♦ -j:^ % <^ . „ » "^^ ' • * ' A^ . , « '-PL k ' fi 4GL lO^' '^_^. '«•>" .\^ .... <^ *'T;s^ ,0 .^ ,^^">^ '^r 4 CL '.* .^^^ ^^^ ^yj%r^* . ^^ ^^^ '- 'oK * .^^ ^^^ ^^. • * s ' ^0 ^ "'^ .y "oK .-^^^ -> -^0 'bV G ^ r.^" ^^^ » «. * « .^ o '^^ A^ *'i HEROES AND HERO-WORSHIP •^^/^^^ V5 ON HEKOES, HERO-WORSHIP AND THE HEEOIC IN HISTORY BY THOMAS CARLYLE EDITED, WITH NOTES AND INTRODUCTION, BY MRS. ANNIE RUSSELL liARBLE, A.M. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1897 All rights reserved s y-f^ 4-4- 2.(0 COPTEIGHT, 1897, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Norbjfloti 50«ss J. S. Gushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. PREFACE In offering to the public this edition of " Heroes and Hero-Worship," the editor hopes that the an- notations may prove of some service not alone to students in schools and colleges, but also to the general reading public. The varied allusions to mythology, philosophy, history of all ages, the many quotations from recondite sources, when not readily found, have often discouraged the student of Carlyle, and have interfered with a thoroughly intelligent and pleas- urable reading of " Hero- Worship." The editor regrets her inability to elucidate all passages ade- quately; yet she: has endeavored to make the ex- planations and reading references suggestive and helpful for more scholarly, exhaustive study of Carlyle's essays on "The Heroic in History." Worcester, Mass., October 1, 1897. CONTENTS FAGE Introduction . ix Literary Summary and Bibliography . . . xxxi LECTUEE I The Hero as Divinity. Odin. Paganism : Scandi- navian Mythology 1 LECTURE II The Hero as Prophet. Mahomet: Islam . . 66 LECTURE III The Hero as Poet. Dante ; Shakspeare . . . 104 LECTURE IV The Hero as Priest. Luther ; Reformation : Knox ; Puritanism 154 LECTURE V The Hero as Man of Letters. Johnson, Rousseau, Burns . . . . . . . . . 2t)6 vii viii conti:nts LECTURE VI PAGB The Heko as King. Cromwell, Napoleon : Modern Revolutionism 262 Summary « . 327 Notes 339 Index to Hero- Worship ...... 403 Index to Notes and Introduction .... 407 INTRODUCTION We read in Carlyle's journal, Oct. 10, 1843: " To have my life surveyed and commented on by all men even wisely is no object with, me, but rather the opposite ; how much less to have it done unwisely! The world has no business with my life ; the world will never know my life if it should write and read a hundred biographies of me. The main facts of it even are known and likely to be known to myself alone of created men.^' ^ When Carlyle, in his literary prime, expressed this independent attitude toward the public, he scarcely realized how often his wishes would be ignored. Even before his death, forced to yield to popular demand, he arranged for his biography. That work, committed to James Anthony Froude, and accomplished sincerely yet unwisely, has fur- nished a battle-ground for biographers and critics during the last fifteen years. In introducing this edition of " Heroes and Hero- Worship," it may not seem superfluous, in spite of the scores of critical volumes on Carlyle, to include a brief survey of his life and literary 1 Froude's " Thomas Carlyle: Life in London," I. 1. ix X INTRODUCTION influence. For the authentic facts of Carlyle's life, we are largely indebted to Froude's four vol- umes of biography, compiled from such primal sources as Carlyle's journal, note-books, and letters.-^ If, however, Boswell has been lauded as the model biographer, Froude has been condemned more, per- haps, than any other literary executor. Despite his defensive tone iij. the last two volumes of biog- raphy, despite his earnest patience, students of Carlyle agree that Froude lacked sympathetic in- sight, not alone in publishing the " Eeminiscences," so sacredly entrusted, but also in his delineation of Carlyle's character. The latent humor, sym- pathy, nature-worship, affection, and friendship of Carlyle all seem submerged under the irony, doubt, misanthropy, and struggle of Froude's portrait. As David Masson aptly says, Mr. Froude has constantly the aspect " of a man driving a hearse." ^ Many friendly critics have tried to correct the lugubrious impressions left by Froude's very valua- ble memoirs. Among the best revelations of Car- lyle's character may be cited : the " Eeminiscences " and "Letters" edited by Professor Charles Eliot Norton, who has also compiled the "Goethe-Car- lyle " and " Carlyle-Emerson Correspondence " ; David Masson's " Carlyle Personally and in his Writings," Richard Garnett's "Life of Carlyle," H. J. Mcoll's " Thomas Carlyle," and Moncure D. Conway's " Thomas Carlyle." ^ 1 See Bibliography for editions of these and other volumes. 