <i>dyspepsia</i> which has never ended +since!'<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Carlyle's intention was to study for the Bar, +if perchance he could eke out a livelihood by private +teaching. He obtained one or two pupils, wrote a stray +article or so for the 'Encyclopædias'; but as he barely +managed to pay his way, he speedily gave up his law +studies. He was at this time—the winter of 1819—'advancing,' +as he phrases it, 'towards huge instalments +of bodily and spiritual wretchedness in this +my Edinburgh purgatory.' It was about a couple of +years thereafter ere Carlyle went through what he has +described as his 'spiritual new birth.'</p> + +<p>When Carlyle was in diligent search for congenial +employment, a certain Captain Basil Hall crossed his +path, to whom Edward Irving had given lessons in +mathematics. The 'small lion,' as he calls the captain, +came to Carlyle, and wished the latter to go out +with him 'to Dunglas,' and there do 'lunars' in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">{17}</a></span> +name, he looking on and learning of Carlyle 'what +would come of its own will.' The said 'lunars' +meanwhile were to go to the Admiralty, 'testifying +there what a careful studious Captain he was, and help +to get him promotion, so the little wretch smilingly +told me.' Carlyle adds: 'I remember the figure of +him in my dim lodging as a gay, crackling, sniggering +spectre, one dusk, endeavouring to seduce me by +affability in lieu of liberal wages into this adventure. +Wages, I think, were to be smallish ("so poor are we"), +but then the great Playfair is coming on visit. "You +will see Professor Playfair." I had not the least notion +of such an enterprise on these shining terms, and +Captain Basil with his great Playfair <i>in posse</i> vanished +for me into the shades of dusk for good.'<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> When +private teaching would not come Carlyle's way, he +timorously aimed towards 'literature.' He had taken +to the study of German, and conscious of his own +powers in that direction, he applied in vain to more +than one London bookseller, proposing a complete +translation of Schiller. Irving not only did his utmost +to comfort Carlyle in his spiritual wrestlings, but he +tried to find him employment. The two friends continued +to make pleasant excursions, and in June 1821 +Irving brought Carlyle to Haddington, an event which +was destined to colour all his subsequent life; for it +was then and there he first saw Jane Welsh, a sight, he +acknowledged, for ever memorable to him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">{18}</a></span></p> + +<p>'In the ancient County Town of Haddington, July 14, +1801, there was born,' wrote Thomas Carlyle in 1869, +'to a lately wedded pair, not natives of the place but +already reckoned among the best class of people there, +a little Daughter whom they named <i>Jane Baillie Welsh</i>, +and whose subsequent and final name (her own +common signature for many years) was <i>Jane Welsh +Carlyle</i>, and now so stands, now that she is mine in +death only, on her and her Father's Tombstone in the +Abbey Kirk of that Town. July 14th, 1801; I was +then in my sixth year, far away in every sense, now +near and infinitely concerned, trying doubtfully after +some three years' sad cunctation, if there is anything +that I can profitably put on record of her altogether +bright, beneficent and modest little Life, and Her, as my +final task in this world.'<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The picture was never completed +by the master-hand; the 'effort was too distressing'; +so all his notes and letters were handed over +to a literary executor.</p> + +<p>At the time of Carlyle's introduction to Miss Welsh, +she was living with her widowed mother. Her father, +Dr John Welsh, came of a good family, and was a +popular country physician. Her mother was Grace +Welsh of Capelgill, and was reckoned a beautiful, but +haughty woman. Their marriage took place in 1800, +and their only child, Jane, was born, as we have seen, +the year following. Her most intimate friend, Miss<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">{19}</a></span> +Geraldine Jewsbury, tells us that Miss Welsh had 'a +graceful and beautifully-formed figure, upright and +supple, a delicate complexion of creamy white, with a +pale rose tint in the cheeks, lovely eyes full of fire and +softness, and with great depths of meaning.' She had +a musical voice, was a good talker, extremely witty, 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 +marriage. Be that as it may, it <i>is</i> certain that Miss +Jane Welsh had troops of suitors in and around the +quiet country town. She always spoke of her mother +with deep affection and great admiration. Her father +she reverenced, and he was the only person during her +girlhood who had any real influence over her. This, +then, was the young lady of whom Thomas Carlyle +carried back to Edinburgh a sweet and lasting impression. +They corresponded at intervals, and Thomas +was permitted to send her books occasionally.</p> + +<p>Edward Irving used to live in Dr Welsh's house +when he taught in the local school, and he led Jeannie—a +winsome, wilful lass—to take an interest in the +classics. She entertained a girlish passion for the +handsome youth, and there can be little doubt that +they would have ultimately been married, were it not +that the eldest daughter of a Kirkcaldy parson, Miss +Martin, had 'managed to charm Irving for the time +being,' and an engagement followed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">{20}</a></span></p> + +<p>Before Carlyle had drifted into Edinburgh he had, +of course, heard of the fame of Francis Jeffrey. He +heard him once speaking in the General Assembly 'on +some poor cause.' Jeffrey's pleading seemed to Carlyle +'abundantly clear, full of liveliness, free flowing ingenuity.' +'My admiration,' he adds, 'went frankly +with that of others, but I think it was hardly of very +deep character.' When Carlyle was in the 'slough of +despond,' he bethought him of Jeffrey, this time as +editor of the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>. He resolved to +try the 'great man' with an actual contribution. The +subject was a condemnation of a new French book, in +which a mechanical theory of gravitation was elaborately +worked out by the author. He got 'a certain +feeble but enquiring quasi-disciple' of his own to act +as amanuensis, from whom he kept his ulterior purpose +quite secret. Looking back through the dim vista of +seven-and-forty years, this is what Carlyle says of that +anxious time: 'Well do I remember those dreary evenings +in Bristo Street; oh, what ghastly passages and +dismal successive spasms of attempt at "literary enterprise"!... +My "Review of Pictet" all fairly written +out in George Dalgliesh's good clerk hand, I penned +some brief polite Note to the great Editor, and walked +off with the small Parcel one night to his address in +George Street. I very well remember leaving it with +his valet there, and disappearing in the night with +various thoughts and doubts! My hopes had never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">{21}</a></span> +risen high, or in fact risen at all; but for a fortnight +or so they did not quite die out, and then it was in +absolute zero; no answer, no return of MS., absolutely +no notice taken, which was a form of catastrophe more +complete than even I had anticipated! There rose in +my head a pungent little Note which might be written +to the great man, with neatly cutting considerations +offered him from the small unknown ditto; but I wisely +judged it was still more dignified to let the matter lie +as it was, and take what I had got for my own benefit +only. Nor did I ever mention it to almost anybody, +least of all to Jeffrey in subsequent changed times, +when at anyrate it was fallen extinct.'<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>Carlyle's star was, however, in the ascendant, for in +1822 he became tutor to the two sons of a wealthy +lady, Mrs Charles Buller, at a salary of £200 a year. +It was through Irving that this appointment came. +The young lads boarded with 'a good old Dr Fleming' +in George Square, whither Carlyle went daily from his +lodgings at <a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>3 Moray Street, Pilrig Street. The Bullers +finally returned to London, Carlyle staying at his +father's little homestead of Mainhill to finish a translation +of 'Wilhelm Meister.' He followed the Bullers +to London, where he resigned the tutorship in the +hope of getting some literary work.</p> + +<p>Irving introduced him to the proprietor of the +<i>London Magazine</i>, who offered Carlyle sixteen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">{22}</a></span> +guineas a sheet for a series of 'Portraits of Men of +Genius and Character.' The first was to be a life of +Schiller, which appeared in that periodical in 1823-4. +Mr Boyd, the Edinburgh publisher, accepted the translation +of 'Wilhelm Meister.' 'Two years before,' +wrote Carlyle in his <i>Reminiscences</i>, 'I had at length, +after some repulsions, got into the heart of "Wilhelm +Meister," and eagerly read it through; my sally out, +after finishing, along the vacant streets of Edinburgh, +(a windless, Scotch-misty Saturday night), is still vivid +to me. "Grand, surely, harmoniously built together, +far-seeing, wise, and true: when, for many years, or +almost in my life before, have I read such a book?"' +A short letter from Goethe in Weimar, in acknowledgment +of a copy of his 'Wilhelm Meister,' was +peculiarly gratifying to Carlyle.</p> + +<p>Carlyle was not happy in London; dyspepsia and +'the noises' sorely troubled him. He was anxious to +be gone. To the surprise of Irving—who was now +settled in the metropolis—and everybody else, he resolutely +decided to return to Annandale, where his +father had leased for him a compact little farm at +Hoddam Hill, three miles from Mainhill, and visible +from the fields at the back of it. 'Perhaps it was the +very day before my departure,' wrote Carlyle, 'at least +it is the last I recollect of him [Irving], we were walking +in the streets multifariously discoursing; a dim +grey day, but dry and airy;—at the corner of Cockspur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">{23}</a></span> +Street we paused for a moment, meeting Sir John Sinclair +("Statistical Account of Scotland" etc.), whom I +had never seen before and never saw again. A lean +old man, tall but stooping, in tartan cloak, face very +wrinkly, nose blue, physiognomy vague and with distinction +as one might have expected it to be. He +spoke to Irving with benignant respect, whether to me +at all I don't recollect.'</p> + +<p>Carlyle shook the dust of London from off his feet, +and by easy stages made his way northwards. Arrived +at Ecclefechan, within two miles of his father's house, +while the coach was changing horses, Carlyle noticed +through the window his little sister Jean earnestly looking +up for him. She, with Jenny, the youngest of the +family, was at school in the village, and had come +out daily to inspect the coach in hope of seeing him. +'Her bonny little blush and radiancy of look when I +let down the window and suddenly disclosed myself,' +wrote Carlyle in 1867, 'are still present to me.' On +the 26th of May 1825, he established himself at +Hoddam Hill, and set about 'German Romance.' His +brother Alick managed the farm, and his mother, with +one of the girls, was generally there to look after his +comforts.</p> + +<p>During the intervening years, Carlyle's intimacy with +Miss Jane Welsh gradually increased, with occasional +differences. She had promised to marry him if he +could 'achieve independence.' Carlyle's idea was that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">{24}</a></span> +after their marriage they should settle upon the farm +of Craigenputtock, which had been in the possession +of the Welsh family for generations, and devote himself +to literary work. By and by Miss Welsh accepted his +offer of marriage, but not until she had acquainted him +of the Irving incident. The wedding took place on +the 17th of October 1825, and the young couple took +up housekeeping in a quiet cottage at Comely Bank, +Edinburgh. Of his life at this period, the best description +is given by Carlyle himself, in a letter to Mrs +Basil Montague, dated Christmas Day 1826:—</p> + +<p>'In spite of ill-health I reckon myself moderately +happy here, much happier than men usually are, or than +such a fool as I deserve to be. My good wife exceeds +all my hopes, and is, in truth, I believe, among the best +women that the world contains. The philosophy of +the heart is far better than that of the understanding. +She loves me with her whole soul, and this one sentiment +has taught her much that I have long been vainly +at the schools to learn.... On the whole, what I +chiefly want is occupation; which, when the times +grow better, or my own genius gets more alert and +thorough-going, will not fail, I suppose, to present +itself.... Some day—oh, that the day were here!—I +shall surely speak out those things that are lying in me, +and give me no sleep till they are spoken! Or else, if +the Fates would be so kind as to shew me—that I had +nothing to say! This, perhaps, is the real secret of it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">{25}</a></span> +after all; a hard result, yet not intolerable, were it once +clear and certain. Literature, it seems, is to be my +trade, but the present aspects of it among us seem to +me peculiarly perplexed and uninviting.' <a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>Here, as in +undertone, we discover what Professor Masson calls the +constitutional sadness of Carlyle—a sadness which, +along with indifferent health, led him to be impatient +at trifles, morbid, proud, and at times needlessly aggressive +in speech and demeanour. These traits, however, +in the early years of married life were not specially +visible; and on the whole the Comely Bank period +may be described as one of calm happiness. Carlyle's +forecast was correct. Literature was to be his trade.</p> + +<p>In the following spring came a letter to Carlyle from +Procter (Barry Cornwall), whom he had met in London, +offering to introduce him formally to Jeffrey, whom he +certified to be a 'very fine fellow.' One evening +Carlyle sallied forth from Comely Bank for Jeffrey's +house in George Street, armed with Procter's letter. +He was shown into the study. 'Fire, pair of candles,' +he relates, 'were cheerfully burning, in the light of +which sate my famous little gentleman; laid aside his +work, cheerfully invited me to sit, and began talking in +a perfectly human manner.' The interview lasted for +about twenty minutes, during which time Jeffrey had +made kind enquiries what his visitor was doing and +what he had published; adding, 'We must give you a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">{26}</a></span> +lift,' an offer, Carlyle says, which in 'some complimentary +way' he managed to Jeffrey's satisfaction to decline. +Jeffrey returned Carlyle's call, when he was captivated +by Mrs Carlyle. The intimacy rapidly increased, and +a short paper by Carlyle on Jean Paul appeared in the +very next issue of the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>. 'It +made,' says the author, 'what they call a sensation +among the Edinburgh buckrams; which was greatly +heightened next Number by the more elaborate and +grave article on "German Literature" generally, which +set many tongues wagging, and some few brains considering, +<i>what</i> this strange monster could be that was +come to disturb their quiescence and the established +order of Nature! Some Newspapers or Newspaper took +to denouncing "the Mystic School," which my bright +little Woman declared to consist of me alone, or of her +and me, and for a long while after merrily used to +designate us by that title.'</p> + +<p>Mrs Carlyle proved an admirable hostess; Jeffrey +became a frequent visitor at Comely Bank, and they +discovered 'mutual old cousinships' by the maternal +side. Jeffrey's friendship was an immense acquisition +to Carlyle, and everybody regarded it as his highest +good fortune. The <i>literati</i> of Edinburgh came to see +her, and 'listen to her husband's astonishing monologues.' +To Carlyle's regret, Jeffrey would not talk in +their frequent rambles of his experiences in the world, +'nor of things concrete and current,' but was 'theoretic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">{27}</a></span> +generally'; and seemed bent on converting Carlyle +from his 'German mysticism,' back merely, as the +latter could perceive, into 'dead Edinburgh Whiggism, +scepticism, and materialism'; 'what I felt,' says +Carlyle, 'to be a forever impossible enterprise.' They +had long discussions, 'parryings, and thrustings,' which +'I have known continue night after night,' relates +Carlyle, 'till two or three in the morning (when I was +his guest at Craigcrook, as once or twice happened in +coming years); there he went on in brisk logical +exercise with all the rest of the house asleep, and +parted usually in good humour, though after a game +which was hardly worth the candle. I found him +infinitely witty, ingenious, sharp of fence, but not in +any sense deep; and used without difficulty to hold +my own with him.' Jeffrey did everything in his power +to further Carlyle's prospects and projects. He tried +to obtain for him the professorship of Moral Philosophy +at St Andrews University, vacated by Dr Chalmers. +Testimonials were given by Irving, Brewster, Buller, +Wilson, Jeffrey, and Goethe. They failed, however, in +consequence of the opposition of the Principal, Dr +Nicol.</p> + +<p>To Carlyle, doubtless, the most memorable incidents +of the Edinburgh period was his correspondence with +Goethe. The magnetic spell thrown over Carlyle by +Goethe will ever remain a mystery. Between the two +men there was no intellectual affinity. One would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">{28}</a></span> +have expected Goethe the Pagan to have repelled +Carlyle the Puritan, unless we have recourse to the +philosophy of opposites, and conclude that the tumultuous +soul of Carlyle found congenial repose in the +Greek-like restfulness of Goethe. The great German +had been deeply impressed by the profound grasp +which Carlyle was displaying of German literature. +After reading a letter which he had received from +Walter Scott, Goethe remarked to Eckermann: 'I +almost wonder that Walter Scott does not say a word +about Carlyle, who has so decided a German tendency +that he must certainly be known to him. It is admirable +in Carlyle, that, in his judgment of our German +authors, he has especially in view the <i>mental and moral +core</i> as that which is really influential. Carlyle is a +<i>moral force of great importance</i>; there is in him much +for the future and we cannot foresee what he will +produce and effect.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">{29}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">CRAIGENPUTTOCK—LITERARY EFFORTS</span></h2> + + +<p>Carlyle was feeling the force of Scott's remark that +literature was a bad crutch—his prospects being far +from bright. The Carlyles had been a little over +eighteen months at Comely Bank, when their extensive +circle of friends were surprised to hear of their +intended withdrawal to Craigenputtock. Efforts were +made to dissuade Carlyle from pursuing what at the +time appeared a suicidal course. He was the intimate +associate of the brilliant Jeffrey; he was within the +charmed circle of Edinburgh Reviewers; he had laid +the foundation of a literary reputation. Outwardly all +seemed well with Carlyle; but 'the step,' himself says, +'had been well meditated, saw itself to be founded on +irrefragable considerations of health, <i>finance</i>, &c., &c., +unknown to bystanders, and could not be forborne or +altered.' Next to his marriage with Miss Welsh, +Carlyle's retirement to the howling wilds of Craigenputtock +at that juncture was the most momentous step +in his long life. He was conscious of his own powers, +and he clearly discerned how those powers could best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">{30}</a></span> +be utilised and developed. Hence his determination +to bid adieu to Edinburgh. And in that +resolve he was fortified by the loyal support of his +wife.</p> + +<p>Jeffrey promised to visit the Carlyles at Craigenputtock +as soon as they got settled. Meanwhile, they +stayed a week at his own house in Moray Place, after +their furniture was on the road, and they were waiting +till it should arrive and 'render a new home possible +amid the moors and the mountains.' 'Of our history +at Craigenputtock,' says Carlyle, 'there might a +great deal be written which might amuse the curious; +for it was in fact a very singular scene and arena for +such a pair as my Darling and me, with such a Life +ahead.... It is a History I by no means intend +to write, with such or with any object. To me there +is a <i>sacredness</i> of interest in it consistent only with +<i>silence</i>. It was the field of endless nobleness and +beautiful talent and virtue in Her who is now gone; +also of good industry, and many loving and blessed +thoughts in myself, while living there by her side. +Poverty and mean Obstruction had given origin to it, +and continued to preside over it, but were transformed +by human valour of various sorts into a kind of victory +and royalty: something of high and great dwelt in it, +though nothing could be smaller and lower than very +many of the details.'<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">{31}</a></span></p> + +<p>The Jeffreys were not slow in appearing at Craigenputtock. +Their 'big Carriage,' narrates the humorous +host, 'climbed our rugged Hill-roads, landed the Three +Guests—young Charlotte ("Sharlie"), with Pa and Ma—and +the clever old Valet maid that waited on them; +... but I remember nothing so well as the consummate +art with which my Dear One played the +domestic field-marshal, and spread out our exiguous +resources, without fuss or bustle; to cover everything +with a coat of hospitality and even elegance and abundance. +I have been in houses ten times, nay, a hundred +times, as rich, where things went not so well. Though +never bred to this, but brought up in opulent plenty by +a mother that could bear no partnership in housekeeping, +she, finding it become necessary, loyally applied herself +to it, and soon surpassed in it all the women I have ever +seen.'<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Of Mrs Carlyle's frankness her husband gives +this amusing glimpse: 'One day at dinner, I remember, +Jeffrey admired the fritters or bits of pancake he was +eating, and she let him know, not without some vestige +of shock to him, that she had made them. "What, +you! twirl up the frying-pan, and catch them in the +air?" Even so, my high friend, and you may turn +it over in your mind!' When the Jeffreys were leaving, +'I remarked,' says Carlyle, that they 'carried off +our little temporary paradise; ... to which bit of +pathos Jeffrey answered by a friendly little sniff of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">{32}</a></span> +quasi-mockery or laughter through the nose, and rolled +prosperously away.'</p> + +<p>The Carlyles in course of time visited the Jeffreys +at Craigcrook, the last occasion being for about a fortnight. +Carlyle says it was 'a shining sort of affair, +but did not in effect accomplish much for any of +us. Perhaps, for one thing, we stayed too long, +Jeffrey was beginning to be seriously incommoded in +health, had bad sleep, cared not how late he sat, and +we had now more than ever a series of sharp fencing +bouts, night after night, which could decide nothing +for either of us, except our radical incompatibility in +respect of World Theory, and the incurable divergence +of our opinions on the most important matters. "You +are so dreadfully in earnest!" said he to me once or +oftener. Besides, I own now I was deficient in reverence +to him, and had not then, nor, alas! have ever +acquired, in my solitary and mostly silent existence, the +art of gently saying strong things, or of insinuating my +dissent, instead of uttering it right out at the risk of +offence or otherwise.' Then he adds: 'These "stormy +sittings," as Mrs Jeffrey laughingly called them, did not +improve our relation to one another. But these were +the last we had of that nature. In other respects +Edinburgh had been barren; effulgences of "Edinburgh +Society," big dinners, parties, we in due measure +had; but nothing there was very interesting either to +<i>Her</i> or to me, and all of it passed away as an obliging<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">{33}</a></span> +pageant merely. Well do I remember our return to +Craigenputtock, after nightfall, amid the clammy yellow +leaves and desolate rains with the clink of Alick's +stithy alone audible of human.'<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>It was during his first two years' residence at Craigenputtock +that Carlyle wrote his famous essay on Burns; +but his principal work was upon German literature, +especially upon Goethe. His magazine writings being +his only means of support, and as he devoted much +time to them, it is not surprising that financial matters +worried him. About this time Jeffrey, to whom doubtless +he confided his trouble, generously offered to +confer upon him an annuity of £100, which Carlyle +declined to accept. Jeffrey repeated the offer on two +subsequent occasions, with a like result. Carlyle in +his <i>Reminiscences</i> says that he could not doubt but +Jeffrey had intended an act of real generosity; and yet +Carlyle penned the ungracious remark, that 'perhaps +there was something in the manner of it that savoured +of consciousness and of screwing one's self up to the +point; less of god-like pity for a fine fellow and his +struggles, than of human determination to do a fine +action of one's own, which might add to the promptitude +of my refusal.' It is not surprising, therefore, to +find Carlyle suspecting that Jeffrey's feelings were cooling +towards him. Jeffrey had powers of penetration as +well as the friend whom he was anxious to assist.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">{34}</a></span></p> + +<p>By the month of February 1831, Carlyle's finances +fell so low that he had only £5 in his possession, and +expected no more for months. Then he borrowed +£100 from Jeffrey, as his 'pitiful bits of periodical +literature incomings,' as he puts it, 'having gone awry +(as they were liable to do), but was able, I still remember +with what satisfaction, to repay punctually within a few +weeks'; adding, 'and this was all of pecuniary chivalry +<i>we</i> two ever had between us.' The chivalry was all on +the one side—of Jeffrey. The outcome of his labours +at Craigenputtock, in addition to the fragmentary +articles already referred to, was the essays which form +the first three volumes of the 'Miscellanies.' They +appeared chiefly in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>, the +<i>Foreign Review</i>, and <i>Fraser's Magazine</i>. Jeffrey's +resignation of the editorship of the 'Review' was a +great disappointment to Carlyle, because it stopped a +regular source of income.</p> + +<p>German literature, of which Carlyle had begun a +history, not being a 'marketable commodity,' he cut +it up into articles. 'My last considerable bit of +<i>Writing</i> at Craigenputtock,' says Carlyle, 'was "Sartor +Resartus"; done, I think, between January and August +1830; (my sister Margaret had died while it was going +on). I well remember where and how (at Templand +one morning) the <i>germ</i> of it rose above ground. "Nine +months," I used to say, "it had cost me in writing." +Had the perpetual fluctuation, the uncertainty and unintelligible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">{35}</a></span> +whimsicality of Review Editors not proved +so intolerable, we might have lingered longer at Craigenputtock, +perfectly left alone, and able to do <i>more</i> work, +beyond doubt, than elsewhere. But a Book did seem +to promise some <i>respite</i> from that, and perhaps further +advantages. Teufelsdröckh was ready; and (first days +of August) I decided to make for London. Night before +going, how I still remember it! I was lying on +my back on the sofa in the drawing-room; she sitting +by the table (late at night, packing all done, I suppose); +her words had a guise of sport, but were profoundly +plaintive in meaning. "About to part, who knows for +how long; and what may have come in the interim!" +this was her thought, and she was evidently much out +of spirits. "Courage, Dearie, only for a month!" I +would say to her in some form or other. I went next +morning early.'<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>Jeffrey, who was by that time Lord Advocate, +Carlyle found much preoccupied in London, but +willing to assist him with Murray, the bookseller. +Jeffrey, with his wife and daughter, lived in Jermyn +Street in lodgings, 'in melancholy contrast to the +beautiful tenements and perfect equipments they had +left in the north.' 'If,' says Carlyle, 'I called in the +morning, in quest perhaps of Letters (though I don't +recollect much troubling <i>him</i> in that way), I would find +the family still at breakfast, ten <span class="smcap lowercase">A.M.</span> or later; and have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">{36}</a></span> +seen poor Jeffrey emerge in flowered dressing-gown, +with a most boiled and suffering expression of face, +like one who had slept miserably, and now awoke +mainly to paltry misery and bother; poor Official man! +"I am made a mere Post-Office of!" I heard him once +grumble, after tearing open several Packets, not one of +which was internally for himself.'<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p>Mrs Carlyle joined her husband on the 1st of +October 1831, and they took lodgings at 4 Ampton +Street, Gray's Inn Lane, with a family of the name of +Miles, belonging to Irving's congregation. Jeffrey was +a frequent visitor there, and sometimes the Carlyles +called at Jermyn Street. Carlyle says that they were +at first rather surprised that Jeffrey did not introduce +him to some of his 'grand literary figures,' or try in +some way to be of help to one for whom he evidently +had a value. The explanation, Carlyle thinks, was +that he himself 'expressed no trace of aspiration that +way'; 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 wished.' Besides, Jeffrey was so 'heartily +miserable,' as to think Carlyle and his other fellow-creatures +happy in comparison, and to have no care +left to bestow upon them.</p> + +<p>Here is a characteristic outburst in the 'Reminiscences': +'The beggarly history of poor "Sartor"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">{37}</a></span> +<i>among the blockheadisms</i> is not worth my recording or +remembering—least of all here! In short, finding that +whereas I had got £100 (if memory serve) for +"Schiller" six or seven years before, and for "Sartor," +at least <i>thrice</i> as good, I could not only <i>not</i> get £200, +but even get no Murray, or the like, to publish it on +half-profits (Murray, a most stupendous object to me; +tumbling about, eyeless, with the evidently strong wish +to say "yes and no"; my first signal experience of +that sad human predicament); I said, "We will make +it No, then; wrap up our MS.; wait till this Reform +Bill uproar abate."'<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>On Tuesday, January 26th, 1832, Carlyle received +tidings of the death of his father. He departed on the +Sunday morning previous 'almost without a struggle,' +wrote his favourite sister Jane. It was a heavy stroke +for Carlyle. 'Natural tears,' he exclaimed shortly afterwards, +'have come to my relief. I can look at my +dear Father, and that section of the Past which he has +made alive for me, in a certain sacred, sanctified light, +and give way to what thoughts rise in me without +feeling that they are weak and useless.' Carlyle +determined that the time till the funeral was past +(Friday) should be spent with his wife only. All +others were excluded. He walked 'far and much,' +chiefly in the Regent's Park, and considered about +many things, his object being to see clearly what his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">{38}</a></span> +calamity meant—what he lost, and what lesson that +loss was to teach him. Carlyle considered his father as +one of the most interesting men he had known. 'Were +you to ask me,' he said, 'which had the greater natural +faculty,' Robert Burns or my father, 'I might, perhaps, +actually pause before replying. Burns had an infinitely +wider Education, my Father a far wholesomer. +Besides, the one was a man of Musical Utterance; the +other wholly a man of Action, even with Speech subservient +thereto. Never, of all the men I have seen, +has one come personally in my way in whom the endowment +from Nature and the Arena from Fortune +were so utterly out of all proportion. I have said this +often, and partly <i>know</i> it. As a man of Speculation—had +Culture ever unfolded him—he must have gone wild +and desperate as Burns; but he was a man of Conduct, +and Work keeps all right. What strange shapeable +creatures we are!'<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Nothing that the elder Carlyle +undertook to do but he did it faithfully, and like a true +man. 'I shall look,' said his distinguished son, 'on the +houses he built with a certain proud interest. They stand +firm and sound to the heart all over his little district. +No one that comes after him will ever say, "Here was +the finger of a hollow eye-servant." They are little texts +for me of the gospel of man's free will. Nor will his +deeds and sayings in any case be found unworthy—not +false and barren, but genuine and fit. Nay, am<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">{39}</a></span> +not I also the humble James Carlyle's work? I +owe him much more than existence; I owe him a +noble inspiring example (now that I can read it in +that rustic character). It was he <i>exclusively</i> that determined +on <i>educating</i> me; that from his small hard-earned +funds sent me to school and college, and made +me whatever I am or may become. Let me not +mourn for my father, let me do worthily of him. So +shall he still live even here in me, and his worth plant +itself honourably forth into new generations.'<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> One +of the wise men about Ecclefechan told James Carlyle: +'Educate a boy, and he grows up to despise his +ignorant parents.' His father once told Carlyle this, +and added: 'Thou hast not done so; God be thanked +for it.' When James Carlyle first entered his son's +house at Craigenputtock, Mrs Carlyle was greatly +struck with him, 'and still farther,' says her husband, +'opened my eyes to the treasure I possessed in a father.'</p> + +<p>The last time Carlyle saw his father was a few days +before leaving for London. 'He was very kind,' wrote +Carlyle, 'seemed prouder of me than ever. What he +had never done the like of before, he said, on hearing me +express something which he admired, "Man, it's surely +a pity that thou should sit yonder with nothing but +the eye of Omniscience to see thee, and thou with such +a gift to speak."' In closing his affectionate tribute, +Carlyle exclaims: 'Thank Heaven, I know and have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">{40}</a></span> +known what it is to be a <i>son</i>; to <i>love</i> a father, as spirit +can love spirit.'</p> + +<p>The last days of March 1832 found the Carlyles +back at Craigenputtock. A new tenant occupied the +farm, and their days were lonelier than ever. Meanwhile +'Sartor Resartus' was appearing in <i>Fraser's +Magazine</i>. The Editor reported that it 'excited the +most unqualified disapprobation.' Nothing daunted, +Carlyle pursued the 'noiseless tenor of his way,' throwing +off articles on various subjects. Finding that Mrs +Carlyle's health suffered from the gloom and solitude +of Craigenputtock, they removed to Edinburgh in +January 1833. Jeffrey was absent in 'official regions,' +and Carlyle notes that they found a 'most dreary contemptible +kind of element' in Edinburgh. But their +stay there was not without its uses, for in the Advocates' +Library Carlyle found books which had a great effect +upon his line of study. He collected materials for his +articles upon 'Cagliostro' and the 'Diamond Necklace.' +At the end of four months, the Carlyles were +back again at Craigenputtock.</p> + +<p>August was a bright month for Thomas Carlyle, for +it was then that Ralph Waldo Emerson visited him at +his rural retreat. The Carlyles thought him 'one of +the most lovable creatures' they had ever seen, and +an unbroken friendship of nearly fifty years was begun. +As winter approached, Carlyle's prospects were not +very bright, and he once more turned his eyes towards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">{41}</a></span> +London, where the remainder of his life was to be +spent. Before following him thither, it may be well to +turn from the outer to the inner side of Carlyle's life, +and study the forces which went to the making of his +unique personality.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">{42}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">CARLYLE'S MENTAL DEVELOPMENT</span></h2> + + +<p>Through all the material struggles Carlyle's mind at +Craigenputtock was gradually shaping itself round a +theory of the Universe and Man, from which he drew +inspiration in his future life work. 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 literature. Carlyle's +studies and musings took coherent, or, as some would +say incoherent, shape in <i>Sartor Resartus</i>,—a book +which appropriately was written in the stern solitude +of Craigenputtock.</p> + +<p>In order to acquire an adequate understanding of +Carlyle as a thinker, attention has to be paid to the +two dominating influences of his mental life—his +early home training and German literature. In regard +to the former, ancestry with Carlyle counts for much. +He came of a sturdy Covenanting stock. Carlyle +himself has left a graphic description of the religious +environment of the Burghers, to which sect his father +belonged. The congregation, under the ministry of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">{43}</a></span> +certain John Johnston, who taught Carlyle his first +Latin, worshipped in a little house thatched with heath. +Of the simple faith, the stern piety and the rugged +heroism of the old Seceders, Carlyle himself has left a +photograph: 'Very venerable are those old Seceder +clergy to me now when I look back.... Most figures +of them in my time were hoary old men; 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 world.... +Strangely vivid are some twelve or twenty of those +old faces whom I used to see every Sunday, whose names, +employments or precise dwellingplaces I never knew, +but whose portraits are yet clear to me as in a mirror. +Their heavy-laden, patient, ever-attentive faces, fallen +solitary most of them, children all away, wife away for +ever, or, it might be, wife still there and constant like +a shadow and grown very like the old man, the thrifty +cleanly poverty of these good people, their well-saved +coarse old clothes, tailed waistcoats down to mid-thigh—all +this I occasionally see as with eyes sixty or sixty-five +years off, and hear the very voice of my mother +upon it, whom sometimes I would be questioning about +these persons of the drama and endeavouring to +describe and identify them.' And what a glimpse we +have into the inmost heart of the primitive Covenanting +religion in the portrait drawn by Carlyle of old David +Hope, the farmer who refused to postpone family<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">{44}</a></span> +worship in order to take in his grain. David was putting +on his spectacles when somebody rushed in with +the words: 'Such a raging wind risen will drive the +stooks into the sea if let alone.' 'Wind!' answered +David, 'wind canna get ae straw that has been appointed +mine. Sit down and let us worship God.' +Far away from the simple Covenanting creed of his +father and mother Carlyle wandered, but to the last +the feeling of life's mystery and solemnity remained +vivid with him, though fed from quite other sources +than the Bible and the <i>Shorter Catechism</i>.</p> + +<p>Much has been said of Carlyle's father, but it is +highly probable that to his mother he owed most +during his early years. The temperament of the +Covenanter was of the non-conductor type. Men like +James Carlyle were essentially stern, self-centred, unemotional. +Fighting like the Jews, with sword in one +hand and trowel in the other, they had no time for +cultivating the softer side of human nature. Ready to +go to the stake on behalf of religious liberty, they +exercised a repressive, not to say despotic, influence in +their own households. With them education meant +not the unfolding of the individual powers of the +children, but the ruthless crushing of them into a +theological mould. Religion in such an atmosphere +became loveless rather than lovely, and might have +had serious influences of a reactionary nature but for +the caressing tenderness of the mother. With a heart<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">{45}</a></span> +which overflowed the ordinary theological boundaries, +the mother in many sweet and hidden ways supplied +the emotional element, which had been crushed out of +the father by a narrow conception of life and duty. +Carlyle's experience may be judged from his references +to his parents. He always speaks of his father with +profound respect and admiration; towards his mother +his heart goes forth with a devotion which became +stronger as the years rolled on. Carlyle's love of his +mother was as beautiful as it was sacred. Long after +Carlyle had parted with the creed of his childhood, his +heart tremulously responded to the old symbols. His +system of thought, indeed, might well be defined as +Calvinism minus Christianity. Had Carlyle not come +into contact with German thought, he would probably +have jogged along the path of literature in more or +less conventional fashion. In fact, nothing is more +remarkable than the comparatively commonplace nature +of Carlyle's early contributions to literature. Germany +touched the deepest chords of his nature. With +German ideas and emotions his mind was saturated, +and <i>Sartor Resartus</i> was the outcome. To that book +students must go for a glance into Carlyle's mind while +he was wrestling with the great mysteries of Existence. +In June 1821, as Mr Froude tells us, took place what +may be called Carlyle's conversion—his triumph over +his doubts, and the beginning of a new life. To +understand this phase of Carlyle's life, we must pause<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">{46}</a></span> +for a little to consider German literature, whence +Carlyle derived spiritual relief and consolation.</p> + +<p>What, then, was the nature of the message of peace +which Germany, through Kant, Fichte, and Goethe, +brought to the storm-tossed soul of Carlyle? When +Carlyle began to think seriously, two antagonistic conceptions +of life, the orthodox and the rationalist, were +struggling for mastery in the field of thought. The +orthodox conception, into which he had been born, +and with which his father and mother had fronted the +Eternities, had given way under the solvent of modern +thought. Carlyle's belief in Christianity as a revelation +seems to have dropped from him without much of +a struggle, somewhat after the style of George Eliot. +His mental tortures appear to have arisen from spiritual +hunger, from an inability to fill the place vacated by +the old beliefs. Had he lived fifty years earlier, Carlyle +would have been invited to find salvation in the easy-going, +drawing-room rationalism of Hume and Gibbon, +or to content himself with the ecclesiastical placidity +known as Moderatism.</p> + +<p>Much had occurred since the arm-chair philosophers +of Edinburgh taught that this was the best possible +world, and that the highest wisdom consisted in frowning +upon enthusiasm and cultivating the comfortable. +The French Revolution had revolutionised men's +thoughts and feelings. There had been revealed to +man the inadequacy of the old Deistical or Mechanical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">{47}</a></span> +philosophy, which, spreading from England to France, +had done so much to hasten the revolutionary epoch. +Carlyle could find no spiritual sustenance in the purely +mechanical theory of life which was offered as the substitute +for the theory of the Churches. There was +another theory, which had its rise in Germany, and to +which Carlyle clung when he could no longer keep +hold of the Supernatural. In Transcendentalism, +Carlyle found salvation.</p> + +<p>What are the leading conceptions of the German +form of salvation? The answer to this will give the +key to <i>Sartor Resartus</i>, and to Carlyle's whole mental +outlook. In the eyes of thinkers like Carlyle, the +great objection to Christianity was the breach it made +between the natural and the supernatural. Between +them there was a great gulf which could only fitfully and +temporarily be bridged by the miraculous. Students +who were being inoculated with scientific ideas of law +and order, were bewildered by a theory of life which +had no organic relation to the great germinal ideas of +the day. In their desire to abolish the supernatural, +the French thinkers constructed a theory of Nature in +which everything, from the movements of solar masses +to the movements of the soul, were interpreted in terms +of matter. By adopting a mechanical view of the +Universe, the French thinkers robbed Nature of much +of its charm, and stunted the emotions on the side of +wonder and admiration. The world was reduced to a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">{48}</a></span> +vast machine, man himself being simply a temporary +embodiment of material particles in a highly complex +and unique form. Instead of being what it was to +the Greeks, a temple of beauty, the Universe to the +materialist resembled a prison in which the walls gradually +closed upon the poor wretch till he was crushed +under the ruins. Goethe has left on record the impression +made upon him by the materialistic view of life. +As he says, 'The materialistic theory, which reduces all +things to matter and motion, appeared to me so grey, +so Cimmerian, and so dead that we shuddered at it as +at a ghost.'</p> + +<p><i>Sartor Resartus</i> is studded with vigorous protests +against the mechanical view of Nature and Man. Just +as distasteful to Carlyle, and equally mechanical in +spirit, was the Deistical conception of Nature as a huge +clock, under the superintendence of a Divine clock-maker, +whose duty consisted in seeing that the clock +kept good time and was in all respects thoroughly reliable. +The Germans attacked the problem from the +other side. They did not abolish the supernatural +with the materialists, or seek it in another world with +the theologians; they found the supernatural in the +natural. To the materialists, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, +Hegel and Goethe had one reply:—Reduce matter to +its constituent atoms, they argued, and you never seize +the principle of life; it evades you like a spirit; in this +principle everything lives and moves and has its being.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">{49}</a></span> +German philosophy from Kant has been occupied in +attempts to trace the spiritual principle in the great +process of cosmic evolution. In poetry, Goethe +attempted to represent this as the energising principle +of life and duty. The spiritual cannot be weighed in +the scales of logic; it refuses to be put upon the +dissecting-table. As a consequence, the truth of things +is best seen by the poet. The owl-like logic-chopper, +from his mechanical and utilitarian standpoint, sees not +the Divine vision. This has been called Pantheism. +Call it what we please, it is contradictory to Deism and +Materialism, and is the root thought of <i>Sartor Resartus</i>, +which may be taken as Carlyle's Confession of Faith. +A few extracts will justify the foregoing analysis. The +transcendental view of Nature is expressed by Carlyle +thus:—'Atheistic science babbles poorly of it with +scientific nomenclature, experiments and what not, as +if it were a poor dead thing, to be bottled up in Leyden +jars, and sold over counter; but the native sense of +man in all times, if he will himself apply his sense, proclaims +it to be a living thing—ah, an unspeakable, God-like +thing, towards which the best attitude for us, after +never so much science, is awe, devout prostration and +humility of soul, worship, if not in words, then in +silence.' Here, again, is a passage quite Hegelian in +its tone: 'For Matter, were it never so despicable, is +Spirit; the manifestation of Spirit, were it never so honourable, +can it be more? The thing Visible, nay, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">{50}</a></span> +thing Imagined, the thing in any way conceived as +Visible, what is it but a Garment, a Clothing of the +higher celestial Invisible, unimaginable, formless, dark +with excess of bright.'</p> + +<p>The defects of Carlyle, and they are many, 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 weakness. +It is not meant that Carlyle's mind remained anchored +to the philosophic idealism of <i>Sartor</i>. In later days +he professed contempt for transcendental moonshine, +but his contempt was for the form and jargon of the +schools, not for the spirit, which dominated Carlyle to +the end. After Carlyle passed the early poetic stage, +his views took more and more an anthropomorphic +mould, till in many of his writings he seems practically +a Theist. But at root Carlyle's thought was more +Pantheistical than Deistical. What, then, is the +German conception of the Ultimate Reality? The +German answer grew out of an attempt to get rid +of the difficulties propounded by Hume. Hume, the +father of all the Empiricists, in giving logical effect to +Berkeleyism, concluded that just as we know nothing +of the outer world beyond sense impressions, so of the +inner world of mind we know nothing beyond mental +impressions. We can combine and recombine these +impressions as we choose, but from them we cannot +deduce any ultimate laws, either of the world or of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">{51}</a></span> +mind. Hume would not sanction belief in causation +as a universal law. All that could be said was that +certain things happened in a certain manner so frequently +as to give rise to a law of expectation. But +this is not to solve, but to evade the problem? We +are still driven to ask, What is matter? What is +motion? What is force? How do we get our knowledge +of the material world, and is that knowledge +reliable? These are wide questions that cannot be +adequately handled here. It was a favourite argument +of Comte and his followers, that man's first conceptions +of Nature were necessarily erroneous, because they +were anthropomorphic. Theology was, therefore, +dethroned without ceremony. But science is as +anthropomorphic as theology. We have no guarantee +that the great facts of Nature are as we think them. +We talk of Force, but our idea of Force is taken from +experiences which may have no counterpart in Nature. +It is well known, for example, that the secondary +qualities of objects, colour, &c., do not exist in +Nature. Our personality is so inextricably mixed with +the material universe that it is impossible to formulate +a philosophy like Naturalism, which makes mind a +product of Nature, and which sharply defines the +provinces of the two.</p> + +<p>But what Naturalism fails to do, Idealism or Transcendentalism +promises to perform. Idealism is simply +Materialism turned upside down. The only difference<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">{52}</a></span> +between the evolution of Spencer and of Hegel is that +the one puts matter, the other mind, first. For all +practical purposes, it signifies little whether mind is +the temporary embodiment of an idea, or the temporary +product of a highly specialised form of matter. +In either case, man has no more freedom than the +bubble upon the surface of the stream. We may +discourse of the bubble as poetically or as practically +as we please, the result is the same—absorption in the +universal. Hegelianism as much as Naturalism leaves +man a prisoner in the hands of Fate. The only +difference is, that while Naturalism puts round the +prisoner's neck a plain, unpretentious noose, Hegelianism +adds fringes and embroidery. If there is no +appeal from Nature's dread sentence, the less poetry +and embroidery there is about the doleful business the +better.</p> + +<p>In <i>Sartor Resartus</i>, Carlyle talks finely but vaguely, +of the peace which came over his soul when he discovered +that the universe was not mechanical but +Divine. The peace was not of long duration. What +consolation Carlyle derived from Idealism did not +appear in his life. What a contrast between the poetic +optimism of <i>Sartor</i> and the heavily-charged pessimism +of old age, when Carlyle, with wailing pathos, exclaims +that God does nothing. Carlyle's life abundantly +illustrates the fact that whenever it leaves cloudland, +Idealism sinks into scepticism more bitter and gloomy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">{53}</a></span> +than the unbelief of Naturalism. Carlyle approached +the question of the Ultimate Reality from the wrong +standpoint. He had no reasoned philosophic creed. +A poet, he had the poetic dread of analysis, and his +spirit revolted at the spectacle of Nature on the dissecting-table. +He waged a life-long warfare against science. +As the present writer has elsewhere remarked:—'Carlyle +never could tolerate the evolution theory. +He always spoke with the utmost contempt of Darwin, +and everything pertaining to the development doctrines. +It is somewhat startling to find that Carlyle was an +evolutionist without knowing it. The antagonism +between Carlyle and Spencer disappears on closer +inspection. When Carlyle speaks of the universe as in +very truth the star-domed city of God, and reminds us +that through every crystal and through every grass +blade, but most through every living soul, the glory of +a present God still beams, he is simply saying in the +language of poetry what Spencer says in the language +of science, that the world of phenomena is sustained +and energised by an infinite Eternal Power. Evolution +is as emphatic as Carlyle on the absolute distinction +between right and wrong. Carlyle and all the +German school confront the evolutionary ethics with the +Kantian categorical imperative. Surely the Evolutionists +in the matter of an imperative out-rival the Intuitionalists, +when, in addition to the dictates of conscience, +they can call as a witness and sanction to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">{54}</a></span> +morality the testimony of all-embracing experience. +In his famous saying, Might is Right, Carlyle was +unconsciously formulating one aspect of evolutionary +ethics. Carlyle did not mean anything so silly as +that brute force and ethical sanctions are identical; +what he meant was that in the long run Righteousness +will prove the mightiest force in the universe. What is +this but another version of the Spencerian doctrine of +the survival of the fittest, which, in the most highly +evolved state of society, will mean the survival of the +best? In the highest social state the only Might +that will survive will be the Might which is rooted in +Right. Carlyle's contemptuous attitude towards +science is deeply to be deplored. He waged bitter +warfare against the evolution theory, quite oblivious +of the fact that by means of it there was revealed +a deeper insight into the Power behind Nature, and +into the ethical constitution of the universe, than ever +entered into the minds of transcendental philosophers.'</p> + +<p>It is taken for granted that Carlyle's thoughts have +no organic unity. He is looked upon as a stimulating, +but confused, writer, as a thinker of original, but +incoherent, power. True, he has not a logical mind, +and pays no deference to the canons of the schools or +the market-place. But there is a method in Carlyle's +apparent caprice. When analysed, his thoughts are +discovered to have unity. His transcendentalism embraces<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">{55}</a></span> +the ethic as well as the cosmic side of life. In +the sphere of morals, as of science, his writings are one +long tumultuous protest against the mechanical philosophy +and the utilitarian theory of morals. From +his essay on Voltaire we take the following:—'It is +contended by many that our mere love of personal +Pleasure or Happiness, as it is called, acting in every +individual with such clearness as he may easily have, +will of itself lead him to respect the rights of others, +and wisely employ his own.... Without some belief +in the necessary eternal, or, which is the same thing, +in the supra mundane divine nature of Virtue existing +in each individual, could the moral judgment of +a thousand or a thousand thousand individuals avail +us'? More picturesquely, Carlyle denounces the +utilitarian system in these words: 'What then? Is +the heroic inspiration we name Virtue but some +passion, some bubble of the blood, bubbling in the +direction others profit by? I know not; only this I +know. If what thou namest Happiness be our true +aim, then are we all astray. With Stupidity and sound +Digestion, man may front much. But what in these +dull, unimaginative days are the terrors of conscience +to the diseases of the Liver? Not on Morality, but +on Cookery, let us build our stronghold: there, +brandishing our frying-pan as censer, let us offer sweet +incense to the Devil, and live at ease on the fat things +<i>he</i> has provided for his Elect'! The exponent of such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">{56}</a></span> +a theory of ethics will have a natural distaste for the +rational or calculating side of conduct. He will depreciate +the mechanical, and give undue emphasis to +the inspirational. His heroes will be not men of placid +temperament, methodical habits, and utilitarian aims, +but men of mystical and passionate natures, spasmodic +in action, and guided by ideas not easily justified at +the bar of utility.</p> + +<p>Just as in the sphere of speculative thought, he has +profound contempt for the Diderots and Voltaires, with +their mechanical views of the Universe, 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 methods. +Specially opposed is he to the tendency of the age +to rely for progress, not upon appeals to the great +elemental forces of human nature, but upon organisations, +committees, and all kinds of mechanism. In his +remarkable essay, 'Signs of the Times,' we have ample +verification of our exposition. After talking depreciatingly +of the mechanical tendency of the prevailing +philosophies, Carlyle comments upon the mechanical +nature of the reforming agencies of civilisation. The +intense Egoism of his nature rebels against any kind of +Socialism or Collectivism. He says: 'Were we required +to characterise this age of ours by any single +epithet, we should be tempted to call it, not a Heroical, +Devotional, Philosophical, or Heroic Age, but, above<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">{57}</a></span> +all, the Mechanical Age. It is the age of machinery +in every outward and inward sense of that word.... Men +are grown mechanical in head and heart, as well +as in hand. They have lost faith in individual endeavour, +and in natural force of any kind.... We +may trace this tendency in all the great manifestations +of our time: in its intellectual aspect, the studies it +most favours, and its manner of conducting them; in +its practical aspects, its politics, art, religious work; +in the whole sources, and throughout the whole current +of its spiritual, no less than its material, activity.' +With Carlyle the secrets of Nature and Life were discoverable, +not so much by the intellect as by the heart. +The man with the large heart, rather than the clear +head, saw furthest into the nature of things. The +history of German thought is strewn with the wreck of +systems based upon the Carlylian doctrine of intuition. +Schelling and Hegel showed the puerility to which great +men are driven when they started to construct science +out of their own intuitions, instead of patiently and +humbly sitting down to study Nature. Tyndall has left +on record his gratitude to Carlyle. Tyndall had grip +of the scientific method, and was able to allow Carlyle's +inspiration to play upon his mind without fear of harm; +but how many waverers has Carlyle driven from the +path of reason into the bogs of mysticism?</p> + +<p>Carlyle's impatience with reasoning and his determination +to follow the promptings of <i>a priori</i> conceptions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">{58}</a></span> +gave his system of ethics a one-sided cast, and +made him needlessly aggressive towards what in his +day was called Utilitarianism, but what has now come +to be known as Evolutionary Ethics. What is the +chief end of man considered as a moral agent? The +answer of the Christian religion is as intelligible as it +is comprehensive. Man's duty consists in obeying the +laws of God revealed in Nature and in the Bible. But +apart from revelation, where is the basis of ethical +authority? Debarred from accepting the Christian +view, and instinctively repelled from Utilitarianism, +Carlyle found refuge in the Fichtean and similar systems +of ethics. By substituting Blessedness for Happiness +as the aim of ethical endeavour, Carlyle endeavoured +to preserve the heroic attitude which was +associated with Supernaturalism. In his view, 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 therefrom.</p> + +<p>In his 'Data of Ethics,' Herbert Spencer shows the +hollowness of Carlyle's distinction between Blessedness +and Happiness. As Spencer puts it: 'Obviously the +implication is that Blessedness is not a kind of Happiness, +and this implication at once suggests the question, +What mode of feeling is this? If it is a state of consciousness +at all, it is necessarily one of three states—painful, +indifferent, or pleasurable.... If the pleasurable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">{59}</a></span> +states are in excess, then the blessed life can be +distinguished from any other pleasurable life only by +the relative amount or the quality of its pleasures. It +is a life which makes happiness of a certain kind and +degree its end, and the assumption that blessedness is +not a form of happiness lapses.... In brief, +blessedness has for its necessary condition of existence +increased happiness, positive or negative in some consciousness +or other; 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 actor.'</p> + +<p>To German philosophy and literature Carlyle owed +his critical method, by which he all but revolutionised +criticism as understood by his Edinburgh and London +contemporaries. Carlyle began his apprenticeship with +the Edinburgh Reviewers, in whose hand criticism +never lost its political bias. Apart from that, criticism +up till the time of Carlyle was mainly statical. The +critic was a kind of literary book-keeper who went upon +the double-entry system. On one page were noted excellences, +on the other defects, and when the two +columns were <i>totalled</i> the debtor and creditor side of +the transaction was set forth. Where, as in the cases +of Burns and Byron, genius was complicated with +moral aberration, anything like a correct estimate was +impossible. The result was that in Scotland criticism +oscillated between the ethical severity of the pulpit and +the daring laxity of free thought. As the Edinburgh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">{60}</a></span> +Reviewers could not afford to set the clergy at defiance, +they had to pay due respect to conventional +tastes and standards. Carlyle faced the question from +a different standpoint. He introduced into criticism +the dynamic principle which he found in the Germans, +particularly in Goethe. In contemplating a work of +Art, the Germans talk much of the importance of +seizing upon the creative spirit, what Hegel called the +Idea. The thought of Goethe and Hegel, though +differently expressed, resolves itself into the conception +of a life principle which shapes materials into +harmony with innate forms. In the sphere of life the +determining factors are the inner vitalities, which, however, +are susceptible to the environment. The critic +who would realise his ideal does not go about with +literary and ethical tape-lines: he seeks to understand +the spirit which animated the author as shewn in his +works and his life, and then studies the influence of his +environment. That this is a correct description of +Carlyle's critical method is evidenced by his own remarks +in his essay on Burns. He says: 'If an individual +is really of consequence enough to have his +life and character recorded for public remembrance, +we have always been of opinion that the public ought +to be made acquainted with all the springs and relations +of his character. How did the world and man's +life from his particular position represent themselves +to his mind? How did co-existing circumstances<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">{61}</a></span> +modify him from without: how did he modify these +from within?'</p> + +<p>This attention to the inner springs of character gives +the key to Carlyle's critical work. How fruitful this +was is seen in his essay on Burns. He steered an +even course between the stern moralists, whose indignation +at the sins of Burns the man blinded them to +the genius of Burns the poet, and the flippant Bohemians, +who thought that by bidding defiance to the conventionalities +and moralities Burns proved his title to +the name of genius, and whose voices are yet unduly +with us in much spirituous devotion and rhymeless +doggerel at the return of each 25th of January. While +laying bare the springs of Burns' genius, Carlyle, with +unerring precision, also puts his finger on the weak +point in the poet's moral nature. So faithfully did +Carlyle apply his critical method that he may +be considered to have said the final word about +Burns.</p> + +<p>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 determined, +not by isolated deviations from conventional or +even ethical standards, but by consideration of the +deep springs of character from which flow aspirations +and ideals. In his <i>Heroes and Hero-Worship</i> Carlyle +elaborates his critical theory thus: 'On the whole, we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">{62}</a></span> +make too much of faults; the details of the business +hide the real centre of it. Faults? The greatest of +faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. +Readers of the Bible above all, one would think, +might know better. Who is called there "the man +according to God's own heart?" David, the Hebrew +King, had fallen into sins enough—blackest crimes—there +was no want of sins. And thereupon the unbelievers +sneer and ask: Is this your man according +to God's heart? The sneer, I must say, seems to me +but a shallow one. What are faults? What are the +outward details of a life, if the inner secret of it, +the remorse, temptations, true, often-baffled, never-ended +struggle of it, be forgotten?... The deadliest +sin, I say, were that same supercilious consciousness +of no sin: that is death.... David's +life and history, as written for us in those Psalms +of his, I consider to be the truest emblem ever +given of a man's moral progress and warfare here +below.'</p> + +<p>This canon faithfully applied enabled Carlyle to invest +with a new and living interest large sections of +literary criticism. Burns, Johnson, Cromwell and +others of like calibre, were rescued by Carlyle from the +hands of Pedants and Pharisees. To readers wearied +with the facile criticism of conventional reviewers, it +was a revelation to come into contact with a +writer like Carlyle, who not only gave to the mind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">{63}</a></span> +great inspirational impetus, but also a larger critical +outlook; it was like stepping out of a museum, or +a dissecting-room into the free, fresh, breezy air of +Nature.</p> + +<p>Moreover, Carlyle's interest in the soul is not of an +antiquarian nature; he studies his heroes as if they +were ancestors of the Carlyle family. He broods over +their letters as if they were the letters of his own flesh +and blood, and his comments resemble the soliloquisings +of a pathos stricken kinsman rather than the +conscious reflections of a literary man. It is noteworthy +that Carlyle's critical powers are limited by his +sympathies. His method, though suggestive of scientific +criticism, is largely influenced by the personal +equation. Face to face with writers like Scott and +Voltaire, he flounders in helpless incompetency. He +tries Scott, the writer of novels, by purely Puritan +standards. Because there is in Scott no signs of soul-struggles, +no conscious devotion to heroic ends, no +introspective torturings, Carlyle sets himself to a process +of belittling. So with Voltaire. Carlyle's failure +in this sphere was due to the fact that he overdid the +ethical side of criticism and became a pulpiteer; he +was false to his own principle of endeavouring to seize +the dominant idea. Because Scott and Voltaire were +not dominated by the Covenanting idea, Carlyle dealt +with them in a tone of disparagement. Carlyle admired +Goethe, but he certainly made no attempt to cultivate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">{64}</a></span> +Goethe's catholicity. Let us not fall into Carlyle's +mistake, and condemn him for qualities which were +incompatible with his temperament. After all has +been said, English literature stands largely indebted +to Carlyle the critic.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">{65}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">LIFE IN LONDON</span></h2> + + +<p>Mrs Carlyle entered heartily into her husband's proposal +to remove to London. 'Burn our ships!' she +gaily said to him one day (<i>i.e.</i>, dismantle our house); +'carry all our furniture with us'; which they accordingly +did. 'At sight of London,' Carlyle wrote, 'I +remember humming to myself a ballad-stanza of +"Johnnie o' Braidislea," which my dear old mother +used to sing,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"For there's seven foresters in yon forest;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And them I want to see, see,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And them I want to <i>see</i> (and shoot down)!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Carlyle lodged at Ampton Street again; but presently +did 'immense stretches of walking in search of +houses.' He found his way to Chelsea and there +secured a small old-fashioned house at 5 (now numbered +24) Cheyne Row, at a rent of £35 a year. +Mrs Carlyle followed in a short time and approved of +his choice. They took possession on the 10th June +1834, and Carlyle recounts the 'cheerful gipsy life' +they had there 'among the litter and carpenters for +three incipient days.' Leigh Hunt was in the next<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">{66}</a></span> +street 'sending kind, <i>un</i>practical messages,' dropping +in to see them in the evenings.</p> + +<p>When in London on a former occasion, Carlyle became +acquainted with John Stuart Mill, and the +intimacy was kept alive by correspondence to and +from Craigenputtock. It was through Mill's letters +that Carlyle's thoughts were turned towards the French +Revolution. When he returned to London, Mill was +very useful to him, lending him a fine collection of +books on that subject. Mill's evenings in Cheyne Row +were 'sensibly agreeable for most part,' remarks Carlyle. +'Talk rather wintry ("sawdustish," as old +Sterling once called it), but always well-informed and +sincere.' Carlyle was making rapid progress with the +first volume of his <i>French Revolution</i>. Stern necessity +gave a spurt to his pen, for in February 1835 he notes +that 'some twenty-three months' had passed since he +earned a single penny by the 'craft of literature.' The +volume was completed and he lent the only copy to +Mill. The MS. was unfortunately burnt by a servant-maid. +'How well do I still remember,' writes +Carlyle in his <i>Reminiscences</i>, 'that night when he came +to tell us, pale as Hector's ghost.... It was like <i>half</i> +sentence of death to us both, and we had to pretend to +take it lightly, so dismal and ghastly was <i>his</i> horror at +it, and try to talk of other matters. He stayed three +mortal hours or so; his departure quite a relief to us. +Oh, the burst of sympathy my poor darling then gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">{67}</a></span> +me, flinging her arms round my neck, and openly +lamenting, condoling, and encouraging like a nobler +second self! Under heaven is nothing beautifuller. +We sat talking till late; '<i>shall</i> be written again,' my +fixed word and resolution to her. Which proved to be +such a task as I never tried before or since. I wrote +out "Feast of Pikes" (Vol. II.), and then went at it. +Found it fairly <i>impossible</i> for about a fortnight; passed +three weeks (reading Marryat's novels), tried, cautious-cautiously, +as on ice paper-thin, once more; and in +short had a job more like breaking my heart than any +other in my experience. Jeannie, alone of beings, +burnt like a steady lamp beside me. I forget how +much of money we still had. I think there was at first +something like £300, perhaps £280, to front London +with. Nor can I in the least remember where we had +gathered such a sum, except that it was our own, no +part of it borrowed or <i>given us</i> by anybody. "Fit to +last till <i>French Revolution</i> is ready!" and she had no +misgivings at all. Mill was penitently liberal; sent +me £200 (in a day or two), of which I kept £100 +(actual cost of house while I had written burnt volume); +upon which he bought me "Biographie Universelle," +which I got bound, and still have. Wish I could find +a way of getting the now much macerated, changed, +and fanaticised John Stuart Mill to take that £100 +back; but I fear there is no way.'<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">{68}</a></span></p> + +<p>Carlyle went diligently to work at the <i>French Revolution</i>. +Some conviction he had that the book was worth +something. Once or twice among the flood of equipages +at Hyde Park Corner, when taking his afternoon stroll, +he thought to himself, 'Perhaps none of <i>you</i> could do +what I am at!' But generally his feeling was, 'I will +finish this book, throw it at your feet, buy a rifle and +spade, and withdraw to the Transatlantic Wildernesses, +far from human beggaries and basenesses!' 'This,' +he says, 'had a kind of comfort to me; yet I always +knew too, in the background, that this would not practically +do. In short, my nervous system had got dreadfully +irritated and inflamed before I quite ended, and +my desire was <i>intense</i>, beyond words, to have done +with it.' Then he adds: 'The <i>last</i> paragraph I well +remember writing upstairs in the drawing-room that +now is, which was then my writing-room; beside <i>her</i> +there in a grey evening (summer, I suppose), soon +after tea (perhaps); and thereupon, with her dear blessing +on me, going out to walk. I had said before going +out, "What they will do with this book, none knows, +my Jeannie, lass; but they have not had, for a two +hundred years, any book that came more truly from a +man's very heart, and so let them trample it under foot +and hoof as <i>they</i> see best!" "Pooh, pooh! they cannot +trample that!" she would cheerily answer; for her +own approval (I think she had read always regularly +behind me) especially in Vol. III., was strong and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">{69}</a></span> +decided.' Mrs Carlyle was right. No critic or clique +of critics could trample the <i>French Revolution</i>.</p> + +<p>A month before the completion of the first book of +the <i>French Revolution</i>, Carlyle wrote in his journal: +'My first friend Edward Irving is dead. I am friendless +here or as good as that.' In a week or two thereafter +he met Southey, whom he describes as a 'lean, +grey-white-headed man of dusky complexion, unexpectedly +tall when he rises and still leaner then—the +shallowest chin, prominent snubbed Roman nose, small +carelined brow, huge brush of white-grey-hair on high +crown and projecting on all sides, the most vehement +pair of faint hazel eyes I have ever seen—a well-read, +honest, limited (straitlaced even), kindly-hearted, most +irritable man. We parted kindly, with no great purpose +on either side, I imagine, to meet again.'<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> Later on +Carlyle admits to his brother John that his prospects +in London were not brightening; which fact left him +gloomy and morose.</p> + +<p>During his enforced leisure after the destruction of +the first book of the <i>French Revolution</i>, Carlyle saw +more of his friends, among whom he numbered John +Sterling, fresh from Cambridge and newly ordained +a clergyman. Sterling was of a 'vehement but most +noble nature,' and he was one of the few who had +studied <i>Sartor Resartus</i> seriously. He had been also +caught by the Radical epidemic on the spiritual side.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">{70}</a></span> +Although dissenting from much of what Carlyle +taught, Sterling recognised in him 'a man not only +brilliantly gifted, but differing from the common run of +people in this, that he would not lie, that he would not +equivocate, that he would say always what he actually +thought, careless whether he pleased or offended.' He +introduced Carlyle to his father, who was then the +'guiding genius' of the <i>Times</i>, and who offered Carlyle +work there on the usual conditions. 'Carlyle,' says +Froude, 'though with poverty at his door, and entire +penury visible in the near future, turned away from a +proposal which might have tempted men who had less +excuse for yielding to it. He was already the sworn +soldier of another chief. His allegiance from first to +last was to <i>truth</i>, truth as it presented itself to his own +intellect and his own conscience.'</p> + +<p>On the 16th of February 1835 Carlyle wrote to his +brother John: 'I positively do not care that periodical +literature shuts her fist against me in these months. +Let her keep it shut for ever, and go to the devil, +which she mostly belongs to. The matter had better +be brought to a crisis. There is perhaps a finger of +Providence in it.... My only new scheme, since last +letter, is a hypothesis—little more yet—about National +Education. The newspapers had an advertisement +about a Glasgow "Educational Association" which +wants a man that would found a Normal School, first +going over England and into Germany to get light on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">{71}</a></span> +that matter. I wrote to that Glasgow Association afar +off, enquiring who they were, what manner of man they +expected, testifying myself very friendly to their project, +and so forth—no answer as yet. It is likely they +will want, as Jane says, a "Chalmers and Welsh" kind +of character, in which case <i>Va ben, felice notte</i>. If otherwise, +and they (almost by miracle) had the heart, I am +the man for them. Perhaps my name is so heterodox +in that circle, I shall not hear at all.'<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> Carlyle also +remarks, in the same letter, that John Stuart Mill is +very friendly: 'He is the nearest approach to a real +man that I find here—nay, as far as negativeness goes, +he <i>is</i> that man, but unhappily not very satisfactory +much farther.'</p> + +<p>Not long thereafter Carlyle met Wordsworth. 'I +did not expect much,' he said in a letter, 'but got +mostly what I expected. The old man has a fine +shrewdness and naturalness in his expression of face, a +long Cumberland figure; one finds also a kind of +<i>sincerity</i> in his speech. But for prolixity, thinness, +endless dilution, it excels all the other speech I had +heard from mortals. A genuine man, which is much, +but also essentially a small, genuine man.'</p> + +<p>Early in October 1835 Carlyle started for his old +home. His mother-in-law had arrived on a visit at +Cheyne Row, and remained there with her daughter +during Carlyle's absence in Scotland. He returned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">{72}</a></span> +improved in health and spirits. Nothing came of the +National Education scheme. Carlyle was not a person +to push himself into notice, remarks Froude; and his +friends did not exert themselves for him, or they tried +and failed; 'governments, in fact, do not look out for +servants among men who are speculating about the +nature of the Universe. Then, as always, the doors +leading into regular employment remained closed.' +Shortly after his return from the North, he was offered +the editorship of a newspaper at Lichfield. This was +unaccepted for the same reason that weighed with him +when he refused a post on the <i>Times</i>. In the following +summer money matters had become so pressing +that Carlyle wrote the article on Mirabeau, now printed +among the <i>Miscellanies</i>, for Mill's review, which brought +him £50. Mrs Carlyle's health began to suffer, and a +visit to Annandale became imperative. She returned +'mended in spirits.' Writing of her arrival in London, +she said: 'I had my luggage put on the backs of two +porters, and walked on to Cheapside, when I presently +found a Chelsea omnibus. By-and-bye the omnibus +stopped, and amid cries of "No room, sir; can't get +in," Carlyle's face, beautifully set off by a broad-brimmed +white hat, gazed in at the door like the +peri "who, at the gate of heaven, stood disconsolate." +In hurrying along the Strand, his eye had lighted +on my trunk packed on the top of the omnibus, and +had recognised it. This seems to me one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">{73}</a></span> +most indubitable proofs of genius which he ever +manifested.'</p> + +<p>On the 22nd of January 1837 Carlyle wrote to his +mother: 'The book [<i>French Revolution</i>] is actually +done; all written to the last line; and now, after +much higgling and maffling, the printers have got +fairly afloat, and we are to go on with the wind and +the sea.' But no money could be expected from the +book for a considerable time. Meanwhile, Miss +Harriet Martineau (who had introduced herself into +Cheyne Row), and Miss Wilson, another accomplished +friend, thought that Carlyle should begin a course of +lectures in London, and thereby raise a little money. +Carlyle, it seems, gave 'a grumbling consent.' Nothing +daunted, the ladies found two hundred persons ready +each to subscribe a guinea to hear a course of lectures +from him. The end of it was that he delivered six +discourses on German literature, which were 'excellent +in themselves, and delivered with strange impressiveness,' +and £135 went into his purse.</p> + +<p>In the summer the <i>French Revolution</i> appeared. +The sale at first was slow, almost nothing, for it was +not 'subscribed for' among the booksellers. Alluding +to the criticisms which appeared, Carlyle said: 'Some +condemn me, as is very natural, for affectation; others +are hearty, even passionate, in their estimation; on the +whole, it strikes me as not unlikely that the book may +take some hold of the English people, and do them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">{74}</a></span> +and itself a little good.' He was right. Other historians +have described the Revolution: Carlyle reproduces +the Revolution. He approaches history like a +dramatist. Give him, as in the French Revolution, +a weird, tragic, awe-inspiring theme, and he will +utilise his characters, scenes, and circumstances in +artistic subordination to the central idea. Carlyle +might be called a subjective dramatist—that is to say, +his own spirit, thoughts, and reflections get so mixed +up with the history that it is difficult to imagine the one +without the other. Every now and then the dramatist +interrupts the tragedy to interject his own reflections; +in the history the Carlylean philosophy plays the part +of a Greek chorus. As an example of Carlyle's genius +for a dramatic situation, take his opening of the great +drama with the death scene of Louis XV. Who does +not feel, in reading that scene, as if the Furies were +not far off? who does not detect in the grotesque +jostling of the comedy and tragedy of life premonitions +of the coming storm?</p> + +<p>'But figure his thought, when Death is now clutching +at his own heart-strings; unlooked for, inexorable! +Yes, poor Louis, Death has found thee. No palace +walls or lifeguards, gorgeous tapestries or gilt buckram +of stiffest ceremonial could keep him out; but he is +here, here at thy very life-breath, and will extinguish it. +Thou, whose whole existence hitherto was a chimera and +scenic show, at length becomest a reality; sumptuous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">{75}</a></span> +Versailles bursts asunder, like a dream, into void +Immensity: Time is done, and all the scaffolding +of Time falls wrecked with hideous clangour round +thy soul: the pale Kingdoms yawn open; there must +thou enter, naked, all unking'd, and await what is +appointed thee!... There are nods and sagacious +glances, go-betweens, silk dowagers mysteriously gliding, +with smiles for this constellation, sighs for that: +there is tremor, of hope or desperation, in several +hearts. There is the pale, grinning Shadow of Death, +ceremoniously ushered along by another grinning +Shadow, of Etiquette; at intervals the growl of Chapel +Organs, like prayer by machinery; proclaiming, as in +a kind of horrid diabolic horse-laughter, <i>Vanity of +vanities, all is Vanity!</i>'</p> + +<p>At every stage in the narrative, the reader is impressed +with the dramatic texture of Carlyle's mind. +No dramatic writer surpasses him in the art of producing +effects by contrasts. In the midst of a vigorous +description of the storming of the Bastille, he rings +down the curtain for a moment in order to introduce +the following scene of idyllic beauty: 'O evening sun +of July, how, at this hour, thy beams fall slant on +reapers amid peaceful woody fields; on old women +spinning in cottages; on ships far out in the silent +main; on Balls at the Orangerie of Versailles, where +high-rouged Dames of the Palace are even now +dancing with double-jacketed Hussar officers;—and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">{76}</a></span> +also on this roaring Hell-porch of a Hotel-de-Ville!'</p> + +<p>Equally effective is Carlyle in rendering vivid the +doings of the individual actors in the drama. For +photographic minuteness and startling realism what +can equal the following:—'But see Camille Desmoulins, +from the Café de Foy, rushing out, sibylline +in face; his hair streaming, in each hand a pistol! +He springs to a table: the police satellites are eyeing +him; alive they shall not take him, not they alive him +alive. This time he speaks without stammering:—Friends! +shall we die like hunted hares? Like sheep +hounded into their pinfold; bleating for mercy, where +is no mercy, but only a whetted knife? The hour is +come, the supreme hour of Frenchman and Man; +when Oppressors are to try conclusions with Oppressed; +and the word is, swift Death, or Deliverance forever. +Let such hour be <i>well</i>-come! Us, meseems, one cry +only befits: To Arms! Let universal Paris, universal +France, as with the throat of the whirlwind, sound +only: To arms!—"To arms!" yell responsive the +innumerable voices; like one great voice, as of a +Demon yelling from the air: for all faces wax fire-eyed, +all hearts burn up into madness. In such, or +fitter words does Camille evoke the Elemental Powers, +in this great moment—"Friends," continues Camille, +"some rallying-sign! Cockades; green ones—the +colour of Hope!"—As with the flight of locusts,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">{77}</a></span> +these green tree-leaves; green ribands from the neighbouring +shops: all green things are snatched, and +made cockades of. Camille descends from his table; +"stifled with embraces, wetted with tears;" has a bit of +green riband handed him; sticks it in his hat. And +now to Curtius' Image-shop there; to the Boulevards; +to the four winds, and rest not till France be on fire!'</p> + +<p>As a historical work, the <i>French Revolution</i> is +unique. It is precisely the kind of book Isaiah +would have written had there been a like Revolution in +the Jewish kingdom; and just as we go to Isaiah, not +for sociological guidance, but for ethical inspiration, so +we turn to the <i>French Revolution</i> when the mind and +heart are in a state of torpor in order to get a series of +shocks from the Carlylean electric battery. From a +historian a student expects light as well as heat, +guidance as well as inspiration. It is not enough to +have the great French explosion vividly photographed +before his eyes; it is equally necessary to know the +causes which led to the catastrophe. Here, as a +historian, Carlyle is conspicuously weak. His habit of +looking for dramatic situations, his passion for making +commonplace incidents and commonplace men merely +the satellites of commanding personalities, in a word, +his theory that history should deal with the doings +of great men, prevents Carlyle from dwelling upon the +politico-economic side of national life. So absorbed is +he in painting the Revolution, that he forgets to explain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">{78}</a></span> +the Revolution. We have abundance of vague declamations +against shams in high places, plenty of talk +about God's judgments, in the style of the Hebrew +prophets, but of patient diagnosis, there is none. As +Mr Morley puts it in his luminous essay on Carlyle: +'To the question whether mankind gained or lost by +the French Revolution, Carlyle nowhere gives a clear +answer; indeed, on this subject more than any other, +he clings closely to his favourite method of simple +presentation, streaked with dramatic irony.... He +draws its general moral lesson from the Revolution, +and with clangorous note warns all whom it concerns +from King to Church that imposture must come to an +end. But for the precise amount and kind of dissolution +which the West owes to it, for the political meaning +of it, as distinguished from its moral or its dramatic +significance, we seek in vain, finding no word on the +subject, nor even evidence of consciousness that such +word is needed.' Had Carlyle, in addition to his +genius as a historical dramatist, possessed the patient +diagnosing power of the writers and thinkers whom he +derided, his <i>French Revolution</i> would have taken its +place in historical literature as an epoch-making book. +As it stands, the reader who desires to have an intelligible +knowledge of the subject, is compelled to shake +himself free of the Carlylean mesmerism, and have +recourse to those writers whom Carlyle, under the +opprobrious names of 'logic-choppers' and 'dry-as-dusts,' +held up to public ridicule.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">{79}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">HOLIDAY JOURNEYINGS—LITERARY WORK</span></h2> + + +<p>Carlyle was so broken down with his efforts upon the +<i>French Revolution</i> that a trip to Annandale became +necessary. He stayed at Scotsbrig two months, +'wholly idle, reading novels, smoking pipes in the +garden with his mother, hearing notices of his book +from a distance, but not looking for them or caring +about them.' Autumn brought Carlyle back to Cheyne +Row, when he found his wife in better health, delighted +to have him again at her side. She knew, as +Froude points out, though Carlyle, so little vain was +he, had failed as yet to understand it, that he had +returned to a changed position, that he was no longer +lonely and neglected, but had taken his natural place +among the great writers of his day. He sent bright +accounts of himself to Scotsbrig. 'I find John Sterling +here, and many friends, all kinder each than the +other to me. With talk and locomotion the days pass +cheerfully till I rest and gird myself together again. +They make a great talk about the book, which seems +to have succeeded in a far higher degree than I looked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">{80}</a></span> +for. Everybody is astonished at every other body's +being pleased with this wonderful performance.'<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>Carlyle did nothing all the winter except to write +his essay on Sir Walter Scott. His next task was to +prepare for a second course of lectures in the spring +on 'Heroes.' The course ended with 'a blaze of fire-works—people +weeping at the passionately earnest tone +in which for once they heard themselves addressed.' +The effort brought Carlyle £300 after all expenses +had been paid. 'A great blessing,' he remarked, 'to +a man that had been haunted by the squalid spectre +of beggary.'</p> + +<p>Carlyle had no intention of visiting Scotland that +autumn, but having received a pressing invitation from +old friends at Kirkcaldy, he took steamer to Leith in +August. While at Kirkcaldy he crossed to Edinburgh +and called on Jeffrey. 'He sat,' says Carlyle, 'waiting +for me at Moray Place. We talked long in the style +of literary and philosophic clitter-clatter. Finally it +was settled that I should go out to dinner with him +at Craigcrook, and not return to Fife till the morrow.' +They dined and abstained from contradicting each +other, Carlyle admitting that Jeffrey was becoming an +amiable old fribble, 'very cheerful, very heartless, very +forgettable and tolerable.'</p> + +<p>On his return to London, equal to work again, +Carlyle found all well. He was gratified to hear that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">{81}</a></span> +the eighth edition of the <i>French Revolution</i> was almost +sold, and that another would be called for, while there +were numerous applications from review editors for +articles if he would please to supply them. Mill about +this time asked him to contribute a paper on Cromwell +to the <i>London and Westminster Review</i>. Carlyle agreed, +and was preparing to begin when the negotiations were +broken off. Mill had gone abroad, leaving a Mr +Robertson to manage the <i>Review</i>. Robertson coolly +wrote to say that he need not go on with the article, +'for he meant to do Cromwell himself.' Carlyle was +wroth, and that incident determined him to 'throw +himself seriously into the history of the Commonwealth, +and to expose himself no more to cavalier treatment from +"able editors."' But for that task he required books. +Then it was that the idea of founding a London library +occurred to him. Men of position took up the matter +warmly, and Carlyle's object was accomplished. 'Let +the tens of thousands,' says Mr Froude, 'who, it is to +be hoped, "are made better and wiser" by the books +collected there, remember that they owe the privilege +entirely to Carlyle.'</p> + +<p>One of Carlyle's new acquaintances was Monckton +Milnes, who asked him to breakfast. Carlyle used to +say that if Christ were again on earth Milnes would +ask Him to breakfast, and the clubs would all be talking +of the 'good things' that Christ had said. He also +became familiar with Mr Baring, afterwards Lord Ashburton,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">{82}</a></span> +and his accomplished wife, who in course of +time exercised a disturbing influence over the Carlyle +household. It would not tend to edification to dwell +upon the domestic misunderstandings at Cheyne Row; +besides, are not they to be found detailed at great +length in Froude's <i>Life</i>, the <i>Reminiscences</i>, and <i>Letters +and Memorials</i>? Although Carlyle was taking life +somewhat easy, he was making preparations for his third +course of lectures, his subject being the 'Revolutions +of Modern Europe.' They did not please the lecturer, +but the audiences were as enthusiastic as ever, and he +made a clear gain of £200.</p> + +<p>About this time Emerson was pressing him to go +to Boston on a lecturing tour. But Carlyle thought +better of it. More important work awaited him in +London. 'All his life,' says Froude, 'he had been +meditating on the problem of the working-man's existence +in this country at the present epoch.... +He had seen the Glasgow riots in 1819. He had +heard his father talk of the poor masons, dining silently +upon water and water-cresses. His letters are full of +reflections on such things, sad or indignant, as the +humour might be. He was himself a working-man's +son. He had been bred in a peasant home, and all +his sympathies were with his own class. He was not +a revolutionist; he knew well that violence would be +no remedy; that there lay only madness and deeper +misery. But the fact remained, portending frightful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">{83}</a></span> +issues. The Reform Bill was to have mended matters +but the Reform Bill had gone by and the poor were +none the happier. The power of the State had been +shifted from the aristocracy to the mill-owners, and +merchants, and shopkeepers. That was all. The +handicraftsman remained where he was, or was sinking, +rather, into an unowned Arab, to whom "freedom" +meant freedom to work if the employer had work to +offer him conveniently to himself, or else freedom to +starve. The fruit of such a state of society as this was +the Sansculottism on which he had been lecturing, and +he felt that he must put his thoughts upon it in a permanent +form. He had no faith in political remedies, +in extended suffrages, recognition of "the rights of +man," etc.—absolutely none. That was the road on +which the French had gone; and, if tried in England, +it would end as it ended with them—in anarchy, and +hunger, and fury. The root of the mischief was the +forgetfulness on the part of the upper classes, increasing +now to flat denial, that they owed any duty to +those under them beyond the payment of contract +wages at the market price. The Liberal theory, as +formulated in Political Economy, was that every one +should attend exclusively to his own interests, and that +the best of all possible worlds would be the certain +result. His own conviction was that the result would +be the worst of all possible worlds, a world in which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">{84}</a></span> +human life, such a life as <i>human</i> beings ought to live, +would become impossible.'<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>He wrote to his brother when his lectures were over: +"Guess what immediate project I am on; that of +writing an article on the working-classes for the +"Quarterly." It is verily so. I offered to do the +thing for Mill about a year ago. He durst not. I felt +a kind of call and monition of duty to do it, wrote +to Lockhart accordingly, was altogether invitingly +answered, had a long interview with the man yesterday, +found him a person of sense, good-breeding, even kindness, +and great consentaneity of opinion with myself on +the matter. Am to get books from him to-morrow, +and so shall forthwith set about telling the Conservatives +a thing or two about the claims, condition, rights, +and mights of the working order of men."</p> + +<p>When the annual exodus from London came, the +Carlyles went north for a holiday. They returned +much refreshed at the end of two months. His presence, +moreover, was required in London, as <i>Wilhelm +Meister</i> was now to be republished. He set about +finishing his article for the "Quarterly," but as he progressed +he felt some misgiving as to its ever appearing +in that magazine. "I have finished," he wrote on +November 8, 1839, "a long review article, thick +pamphlet, or little volume, entitled "Chartism." Lockhart +has it, for it was partly promised to him; at least<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">{85}</a></span> +the refusal of it was, and that, I conjecture, will be all +he will enjoy of it." Lockhart sent it back, 'seemingly +not without reluctance,' saying he dared not. Mill was +shown the pamphlet and was 'unexpectedly delighted +with it.' He was willing to publish it, but Carlyle's +wife and brother insisted that the thing was too good +for a magazine article. Fraser undertook to print it, +and before the close of the year <i>Chartism</i> was in the +hands of the public.</p> + +<p>The sale was rapid, an edition of a thousand copies +being sold immediately. 'Chartism,' Froude narrates, +was loudly noticed: "considerable reviewing, but +very daft reviewing." Men wondered; how could +they choose but wonder, when a writer of evident +power stripped bare the social disease, told them that +their remedies were quack remedies, and their progress +was progress to dissolution? The Liberal journals, +finding their "formulas" disbelieved in, clamoured that +Carlyle was unorthodox; no Radical, but a wolf in +sheep's clothing. Yet what he said was true, and +could not be denied to be true. "They approve +generally," he said, "but regret very much that I am a +Tory. Stranger Tory, in my opinion, has not been +fallen in with in these later generations." Again a few +weeks later (February 11): "The people are beginning +to discover that I am not a Tory. Ah, no! but one +of the deepest, though perhaps the quietest, of all the +Radicals now extant in the world—a thing productive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">{86}</a></span> +of small comfort to several persons. They have said, +and they will say, and let them say."</p> + +<p>His final course of lectures now confronted him, +and these he entitled <i>Heroes and Hero Worship</i>. He +tells his mother (May 26, 1840): 'The lecturing business +went off with sufficient <i>éclat</i>. The course was +generally judged, and I rather join therein myself, to +be the bad <i>best</i> I have yet given. On the last day—Friday +last—I went to speak of Cromwell with a head +<i>full of air</i>; you know that wretched physical feeling; I +had been concerned with drugs, had awakened at five, +etc. It is absolute martyrdom. My tongue would +hardly wag at all when I got done. Yet the good +people sate breathless, or broke out into all kinds of +testimonies of goodwill.... In a word, we got right +handsomely through.' That was Carlyle's last appearance +as a public lecturer. He was now the observed +of all observers in London society; but he was weary +of lionising and junketings. 'What,' he notes in his +journal on June 15, 1840, 'are lords coming to call on +one and fill one's head with whims? They ask you to +go among champagne, bright glitter, semi-poisonous +excitements which you do not like even for the moment, +and you are sick for a week after. As old Tom White +said of whisky, "Keep it—Deevil a ever I'se better +than when there's no a drop on't i' my weam." So say +I of dinner popularity, lords and lionism—Keep it; +give it to those that like it.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">{87}</a></span></p> + +<p>Carlyle was much refreshed at this period by visits +from Tennyson. Here is what he says of the poet: +'A fine, large-featured, dim-eyed, bronze-coloured, +shaggy-headed man is Alfred; dusty, smoky, free and +easy, who swims outwardly and inwardly with great +composure in an inarticulate element of tranquil chaos +and tobacco smoke. Great now and then when he does +emerge—a most restful, brotherly, solid-hearted man.'</p> + +<p>In a note to his brother John on September 11, +1840, he says: 'I have again some notions towards +writing a book—let us see what comes of that. It is +the one use of living, for me. Enough to-day.' The +book he had in view was <i>Cromwell</i>. Journalising on +the day after Christmas he laments—'Oliver Cromwell +will not prosper with me at all. I began reading about +that subject some four months ago. I learn almost +nothing by reading, yet cannot as yet heartily begin to +write. Nothing on paper yet. I know not where to +begin.'</p> + +<p>At the end of the year Mrs Carlyle wrote: 'Carlyle +is reading voraciously, preparatory to writing a new +book. For the rest, he growls away much in the old +style. But one gets to feel a certain indifference to his +growling; if one did not, it would be the worse for +one.' A month or two later, Carlyle writes: 'Think +not hardly of me, dear Jeannie. In the mutual misery +we often are in, we do not know how dear we are to +one another. By the help of Heaven, I shall get a little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">{88}</a></span> +better, and somewhat of it shall abate. Last night, at +dinner, Richard Milnes made them all laugh with a +saying of yours. "When the wife has influenza, it is <i>a +slight cold</i>—when the man has it, it is, &c., &c."' Writing +to Sterling he exclaims, 'I shall verily fly to Craigenputtock +again before long. Yet I know what solitude +is, and imprisonment among black cattle and peat +bogs. The truth is, we are never right as we are. +"Oh, the devil burn it"! said the Irish drummer +flogging his countryman; "there's no pleasing of you, +strike where one will."'</p> + +<p>Milnes prevailed on Carlyle, instead of flying to the +bleak expanse of Craigenputtock, to accompany him to +his father's house at Fryston, in Yorkshire, whence +he sent a series of affectionate and graphic letters to +Mrs Carlyle. Being so far north, he took a run to +Dumfriesshire to see his mother, who had been slightly +ailing. He was back in London, however, in May, +but not improved in mind or body. It was a hot +summer, and the Carlyles went to Scotsbrig, and took +a cottage at Newby, close to Annan. By the end of +September, Carlyle was back in Cheyne Row. His +latest hero still troubled him. 'Ought I,' he asks, 'to +write now of Oliver Cromwell?... I cannot yet see +clearly.'