2 " Carlyle Personally and in his Writings," p. 17. INTBODUCTIOJSr XI The future "sage of Chelsea" was born at Ecclefechan, Dumfries, Dec. 4, 1795, of sturdy- parents, who have been immortalized in Carlyle's " Eeminiscences." Integrity, persistence, repressed affection, vehemence, and scorn characterized both father and son. Hatred of sham and devotion to bare truth were also inheritances from the stone- mason, James Carlyle, who, when urged to paint his house, answered scornfully : " Ye can jist slent the bog wi' yer ash-baket feet, for ye'll put nane o' yer glaur on ma door." l^ov should one forget — for Carlyle never did — the influence of the devoted mother who, in her quiet life, gave sympathy and counsel to her son in his varied moods and strug- gles. The Carlyles had a fixed ambition that their sons should have a broad education, — a racial as- piration so delicately portrayed in recent fiction by Barrie and "Ian Maclaren." Thoma^, accordingly, at fourteen, entered Edinburgh University and graduated without winning special rank or appreci- ation except from Professor Leslie of the mathe- matical department. Through the latter' s in- fluence, Carlyle gained an appointment as teacher of mathematics at Annan Academy. Later at Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh he continued his teach- ing and studies. Carlyle now formed his first warm friendship, — with Edward Irving, — and two important events re- sulted. Irving secured for his friend a position as tutor to Charles Buller, later to win brief renown as statesman, and thus Carlyle gained the advan- xii INTBOBUCTION tages of increased income and opportunities for study and travel. A second and more important introduction, in 1821, was to Irving's former pupil, the graceful, alert Jane Welsh. Carlyle was pass- ing through grave doubts as to his material and spiritual future. He early realized that he could not satisfy his father's ambition that "he should enter the kirk." Apprenticeship to law was also distasteful. His studies brought restlessness and longing, rather than peace ; his religious ferment was later revealed in " The Everlasting No " of " Sartor Eesartus." This recorded an actual ex- perience in Leith Walk, Edinburgh. Gradually he emerged from spiritual darkness into the reawak- ened life of " The Everlasting Yea." At this critical period, when teaching seemed drudgery to his aspiring nature, he began to study German literature. Within the masterpieces of Schiller, Eichte, Novalis, and Eichter he found new mental zest; and he gained personal inspiration from Goethe, his spiritual guide and "saviour." One cannot overestimate German thought as a for- mative influence in Carlyle's life. His philosophy, aspirations, and style, later to be embodied in " Sar- tor Eesartus " and " Her o-Wor ship," received the stamp and seal of his German masters. Immedi- ate results of his studies were " Life of Schiller " and translations of "Wilhelm Meister's Appren- ticeship and Travels " and " Specimens of German Eomance," published 1823-27. Meanwhile, Carlyle's dyspeptic moods, his " eat- ing of heart," tinged his correspondence with Jane INTRODUCTION Xlii Welsh from 1822-26. Though permeated with latent love and tenderness, these letters have not inaptly been called "a great legal argument/' in which the lovers discuss arrangements for their marriage and probabilities of future happiness. One is inclined often to utter indignant protests that such intimate relations in Carlyle's life should have been offered to public ridicule and distortion. No less unpardonable have been the curious inquiries into Carlyle's earlier associations with Margaret Gordon and Katharine or " Kitty " Fitzpatrick. The friends of each lady have claimed her as the original of " Blumine " in " Sartor Hesar- tus," though many traits of the literary creation closely resemble those of Jane Welsh Carlyle.^ Carlyle clearly gave his entire, unfaltering loyalty to the young wife whom he had married in 1826. Their first home was at Comely Bank, Edinburgh, where, through Jeffrey's friendly aid, Carlyle wrote articles for the Edinburgh Review, many of which were later collected in his "Miscellaneous and Critical Essays." His "Life of Schiller" and trans- lations had already found favor with Goethe, and a correspondence began which brought great happi- ness to the Carlyles and atoned, in a measure, for financial duress and the vain efforts to gain a University professorship.^ The early essays on German authors, followed by the fine analysis of 1 See Westminster Review, August, 1894, " Carlyle and the Blumine of Sartor Resartus." 