</p> + +<p>Carlyle at one time had a hankering after a Scottish +professorship, but the 'door had been shut in his face,' +sometimes contemptuously. He was now famous, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">{89}</a></span> +the young Edinburgh students, having looked into his +lectures on Heroes, began to think that, whatever +might be the opinions of the authorities and patrons, +they for their part must consider lectures such as these +a good exchange for what was provided for them. A +'History Chair' was about to be established. A party +of them, represented by a Mr Dunipace, presented a +requisition to the Faculty of Advocates to appoint +Carlyle. When asked his consent to be nominated, +Carlyle replied: 'Accept my kind thanks, you and all +your associates, for your zeal to serve me.... Ten +years ago such an invitation might perhaps have been +decisive of much for me, but it is too late now; too +late for many reasons, which I need not trouble you +with at present.'</p> + +<p>A very severe blow now fell upon Mrs Carlyle, who +received news from Templand that her mother had +been struck by apoplexy, and was dangerously ill. +Although unfit for travelling, she caught the first train +from Euston Square to Liverpool, but at her uncle's +house there she learnt that all was over. Mrs Carlyle +lay ill in Liverpool, unable to stir. After a while she +was able to go back to London, where Carlyle joined +her in the month of May. It was on his return journey +that he paid a visit to Dr Arnold at Rugby, when he +had an opportunity, under his host's genial guidance, +to explore the field of Naseby.</p> + +<p>His sad occupations in Scotland, and the sad thoughts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">{90}</a></span> +they suggested, made Carlyle disinclined for society. +He had a room arranged for him at the top of his +house, and there he sate and smoked, and read books +on Cromwell, 'the sight of Naseby having brought the +subject back out of "the abysses."' Meanwhile he +had a pleasant trip to Ostend with Mr Stephen Spring +Rice, Commissioner of Customs, of which he wrote +vivid descriptions.</p> + +<p>On October 25, 1842, Carlyle wrote in his journal: +'For many months there has been no writing here. +Alas! what was there to write? About myself, nothing; +or less, if that was possible. I have not got one word +to stand upon paper in regard to Oliver. The beginnings +of work are even more formidable than the +executing of it.' But another subject was to engross +his attention for a little while. The distress of the +poor became intense; less in London, however, than +in other large towns. 'I declare,' he wrote to his mother +early in January 1843, 'I declare I begin to feel as if +I should not hold my peace any longer, 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 +done.' On the 20th he wrote: 'I hope it will be +a rather useful kind of book.' He could not go on +with Cromwell till he had unburdened his soul. 'The +look of the world,' he said, 'is really quite oppressive +to me. Eleven thousand souls in Paisley alone living +on threehalfpence a day, and the governors of the land<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">{91}</a></span> +all busy shooting partridges and passing corn-laws the +while! It is a thing no man with a speaking tongue +in his head is entitled to be silent about.' The outcome +of all his soul-burnings and cogitations was <i>Past +and Present</i>, which appeared at the beginning of April. +The reviewers set to work, 'wondering, admiring, +blaming, chiefly the last.'</p> + +<p>Carlyle then undertook several journeys, chiefly in +order to visit Cromwellian battlefields, the sight of which +made the Oliver enterprise no longer impossible. He +found a renovated house on his return, and Mrs Carlyle +writing on November 28th, describes him as 'over head +and ears in Cromwell,' and 'lost to humanity for the +time being.' Six months later, he makes this admission +in his journal—'My progress in "Cromwell" is frightful. +I am no day absolutely idle, but the confusions +that lie in my way require far more fire of energy than +I can muster on most days, and I sit not so much working +as painfully looking on work.' Four months later, +when <i>Cromwell</i> was progressing slowly, Carlyle suffered +a severe personal loss by the death of John Sterling. +'Sterling,' says Froude, 'had been his spiritual pupil, +his first, and also his noblest and best. Consumption +had set its fatal mark upon him.' Carlyle drowned +his sorrow in hard work, and in July 1845 the end of +<i>Cromwell</i> was coming definitely in sight. In his journal +under date August 26th, is to be found this entry: 'I +have this moment <i>ended</i> Oliver; hang it! He is ended,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">{92}</a></span> +thrums and all. I have nothing more to write on the +subject, only mountains of wreck to burn. Not (any +more) up to the chin in paper clippings and chaotic +litter, hatefuller to me than most. I <i>am</i> to have a swept +floor now again.' And thus the herculean labours of +five years were ended. His desire was to be in Scotland, +and he made his way northwards by the usual +sea route to Annan and Scotsbrig. He did not remain +long away, and upon his return <i>Cromwell</i> was just +issuing from the press. It was received with great +favour, the sale was rapid, and additional materials +came from unexpected quarters. In February 1846 a +new edition was needed in order to insert fresh letters +of Oliver according to date; a process, Carlyle said +'requiring one's most excellent talent, as of shoe-cobbling, +really that kind of talent carried to a high +pitch.' When completed, Carlyle presented a copy of +it to the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, a step he +never took before or after with any of his writings,—a +compliment which Peel gracefully acknowledged.</p> + +<p>Carlyle's plans for the summer of 1846 were, a visit +to his mother and a run across to Ireland. Charles +Gavan Duffy of the <i>Nation</i> newspaper saw him in +London in consequence of what he had written in +<i>Chartism</i> about misgovernment in Ireland. He had +promised to go over and see what the 'Young Ireland' +movement was doing. On the 31st of August he left +Scotsbrig, and landed in due course at Belfast, where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">{93}</a></span> +he was to have been met by John Mitchel and Gavan +Duffy and driven to Drogheda. He missed his two +friends through a mistake at the post-office, and hurried +on by railway to Dublin. He met them at Dundrum, +and was there entertained at a large dinner-party. +Next day he dined at Mitchel's. His stay was remarkably +short. He took steamer at Kingstown, and in the +early morning of September 10th '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 in.'</p> + +<p>In June 1847 Carlyle relates that they had a flying +visit from Jeffrey. 'A much more interesting visitor +than Jeffrey was old Dr Chalmers, who came down to +us also last week, whom I had not seen before for, I +think, five-and-twenty years. It was a pathetic meeting. +The good old man is grown white-headed, but is +otherwise wonderfully little altered—grave, deliberate, +very gentle in his deportment, but with plenty too of +soft energy; full of interest still for all serious things, +full of real kindliness, and sensible even to honest mirth +in a fair measure. He sate with us an hour and a +half, went away with our blessings and affections. It is +long since I have spoken to so <i>good</i> and really pious-hearted +and beautiful old man.' In a week or two +Chalmers was suddenly called away. 'I believe,' wrote +Carlyle to his mother, 'there is not in all Scotland, or +all Europe, any such Christian priest left. It will long +be memorable to us, the little visit we had from him.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">{94}</a></span></p> + +<p>Early in 1848, the Jew Bill was before Parliament, +and the fate of it doubtful, narrates Mr Froude. Baron +Rothschild wrote to ask Carlyle to write a pamphlet in +its favour, and intimated that he might name any sum +which he liked to ask as payment. Froude enquired +how he answered. 'Well,' he said, 'I had to tell him +it couldn't be; but I observed, too, that I could not +conceive why he and his friends, who were supposed +to be looking out for the coming of Shiloh, should be +seeking seats in a Gentile legislature.' Froude asked +what the Baron said to that. 'Why,' said Carlyle, 'he +seemed to think the coming of Shiloh was a dubious +business, and that meanwhile, etc., etc.'</p> + +<p>On February 9, 1848, Carlyle wrote in his journal: +'Chapman's money [Chapman & Hall were his publishers] +all paid, lodged now in the Dumfries Bank. +New edition of "Sartor" to be wanted soon. My poor +books of late have yielded me a certain fluctuating +annual income; at all events, I am quite at my ease +as to money, and that on such low terms. I often +wonder at the luxurious ways of the age. Some +£1500, I think, is what has accumulated in the bank. +Of fixed income (from Craigenputtock) £150 a year. +Perhaps as much from my books may lie fixed amid +the huge fluctuation (last year, for instance, it was +£800: the year before, £100; the year before that, +about £700; this year, again, it is like to be £100; +the next perhaps nothing—very fluctuating indeed)—some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">{95}</a></span> +£300 in all, and that amply suffices me. For +my wife is the best of housewives; noble, too, in reference +to the property, which is <i>hers</i>, which she has never +once in the most distant way seemed to know to be +hers. Be this noted and remembered; my thrifty little +lady—every inch a lady—ah me! In short, I authentically +feel indifferent to money; would not go this +way or that to gain more money.'<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p>The Revolution of February 24th at Paris surprised +Carlyle less than most of his contemporaries, as it confirmed +what he had been saying for years. He did +not believe, we are told, in immediate convulsion in +England; but he did believe that, unless England took +warning and mended her ways, her turn would come. +The excitement in London was intense, and leading +men expressed themselves freely, but Carlyle's general +thoughts were uttered in a lengthy letter to Thomas +Erskine of Linlathen, for whom he entertained a warm +regard. On March 14 he met Macaulay at Lord +Mahon's at breakfast; 'Niagara of eloquent commonplace +talk,' he says, 'from Macaulay. "Very good-natured +man"; man cased in official mail of proof; +stood my impatient fire-explosions with much patience, +merely hissing a little steam up, and continued his +Niagara—supply and demand; power ruinous to powerful +himself; <i>im</i>possibility of Government doing more +than keep the peace; suicidal distraction of new French<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">{96}</a></span> +Republic, etc. Essentially irremediable, commonplace +nature of the man; all that was in him now gone to +the tongue; a squat, thickset, low-browed, short, grizzled +little man of fifty.'</p> + +<p>One of the few men Carlyle was anxious to see +was Sir Robert Peel. He was introduced by the +Barings at a dinner at Bath House. Carlyle sat next +to Peel, whom he describes as 'a finely-made man of +strong, not heavy, rather of elegant, stature; stands +straight, head slightly thrown back, and eyelids modestly +drooping; every way mild and gentle, yet with +less of that fixed smile than the portraits give him. +He is towards sixty, and, though not broken at all, +carries, especially in his complexion, when you are +<i>near</i> him, marks of that age; clear, strong blue eyes +which kindle on occasion, voice extremely good, low-toned, +something of <i>cooing</i> in it, rustic, affectionate, +honest, mildly persuasive. Spoke about French Revolutions +new and old; well read in all that; had seen +General Dumouriez; reserved seemingly by nature, +obtrudes nothing of <i>diplomatic</i> reserve. On the contrary, +a vein of mild <i>fun</i> in him, real sensibility to the +ludicrous, which feature I liked best of all.... I +consider him by far our first public man—which, indeed, +is saying little—and hope that England in these +frightful times may still get some good of him. N.B.—This +night with Peel was the night in which Berlin city +executed its last terrible battle, (19th of March to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">{97}</a></span> +Sunday morning the 20th, five o'clock.) While we sate +there the streets of Berlin city were all blazing with grape-shot +and the war of enraged men. What is to become +of all that? I have a book to write about it. Alas! +We hear of a great Chartist petition to be presented +by 200,000 men. People here keep up their foolish +levity in speaking of these things; but considerate +persons find them to be very grave; and indeed all, +even the laughers, are in considerable secret alarm.'<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p>At such a time Carlyle knew that he, the author of +<i>Chartism</i>, ought to say something. Foolish people, +too, came pressing for his opinions. Not seeing his +way to a book upon 'Democracy,' he wrote a good +many newspaper articles, chiefly in the <i>Examiner</i> and +the <i>Spectator</i>, to deliver his soul. Even Fonblanque +and Rintoul (the editors), remarks Froude, friendly +though they were to him, could not allow him his full +swing. 'There is no established journal,' complained +Carlyle, 'that can stand my articles, no single one they +would not blow the bottom out of.'</p> + +<p>On July 12 occurs this entry in his journal: 'Chartist +concern, and Irish Repeal concern, and French +Republic concern have all gone a bad way since the +March entry—April 20 (immortal day already dead), +day of Chartist monster petition; 200,000 special +constables swore themselves in, etc., and Chartism +came to nothing. Riots since, but the leaders all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">{98}</a></span> +lodged in gaol, tried, imprisoned for two years, etc., +and so ends Chartism for the present. Irish Mitchel, +poor fellow! is now in Bermuda as a felon; letter from +him, letter to him, letter to and from Lord Clarendon—was +really sorry for poor Mitchel. But what help? +French Republic <i>cannonaded</i> by General Cavaignac; a +sad outlook there.'<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>Carlyle's <i>Cromwell</i> had created a set of enthusiastic +admirers who were bent on having a statue of the +great Protector set up. Carlyle was asked to give his +sanction to the proposal. Writing to his mother, he +said: 'The people having subscribed £25,000 for a +memorial to an ugly bullock of a Hudson, who did not +even pretend to have any merit except that of being +suddenly rich, and who is now discovered to be little +other than at heart a horse-coper and dishonest fellow, +I think they ought to leave Cromwell alone of their +memorials, and try to honour him in some more profitable +way—by learning to be honest men like him, for +example. But we shall see what comes of all this +Cromwell work—a thing not without value either.'<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + +<p>'Ireland,' says Froude, 'of all the topics on which +Carlyle had meditated writing, remained painfully fascinating. +He had looked at the beggarly scene, he +had seen the blighted fields, the ragged misery of the +wretched race who were suffering for other's sins as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">{99}</a></span> +well as for their own. Since that brief visit of his, the +famine had been followed by the famine-fever, and the +flight of millions from a land which was smitten with a +curse. Those ardent young men with whom he had +dined at Dundrum were working as felons in the docks +at Bermuda. Gavan Duffy, after a near escape from +the same fate, had been a guest in Cheyne Row; and +the story which he had to tell of cabins torn down by +crowbars, and shivering families, turned out of their +miserable homes, dying in the ditches by the roadside, +had touched Carlyle to the very heart. He was furious +at the economical commonplaces with which England +was consoling itself. He regarded Ireland as "the breaking-point +of the huge suppuration which all British and +all European society then was."'<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Carlyle paid a second +visit to Ireland. He was anxious to write a book on +the subject. He noted down what he had seen, and +'then dismissed the unhappy subject from his mind,' +giving his manuscript to a friend, which was published +after his death.</p> + +<p>The 7th of August found Carlyle among his 'ain +folk' at Scotsbrig, and this was his soliloquy: 'Thank +Heaven for the sight of real human industry, with +human fruits from it, once more. The sight of fenced +fields, weeded crops, and human creatures with whole +clothes on their back—it was as if one had got into +spring water out of dunghill puddles.' Mrs Carlyle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">{100}</a></span> +had also gone to Scotland, and 'wandered like a +returned spirit about the home of her childhood.' Of +her numerous lively letters, room must be found for +a characteristic epistle to her brother-in-law, John +Carlyle. His translation of Dante's <i>Inferno</i> was just +out, and her uncle's family at Auchtertool Manse, in +Fife, where she was staying, were busy reading and +discussing it. 'We had been talking about you,' +she says, 'and had sunk silent. Suddenly my uncle +turned his head to me and said, shaking it gravely, +"He has made an awesome plooster o' that place." +"Who? What place, uncle?" "Whew! the place +ye'll maybe gang to, if ye dinna tak' care." I really +believe he considers all those circles of your invention. +Walter [a cousin, just ordained] performed the marriage +service over a couple of colliers the day after I came. +I happened to be in his study when they came in, and +asked leave to remain. The man was a good-looking +man enough, dreadfully agitated, partly with the business +he was come on, partly with drink. He had +evidently taken a glass too much to keep his heart up. +The girl had one very large inflamed eye and one +little one, which looked perfectly composed, while the +large eye stared wildly, and had a tear in it. Walter +married them very well indeed; and his affecting words, +together with the bridegroom's pale, excited face, and +the bride's ugliness, and the poverty, penury, and want +imprinted on the whole business, and above all fellow-feeling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">{101}</a></span> +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 myself, and, when the ceremony was over, extended +my hand to the unfortunates, and actually (in +such an enthusiasm of pity did I find myself) I presented +the new husband with a snuff-box which I +happened to have in my hand, being just about presenting +it to Walter when the creatures came in. This +unexpected <i>Himmelsendung</i> finished turning the man's +head; he wrung my hand over and over, leaving his +mark for some hours after, and ended his grateful +speeches with, "Oh, Miss! Oh, Liddy! may ye +hae mair comfort and pleasure in your life than ever +you have had yet!" which might easily be.'</p> + +<p>Carlyle was full of wrath at what he considered +the cant about the condition of the wage-earners +in Manchester and elsewhere, and his indignation +found vent in the <i>Latter-day Pamphlets</i>. Froude +once asked him if he had ever thought of going +into Parliament, for the former knew that the opportunity +must have been offered him. 'Well,' he said, +'I did think of it at the time of the "Latter-day +Pamphlets." I felt that nothing could prevent me from +getting up in the House and saying all that.' 'He +was powerful,' adds Froude, 'but he was not powerful +<i>enough</i> to have discharged with his single voice the +vast volume of conventional electricity with which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">{102}</a></span> +collective wisdom of the nation was, and remains +charged. It is better that his thoughts should have +been committed to enduring print, where they remain +to be reviewed hereafter by the light of fact.'<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>The printing of the <i>Pamphlets</i> commenced at the +beginning of 1850, and went on month after month, +each separately published, no magazine daring to +become responsible for them. When the <i>Pamphlets</i> +appeared, they were received with 'astonished indignation.' +'Carlyle taken to whisky,' was the popular +impression—or perhaps he had gone mad. '<i>Punch</i>,' +says Froude, 'the most friendly to him of all the +London periodicals, protested affectionately. The +delinquent was brought up for trial before him, I think +for injuring his reputation. He was admonished, but +stood impenitent, and even "called the worthy magistrate +a windbag and a sham." I suppose it was +Thackeray who wrote this; or some other kind +friend, who feared, like Emerson, "that the world +would turn its back on him." He was under no illusion +himself as to the effect which he was producing.'<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<p>Amid the general storm, Carlyle was 'agreeably +surprised' to receive an invitation to dine with Peel +at Whitehall Gardens, where he met a select company. +'After all the servants but the butler were gone,' +narrates Carlyle, 'we began to hear a little of Peel's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">{103}</a></span> +quiet talk across the table, unimportant, distinguished +by its sense of the ludicrous shining through a strong +official <i>rationality</i> and even seriousness of temper. +Distracted <i>address</i> of a letter from somebody to Queen +Victoria; "The most noble George Victoria, Queen of +England, Knight and Baronet," or something like that. +A man had once written to Peel himself, while +secretary, "that he was weary of life, that if any +gentleman wanted for his park-woods a hermit, he, +etc.", all of which was very pretty and human as Peel +gave it us.'<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> Carlyle was driven home by the Bishop +of Oxford, 'Soapy Sam' Wilberforce, whom he had +probably met before at the Ashburton's. The Bishop +once told Froude that he considered Carlyle a most +eminently religious man. 'Ah, Sam,' said Carlyle to +Froude one day, 'he is a very clever fellow; I do not +hate him near as much as I fear I ought to do.' +Carlyle and Peel met once more, at Bath House, +and there, too, he was first introduced to the Duke of +Wellington. Writing at the time, Carlyle said: 'I +had never seen till now how beautiful, and what an +expression of graceful simplicity, veracity, and nobleness +there is about the old hero when you see him close +at hand.... Except for Dr Chalmers, I have not for +many years seen so beautiful an old man.'</p> + +<p>Carlyle intended, some time or other, writing a +'Life of Sterling,' but meanwhile he accepted an invitation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">{104}</a></span> +to visit South Wales. Thence he made his way +to Scotsbrig. On the 27th September 1850, he 'parted +sorrowfully with his mother.' When he reached London, +the autumn quarterlies were reviewing the <i>Pamphlets</i>, +and the 'shrieking tone was considerably modified.' +'A review of them,' says Froude, 'by Masson in the +<i>North British</i> distinctly pleased Carlyle. A review in +the <i>Dublin</i> he found "excellently serious," and conjectured +that it came from some Anglican pervert or +convert. It was written, I believe, by Dr Ward.'</p> + +<p>After a few more wanderings, Carlyle set about the +<i>Life of Sterling</i>, and on April 5, 1851, he informs his +mother: 'I told the Doctor about "John Sterling's +Life," a small, insignificant book or pamphlet I have +been writing. The booksellers got it away from me the +other morning, to see how much there is of it, in the +first place. I know not altogether myself whether it is +worth printing or not, but rather think it will be the end +of it whether or not. It has cost little trouble, and need +not do much ill, if it do no great amount of good.' +Another visit had to be paid to Scotsbrig, where he +read the "Life of Chalmers." 'An excellent Christian +man,' he said. 'About as great a contrast to himself +in all ways as could be found in these epochs under +the same sky.'</p> + +<p>When he got back to Cheyne Row, he took to reading +the "Seven Years' War," with a view to another +book. He determined to go to Germany, and on August<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">{105}</a></span> +30, 1852, Carlyle embarked 'on board the greasy little +wretch of a Leith steamer, laden to the water's edge +with pig-iron and herrings.' The journey over, he set +to work on 'Frederick,' but was driven almost to +despair by the cock-crowing in his neighbourhood. +Writing to Mrs Carlyle, he says: 'I foresee in general +these cocks will require to be abolished, entirely +silenced, whether we build the new room or not. I +would cheerfully shoot them, and pay the price if +discovered, but I have no gun, should be unsafe +for hitting, and indeed seldom see the wretched +animals.'</p> + +<p>He took refuge at the Ashburton's house, the +Grange, but on the 20th of December, news came +that his mother was seriously ill, and could not last +long. He hurried off to Scotsbrig, and reached there +in time to see her once more alive. In his journal, +this passage is to be found under date January +8, 1854: 'The stroke has fallen. My dear old +mother is gone from me, and in the winter of the +year, confusedly under darkness of weather and of +mind, the stern final epoch—<i>epoch of old age</i>—is +beginning to unfold itself for me.... It is +matter of perennial thankfulness to me, and beyond +my desert in that matter very far, that I found my dear +old mother still alive; able to recognise me with a +faint joy; her former <i>self</i> still strangely visible there in +all its lineaments, though worn to the uttermost thread.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">{106}</a></span> +The brave old mother and the good, whom to lose had +been my fear ever since intelligence awoke in me in +this world, arrived now at the final bourn.... She +was about 84 years of age, and could not with advantage +to any side remain with us longer. Surely it was +a good Power that gave us such a mother; and good +though stern that took her away from amid such grief +and labour by a death beautiful to one's thoughts. +"All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my +change come." This they heard her muttering, and +many other less frequent pious texts and passages. +Amen, Amen! Sunday, December 25, 1853—a day +henceforth for ever memorable to me.... To live for +the shorter or longer remainder of my days with the +simple bravery, veracity, and piety of her that is gone: +that would be a right learning from her death, and a +right honouring of her memory. But alas all is yet +<i>frozen</i> within me; even as it is without me at present, +and I have made little or no way. God be helpful to +me! I myself am very weak, confused, fatigued, +entangled in poor <i>worldlinesses</i> too. Newspaper paragraphs, +even as this sacred and peculiar thing, are not +indifferent to me. Weak soul! and I am fifty-eight +years old, and the tasks I have on hand, Frederick, +&c., are most ungainly, incongruous with my mood—and +the night cometh, for me too is not distant, which +for her is come. I must try, I must try. Poor brother +Jack! Will he do his Dante now? For him also I am<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">{107}</a></span> +sad; and surely he has deserved gratitude in these last +years from us all.'<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>When he returned to London, Carlyle lived in strict +seclusion, making repeated efforts at work on what he +called 'the unexecutable book,' <i>Frederick</i>. In the +spring of 1854, tidings reached Carlyle of the death of +Professor Wilson. Between them there had never +been any cordial relation, says Froude. 'They had +met in Edinburgh in the old days; on Carlyle's part +there had been no backwardness, and Wilson was not +unconscious of Carlyle's extraordinary powers. But he +had been shy of Carlyle, and Carlyle had resented it, +and now this April the news came that Wilson was +gone, and Carlyle had to write his epitaph. 'I knew +his figure well,' wrote Carlyle in his journal on April +29; 'remember well first seeing him in Princes Street +on a bright April afternoon—probably 1814—exactly +forty years ago.... A tall ruddy figure, with plenteous +blonde hair, with bright blue eyes, fixed, as if in haste +towards some distant object, strode rapidly along, +clearing the press to the left of us, close by the +railings, near where Blackwood's shop now is. Westward +he in haste; we slowly eastward. Campbell +whispered me, "That is Wilson of the <i>Isle of Palms</i>," +which poem I had not read, being then quite mathematical, +scientific, &c., for extraneous reasons, as I now +see them to have been. The broad-shouldered stately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">{108}</a></span> +bulk of the man struck me; his flashing eye, copious, +dishevelled head of hair, and rapid, unconcerned progress, +like that of a plough through stubble. I really +liked him, but only from the distance, and thought no +more of him. It must have been fourteen years later +before I once saw his figure again, and began to have +some distant straggling acquaintance of a personal +kind with him. Glad could I have been to be better +and more familiarly acquainted; but though I liked +much in him, and he somewhat in me, it would not do. +He was always very kind to me, but seemed to have +a feeling I should—could—not become wholly his, +in which he was right, and that on other terms he +could not have me; so we let it so remain, and for many +years—indeed, even after quitting Edinburgh—I had +no acquaintance with him; occasionally got symptoms +of his ill-humour with me—ink-spurts in <i>Blackwood</i>, +read or heard of, which I, in a surly, silent manner, +strove to consider <i>flattering</i> rather.... So far as I +can recollect, he was once in my house (Comely +Bank, with a testimonial, poor fellow!), and I once +in his, De Quincey, &c., a little while one afternoon.'<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>On September 16, 1854, Carlyle breaks out in his +journal: '"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, +and we are not saved."' What a fearful word! I +cannot find how to take up that miserable "Frederick,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">{109}</a></span> +or what on earth to do with it.' He worked hard at it, +nevertheless, for eighteen months, and by the end of +May 1858, the first instalment was all in type. Froude +remarks that a fine critic once said to him that Carlyle's +Friedrich Wilhelm was as peculiar and original as +Sterne's Tristram Shandy; certainly as distinct a personality +as exists in English fiction. Carlyle made a +second journey to Germany. Shortly after his return, +the already finished volumes of <i>Frederick</i> appeared, and +they met with an immediate welcome. The success +was great; 2000 copies were sold at the first issue, and +a second 2000 were disposed of almost as rapidly, and +a third 2000 followed. Mrs Carlyle's health being unsatisfactory, +Carlyle took a house for the summer at +Humbie, near Aberdour in Fife. They returned to +Cheyne Row in October, neither of them benefited by +their holiday in the north.</p> + +<p>While many of Carlyle's intimate friends were passing +away, he formed Ruskin's acquaintance, which +turned out mutually satisfactory. On the 23rd April +1861, Carlyle writes to his brother John: 'Friday last I +was persuaded—in fact had unwarily compelled myself, +as it were—to a lecture of Ruskin's at the Institution, +Albemarle Street. Lecture on Tree Leaves as physiological, +pictorial, moral, symbolical objects. A crammed +house, but tolerable to me even in the gallery. The +lecture was thought to "break down," and indeed it +quite did "<i>as a lecture</i>"; but only did from <i>embarras<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">{110}</a></span> +des richesses</i>—a rare case. Ruskin did blow asunder +as by gunpowder explosions his leaf notions, which +were manifold, curious, genial; and, in fact, I do not +recollect to have heard in that place any neatest thing +I liked so well as this chaotic one.'<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<p><i>Frederick</i> was progressing, though slowly, as he +found the ore in the German material at his disposal +"nowhere smelted out of it." The third volume was +finished and published in the summer of 1862; the +fourth volume was getting into type; and the fifth and +last was finished in January 1865. 'It nearly killed +me,' Carlyle writes in his journal, 'it, and my poor +Jane's dreadful illness, now happily over. No sympathy +could be found on earth for those horrid +struggles of twelve years, nor happily was any needed. +On Sunday evening in the end of January (1865) +I walked out, with the multiplex feeling—joy not +very prominent in it, but a kind of solemn thankfulness +traceable, that I had written the last sentence +of that unutterable book, and, contrary to many +forebodings in bad hours, had actually got done with +it for ever.'</p> + +<p>In England it was at once admitted, says Froude, +that a splendid addition had been made to the national +literature. 'The book contained, if nothing else, a +gallery of historical figures executed with a skill which +placed Carlyle at the head of literary portrait painters....<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">{111}</a></span> +No critic, after the completion of <i>Frederick</i>, +challenged Carlyle's right to a place beside the greatest +of English authors, past or present.' The work was +translated instantly into German, calling forth the +warmest appreciation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">{112}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">RECTORIAL ADDRESS—DEATH OF MRS CARLYLE</span></h2> + + +<p>After a round of holiday visits, including one to +Annandale, the Carlyles settled down once more at +Cheyne Row in the summer of 1865. 'The great +outward event of Carlyle's own life,' observes Froude, +'Scotland's public recognition of him, was now lying +close ahead. This his wife was to live to witness as +her final happiness in this world.' Here is an eloquent +passage from the same pen: 'I had been at Edinburgh,' +writes Froude, 'and had heard Gladstone make +his great oration on Homer there, on retiring from +office as Rector. It was a grand display. I never +recognised before what oratory could do; the audience +being kept for three hours in a state of electric tension, +bursting every moment into applause. Nothing was said +which seemed of moment when read deliberately afterwards; +but the voice was like enchantment, and the +street, when we left the building, was ringing with a +prolongation of cheers. Perhaps in all Britain there +was not a man whose views on all subjects, in heaven +and earth, less resembled Gladstone's than those of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">{113}</a></span> +the man whom this same applauding multitude elected +to take his place. The students too, perhaps, were +ignorant how wide the contradiction was; but if they +had been aware of it they need not have acted differently. +Carlyle had been one of themselves. He had +risen from among them—not by birth or favour, not on +the ladder of any established profession, but only by +the internal force that was in him—to the highest +place as a modern man of letters. In <i>Frederick</i> he +had given the finish to his reputation; he stood now +at the summit of his fame; and the Edinburgh students +desired to mark their admiration in some signal way. +He had been mentioned before, but he had declined +to be nominated, for a party only were then in his +favour. On this occasion, the students were unanimous, +or nearly so. His own consent was all that was wanting.'<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> +This consent was obtained, and Carlyle was +chosen Rector of Edinburgh University. But the +Address troubled him. He resolved, however, as his +father used to say, to 'gar himself go through with the +thing,' or at least to try. Froude says he was very +miserable, but that Mrs Carlyle 'kept up his spirits, +made fun of his fears, bantered him, encouraged him, +herself at heart as much alarmed as he was, but conscious, +too, of the ridiculous side of it.' She thought +of accompanying him, but her health would not permit +of the effort. Both Huxley and Tyndall were going<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">{114}</a></span> +down, and Tyndall promised Mrs Carlyle to take care +of her husband.</p> + +<p>On Monday morning, the 29th of March, 1866, +Carlyle and his wife parted. 'The last I saw of her,' +he said, 'was as she stood with her back to the parlour +door to bid me good-bye. She kissed me twice, she +me once, I her a second time.' They parted for ever.</p> + +<p>Edinburgh was reached in due course, and what +happened there had best be told by an eye-witness, +Professor Masson. 'On the night following Carlyle's +arrival in town,' he says, 'after he had settled himself +in Mr Erskine of Linlathen's house, where he was to +stay during his visit, he and his brother John came to +my house in Rosebery Crescent, that they might have +a quiet smoke and talk over matters. They sat with +me an hour or more, Carlyle as placid and hearty as +could be, talking most pleasantly, a little dubious, +indeed, as to how he might get through his Address, +but for the rest unperturbed. As to the Address itself, +when the old man stood up in the Music Hall before +the assembled crowd, and threw off his Rectorial robes, +and proceeded to speak, slowly, connectedly, 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 next, the crowd listening as they +had never listened to a speaker before, and reverent +even in those parts of the hall where he was least +audible,—who that was present will ever forget that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">{115}</a></span> +sight? That day, and on the subsequent days of his +stay, there were, of course, dinners and other gatherings +in Carlyle's honour. One such dinner, followed +by a larger evening gathering, was in my house. Then, +too, he was in the best of possible spirits, courteous in +manner and in speech to all, and throwing himself +heartily into whatever turned up. At the dinner-table, +I remember, Lord Neaves favoured us with one +or two of his humorous songs or recitatives, including +his clever quiz called "Stuart Mill on Mind and +Matter," written to the tune of "Roy's wife of Aldivalloch." +No one enjoyed the thing more than Carlyle; +and he surprised me by doing what I had never heard +him do before,—actually joining with his own voice in +the chorus. "Stuart Mill on Mind and Matter, Stuart +Mill on Mind and Matter," he chaunted laughingly +along with Lord Neaves every time the chorus came +round, beating time in the air emphatically with his +fist. It was hardly otherwise, or only otherwise inasmuch +as the affair was more ceremonious and stately, +at the dinner given to him in the Douglas Hotel by +the Senatus Academicus, and in which his old friend +Sir David Brewster presided. There, too, while +dignified and serene, Carlyle was thoroughly sympathetic +and convivial. Especially I remember how +he relished and applauded the songs of our academic +laureate and matchless chief in such things, Professor +Douglas Maclagan, and how, before we broke up, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">{116}</a></span> +expressly complimented Professor Maclagan on having +"contributed so greatly to the hilarity of the evening."'<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>The most graphic account of Carlyle's installation as +Lord Rector is that by Alexander Smith, the author of +'A Life Drama,' 'Summer in Skye,' &c., &c., whose +lamented death took place a few months after that event. +'Curious stories,' he wrote, 'are told of the eagerness +on every side manifested to hear Mr Carlyle. Country +clergymen from beyond Aberdeen came to Edinburgh +for the sole purpose of hearing and seeing. Gentlemen +came down from London by train the night before, and +returned to London by train the night after. Nay, it +was even said that an enthusiast, dwelling in the remote +west of Ireland, intimated to the officials who had charge +of the distribution, that if a ticket should be reserved +for him, he would gladly come the whole way to Edinburgh. +Let us hope a ticket <i>was</i> reserved. On the +day of the address, the doors of the Music Hall were +besieged long before the hour of opening had arrived; +and loitering about there on the outskirts of the crowd, +one could not help glancing curiously down Pitt Street, +towards the "lang toun of Kirkcaldy," dimly seen beyond +the Forth; for on the sands there, in the early +years of the century, Edward Irving was accustomed +to pace up and down solitarily, and "as if the sands +were his own," people say, who remember, when they +were boys, seeing the tall, ardent, black-haired, swift-gestured,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">{117}</a></span> +squinting man, often enough. And to Kirkcaldy, +too, ... came young Carlyle from Edinburgh +College, wildly in love with German and mathematics; +and the schoolroom in which these men taught, +although incorporated in Provost Swan's manufactory, +is yet kept sacred and intact, and but little changed +these fifty years—an act of hero-worship for which the +present and other generations may be thankful. It +seemed to me that so glancing Fife-wards, 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 see, and the speech I was to hear. +David and Jonathan! Jonathan stumbled and fell +on the dark hills, not of Gilboa, but of Vanity; and +David sang his funeral song: "But for him I had +never known what the communion of man with man +means. His was the freest, brotherliest, bravest human +soul mine ever came in contact with. I call him, on +the whole, the best man I have ever, after trial enough, +found in this world, or now hope to find."</p> + +<p>'In a very few minutes after the doors were opened, +the large hall was filled in every part; and when up +the central passage the Principal, the Lord Rector, +the Members of the Senate, and other gentlemen +advanced towards the platform, the cheering was vociferous +and hearty. The Principal occupied the chair, +of course; the Lord Rector on his right, the Lord +Provost on his left. When the platform gentlemen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">{118}</a></span> +had taken their seats, every eye was fixed on the +Rector. To all appearance, as he sat, time and labour +had dealt tenderly with him. His face had not yet +lost the country bronze which he brought up with +him from Dumfriesshire as a student, fifty-six years +ago. His long residence in London had not touched +his Annandale look, nor had it—as we soon learned—touched +his Annandale accent. His countenance was +striking, homely, sincere, truthful—the countenance of +a man on whom "the burden of the unintelligible +world" had weighed more heavily than on most. His +hair was yet almost dark; his moustache and short +beard were iron-grey. His eyes were wide, melancholy, +sorrowful; and seemed as if they had been at +times a-weary of the sun. Altogether, in his aspect +there was something aboriginal, as of a piece of +unhewn granite, which had never been polished to +any approved pattern, whose natural and original +vitality had never been tampered with. In a word, +there seemed no passivity about Mr Carlyle; he +was the diamond, and the world was his pane of glass; +he was a graving tool, rather than a thing graven upon—a +man to set his mark on the world—a man on +whom the world could not set <i>its</i> mark.... The +proceedings began by the conferring of the degree of +LL.D. on Mr Erskine of Linlathen—an old friend of +Mr Carlyle's—on Professors Huxley, Tyndall, and +Ramsay, and on Dr Rae, the Arctic explorer. That<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">{119}</a></span> +done, amid a tempest of cheering and hats enthusiastically +waved, Mr Carlyle, slipping off his Rectorial +robe—which must have been a very shirt of Nessus to +him—advanced to the table, and began to speak in +low, wavering, melancholy tones, which were in accordance +with the melancholy eyes, and in the Annandale +accent with which his play-fellows must have been +familiar long ago. So self-centred was he, so impregnable +to outward influences, that all his years of Edinburgh +and London life could not impair, even in the +slightest degree, <i>that</i>. The opening sentences were lost +in the applause, and when it subsided, the low, plaintive, +quavering voice was heard going on: "Your enthusiasm +towards me is very beautiful in itself, however undeserved +it may be in regard to the object of it. It is a feeling +honourable to all men, and one well known to myself +when in a position analogous to your own." And then +came the Carlylean utterance, with its far-reaching +reminiscence and sigh over old graves—Father's and +Mother's, Edward Irving's, John Sterling's, Charles +Buller's, and all the noble known in past time—and +with its flash of melancholy scorn. "There are now fifty-six +years gone, last November, since I first entered your +city, a boy of not quite fourteen—fifty-six years ago—to +attend classes here, and gain knowledge of all kinds, I +knew not what—with feelings of wonder and awe-struck +expectation; and now, after a long, long course, this +is what we have come to.... There is something<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">{120}</a></span> +touching and tragic, and yet at the same time beautiful, +to see the third generation, as it were, of my dear old +native land, rising up, and saying: Well, you are not +altogether an unworthy labourer in the vineyard. You +have toiled through a great variety of fortunes, and +have had many judges." And thereafter, without aid +of notes, or paper preparation of any kind, in the same +wistful, earnest, hesitating voice, and with many a +touch of quaint humour by the way, which came in +upon his subject like glimpses of pleasant sunshine, +the old man talked to his vast audience about the +origin and function of Universities, the Old Greeks and +Romans, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, the excellence +of silence as compared with speech, the value of +courage and truthfulness, and the supreme importance +of taking care of one's health. "There is no kind of +achievement you could make in the world that is equal +to perfect health. What to it are nuggets and millions? +The French financier said, 'Alas! why is there no +sleep to be sold?' Sleep was not in the market at +any quotation." But what need of quoting a speech +which by this time has been read by everybody? +Appraise it as you please, it was a thing <i>per se</i>. Just +as, if you wish a purple dye, you must fish up the +Murex; if you wish ivory, you must go to the East; +so if you desire an address such as Edinburgh listened +to the other day, you must go to Chelsea for it. It +may not be quite to your taste, but, in any case, there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">{121}</a></span> +is no other intellectual warehouse in which that kind of +article is kept in stock.'<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>Another eye-witness, Mr Moncure D. Conway, says: +'When Carlyle sat down there was an audible sound, +as of breath long held, by all present; then a cry from +the students, an exultation; they rose up, all arose, +waving their arms excitedly; some pressed forward, as +if wishing to embrace him, or to clasp his knees; others +were weeping; what had been heard that day was more +than could be reported; it was the ineffable spirit that +went forth from the deeps of a great heart and from the +ages stored up in it, and deep answered unto deep.'</p> + +<p>Immediately after the delivery of the address, Tyndall +telegraphed to Mrs Carlyle this brief message, 'A +perfect triumph.' That evening she dined at Forster's, +where she met Dickens and Wilkie Collins. They +drank Carlyle's health, and to her it was 'a good joy.' +It was Carlyle's intention to have returned at once to +London, but he changed his mind, and went for a few +quiet days at Scotsbrig. When Tyndall was back in +London Mrs Carlyle got all the particulars of the +rectorial address from him, and was made perfectly +happy about it.</p> + +<p>Numberless congratulations poured in upon Mrs +Carlyle, and for Saturday, April 21st, she had arranged +a small tea-party. In the morning she wrote her daily +letter to Carlyle, and in the afternoon she went out in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">{122}</a></span> +her brougham for a drive, taking her little dog with +her. When near Victoria Gate, Hyde Park, she put +the dog out to run. 'A passing carriage,' says +Froude, 'went over its foot.... She sprang out, +caught the dog in her arms, took it with her into the +brougham, and was never more seen alive. The +coachman went twice round the drive, by Marble Arch +down to Stanhope Gate, along the Serpentine and +round again. Coming a second time near to the +Achilles statue, and surprised to receive no directions, +he turned round, saw indistinctly that something was +wrong, and asked a gentleman near to look into the +carriage. The gentleman told him briefly to take the +lady to St. George's Hospital, which was not 200 yards +distant. She was sitting with her hands folded in her +lap <i>dead</i>.'<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>At the hour she died Carlyle was enjoying the +'green solitudes and fresh spring breezes' of Annandale, +'quietly but far from happily.' About nine +o'clock the same night his brother-in-law, Mr Aitken, +broke the news to him. 'I was sitting in sister Jean's +at Dumfries,' Carlyle wrote a fortnight after, 'thinking +of my railway journey to Chelsea on Monday, and +perhaps of a sprained ankle I had got at Scotsbrig +two weeks or so before, when the fatal telegrams, two +of them in succession, came. It had a kind of <i>stunning</i> +effect upon me. Not for above two days could I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">{123}</a></span> +estimate the immeasurable depths of it, or the infinite +sorrow which had peeled my life all bare, and in a +moment shattered my poor world to universal ruin. +They took me out next day to wander, as was medically +needful, in the green sunny Sabbath fields, and +ever and anon there rose from my sick heart the ejaculation, +"My poor little woman!" but no full gust of +tears came to my relief, nor has yet come. Will it +ever? A stony "Woe's me, woe's me!" sometimes +with infinite tenderness and pity, not for myself, is my +habitual mood hitherto.'<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + +<p>On Monday morning Carlyle and his brother John +set off for London. On the Wednesday he was on his +way to Haddington with the remains, his brother and +John Forster accompanying him. At 1 <span class="smcap lowercase">P.M.</span> on Thursday +the funeral took place. 'In the nave of the old +Abbey Kirk,' wrote her disconsolate husband, 'long a +ruin, now being saved from further decay, with the +skies looking down on her, there sleeps my little +Jeannie, and the light of her face will never shine +on me more.' When Mr Conway saw him on his +return to Cheyne Row, Carlyle said, 'Whatever +triumph there may have been in that now so darkly +overcast day, was indeed <i>hers</i>. Long, long years ago, +she took her place by the side of a poor man of +humblest condition, against all other provisions for +her, undertook to share his lot for weal or woe; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">{124}</a></span> +in that office what she has been to him and done for +him, how she has placed, as it were, velvet between him +and all the sharp angularities of existence, remains now +only in the knowledge of one man, and will presently +be finally hid in his grave.' As he touchingly expressed +it in the beautiful epitaph he wrote, the 'light of his +life' had assuredly 'gone out.' Universal sympathy +was felt for the bereaved husband, and he was very +much affected by 'a delicate, graceful, and even affectionate' +message from the Queen, conveyed by Lady +Augusta Stanley through his brother John.</p> + +<p>One who knew Mrs Carlyle intimately thus speaks +of her: 'Her intellect was as clear and incisive as his, +yet altogether womanly in character; her heart was as +truthful, and her courage as unswerving. She was a +wife in the noblest sense of that sacred name. She +had a gift of literary expression as unique as his; +as tender a sympathy with human sorrow and need; +as clear an eye for all conventional hypocrisies and +folly; as vivid powers of description and illustration; +and also, it must be confessed, when the spirit of +mockery was strong upon her, as keen an edge to her +flashing wit and humour, and as scornful a disregard of +the conventional proprieties. But she was no literary +hermaphrodite. She never intellectually strode forth +before the world upon masculine stilts; nor, in private +life, did she frowardly push to the front, in the vanity +of showing she was as clever and considerable as her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">{125}</a></span> +husband. She longed, with a true woman's longing +heart, to be appreciated by him, and by those she +loved; and, for her, all extraneous applause might +whistle with the wind. But if her husband was a king +in literature, so might she have been a queen. Her +influence with him for good cannot be questioned by +any one having eyes to discern. And if she sacrificed +her own vanity for personal distinction, in order to +make his work possible for him, who shall say she did +not choose the nobler and better part?'