2 " Goethe-Carlyle Correspondence," edited by C. E. Norton, London and New York, 1887. XIV INTRODUCTION' Burns,^ showed originality and scholarship, but were merely tentative efforts. An attempt to write a novel ended at the seventh chapter. This fiction, later published as " Wotton Eeinf red,^ was largely incorporated into Book II. of "Sartor Besartus." In his journal, Oct. 28, 1830, Carlyle wrote : "Written a strange piece on clothes,'' etc. This sentence chronicled the beginning of Carlyle's real literary power. Their Edinburgh home had been abandoned for Craigenputtoch, whose isolated loca- tion has caused so many anathemas against Carlyle. Financial stress brought them to this lonely farm- house, belonging to the Welshes, and here Carlyle, in truth an intellectual recluse, worked on his "Apocalypse of Soul," as "Sartor Eesartus" has been called. Mrs. Carlyle, in spite of exaggerated domestic trials, was proud and happy in the com- pletion of this " work of genius, dear." In the second lecture on " Hero- Worship," Carlyle empha- sized Mahomet's loyal memory of Kadi j ah, who " believed in me when none else would believe. In the whole world I had but one friend and she was that ! " It requires no great imagination to accept the analogy, found by critics, between this tribute to Kadijah's faith and Mrs. Carlyle^y^.. inspiration and encouragement. . :' Publishers, however, did not shar .^er tribute and " Sartor Eesartus " vainly sough^ ecognition. The actual financial struggles of Carlyle, with capital 1 " Miscellaneous and Critical Essays," Vol. I. 2 " The Last Words of Thomas Carlyle," New York, 1892. INTRODUCTION XV varying "from £5 to twelvepence/' were secondary to his mental gloom. No one can resist pity for Mrs. Carlyle, compelled to endure vexations and social starvation, yet does her martyrdom over- shadow sympathy for Carlyle's spiritual distress ? The wife needed an admixture of unemotional, unexaggerated frankness with her courage. With false pride, now and later, she concealed her disap- pointments and jealousies from the husband who lacked intuition, but who never failed in tender, deep affection. It is not strange that the revela- tions of her nervous sufferings, read in her journal after her death, should have caused a shock to Car- lyle's heart and brain. The Carlyles enjoyed many seasons of rare companionship and devotion, as their letters witness, yet they were both often unhappy, and the cause was not alone in Carlyle. They seemed to disprove the adage, " Similia similibus curantur " ; their traits were too similar, they sup- plemented not complemented each other. Mrs. Alexander Ireland has given a just analysis of the character of each,^ while John Burroughs, in pun- gent, graphic style, summarizes their traits in his essay, " A Sundav in Cheyne Row." ^ To return fron Carlyle's home life to his slowly developing litera ^ genius, we find him writing essays for Fras( ■ Magazine and other reviews. Some of the subjej^K^, Croker's Boswell, Cagliostro, Voltaire, and Diderot, doubtless proved incentives to the "French Eevolution " and lectures on " Heroes." 1 " Life of Jane Welsh Carlyle." 2 " Fresh Fields," pp. 241-243. XVI INTRODUCTION Tlie story of the reception of " Sartor Eesartus " by the public, when it appeared in Fraser^s Maga- zine in 1833, two years after its completion, has become so familiar that it needs no repetition. It gained, we are told, but two known admirers, Emerson and a priest in Cork. To-day, variously regarded as symbolic biography, philosophy, or prose-poem, " Sartor Resartus " has found a merited, unique place among literary masterpieces. Undaunted by critics' frowns, Carlyle had begun work on his "French Revolution,'' — first, however, removing his residence to the shrine so familiar to tourists, 5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea. Few incidents in literary history have elicited more sympathy than Carlyle's loss by fire of the first manuscript volume of the history, which had been loaned to John Stuart Mill. Carlyle's natural irascibility was conquered by Christian forbearance in this trial. With dogged perseverance he rewrote the first and finished the second volume, declaring the work "came direct and flamingly from the heart of a living man." ^ This " French Revolution," published 1838, start- ling and epic, aroused the lethargic public to an inter- est in Carlyle. Its text seems the one which became more familiar in " Hero- Worship," " History is the biography of Great Men." Critics, then and later, have arraigned Carlyle for his extravagant hero- worship and his imaginative treatment of events at the expense of minor inaccuracies. Yet as a work of vivid dramatic force, George Saintsbury speaks 1 Froude's " Thomas Carlyle: Life in London," I. 72. INTRODUCTION Xvii truly : " The French Eevolution of Carlyle is the French Eevolution as it happened, as it was. The French Revolution of the others is the French Eevolution dug iip in lifeless fragments by excel- lent persons with the newest patent pickaxes.'