<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>On the other hand, Carlyle was too exacting, 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 side. +'Even with that mother whom he so dearly loved,' +observes Mrs Ireland, 'the intercourse was mainly +composed of a silent sitting by the fireside of an +evening in the old "houseplace," with a tranquillising +pipe of tobacco, or of his returning from his long +rambles to a simple meal, partaken of in comparative +silence; and now and then, at meeting or parting, some +pious and earnest words from the good soul to her son.'<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> +And it never occurred to Carlyle to act differently with +his wife, who was pining for his society. In addition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">{126}</a></span> +to all that, we have Froude's brief but accurate diagnosis +of Carlyle's character. 'If,' he wrote, 'matters +went well with himself, it never occurred to him that +they could be going ill with any one else; and, on +the other hand, if he was uncomfortable, he required +everybody to be uncomfortable along with him.'</p> + +<p>There was a strong element of selfishness in that +phase of Carlyle's nature; and throughout his letters +and journal he appears wholly wrapt up in himself and +in his literary projects, without even a passing allusion +to the courageous woman who had shared his lot. +Now and again we alight upon a passage where special +mention is made of her efforts, but these have all a +direct or indirect bearing upon <i>his</i> work, <i>his</i> plans, <i>his</i> +comforts.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<p>Carlyle never fully realised what his wife had been +to him until she was suddenly snatched from his side. +And this was his testimony: 'I say deliberately, her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">{127}</a></span> +part in the stern battle, and except myself none knows +how stern, was brighter and braver than my own.' In +one of those terrible moments of self-upbraiding the +grief-stricken husband exclaims: 'Blind and deaf that +we are; oh, think, if thou yet love anybody living, wait +not till death sweep down the paltry little dust-clouds +and idle dissonances of the moment, and all be at last +so mournfully clear and beautiful, <i>when it is too late</i>!'</p> + +<p>In a pamphlet quoted by Mrs Ireland we have +a pathetic picture of Carlyle in his lonely old age. +A Mr Swinton, an American gentleman on a visit to +this country, went to see the grave of Mrs Carlyle.</p> + +<p>In conversation the grave-digger said: 'Mr Carlyle +comes here from London now and then to see this +grave. He is a gaunt, shaggy, weird kind of old man, +looking very old the last time he was here.' 'He is +eighty-six now,' said I. 'Ay,' he repeated, 'eighty-six, +and comes here to this grave all the way from London.' +And I told him that Carlyle was a great man, the +greatest man of the age in books, and that his name +was known all over the world; but he thought there +were other great men lying near at hand, though +I told him their fame did not reach beyond the +graveyard, and brought him back to talk of Carlyle. +'Mr Carlyle himself,' said the gravedigger softly, 'is +to be brought here to be buried with his wife. Ay, he +comes here lonesome and alone,' continued the gravedigger, +'when he visits the wife's grave. His niece<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">{128}</a></span> +keeps him company to the gate, but he leaves her +there, and she stays there for him. The last time he +was here I got a sight of him, and he was bowed down +under his white hairs, and he took his way up by that +ruined wall of the old cathedral, and round there and +in here by the gateway, and he tottered up here to +this spot.' Softly spake the gravedigger, and paused. +Softer still, in the broad dialect of the Lothians, he +proceeded:—"And he stood here awhile in the grass, +and then he kneeled down and stayed on his knees at +the grave; then he bent over and I saw him kiss the +ground—ay, he kissed it again and again, and he kept +kneeling, and it was a long time before he rose and +tottered out of the cathedral, and wandered through +the graveyard to the gate, where his niece was waiting +for him." This is the epitaph composed by Carlyle, +and engraved on the tombstone of Dr John Welsh in +the chancel of Haddington Church:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'<span class="smcap">Here likewise now rests Jane Welsh Carlyle, Spouse +of Thomas Carlyle, Chelsea, London. She was born +at Haddington, 14th July 1801, only daughter of the +above John Welsh, and of Grace Welsh, Capelgill, +Dumfriesshire, his wife. In her bright existence she +had more sorrows than are common; but also a soft +invincibility, a clearness of discernment, and a noble +loyalty of heart which are rare. For forty years +she was the true and ever-loving helpmate of her +husband, and, by act and word, unweariedly forwarded +him as none else could, in all of worthy that he did +or attempted. She died at London, 21st April 1866, +suddenly snatched away from him, and the light of +his life as if gone out.</span>'</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">{129}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">LAST YEARS AND DEATH OF CARLYLE</span></h2> + + +<p>In presence of the pathetically tragic spectacle of +Carlyle in his old age, who can have the heart to enter +into his domestic life and weigh with pedantic scales +the old man's blameworthiness? Carlyle survived his +wife fifteen years. His brother John, himself a widower, +was anxious that they should live together, but it was +otherwise arranged. John returned to Scotland, and +Carlyle remained alone in Cheyne Row. He was +prevailed on to visit Ripple Court, near Walmer, and +on his return to London he wrote, 'My home is very +gaunt and lonesome; but such is my allotment henceforth +in this world. I have taken loyally to my vacant +circumstances, and will try to do my best with them.'</p> + +<p>Carlyle's first public appearance after his sore bereavement +was as chairman of the Eyre Committee as a protest +against Governor Eyre's recall. 'Poor Eyre!' he +wrote to a correspondent, 'I am heartily sorry for him, +and for the English nation, which makes such a dismal +fool of itself. Eyre, it seems, has fallen suddenly from +£6000 a year into almost zero, and has a large family<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">{130}</a></span> +and needy kindred dependent on him. Such his reward +for saving the West Indies, and hanging one incendiary +mulatto, well worth the gallows, if I can judge.'</p> + +<p>Carlyle accepted a pressing invitation to stay with +the Ashburtons at Mentone, and on the 22nd of +December he started thither with Professor Tyndall. +He was greatly benefited in health, and at intervals +made some progress with his <i>Reminiscences</i>. He returned +to London in March, and on the 4th of April +1867 he writes in his journal: 'Idle! Idle! My employments +mere trifles of business, and that of dwelling +on the days that culminated on the 21st of last year.' +About this time his thoughts were directed to the +estate of Craigenputtock, of which he became absolute +owner at his wife's death. All her relations on the +father's side were dead, and as Carlyle thought that it +ought not to lapse to his own family, he determined to +leave it to the University of Edinburgh, 'the rents of +it to be laid out in supporting poor and meritorious +students there, under the title of "the John Welsh +Bursaries." Her name he could not give, because she +had taken his own. Therefore he gave her father's.'</p> + +<p>On June 22nd, he writes in his journal: 'Finished +off on Thursday last, at three p.m. 20th of June, my +poor <i>bequest</i> of Craigenputtock to Edinburgh University +for bursaries. All quite ready there, Forster and +Froude as witnesses; the good Professor Masson, who +had taken endless pains, alike friendly and wise, being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">{131}</a></span> +at the very last objected to in the character of "witness," +as "a party interested," said the Edinburgh +lawyer. I a little regretted this circumstance; so I +think did Masson secretly. He read us the deed with +sonorous emphasis, bringing every word and note of it +home to us. Then I signed; then they two—Masson +witnessing only with his eyes and mind. I was deeply +moved, as I well might be, but held my peace and +shed no tears. <i>Tears</i> I think I have done with; +never, except for moments together, have I wept for +that catastrophe of April 21, to which whole days of +weeping would have been in other times a blessed +relief.... This is my poor "Sweetheart Abbey," +"Cor Dulce," or New Abbey, a sacred casket and +<i>tomb</i> for the sweetest "heart" which, in this bad, bitter +world, was all my own. Darling, darling! and in a +little while we shall <i>both</i> be at rest, and the Great God +will have done with us what was His will.'<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>When the Tories were preparing to 'dish the +Whigs' over the Reform Bill, Carlyle felt impelled to +write a pamphlet, which he called <i>Shooting Niagara, +and After</i>. It was his final utterance on British +politics. Proof sheets and revisions for new editions of +his works engrossed his attention for some time. He +went annually to Scotland, and devoted a great deal of +time on his return to Chelsea to the sorting and +annotating of his wife's letters.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">{132}</a></span></p> + +<p>Early in 1869 the Queen expressed a wish, through +Dean Stanley, to become personally acquainted with +Carlyle. The meeting took place at Westminster +Deanery: 'The Queen,' Carlyle said, 'was really very +gracious and pretty in her demeanour throughout; rose +greatly in my esteem by everything that happened; did +not fall in any point. The interview was quietly very +mournful to me; the one point of real interest, a +sombre thought: "Alas! how would it have cheered +her, bright soul, for my sake, had she been +there!"'</p> + +<p>When Carlyle was in constant expectation of his end, +he—in June 1871—brought to Mr Froude's house a +large parcel of papers. 'He put it in my hands,' says +Froude. 'He told me to take it simply and absolutely +as my own, without reference to any other person or +persons, and to do with it as I pleased after he was +gone. He explained, when he saw me surprised, that +it was an account of his wife's history, that it was +incomplete, that he could himself form no opinion +whether it ought to be published or not, that he could +do no more to it, and must pass it over to me. He +wished never to hear of it again. I must judge. I +must publish it, the whole, or part—or else destroy it +all, if I thought that this would be the wiser thing to +do.'<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<p>Three years later Carlyle sent to Froude his own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">{133}</a></span> +and his wife's private papers, journals, correspondence, +reminiscences, and other documents. 'Take them,' he +said to Froude, 'and do what you can with them. All +I can say to you is, Burn freely. If you have any +affection for me, the more you burn the better.' Mr +Froude burnt nothing, and it was well, he says, that he +did not, for a year before his death he desired him, +when he had done with the MSS., to give them to his +niece. 'The new task which had been laid upon me,' +writes Froude in his biography of Carlyle, 'complicated +the problem of the "Letters and Memorials." My +first hope was, that, in the absence of further definite +instructions from himself, I might interweave parts of +Mrs Carlyle's letters with his own correspondence in +an ordinary narrative, passing lightly over the rest, and +touching the dangerous places only so far as was +unavoidable. In this view I wrote at leisure the +greatest part of "the first forty years" of his life. The +evasion of the difficulty was perhaps cowardly, but it +was not unnatural. I was forced back, however, into +the straighter and better course.' The outcome of it +all is too well-known to call for recapitulation here.</p> + +<p>In February 1874, the Emperor of Germany conferred +upon Carlyle the Order of Merit which the +great Frederick had himself founded. He could not +refuse it, but he remarked, 'Were it ever so well meant, +it can be of no value to me whatever. Do thee neither +ill na gude.' Ten months later, Mr Disraeli, then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">{134}</a></span> +Premier, offered him the Grand Cross of the Bath +along with a pension. Carlyle gracefully declined +both.</p> + +<p>Upon his 80th birthday, Carlyle was presented with +a gold medal from Scottish friends and admirers, and +with a letter from Prince Bismarck, both of which he +valued highly. His last public act was to write a letter +of three or four lines to the <i>Times</i>, which he explains to +his brother in this fashion: 'After much urgency and +with a dead-lift effort, I have this day [5th May 1877] +got issued through the <i>Times</i> a small indispensable deliverance +on the Turk and Dizzy question. Dizzy, +it appears, to the horror of those who have any interest +in him and his proceedings, has decided to have a new +war for the Turk against all mankind; and this letter +hopes to drive a nail through his mad and maddest +speculations on that side.'</p> + +<p>Froude tells us that Carlyle continued to read the +Bible, 'the significance of which' he found 'deep and +wonderful almost as much as it ever used to be.' The +Bible and Shakespeare remained 'the best books' to +him that were ever written.</p> + +<p>The death of his brother John was a severe shock +to Carlyle, for they were deeply attached to each +other. When he bequeathed Craigenputtock to the +University of Edinburgh, John Carlyle settled a +handsome sum for medical bursaries there, to encourage +poor students. 'These two brothers,' Froude remarks,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">{135}</a></span> +'born in a peasant's home in Annandale, owing little +themselves to an Alma Mater which had missed +discovering their merits, were doing for Scotland's +chief University what Scotland's peers and merchants, +with their palaces and deer forests and social splendour, +had, for some cause, too imperfectly supplied.'</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1880, Carlyle became very infirm; +in January he was visibly sinking; and on the 5th of +February 1881, he passed away in his eighty-fifth year. +In accordance with his expressed wishes, they buried +him in the old kirkyard of Ecclefechan with his own +people.</p> + +<p>At his death Carlyle's fame was at its zenith. A +revulsion of feeling was caused by the publication of +Froude's <i>Life of Carlyle</i> and the <i>Reminiscences</i>. In +regard to the former, great dissatisfaction was created +by the somewhat unflattering portrait painted by +Froude. Was Froude justified in presenting to the +public Carlyle in all grim realism? The answer to +this depends upon one's notions of literary ethics. The +view of the average biographer is that he must suppress +faults and give prominence to virtues. The result is +that the majority of biographies are simply expanded +funeral sermons; instead of a life-like portrait we have +a glorified mummy. Boswell's <i>Johnson</i> stands at the +head of biographies; but, if Boswell had followed the conventional +method, his book would long since have passed +into obscurity. It is open to dispute whether Froude<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">{136}</a></span> +has not overdone the sombre elements in Carlyle's life. +Readers of Professor Masson's little book, which shows +Carlyle in a more genially human mood, have good +reason to suspect that Froude has given too much +emphasis to the Rembrandtesque element in Carlyle's +life. In the main, however, Froude's conception of +biography was more correct than that of his critics. +In dealing with the reputation of a great man it is not +enough to consider the feelings of contemporaries; +regard should be had to the rights of posterity. In +his usual forcible manner Johnson goes to the heart +of this question when he says in the <i>Rambler</i>:—'If +the biographer writes from personal knowledge, and +makes haste to gratify the public curiosity, there is +danger lest his interest, his fear, his gratitude, or his +tenderness overpower his fidelity, and tempt him to +conceal, if not to invent. There are many who think +it an act of piety to hide the faults or failings of their +friends, even when they can no longer suffer by their +detection; we therefore see whole ranks of characters +adorned with uniform panegyric and not to be known +from one another, but by extrinsic and casual circumstances. +If we have regard to the memory of the dead, +there is yet more respect to be paid to knowledge, to +virtue, and to truth.' When Johnson's own biography +came to be written, Boswell, in spite of the expostulation +of friends, resolved to be guided closely by the +literary ethics of his great hero. In reply to Hannah<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">{137}</a></span> +More who begged that he would mitigate some of the +asperities of Johnson, Boswell said, 'he would not +cut off his claws, nor make a tiger a cat, to please anybody.'</p> + +<p>Some critics have insinuated that Froude took a +curious kind of pleasure in smirching the idol. The +insinuation is as unworthy as it is false. Froude had +resolved to paint Carlyle as he was, warts and all, and +all that can be said is that in his anxiety to avoid the +charge of idealism he has given the warts undue +prominence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">{138}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">CARLYLE AS A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THINKER</span></h2> + + +<p>In his essay on Carlyle, Mr John Morley utters a protest +against the habit of labelling great men with names. +After making every allowance for the waywardness of +the men of intuitive and poetic insight, it remains true +that between the speculative and the practical sides of +a great thinker's mind there is a potent, though subtle, +connection. For those who take the trouble of searching, +there is discoverable such a connection between +the speculative ideas of Carlyle and his practical outlook +upon civilisation. Given a thinker who lays stress +upon the emotional side of progress, and we have a +thinker who will take for heroes men of mystical +tendencies, of strong dominating passions, a thinker +who will value progress not by the increase of worldly +comfort, but by the increase in the number of magnetic, +epoch-making personalities. Naturally, we hear Carlyle +remark that the history of the world is at bottom the +history of its great men.</p> + +<p>Carlyle's fanatical adoption of intuitionalism has told +banefully upon his work in sociology. Trusting to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">{139}</a></span> +inner light, to what we might call Mystical Quakerism, +Carlyle has dispensed with a rational theory of progress. +Before a sociological problem, his attitude is not that of +the patient thinker, but of the hysterical prophet, whose +emotions find outlet in declamatory denunciation. Like +the prophets of old, Carlyle tends towards Pessimism. +His golden age is in the past. When <i>Past and Present</i> +appeared, many earnest-minded men, captivated by the +style and spirit of the book, hailed Carlyle as a social +reformer. As an attempt to solve the social problem, +<i>Past and Present</i> is not a success. Carlyle could do +no more than tell the modern to return to the spirit of +the feudal period, when the people were led by the +aristocracy. It showed considerable audacity on +Carlyle's part to come to the interpretation of history +with no theory of progress, no message to the world +beyond the vaguely declamatory one that those nations +will be turned into hell which forget God. Of what +value is such writing as this, taken from the introduction +to his <i>Cromwell</i>?:—'Here of our own land and +lineage in English shape were heroes on the earth once +more, who knew in every fibre and with heroic daring +laid to heart that an Almighty Justice does verily rule +this world, that it is good to fight on God's side, and +bad to fight on the Devil's side! The essence of all +heroism and veracities that have been or will be.' This +is simply a reproduction of Jewish theocratic ideas; +indeed, except for the details, Carlyle might as readily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">{140}</a></span> +have written a life of Moses as of Cromwell. In +the eyes of Carlyle, human life was what it was to +Bunyan, a kind of pilgrim's progress; only in the +Carlylean creed it is all battle and no victory, all +Valley of Humiliation and no Delectable Mountain. +Naturally, where no stress is laid upon collective action, +where individual reason is depreciated, progress is +associated with the rise of abnormal individualities, +men of strong wills like Cromwell and Frederick. +With Rousseau, Carlyle appears to look upon civilisation +as a disease. In one of his essays, <i>Characteristics</i>, +he goes near the Roussean idea when he declaims +against self-consciousness, and deliberately gives a +preference to instinct. The uses of great men are +to lead humanity away from introspection back to +energetic, rude, instinctive action. When humanity +will not listen to the voice of the prophets, it must be +treated to whip and scorpion. It never dawned upon +Carlyle that the highest life, individual and collective, +has roots in physical laws, that politico-economic forces +must be reckoned with before social harmony can be +reached.</p> + +<p>Just as Carlyle's Idealism drove him into opposition +to the utilitarian theory of morals, so it drove him into +opposition to the utilitarian theory of society. Out of +his idealistic way of looking upon life there flowed a +curious result. As early as <i>Sartor Resartus</i> we find +Carlyle anticipating the evolutionary conception of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">{141}</a></span> +society. Spencer has familiarised us with the idea +that society is an organism. The idea which he +received from the Germans that Nature is not a mere +mechanical collection of atoms, but the materialised +expression of a spiritual unity—that idea Carlyle +extended to society. As he puts it in <i>Sartor Resartus</i>: +'Yes, truly, if Nature is one, and a living +indivisible whole, much more is Mankind, the Image +that reflects and creates Nature, without which Nature +were not.... Noteworthy also, and serviceable for +the progress of this same individual, wilt thou find his +subdivisions into Generations. Generations are as the +Days of toilsome Mankind; Death and Birth are the +vesper and the matin bells, that summon Mankind to +sleep, and to rise refreshed for new advancement. +What the Father has made, the Son can make and +enjoy; but has also work of his own appointed him. +Thus all things wax and roll onwards.... Find mankind +where thou wilt, thou findest it in living movement, +in progress faster or slower; the Phœnix soars +aloft, hovers with outstretched wings, filling Earth with +her music; or as now, she sinks, and with spheral +swan-song immolates herself in flame, that she may soar +the higher and sing the clearer.'</p> + +<p>Philosophies of civilisation have a tendency to beget +Fatalism. Bent upon watching the resistless play of +general laws, philosophers, in their admiration of the +products, are apt to ignore the frightful suffering and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">{142}</a></span> +waste involved in the process. Society being an +organism, a thing of development, the duty of thinkers +is to demonstrate the nature of sociological laws, and +allow them free scope for operation. To this is due +much of the apparent hardness of Eighteenth Century +political speculation, which, beginning with the French +Physiocratic School, culminated in the works of Adam +Smith, Ricardo, Bentham, and the two Mills. With +those thinkers, the one palpable lesson of the past +was the duty of abstaining from interference with the +general process of social development. Give man +liberty, said the Utilitarian Radicals, and he will +work out his own salvation: from the play of individual +self-interest, social harmony will result.</p> + +<p>Carlyle is frequently thought of as a Conservative +force in politics. In some respects he was more +Radical than the Benthams and the Mills. His +deeper ideal conception of society intensified his dissatisfaction +with society as it existed. In fact, to +Carlyle's attack upon those institutions, beliefs and +ceremonies which had no better basis than mere +unreasoning authority, most of the Radicalism of the +early 'forties' was due. Conceive what effect language +like this must have had upon thoughtful, high-souled +young men: 'Call ye that a Society, where +there is no longer any Social Idea extant; not so +much as the Idea of a common Home, but only of +a common overcrowded Lodging-house? Where each,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">{143}</a></span> +isolated, regardless of his neighbour, turned against his +neighbour, clutches what he can get, and cries "Mine!" +and calls it Peace because, in the cut-purse and cut-throat +Scramble, no steel knives, but only a far cunninger +sort, can be employed? Where Friendship, +Communion, has become an incredible tradition; and +your holiest Sacramental Supper is a smoking Tavern +Dinner, with Cook for Evangelist? Where your Priest +has no tongue but for plate-licking; and your high +Guides and Governors cannot guide; but on all hands +hear it passionately proclaimed: <i>Laissez faire</i>; leave +us alone of your guidance, such light is darker than +darkness; eat your wages and sleep. Thus, too, must +an observant eye discern everywhere that saddest spectacle: +the Poor perishing, like neglected, foundered +Draught-Cattle, of Hunger and Overwork; the Rich, +still more wretchedly, of Idleness, Satiety, and Overgrowth. +The Highest in rank, at length, without +honour from the Lowest; scarcely, with a little mouth-honour, +as from tavern-waiters who expect to put it in +the bill. Once sacred Symbols fluttering as empty +Pageants, whereof men grudge even the expense; a +World becoming dismantled: in one word, the +CHURCH fallen speechless, from obesity and apoplexy; +the STATE shrunken into a Police-Office, +straitened to get its pay!'</p> + +<p>It was when suggesting a remedy that Carlyle's +Idealistic Radicalism parted company with Utilitarian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">{144}</a></span> +Radicalism. Failing to see that society was +in a transition period, a period so well described by +Herbert Spencer as the movement from Militarism to +Industrialism, in which there was a severe conflict of +ideals, opinions, and interests, Carlyle sought for the +remedy in a return to a form of society which had +been outgrown. 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 conceptions. 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 despotism. Equally irrelevant +was the attempt in <i>Past and Present</i> to get reformers +to model modern institutions on those of the +Middle Ages. Carlyle's remedy for the evils of liberty +was a return to the apron-strings of despotism. Carlyle, +in fact, forgot his conception of society as a developing +organism; he endeavoured to arrest progress at the +autocratic stage, because of his ignorance of the laws +of progress and his lack of sympathy with democratic +ideas. Still, the value of Carlyle's political writings +should not be overlooked. The Utilitarian Radicals +laid themselves open to the charge of intellectual +superstition. They worshipped human nature as a +fetish. Lacking clear views of social evolution, they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">{145}</a></span> +overlooked the relativity of political terms. Ignorant +of the conception of human nature to which Spencer +has accustomed us, the old Radicals treated it as +a constant quantity which only needed liberty for its +proper development. In their eagerness to discard +theology, they discarded the truth of man's depravity +which finds expression in the creed of the Churches. +We have changed all that. We now realise the fact +that political institutions are good or bad, not as they +stand or fall when tested by the first principles of a +rationalistic philosophy, but as they harmonise or conflict +with existing phases of human nature.</p> + +<p>If in the sphere of industrialism Carlyle as a guide +is untrustworthy, great is his merit as an inspirer. His +influence was needed to counteract the cold prosaic +narrowness of the Utilitarian teaching. He called +attention to an aspect of the economic question which +the Utilitarian Radicals ignored, namely, the inadequacy +of self-interest as a social bond. To Carlyle is +largely due the higher ethical conceptions and quickened +sympathies which now exist in the spheres of +social and industrial relationships. Unhappily his implicit +faith in intuitionalism led him to deride political +economy and everything pertaining to man's material +life. Much there was in the writings of the economists +to call for severe criticism, and if Carlyle had treated +the subject with discrimination he would have been a +power for good; but he chose to pour the vials of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">{146}</a></span> +contempt upon political economy as a science, and +upon modern industrial arrangements, with the result +that many of the most intelligent students of sociology +have been repelled from his writings. In this respect +he contrasts very unfavourably with Mill, who, notwithstanding +the temptations to intellectual arrogance from +his one-sided training, with quite a chivalrous regard +for truth, was ever ready to accept light and leading +from thinkers who differed from him in temperament +and methods. There may be conflicting opinions +as to which of the two men was intellectually +the greater, 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 lived, moved, and had his being. +Between the saintly apostle of Progress and the +barbaric representative of Reaction there was a great +gulf fixed.</p> + +<p>As was natural, the <i>Latter-day Pamphlets</i> were +treated as a series of political ravings. For that +estimate Carlyle himself was largely responsible. He +deprived himself of the sympathy of intelligent readers +by the violence of his invective and the lack of discrimination +in his abuse. Much of what Carlyle said +is to be found in Mill's <i>Representative Government</i>, +said, too, in a quiet, rational style, which commands +attention and respect. Mill, no more than Carlyle, +was a believer in mob rule. He did not think that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">{147}</a></span> +the highest wisdom was to be had by the counting of +heads. Thinkers like Mill and Spencer did not deem +it necessary to pour contempt on modern tendencies. +They suggested remedies on the lines of these tendencies. +They did not try to put back the hands on the clock of +time; they sought to remove perturbing influences. +Much of the evil has arisen from men trying to do by +political methods what should not be done by these +methods. Carlyle's idea that Government should do +this, that, and the other thing has wrought mischief, inasmuch +as it has led to an undue belief in the virtues +of Government interference. His writings are largely +responsible for the evils he predicted.</p> + +<p>It is curious to notice how, with all his belief in +individualism, Carlyle, in political matters, was unconsciously +driven in the direction of socialism. Get +your great man, worship him, and render him obedience—such +was the Carlylean recipe for modern diseases. +Suppose the great man found, how is he to proceed? +In these democratic days, he can only proceed by +ruling despotically with the popular consent; in other +words, there will follow a regime of paternalism and +fraternalism, the practical outcome of which would be +Socialism. Carlyle himself never suspected how childish +was his conception of national life. He wrote of his +Great Man theory as if it was a discovery, whereas the +most advanced races had long since passed through it, +and those which were not advanced were precisely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">{148}</a></span> +those which had not been able to shake themselves +free of paternal despotism. On this point the criticism +of the late Professor Minto goes to the heart of the +matter: 'Carlyle's doctrines are the first suggestions of +an earnest man, adhered to with unreasoning tenacity. +As a rule, with no exception, that is worth naming, they +take account mainly of one side of a case. He was too +impatient of difficulties, and had too little respect for +the wisdom and experience of others to submit to be +corrected: opposition rather confirmed him in his own +opinion. Most of his practical suggestions had already +been made before, and judged impracticable upon +grounds which he could not, or would not, understand. +His modes of dealing with pauperism and crime were +in full operation under the despotism of Henry VII. +and Henry VIII. His theory of a hero-king, which +means in practice an accidentally good and able man +in a series of indifferent or bad despots, had been more +frequently tried than any other political system; Asia +at this moment contains no government that is not +despotic. His views in other departments of knowledge +are also chiefly determined by the strength of his unreasoning +impulses.'</p> + +<p>In his interesting <i>Recollections</i> Mr Espinasse states +that during the time that Carlyle was writing on the +labour question, not a single blue-book was visible on +his table! To Carlyle's influence must be traced +much of the sentimental treatment of social and industrial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">{149}</a></span> +questions which has followed the unpopularity +of political economy. It is only fair to Carlyle to note, +that at times he had qualms as to the superiority of his +paternal theory of government over Laissez Faire. 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 nature. In the social sphere Carlyle was false to his +doctrine of spontaneity. In his early essays he was +perpetually condemning mechanical interference with +society, and contending that free play should be given to +the dynamic agencies. Untrue to himself and his creed, +Carlyle in his later books was constantly denouncing +Government for neglecting to apply mechanical +remedies for social diseases. In his view, the duty of +a ruler was not to work in harmony with social impulses, +but to cut and carve institutions in harmony +with the ideas of great men. Puritanism under Cromwell +failed because it was forgotten that society is an +organism, not a piece of clay, to be moulded according +to the notions of heroic potters. Strictly speaking, +<i>Frederick</i> and <i>Cromwell</i> should be classed with the +<i>Latter Day Pamphlets</i>. In the <i>Pamphlets</i> Carlyle declaims +against democratic methods, and in <i>Frederick</i> +and <i>Cromwell</i> we are presented with incarnations of +autocratic methods.</p> + +<p>Of all the critics of Carlyle, no one has surpassed +Mr Morley in indicating the mischievous effects which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">{150}</a></span> +flow from the elevation of mere will power and +emotional force into guides in social and political +questions. As Mr Morley says: 'The dictates of a +kind heart are of superior force to the maxims of +political economy; swift and peremptory resolution is +a safer guide than a balancing judgment. If the will +works easily and surely, we may assume the rectitude +of the moving impulse. All this is no caricature of a +system which sets sentiment, sometimes hard sentiment, +above reason and method. In other words, the +writer who in these days has done more than anybody +else to fire men's hearts with a feeling for right, and an +eager desire for social activity, has, with deliberate +contempt, thrust away from him the only instruments +by which we can make sure what right is, +and that our social action is effective. A born poet, +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 +singers, he has been driven by the impetuosity of +his sympathies to attack the scientific side of social +questions in an imaginative and highly emotional +manner.'</p> + +<p>Had Carlyle confined himself to description of +social, industrial, and political diseases, he would have +had an unsullied reputation in the sphere of spiritual +dynamics, but flaws immediately appeared when he +endeavoured to prescribe remedies. Many of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">{151}</a></span> +remedies were too vague to be of use; where they +were specific, they were so Quixotic as to be useless. +His proposals for dealing with labour and pauperism +never imposed on any sensible man on this side of +cloud-land.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">{152}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">CARLYLE AS AN INSPIRATIONAL FORCE</span></h2> + + +<p>It is the misfortune of the critic, the historian, and +the sociologist to be superseded. In the march of +events the specialist is fated to be left behind. The +influence of the inspirationalist is ever-enduring. As +the present writer has elsewhere said:—Carlyle has +been called a prophet. The word in these days +has only a vague meaning. Probably Carlyle earned +the name in consequence of the oracular and +denunciatory elements in his later writings. Then, +again, the word prophet has come to be associated +with the thought of a foreteller of future events. +A prophet in the true sense of the word is not one +who foretells the future, but one who revives and keeps +alive in the minds of his contemporaries a vivid sense +of the great elemental facts of life. Why is it that the +Bible attracts to its pages men of all kinds of temperament +and all degrees of culture? Because in it, +especially in the Psalms, Job, and the writings of +Isaiah and his brother prophets, serious people are +brought face to face with the great mysteries, God,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">{153}</a></span> +Nature, Man, Death, etc.—mysteries, however, which +only rush in upon the soul of man in full force on +special occasions, in hours of lonely meditation, or by +the side of an open grave. In the hurly-burly of life +the sense of what Carlyle calls the Immensities, +Eternities, and Silences, become so weak that even +good men have sorrowfully to admit that they live +lives of practical materialism. As Arnold puts it:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Each day brings its petty dust<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our soon-choked souls to fill,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we forget because we must,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And not because we will."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The mission of the Hebrew prophet was by passionate +utterance to keep alive in the minds of his countrymen +a deep, abiding sense of life's mystery, sacredness, and +solemnity. What Isaiah did for his day, Carlyle did +for the moderns. In the whole range of modern +literature, it is impossible to match Carlyle's magnificent +passages in <i>Sartor Resartus</i>, in which, under +a biographical guise, he deals with the great primal +emotions, wonder, awe, admiration, love, which form +the warp and woof of human life.</p> + +<p>Nothing can be finer than the following rebuke to +those mechanical scientists who imagine that Nature +can be measured by tape-lines, and duly labelled in +museums:—</p> + +<p>'System of Nature! To the wisest man, wide as is +his vision, Nature remains of quite <i>infinite</i> depth, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">{154}</a></span> +quite infinite expansion; and all Experience thereof +limits itself to some few computed centuries and +measured square-miles. The course of Nature's phases, +on this our little fraction of a Planet, is partially +known to us; but who knows what deeper courses +these depend on; what infinitely larger Cycle (of +causes) our little Epicycle revolves on? To the +Minnow every cranny and pebble, and quality and +accident, of its little native Creek may have become +familiar: but does the Minnow understand the Ocean +Tides and periodic Currents, the Trade-winds, and +Monsoons, and Moon's eclipses; by all which the +condition of its little Creek is regulated, and may, +from time (<i>un</i>miraculously enough), be quite overset +and reversed? Such a minnow is Man; his Creek +this Planet Earth; his Ocean the immeasurable All; +his Monsoons and periodic Currents the mysterious +Course of Providence through Æons of Æons. We +speak of the Volume of Nature: and truly a Volume +it is,—whose Author and Writer is God.'</p> + +<p>Agree or disagree with Carlyle's views of the Ultimate +Reality as we may, there can be nothing but harmony +with the spirit which breathes in the following:—</p> + +<p>'Nature? Ha! Why do I not name thee God? Art +not thou the "Living Garment of God"? O Heavens, +is it in very deed, He, then, that ever speaks through +thee; that lives and loves in thee, that lives and loves +in me?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">{155}</a></span></p> + +<p>'Fore-shadows, call them rather fore-splendours, of +that Truth, and Beginning of Truths, fell mysteriously +over my soul. Sweeter than Dayspring to the Shipwrecked +in Nova Zembla; ah! like the mother's voice +to her little child that strays bewildered, weeping in +unknown tumults; like soft streamings of celestial +music to my too-exasperated heart, came that Evangel. +The Universe is not dead and demoniacal, a +charnel-house with spectres; but godlike, and my +Father's!'</p> + +<p>The mystery and fleetingness of life with its awful +counterpart death, are the commonplaces of every hour, +but who but Carlyle has rendered them with such +inspirational power?</p> + +<p>'Generation after generation takes to itself the form +of a Body; and forth-issuing from Cimmerian Night, +on Heaven's mission <span class="smcap lowercase">APPEARS</span>. What Force and Fire +is in each he expends: one grinding in the mill of +Industry; one hunter-like climbing the giddy Alpine +heights of Science; one madly dashed to pieces on the +rocks of Strife, in war with his fellow:—and then +the Heaven-sent is recalled; his earthly Vesture falls +away, and soon even to sense becomes a vanished +Shadow. Thus, like some wild-flaming, wild-thundering +train of Heaven's Artillery, does this mysterious +<span class="smcap">Mankind</span> thunder and flame, in long-drawn, quick-succeeding +grandeur, through the unknown Deep. +Thus, like a God-created, fire-breathing Spirit-host, we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">{156}</a></span> +emerge from the Inane; haste stormfully across the +astonished Earth; then plunge again into the Inane. +Earth's mountains are levelled, and her seas filled up, +in our passage; can the Earth, which is but dead and +a vision, resist Spirits which have reality and are alive? +On the hardest adamant some footprint of us is +stamped in; the last Rear of the host will read traces +of the earliest Van. But whence?—O Heaven, +whither? Sense knows not; Faith knows not; only +that it is through Mystery to Mystery, from God and +to God.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">'We <i>are such stuff</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0">As Dreams are made of, and our little Life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is rounded with a sleep?'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A fervid perception of the evanescence and sorrows +of life is the root of Carlyle's pathos, which is unsurpassed +in literature. It leads him to some beautiful +contrasts between childhood and manhood, positively +idyllic in their charm.</p> + +<p>'Happy season of Childhood!' exclaims Teufelsdröckh: +'Kind Nature, that art to all a bountiful +mother; that visitest the poor man's hut with auroral +radiance; and for thy Nurseling hast provided a soft +swathing of Love and infinite Hope, wherein he waxes +and slumbers, danced-round (<i>umgäukelt</i>) by sweetest +Dreams! If the paternal Cottage still shuts us in, its +roof still screens us; with a Father we have as yet +a prophet, priest and king, and an Obedience that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">{157}</a></span> +makes us Free. The young spirit has awakened out +of Eternity, and knows not what we mean by Time; +as yet Time is no fast-hurrying stream, but a sportful +sunlit ocean; years to the child are as ages; ah! the +secret of Vicissitude, of that slower or quicker decay +and ceaseless down-rushing of the universal World-fabric, +from the granite mountain to the man or +day-moth, is yet unknown; and in a motionless +Universe, we taste, what afterwards in this quick-whirling +Universe is forever denied us, the balm of +Rest. Sleep on, thou fair Child, for thy long rough +journey is at hand! A little while, and thou too shalt +sleep no more, but thy very dreams shall be mimic +battles; thou too, with old Arnauld, must say in stern +patience: "Rest? Rest? Shall I not have all +Eternity to rest in?" Celestial Nepenthe! though a +Pyrrhus conquer empires, and an Alexander sack the +world, he finds thee not; and thou hast once fallen +gently, of thy own accord, on the eyelids, on the heart +of every mother's child. For, as yet, sleep and waking +are one: the fair Life-garden rustles infinite around, +and everywhere is dewy fragrance, and the budding of +Hope; which budding, if in youth, too frostnipt, it +grow to flowers, will in manhood yield no fruit, but a +prickly, bitter-rinded stone fruit, of which the fewest +can find the kernel.'</p> + +<p>Carlyle's pathos touches its most sombre mood when +he is dwelling upon the common incidents of daily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">{158}</a></span> +life as painted on the background of Eternity. In his +'<i>Cromwell</i>,' he breaks forth in a beautiful meditation +while dealing with a commonplace reference in one of +the letters of Cromwell:—'Mrs St John came down to +breakfast every morning in that summer visit of the +year 1638, and Sir William said grave grace, and they +spake polite devout things to one another, and they +are vanished, they and their things and speeches,—all +silent like the echoes of the old nightingales that sang +that season, like the blossoms of the old roses. O +Death! O Time!'</p> + +<p>Severe comment has been made upon Carlyle's +attitude towards science. There was this excuse for +his contemptuous attitude—science in its early days +fell into the hands of Dryasdusts. So absorbed were +these men in analysing Nature, that they missed the +sense of mystery and beauty which is the essence of +all poetry and all religion. In the hands of the Dryasdusts, +Nature was converted into a museum in which +everything was duly labelled. During the mania for +analysis, it was forgotten that there is a great difference +between the description and the explanation of phenomena. +In <i>Sartor Resartus</i> Carlyle rescues science +from the grip of the pedant and restores it to the +poet. 'Wonder, is the basis of Worship; the reign of +wonder is perennial, indestructible in Man; only at +certain stages (as the present), it is, for some short +season, a reign <i>in partibus infidelium</i>.' That progress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">{159}</a></span> +of Science, which is to destroy Wonder, and in its +stead substitute Mensuration and Numeration, finds +small favour with Teufelsdröckh, much as he otherwise +venerates these two latter processes.</p> + +<p>'Shall your Science,' exclaims he, 'proceed in the +small chink-lighted, or even oil-lighted, underground +workshop of Logic alone; and man's mind become an +Arithmetical Mill, whereof Memory is the Hopper, +and mere Tables of Sines and Tangents, Codification, +and Treatises of what you call Political Economy, are +the Meal? And what is that Science, which the +scientific head alone, were it screwed off, and (like the +Doctor's in the Arabian Tale) set in a basin to keep it +alive, could prosecute without shadow of a heart,—but +one other of the mechanical and menial handicrafts, +for which the Scientific Head (having a Soul in it) +is too noble an organ? I mean that Thought without +Reverence is barren, perhaps poisonous; at best, dies +like Cookery with the day that called it forth; does not +live, like sowing, in successive tilths and wider-spreading +harvests, bringing food and plenteous increase to +all Time.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>'The man who cannot wonder, who does not habitually +wonder (and worship), were he President of innumerable +Royal Societies, and carried the whole +<i>Mécanique Céleste</i> and <i>Hegel's Philosophy</i>, and the +epitome of all Laboratories and Observatories with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">{160}</a></span> +their results, in his single head,—is but a pair of +Spectacles behind which there is no Eye. Let those +who have Eyes look through him, then he may be +useful.'</p> + +<p>In the sphere of ethics, Carlyle's influence has been +inspirational in the highest sense. To a generation +which had to choose between the ethics of a conventional +theology and the ethics of a cold, prosaic utilitarianism, +Carlyle's treatment of the whole subject of duty +came as a revelation. If in the sphere of social relationships +he did not contribute to the settlement of the +theoretic side of complex problems, he did what was +equally important—he roused earnest minds to a +sense of the urgency and magnitude of the problem, +awakened the feeling of individual responsibility, and +quickened the sense of social duty which had grown +weak during the reign of <i>laissez faire</i>. If Carlyle had +no final message for mankind, if he brought no gospel +of glad tidings, he nevertheless did a work which was +as important as it was pressing. In the form of a +modern John the Baptist, the Chelsea Prophet with +not a little of the wilderness atmosphere about him, +preached in grimly defiant mood to a pleasure-loving +generation the great doctrines which lie at the +root of all religions—the doctrines of Repentance, +Righteousness, and Retribution.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. i. p. 141.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. i. p. 142.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. p. 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. pp. 18, 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Now 2 Spey Street.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Masson's 'Edinburgh Sketches and Memories,' pp. 329-30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. p. 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. p. 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. pp. 40, 41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. pp. 161, 162.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. p. 47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. p. 162.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. i. p. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. i. p. 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, vol. ii. pp. 178-79.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Froude's "Life in London," vol. i. pp. 161-62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 420.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. pp. 433-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 441.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Ibid., vol. i. p. 451.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 456.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Ibid., vol. ii. p. 36.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. pp. 142-45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. pp. 156-7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 245.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 295.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Masson's 'Carlyle Personally and in his Writings,' pp. 27-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Alexander Smith's 'Sketches and Criticisms,' pp. 101-8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 312.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 314.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Larkin's 'Carlyle and the Open Secret of his Life,' pp. 334-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> 'Life of Jane Welsh Carlyle,' pp. 191-2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> After reading the above estimate in the proof sheets, Professor +Masson writes to me as follows:— +</p> +<div class="blockquot"><p>'May I hint that, in the passage about his character and +domestic relations, you seem hardly to do justice to the depths of +real kindness and tenderness in him, and the actual <i>couthiness</i> of +his manner and fireside conversation in his most genial hours? +He was delightful and loveable at such hours, with a fund of the +raciest Scottish humour.'</p></div> +<p> +This is a side of Carlyle's nature which would naturally be hidden +from the general reader, and from Mr Froude. It is easy to +imagine how Carlyle's genial humour, frozen at its source in the +company of the solemnly pessimistic Froude, should be thawed +by the presence of 'a brither Scot.'</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 346.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. pp. 408-9.</p></div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS CARLYLE***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 32626-h.txt or 32626-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/6/2/32626">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/6/2/32626</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Thomas Carlyle + Famous Scots Series + + +Author: Hector Carsewell Macpherson + + + +Release Date: May 31, 2010 [eBook #32626] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS CARLYLE*** + + +E-text prepared by Susan Skinner and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THOMAS CARLYLE + + * * * * * + +FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES + + +_The following Volumes are now ready_:-- + +THOMAS CARLYLE. By Hector C. Macpherson. +ALLAN RAMSAY. By Oliphant Smeaton. +HUGH MILLER. By W. Keith Leask. +JOHN KNOX. By A. Taylor Innes. +ROBERT BURNS. By Gabriel Setoun. +THE BALLADISTS. By John Geddie. +RICHARD CAMERON. By Professor Herkless. +SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. By Eve Blantyre Simpson. +THOMAS CHALMERS. By Professor W. Garden Blaikie. +JAMES BOSWELL. By W. Keith Leask. +TOBIAS SMOLLETT. By Oliphant Smeaton. +FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. By G. W. T. Omond. +THE BLACKWOOD GROUP. By Sir George Douglas. +NORMAN MACLEOD. By John Wellwood. +SIR WALTER SCOTT. By Professor Saintsbury. +KIRKCALDY OF GRANGE. By Louis A. Barbe. +ROBERT FERGUSSON. By A. B. Grosart. +JAMES THOMSON. By William Bayne. +MUNGO PARK. By T. Banks Maclachlan. +DAVID HUME. By Professor Calderwood. + + * * * * * + + +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 Brown, and the +printing from the press of Messrs Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh. + +Second Edition completing Seventh Thousand. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION + + +Of the writing of books on Carlyle there is no end. Why, then, it may +pertinently be asked, add another stone to the Carlylean cairn? The +reply is obvious. In a series dealing with famous Scotsmen, Carlyle has +a rightful claim to a niche in the temple of Fame. While prominence has +been given in the book to the Scottish side of Carlyle's life, the fact +has not been lost sight of that Carlyle owed much to Germany; indeed, if +we could imagine the spirit of a German philosopher inhabiting the body +of a Covenanter of dyspeptic and sceptical tendencies, a good idea would +be had of Thomas Carlyle. Needless to say, I have been largely indebted +to the biography by Mr Froude, and to Carlyle's _Reminiscences_. After +all has been said, the fact remains that Froude's portrait, though +truthful in the main, is somewhat deficient in light and +shade--qualities which the student will find admirably supplied in +Professor Masson's charming little book, "Carlyle Personally, and in his +Writings." To the Professor I am under deep obligation for the interest +he has shown in the book. In the course of his perusal of the proofs, +Professor Masson made valuable corrections and suggestions, which +deserve more than a formal acknowledgment. To Mr Haldane, M.P., my +thanks are also due for his suggestive criticism of the chapter on +German thought, upon which he is an acknowledged authority. + +I have also to express my deep obligations to Mr John Morley, who, in +the midst of pressing engagements, kindly found time to read the proof +sheets. In a private note Mr Morley has been good enough to express his +general sympathy and concurrence with my estimate of Carlyle. + +_EDINBURGH, October 1897._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE +CHAPTER I + +EARLY LIFE 9 + + +CHAPTER II + +CRAIGENPUTTOCK--LITERARY EFFORTS 29 + + +CHAPTER III + +CARLYLE'S MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 42 + + +CHAPTER IV + +LIFE IN LONDON 65 + + +CHAPTER V + +HOLIDAY JOURNEYINGS--LITERARY WORK 79 + + +CHAPTER VI + +RECTORIAL ADDRESS--DEATH OF MRS CARLYLE 112 + + +CHAPTER VII + +LAST YEARS AND DEATH OF CARLYLE 129 + + +CHAPTER VIII + +CARLYLE AS A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THINKER 138 + + +CHAPTER IX + +CARLYLE AS AN INSPIRATIONAL FORCE 152 + + + + + +THOMAS CARLYLE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +EARLY LIFE + + +'A great man,' says Hegel, 'condemns the world to the task of explaining +him.' Emphatically does the remark apply to Thomas Carlyle. When he +began to leave his impress in literature, he was treated as a confusing +and inexplicable element. Opinion oscillated between the view of James +Mill, that Carlyle was an insane rhapsodist, and that of Jeffrey, that +he was afflicted with a chronic craze for singularity. Jeffrey's verdict +sums up pretty effectively the attitude of the critics of the time to +the new writer:--'I suppose that you will treat me as something worse +than an ass, when I say that I am firmly persuaded the great source of +your extravagance, and all that makes your writings intolerable to many +and ridiculous to not a few, is not so much any real peculiarity of +opinion, as an unlucky ambition to appear more original than you are.' +The blunder made by Jeffrey in regard both to Carlyle and Wordsworth +emphasises the truth which critics seem reluctant to bear in mind, that, +before the great man can be explained, he must be appreciated. +Emphatically true of Carlyle it is that he creates the standard by which +he is judged. Carlyle resembles those products of the natural world +which biologists call 'sports'--products which, springing up in a +spontaneous and apparently erratic way, for a time defy classification. +The time is appropriate for an attempt to classify the great thinker, +whose birth took place one hundred years ago. + +Towards the close of the last century a stone-mason, named James +Carlyle, started business on his own account in the village of +Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire. He was an excellent tradesman, and frugal +withal; and in the year 1791 he married a distant kinswoman of his own, +Janet Carlyle, who died after giving birth to a son. In the beginning of +1795 he married one Margaret Aitken, a worthy, intelligent woman; and on +the 4th of December following a son was born, whom they called Thomas, +after his paternal grandfather. This child was destined to be the most +original writer of his time. + +Little Thomas was early taught to read by his mother, and at the age of +five he learnt to 'count' from his father. He was then sent to the +village school; and in his seventh year he was reported to be 'complete' +in English. As the schoolmaster was weak in the classics, Tom was +taught the rudiments of Latin by the burgher minister, of which strict +sect James Carlyle was a zealous member. One summer morning, in 1806, +his father took him to Annan Academy. 'It was a bright morning,' he +wrote long years thereafter, 'and to me full of moment, of fluttering +boundless Hopes, saddened by parting with Mother, with Home, and which +afterwards were cruelly disappointed.' At that 'doleful and hateful +Academy,' to use his own words, Thomas Carlyle spent three years, +learning to read French and Latin, and the Greek alphabet, as well as +acquiring a smattering of geometry and algebra. + +It was in the Academy that he got his first glimpse of Edward +Irving--probably in April or May 1808--who had called to pay his +respects to his old teacher, Mr Hope. Thomas's impression of him was +that of a 'flourishing slip of a youth, with coal-black hair, swarthy +clear complexion, very straight on his feet, and except for the glaring +squint alone, decidedly handsome.' Years passed before young Carlyle saw +Irving's face again. + +James Carlyle, although an austere man, and the reverse of +demonstrative, was bound up in his son, sparing no expense upon the +youth's education. On one occasion he exclaimed, with an unwonted +outburst of glee, 'Tom, I do not grudge thy schooling, now when thy +Uncle Frank owns thee to be a better Arithmetician than himself.' Early +recognising the natural talent and aptitude of his son, he determined +to send him to the nearest university, with a view to Thomas studying +for the ministry. One crisp winter's morning, in 1809, found Thomas +Carlyle on his way to Edinburgh, trudging the entire distance--one +hundred miles or so. + +He went through the usual university course, attended the divinity +classes, and delivered the customary discourses in English and Latin. +But Tom was not destined to 'wag his head in a pulpit,' for he had +conscientious objections which parental control in no way interfered +with. Referring to this vital period of his life, Carlyle wrote: 'His +[father's] tolerance for me, his trust in me, was great. When I declined +going forward into the Church (though his heart was set upon it), he +respected my scruples, my volition, and patiently let me have my way.' +Carlyle never looked back to his university life with satisfaction. In +his interesting recollections Mr Moncure Conway represents Carlyle, +describing his experiences as follows:--'Very little help did I get from +anybody in those years, and, as I may say, no sympathy at all in all +this old town. And if there was any difference, it was found least where +I might most have hoped for it. There was Professor ----. For years I +attended his lectures, in all weathers and all hours. Many and many a +time, when the class was called together, it was found to consist of one +individual--to wit, of him now speaking; and still oftener, when others +were present, the only person who had at all looked into the lesson +assigned was the same humble individual. I remember no instance in which +these facts elicited any note or comment from that instructor. He once +requested me to translate a mathematical paper, and I worked through it +the whole of one Sunday, and it was laid before him, and it was received +without remark or thanks. After such long years, I came to part with +him, and to get my certificate. Without a word, he wrote on a bit of +paper: "I certify that Mr Thomas Carlyle has been in my class during his +college course, and has made good progress in his studies." Then he rang +a bell, and ordered a servant to open the front door for me. Not the +slightest sign that I was a person whom he could have distinguished in +any crowd. And so I parted from old ----.' + +Professor Masson, who in loving, painstaking style has ferreted all the +facts about Carlyle's university life, sums up in these words: 'Without +assuming that he meant the university described in _Sartor Resartus_ to +stand literally for Edinburgh University, of his own experience, 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 University, was the culture of his mathematical faculty under +Leslie, 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 atmosphere, and where he learned to take advantage +of books.' As Carlyle put it in his Rectorial Address of 1866, 'What I +have found the university did for me is that it taught me to read in +various languages, in various sciences, so that I go into the books +which treated of these things, and gradually penetrate into any +department I wanted to make myself master of, as I found it suit me.' + +In 1814, Carlyle obtained the mathematical tutorship at Annan. Out of +his slender salary of L60 or L70 he was able to save something, so that +he was practically independent. By and by James Carlyle gave up his +trade, and settled on a small farm at Mainhill, about two miles from +Ecclefechan. Thither Thomas hied with unfeigned delight at holiday time, +for he led the life of a recluse at Annan, his books being his sole +companions. + +Edward Irving, to whom Carlyle was introduced in college days, was now +settled as a dominie in Kirkcaldy. His teaching was not favourably +viewed by some of the parents, who started a rival school, and resolved +to import a second master, with the result that Carlyle was selected. +Irving, with great magnanimity, gave him a cordial welcome to the 'Lang +Toon,' and the two Annandale natives became fast friends. The elder +placed his well-selected library at the disposal of the younger, and +together they explored the whole countryside. Short visits to Edinburgh +had a special attraction for both, where they met with a few kindred +spirits. On one of those visits, Carlyle, who had not cut off his +connection with the university, called at the Divinity Hall to put down +his name formally on the annual register. In his own words: 'Old Dr +Ritchie "not at home" when I called to enter myself. "Good!" answered I; +"_let the omen be fulfilled_."' Carlyle's studies in Kirkcaldy made him +eager to contribute to the fulfilment of the omen. Among the authors +which he read out of the Edinburgh University library was Gibbon, who +pushed Carlyle's sceptical questionings to a definite point. In a +conversation with Professor Masson, 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 miracles. + +In the space of two years, Carlyle and Irving 'got tired of +schoolmastering and its mean contradictions and poor results.' They bade +Kirkcaldy farewell and made for Edinburgh,--Irving to lodge in Bristo +Street, 'more expensive rooms than mine,' naively remarks Carlyle, where +he gave breakfasts to 'Intellectualities he fell in with, I often a +guest with them. They were but stupid Intellectualities, etc.' As for +their prospects, this is what Carlyle says: 'Irving's outlooks in +Edinburgh were not of the best, considerably checkered with dubiety, +opposition, or even flat disfavour in some quarters; but at least they +were far superior to mine, and indeed, I was beginning my four or five +most miserable, dark, sick, and heavy-laden years; Irving, after some +staggerings aback, his seven or eight healthiest and brightest. He had, +I should guess, as one item several good hundreds of money to wait upon. +My _peculium_ I don't recollect, but it could not have exceeded L100. I +was without friends, experience, or connection in the sphere of human +business, was of shy humour, proud enough and to spare, and had begun my +long curriculum of _dyspepsia_ which has never ended since!'[1] +Carlyle's intention was to study for the Bar, if perchance he could eke +out a livelihood by private teaching. He obtained one or two pupils, +wrote a stray article or so for the 'Encyclopaedias'; but as he barely +managed to pay his way, he speedily gave up his law studies. He was at +this time--the winter of 1819--'advancing,' as he phrases it, 'towards +huge instalments of bodily and spiritual wretchedness in this my +Edinburgh purgatory.' It was about a couple of years thereafter ere +Carlyle went through what he has described as his 'spiritual new birth.' + +When Carlyle was in diligent search for congenial employment, a certain +Captain Basil Hall crossed his path, to whom Edward Irving had given +lessons in mathematics. The 'small lion,' as he calls the captain, came +to Carlyle, and wished the latter to go out with him 'to Dunglas,' and +there do 'lunars' in his name, he looking on and learning of Carlyle +'what would come of its own will.' The said 'lunars' meanwhile were to +go to the Admiralty, 'testifying there what a careful studious Captain +he was, and help to get him promotion, so the little wretch smilingly +told me.' Carlyle adds: 'I remember the figure of him in my dim lodging +as a gay, crackling, sniggering spectre, one dusk, endeavouring to +seduce me by affability in lieu of liberal wages into this adventure. +Wages, I think, were to be smallish ("so poor are we"), but then the +great Playfair is coming on visit. "You will see Professor Playfair." I +had not the least notion of such an enterprise on these shining terms, +and Captain Basil with his great Playfair _in posse_ vanished for me +into the shades of dusk for good.'[2] When private teaching would not +come Carlyle's way, he timorously aimed towards 'literature.' He had +taken to the study of German, and conscious of his own powers in that +direction, he applied in vain to more than one London bookseller, +proposing a complete translation of Schiller. Irving not only did his +utmost to comfort Carlyle in his spiritual wrestlings, but he tried to +find him employment. The two friends continued to make pleasant +excursions, and in June 1821 Irving brought Carlyle to Haddington, an +event which was destined to colour all his subsequent life; for it was +then and there he first saw Jane Welsh, a sight, he acknowledged, for +ever memorable to him. + +'In the ancient County Town of Haddington, July 14, 1801, there was +born,' wrote Thomas Carlyle in 1869, 'to a lately wedded pair, not +natives of the place but already reckoned among the best class of people +there, a little Daughter whom they named _Jane Baillie Welsh_, and whose +subsequent and final name (her own common signature for many years) was +_Jane Welsh Carlyle_, and now so stands, now that she is mine in death +only, on her and her Father's Tombstone in the Abbey Kirk of that Town. +July 14th, 1801; I was then in my sixth year, far away in every sense, +now near and infinitely concerned, trying doubtfully after some three +years' sad cunctation, if there is anything that I can profitably put on +record of her altogether bright, beneficent and modest little Life, and +Her, as my final task in this world.'[3] The picture was never completed +by the master-hand; the 'effort was too distressing'; so all his notes +and letters were handed over to a literary executor. + +At the time of Carlyle's introduction to Miss Welsh, she was living with +her widowed mother. Her father, Dr John Welsh, came of a good family, +and was a popular country physician. Her mother was Grace Welsh of +Capelgill, and was reckoned a beautiful, but haughty woman. Their +marriage took place in 1800, and their only child, Jane, was born, as we +have seen, the year following. Her most intimate friend, Miss Geraldine +Jewsbury, tells us that Miss Welsh had 'a graceful and beautifully-formed +figure, upright and supple, a delicate complexion of creamy white, with +a pale rose tint in the cheeks, lovely eyes full of fire and softness, +and with great depths of meaning.' She had a musical voice, was a good +talker, extremely witty, 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 marriage. Be that as it +may, it _is_ certain that Miss Jane Welsh had troops of suitors in and +around the quiet country town. She always spoke of her mother with deep +affection and great admiration. Her father she reverenced, and he was +the only person during her girlhood who had any real influence over her. +This, then, was the young lady of whom Thomas Carlyle carried back to +Edinburgh a sweet and lasting impression. They corresponded at +intervals, and Thomas was permitted to send her books occasionally. + +Edward Irving used to live in Dr Welsh's house when he taught in the +local school, and he led Jeannie--a winsome, wilful lass--to take an +interest in the classics. She entertained a girlish passion for the +handsome youth, and there can be little doubt that they would have +ultimately been married, were it not that the eldest daughter of a +Kirkcaldy parson, Miss Martin, had 'managed to charm Irving for the time +being,' and an engagement followed. + +Before Carlyle had drifted into Edinburgh he had, of course, heard of +the fame of Francis Jeffrey. He heard him once speaking in the General +Assembly 'on some poor cause.' Jeffrey's pleading seemed to Carlyle +'abundantly clear, full of liveliness, free flowing ingenuity.' 'My +admiration,' he adds, 'went frankly with that of others, but I think it +was hardly of very deep character.' When Carlyle was in the 'slough of +despond,' he bethought him of Jeffrey, this time as editor of the +_Edinburgh Review_. He resolved to try the 'great man' with an actual +contribution. The subject was a condemnation of a new French book, in +which a mechanical theory of gravitation was elaborately worked out by +the author. He got 'a certain feeble but enquiring quasi-disciple' of +his own to act as amanuensis, from whom he kept his ulterior purpose +quite secret. Looking back through the dim vista of seven-and-forty +years, this is what Carlyle says of that anxious time: 'Well do I +remember those dreary evenings in Bristo Street; oh, what ghastly +passages and dismal successive spasms of attempt at "literary +enterprise"!... My "Review of Pictet" all fairly written out in George +Dalgliesh's good clerk hand, I penned some brief polite Note to the +great Editor, and walked off with the small Parcel one night to his +address in George Street. I very well remember leaving it with his valet +there, and disappearing in the night with various thoughts and doubts! +My hopes had never risen high, or in fact risen at all; but for a +fortnight or so they did not quite die out, and then it was in absolute +zero; no answer, no return of MS., absolutely no notice taken, which was +a form of catastrophe more complete than even I had anticipated! There +rose in my head a pungent little Note which might be written to the +great man, with neatly cutting considerations offered him from the small +unknown ditto; but I wisely judged it was still more dignified to let +the matter lie as it was, and take what I had got for my own benefit +only. Nor did I ever mention it to almost anybody, least of all to +Jeffrey in subsequent changed times, when at anyrate it was fallen +extinct.'[4] + +Carlyle's star was, however, in the ascendant, for in 1822 he became +tutor to the two sons of a wealthy lady, Mrs Charles Buller, at a salary +of L200 a year. It was through Irving that this appointment came. The +young lads boarded with 'a good old Dr Fleming' in George Square, +whither Carlyle went daily from his lodgings at[5]3 Moray Street, +Pilrig Street. The Bullers finally returned to London, Carlyle staying +at his father's little homestead of Mainhill to finish a translation of +'Wilhelm Meister.' He followed the Bullers to London, where he resigned +the tutorship in the hope of getting some literary work. + +Irving introduced him to the proprietor of the _London Magazine_, who +offered Carlyle sixteen guineas a sheet for a series of 'Portraits of +Men of Genius and Character.' The first was to be a life of Schiller, +which appeared in that periodical in 1823-4. Mr Boyd, the Edinburgh +publisher, accepted the translation of 'Wilhelm Meister.' 'Two years +before,' wrote Carlyle in his _Reminiscences_, 'I had at length, after +some repulsions, got into the heart of "Wilhelm Meister," and eagerly +read it through; my sally out, after finishing, along the vacant streets +of Edinburgh, (a windless, Scotch-misty Saturday night), is still vivid +to me. "Grand, surely, harmoniously built together, far-seeing, wise, +and true: when, for many years, or almost in my life before, have I read +such a book?"' A short letter from Goethe in Weimar, in acknowledgment +of a copy of his 'Wilhelm Meister,' was peculiarly gratifying to +Carlyle. + +Carlyle was not happy in London; dyspepsia and 'the noises' sorely +troubled him. He was anxious to be gone. To the surprise of Irving--who +was now settled in the metropolis--and everybody else, he resolutely +decided to return to Annandale, where his father had leased for him a +compact little farm at Hoddam Hill, three miles from Mainhill, and +visible from the fields at the back of it. 'Perhaps it was the very day +before my departure,' wrote Carlyle, 'at least it is the last I +recollect of him [Irving], we were walking in the streets multifariously +discoursing; a dim grey day, but dry and airy;--at the corner of +Cockspur Street we paused for a moment, meeting Sir John Sinclair +("Statistical Account of Scotland" etc.), whom I had never seen before +and never saw again. A lean old man, tall but stooping, in tartan cloak, +face very wrinkly, nose blue, physiognomy vague and with distinction as +one might have expected it to be. He spoke to Irving with benignant +respect, whether to me at all I don't recollect.' + +Carlyle shook the dust of London from off his feet, and by easy stages +made his way northwards. Arrived at Ecclefechan, within two miles of his +father's house, while the coach was changing horses, Carlyle noticed +through the window his little sister Jean earnestly looking up for him. +She, with Jenny, the youngest of the family, was at school in the +village, and had come out daily to inspect the coach in hope of seeing +him. 'Her bonny little blush and radiancy of look when I let down the +window and suddenly disclosed myself,' wrote Carlyle in 1867, 'are still +present to me.' On the 26th of May 1825, he established himself at +Hoddam Hill, and set about 'German Romance.' His brother Alick managed +the farm, and his mother, with one of the girls, was generally there to +look after his comforts. + +During the intervening years, Carlyle's intimacy with Miss Jane Welsh +gradually increased, with occasional differences. She had promised to +marry him if he could 'achieve independence.' Carlyle's idea was that +after their marriage they should settle upon the farm of Craigenputtock, +which had been in the possession of the Welsh family for generations, +and devote himself to literary work. By and by Miss Welsh accepted his +offer of marriage, but not until she had acquainted him of the Irving +incident. The wedding took place on the 17th of October 1825, and the +young couple took up housekeeping in a quiet cottage at Comely Bank, +Edinburgh. Of his life at this period, the best description is given by +Carlyle himself, in a letter to Mrs Basil Montague, dated Christmas Day +1826:-- + +'In spite of ill-health I reckon myself moderately happy here, much +happier than men usually are, or than such a fool as I deserve to be. My +good wife exceeds all my hopes, and is, in truth, I believe, among the +best women that the world contains. The philosophy of the heart is far +better than that of the understanding. She loves me with her whole soul, +and this one sentiment has taught her much that I have long been vainly +at the schools to learn.... On the whole, what I chiefly want is +occupation; which, when the times grow better, or my own genius gets +more alert and thorough-going, will not fail, I suppose, to present +itself.... Some day--oh, that the day were here!--I shall surely speak +out those things that are lying in me, and give me no sleep till they +are spoken! Or else, if the Fates would be so kind as to shew me--that I +had nothing to say! This, perhaps, is the real secret of it after all; +a hard result, yet not intolerable, were it once clear and certain. +Literature, it seems, is to be my trade, but the present aspects of it +among us seem to me peculiarly perplexed and uninviting.'[6]Here, as in +undertone, we discover what Professor Masson calls the constitutional +sadness of Carlyle--a sadness which, along with indifferent health, led +him to be impatient at trifles, morbid, proud, and at times needlessly +aggressive in speech and demeanour. These traits, however, in the early +years of married life were not specially visible; and on the whole the +Comely Bank period may be described as one of calm happiness. Carlyle's +forecast was correct. Literature was to be his trade. + +In the following spring came a letter to Carlyle from Procter (Barry +Cornwall), whom he had met in London, offering to introduce him formally +to Jeffrey, whom he certified to be a 'very fine fellow.' One evening +Carlyle sallied forth from Comely Bank for Jeffrey's house in George +Street, armed with Procter's letter. He was shown into the study. 'Fire, +pair of candles,' he relates, 'were cheerfully burning, in the light of +which sate my famous little gentleman; laid aside his work, cheerfully +invited me to sit, and began talking in a perfectly human manner.' The +interview lasted for about twenty minutes, during which time Jeffrey had +made kind enquiries what his visitor was doing and what he had +published; adding, 'We must give you a lift,' an offer, Carlyle says, +which in 'some complimentary way' he managed to Jeffrey's satisfaction +to decline. Jeffrey returned Carlyle's call, when he was captivated by +Mrs Carlyle. The intimacy rapidly increased, and a short paper by +Carlyle on Jean Paul appeared in the very next issue of the _Edinburgh +Review_. 'It made,' says the author, 'what they call a sensation among +the Edinburgh buckrams; which was greatly heightened next Number by the +more elaborate and grave article on "German Literature" generally, which +set many tongues wagging, and some few brains considering, _what_ this +strange monster could be that was come to disturb their quiescence and +the established order of Nature! Some Newspapers or Newspaper took to +denouncing "the Mystic School," which my bright little Woman declared to +consist of me alone, or of her and me, and for a long while after +merrily used to designate us by that title.' + +Mrs Carlyle proved an admirable hostess; Jeffrey became a frequent +visitor at Comely Bank, and they discovered 'mutual old cousinships' by +the maternal side. Jeffrey's friendship was an immense acquisition to +Carlyle, and everybody regarded it as his highest good fortune. The +_literati_ of Edinburgh came to see her, and 'listen to her husband's +astonishing monologues.' To Carlyle's regret, Jeffrey would not talk in +their frequent rambles of his experiences in the world, 'nor of things +concrete and current,' but was 'theoretic generally'; and seemed bent +on converting Carlyle from his 'German mysticism,' back merely, as the +latter could perceive, into 'dead Edinburgh Whiggism, scepticism, and +materialism'; 'what I felt,' says Carlyle, 'to be a forever impossible +enterprise.' They had long discussions, 'parryings, and thrustings,' +which 'I have known continue night after night,' relates Carlyle, 'till +two or three in the morning (when I was his guest at Craigcrook, as once +or twice happened in coming years); there he went on in brisk logical +exercise with all the rest of the house asleep, and parted usually in +good humour, though after a game which was hardly worth the candle. I +found him infinitely witty, ingenious, sharp of fence, but not in any +sense deep; and used without difficulty to hold my own with him.' +Jeffrey did everything in his power to further Carlyle's prospects and +projects. He tried to obtain for him the professorship of Moral +Philosophy at St Andrews University, vacated by Dr Chalmers. +Testimonials were given by Irving, Brewster, Buller, Wilson, Jeffrey, +and Goethe. They failed, however, in consequence of the opposition of +the Principal, Dr Nicol. + +To Carlyle, doubtless, the most memorable incidents of the Edinburgh +period was his correspondence with Goethe. The magnetic spell thrown +over Carlyle by Goethe will ever remain a mystery. Between the two men +there was no intellectual affinity. One would have expected Goethe the +Pagan to have repelled Carlyle the Puritan, unless we have recourse to +the philosophy of opposites, and conclude that the tumultuous soul of +Carlyle found congenial repose in the Greek-like restfulness of Goethe. +The great German had been deeply impressed by the profound grasp which +Carlyle was displaying of German literature. After reading a letter +which he had received from Walter Scott, Goethe remarked to Eckermann: +'I almost wonder that Walter Scott does not say a word about Carlyle, +who has so decided a German tendency that he must certainly be known to +him. It is admirable in Carlyle, that, in his judgment of our German +authors, he has especially in view the _mental and moral core_ as that +which is really influential. Carlyle is a _moral force of great +importance_; there is in him much for the future and we cannot foresee +what he will produce and effect.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Reminiscences_, vol. i. p. 141. + +[2] _Reminiscences_, vol. i. p. 142. + +[3] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 69. + +[4] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. pp. 18, 19. + +[5] Now 2 Spey Street. + +[6] Masson's 'Edinburgh Sketches and Memories,' pp. 329-30. + + + + +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 bright. The Carlyles had been a +little over eighteen months at Comely Bank, when their extensive circle +of friends were surprised to hear of their intended withdrawal to +Craigenputtock. Efforts were made to dissuade Carlyle from pursuing what +at the time appeared a suicidal course. He was the intimate associate of +the brilliant Jeffrey; he was within the charmed circle of Edinburgh +Reviewers; he had laid the foundation of a literary reputation. +Outwardly all seemed well with Carlyle; but 'the step,' himself says, +'had been well meditated, saw itself to be founded on irrefragable +considerations of health, _finance_, &c., &c., unknown to bystanders, +and could not be forborne or altered.' Next to his marriage with Miss +Welsh, Carlyle's retirement to the howling wilds of Craigenputtock at +that juncture was the most momentous step in his long life. He was +conscious of his own powers, and he clearly discerned how those powers +could best be utilised and developed. Hence his determination to bid +adieu to Edinburgh. And in that resolve he was fortified by the loyal +support of his wife. + +Jeffrey promised to visit the Carlyles at Craigenputtock as soon as they +got settled. Meanwhile, they stayed a week at his own house in Moray +Place, after their furniture was on the road, and they were waiting till +it should arrive and 'render a new home possible amid the moors and the +mountains.' 'Of our history at Craigenputtock,' says Carlyle, 'there +might a great deal be written which might amuse the curious; for it was +in fact a very singular scene and arena for such a pair as my Darling +and me, with such a Life ahead.... It is a History I by no means intend +to write, with such or with any object. To me there is a _sacredness_ of +interest in it consistent only with _silence_. It was the field of +endless nobleness and beautiful talent and virtue in Her who is now +gone; also of good industry, and many loving and blessed thoughts in +myself, while living there by her side. Poverty and mean Obstruction had +given origin to it, and continued to preside over it, but were +transformed by human valour of various sorts into a kind of victory and +royalty: something of high and great dwelt in it, though nothing could +be smaller and lower than very many of the details.'[7] + +The Jeffreys were not slow in appearing at Craigenputtock. Their 'big +Carriage,' narrates the humorous host, 'climbed our rugged Hill-roads, +landed the Three Guests--young Charlotte ("Sharlie"), with Pa and +Ma--and the clever old Valet maid that waited on them; ... but I +remember nothing so well as the consummate art with which my Dear One +played the domestic field-marshal, and spread out our exiguous +resources, without fuss or bustle; to cover everything with a coat of +hospitality and even elegance and abundance. I have been in houses ten +times, nay, a hundred times, as rich, where things went not so well. +Though never bred to this, but brought up in opulent plenty by a mother +that could bear no partnership in housekeeping, she, finding it become +necessary, loyally applied herself to it, and soon surpassed in it all +the women I have ever seen.'[8] Of Mrs Carlyle's frankness her husband +gives this amusing glimpse: 'One day at dinner, I remember, Jeffrey +admired the fritters or bits of pancake he was eating, and she let him +know, not without some vestige of shock to him, that she had made them. +"What, you! twirl up the frying-pan, and catch them in the air?" Even +so, my high friend, and you may turn it over in your mind!' When the +Jeffreys were leaving, 'I remarked,' says Carlyle, that they 'carried +off our little temporary paradise; ... to which bit of pathos Jeffrey +answered by a friendly little sniff of quasi-mockery or laughter +through the nose, and rolled prosperously away.' + +The Carlyles in course of time visited the Jeffreys at Craigcrook, the +last occasion being for about a fortnight. Carlyle says it was 'a +shining sort of affair, but did not in effect accomplish much for any of +us. Perhaps, for one thing, we stayed too long, Jeffrey was beginning to +be seriously incommoded in health, had bad sleep, cared not how late he +sat, and we had now more than ever a series of sharp fencing bouts, +night after night, which could decide nothing for either of us, except +our radical incompatibility in respect of World Theory, and the +incurable divergence of our opinions on the most important matters. "You +are so dreadfully in earnest!" said he to me once or oftener. Besides, I +own now I was deficient in reverence to him, and had not then, nor, +alas! have ever acquired, in my solitary and mostly silent existence, +the art of gently saying strong things, or of insinuating my dissent, +instead of uttering it right out at the risk of offence or otherwise.' +Then he adds: 'These "stormy sittings," as Mrs Jeffrey laughingly called +them, did not improve our relation to one another. But these were the +last we had of that nature. In other respects Edinburgh had been barren; +effulgences of "Edinburgh Society," big dinners, parties, we in due +measure had; but nothing there was very interesting either to _Her_ or +to me, and all of it passed away as an obliging pageant merely. Well do +I remember our return to Craigenputtock, after nightfall, amid the +clammy yellow leaves and desolate rains with the clink of Alick's stithy +alone audible of human.'[9] + +It was during his first two years' residence at Craigenputtock that +Carlyle wrote his famous essay on Burns; but his principal work was upon +German literature, especially upon Goethe. His magazine writings being +his only means of support, and as he devoted much time to them, it is +not surprising that financial matters worried him. About this time +Jeffrey, to whom doubtless he confided his trouble, generously offered +to confer upon him an annuity of L100, which Carlyle declined to accept. +Jeffrey repeated the offer on two subsequent occasions, with a like +result. Carlyle in his _Reminiscences_ says that he could not doubt but +Jeffrey had intended an act of real generosity; and yet Carlyle penned +the ungracious remark, that 'perhaps there was something in the manner +of it that savoured of consciousness and of screwing one's self up to +the point; less of god-like pity for a fine fellow and his struggles, +than of human determination to do a fine action of one's own, which +might add to the promptitude of my refusal.' It is not surprising, +therefore, to find Carlyle suspecting that Jeffrey's feelings were +cooling towards him. Jeffrey had powers of penetration as well as the +friend whom he was anxious to assist. + +By the month of February 1831, Carlyle's finances fell so low that he +had only L5 in his possession, and expected no more for months. Then he +borrowed L100 from Jeffrey, as his 'pitiful bits of periodical +literature incomings,' as he puts it, 'having gone awry (as they were +liable to do), but was able, I still remember with what satisfaction, to +repay punctually within a few weeks'; adding, 'and this was all of +pecuniary chivalry _we_ two ever had between us.' The chivalry was all +on the one side--of Jeffrey. The outcome of his labours at +Craigenputtock, in addition to the fragmentary articles already referred +to, was the essays which form the first three volumes of the +'Miscellanies.' They appeared chiefly in the _Edinburgh Review_, the +_Foreign Review_, and _Fraser's Magazine_. Jeffrey's resignation of the +editorship of the 'Review' was a great disappointment to Carlyle, +because it stopped a regular source of income. + +German literature, of which Carlyle had begun a history, not being a +'marketable commodity,' he cut it up into articles. 'My last +considerable bit of _Writing_ at Craigenputtock,' says Carlyle, 'was +"Sartor Resartus"; done, I think, between January and August 1830; (my +sister Margaret had died while it was going on). I well remember where +and how (at Templand one morning) the _germ_ of it rose above ground. +"Nine months," I used to say, "it had cost me in writing." Had the +perpetual fluctuation, the uncertainty and unintelligible whimsicality +of Review Editors not proved so intolerable, we might have lingered +longer at Craigenputtock, perfectly left alone, and able to do _more_ +work, beyond doubt, than elsewhere. But a Book did seem to promise some +_respite_ from that, and perhaps further advantages. Teufelsdroeckh was +ready; and (first days of August) I decided to make for London. Night +before going, how I still remember it! I was lying on my back on the +sofa in the drawing-room; she sitting by the table (late at night, +packing all done, I suppose); her words had a guise of sport, but were +profoundly plaintive in meaning. "About to part, who knows for how long; +and what may have come in the interim!" this was her thought, and she +was evidently much out of spirits. "Courage, Dearie, only for a month!" +I would say to her in some form or other. I went next morning +early.'[10] + +Jeffrey, who was by that time Lord Advocate, Carlyle found much +preoccupied in London, but willing to assist him with Murray, the +bookseller. Jeffrey, with his wife and daughter, lived in Jermyn Street +in lodgings, 'in melancholy contrast to the beautiful tenements and +perfect equipments they had left in the north.' 'If,' says Carlyle, 'I +called in the morning, in quest perhaps of Letters (though I don't +recollect much troubling _him_ in that way), I would find the family +still at breakfast, ten A.M. or later; and have seen poor Jeffrey +emerge in flowered dressing-gown, with a most boiled and suffering +expression of face, like one who had slept miserably, and now awoke +mainly to paltry misery and bother; poor Official man! "I am made a mere +Post-Office of!" I heard him once grumble, after tearing open several +Packets, not one of which was internally for himself.'[11] + +Mrs Carlyle joined her husband on the 1st of October 1831, and they took +lodgings at 4 Ampton Street, Gray's Inn Lane, with a family of the name +of Miles, belonging to Irving's congregation. Jeffrey was a frequent +visitor there, and sometimes the Carlyles called at Jermyn Street. +Carlyle says that they were at first rather surprised that Jeffrey did +not introduce him to some of his 'grand literary figures,' or try in +some way to be of help to one for whom he evidently had a value. The +explanation, Carlyle thinks, was that he himself 'expressed no trace of +aspiration that way'; 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 wished.' Besides, +Jeffrey was so 'heartily miserable,' as to think Carlyle and his other +fellow-creatures happy in comparison, and to have no care left to bestow +upon them. + +Here is a characteristic outburst in the 'Reminiscences': 'The beggarly +history of poor "Sartor" _among the blockheadisms_ is not worth my +recording or remembering--least of all here! In short, finding that +whereas I had got L100 (if memory serve) for "Schiller" six or seven +years before, and for "Sartor," at least _thrice_ as good, I could not +only _not_ get L200, but even get no Murray, or the like, to publish it +on half-profits (Murray, a most stupendous object to me; tumbling about, +eyeless, with the evidently strong wish to say "yes and no"; my first +signal experience of that sad human predicament); I said, "We will make +it No, then; wrap up our MS.; wait till this Reform Bill uproar +abate."'[12] + +On Tuesday, January 26th, 1832, Carlyle received tidings of the death of +his father. He departed on the Sunday morning previous 'almost without a +struggle,' wrote his favourite sister Jane. It was a heavy stroke for +Carlyle. 'Natural tears,' he exclaimed shortly afterwards, 'have come to +my relief. I can look at my dear Father, and that section of the Past +which he has made alive for me, in a certain sacred, sanctified light, +and give way to what thoughts rise in me without feeling that they are +weak and useless.' Carlyle determined that the time till the funeral was +past (Friday) should be spent with his wife only. All others were +excluded. He walked 'far and much,' chiefly in the Regent's Park, and +considered about many things, his object being to see clearly what his +calamity meant--what he lost, and what lesson that loss was to teach +him. Carlyle considered his father as one of the most interesting men he +had known. 'Were you to ask me,' he said, 'which had the greater natural +faculty,' Robert Burns or my father, 'I might, perhaps, actually pause +before replying. Burns had an infinitely wider Education, my Father a +far wholesomer. Besides, the one was a man of Musical Utterance; the +other wholly a man of Action, even with Speech subservient thereto. +Never, of all the men I have seen, has one come personally in my way in +whom the endowment from Nature and the Arena from Fortune were so +utterly out of all proportion. I have said this often, and partly _know_ +it. As a man of Speculation--had Culture ever unfolded him--he must have +gone wild and desperate as Burns; but he was a man of Conduct, and Work +keeps all right. What strange shapeable creatures we are!'[13] Nothing +that the elder Carlyle undertook to do but he did it faithfully, and +like a true man. 'I shall look,' said his distinguished son, 'on the +houses he built with a certain proud interest. They stand firm and sound +to the heart all over his little district. No one that comes after him +will ever say, "Here was the finger of a hollow eye-servant." They are +little texts for me of the gospel of man's free will. Nor will his deeds +and sayings in any case be found unworthy--not false and barren, but +genuine and fit. Nay, am not I also the humble James Carlyle's work? I +owe him much more than existence; I owe him a noble inspiring example +(now that I can read it in that rustic character). It was he +_exclusively_ that determined on _educating_ me; that from his small +hard-earned funds sent me to school and college, and made me whatever I +am or may become. Let me not mourn for my father, let me do worthily of +him. So shall he still live even here in me, and his worth plant itself +honourably forth into new generations.'[14] One of the wise men about +Ecclefechan told James Carlyle: 'Educate a boy, and he grows up to +despise his ignorant parents.' His father once told Carlyle this, and +added: 'Thou hast not done so; God be thanked for it.' When James +Carlyle first entered his son's house at Craigenputtock, Mrs Carlyle was +greatly struck with him, 'and still farther,' says her husband, 'opened +my eyes to the treasure I possessed in a father.' + +The last time Carlyle saw his father was a few days before leaving for +London. 'He was very kind,' wrote Carlyle, 'seemed prouder of me than +ever. What he had never done the like of before, he said, on hearing me +express something which he admired, "Man, it's surely a pity that thou +should sit yonder with nothing but the eye of Omniscience to see thee, +and thou with such a gift to speak."' In closing his affectionate +tribute, Carlyle exclaims: 'Thank Heaven, I know and have known what it +is to be a _son_; to _love_ a father, as spirit can love spirit.' + +The last days of March 1832 found the Carlyles back at Craigenputtock. A +new tenant occupied the farm, and their days were lonelier than ever. +Meanwhile 'Sartor Resartus' was appearing in _Fraser's Magazine_. The +Editor reported that it 'excited the most unqualified disapprobation.' +Nothing daunted, Carlyle pursued the 'noiseless tenor of his way,' +throwing off articles on various subjects. Finding that Mrs Carlyle's +health suffered from the gloom and solitude of Craigenputtock, they +removed to Edinburgh in January 1833. Jeffrey was absent in 'official +regions,' and Carlyle notes that they found a 'most dreary contemptible +kind of element' in Edinburgh. But their stay there was not without its +uses, for in the Advocates' Library Carlyle found books which had a +great effect upon his line of study. He collected materials for his +articles upon 'Cagliostro' and the 'Diamond Necklace.' At the end of +four months, the Carlyles were back again at Craigenputtock. + +August was a bright month for Thomas Carlyle, for it was then that Ralph +Waldo Emerson visited him at his rural retreat. The Carlyles thought him +'one of the most lovable creatures' they had ever seen, and an unbroken +friendship of nearly fifty years was begun. As winter approached, +Carlyle's prospects were not very bright, and he once more turned his +eyes towards London, where the remainder of his life was to be spent. +Before following him thither, it may be well to turn from the outer to +the inner side of Carlyle's life, and study the forces which went to the +making of his unique personality. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 30. + +[8] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 31. + +[9] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. pp. 40, 41. + +[10] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. pp. 161, 162. + +[11] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 47. + +[12] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. p. 162. + +[13] _Reminiscences_, vol. i. p. 19. + +[14] _Reminiscences_, vol. i. p. 6. + + + + +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 Man, from +which he drew inspiration in his future life work. 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 +literature. Carlyle's studies and musings took coherent, or, as some +would say incoherent, shape in _Sartor Resartus_,--a book which +appropriately was written in the stern solitude of Craigenputtock. + +In order to acquire an adequate understanding of Carlyle as a thinker, +attention has to be paid to the two dominating influences of his mental +life--his early home training and German literature. In regard to the +former, ancestry with Carlyle counts for much. He came of a sturdy +Covenanting stock. Carlyle himself has left a graphic description of the +religious environment of the Burghers, to which sect his father +belonged. The congregation, under the ministry of a certain John +Johnston, who taught Carlyle his first Latin, worshipped in a little +house thatched with heath. Of the simple faith, the stern piety and the +rugged heroism of the old Seceders, Carlyle himself has left a +photograph: 'Very venerable are those old Seceder clergy to me now when +I look back.... Most figures of them in my time were hoary old men; 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 world.... Strangely vivid are some twelve or twenty of +those old faces whom I used to see every Sunday, whose names, +employments or precise dwellingplaces I never knew, but whose portraits +are yet clear to me as in a mirror. Their heavy-laden, patient, +ever-attentive faces, fallen solitary most of them, children all away, +wife away for ever, or, it might be, wife still there and constant like +a shadow and grown very like the old man, the thrifty cleanly poverty of +these good people, their well-saved coarse old clothes, tailed +waistcoats down to mid-thigh--all this I occasionally see as with eyes +sixty or sixty-five years off, and hear the very voice of my mother upon +it, whom sometimes I would be questioning about these persons of the +drama and endeavouring to describe and identify them.' And what a +glimpse we have into the inmost heart of the primitive Covenanting +religion in the portrait drawn by Carlyle of old David Hope, the farmer +who refused to postpone family worship in order to take in his grain. +David was putting on his spectacles when somebody rushed in with the +words: 'Such a raging wind risen will drive the stooks into the sea if +let alone.' 