^ ^ Carlyle was still hampered financially, before and after the history was published, and, to increase his income, a course of lectures on German literature was arranged by certain friends, notably Harriet Martineau and Miss Wilson. This first experi- ment, 1836-37, was followed by three more courses on "Periods of European Culture," "History of Literature," and "Heroes and Hero-Worship." Portions of the lectures on "History of Literature" have been published in magazines, from notes taken by Thomas Anstey. A volume, containing notes on eleven of the twelve lectures delivered, was pub- lished recently by Professor J. Eaey Greene.^ Be- ginning with the classic authors, Carlyle traced the development of literature through mediaeval roman- ticism and eighteenth-century scepticism down to modern transcendentalism and social problems. Many themes suggest more detailed analysis in "Heroes and Hero-Worship" and, evidently, the earlier course was preparatory to his lectures on Dante and Shakespeare, Luther and Knox, John- son and Eousseau. The last and most successful course on " Heroes " included the only lectures revised and published by Carlyle. Biographers say that the lectures were attended 1 " Corrected Impressions," by George Saintsbury, p. 54. 2 " History of Literature," New York, 1892. xviii INTB OB UCTION by cultivated and fashionable audiences, numbering from two to three hundred. That Carlyle was ever a successful lecturer, if one gauges success by ora- torical skill and fine presence, no listener would affirm ; that his manner, like his thoughts, was fer- vent and potent, carrying his auditors with him to appreciation of lofty ideals and vehement remon- strances, none would deny. Carlyle's reminiscences of the lectures are both droll and pathetic, showing his indifference to the honors of the rostrum. " Our main revenue three or four years now was lectures in Edward Street, Portman Square, the only free room there was. Brought in on the aver- age, perhaps £200 for a month's hard labour. . . . Detestable mixture of prophecy and play-actorism, as I sorrowfully defined it ; nothing could well be hatef uller to me ; but I was obliged." ^ Again, in his journal, July 27, 1838, we read: "The lectures terminated quite triumphantly, thank Heaven ! . . . If dire famine drive me, I must even lecture, but not otherwise. Whoever he may be that wants ■ get into the centre of a fuss, it is not I. Preed ^ under the blue sky — ah me ! with a bit of brown bread and peace and pepticity to eat it with, this for my money before all the glory of Portman Square or the solar system itself. But we must take what we can get and be thankful."^ The last course on " Heroes " was delivered in May, 1840, and was considered a great success. Carlyle, with usual depreciation, called the lectures his "bad best." He 1 "Reminiscences," Jane Welsh Carlyle, p. 261. 2 Fronde's " Thomas Carlyle : Life in London," I. 121. INTRODUCTION XIX began at once to revise them for publication and they won ready sale. David Masson says they represented the climax to '' Carlyle's literary efful- gence.'' ^ A brief examination of the volume will be found in later pages of this introduction. Wearied by the labor of revision, Carlyle spent a few months in rest, — or restlessness, as it proved, — before beginning "Cromwell's Letters and Speeches." He paused in his researches to write rapidly " Past and Present," (1843) a partial reply to his earlier economic treatise, " Chartism." Though he had re- nounced the faith of Mill and his disciples, yet Carlyle's ideas for social and economic reform were always vague and unstable. Unquestionably, "Past and Present " pictured a vivid literary contrast be- tween medisevalism and modern England, yet it lacked continuity and practical influence. " Cromwell's Letters and Speeches," which ap- peared in 1845, was wholly unlike the "French Revolution" in scope and treatment. As in the »l^n5ture on Cromwell in " Heroes and Hero- Worship," iv;lrlyle greatly idealized his hero. True, he allows Cromwell to be his own biographer in the history, yet the editor carefully suppresses all "elucidations " which would be unfavorable to his subject. " Crom- well " was a monumental historical work, but it failed to startle and awaken the public like the pictorial " French Revolution." A period of doubt and of discontent with politi- cal affairs found expression in " Latter-Day Pam- phlets," 1850, severe upon the mercantile and utili- 1 " Carlyle Personally and in his Writings," p. 60. XX INTR OB UCTION tarian " spirit of the age." This bitter gloom, how- ever, did not shadow an almost coeval work of friend- ship, " Life of John Sterling." Other friends of middle life who have, in many cases, paid grateful tribute to Carlyle, were Ruskin, Kingsley, Dickens, Mazzini, Browning, Tennyson, Maurice, and Masson. Emerson, also, whose visit to the Craigenputtoch home had seemed a benediction, came to England to lecture, 1847-48, and strengthened the warm friendship with Carlyle, which had never waned during the years of correspondence. Carlyle's last ambitious work was his " History of Frederick the Great." It proved, indeed, " labour and sorrow " ; for, in addition to the excessive research, Carlyle was early disillusioned regarding his " great- est of modern men." Dogged, though disappointed, he labored on for thirteen years, with two faithful assistants, and completed the last and sixth volume in 1865. To his journal he unburdened his soul in relief when he had finished that " unutterable book."^ A work which caused its author such travail failed to win spontaneous applause from the public. Its ponderous and somewhat disjointed structure, however, can never dim the many un- equalled scenes of brilliant, dramatic action, and Carlyle's " Frederick " ranks among the few great histories. The same year that " Frederick " appeared, Carlyle was chosen Lord Eector of Edinburgh University. Averse to all public honors, he was persuaded to accept this signal recognition and 1 Froude's " Thomas Carlyle : Life in London," II. 241. INTRODUCTION xxi found pleasure in tlie proud delight of his wife, whose later years of invalidism had evoked his anxious tenderness. Yet, at the very period of his triumph, came the fatal telegram, announcing Mrs. Carlyle's sudden death. For the surviving fifteen years of his life Carlyle accomplished little normal mental work. Lonely, morbid, reproachful, he wrote the " Eeminiscences " of Jane Welsh Carlyle, of Irving, and of Jeffrey. There is frequent evidence that Carlyle did not in- tend to have the " Eeminiscences," nor his broken- hearted journal-memories, given to the public. Explicit is the postscript, suppressed by Froude, wherein Carlyle doubts the wisdom of publication and forbids any portion to be published without " fit editing." ^ We must accept Proude's explana- tion,^ yet we must also deplore the lack of " fit editing" which has allowed a seeming stain upon the memory of one of the world's most upright and conscientious men. In addition to the " Eeminiscences," Carlyle's lat- est literary work included " Shooting Niagara " and a few other vigorous polemics, " Early Kings of Nor- way " and ^' Portraits of John Knox," the last two essays published jointly in 1875. He likewise revised his more complete works for collected editions.^ Eefusing knighthood and pension, he lived quietly at his Chelsea home, with his niece, 1 See Richard Garnett's " Life of Carlyle," p. 157. 2 Froude's " Thomas Carlyle : Life in London," 11. 348-352. 3 The Library Edition, still standard, was published in London, 1871-74. See Bibliography. xxil INTRODUCTION until his death, Feb. 5, 1887. By his request he was buried at Ecclefechan. How complex was Carlyle's nature! Graphic, poetic imagination, broad scholarship, keen insight, and interest in humanity's sorrows and enthusi- asms, tender, latent love, sardonic humor, delight in nature and animal life, unswerving faith in God and duty, — these traits were existent with vehemence, which often became pugnacity, doubt, gloom, undeveloped tastes, and perverted judg- ments. While Carlyle's character, with its noble- ness and its limitations, has been recognized at last by students, there is no such consensus of opinion regarding his literary influence. He has been eulogized as " the greatest seer of the century " ; he has been scorned as " a rugged peasant " whose unique denunciations created only a temporary and waning interest, i^nong contemporaneous critics, perhaps none has possessed more sympathetic judg- ment than the recently deceased Richard Holt Hut- ton. He has written detached essays upon Carlyle, which form a careful, historical study of his influ- ence not only upon the thought but also upon the literature of the age.^ Denying Carlyle's right to be called a " prophet,'' with a special message, he denominates him " a prophetic artist." The defects and weaknesses, the potency and influence of Carlyle are admirably summarized in this climatic period : " In origin a peasant, who originated a new sort of 1 " Contemporary Thought and Thinkers," Vol. I., London and New York, 1894 ; also, " Modern Guides to English Thought in Matters of Faith," London and New York, 1891. INTR OB UCTION xxiii culture, and created a most artificial style full at once of affectation and genuine power; in faitli a Calvinistic sceptic, who rejected Christianity while clinging ardently to the symbolic style of the Hebrew teaching; in politics a pioneer of democracy, who wanted to persuade the people to trust themselves to the almost despotic guidance of Lord-protectors whom he could not tell them how to find ; in litera- ture a rugged sort of poet, who could not endure the chains of rhythm, and even jeered at rhyme; — Carlyle certainly stands out a paradoxical figure, solitary, proud, defiant, vivid. No literary man in the nineteenth century is likely to stand out more distinctly than Thomas Carlyle, both for faults and genius, to the centuries which will follow." ^ Among the most recent critiques upon Carlyle's literary rank is Frederick Harrison's "Carlyle's Place in Literature," which appeared in the Forum, July, 1894, and has since been embodied in book- form.