'Wind!' answered David, 'wind canna get ae straw that has +been appointed mine. Sit down and let us worship God.' Far away from the +simple Covenanting creed of his father and mother Carlyle wandered, but +to the last the feeling of life's mystery and solemnity remained vivid +with him, though fed from quite other sources than the Bible and the +_Shorter Catechism_. + +Much has been said of Carlyle's father, but it is highly probable that +to his mother he owed most during his early years. The temperament of +the Covenanter was of the non-conductor type. Men like James Carlyle +were essentially stern, self-centred, unemotional. Fighting like the +Jews, with sword in one hand and trowel in the other, they had no time +for cultivating the softer side of human nature. Ready to go to the +stake on behalf of religious liberty, they exercised a repressive, not +to say despotic, influence in their own households. With them education +meant not the unfolding of the individual powers of the children, but +the ruthless crushing of them into a theological mould. Religion in such +an atmosphere became loveless rather than lovely, and might have had +serious influences of a reactionary nature but for the caressing +tenderness of the mother. With a heart which overflowed the ordinary +theological boundaries, the mother in many sweet and hidden ways +supplied the emotional element, which had been crushed out of the father +by a narrow conception of life and duty. Carlyle's experience may be +judged from his references to his parents. He always speaks of his +father with profound respect and admiration; towards his mother his +heart goes forth with a devotion which became stronger as the years +rolled on. Carlyle's love of his mother was as beautiful as it was +sacred. Long after Carlyle had parted with the creed of his childhood, +his heart tremulously responded to the old symbols. His system of +thought, indeed, might well be defined as Calvinism minus Christianity. +Had Carlyle not come into contact with German thought, he would probably +have jogged along the path of literature in more or less conventional +fashion. In fact, nothing is more remarkable than the comparatively +commonplace nature of Carlyle's early contributions to literature. +Germany touched the deepest chords of his nature. With German ideas and +emotions his mind was saturated, and _Sartor Resartus_ was the outcome. +To that book students must go for a glance into Carlyle's mind while he +was wrestling with the great mysteries of Existence. In June 1821, as Mr +Froude tells us, took place what may be called Carlyle's conversion--his +triumph over his doubts, and the beginning of a new life. To understand +this phase of Carlyle's life, we must pause for a little to consider +German literature, whence Carlyle derived spiritual relief and +consolation. + +What, then, was the nature of the message of peace which Germany, +through Kant, Fichte, and Goethe, brought to the storm-tossed soul of +Carlyle? When Carlyle began to think seriously, two antagonistic +conceptions of life, the orthodox and the rationalist, were struggling +for mastery in the field of thought. The orthodox conception, into which +he had been born, and with which his father and mother had fronted the +Eternities, had given way under the solvent of modern thought. Carlyle's +belief in Christianity as a revelation seems to have dropped from him +without much of a struggle, somewhat after the style of George Eliot. +His mental tortures appear to have arisen from spiritual hunger, from an +inability to fill the place vacated by the old beliefs. Had he lived +fifty years earlier, Carlyle would have been invited to find salvation +in the easy-going, drawing-room rationalism of Hume and Gibbon, or to +content himself with the ecclesiastical placidity known as Moderatism. + +Much had occurred since the arm-chair philosophers of Edinburgh taught +that this was the best possible world, and that the highest wisdom +consisted in frowning upon enthusiasm and cultivating the comfortable. +The French Revolution had revolutionised men's thoughts and feelings. +There had been revealed to man the inadequacy of the old Deistical or +Mechanical philosophy, which, spreading from England to France, had +done so much to hasten the revolutionary epoch. Carlyle could find no +spiritual sustenance in the purely mechanical theory of life which was +offered as the substitute for the theory of the Churches. There was +another theory, which had its rise in Germany, and to which Carlyle +clung when he could no longer keep hold of the Supernatural. In +Transcendentalism, Carlyle found salvation. + +What are the leading conceptions of the German form of salvation? The +answer to this will give the key to _Sartor Resartus_, and to Carlyle's +whole mental outlook. In the eyes of thinkers like Carlyle, the great +objection to Christianity was the breach it made between the natural and +the supernatural. Between them there was a great gulf which could only +fitfully and temporarily be bridged by the miraculous. Students who were +being inoculated with scientific ideas of law and order, were bewildered +by a theory of life which had no organic relation to the great germinal +ideas of the day. In their desire to abolish the supernatural, the +French thinkers constructed a theory of Nature in which everything, from +the movements of solar masses to the movements of the soul, were +interpreted in terms of matter. By adopting a mechanical view of the +Universe, the French thinkers robbed Nature of much of its charm, and +stunted the emotions on the side of wonder and admiration. The world was +reduced to a vast machine, man himself being simply a temporary +embodiment of material particles in a highly complex and unique form. +Instead of being what it was to the Greeks, a temple of beauty, the +Universe to the materialist resembled a prison in which the walls +gradually closed upon the poor wretch till he was crushed under the +ruins. Goethe has left on record the impression made upon him by the +materialistic view of life. As he says, 'The materialistic theory, which +reduces all things to matter and motion, appeared to me so grey, so +Cimmerian, and so dead that we shuddered at it as at a ghost.' + +_Sartor Resartus_ is studded with vigorous protests against the +mechanical view of Nature and Man. Just as distasteful to Carlyle, and +equally mechanical in spirit, was the Deistical conception of Nature as +a huge clock, under the superintendence of a Divine clock-maker, whose +duty consisted in seeing that the clock kept good time and was in all +respects thoroughly reliable. The Germans attacked the problem from the +other side. They did not abolish the supernatural with the materialists, +or seek it in another world with the theologians; they found the +supernatural in the natural. To the materialists, Kant, Fichte, +Schelling, Hegel and Goethe had one reply:--Reduce matter to its +constituent atoms, they argued, and you never seize the principle of +life; it evades you like a spirit; in this principle everything lives +and moves and has its being. German philosophy from Kant has been +occupied in attempts to trace the spiritual principle in the great +process of cosmic evolution. In poetry, Goethe attempted to represent +this as the energising principle of life and duty. The spiritual cannot +be weighed in the scales of logic; it refuses to be put upon the +dissecting-table. As a consequence, the truth of things is best seen by +the poet. The owl-like logic-chopper, from his mechanical and +utilitarian standpoint, sees not the Divine vision. This has been called +Pantheism. Call it what we please, it is contradictory to Deism and +Materialism, and is the root thought of _Sartor Resartus_, which may be +taken as Carlyle's Confession of Faith. A few extracts will justify the +foregoing analysis. The transcendental view of Nature is expressed by +Carlyle thus:--'Atheistic science babbles poorly of it with scientific +nomenclature, experiments and what not, as if it were a poor dead thing, +to be bottled up in Leyden jars, and sold over counter; but the native +sense of man in all times, if he will himself apply his sense, proclaims +it to be a living thing--ah, an unspeakable, God-like thing, towards +which the best attitude for us, after never so much science, is awe, +devout prostration and humility of soul, worship, if not in words, then +in silence.' Here, again, is a passage quite Hegelian in its tone: 'For +Matter, were it never so despicable, is Spirit; the manifestation of +Spirit, were it never so honourable, can it be more? The thing Visible, +nay, the thing Imagined, the thing in any way conceived as Visible, +what is it but a Garment, a Clothing of the higher celestial Invisible, +unimaginable, formless, dark with excess of bright.' + +The defects of Carlyle, and they are many, 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 weakness. It +is not meant that Carlyle's mind remained anchored to the philosophic +idealism of _Sartor_. In later days he professed contempt for +transcendental moonshine, but his contempt was for the form and jargon +of the schools, not for the spirit, which dominated Carlyle to the end. +After Carlyle passed the early poetic stage, his views took more and +more an anthropomorphic mould, till in many of his writings he seems +practically a Theist. But at root Carlyle's thought was more +Pantheistical than Deistical. What, then, is the German conception of +the Ultimate Reality? The German answer grew out of an attempt to get +rid of the difficulties propounded by Hume. Hume, the father of all the +Empiricists, in giving logical effect to Berkeleyism, concluded that +just as we know nothing of the outer world beyond sense impressions, so +of the inner world of mind we know nothing beyond mental impressions. We +can combine and recombine these impressions as we choose, but from them +we cannot deduce any ultimate laws, either of the world or of mind. +Hume would not sanction belief in causation as a universal law. All that +could be said was that certain things happened in a certain manner so +frequently as to give rise to a law of expectation. But this is not to +solve, but to evade the problem? We are still driven to ask, What is +matter? What is motion? What is force? How do we get our knowledge of +the material world, and is that knowledge reliable? These are wide +questions that cannot be adequately handled here. It was a favourite +argument of Comte and his followers, that man's first conceptions of +Nature were necessarily erroneous, because they were anthropomorphic. +Theology was, therefore, dethroned without ceremony. But science is as +anthropomorphic as theology. We have no guarantee that the great facts +of Nature are as we think them. We talk of Force, but our idea of Force +is taken from experiences which may have no counterpart in Nature. It is +well known, for example, that the secondary qualities of objects, +colour, &c., do not exist in Nature. Our personality is so inextricably +mixed with the material universe that it is impossible to formulate a +philosophy like Naturalism, which makes mind a product of Nature, and +which sharply defines the provinces of the two. + +But what Naturalism fails to do, Idealism or Transcendentalism promises +to perform. Idealism is simply Materialism turned upside down. The only +difference between the evolution of Spencer and of Hegel is that the +one puts matter, the other mind, first. For all practical purposes, it +signifies little whether mind is the temporary embodiment of an idea, or +the temporary product of a highly specialised form of matter. In either +case, man has no more freedom than the bubble upon the surface of the +stream. We may discourse of the bubble as poetically or as practically +as we please, the result is the same--absorption in the universal. +Hegelianism as much as Naturalism leaves man a prisoner in the hands of +Fate. The only difference is, that while Naturalism puts round the +prisoner's neck a plain, unpretentious noose, Hegelianism adds fringes +and embroidery. If there is no appeal from Nature's dread sentence, the +less poetry and embroidery there is about the doleful business the +better. + +In _Sartor Resartus_, Carlyle talks finely but vaguely, of the peace +which came over his soul when he discovered that the universe was not +mechanical but Divine. The peace was not of long duration. What +consolation Carlyle derived from Idealism did not appear in his life. +What a contrast between the poetic optimism of _Sartor_ and the +heavily-charged pessimism of old age, when Carlyle, with wailing pathos, +exclaims that God does nothing. Carlyle's life abundantly illustrates +the fact that whenever it leaves cloudland, Idealism sinks into +scepticism more bitter and gloomy than the unbelief of Naturalism. +Carlyle approached the question of the Ultimate Reality from the wrong +standpoint. He had no reasoned philosophic creed. A poet, he had the +poetic dread of analysis, and his spirit revolted at the spectacle of +Nature on the dissecting-table. He waged a life-long warfare against +science. As the present writer has elsewhere remarked:--'Carlyle never +could tolerate the evolution theory. He always spoke with the utmost +contempt of Darwin, and everything pertaining to the development +doctrines. It is somewhat startling to find that Carlyle was an +evolutionist without knowing it. The antagonism between Carlyle and +Spencer disappears on closer inspection. When Carlyle speaks of the +universe as in very truth the star-domed city of God, and reminds us +that through every crystal and through every grass blade, but most +through every living soul, the glory of a present God still beams, he is +simply saying in the language of poetry what Spencer says in the +language of science, that the world of phenomena is sustained and +energised by an infinite Eternal Power. Evolution is as emphatic as +Carlyle on the absolute distinction between right and wrong. Carlyle and +all the German school confront the evolutionary ethics with the Kantian +categorical imperative. Surely the Evolutionists in the matter of an +imperative out-rival the Intuitionalists, when, in addition to the +dictates of conscience, they can call as a witness and sanction to +morality the testimony of all-embracing experience. In his famous +saying, Might is Right, Carlyle was unconsciously formulating one aspect +of evolutionary ethics. Carlyle did not mean anything so silly as that +brute force and ethical sanctions are identical; what he meant was that +in the long run Righteousness will prove the mightiest force in the +universe. What is this but another version of the Spencerian doctrine of +the survival of the fittest, which, in the most highly evolved state of +society, will mean the survival of the best? In the highest social state +the only Might that will survive will be the Might which is rooted in +Right. Carlyle's contemptuous attitude towards science is deeply to be +deplored. He waged bitter warfare against the evolution theory, quite +oblivious of the fact that by means of it there was revealed a deeper +insight into the Power behind Nature, and into the ethical constitution +of the universe, than ever entered into the minds of transcendental +philosophers.' + +It is taken for granted that Carlyle's thoughts have no organic unity. +He is looked upon as a stimulating, but confused, writer, as a thinker +of original, but incoherent, power. True, he has not a logical mind, and +pays no deference to the canons of the schools or the market-place. But +there is a method in Carlyle's apparent caprice. When analysed, his +thoughts are discovered to have unity. His transcendentalism embraces +the ethic as well as the cosmic side of life. In the sphere of morals, +as of science, his writings are one long tumultuous protest against the +mechanical philosophy and the utilitarian theory of morals. From his +essay on Voltaire we take the following:--'It is contended by many that +our mere love of personal Pleasure or Happiness, as it is called, acting +in every individual with such clearness as he may easily have, will of +itself lead him to respect the rights of others, and wisely employ his +own.... Without some belief in the necessary eternal, or, which is the +same thing, in the supra mundane divine nature of Virtue existing in +each individual, could the moral judgment of a thousand or a thousand +thousand individuals avail us'? More picturesquely, Carlyle denounces +the utilitarian system in these words: 'What then? Is the heroic +inspiration we name Virtue but some passion, some bubble of the blood, +bubbling in the direction others profit by? I know not; only this I +know. If what thou namest Happiness be our true aim, then are we all +astray. With Stupidity and sound Digestion, man may front much. But what +in these dull, unimaginative days are the terrors of conscience to the +diseases of the Liver? Not on Morality, but on Cookery, let us build our +stronghold: there, brandishing our frying-pan as censer, let us offer +sweet incense to the Devil, and live at ease on the fat things _he_ has +provided for his Elect'! The exponent of such a theory of ethics will +have a natural distaste for the rational or calculating side of conduct. +He will depreciate the mechanical, and give undue emphasis to the +inspirational. His heroes will be not men of placid temperament, +methodical habits, and utilitarian aims, but men of mystical and +passionate natures, spasmodic in action, and guided by ideas not easily +justified at the bar of utility. + +Just as in the sphere of speculative thought, he has profound contempt +for the Diderots and Voltaires, with their mechanical views of the +Universe, 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 methods. Specially opposed is he to the tendency of +the age to rely for progress, not upon appeals to the great elemental +forces of human nature, but upon organisations, committees, and all +kinds of mechanism. In his remarkable essay, 'Signs of the Times,' we +have ample verification of our exposition. After talking depreciatingly +of the mechanical tendency of the prevailing philosophies, Carlyle +comments upon the mechanical nature of the reforming agencies of +civilisation. The intense Egoism of his nature rebels against any kind +of Socialism or Collectivism. He says: 'Were we required to characterise +this age of ours by any single epithet, we should be tempted to call it, +not a Heroical, Devotional, Philosophical, or Heroic Age, but, above +all, the Mechanical Age. It is the age of machinery in every outward and +inward sense of that word.... Men are grown mechanical in head and +heart, as well as in hand. They have lost faith in individual endeavour, +and in natural force of any kind.... We may trace this tendency in all +the great manifestations of our time: in its intellectual aspect, the +studies it most favours, and its manner of conducting them; in its +practical aspects, its politics, art, religious work; in the whole +sources, and throughout the whole current of its spiritual, no less than +its material, activity.' With Carlyle the secrets of Nature and Life +were discoverable, not so much by the intellect as by the heart. The man +with the large heart, rather than the clear head, saw furthest into the +nature of things. The history of German thought is strewn with the wreck +of systems based upon the Carlylian doctrine of intuition. Schelling and +Hegel showed the puerility to which great men are driven when they +started to construct science out of their own intuitions, instead of +patiently and humbly sitting down to study Nature. Tyndall has left on +record his gratitude to Carlyle. Tyndall had grip of the scientific +method, and was able to allow Carlyle's inspiration to play upon his +mind without fear of harm; but how many waverers has Carlyle driven from +the path of reason into the bogs of mysticism? + +Carlyle's impatience with reasoning and his determination to follow the +promptings of _a priori_ conceptions gave his system of ethics a +one-sided cast, and made him needlessly aggressive towards what in his +day was called Utilitarianism, but what has now come to be known as +Evolutionary Ethics. What is the chief end of man considered as a moral +agent? The answer of the Christian religion is as intelligible as it is +comprehensive. Man's duty consists in obeying the laws of God revealed +in Nature and in the Bible. But apart from revelation, where is the +basis of ethical authority? Debarred from accepting the Christian view, +and instinctively repelled from Utilitarianism, Carlyle found refuge in +the Fichtean and similar systems of ethics. By substituting Blessedness +for Happiness as the aim of ethical endeavour, Carlyle endeavoured to +preserve the heroic attitude which was associated with Supernaturalism. +In his view, 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 therefrom. + +In his 'Data of Ethics,' Herbert Spencer shows the hollowness of +Carlyle's distinction between Blessedness and Happiness. As Spencer puts +it: 'Obviously the implication is that Blessedness is not a kind of +Happiness, and this implication at once suggests the question, What mode +of feeling is this? If it is a state of consciousness at all, it is +necessarily one of three states--painful, indifferent, or +pleasurable.... If the pleasurable states are in excess, then the +blessed life can be distinguished from any other pleasurable life only +by the relative amount or the quality of its pleasures. It is a life +which makes happiness of a certain kind and degree its end, and the +assumption that blessedness is not a form of happiness lapses.... In +brief, blessedness has for its necessary condition of existence +increased happiness, positive or negative in some consciousness or +other; 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 actor.' + +To German philosophy and literature Carlyle owed his critical method, by +which he all but revolutionised criticism as understood by his Edinburgh +and London contemporaries. Carlyle began his apprenticeship with the +Edinburgh Reviewers, in whose hand criticism never lost its political +bias. Apart from that, criticism up till the time of Carlyle was mainly +statical. The critic was a kind of literary book-keeper who went upon +the double-entry system. On one page were noted excellences, on the +other defects, and when the two columns were _totalled_ the debtor and +creditor side of the transaction was set forth. Where, as in the cases +of Burns and Byron, genius was complicated with moral aberration, +anything like a correct estimate was impossible. The result was that in +Scotland criticism oscillated between the ethical severity of the pulpit +and the daring laxity of free thought. As the Edinburgh Reviewers could +not afford to set the clergy at defiance, they had to pay due respect to +conventional tastes and standards. Carlyle faced the question from a +different standpoint. He introduced into criticism the dynamic principle +which he found in the Germans, particularly in Goethe. In contemplating +a work of Art, the Germans talk much of the importance of seizing upon +the creative spirit, what Hegel called the Idea. The thought of Goethe +and Hegel, though differently expressed, resolves itself into the +conception of a life principle which shapes materials into harmony with +innate forms. In the sphere of life the determining factors are the +inner vitalities, which, however, are susceptible to the environment. +The critic who would realise his ideal does not go about with literary +and ethical tape-lines: he seeks to understand the spirit which animated +the author as shewn in his works and his life, and then studies the +influence of his environment. That this is a correct description of +Carlyle's critical method is evidenced by his own remarks in his essay +on Burns. He says: 'If an individual is really of consequence enough to +have his life and character recorded for public remembrance, we have +always been of opinion that the public ought to be made acquainted with +all the springs and relations of his character. How did the world and +man's life from his particular position represent themselves to his +mind? How did co-existing circumstances modify him from without: how +did he modify these from within?' + +This attention to the inner springs of character gives the key to +Carlyle's critical work. How fruitful this was is seen in his essay on +Burns. He steered an even course between the stern moralists, whose +indignation at the sins of Burns the man blinded them to the genius of +Burns the poet, and the flippant Bohemians, who thought that by bidding +defiance to the conventionalities and moralities Burns proved his title +to the name of genius, and whose voices are yet unduly with us in much +spirituous devotion and rhymeless doggerel at the return of each 25th of +January. While laying bare the springs of Burns' genius, Carlyle, with +unerring precision, also puts his finger on the weak point in the poet's +moral nature. So faithfully did Carlyle apply his critical method that +he may be considered to have said the final word about Burns. + +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 determined, +not by isolated deviations from conventional or even ethical standards, +but by consideration of the deep springs of character from which flow +aspirations and ideals. In his _Heroes and Hero-Worship_ Carlyle +elaborates his critical theory thus: 'On the whole, we make too much of +faults; the details of the business hide the real centre of it. Faults? +The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none. +Readers of the Bible above all, one would think, might know better. Who +is called there "the man according to God's own heart?" David, the +Hebrew King, had fallen into sins enough--blackest crimes--there was no +want of sins. And thereupon the unbelievers sneer and ask: Is this your +man according to God's heart? The sneer, I must say, seems to me but a +shallow one. What are faults? What are the outward details of a life, if +the inner secret of it, the remorse, temptations, true, often-baffled, +never-ended struggle of it, be forgotten?... The deadliest sin, I say, +were that same supercilious consciousness of no sin: that is death.... +David's life and history, as written for us in those Psalms of his, I +consider to be the truest emblem ever given of a man's moral progress +and warfare here below.' + +This canon faithfully applied enabled Carlyle to invest with a new and +living interest large sections of literary criticism. Burns, Johnson, +Cromwell and others of like calibre, were rescued by Carlyle from the +hands of Pedants and Pharisees. To readers wearied with the facile +criticism of conventional reviewers, it was a revelation to come into +contact with a writer like Carlyle, who not only gave to the mind great +inspirational impetus, but also a larger critical outlook; it was like +stepping out of a museum, or a dissecting-room into the free, fresh, +breezy air of Nature. + +Moreover, Carlyle's interest in the soul is not of an antiquarian +nature; he studies his heroes as if they were ancestors of the Carlyle +family. He broods over their letters as if they were the letters of his +own flesh and blood, and his comments resemble the soliloquisings of a +pathos stricken kinsman rather than the conscious reflections of a +literary man. It is noteworthy that Carlyle's critical powers are +limited by his sympathies. His method, though suggestive of scientific +criticism, is largely influenced by the personal equation. Face to face +with writers like Scott and Voltaire, he flounders in helpless +incompetency. He tries Scott, the writer of novels, by purely Puritan +standards. Because there is in Scott no signs of soul-struggles, no +conscious devotion to heroic ends, no introspective torturings, Carlyle +sets himself to a process of belittling. So with Voltaire. Carlyle's +failure in this sphere was due to the fact that he overdid the ethical +side of criticism and became a pulpiteer; he was false to his own +principle of endeavouring to seize the dominant idea. Because Scott and +Voltaire were not dominated by the Covenanting idea, Carlyle dealt with +them in a tone of disparagement. Carlyle admired Goethe, but he +certainly made no attempt to cultivate Goethe's catholicity. Let us not +fall into Carlyle's mistake, and condemn him for qualities which were +incompatible with his temperament. After all has been said, English +literature stands largely indebted to Carlyle the critic. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +LIFE IN LONDON + + +Mrs Carlyle entered heartily into her husband's proposal to remove to +London. 'Burn our ships!' she gaily said to him one day (_i.e._, +dismantle our house); 'carry all our furniture with us'; which they +accordingly did. 'At sight of London,' Carlyle wrote, 'I remember +humming to myself a ballad-stanza of "Johnnie o' Braidislea," which my +dear old mother used to sing, + + "For there's seven foresters in yon forest; + And them I want to see, see, + And them I want to _see_ (and shoot down)!" + +Carlyle lodged at Ampton Street again; but presently did 'immense +stretches of walking in search of houses.' He found his way to Chelsea +and there secured a small old-fashioned house at 5 (now numbered 24) +Cheyne Row, at a rent of L35 a year. Mrs Carlyle followed in a short +time and approved of his choice. They took possession on the 10th June +1834, and Carlyle recounts the 'cheerful gipsy life' they had there +'among the litter and carpenters for three incipient days.' Leigh Hunt +was in the next street 'sending kind, _un_practical messages,' dropping +in to see them in the evenings. + +When in London on a former occasion, Carlyle became acquainted with John +Stuart Mill, and the intimacy was kept alive by correspondence to and +from Craigenputtock. It was through Mill's letters that Carlyle's +thoughts were turned towards the French Revolution. When he returned to +London, Mill was very useful to him, lending him a fine collection of +books on that subject. Mill's evenings in Cheyne Row were 'sensibly +agreeable for most part,' remarks Carlyle. 'Talk rather wintry +("sawdustish," as old Sterling once called it), but always well-informed +and sincere.' Carlyle was making rapid progress with the first volume of +his _French Revolution_. Stern necessity gave a spurt to his pen, for in +February 1835 he notes that 'some twenty-three months' had passed since +he earned a single penny by the 'craft of literature.' The volume was +completed and he lent the only copy to Mill. The MS. was unfortunately +burnt by a servant-maid. 'How well do I still remember,' writes Carlyle +in his _Reminiscences_, 'that night when he came to tell us, pale as +Hector's ghost.... It was like _half_ sentence of death to us both, and +we had to pretend to take it lightly, so dismal and ghastly was _his_ +horror at it, and try to talk of other matters. He stayed three mortal +hours or so; his departure quite a relief to us. Oh, the burst of +sympathy my poor darling then gave me, flinging her arms round my neck, +and openly lamenting, condoling, and encouraging like a nobler second +self! Under heaven is nothing beautifuller. We sat talking till late; +'_shall_ be written again,' my fixed word and resolution to her. Which +proved to be such a task as I never tried before or since. I wrote out +"Feast of Pikes" (Vol. II.), and then went at it. Found it fairly +_impossible_ for about a fortnight; passed three weeks (reading +Marryat's novels), tried, cautious-cautiously, as on ice paper-thin, +once more; and in short had a job more like breaking my heart than any +other in my experience. Jeannie, alone of beings, burnt like a steady +lamp beside me. I forget how much of money we still had. I think there +was at first something like L300, perhaps L280, to front London with. +Nor can I in the least remember where we had gathered such a sum, except +that it was our own, no part of it borrowed or _given us_ by anybody. +"Fit to last till _French Revolution_ is ready!" and she had no +misgivings at all. Mill was penitently liberal; sent me L200 (in a day +or two), of which I kept L100 (actual cost of house while I had written +burnt volume); upon which he bought me "Biographie Universelle," which I +got bound, and still have. Wish I could find a way of getting the now +much macerated, changed, and fanaticised John Stuart Mill to take that +L100 back; but I fear there is no way.'[15] + +Carlyle went diligently to work at the _French Revolution_. Some +conviction he had that the book was worth something. Once or twice among +the flood of equipages at Hyde Park Corner, when taking his afternoon +stroll, he thought to himself, 'Perhaps none of _you_ could do what I am +at!' But generally his feeling was, 'I will finish this book, throw it +at your feet, buy a rifle and spade, and withdraw to the Transatlantic +Wildernesses, far from human beggaries and basenesses!' 'This,' he says, +'had a kind of comfort to me; yet I always knew too, in the background, +that this would not practically do. In short, my nervous system had got +dreadfully irritated and inflamed before I quite ended, and my desire +was _intense_, beyond words, to have done with it.' Then he adds: 'The +_last_ paragraph I well remember writing upstairs in the drawing-room +that now is, which was then my writing-room; beside _her_ there in a +grey evening (summer, I suppose), soon after tea (perhaps); and +thereupon, with her dear blessing on me, going out to walk. I had said +before going out, "What they will do with this book, none knows, my +Jeannie, lass; but they have not had, for a two hundred years, any book +that came more truly from a man's very heart, and so let them trample it +under foot and hoof as _they_ see best!" "Pooh, pooh! they cannot +trample that!" she would cheerily answer; for her own approval (I think +she had read always regularly behind me) especially in Vol. III., was +strong and decided.' Mrs Carlyle was right. No critic or clique of +critics could trample the _French Revolution_. + +A month before the completion of the first book of the _French +Revolution_, Carlyle wrote in his journal: 'My first friend Edward +Irving is dead. I am friendless here or as good as that.' In a week or +two thereafter he met Southey, whom he describes as a 'lean, +grey-white-headed man of dusky complexion, unexpectedly tall when he +rises and still leaner then--the shallowest chin, prominent snubbed +Roman nose, small carelined brow, huge brush of white-grey-hair on high +crown and projecting on all sides, the most vehement pair of faint hazel +eyes I have ever seen--a well-read, honest, limited (straitlaced even), +kindly-hearted, most irritable man. We parted kindly, with no great +purpose on either side, I imagine, to meet again.'[16] Later on Carlyle +admits to his brother John that his prospects in London were not +brightening; which fact left him gloomy and morose. + +During his enforced leisure after the destruction of the first book of +the _French Revolution_, Carlyle saw more of his friends, among whom he +numbered John Sterling, fresh from Cambridge and newly ordained a +clergyman. Sterling was of a 'vehement but most noble nature,' and he +was one of the few who had studied _Sartor Resartus_ seriously. He had +been also caught by the Radical epidemic on the spiritual side. +Although dissenting from much of what Carlyle taught, Sterling +recognised in him 'a man not only brilliantly gifted, but differing from +the common run of people in this, that he would not lie, that he would +not equivocate, that he would say always what he actually thought, +careless whether he pleased or offended.' He introduced Carlyle to his +father, who was then the 'guiding genius' of the _Times_, and who +offered Carlyle work there on the usual conditions. 'Carlyle,' says +Froude, 'though with poverty at his door, and entire penury visible in +the near future, turned away from a proposal which might have tempted +men who had less excuse for yielding to it. He was already the sworn +soldier of another chief. His allegiance from first to last was to +_truth_, truth as it presented itself to his own intellect and his own +conscience.' + +On the 16th of February 1835 Carlyle wrote to his brother John: 'I +positively do not care that periodical literature shuts her fist against +me in these months. Let her keep it shut for ever, and go to the devil, +which she mostly belongs to. The matter had better be brought to a +crisis. There is perhaps a finger of Providence in it.... My only new +scheme, since last letter, is a hypothesis--little more yet--about +National Education. The newspapers had an advertisement about a Glasgow +"Educational Association" which wants a man that would found a Normal +School, first going over England and into Germany to get light on that +matter. I wrote to that Glasgow Association afar off, enquiring who they +were, what manner of man they expected, testifying myself very friendly +to their project, and so forth--no answer as yet. It is likely they will +want, as Jane says, a "Chalmers and Welsh" kind of character, in which +case _Va ben, felice notte_. If otherwise, and they (almost by miracle) +had the heart, I am the man for them. Perhaps my name is so heterodox in +that circle, I shall not hear at all.'[17] Carlyle also remarks, in the +same letter, that John Stuart Mill is very friendly: 'He is the nearest +approach to a real man that I find here--nay, as far as negativeness +goes, he _is_ that man, but unhappily not very satisfactory much +farther.' + +Not long thereafter Carlyle met Wordsworth. 'I did not expect much,' he +said in a letter, 'but got mostly what I expected. The old man has a +fine shrewdness and naturalness in his expression of face, a long +Cumberland figure; one finds also a kind of _sincerity_ in his speech. +But for prolixity, thinness, endless dilution, it excels all the other +speech I had heard from mortals. A genuine man, which is much, but also +essentially a small, genuine man.' + +Early in October 1835 Carlyle started for his old home. His +mother-in-law had arrived on a visit at Cheyne Row, and remained there +with her daughter during Carlyle's absence in Scotland. He returned +improved in health and spirits. Nothing came of the National Education +scheme. Carlyle was not a person to push himself into notice, remarks +Froude; and his friends did not exert themselves for him, or they tried +and failed; 'governments, in fact, do not look out for servants among +men who are speculating about the nature of the Universe. Then, as +always, the doors leading into regular employment remained closed.' +Shortly after his return from the North, he was offered the editorship +of a newspaper at Lichfield. This was unaccepted for the same reason +that weighed with him when he refused a post on the _Times_. In the +following summer money matters had become so pressing that Carlyle wrote +the article on Mirabeau, now printed among the _Miscellanies_, for +Mill's review, which brought him L50. Mrs Carlyle's health began to +suffer, and a visit to Annandale became imperative. She returned 'mended +in spirits.' Writing of her arrival in London, she said: 'I had my +luggage put on the backs of two porters, and walked on to Cheapside, +when I presently found a Chelsea omnibus. By-and-bye the omnibus +stopped, and amid cries of "No room, sir; can't get in," Carlyle's face, +beautifully set off by a broad-brimmed white hat, gazed in at the door +like the peri "who, at the gate of heaven, stood disconsolate." In +hurrying along the Strand, his eye had lighted on my trunk packed on the +top of the omnibus, and had recognised it. This seems to me one of the +most indubitable proofs of genius which he ever manifested.' + +On the 22nd of January 1837 Carlyle wrote to his mother: 'The book +[_French Revolution_] is actually done; all written to the last line; +and now, after much higgling and maffling, the printers have got fairly +afloat, and we are to go on with the wind and the sea.' But no money +could be expected from the book for a considerable time. Meanwhile, Miss +Harriet Martineau (who had introduced herself into Cheyne Row), and Miss +Wilson, another accomplished friend, thought that Carlyle should begin a +course of lectures in London, and thereby raise a little money. Carlyle, +it seems, gave 'a grumbling consent.' Nothing daunted, the ladies found +two hundred persons ready each to subscribe a guinea to hear a course of +lectures from him. The end of it was that he delivered six discourses on +German literature, which were 'excellent in themselves, and delivered +with strange impressiveness,' and L135 went into his purse. + +In the summer the _French Revolution_ appeared. The sale at first was +slow, almost nothing, for it was not 'subscribed for' among the +booksellers. Alluding to the criticisms which appeared, Carlyle said: +'Some condemn me, as is very natural, for affectation; others are +hearty, even passionate, in their estimation; on the whole, it strikes +me as not unlikely that the book may take some hold of the English +people, and do them and itself a little good.' He was right. Other +historians have described the Revolution: Carlyle reproduces the +Revolution. He approaches history like a dramatist. Give him, as in the +French Revolution, a weird, tragic, awe-inspiring theme, and he will +utilise his characters, scenes, and circumstances in artistic +subordination to the central idea. Carlyle might be called a subjective +dramatist--that is to say, his own spirit, thoughts, and reflections get +so mixed up with the history that it is difficult to imagine the one +without the other. Every now and then the dramatist interrupts the +tragedy to interject his own reflections; in the history the Carlylean +philosophy plays the part of a Greek chorus. As an example of Carlyle's +genius for a dramatic situation, take his opening of the great drama +with the death scene of Louis XV. Who does not feel, in reading that +scene, as if the Furies were not far off? who does not detect in the +grotesque jostling of the comedy and tragedy of life premonitions of the +coming storm? + +'But figure his thought, when Death is now clutching at his own +heart-strings; unlooked for, inexorable! Yes, poor Louis, Death has +found thee. No palace walls or lifeguards, gorgeous tapestries or gilt +buckram of stiffest ceremonial could keep him out; but he is here, here +at thy very life-breath, and will extinguish it. Thou, whose whole +existence hitherto was a chimera and scenic show, at length becomest a +reality; sumptuous Versailles bursts asunder, like a dream, into void +Immensity: Time is done, and all the scaffolding of Time falls wrecked +with hideous clangour round thy soul: the pale Kingdoms yawn open; there +must thou enter, naked, all unking'd, and await what is appointed +thee!... There are nods and sagacious glances, go-betweens, silk +dowagers mysteriously gliding, with smiles for this constellation, sighs +for that: there is tremor, of hope or desperation, in several hearts. +There is the pale, grinning Shadow of Death, ceremoniously ushered along +by another grinning Shadow, of Etiquette; at intervals the growl of +Chapel Organs, like prayer by machinery; proclaiming, as in a kind of +horrid diabolic horse-laughter, _Vanity of vanities, all is Vanity!_' + +At every stage in the narrative, the reader is impressed with the +dramatic texture of Carlyle's mind. No dramatic writer surpasses him in +the art of producing effects by contrasts. In the midst of a vigorous +description of the storming of the Bastille, he rings down the curtain +for a moment in order to introduce the following scene of idyllic +beauty: 'O evening sun of July, how, at this hour, thy beams fall slant +on reapers amid peaceful woody fields; on old women spinning in +cottages; on ships far out in the silent main; on Balls at the Orangerie +of Versailles, where high-rouged Dames of the Palace are even now +dancing with double-jacketed Hussar officers;--and also on this roaring +Hell-porch of a Hotel-de-Ville!' + +Equally effective is Carlyle in rendering vivid the doings of the +individual actors in the drama. For photographic minuteness and +startling realism what can equal the following:--'But see Camille +Desmoulins, from the Cafe de Foy, rushing out, sibylline in face; his +hair streaming, in each hand a pistol! He springs to a table: the police +satellites are eyeing him; alive they shall not take him, not they alive +him alive. This time he speaks without stammering:--Friends! shall we +die like hunted hares? Like sheep hounded into their pinfold; bleating +for mercy, where is no mercy, but only a whetted knife? The hour is +come, the supreme hour of Frenchman and Man; when Oppressors are to try +conclusions with Oppressed; and the word is, swift Death, or Deliverance +forever. Let such hour be _well_-come! Us, meseems, one cry only befits: +To Arms! Let universal Paris, universal France, as with the throat of +the whirlwind, sound only: To arms!--"To arms!" yell responsive the +innumerable voices; like one great voice, as of a Demon yelling from the +air: for all faces wax fire-eyed, all hearts burn up into madness. In +such, or fitter words does Camille evoke the Elemental Powers, in this +great moment--"Friends," continues Camille, "some rallying-sign! +Cockades; green ones--the colour of Hope!"--As with the flight of +locusts, these green tree-leaves; green ribands from the neighbouring +shops: all green things are snatched, and made cockades of. Camille +descends from his table; "stifled with embraces, wetted with tears;" has +a bit of green riband handed him; sticks it in his hat. And now to +Curtius' Image-shop there; to the Boulevards; to the four winds, and +rest not till France be on fire!' + +As a historical work, the _French Revolution_ is unique. It is precisely +the kind of book Isaiah would have written had there been a like +Revolution in the Jewish kingdom; and just as we go to Isaiah, not for +sociological guidance, but for ethical inspiration, 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 battery. +From a historian a student expects light as well as heat, guidance as +well as inspiration. It is not enough to have the great French explosion +vividly photographed before his eyes; it is equally necessary to know +the causes which led to the catastrophe. Here, as a historian, Carlyle +is conspicuously weak. His habit of looking for dramatic situations, his +passion for making commonplace incidents and commonplace men merely the +satellites of commanding personalities, in a word, his theory that +history should deal with the doings of great men, prevents Carlyle from +dwelling upon the politico-economic side of national life. So absorbed +is he in painting the Revolution, that he forgets to explain the +Revolution. We have abundance of vague declamations against shams in +high places, plenty of talk about God's judgments, in the style of the +Hebrew prophets, but of patient diagnosis, there is none. As Mr Morley +puts it in his luminous essay on Carlyle: 'To the question whether +mankind gained or lost by the French Revolution, Carlyle nowhere gives a +clear answer; indeed, on this subject more than any other, he clings +closely to his favourite method of simple presentation, streaked with +dramatic irony.... He draws its general moral lesson from the +Revolution, and with clangorous note warns all whom it concerns from +King to Church that imposture must come to an end. But for the precise +amount and kind of dissolution which the West owes to it, for the +political meaning of it, as distinguished from its moral or its dramatic +significance, we seek in vain, finding no word on the subject, nor even +evidence of consciousness that such word is needed.' Had Carlyle, in +addition to his genius as a historical dramatist, possessed the patient +diagnosing power of the writers and thinkers whom he derided, his +_French Revolution_ would have taken its place in historical literature +as an epoch-making book. As it stands, the reader who desires to have an +intelligible knowledge of the subject, is compelled to shake himself +free of the Carlylean mesmerism, and have recourse to those writers whom +Carlyle, under the opprobrious names of 'logic-choppers' and +'dry-as-dusts,' held up to public ridicule. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] _Reminiscences_, vol. ii. pp. 178-79. + +[16] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 20. + +[17] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 24. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HOLIDAY JOURNEYINGS--LITERARY WORK + + +Carlyle was so broken down with his efforts upon the _French Revolution_ +that a trip to Annandale became necessary. He stayed at Scotsbrig two +months, 'wholly idle, reading novels, smoking pipes in the garden with +his mother, hearing notices of his book from a distance, but not looking +for them or caring about them.' Autumn brought Carlyle back to Cheyne +Row, when he found his wife in better health, delighted to have him +again at her side. She knew, as Froude points out, though Carlyle, so +little vain was he, had failed as yet to understand it, that he had +returned to a changed position, that he was no longer lonely and +neglected, but had taken his natural place among the great writers of +his day. He sent bright accounts of himself to Scotsbrig. 'I find John +Sterling here, and many friends, all kinder each than the other to me. +With talk and locomotion the days pass cheerfully till I rest and gird +myself together again. They make a great talk about the book, which +seems to have succeeded in a far higher degree than I looked for. +Everybody is astonished at every other body's being pleased with this +wonderful performance.'[18] + +Carlyle did nothing all the winter except to write his essay on Sir +Walter Scott. His next task was to prepare for a second course of +lectures in the spring on 'Heroes.' The course ended with 'a blaze of +fire-works--people weeping at the passionately earnest tone in which for +once they heard themselves addressed.' The effort brought Carlyle L300 +after all expenses had been paid. 'A great blessing,' he remarked, 'to a +man that had been haunted by the squalid spectre of beggary.' + +Carlyle had no intention of visiting Scotland that autumn, but having +received a pressing invitation from old friends at Kirkcaldy, he took +steamer to Leith in August. While at Kirkcaldy he crossed to Edinburgh +and called on Jeffrey. 'He sat,' says Carlyle, 'waiting for me at Moray +Place. We talked long in the style of literary and philosophic +clitter-clatter. Finally it was settled that I should go out to dinner +with him at Craigcrook, and not return to Fife till the morrow.' They +dined and abstained from contradicting each other, Carlyle admitting +that Jeffrey was becoming an amiable old fribble, 'very cheerful, very +heartless, very forgettable and tolerable.' + +On his return to London, equal to work again, Carlyle found all well. He +was gratified to hear that the eighth edition of the _French +Revolution_ was almost sold, and that another would be called for, while +there were numerous applications from review editors for articles if he +would please to supply them. Mill about this time asked him to +contribute a paper on Cromwell to the _London and Westminster Review_. +Carlyle agreed, and was preparing to begin when the negotiations were +broken off. Mill had gone abroad, leaving a Mr Robertson to manage the +_Review_. Robertson coolly wrote to say that he need not go on with the +article, 'for he meant to do Cromwell himself.' Carlyle was wroth, and +that incident determined him to 'throw himself seriously into the +history of the Commonwealth, and to expose himself no more to cavalier +treatment from "able editors."' But for that task he required books. +Then it was that the idea of founding a London library occurred to him. +Men of position took up the matter warmly, and Carlyle's object was +accomplished. 'Let the tens of thousands,' says Mr Froude, 'who, it is +to be hoped, "are made better and wiser" by the books collected there, +remember that they owe the privilege entirely to Carlyle.' + +One of Carlyle's new acquaintances was Monckton Milnes, who asked him to +breakfast. Carlyle used to say that if Christ were again on earth Milnes +would ask Him to breakfast, and the clubs would all be talking of the +'good things' that Christ had said. He also became familiar with Mr +Baring, afterwards Lord Ashburton, and his accomplished wife, who in +course of time exercised a disturbing influence over the Carlyle +household. It would not tend to edification to dwell upon the domestic +misunderstandings at Cheyne Row; besides, are not they to be found +detailed at great length in Froude's _Life_, the _Reminiscences_, and +_Letters and Memorials_? Although Carlyle was taking life somewhat easy, +he was making preparations for his third course of lectures, his subject +being the 'Revolutions of Modern Europe.' They did not please the +lecturer, but the audiences were as enthusiastic as ever, and he made a +clear gain of L200. + +About this time Emerson was pressing him to go to Boston on a lecturing +tour. But Carlyle thought better of it. More important work awaited him +in London. 'All his life,' says Froude, 'he had been meditating on the +problem of the working-man's existence in this country at the present +epoch.... He had seen the Glasgow riots in 1819. He had heard his father +talk of the poor masons, dining silently upon water and water-cresses. +His letters are full of reflections on such things, sad or indignant, as +the humour might be. He was himself a working-man's son. He had been +bred in a peasant home, and all his sympathies were with his own class. +He was not a revolutionist; he knew well that violence would be no +remedy; that there lay only madness and deeper misery. But the fact +remained, portending frightful issues. The Reform Bill was to have +mended matters but the Reform Bill had gone by and the poor were none +the happier. The power of the State had been shifted from the +aristocracy to the mill-owners, and merchants, and shopkeepers. That was +all. The handicraftsman remained where he was, or was sinking, rather, +into an unowned Arab, to whom "freedom" meant freedom to work if the +employer had work to offer him conveniently to himself, or else freedom +to starve. The fruit of such a state of society as this was the +Sansculottism on which he had been lecturing, and he felt that he must +put his thoughts upon it in a permanent form. He had no faith in +political remedies, in extended suffrages, recognition of "the rights of +man," etc.