^ Mr. Harrison has been a fearless iconoclast in this series of essays, defying many a reader to again firmly place his literary idol on its pedestal. He has, however, uttered many indisputable truths about the " Greater Victorian Writers." Mr. Har- rison considers Carlyle's influence historically; he notes its permanence thus far amid the fluctuating tastes of two generations. While convinced that the past has listened more reverently to Carlyle's teachings than will the future, yet he justly praises the literary beauties of the masterpieces. 1 " Modern Guides to English Thought in Matters of Faith," pp. 44, 45. 2 See Bibliography. xxi V IN TR OB UCTION Among the truest friends of the Carlyles was Joseph Mazzini, and his letters to Mrs. Carlyle in her unhappiness are full of insight and help.^ Though Carlyle and Mazzini differed in political tenets, yet each recognized the sincerity and noble- ness of the other. In the British and Foreign Review, October, 1843, Mazzini published an essay on " The Genius and Writings of Thomas Carlyle." ^ This analysis had more than contemporary value, and has since been published in varied forms. As Mazzini attended some of Carlyle's lectures on "Heroes," and refuted some extravagant state- ments, the criticism has special pertinence to this volume. " In his vocation as a writer," said Maz- zini, "he fills the tribune of an apostle, and it is here that we must judge him." The critic empha- sized the negative quality of Carlyle's social reform principles, yet he recognized the service done to humanity by the bold attacks on formulism, sham, materialism, and selfishness. Carlyle compelled a study of social questions ; he awakened an interest, also, in the ethical and spiritual problems. Maz- zini ranked Carlyle as " a powerful literary artist," whose influence as teacher and prophet was dwarfed by his recognition of the individual only, — his emphasis of the history of " Great Men " to the exclusion of racial unity and progress of humanity, wherein Great Men are only " Marking-stones." In " Heroes and Hero-Worship " one finds cause 1 Froude's " Thomas Carlyle : Life in London," I. 326, 328. 2 Appendix to "The Socialism and Unsocialism of Thomas Carlyle," Vol. II., New York, 1891. INTRODUCTION xxv for Mazzini's criticism of Carlyle's vague, one-sided ideas of reform. There are many " sins of omis- sion/' also, in the lectures. We seek vainly for a hero in art, science, or philosophy to chronicle " The Heroic in History." Prejudices and un- trained tastes often are responsible for lack of merited tribute and presence of unjust censure. Yet, on the whole, no volume of Carlyle's writings is more inspiring and less gloomy than " Heroes and Hero- Worship." Says Peter Bayne, in " Lessons from my Masters": "ISTo one of Carlyle's books has been more popular than the lectures on Heroes and Hero- Worship ; . . . the ethical element, and the earnest and spiritual religion, the impassioned sym- pathy with valor, devout self-sacrifice, all that is heroic in man, and the resolute determination to recognize nobleness under all disguises which per- vade this book, render it one of the best that can be put into the hands of young men." Thoreau, in his " Essay on Carlyle," regarded this book as his most typical volume.^ He said : " All his works might well enough be embraced under the title of one of them, a good specimen brick, ^ On Heroes, Hero- Worship, and the Heroic in History.' Of this Department he is Chief Pro- fessor in the World's University, and even leaves Plutarch behind." Carlyle seeks to unite his six themes under one sequential subject, "The Heroic in History." He does not, however, avoid the impression of dis- jointed essays, each vivid and sharply outlined, 1 " A Yankee in Canada," Boston, 1866, pp. 211-247. XXvi INTR OD UCTIOJSr yet defying assimilation into his general history. Despite his reiteration, "A Hero is a Hero at all points," ^ the careful reader finds it difficult to include in his category of " Heroes " such diverse characters as the mythical Odin, the questionable Rousseau, the disputed Cromwell, and the revolu- tionary Mirabeau. This very speculation, however, regarding Car- lyle's heroes may furnish one merit of the volume. The student is given incentive to broad and thought- ful historical reading ; he realizes that Carlyle is an inspiration, not a final authority in criticism. To quote Thoreau again : " No doubt some of Carlyle's worthies, should they ever return to earth, would find themselves unpleasantly put upon their good behavior to sustain their characters ; but if he can return a man's life more perfect to our hands than it was left at his death, following out the design of its author, we shall have no great cause to com- plain." There is great literary inspiration and delight in these essays. Carlyle's familiarity with mythology, with history, secular and religious, with literature, in its masterpieces and minor efforts, is attested on every page. Few authors can incorporate so many apt allusions from remote and familiar sources, so many quotations and renditions from classic and modern authors. Study of Glerman literature has borne fruit in direct and assimilated thoughts from Goethe, Schiller, Richter, Novalis, Fichte, and others. The man Carlyle, with his mingled humor, 1 " Heroes and Hero-Worship," p. 37 : 12. IN TB OD UCTION XX vii pathosj scorn, and sympathy, is clearly revealed in such graphic passages as the story of Dante's wan- derings, the analysis of Burns and his "fire-flies," or the delicate, pathetic reference to Cromwell's mother. A pictorial and poetic imagination alone could paint such scenes as the description of Ice- land, the lurid panorama of Dante's " Inferno," or Luther's historic trial. " Heroes and Hero- Worship " contains many repe- titions of thought and phrase from " Sartor Resar- tus," and the " French Eevolution." There are also many suggestions expanded later in " Past and Pres- ent," "Latter-Day Pamphlets," "Cromwell," and "Prederick." He deplores dilettantism and scep- ticism with more regret and less denunciation than in " Past and Present " ; he denounces cant and quackery as responsible for many current evils. He urges gratitude for past heroes and confidence in future " Great Men," who symbolize the " divine- ness in Man and Nature." As usual " the dynam- ics," not " the mechanics," of life arouse his inter- est. In truth, the sage and seer, Carlyle, justifies John Morley's tribute : " One of Mr. Carlyle's chief and just glories is, that for more than forty years he has clearly seen and kept constantly in his own sight and that of his readers the profoundly impor- tant crisis in the midst of which we are living." ^ The diction of " Hero- Worship " is less startling than that of his other masterpieces, and yet it is unique and "Carlylese." The attitude of later critics toward Carlyle's style is significant. In by- 1 "Critical Miscellanies," p. 196. xxviii INTB OB UCTION gone days Taiiie raised a general echo by denounc- ing it as " demoniacal." Progress of years, however, has given freedom of style as well as of thought. A brilliant author need no longer model his diction after the calm, impassioned Cicero or Addison. If the form is spontaneous and effective, adapted to the thought, critics will overlook, though they deplore, eccentricities, inversions, occasional barbarisms. No writer ever possessed a more individual and forceful style to express intense thoughts than Carlyle chose. If some phrases savor of affectation, and suggest too careful study of Eichter's peculiar forms, yet on the whole Carlyle must be classified as a literary artist of unique, chiaroscuric style. It may be difficult for the reader to forgive the unlicensed, erratic use of compound words and the strange inverted sentence-structure, yet to atone for these peculiarities we meet such aphoristic sen- tences as : "A man lives by believing something ; not by debating and arguing about many things." ^ " The sincere alone can recognize sincerity." ^ " The true University of these days is a Collection of Books."® "Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity there are a hundred that will stand adversity." ^ Carlyle is a teacher and a preacher, if not a prophet and a seer. " Heroes and Hero- Worship," like all his writings, contains negations, contradic- 1 "Heroes and Hero- Worship," p. 233: 28. 2 "Heroes and Hero-Worship," p. 289: 31. 8 "Heroes and Hero-Worship," p. 217: 19. 4 "Heroes and Hero-Worship," p. 260: 14-17. tNTBODUCTtON XXix tions, incompleteness^ half-formed tastes, and over- grown prejudices, yet it brings an inspiring message to every reader. We read, in Carlyle's journal, that his auditors, in 1840, " Sate breathless or broke out into all kinds of testimonies of good will." ^ The defensive and fearless tributes which he paid to such heroes as Mahomet, Burns, Knox, and Crom- well, comparatively unknown and unvalued fifty years ago, have been accepted now as common truths. Other views and statements made by Car- lyle have been largely disproved by later scholars. The value of these essays, however, as incentive to scholarly reading and as revelation of Carlyle's magnetic thought and style, will ever remain, for in them he has spoken words of sincerity and hero- ism to each individual soul. 1 Fronde's "Thomas Caiiyle: Life in London," I. 157. LITERARY SUMMARY AND BIBLIOG- RAPHY 1795 Thomas Carlyle born at Ecclefechan, Dumfries, Dec. 4. 