--absolutely none. That was the road on which the French had +gone; and, if tried in England, it would end as it ended with them--in +anarchy, and hunger, and fury. The root of the mischief was the +forgetfulness on the part of the upper classes, increasing now to flat +denial, that they owed any duty to those under them beyond the payment +of contract wages at the market price. The Liberal theory, as formulated +in Political Economy, was that every one should attend exclusively to +his own interests, and that the best of all possible worlds would be the +certain result. His own conviction was that the result would be the +worst of all possible worlds, a world in which human life, such a life +as _human_ beings ought to live, would become impossible.'[19] + +He wrote to his brother when his lectures were over: "Guess what +immediate project I am on; that of writing an article on the +working-classes for the "Quarterly." It is verily so. I offered to do +the thing for Mill about a year ago. He durst not. I felt a kind of call +and monition of duty to do it, wrote to Lockhart accordingly, was +altogether invitingly answered, had a long interview with the man +yesterday, found him a person of sense, good-breeding, even kindness, +and great consentaneity of opinion with myself on the matter. Am to get +books from him to-morrow, and so shall forthwith set about telling the +Conservatives a thing or two about the claims, condition, rights, and +mights of the working order of men." + +When the annual exodus from London came, the Carlyles went north for a +holiday. They returned much refreshed at the end of two months. His +presence, moreover, was required in London, as _Wilhelm Meister_ was now +to be republished. He set about finishing his article for the +"Quarterly," but as he progressed he felt some misgiving as to its ever +appearing in that magazine. "I have finished," he wrote on November 8, +1839, "a long review article, thick pamphlet, or little volume, entitled +"Chartism." Lockhart has it, for it was partly promised to him; at +least the refusal of it was, and that, I conjecture, will be all he +will enjoy of it." Lockhart sent it back, 'seemingly not without +reluctance,' saying he dared not. Mill was shown the pamphlet and was +'unexpectedly delighted with it.' He was willing to publish it, but +Carlyle's wife and brother insisted that the thing was too good for a +magazine article. Fraser undertook to print it, and before the close of +the year _Chartism_ was in the hands of the public. + +The sale was rapid, an edition of a thousand copies being sold +immediately. 'Chartism,' Froude narrates, was loudly noticed: +"considerable reviewing, but very daft reviewing." Men wondered; how +could they choose but wonder, when a writer of evident power stripped +bare the social disease, told them that their remedies were quack +remedies, and their progress was progress to dissolution? The Liberal +journals, finding their "formulas" disbelieved in, clamoured that +Carlyle was unorthodox; no Radical, but a wolf in sheep's clothing. Yet +what he said was true, and could not be denied to be true. "They approve +generally," he said, "but regret very much that I am a Tory. Stranger +Tory, in my opinion, has not been fallen in with in these later +generations." Again a few weeks later (February 11): "The people are +beginning to discover that I am not a Tory. Ah, no! but one of the +deepest, though perhaps the quietest, of all the Radicals now extant in +the world--a thing productive of small comfort to several persons. They +have said, and they will say, and let them say." + +His final course of lectures now confronted him, and these he entitled +_Heroes and Hero Worship_. He tells his mother (May 26, 1840): 'The +lecturing business went off with sufficient _eclat_. The course was +generally judged, and I rather join therein myself, to be the bad _best_ +I have yet given. On the last day--Friday last--I went to speak of +Cromwell with a head _full of air_; you know that wretched physical +feeling; I had been concerned with drugs, had awakened at five, etc. It +is absolute martyrdom. My tongue would hardly wag at all when I got +done. Yet the good people sate breathless, or broke out into all kinds +of testimonies of goodwill.... In a word, we got right handsomely +through.' That was Carlyle's last appearance as a public lecturer. He +was now the observed of all observers in London society; but he was +weary of lionising and junketings. 'What,' he notes in his journal on +June 15, 1840, 'are lords coming to call on one and fill one's head with +whims? They ask you to go among champagne, bright glitter, +semi-poisonous excitements which you do not like even for the moment, +and you are sick for a week after. As old Tom White said of whisky, +"Keep it--Deevil a ever I'se better than when there's no a drop on't i' +my weam." So say I of dinner popularity, lords and lionism--Keep it; +give it to those that like it.' + +Carlyle was much refreshed at this period by visits from Tennyson. Here +is what he says of the poet: 'A fine, large-featured, dim-eyed, +bronze-coloured, shaggy-headed man is Alfred; dusty, smoky, free and +easy, who swims outwardly and inwardly with great composure in an +inarticulate element of tranquil chaos and tobacco smoke. Great now and +then when he does emerge--a most restful, brotherly, solid-hearted man.' + +In a note to his brother John on September 11, 1840, he says: 'I have +again some notions towards writing a book--let us see what comes of +that. It is the one use of living, for me. Enough to-day.' The book he +had in view was _Cromwell_. Journalising on the day after Christmas he +laments--'Oliver Cromwell will not prosper with me at all. I began +reading about that subject some four months ago. I learn almost nothing +by reading, yet cannot as yet heartily begin to write. Nothing on paper +yet. I know not where to begin.' + +At the end of the year Mrs Carlyle wrote: 'Carlyle is reading +voraciously, preparatory to writing a new book. For the rest, he growls +away much in the old style. But one gets to feel a certain indifference +to his growling; if one did not, it would be the worse for one.' A month +or two later, Carlyle writes: 'Think not hardly of me, dear Jeannie. In +the mutual misery we often are in, we do not know how dear we are to one +another. By the help of Heaven, I shall get a little better, and +somewhat of it shall abate. Last night, at dinner, Richard Milnes made +them all laugh with a saying of yours. "When the wife has influenza, it +is _a slight cold_--when the man has it, it is, &c., &c."' Writing to +Sterling he exclaims, 'I shall verily fly to Craigenputtock again before +long. Yet I know what solitude is, and imprisonment among black cattle +and peat bogs. The truth is, we are never right as we are. "Oh, the +devil burn it"! said the Irish drummer flogging his countryman; "there's +no pleasing of you, strike where one will."' + +Milnes prevailed on Carlyle, instead of flying to the bleak expanse of +Craigenputtock, to accompany him to his father's house at Fryston, in +Yorkshire, whence he sent a series of affectionate and graphic letters +to Mrs Carlyle. Being so far north, he took a run to Dumfriesshire to +see his mother, who had been slightly ailing. He was back in London, +however, in May, but not improved in mind or body. It was a hot summer, +and the Carlyles went to Scotsbrig, and took a cottage at Newby, close +to Annan. By the end of September, Carlyle was back in Cheyne Row. His +latest hero still troubled him. 'Ought I,' he asks, 'to write now of +Oliver Cromwell?... I cannot yet see clearly.' + +Carlyle at one time had a hankering after a Scottish professorship, but +the 'door had been shut in his face,' sometimes contemptuously. He was +now famous, and the young Edinburgh students, having looked into his +lectures on Heroes, began to think that, whatever might be the opinions +of the authorities and patrons, they for their part must consider +lectures such as these a good exchange for what was provided for them. A +'History Chair' was about to be established. A party of them, +represented by a Mr Dunipace, presented a requisition to the Faculty of +Advocates to appoint Carlyle. When asked his consent to be nominated, +Carlyle replied: 'Accept my kind thanks, you and all your associates, +for your zeal to serve me.... Ten years ago such an invitation might +perhaps have been decisive of much for me, but it is too late now; too +late for many reasons, which I need not trouble you with at present.' + +A very severe blow now fell upon Mrs Carlyle, who received news from +Templand that her mother had been struck by apoplexy, and was +dangerously ill. Although unfit for travelling, she caught the first +train from Euston Square to Liverpool, but at her uncle's house there +she learnt that all was over. Mrs Carlyle lay ill in Liverpool, unable +to stir. After a while she was able to go back to London, where Carlyle +joined her in the month of May. It was on his return journey that he +paid a visit to Dr Arnold at Rugby, when he had an opportunity, under +his host's genial guidance, to explore the field of Naseby. + +His sad occupations in Scotland, and the sad thoughts they suggested, +made Carlyle disinclined for society. He had a room arranged for him at +the top of his house, and there he sate and smoked, and read books on +Cromwell, 'the sight of Naseby having brought the subject back out of +"the abysses."' Meanwhile he had a pleasant trip to Ostend with Mr +Stephen Spring Rice, Commissioner of Customs, of which he wrote vivid +descriptions. + +On October 25, 1842, Carlyle wrote in his journal: 'For many months +there has been no writing here. Alas! what was there to write? About +myself, nothing; or less, if that was possible. I have not got one word +to stand upon paper in regard to Oliver. The beginnings of work are even +more formidable than the executing of it.' But another subject was to +engross his attention for a little while. The distress of the poor +became intense; less in London, however, than in other large towns. 'I +declare,' he wrote to his mother early in January 1843, 'I declare I +begin to feel as if I should not hold my peace any longer, 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 done.' On the 20th he wrote: +'I hope it will be a rather useful kind of book.' He could not go on +with Cromwell till he had unburdened his soul. 'The look of the world,' +he said, 'is really quite oppressive to me. Eleven thousand souls in +Paisley alone living on threehalfpence a day, and the governors of the +land all busy shooting partridges and passing corn-laws the while! It +is a thing no man with a speaking tongue in his head is entitled to be +silent about.' The outcome of all his soul-burnings and cogitations was +_Past and Present_, which appeared at the beginning of April. The +reviewers set to work, 'wondering, admiring, blaming, chiefly the last.' + +Carlyle then undertook several journeys, chiefly in order to visit +Cromwellian battlefields, the sight of which made the Oliver enterprise +no longer impossible. He found a renovated house on his return, and Mrs +Carlyle writing on November 28th, describes him as 'over head and ears +in Cromwell,' and 'lost to humanity for the time being.' Six months +later, he makes this admission in his journal--'My progress in +"Cromwell" is frightful. I am no day absolutely idle, but the confusions +that lie in my way require far more fire of energy than I can muster on +most days, and I sit not so much working as painfully looking on work.' +Four months later, when _Cromwell_ was progressing slowly, Carlyle +suffered a severe personal loss by the death of John Sterling. +'Sterling,' says Froude, 'had been his spiritual pupil, his first, and +also his noblest and best. Consumption had set its fatal mark upon him.' +Carlyle drowned his sorrow in hard work, and in July 1845 the end of +_Cromwell_ was coming definitely in sight. In his journal under date +August 26th, is to be found this entry: 'I have this moment _ended_ +Oliver; hang it! He is ended, thrums and all. I have nothing more to +write on the subject, only mountains of wreck to burn. Not (any more) up +to the chin in paper clippings and chaotic litter, hatefuller to me than +most. I _am_ to have a swept floor now again.' And thus the herculean +labours of five years were ended. His desire was to be in Scotland, and +he made his way northwards by the usual sea route to Annan and +Scotsbrig. He did not remain long away, and upon his return _Cromwell_ +was just issuing from the press. It was received with great favour, the +sale was rapid, and additional materials came from unexpected quarters. +In February 1846 a new edition was needed in order to insert fresh +letters of Oliver according to date; a process, Carlyle said 'requiring +one's most excellent talent, as of shoe-cobbling, really that kind of +talent carried to a high pitch.' When completed, Carlyle presented a +copy of it to the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, a step he never took +before or after with any of his writings,--a compliment which Peel +gracefully acknowledged. + +Carlyle's plans for the summer of 1846 were, a visit to his mother and a +run across to Ireland. Charles Gavan Duffy of the _Nation_ newspaper saw +him in London in consequence of what he had written in _Chartism_ about +misgovernment in Ireland. He had promised to go over and see what the +'Young Ireland' movement was doing. On the 31st of August he left +Scotsbrig, and landed in due course at Belfast, where he was to have +been met by John Mitchel and Gavan Duffy and driven to Drogheda. He +missed his two friends through a mistake at the post-office, and hurried +on by railway to Dublin. He met them at Dundrum, and was there +entertained at a large dinner-party. Next day he dined at Mitchel's. His +stay was remarkably short. He took steamer at Kingstown, and in the +early morning of September 10th '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 in.' + +In June 1847 Carlyle relates that they had a flying visit from Jeffrey. +'A much more interesting visitor than Jeffrey was old Dr Chalmers, who +came down to us also last week, whom I had not seen before for, I think, +five-and-twenty years. It was a pathetic meeting. The good old man is +grown white-headed, but is otherwise wonderfully little altered--grave, +deliberate, very gentle in his deportment, but with plenty too of soft +energy; full of interest still for all serious things, full of real +kindliness, and sensible even to honest mirth in a fair measure. He sate +with us an hour and a half, went away with our blessings and affections. +It is long since I have spoken to so _good_ and really pious-hearted and +beautiful old man.' In a week or two Chalmers was suddenly called away. +'I believe,' wrote Carlyle to his mother, 'there is not in all Scotland, +or all Europe, any such Christian priest left. It will long be memorable +to us, the little visit we had from him.' + +Early in 1848, the Jew Bill was before Parliament, and the fate of it +doubtful, narrates Mr Froude. Baron Rothschild wrote to ask Carlyle to +write a pamphlet in its favour, and intimated that he might name any sum +which he liked to ask as payment. Froude enquired how he answered. +'Well,' he said, 'I had to tell him it couldn't be; but I observed, too, +that I could not conceive why he and his friends, who were supposed to +be looking out for the coming of Shiloh, should be seeking seats in a +Gentile legislature.' Froude asked what the Baron said to that. 'Why,' +said Carlyle, 'he seemed to think the coming of Shiloh was a dubious +business, and that meanwhile, etc., etc.' + +On February 9, 1848, Carlyle wrote in his journal: 'Chapman's money +[Chapman & Hall were his publishers] all paid, lodged now in the +Dumfries Bank. New edition of "Sartor" to be wanted soon. My poor books +of late have yielded me a certain fluctuating annual income; at all +events, I am quite at my ease as to money, and that on such low terms. I +often wonder at the luxurious ways of the age. Some L1500, I think, is +what has accumulated in the bank. Of fixed income (from Craigenputtock) +L150 a year. Perhaps as much from my books may lie fixed amid the huge +fluctuation (last year, for instance, it was L800: the year before, +L100; the year before that, about L700; this year, again, it is like to +be L100; the next perhaps nothing--very fluctuating indeed)--some L300 +in all, and that amply suffices me. For my wife is the best of +housewives; noble, too, in reference to the property, which is _hers_, +which she has never once in the most distant way seemed to know to be +hers. Be this noted and remembered; my thrifty little lady--every inch a +lady--ah me! In short, I authentically feel indifferent to money; would +not go this way or that to gain more money.'[20] + +The Revolution of February 24th at Paris surprised Carlyle less than +most of his contemporaries, as it confirmed what he had been saying for +years. He did not believe, we are told, in immediate convulsion in +England; but he did believe that, unless England took warning and mended +her ways, her turn would come. The excitement in London was intense, and +leading men expressed themselves freely, but Carlyle's general thoughts +were uttered in a lengthy letter to Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, for +whom he entertained a warm regard. On March 14 he met Macaulay at Lord +Mahon's at breakfast; 'Niagara of eloquent commonplace talk,' he says, +'from Macaulay. "Very good-natured man"; man cased in official mail of +proof; stood my impatient fire-explosions with much patience, merely +hissing a little steam up, and continued his Niagara--supply and demand; +power ruinous to powerful himself; _im_possibility of Government doing +more than keep the peace; suicidal distraction of new French Republic, +etc. Essentially irremediable, commonplace nature of the man; all that +was in him now gone to the tongue; a squat, thickset, low-browed, short, +grizzled little man of fifty.' + +One of the few men Carlyle was anxious to see was Sir Robert Peel. He +was introduced by the Barings at a dinner at Bath House. Carlyle sat +next to Peel, whom he describes as 'a finely-made man of strong, not +heavy, rather of elegant, stature; stands straight, head slightly thrown +back, and eyelids modestly drooping; every way mild and gentle, yet with +less of that fixed smile than the portraits give him. He is towards +sixty, and, though not broken at all, carries, especially in his +complexion, when you are _near_ him, marks of that age; clear, strong +blue eyes which kindle on occasion, voice extremely good, low-toned, +something of _cooing_ in it, rustic, affectionate, honest, mildly +persuasive. Spoke about French Revolutions new and old; well read in all +that; had seen General Dumouriez; reserved seemingly by nature, obtrudes +nothing of _diplomatic_ reserve. On the contrary, a vein of mild _fun_ +in him, real sensibility to the ludicrous, which feature I liked best of +all.... I consider him by far our first public man--which, indeed, is +saying little--and hope that England in these frightful times may still +get some good of him. N.B.--This night with Peel was the night in which +Berlin city executed its last terrible battle, (19th of March to Sunday +morning the 20th, five o'clock.) While we sate there the streets of +Berlin city were all blazing with grape-shot and the war of enraged men. +What is to become of all that? I have a book to write about it. Alas! We +hear of a great Chartist petition to be presented by 200,000 men. People +here keep up their foolish levity in speaking of these things; but +considerate persons find them to be very grave; and indeed all, even the +laughers, are in considerable secret alarm.'[21] + +At such a time Carlyle knew that he, the author of _Chartism_, ought to +say something. Foolish people, too, came pressing for his opinions. Not +seeing his way to a book upon 'Democracy,' he wrote a good many +newspaper articles, chiefly in the _Examiner_ and the _Spectator_, to +deliver his soul. Even Fonblanque and Rintoul (the editors), remarks +Froude, friendly though they were to him, could not allow him his full +swing. 'There is no established journal,' complained Carlyle, 'that can +stand my articles, no single one they would not blow the bottom out of.' + +On July 12 occurs this entry in his journal: 'Chartist concern, and +Irish Repeal concern, and French Republic concern have all gone a bad +way since the March entry--April 20 (immortal day already dead), day of +Chartist monster petition; 200,000 special constables swore themselves +in, etc., and Chartism came to nothing. Riots since, but the leaders +all lodged in gaol, tried, imprisoned for two years, etc., and so ends +Chartism for the present. Irish Mitchel, poor fellow! is now in Bermuda +as a felon; letter from him, letter to him, letter to and from Lord +Clarendon--was really sorry for poor Mitchel. But what help? French +Republic _cannonaded_ by General Cavaignac; a sad outlook there.'[22] + +Carlyle's _Cromwell_ had created a set of enthusiastic admirers who were +bent on having a statue of the great Protector set up. Carlyle was asked +to give his sanction to the proposal. Writing to his mother, he said: +'The people having subscribed L25,000 for a memorial to an ugly bullock +of a Hudson, who did not even pretend to have any merit except that of +being suddenly rich, and who is now discovered to be little other than +at heart a horse-coper and dishonest fellow, I think they ought to leave +Cromwell alone of their memorials, and try to honour him in some more +profitable way--by learning to be honest men like him, for example. But +we shall see what comes of all this Cromwell work--a thing not without +value either.'[23] + +'Ireland,' says Froude, 'of all the topics on which Carlyle had +meditated writing, remained painfully fascinating. He had looked at the +beggarly scene, he had seen the blighted fields, the ragged misery of +the wretched race who were suffering for other's sins as well as for +their own. Since that brief visit of his, the famine had been followed +by the famine-fever, and the flight of millions from a land which was +smitten with a curse. Those ardent young men with whom he had dined at +Dundrum were working as felons in the docks at Bermuda. Gavan Duffy, +after a near escape from the same fate, had been a guest in Cheyne Row; +and the story which he had to tell of cabins torn down by crowbars, and +shivering families, turned out of their miserable homes, dying in the +ditches by the roadside, had touched Carlyle to the very heart. He was +furious at the economical commonplaces with which England was consoling +itself. He regarded Ireland as "the breaking-point of the huge +suppuration which all British and all European society then was."'[24] +Carlyle paid a second visit to Ireland. He was anxious to write a book +on the subject. He noted down what he had seen, and 'then dismissed the +unhappy subject from his mind,' giving his manuscript to a friend, which +was published after his death. + +The 7th of August found Carlyle among his 'ain folk' at Scotsbrig, and +this was his soliloquy: 'Thank Heaven for the sight of real human +industry, with human fruits from it, once more. The sight of fenced +fields, weeded crops, and human creatures with whole clothes on their +back--it was as if one had got into spring water out of dunghill +puddles.' Mrs Carlyle had also gone to Scotland, and 'wandered like a +returned spirit about the home of her childhood.' Of her numerous lively +letters, room must be found for a characteristic epistle to her +brother-in-law, John Carlyle. His translation of Dante's _Inferno_ was +just out, and her uncle's family at Auchtertool Manse, in Fife, where +she was staying, were busy reading and discussing it. 'We had been +talking about you,' she says, 'and had sunk silent. Suddenly my uncle +turned his head to me and said, shaking it gravely, "He has made an +awesome plooster o' that place." "Who? What place, uncle?" "Whew! the +place ye'll maybe gang to, if ye dinna tak' care." I really believe he +considers all those circles of your invention. Walter [a cousin, just +ordained] performed the marriage service over a couple of colliers the +day after I came. I happened to be in his study when they came in, and +asked leave to remain. The man was a good-looking man enough, dreadfully +agitated, partly with the business he was come on, partly with drink. He +had evidently taken a glass too much to keep his heart up. The girl had +one very large inflamed eye and one little one, which looked perfectly +composed, while the large eye stared wildly, and had a tear in it. +Walter married them very well indeed; and his affecting words, together +with the bridegroom's pale, excited face, and the bride's ugliness, and +the poverty, penury, and want imprinted on the whole business, 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 myself, and, when the ceremony +was over, extended my hand to the unfortunates, and actually (in such an +enthusiasm of pity did I find myself) I presented the new husband with a +snuff-box which I happened to have in my hand, being just about +presenting it to Walter when the creatures came in. This unexpected +_Himmelsendung_ finished turning the man's head; he wrung my hand over +and over, leaving his mark for some hours after, and ended his grateful +speeches with, "Oh, Miss! Oh, Liddy! may ye hae mair comfort and +pleasure in your life than ever you have had yet!" which might easily +be.' + +Carlyle was full of wrath at what he considered the cant about the +condition of the wage-earners in Manchester and elsewhere, and his +indignation found vent in the _Latter-day Pamphlets_. Froude once asked +him if he had ever thought of going into Parliament, for the former knew +that the opportunity must have been offered him. 'Well,' he said, 'I did +think of it at the time of the "Latter-day Pamphlets." I felt that +nothing could prevent me from getting up in the House and saying all +that.' 'He was powerful,' adds Froude, '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 was, and +remains charged. It is better that his thoughts should have been +committed to enduring print, where they remain to be reviewed hereafter +by the light of fact.'[25] + +The printing of the _Pamphlets_ commenced at the beginning of 1850, and +went on month after month, each separately published, no magazine daring +to become responsible for them. When the _Pamphlets_ appeared, they were +received with 'astonished indignation.' 'Carlyle taken to whisky,' was +the popular impression--or perhaps he had gone mad. '_Punch_,' says +Froude, 'the most friendly to him of all the London periodicals, +protested affectionately. The delinquent was brought up for trial before +him, I think for injuring his reputation. He was admonished, but stood +impenitent, and even "called the worthy magistrate a windbag and a +sham." I suppose it was Thackeray who wrote this; or some other kind +friend, who feared, like Emerson, "that the world would turn its back on +him." He was under no illusion himself as to the effect which he was +producing.'[26] + +Amid the general storm, Carlyle was 'agreeably surprised' to receive an +invitation to dine with Peel at Whitehall Gardens, where he met a select +company. 'After all the servants but the butler were gone,' narrates +Carlyle, 'we began to hear a little of Peel's quiet talk across the +table, unimportant, distinguished by its sense of the ludicrous shining +through a strong official _rationality_ and even seriousness of temper. +Distracted _address_ of a letter from somebody to Queen Victoria; "The +most noble George Victoria, Queen of England, Knight and Baronet," or +something like that. A man had once written to Peel himself, while +secretary, "that he was weary of life, that if any gentleman wanted for +his park-woods a hermit, he, etc.", all of which was very pretty and +human as Peel gave it us.'[27] Carlyle was driven home by the Bishop of +Oxford, 'Soapy Sam' Wilberforce, whom he had probably met before at the +Ashburton's. The Bishop once told Froude that he considered Carlyle a +most eminently religious man. 'Ah, Sam,' said Carlyle to Froude one day, +'he is a very clever fellow; I do not hate him near as much as I fear I +ought to do.' Carlyle and Peel met once more, at Bath House, and there, +too, he was first introduced to the Duke of Wellington. Writing at the +time, Carlyle said: 'I had never seen till now how beautiful, and what +an expression of graceful simplicity, veracity, and nobleness there is +about the old hero when you see him close at hand.... Except for Dr +Chalmers, I have not for many years seen so beautiful an old man.' + +Carlyle intended, some time or other, writing a 'Life of Sterling,' but +meanwhile he accepted an invitation to visit South Wales. Thence he +made his way to Scotsbrig. On the 27th September 1850, he 'parted +sorrowfully with his mother.' When he reached London, the autumn +quarterlies were reviewing the _Pamphlets_, and the 'shrieking tone was +considerably modified.' 'A review of them,' says Froude, 'by Masson in +the _North British_ distinctly pleased Carlyle. A review in the _Dublin_ +he found "excellently serious," and conjectured that it came from some +Anglican pervert or convert. It was written, I believe, by Dr Ward.' + +After a few more wanderings, Carlyle set about the _Life of Sterling_, +and on April 5, 1851, he informs his mother: 'I told the Doctor about +"John Sterling's Life," a small, insignificant book or pamphlet I have +been writing. The booksellers got it away from me the other morning, to +see how much there is of it, in the first place. I know not altogether +myself whether it is worth printing or not, but rather think it will be +the end of it whether or not. It has cost little trouble, and need not +do much ill, if it do no great amount of good.' Another visit had to be +paid to Scotsbrig, where he read the "Life of Chalmers." 'An excellent +Christian man,' he said. 'About as great a contrast to himself in all +ways as could be found in these epochs under the same sky.' + +When he got back to Cheyne Row, he took to reading the "Seven Years' +War," with a view to another book. He determined to go to Germany, and +on August 30, 1852, Carlyle embarked 'on board the greasy little wretch +of a Leith steamer, laden to the water's edge with pig-iron and +herrings.' The journey over, he set to work on 'Frederick,' but was +driven almost to despair by the cock-crowing in his neighbourhood. +Writing to Mrs Carlyle, he says: 'I foresee in general these cocks will +require to be abolished, entirely silenced, whether we build the new +room or not. I would cheerfully shoot them, and pay the price if +discovered, but I have no gun, should be unsafe for hitting, and indeed +seldom see the wretched animals.' + +He took refuge at the Ashburton's house, the Grange, but on the 20th of +December, news came that his mother was seriously ill, and could not +last long. He hurried off to Scotsbrig, and reached there in time to see +her once more alive. In his journal, this passage is to be found under +date January 8, 1854: 'The stroke has fallen. My dear old mother is gone +from me, and in the winter of the year, confusedly under darkness of +weather and of mind, the stern final epoch--_epoch of old age_--is +beginning to unfold itself for me.... It is matter of perennial +thankfulness to me, and beyond my desert in that matter very far, that I +found my dear old mother still alive; able to recognise me with a faint +joy; her former _self_ still strangely visible there in all its +lineaments, though worn to the uttermost thread. The brave old mother +and the good, whom to lose had been my fear ever since intelligence +awoke in me in this world, arrived now at the final bourn.... She was +about 84 years of age, and could not with advantage to any side remain +with us longer. Surely it was a good Power that gave us such a mother; +and good though stern that took her away from amid such grief and labour +by a death beautiful to one's thoughts. "All the days of my appointed +time will I wait till my change come." This they heard her muttering, +and many other less frequent pious texts and passages. Amen, Amen! +Sunday, December 25, 1853--a day henceforth for ever memorable to me.... +To live for the shorter or longer remainder of my days with the simple +bravery, veracity, and piety of her that is gone: that would be a right +learning from her death, and a right honouring of her memory. But alas +all is yet _frozen_ within me; even as it is without me at present, and +I have made little or no way. God be helpful to me! I myself am very +weak, confused, fatigued, entangled in poor _worldlinesses_ too. +Newspaper paragraphs, even as this sacred and peculiar thing, are not +indifferent to me. Weak soul! and I am fifty-eight years old, and the +tasks I have on hand, Frederick, &c., are most ungainly, incongruous +with my mood--and the night cometh, for me too is not distant, which for +her is come. I must try, I must try. Poor brother Jack! Will he do his +Dante now? For him also I am sad; and surely he has deserved gratitude +in these last years from us all.'[28] + +When he returned to London, Carlyle lived in strict seclusion, making +repeated efforts at work on what he called 'the unexecutable book,' +_Frederick_. In the spring of 1854, tidings reached Carlyle of the death +of Professor Wilson. Between them there had never been any cordial +relation, says Froude. 'They had met in Edinburgh in the old days; on +Carlyle's part there had been no backwardness, and Wilson was not +unconscious of Carlyle's extraordinary powers. But he had been shy of +Carlyle, and Carlyle had resented it, and now this April the news came +that Wilson was gone, and Carlyle had to write his epitaph. 'I knew his +figure well,' wrote Carlyle in his journal on April 29; 'remember well +first seeing him in Princes Street on a bright April afternoon--probably +1814--exactly forty years ago.... A tall ruddy figure, with plenteous +blonde hair, with bright blue eyes, fixed, as if in haste towards some +distant object, strode rapidly along, clearing the press to the left of +us, close by the railings, near where Blackwood's shop now is. Westward +he in haste; we slowly eastward. Campbell whispered me, "That is Wilson +of the _Isle of Palms_," which poem I had not read, being then quite +mathematical, scientific, &c., for extraneous reasons, as I now see them +to have been. The broad-shouldered stately bulk of the man struck me; +his flashing eye, copious, dishevelled head of hair, and rapid, +unconcerned progress, like that of a plough through stubble. I really +liked him, but only from the distance, and thought no more of him. It +must have been fourteen years later before I once saw his figure again, +and began to have some distant straggling acquaintance of a personal +kind with him. Glad could I have been to be better and more familiarly +acquainted; but though I liked much in him, and he somewhat in me, it +would not do. He was always very kind to me, but seemed to have a +feeling I should--could--not become wholly his, in which he was right, +and that on other terms he could not have me; so we let it so remain, +and for many years--indeed, even after quitting Edinburgh--I had no +acquaintance with him; occasionally got symptoms of his ill-humour with +me--ink-spurts in _Blackwood_, read or heard of, which I, in a surly, +silent manner, strove to consider _flattering_ rather.... So far as I +can recollect, he was once in my house (Comely Bank, with a testimonial, +poor fellow!), and I once in his, De Quincey, &c., a little while one +afternoon.'[29] + +On September 16, 1854, Carlyle breaks out in his journal: '"The harvest +is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."' What a fearful +word! I cannot find how to take up that miserable "Frederick," or what +on earth to do with it.' He worked hard at it, nevertheless, for +eighteen months, and by the end of May 1858, the first instalment was +all in type. Froude remarks that a fine critic once said to him that +Carlyle's Friedrich Wilhelm was as peculiar and original as Sterne's +Tristram Shandy; certainly as distinct a personality as exists in +English fiction. Carlyle made a second journey to Germany. Shortly after +his return, the already finished volumes of _Frederick_ appeared, and +they met with an immediate welcome. The success was great; 2000 copies +were sold at the first issue, and a second 2000 were disposed of almost +as rapidly, and a third 2000 followed. Mrs Carlyle's health being +unsatisfactory, Carlyle took a house for the summer at Humbie, near +Aberdour in Fife. They returned to Cheyne Row in October, neither of +them benefited by their holiday in the north. + +While many of Carlyle's intimate friends were passing away, he formed +Ruskin's acquaintance, which turned out mutually satisfactory. On the +23rd April 1861, Carlyle writes to his brother John: 'Friday last I was +persuaded--in fact had unwarily compelled myself, as it were--to a +lecture of Ruskin's at the Institution, Albemarle Street. Lecture on +Tree Leaves as physiological, pictorial, moral, symbolical objects. A +crammed house, but tolerable to me even in the gallery. The lecture was +thought to "break down," and indeed it quite did "_as a lecture_"; but +only did from _embarras des richesses_--a rare case. Ruskin did blow +asunder as by gunpowder explosions his leaf notions, which were +manifold, curious, genial; and, in fact, I do not recollect to have +heard in that place any neatest thing I liked so well as this chaotic +one.'[30] + +_Frederick_ was progressing, though slowly, as he found the ore in the +German material at his disposal "nowhere smelted out of it." The third +volume was finished and published in the summer of 1862; the fourth +volume was getting into type; and the fifth and last was finished in +January 1865. 'It nearly killed me,' Carlyle writes in his journal, 'it, +and my poor Jane's dreadful illness, now happily over. No sympathy could +be found on earth for those horrid struggles of twelve years, nor +happily was any needed. On Sunday evening in the end of January (1865) I +walked out, with the multiplex feeling--joy not very prominent in it, +but a kind of solemn thankfulness traceable, that I had written the last +sentence of that unutterable book, and, contrary to many forebodings in +bad hours, had actually got done with it for ever.' + +In England it was at once admitted, says Froude, that a splendid +addition had been made to the national literature. 'The book contained, +if nothing else, a gallery of historical figures executed with a skill +which placed Carlyle at the head of literary portrait painters.... No +critic, after the completion of _Frederick_, challenged Carlyle's right +to a place beside the greatest of English authors, past or present.' The +work was translated instantly into German, calling forth the warmest +appreciation. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 115. + +[19] Froude's "Life in London," vol. i. pp. 161-62. + +[20] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 420. + +[21] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. pp. 433-4. + +[22] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 441. + +[23] Ibid., vol. i. p. 451. + +[24] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. i. p. 456. + +[25] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 26. + +[26] Ibid., vol. ii. p. 36. + +[27] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 43. + +[28] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. pp. 142-45. + +[29] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. pp. 156-7. + +[30] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 245. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +RECTORIAL ADDRESS--DEATH OF MRS CARLYLE + + +After a round of holiday visits, including one to Annandale, the +Carlyles settled down once more at Cheyne Row in the summer of 1865. +'The great outward event of Carlyle's own life,' observes Froude, +'Scotland's public recognition of him, was now lying close ahead. This +his wife was to live to witness as her final happiness in this world.' +Here is an eloquent passage from the same pen: 'I had been at +Edinburgh,' writes Froude, 'and had heard Gladstone make his great +oration on Homer there, on retiring from office as Rector. It was a +grand display. I never recognised before what oratory could do; the +audience being kept for three hours in a state of electric tension, +bursting every moment into applause. Nothing was said which seemed of +moment when read deliberately afterwards; but the voice was like +enchantment, and the street, when we left the building, was ringing with +a prolongation of cheers. Perhaps in all Britain there was not a man +whose views on all subjects, in heaven and earth, less resembled +Gladstone's than those of the man whom this same applauding multitude +elected to take his place. The students too, perhaps, were ignorant how +wide the contradiction was; but if they had been aware of it they need +not have acted differently. Carlyle had been one of themselves. He had +risen from among them--not by birth or favour, not on the ladder of any +established profession, but only by the internal force that was in +him--to the highest place as a modern man of letters. In _Frederick_ he +had given the finish to his reputation; he stood now at the summit of +his fame; and the Edinburgh students desired to mark their admiration in +some signal way. He had been mentioned before, but he had declined to be +nominated, for a party only were then in his favour. On this occasion, +the students were unanimous, or nearly so. His own consent was all that +was wanting.'[31] This consent was obtained, and Carlyle was chosen +Rector of Edinburgh University. But the Address troubled him. He +resolved, however, as his father used to say, to 'gar himself go through +with the thing,' or at least to try. Froude says he was very miserable, +but that Mrs Carlyle 'kept up his spirits, made fun of his fears, +bantered him, encouraged him, herself at heart as much alarmed as he +was, but conscious, too, of the ridiculous side of it.' She thought of +accompanying him, but her health would not permit of the effort. Both +Huxley and Tyndall were going down, and Tyndall promised Mrs Carlyle to +take care of her husband. + +On Monday morning, the 29th of March, 1866, Carlyle and his wife parted. +'The last I saw of her,' he said, 'was as she stood with her back to the +parlour door to bid me good-bye. She kissed me twice, she me once, I her +a second time.' They parted for ever. + +Edinburgh was reached in due course, and what happened there had best be +told by an eye-witness, Professor Masson. 'On the night following +Carlyle's arrival in town,' he says, 'after he had settled himself in Mr +Erskine of Linlathen's house, where he was to stay during his visit, he +and his brother John came to my house in Rosebery Crescent, that they +might have a quiet smoke and talk over matters. They sat with me an hour +or more, Carlyle as placid and hearty as could be, talking most +pleasantly, a little dubious, indeed, as to how he might get through his +Address, but for the rest unperturbed. As to the Address itself, when +the old man stood up in the Music Hall before the assembled crowd, and +threw off his Rectorial robes, and proceeded to speak, slowly, +connectedly, 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 next, the crowd listening as they had never listened to a speaker +before, and reverent even in those parts of the hall where he was least +audible,--who that was present will ever forget that sight? That day, +and on the subsequent days of his stay, there were, of course, dinners +and other gatherings in Carlyle's honour. One such dinner, followed by a +larger evening gathering, was in my house. Then, too, he was in the best +of possible spirits, courteous in manner and in speech to all, and +throwing himself heartily into whatever turned up. At the dinner-table, +I remember, Lord Neaves favoured us with one or two of his humorous +songs or recitatives, including his clever quiz called "Stuart Mill on +Mind and Matter," written to the tune of "Roy's wife of Aldivalloch." No +one enjoyed the thing more than Carlyle; and he surprised me by doing +what I had never heard him do before,--actually joining with his own +voice in the chorus. "Stuart Mill on Mind and Matter, Stuart Mill on +Mind and Matter," he chaunted laughingly along with Lord Neaves every +time the chorus came round, beating time in the air emphatically with +his fist. It was hardly otherwise, or only otherwise inasmuch as the +affair was more ceremonious and stately, at the dinner given to him in +the Douglas Hotel by the Senatus Academicus, and in which his old friend +Sir David Brewster presided. There, too, while dignified and serene, +Carlyle was thoroughly sympathetic and convivial. Especially I remember +how he relished and applauded the songs of our academic laureate and +matchless chief in such things, Professor Douglas Maclagan, and how, +before we broke up, he expressly complimented Professor Maclagan on +having "contributed so greatly to the hilarity of the evening."'[32] + +The most graphic account of Carlyle's installation as Lord Rector is +that by Alexander Smith, the author of 'A Life Drama,' 'Summer in Skye,' +&c., &c., whose lamented death took place a few months after that event. +'Curious stories,' he wrote, 'are told of the eagerness on every side +manifested to hear Mr Carlyle. Country clergymen from beyond Aberdeen +came to Edinburgh for the sole purpose of hearing and seeing. Gentlemen +came down from London by train the night before, and returned to London +by train the night after. Nay, it was even said that an enthusiast, +dwelling in the remote west of Ireland, intimated to the officials who +had charge of the distribution, that if a ticket should be reserved for +him, he would gladly come the whole way to Edinburgh. Let us hope a +ticket _was_ reserved. On the day of the address, the doors of the Music +Hall were besieged long before the hour of opening had arrived; and +loitering about there on the outskirts of the crowd, one could not help +glancing curiously down Pitt Street, towards the "lang toun of +Kirkcaldy," dimly seen beyond the Forth; for on the sands there, in the +early years of the century, Edward Irving was accustomed to pace up and +down solitarily, and "as if the sands were his own," people say, who +remember, when they were boys, seeing the tall, ardent, black-haired, +swift-gestured, squinting man, often enough. And to Kirkcaldy, too, ... +came young Carlyle from Edinburgh College, wildly in love with German +and mathematics; and the schoolroom in which these men taught, although +incorporated in Provost Swan's manufactory, is yet kept sacred and +intact, and but little changed these fifty years--an act of hero-worship +for which the present and other generations may be thankful. It seemed +to me that so glancing Fife-wards, 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 see, and the speech I was to hear. +David and Jonathan! Jonathan stumbled and fell on the dark hills, not of +Gilboa, but of Vanity; and David sang his funeral song: "But for him I +had never known what the communion of man with man means. His was the +freest, brotherliest, bravest human soul mine ever came in contact with. +I call him, on the whole, the best man I have ever, after trial enough, +found in this world, or now hope to find." + +'In a very few minutes after the doors were opened, the large hall was +filled in every part; and when up the central passage the Principal, the +Lord Rector, the Members of the Senate, and other gentlemen advanced +towards the platform, the cheering was vociferous and hearty. The +Principal occupied the chair, of course; the Lord Rector on his right, +the Lord Provost on his left. When the platform gentlemen had taken +their seats, every eye was fixed on the Rector. To all appearance, as he +sat, time and labour had dealt tenderly with him. His face had not yet +lost the country bronze which he brought up with him from Dumfriesshire +as a student, fifty-six years ago. His long residence in London had not +touched his Annandale look, nor had it--as we soon learned--touched his +Annandale accent. His countenance was striking, homely, sincere, +truthful--the countenance of a man on whom "the burden of the +unintelligible world" had weighed more heavily than on most. His hair +was yet almost dark; his moustache and short beard were iron-grey. His +eyes were wide, melancholy, sorrowful; and seemed as if they had been at +times a-weary of the sun. Altogether, in his aspect there was something +aboriginal, as of a piece of unhewn granite, which had never been +polished to any approved pattern, whose natural and original vitality +had never been tampered with. In a word, there seemed no passivity about +Mr Carlyle; he was the diamond, and the world was his pane of glass; he +was a graving tool, 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_ mark.... +The proceedings began by the conferring of the degree of LL.D. on Mr +Erskine of Linlathen--an old friend of Mr Carlyle's--on Professors +Huxley, Tyndall, and Ramsay, and on Dr Rae, the Arctic explorer. That +done, amid a tempest of cheering and hats enthusiastically waved, Mr +Carlyle, slipping off his Rectorial robe--which must have been a very +shirt of Nessus to him--advanced to the table, and began to speak in +low, wavering, melancholy tones, which were in accordance with the +melancholy eyes, and in the Annandale accent with which his play-fellows +must have been familiar long ago. So self-centred was he, so impregnable +to outward influences, that all his years of Edinburgh and London life +could not impair, even in the slightest degree, _that_. The opening +sentences were lost in the applause, and when it subsided, the low, +plaintive, quavering voice was heard going on: "Your enthusiasm towards +me is very beautiful in itself, however undeserved it may be in regard +to the object of it. It is a feeling honourable to all men, and one well +known to myself when in a position analogous to your own." And then came +the Carlylean utterance, with its far-reaching reminiscence and sigh +over old graves--Father's and Mother's, Edward Irving's, John +Sterling's, Charles Buller's, and all the noble known in past time--and +with its flash of melancholy scorn. "There are now fifty-six years gone, +last November, since I first entered your city, a boy of not quite +fourteen--fifty-six years ago--to attend classes here, and gain +knowledge of all kinds, I knew not what--with feelings of wonder and +awe-struck expectation; and now, after a long, long course, this is what +we have come to.... There is something touching and tragic, and yet at +the same time beautiful, to see the third generation, as it were, of my +dear old native land, rising up, and saying: Well, you are not +altogether an unworthy labourer in the vineyard. You have toiled through +a great variety of fortunes, and have had many judges." And thereafter, +without aid of notes, or paper preparation of any kind, in the same +wistful, earnest, hesitating voice, and with many a touch of quaint +humour by the way, which came in upon his subject like glimpses of +pleasant sunshine, the old man talked to his vast audience about the +origin and function of Universities, the Old Greeks and Romans, Oliver +Cromwell, John Knox, the excellence of silence as compared with speech, +the value of courage and truthfulness, and the supreme importance of +taking care of one's health. "There is no kind of achievement you could +make in the world that is equal to perfect health. What to it are +nuggets and millions? The French financier said, 'Alas! why is there no +sleep to be sold?' Sleep was not in the market at any quotation." But +what need of quoting a speech which by this time has been read by +everybody? Appraise it as you please, it was a thing _per se_. Just as, +if you wish a purple dye, you must fish up the Murex; if you wish ivory, +you must go to the East; so if you desire an address such as Edinburgh +listened to the other day, you must go to Chelsea for it. It may not be +quite to your taste, but, in any case, there is no other intellectual +warehouse in which that kind of article is kept in stock.'[33] + +Another eye-witness, Mr Moncure D. Conway, says: 'When Carlyle sat down +there was an audible sound, as of breath long held, by all present; then +a cry from the students, an exultation; they rose up, all arose, waving +their arms excitedly; some pressed forward, as if wishing to embrace +him, or to clasp his knees; others were weeping; what had been heard +that day was more than could be reported; it was the ineffable spirit +that went forth from the deeps of a great heart and from the ages stored +up in it, and deep answered unto deep.' + +Immediately after the delivery of the address, Tyndall telegraphed to +Mrs Carlyle this brief message, 'A perfect triumph.' That evening she +dined at Forster's, where she met Dickens and Wilkie Collins. They drank +Carlyle's health, and to her it was 'a good joy.' It was Carlyle's +intention to have returned at once to London, but he changed his mind, +and went for a few quiet days at Scotsbrig. When Tyndall was back in +London Mrs Carlyle got all the particulars of the rectorial address from +him, and was made perfectly happy about it. + +Numberless congratulations poured in upon Mrs Carlyle, and for Saturday, +April 21st, she had arranged a small tea-party. In the morning she wrote +her daily letter to Carlyle, and in the afternoon she went out in her +brougham for a drive, taking her little dog with her. When near Victoria +Gate, Hyde Park, she put the dog out to run. 'A passing carriage,' says +Froude, 'went over its foot.... She sprang out, caught the dog in her +arms, took it with her into the brougham, and was never more seen alive. +The coachman went twice round the drive, by Marble Arch down to Stanhope +Gate, along the Serpentine and round again. Coming a second time near to +the Achilles statue, and surprised to receive no directions, he turned +round, saw indistinctly that something was wrong, and asked a gentleman +near to look into the carriage. The gentleman told him briefly to take +the lady to St. George's Hospital, which was not 200 yards distant. She +was sitting with her hands folded in her lap _dead_.'[34] + +At the hour she died Carlyle was enjoying the 'green solitudes and fresh +spring breezes' of Annandale, 'quietly but far from happily.' About nine +o'clock the same night his brother-in-law, Mr Aitken, broke the news to +him. 'I was sitting in sister Jean's at Dumfries,' Carlyle wrote a +fortnight after, 'thinking of my railway journey to Chelsea on Monday, +and perhaps of a sprained ankle I had got at Scotsbrig two weeks or so +before, when the fatal telegrams, two of them in succession, came. It +had a kind of _stunning_ effect upon me. Not for above two days could I +estimate the immeasurable depths of it, or the infinite sorrow which had +peeled my life all bare, and in a moment shattered my poor world to +universal ruin. They took me out next day to wander, as was medically +needful, in the green sunny Sabbath fields, and ever and anon there rose +from my sick heart the ejaculation, "My poor little woman!" but no full +gust of tears came to my relief, nor has yet come. Will it ever? A stony +"Woe's me, woe's me!" sometimes with infinite tenderness and pity, not +for myself, is my habitual mood hitherto.'[35] + +On Monday morning Carlyle and his brother John set off for London. On +the Wednesday he was on his way to Haddington with the remains, his +brother and John Forster accompanying him. At 1 P.M. on Thursday the +funeral took place. 'In the nave of the old Abbey Kirk,' wrote her +disconsolate husband, 'long a ruin, now being saved from further decay, +with the skies looking down on her, there sleeps my little Jeannie, and +the light of her face will never shine on me more.' When Mr Conway saw +him on his return to Cheyne Row, Carlyle said, 'Whatever triumph there +may have been in that now so darkly overcast day, was indeed _hers_. +Long, long years ago, she took her place by the side of a poor man of +humblest condition, against all other provisions for her, undertook to +share his lot for weal or woe; and in that office what she has been to +him and done for him, how she has placed, as it were, velvet between him +and all the sharp angularities of existence, remains now only in the +knowledge of one man, and will presently be finally hid in his grave.' +As he touchingly expressed it in the beautiful epitaph he wrote, the +'light of his life' had assuredly 'gone out.' Universal sympathy was +felt for the bereaved husband, and he was very much affected by 'a +delicate, graceful, and even affectionate' message from the Queen, +conveyed by Lady Augusta Stanley through his brother John. + +One who knew Mrs Carlyle intimately thus speaks of her: 'Her intellect +was as clear and incisive as his, yet altogether womanly in character; +her heart was as truthful, and her courage as unswerving. She was a wife +in the noblest sense of that sacred name. She had a gift of literary +expression as unique as his; as tender a sympathy with human sorrow and +need; as clear an eye for all conventional hypocrisies and folly; as +vivid powers of description and illustration; and also, it must be +confessed, when the spirit of mockery was strong upon her, as keen an +edge to her flashing wit and humour, and as scornful a disregard of the +conventional proprieties. But she was no literary hermaphrodite. She +never intellectually strode forth before the world upon masculine +stilts; nor, in private life, did she frowardly push to the front, in +the vanity of showing she was as clever and considerable as her +husband. She longed, with a true woman's longing heart, to be +appreciated by him, and by those she loved; and, for her, all extraneous +applause might whistle with the wind. But if her husband was a king in +literature, so might she have been a queen. Her influence with him for +good cannot be questioned by any one having eyes to discern. And if she +sacrificed her own vanity for personal distinction, in order to make his +work possible for him, who shall say she did not choose the nobler and +better part?'[36] + +On the other hand, Carlyle was too exacting, 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 side. 'Even with that mother whom he so dearly loved,' +observes Mrs Ireland, 'the intercourse was mainly composed of a silent +sitting by the fireside of an evening in the old "houseplace," with a +tranquillising pipe of tobacco, or of his returning from his long +rambles to a simple meal, partaken of in comparative silence; and now +and then, at meeting or parting, some pious and earnest words from the +good soul to her son.'[37] And it never occurred to Carlyle to act +differently with his wife, who was pining for his society. In addition +to all that, we have Froude's brief but accurate diagnosis of Carlyle's +character. 'If,' he wrote, 'matters went well with himself, it never +occurred to him that they could be going ill with any one else; and, on +the other hand, if he was uncomfortable, he required everybody to be +uncomfortable along with him.' + +There was a strong element of selfishness in that phase of Carlyle's +nature; and throughout his letters and journal he appears wholly wrapt +up in himself and in his literary projects, without even a passing +allusion to the courageous woman who had shared his lot. Now and again +we alight upon a passage where special mention is made of her efforts, +but these have all a direct or indirect bearing upon _his_ work, _his_ +plans, _his_ comforts.[38] + +Carlyle never fully realised what his wife had been to him until she was +suddenly snatched from his side. And this was his testimony: 'I say +deliberately, her part in the stern battle, and except myself none +knows how stern, was brighter and braver than my own.' In one of those +terrible moments of self-upbraiding the grief-stricken husband exclaims: +'Blind and deaf that we are; oh, think, if thou yet love anybody living, +wait not till death sweep down the paltry little dust-clouds and idle +dissonances of the moment, and all be at last so mournfully clear and +beautiful, _when it is too late_!' + +In a pamphlet quoted by Mrs Ireland we have a pathetic picture of +Carlyle in his lonely old age. A Mr Swinton, an American gentleman on a +visit to this country, went to see the grave of Mrs Carlyle. + +In conversation the grave-digger said: 'Mr Carlyle comes here from +London now and then to see this grave. He is a gaunt, shaggy, weird kind +of old man, looking very old the last time he was here.' 'He is +eighty-six now,' said I. 'Ay,' he repeated, 'eighty-six, and comes here +to this grave all the way from London.' And I told him that Carlyle was +a great man, the greatest man of the age in books, and that his name was +known all over the world; but he thought there were other great men +lying near at hand, though I told him their fame did not reach beyond +the graveyard, and brought him back to talk of Carlyle. 'Mr Carlyle +himself,' said the gravedigger softly, 'is to be brought here to be +buried with his wife. Ay, he comes here lonesome and alone,' continued +the gravedigger, 'when he visits the wife's grave. His niece keeps him +company to the gate, but he leaves her there, and she stays there for +him. The last time he was here I got a sight of him, and he was bowed +down under his white hairs, and he took his way up by that ruined wall +of the old cathedral, and round there and in here by the gateway, and he +tottered up here to this spot.' Softly spake the gravedigger, and +paused. Softer still, in the broad dialect of the Lothians, he +proceeded:--"And he stood here awhile in the grass, and then he kneeled +down and stayed on his knees at the grave; then he bent over and I saw +him kiss the ground--ay, he kissed it again and again, and he kept +kneeling, and it was a long time before he rose and tottered out of the +cathedral, and wandered through the graveyard to the gate, where his +niece was waiting for him." This is the epitaph composed by Carlyle, and +engraved on the tombstone of Dr John Welsh in the chancel of Haddington +Church:-- + + 'HERE LIKEWISE NOW RESTS JANE WELSH CARLYLE, SPOUSE OF THOMAS + CARLYLE, CHELSEA, LONDON. SHE WAS BORN AT HADDINGTON, 14TH JULY + 1801, ONLY DAUGHTER OF THE ABOVE JOHN WELSH, AND OF GRACE + WELSH, CAPELGILL, DUMFRIESSHIRE, HIS WIFE. IN HER BRIGHT + EXISTENCE SHE HAD MORE SORROWS THAN ARE COMMON; BUT ALSO A SOFT + INVINCIBILITY, A CLEARNESS OF DISCERNMENT, AND A NOBLE LOYALTY + OF HEART WHICH ARE RARE. FOR FORTY YEARS SHE WAS THE TRUE AND + EVER-LOVING HELPMATE OF HER HUSBAND, AND, BY ACT AND WORD, + UNWEARIEDLY FORWARDED HIM AS NONE ELSE COULD, IN ALL OF WORTHY + THAT HE DID OR ATTEMPTED. SHE DIED AT LONDON, 21ST APRIL 1866, + SUDDENLY SNATCHED AWAY FROM HIM, AND THE LIGHT OF HIS LIFE AS + IF GONE OUT.' + +FOOTNOTES: + +[31] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 295. + +[32] Masson's 'Carlyle Personally and in his Writings,' pp. 27-9. + +[33] Alexander Smith's 'Sketches and Criticisms,' pp. 101-8. + +[34] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 312. + +[35] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 314. + +[36] Larkin's 'Carlyle and the Open Secret of his Life,' pp. 334-5. + +[37] 'Life of Jane Welsh Carlyle,' pp. 191-2. + +[38] After reading the above estimate in the proof sheets, Professor +Masson writes to me as follows:-- + + 'May I hint that, in the passage about his character and + domestic relations, you seem hardly to do justice to the depths + of real kindness and tenderness in him, and the actual + _couthiness_ of his manner and fireside conversation in his + most genial hours? He was delightful and loveable at such + hours, with a fund of the raciest Scottish humour.' + +This is a side of Carlyle's nature which would naturally be hidden from +the general reader, and from Mr Froude. It is easy to imagine how +Carlyle's genial humour, frozen at its source in the company of the +solemnly pessimistic Froude, should be thawed by the presence of 'a +brither Scot.' + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +LAST YEARS AND DEATH OF CARLYLE + + +In presence of the pathetically tragic spectacle of Carlyle in his old +age, who can have the heart to enter into his domestic life and weigh +with pedantic scales the old man's blameworthiness? Carlyle survived his +wife fifteen years. His brother John, himself a widower, was anxious +that they should live together, but it was otherwise arranged. John +returned to Scotland, and Carlyle remained alone in Cheyne Row. He was +prevailed on to visit Ripple Court, near Walmer, and on his return to +London he wrote, 'My home is very gaunt and lonesome; but such is my +allotment henceforth in this world. I have taken loyally to my vacant +circumstances, and will try to do my best with them.' + +Carlyle's first public appearance after his sore bereavement was as +chairman of the Eyre Committee as a protest against Governor Eyre's +recall. 'Poor Eyre!' he wrote to a correspondent, 'I am heartily sorry +for him, and for the English nation, which makes such a dismal fool of +itself. Eyre, it seems, has fallen suddenly from L6000 a year into +almost zero, and has a large family and needy kindred dependent on him. +Such his reward for saving the West Indies, and hanging one incendiary +mulatto, well worth the gallows, if I can judge.' + +Carlyle accepted a pressing invitation to stay with the Ashburtons at +Mentone, and on the 22nd of December he started thither with Professor +Tyndall. He was greatly benefited in health, and at intervals made some +progress with his _Reminiscences_. He returned to London in March, and +on the 4th of April 1867 he writes in his journal: 'Idle! Idle! My +employments mere trifles of business, and that of dwelling on the days +that culminated on the 21st of last year.' About this time his thoughts +were directed to the estate of Craigenputtock, of which he became +absolute owner at his wife's death. All her relations on the father's +side were dead, and as Carlyle thought that it ought not to lapse to his +own family, he determined to leave it to the University of Edinburgh, +'the rents of it to be laid out in supporting poor and meritorious +students there, under the title of "the John Welsh Bursaries." Her name +he could not give, because she had taken his own. Therefore he gave her +father's.' + +On June 22nd, he writes in his journal: 'Finished off on Thursday last, +at three p.m. 20th of June, my poor _bequest_ of Craigenputtock to +Edinburgh University for bursaries. All quite ready there, Forster and +Froude as witnesses; the good Professor Masson, who had taken endless +pains, alike friendly and wise, being at the very last objected to in +the character of "witness," as "a party interested," said the Edinburgh +lawyer. I a little regretted this circumstance; so I think did Masson +secretly. He read us the deed with sonorous emphasis, bringing every +word and note of it home to us. Then I signed; then they two--Masson +witnessing only with his eyes and mind. I was deeply moved, as I well +might be, but held my peace and shed no tears. _Tears_ I think I have +done with; never, except for moments together, have I wept for that +catastrophe of April 21, to which whole days of weeping would have been +in other times a blessed relief.... This is my poor "Sweetheart Abbey," +"Cor Dulce," or New Abbey, a sacred casket and _tomb_ for the sweetest +"heart" which, in this bad, bitter world, was all my own. Darling, +darling! and in a little while we shall _both_ be at rest, and the Great +God will have done with us what was His will.'[39] + +When the Tories were preparing to 'dish the Whigs' over the Reform Bill, +Carlyle felt impelled to write a pamphlet, which he called _Shooting +Niagara, and After_. It was his final utterance on British politics. +Proof sheets and revisions for new editions of his works engrossed his +attention for some time. He went annually to Scotland, and devoted a +great deal of time on his return to Chelsea to the sorting and +annotating of his wife's letters. + +Early in 1869 the Queen expressed a wish, through Dean Stanley, to +become personally acquainted with Carlyle. The meeting took place at +Westminster Deanery: 'The Queen,' Carlyle said, 'was really very +gracious and pretty in her demeanour throughout; rose greatly in my +esteem by everything that happened; did not fall in any point. The +interview was quietly very mournful to me; the one point of real +interest, a sombre thought: "Alas! how would it have cheered her, bright +soul, for my sake, had she been there!"' + +When Carlyle was in constant expectation of his end, he--in June +1871--brought to Mr Froude's house a large parcel of papers. 'He put it +in my hands,' says Froude. 'He told me to take it simply and absolutely +as my own, without reference to any other person or persons, and to do +with it as I pleased after he was gone. He explained, when he saw me +surprised, that it was an account of his wife's history, that it was +incomplete, that he could himself form no opinion whether it ought to be +published or not, that he could do no more to it, and must pass it over +to me. He wished never to hear of it again. I must judge. I must publish +it, the whole, or part--or else destroy it all, if I thought that this +would be the wiser thing to do.'[40] + +Three years later Carlyle sent to Froude his own and his wife's private +papers, journals, correspondence, reminiscences, and other documents. +'Take them,' he said to Froude, 'and do what you can with them. All I +can say to you is, Burn freely. If you have any affection for me, the +more you burn the better.' Mr Froude burnt nothing, and it was well, he +says, that he did not, for a year before his death he desired him, when +he had done with the MSS., to give them to his niece. 'The new task +which had been laid upon me,' writes Froude in his biography of Carlyle, +'complicated the problem of the "Letters and Memorials." My first hope +was, that, in the absence of further definite instructions from himself, +I might interweave parts of Mrs Carlyle's letters with his own +correspondence in an ordinary narrative, passing lightly over the rest, +and touching the dangerous places only so far as was unavoidable. In +this view I wrote at leisure the greatest part of "the first forty +years" of his life. The evasion of the difficulty was perhaps cowardly, +but it was not unnatural. I was forced back, however, into the +straighter and better course.' The outcome of it all is too well-known +to call for recapitulation here. + +In February 1874, the Emperor of Germany conferred upon Carlyle the +Order of Merit which the great Frederick had himself founded. He could +not refuse it, but he remarked, 'Were it ever so well meant, it can be +of no value to me whatever. Do thee neither ill na gude.' Ten months +later, Mr Disraeli, then Premier, offered him the Grand Cross of the +Bath along with a pension. Carlyle gracefully declined both. + +Upon his 80th birthday, Carlyle was presented with a gold medal from +Scottish friends and admirers, and with a letter from Prince Bismarck, +both of which he valued highly. His last public act was to write a +letter of three or four lines to the _Times_, which he explains to his +brother in this fashion: 'After much urgency and with a dead-lift +effort, I have this day [5th May 1877] got issued through the _Times_ a +small indispensable deliverance on the Turk and Dizzy question. Dizzy, +it appears, to the horror of those who have any interest in him and his +proceedings, has decided to have a new war for the Turk against all +mankind; and this letter hopes to drive a nail through his mad and +maddest speculations on that side.' + +Froude tells us that Carlyle continued to read the Bible, 'the +significance of which' he found 'deep and wonderful almost as much as it +ever used to be.' The Bible and Shakespeare remained 'the best books' to +him that were ever written. + +The death of his brother John was a severe shock to Carlyle, for they +were deeply attached to each other. When he bequeathed Craigenputtock to +the University of Edinburgh, John Carlyle settled a handsome sum for +medical bursaries there, to encourage poor students. 'These two +brothers,' Froude remarks, 'born in a peasant's home in Annandale, +owing little themselves to an Alma Mater which had missed discovering +their merits, were doing for Scotland's chief University what Scotland's +peers and merchants, with their palaces and deer forests and social +splendour, had, for some cause, too imperfectly supplied.' + +In the autumn of 1880, Carlyle became very infirm; in January he was +visibly sinking; and on the 5th of February 1881, he passed away in his +eighty-fifth year. In accordance with his expressed wishes, they buried +him in the old kirkyard of Ecclefechan with his own people. + +At his death Carlyle's fame was at its zenith. A revulsion of feeling +was caused by the publication of Froude's _Life of Carlyle_ and the +_Reminiscences_. In regard to the former, great dissatisfaction was +created by the somewhat unflattering portrait painted by Froude. Was +Froude justified in presenting to the public Carlyle in all grim +realism? The answer to this depends upon one's notions of literary +ethics. The view of the average biographer is that he must suppress +faults and give prominence to virtues. The result is that the majority +of biographies are simply expanded funeral sermons; instead of a +life-like portrait we have a glorified mummy. Boswell's _Johnson_ stands +at the head of biographies; but, if Boswell had followed the +conventional method, his book would long since have passed into +obscurity. It is open to dispute whether Froude has not overdone the +sombre elements in Carlyle's life. Readers of Professor Masson's little +book, which shows Carlyle in a more genially human mood, have good +reason to suspect that Froude has given too much emphasis to the +Rembrandtesque element in Carlyle's life. In the main, however, Froude's +conception of biography was more correct than that of his critics. In +dealing with the reputation of a great man it is not enough to consider +the feelings of contemporaries; regard should be had to the rights of +posterity. In his usual forcible manner Johnson goes to the heart of +this question when he says in the _Rambler_:--'If the biographer writes +from personal knowledge, and makes haste to gratify the public +curiosity, there is danger lest his interest, his fear, his gratitude, +or his tenderness overpower his fidelity, and tempt him to conceal, if +not to invent. There are many who think it an act of piety to hide the +faults or failings of their friends, even when they can no longer suffer +by their detection; we therefore see whole ranks of characters adorned +with uniform panegyric and not to be known from one another, but by +extrinsic and casual circumstances. If we have regard to the memory of +the dead, there is yet more respect to be paid to knowledge, to virtue, +and to truth.' When Johnson's own biography came to be written, Boswell, +in spite of the expostulation of friends, resolved to be guided closely +by the literary ethics of his great hero. In reply to Hannah More who +begged that he would mitigate some of the asperities of Johnson, Boswell +said, 'he would not cut off his claws, nor make a tiger a cat, to please +anybody.' + +Some critics have insinuated that Froude took a curious kind of pleasure +in smirching the idol. The insinuation is as unworthy as it is false. +Froude had resolved to paint Carlyle as he was, warts and all, and all +that can be said is that in his anxiety to avoid the charge of idealism +he has given the warts undue prominence. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[39] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. p. 346. + +[40] Froude's 'Life in London,' vol. ii. pp. 408-9. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +CARLYLE AS A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THINKER + + +In his essay on Carlyle, Mr John Morley utters a protest against the +habit of labelling great men with names. After making every allowance +for the waywardness of the men of intuitive and poetic insight, it +remains true that between the speculative and the practical sides of a +great thinker's mind there is a potent, though subtle, connection. For +those who take the trouble of searching, there is discoverable such a +connection between the speculative ideas of Carlyle and his practical +outlook upon civilisation. Given a thinker who lays stress upon the +emotional side of progress, and we have a thinker who will take for +heroes men of mystical tendencies, of strong dominating passions, a +thinker who will value progress not by the increase of worldly comfort, +but by the increase in the number of magnetic, epoch-making +personalities. Naturally, we hear Carlyle remark that the history of the +world is at bottom the history of its great men. + +Carlyle's fanatical adoption of intuitionalism has told banefully upon +his work in sociology. Trusting to his inner light, to what we might +call Mystical Quakerism, Carlyle has dispensed with a rational theory of +progress. Before a sociological problem, his attitude is not that of the +patient thinker, but of the hysterical prophet, whose emotions find +outlet in declamatory denunciation. Like the prophets of old, Carlyle +tends towards Pessimism. His golden age is in the past. When _Past and +Present_ appeared, many earnest-minded men, captivated by the style and +spirit of the book, hailed Carlyle as a social reformer. As an attempt +to solve the social problem, _Past and Present_ is not a success. +Carlyle could do no more than tell the modern to return to the spirit of +the feudal period, when the people were led by the aristocracy. It +showed considerable audacity on Carlyle's part to come to the +interpretation of history with no theory of progress, no message to the +world beyond the vaguely declamatory one that those nations will be +turned into hell which forget God. Of what value is such writing as +this, taken from the introduction to his _Cromwell_?:--'Here of our own +land and lineage in English shape were heroes on the earth once more, +who knew in every fibre and with heroic daring laid to heart that an +Almighty Justice does verily rule this world, that it is good to fight +on God's side, and bad to fight on the Devil's side! The essence of all +heroism and veracities that have been or will be.' This is simply a +reproduction of Jewish theocratic ideas; indeed, except for the details, +Carlyle might as readily have written a life of Moses as of Cromwell. +In the eyes of Carlyle, human life was what it was to Bunyan, a kind of +pilgrim's progress; only in the Carlylean creed it is all battle and no +victory, all Valley of Humiliation and no Delectable Mountain. +Naturally, where no stress is laid upon collective action, where +individual reason is depreciated, progress is associated with the rise +of abnormal individualities, men of strong wills like Cromwell and +Frederick. With Rousseau, Carlyle appears to look upon civilisation as a +disease. In one of his essays, _Characteristics_, he goes near the +Roussean idea when he declaims against self-consciousness, and +deliberately gives a preference to instinct. The uses of great men are +to lead humanity away from introspection back to energetic, rude, +instinctive action. When humanity will not listen to the voice of the +prophets, it must be treated to whip and scorpion. It never dawned upon +Carlyle that the highest life, individual and collective, has roots in +physical laws, that politico-economic forces must be reckoned with +before social harmony can be reached. + +Just as Carlyle's Idealism drove him into opposition to the utilitarian +theory of morals, so it drove him into opposition to the utilitarian +theory of society. Out of his idealistic way of looking upon life there +flowed a curious result. As early as _Sartor Resartus_ we find Carlyle +anticipating the evolutionary conception of society. Spencer has +familiarised us with the idea that society is an organism. The idea +which he received from the Germans that Nature is not a mere mechanical +collection of atoms, but the materialised expression of a spiritual +unity--that idea Carlyle extended to society. As he puts it in _Sartor +Resartus_: 'Yes, truly, if Nature is one, and a living indivisible +whole, much more is Mankind, the Image that reflects and creates Nature, +without which Nature were not.... Noteworthy also, and serviceable for +the progress of this same individual, wilt thou find his subdivisions +into Generations. Generations are as the Days of toilsome Mankind; Death +and Birth are the vesper and the matin bells, that summon Mankind to +sleep, and to rise refreshed for new advancement. What the Father has +made, the Son can make and enjoy; but has also work of his own appointed +him. Thus all things wax and roll onwards.... Find mankind where thou +wilt, thou findest it in living movement, in progress faster or slower; +the Phoenix soars aloft, hovers with outstretched wings, filling Earth +with her music; or as now, she sinks, and with spheral swan-song +immolates herself in flame, that she may soar the higher and sing the +clearer.' + +Philosophies of civilisation have a tendency to beget Fatalism. Bent +upon watching the resistless play of general laws, philosophers, in +their admiration of the products, are apt to ignore the frightful +suffering and waste involved in the process. Society being an organism, +a thing of development, the duty of thinkers is to demonstrate the +nature of sociological laws, and allow them free scope for operation. To +this is due much of the apparent hardness of Eighteenth Century +political speculation, which, beginning with the French Physiocratic +School, culminated in the works of Adam Smith, Ricardo, Bentham, and the +two Mills. With those thinkers, the one palpable lesson of the past was +the duty of abstaining from interference with the general process of +social development. Give man liberty, said the Utilitarian Radicals, and +he will work out his own salvation: from the play of individual +self-interest, social harmony will result. + +Carlyle is frequently thought of as a Conservative force in politics. In +some respects he was more Radical than the Benthams and the Mills. His +deeper ideal conception of society intensified his dissatisfaction with +society as it existed. In fact, to Carlyle's attack upon those +institutions, beliefs and ceremonies which had no better basis than mere +unreasoning authority, most of the Radicalism of the early 'forties' was +due. Conceive what effect language like this must have had upon +thoughtful, high-souled young men: 'Call ye that a Society, where there +is no longer any Social Idea extant; not so much as the Idea of a common +Home, but only of a common overcrowded Lodging-house? Where each, +isolated, regardless of his neighbour, turned against his neighbour, +clutches what he can get, and cries "Mine!" and calls it Peace because, +in the cut-purse and cut-throat Scramble, no steel knives, but only a +far cunninger sort, can be employed? Where Friendship, Communion, has +become an incredible tradition; and your holiest Sacramental Supper is a +smoking Tavern Dinner, with Cook for Evangelist? Where your Priest has +no tongue but for plate-licking; and your high Guides and Governors +cannot guide; but on all hands hear it passionately proclaimed: _Laissez +faire_; leave us alone of your guidance, such light is darker than +darkness; eat your wages and sleep. Thus, too, must an observant eye +discern everywhere that saddest spectacle: the Poor perishing, like +neglected, foundered Draught-Cattle, of Hunger and Overwork; the Rich, +still more wretchedly, of Idleness, Satiety, and Overgrowth. The Highest +in rank, at length, without honour from the Lowest; scarcely, with a +little mouth-honour, as from tavern-waiters who expect to put it in the +bill. Once sacred Symbols fluttering as empty Pageants, whereof men +grudge even the expense; a World becoming dismantled: in one word, the +CHURCH fallen speechless, from obesity and apoplexy; the STATE shrunken +into a Police-Office, straitened to get its pay!' + +It was when suggesting a remedy that Carlyle's Idealistic Radicalism +parted company with Utilitarian Radicalism. Failing to see that society +was in a transition period, a period so well described by Herbert +Spencer as the movement from Militarism to Industrialism, in which there +was a severe conflict of ideals, opinions, and interests, Carlyle sought +for the remedy in a return to a form of society which had been outgrown. +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 conceptions. 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 despotism. Equally irrelevant was the attempt in _Past and +Present_ to get reformers to model modern institutions on those of the +Middle Ages. Carlyle's remedy for the evils of liberty was a return to +the apron-strings of despotism. Carlyle, in fact, forgot his conception +of society as a developing organism; he endeavoured to arrest progress +at the autocratic stage, because of his ignorance of the laws of +progress and his lack of sympathy with democratic ideas. Still, the +value of Carlyle's political writings should not be overlooked. The +Utilitarian Radicals laid themselves open to the charge of intellectual +superstition. They worshipped human nature as a fetish. Lacking clear +views of social evolution, they overlooked the relativity of political +terms. Ignorant of the conception of human nature to which Spencer has +accustomed us, the old Radicals treated it as a constant quantity which +only needed liberty for its proper development. In their eagerness to +discard theology, they discarded the truth of man's depravity which +finds expression in the creed of the Churches. We have changed all that. +We now realise the fact that political institutions are good or bad, not +as they stand or fall when tested by the first principles of a +rationalistic philosophy, but as they harmonise or conflict with +existing phases of human nature. + +If in the sphere of industrialism Carlyle as a guide is untrustworthy, +great is his merit as an inspirer. His influence was needed to +counteract the cold prosaic narrowness of the Utilitarian teaching. He +called attention to an aspect of the economic question which the +Utilitarian Radicals ignored, namely, the inadequacy of self-interest as +a social bond. To Carlyle is largely due the higher ethical conceptions +and quickened sympathies which now exist in the spheres of social and +industrial relationships. Unhappily his implicit faith in intuitionalism +led him to deride political economy and everything pertaining to man's +material life. Much there was in the writings of the economists to call +for severe criticism, and if Carlyle had treated the subject with +discrimination he would have been a power for good; but he chose to pour +the vials of his contempt upon political economy as a science, and upon +modern industrial arrangements, with the result that many of the most +intelligent students of sociology have been repelled from his writings. +In this respect he contrasts very unfavourably with Mill, who, +notwithstanding the temptations to intellectual arrogance from his +one-sided training, with quite a chivalrous regard for truth, was ever +ready to accept light and leading from thinkers who differed from him in +temperament and methods. There may be conflicting opinions as to which +of the two men was intellectually the greater, 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 lived, moved, and +had his being. Between the saintly apostle of Progress and the barbaric +representative of Reaction there was a great gulf fixed. + +As was natural, the _Latter-day Pamphlets_ were treated as a series of +political ravings. For that estimate Carlyle himself was largely +responsible. He deprived himself of the sympathy of intelligent readers +by the violence of his invective and the lack of discrimination in his +abuse. Much of what Carlyle said is to be found in Mill's +_Representative Government_, said, too, in a quiet, rational style, +which commands attention and respect. Mill, no more than Carlyle, was a +believer in mob rule. He did not think that the highest wisdom was to +be had by the counting of heads. Thinkers like Mill and Spencer did not +deem it necessary to pour contempt on modern tendencies. They suggested +remedies on the lines of these tendencies. They did not try to put back +the hands on the clock of time; they sought to remove perturbing +influences. Much of the evil has arisen from men trying to do by +political methods what should not be done by these methods. Carlyle's +idea that Government should do this, that, and the other thing has +wrought mischief, inasmuch as it has led to an undue belief in the +virtues of Government interference. His writings are largely responsible +for the evils he predicted. + +It is curious to notice how, with all his belief in individualism, +Carlyle, in political matters, was unconsciously driven in the direction +of socialism. Get your great man, worship him, and render him +obedience--such was the Carlylean recipe for modern diseases. Suppose +the great man found, how is he to proceed? In these democratic days, he +can only proceed by ruling despotically with the popular consent; in +other words, there will follow a regime of paternalism and fraternalism, +the practical outcome of which would be Socialism. Carlyle himself never +suspected how childish was his conception of national life. He wrote of +his Great Man theory as if it was a discovery, whereas the most advanced +races had long since passed through it, and those which were not +advanced were precisely those which had not been able to shake +themselves free of paternal despotism. On this point the criticism of +the late Professor Minto goes to the heart of the matter: 'Carlyle's +doctrines are the first suggestions of an earnest man, adhered to with +unreasoning tenacity. As a rule, with no exception, that is worth +naming, they take account mainly of one side of a case. He was too +impatient of difficulties, and had too little respect for the wisdom and +experience of others to submit to be corrected: opposition rather +confirmed him in his own opinion. Most of his practical suggestions had +already been made before, and judged impracticable upon grounds which he +could not, or would not, understand. His modes of dealing with pauperism +and crime were in full operation under the despotism of Henry VII. and +Henry VIII. His theory of a hero-king, which means in practice an +accidentally good and able man in a series of indifferent or bad +despots, had been more frequently tried than any other political system; +Asia at this moment contains no government that is not despotic. His +views in other departments of knowledge are also chiefly determined by +the strength of his unreasoning impulses.' + +In his interesting _Recollections_ Mr Espinasse states that during the +time that Carlyle was writing on the labour question, not a single +blue-book was visible on his table! To Carlyle's influence must be +traced much of the sentimental treatment of social and industrial +questions which has followed the unpopularity of political economy. It +is only fair to Carlyle to note, that at times he had qualms as to the +superiority of his paternal theory of government over Laissez Faire. 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 nature. In the social sphere Carlyle was false to +his doctrine of spontaneity. In his early essays he was perpetually +condemning mechanical interference with society, and contending that +free play should be given to the dynamic agencies. Untrue to himself and +his creed, Carlyle in his later books was constantly denouncing +Government for neglecting to apply mechanical remedies for social +diseases. In his view, the duty of a ruler was not to work in harmony +with social impulses, but to cut and carve institutions in harmony with +the ideas of great men. Puritanism under Cromwell failed because it was +forgotten that society is an organism, not a piece of clay, to be +moulded according to the notions of heroic potters. Strictly speaking, +_Frederick_ and _Cromwell_ should be classed with the _Latter Day +Pamphlets_. In the _Pamphlets_ Carlyle declaims against democratic +methods, and in _Frederick_ and _Cromwell_ we are presented with +incarnations of autocratic methods. + +Of all the critics of Carlyle, 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 +questions. As Mr Morley says: 'The dictates of a kind heart are of +superior force to the maxims of political economy; swift and peremptory +resolution is a safer guide than a balancing judgment. If the will works +easily and surely, we may assume the rectitude of the moving impulse. +All this is no caricature of a system which sets sentiment, sometimes +hard sentiment, above reason and method. In other words, the writer who +in these days has done more than anybody else to fire men's hearts with +a feeling for right, and an eager desire for social activity, has, with +deliberate contempt, thrust away from him the only instruments by which +we can make sure what right is, and that our social action is effective. +A born poet, 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 singers, he has been driven by the +impetuosity of his sympathies to attack the scientific side of social +questions in an imaginative and highly emotional manner.' + +Had Carlyle confined himself to description of social, industrial, and +political diseases, he would have had an unsullied reputation in the +sphere of spiritual dynamics, but flaws immediately appeared when he +endeavoured to prescribe remedies. Many of his remedies were too vague +to be of use; where they were specific, they were so Quixotic as to be +useless. His proposals for dealing with labour and pauperism never +imposed on any sensible man on this side of cloud-land. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +CARLYLE AS AN INSPIRATIONAL FORCE + + +It is the misfortune of the critic, the historian, and the sociologist +to be superseded. In the march of events the specialist is fated to be +left behind. The influence of the inspirationalist is ever-enduring. As +the present writer has elsewhere said:--Carlyle has been called a +prophet. The word in these days has only a vague meaning. Probably +Carlyle earned the name in consequence of the oracular and denunciatory +elements in his later writings. Then, again, the word prophet has come +to be associated with the thought of a foreteller of future events. A +prophet in the true sense of the word is not one who foretells the +future, but one who revives and keeps alive in the minds of his +contemporaries a vivid sense of the great elemental facts of life. Why +is it that the Bible attracts to its pages men of all kinds of +temperament and all degrees of culture? Because in it, especially in the +Psalms, Job, and the writings of Isaiah and his brother prophets, +serious people are brought face to face with the great mysteries, God, +Nature, Man, Death, etc.--mysteries, however, which only rush in upon +the soul of man in full force on special occasions, in hours of lonely +meditation, or by the side of an open grave. In the hurly-burly of life +the sense of what Carlyle calls the Immensities, Eternities, and +Silences, become so weak that even good men have sorrowfully to admit +that they live lives of practical materialism. As Arnold puts it: + + "Each day brings its petty dust + Our soon-choked souls to fill, + And we forget because we must, + And not because we will." + +The mission of the Hebrew prophet was by passionate utterance to keep +alive in the minds of his countrymen a deep, abiding sense of life's +mystery, sacredness, and solemnity. What Isaiah did for his day, Carlyle +did for the moderns. In the whole range of modern literature, it is +impossible to match Carlyle's magnificent passages in _Sartor Resartus_, +in which, under a biographical guise, he deals with the great primal +emotions, wonder, awe, admiration, love, which form the warp and woof of +human life. + +Nothing can be finer than the following rebuke to those mechanical +scientists who imagine that Nature can be measured by tape-lines, and +duly labelled in museums:-- + +'System of Nature! To the wisest man, wide as is his vision, Nature +remains of quite _infinite_ depth, of quite infinite expansion; and all +Experience thereof limits itself to some few computed centuries and +measured square-miles. The course of Nature's phases, on this our little +fraction of a Planet, is partially known to us; but who knows what +deeper courses these depend on; what infinitely larger Cycle (of causes) +our little Epicycle revolves on? To the Minnow every cranny and pebble, +and quality and accident, of its little native Creek may have become +familiar: but does the Minnow understand the Ocean Tides and periodic +Currents, the Trade-winds, and Monsoons, and Moon's eclipses; by all +which the condition of its little Creek is regulated, and may, from time +(_un_miraculously enough), be quite overset and reversed? Such a minnow +is Man; his Creek this Planet Earth; his Ocean the immeasurable All; his +Monsoons and periodic Currents the mysterious Course of Providence +through Aeons of Aeons. We speak of the Volume of Nature: and truly a +Volume it is,--whose Author and Writer is God.' + +Agree or disagree with Carlyle's views of the Ultimate Reality as we +may, there can be nothing but harmony with the spirit which breathes in +the following:-- + +'Nature? Ha! Why do I not name thee God? Art not thou the "Living +Garment of God"? O Heavens, is it in very deed, He, then, that ever +speaks through thee; that lives and loves in thee, that lives and loves +in me? + +'Fore-shadows, call them rather fore-splendours, of that Truth, and +Beginning of Truths, fell mysteriously over my soul. Sweeter than +Dayspring to the Shipwrecked in Nova Zembla; ah! like the mother's voice +to her little child that strays bewildered, weeping in unknown tumults; +like soft streamings of celestial music to my too-exasperated heart, +came that Evangel. The Universe is not dead and demoniacal, a +charnel-house with spectres; but godlike, and my Father's!' + +The mystery and fleetingness of life with its awful counterpart death, +are the commonplaces of every hour, but who but Carlyle has rendered +them with such inspirational power? + +'Generation after generation takes to itself the form of a Body; and +forth-issuing from Cimmerian Night, on Heaven's mission APPEARS. What +Force and Fire is in each he expends: one grinding in the mill of +Industry; one hunter-like climbing the giddy Alpine heights of Science; +one madly dashed to pieces on the rocks of Strife, in war with his +fellow:--and then the Heaven-sent is recalled; his earthly Vesture falls +away, and soon even to sense becomes a vanished Shadow. Thus, like some +wild-flaming, wild-thundering train of Heaven's Artillery, does this +mysterious MANKIND thunder and flame, in long-drawn, quick-succeeding +grandeur, through the unknown Deep. Thus, like a God-created, +fire-breathing Spirit-host, we emerge from the Inane; haste stormfully +across the astonished Earth; then plunge again into the Inane. Earth's +mountains are levelled, and her seas filled up, in our passage; can the +Earth, which is but dead and a vision, resist Spirits which have reality +and are alive? On the hardest adamant some footprint of us is stamped +in; the last Rear of the host will read traces of the earliest Van. But +whence?--O Heaven, whither? Sense knows not; Faith knows not; only that +it is through Mystery to Mystery, from God and to God. + + 'We _are such stuff_ + As Dreams are made of, and our little Life + Is rounded with a sleep?' + +A fervid perception of the evanescence and sorrows of life is the root +of Carlyle's pathos, which is unsurpassed in literature. It leads him to +some beautiful contrasts between childhood and manhood, positively +idyllic in their charm. + +'Happy season of Childhood!' exclaims Teufelsdroeckh: 'Kind Nature, that +art to all a bountiful mother; that visitest the poor man's hut with +auroral radiance; and for thy Nurseling hast provided a soft swathing of +Love and infinite Hope, wherein he waxes and slumbers, danced-round +(_umgaeukelt_) by sweetest Dreams! If the paternal Cottage still shuts us +in, its roof still screens us; with a Father we have as yet a prophet, +priest and king, and an Obedience that makes us Free. The young spirit +has awakened out of Eternity, and knows not what we mean by Time; as yet +Time is no fast-hurrying stream, but a sportful sunlit ocean; years to +the child are as ages; ah! the secret of Vicissitude, of that slower or +quicker decay and ceaseless down-rushing of the universal World-fabric, +from the granite mountain to the man or day-moth, is yet unknown; and in +a motionless Universe, we taste, what afterwards in this quick-whirling +Universe is forever denied us, the balm of Rest. Sleep on, thou fair +Child, for thy long rough journey is at hand! A little while, and thou +too shalt sleep no more, but thy very dreams shall be mimic battles; +thou too, with old Arnauld, must say in stern patience: "Rest? Rest? +Shall I not have all Eternity to rest in?" Celestial Nepenthe! though a +Pyrrhus conquer empires, and an Alexander sack the world, he finds thee +not; and thou hast once fallen gently, of thy own accord, on the +eyelids, on the heart of every mother's child. For, as yet, sleep and +waking are one: the fair Life-garden rustles infinite around, and +everywhere is dewy fragrance, and the budding of Hope; which budding, if +in youth, too frostnipt, it grow to flowers, will in manhood yield no +fruit, but a prickly, bitter-rinded stone fruit, of which the fewest can +find the kernel.' + +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 +Eternity. In his '_Cromwell_,' he breaks forth in a beautiful meditation +while dealing with a commonplace reference in one of the letters of +Cromwell:--'Mrs St John came down to breakfast every morning in that +summer visit of the year 1638, and Sir William said grave grace, and +they spake polite devout things to one another, and they are vanished, +they and their things and speeches,--all silent like the echoes of the +old nightingales that sang that season, like the blossoms of the old +roses. O Death! O Time!' + +Severe comment has been made upon Carlyle's attitude towards science. +There was this excuse for his contemptuous attitude--science in its +early days fell into the hands of Dryasdusts. So absorbed were these men +in analysing Nature, that they missed the sense of mystery and beauty +which is the essence of all poetry and all religion. In the hands of the +Dryasdusts, Nature was converted into a museum in which everything was +duly labelled. During the mania for analysis, it was forgotten that +there is a great difference between the description and the explanation +of phenomena. In _Sartor Resartus_ Carlyle rescues science from the grip +of the pedant and restores it to the poet. 'Wonder, is the basis of +Worship; the reign of wonder is perennial, indestructible in Man; only +at certain stages (as the present), it is, for some short season, a +reign _in partibus infidelium_.' That progress of Science, which is to +destroy Wonder, and in its stead substitute Mensuration and Numeration, +finds small favour with Teufelsdroeckh, much as he otherwise venerates +these two latter processes. + +'Shall your Science,' exclaims he, 'proceed in the small chink-lighted, +or even oil-lighted, underground workshop of Logic alone; and man's mind +become an Arithmetical Mill, whereof Memory is the Hopper, and mere +Tables of Sines and Tangents, Codification, and Treatises of what you +call Political Economy, are the Meal? And what is that Science, which +the scientific head alone, were it screwed off, and (like the Doctor's +in the Arabian Tale) set in a basin to keep it alive, could prosecute +without shadow of a heart,--but one other of the mechanical and menial +handicrafts, for which the Scientific Head (having a Soul in it) is too +noble an organ? I mean that Thought without Reverence is barren, perhaps +poisonous; at best, dies like Cookery with the day that called it forth; +does not live, like sowing, in successive tilths and wider-spreading +harvests, bringing food and plenteous increase to all Time.' + + * * * * * + +'The man who cannot wonder, who does not habitually wonder (and +worship), were he President of innumerable Royal Societies, and carried +the whole _Mecanique Celeste_ and _Hegel's Philosophy_, and the epitome +of all Laboratories and Observatories with their results, in his single +head,--is but a pair of Spectacles behind which there is no Eye. Let +those who have Eyes look through him, then he may be useful.' + +In the sphere of ethics, Carlyle's influence has been inspirational in +the highest sense. To a generation which had to choose between the +ethics of a conventional theology and the ethics of a cold, prosaic +utilitarianism, Carlyle's treatment of the whole subject of duty came as +a revelation. If in the sphere of social relationships he did not +contribute to the settlement of the theoretic side of complex problems, +he did what was equally important--he roused earnest minds to a sense of +the urgency and magnitude of the problem, awakened the feeling of +individual responsibility, and quickened the sense of social duty which +had grown weak during the reign of _laissez faire_. If Carlyle had no +final message for mankind, if he brought no gospel of glad tidings, he +nevertheless did a work which was as important as it was pressing. In +the form of a modern John the Baptist, the Chelsea Prophet with not a +little of the wilderness atmosphere about him, preached in grimly +defiant mood to a pleasure-loving generation the great doctrines which +lie at the root of all religions--the doctrines of Repentance, +Righteousness, and Retribution. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS CARLYLE*** + + +******* This file should be named 32626.txt or 32626.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/6/2/32626 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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