1796 [Burns died at Dumfries.] 1809 Carlyle entered Edinburgh University, intending to study for the ministry. 1814 Teacher of Mathematics at Annan Academy. 1817 Teacher at Kirkcaldy ; formed friendship with Edward Irving. 1818 A season of study yet gloom at Edinburgh. 1819-1821 Wrote sixteen articles for Edinburgh Encyclo- paedia ; influenced by German authors. 1821 Beginning of acquaintance and correspondence with Jane Welsh. 1822 Critique on Eaust in New Edinburgh Keview; trans- lation of Legendre's Elements of Geometry and Trigonometry. 1822-1824 Tutor to Charles Buller; visits to London, Paris, etc. 1824 Finished translation of Wilhelm Meister's Appren- ticeship and Travels, 3 vols. ; began correspondence with Goethe ; translation of Legendre with Essay on Proportion published. 1823-1824 Life of Schiller in London Magazine. 1825 Life of Schiller published in book form. 1826 Married Jane Welsh, Oct. 17 ; lived at 21 Comely Bank, Edinburgh. 1825-1827 Translation of Specimens of German Komance, including tales by Musseus, LaMotte-Eouqu^, Tieck, Hoffman, Richter, and Goethe ; published 1827, 4 xxxi xxxii LITEBABT SUMMABT vols. ; seven chapters of incomplete novel, Wotton Reinfred, written ; essays on Goethe, Werner, Heine, etc., in Edinburgh Review and Foreign Review. 1828 Residence at Craigenputtoch ; financial stress and men- tal gloom ; Essay on Burns in Edinburgh Review. 1829 Essays on Voltaire, Novalis, and Signs of the Times in Foreign Review and Edinburgh Review. 1830 Translation of Richter's review of L'Allemagne in Eraser's Magazine, also poem, Cui Bono ; Sartor Resartus begun, Oct. 1830-1831 Vain search for publisher for Sartor Resartus ; poems, The Beetle, The Sower's Song, Tragedy of the Night-Moth in Eraser's Magazine ; acquaint- ance with Mill ; the Nibelungen Lied in Westmin- ster Review. 1831 Characteristics published in Edinburgh Review ; Lu- ther's Psalm in Eraser's Magazine. 1832 Death of father ; Reminiscences of James Carlyle ; Es- says on Johnson and Diderot in Eraser's Magazine and Foreign Quarterly ; [death of Goethe] ; essays on Goethe in Eraser's Magazine and Foreign Quar- terly. 1833 Essay on Cagliostro in Eraser's Magazine ; Sartor Resartus published in Eraser's Magazine ; Emer- son's visit to Craigenputtoch. 1834 Failure to secure professorship ; removal of Carlyles to 5 Cheyhe Row, Chelsea. 1835 First volume of French Revolution burned and re- written. 1836 Sartor Resartus published in America ; Essay on Mirabeau in London and Westminster Review ; The Diamond Necklace in Eraser's Magazine. 1837 French Revolution finished and published. 1837-1840 Courses of Lectures in London on German Lit- erature, History of Literature, and Heroes and Hero- Worship. LITER ABY SUMMARY xxxiii 1838 Sartor Resartus published in England ; essays on Walter Scott and Yarnhagen von Ense's Memoirs in London and Westminster Review. 1839 Chartism published ; Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, 4 vols., published (reprints of magazine essays) . 1841 Heroes and Hero- Worship published. 1842 Visits to Naseby and other scenes connected with Cromwell's history. 1843 Past and Present published. 1845 Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, with elucida- tions, published, 2 vols. 1847-1849 Years of unrest ; visit to Ireland. 1850 Latter-Day Pami)hlets published, 1852 First trip to Germany to gain material for History of Frederick ; second trip, 1858. 1858 First two volumes of Frederick the Great. 1865 Frederick completed, 6 vols. ; elected Lord Rector of Edinburgh University. 1866 Inaugural at Edinburgh, April 2; Mrs. Carlyle's sud- den death, April 21. 1866-1867 Years of sadness ; wrote Reminiscences of Jane Welsh Carlyle, Irving, and Jeffrey. 1867-1870 Shooting Niagara and other political essays pub- lished. 1871 Mr. Carlyle on the war ; reprints from letters in London Times. 1872 Early Kings of Norway \ Published in one volume, 1875 Portraits of John Knoxi 1875. 1881 Died Feb. 5 ; buried at Ecclefechan, Feb. 10. An exhaustive bibliography of Carlyle, by John P. An- derson, is appended to Richard Garnett's Life of Carlyle, London, 1887 (Great Writers Series). The following refer- ences are designed to aid general reading, and include only Carlyle's important works and selected criticisms. xxxiv BIBLIOGRAPHY I. Library Edition — 34 vols. London, 1871, 8vo. Sartor Resartus. The French Revolution, 3 vols. Life of Schiller. Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, 6 vols. On Heroes, Hero- Worship, and the Heroic in History. Past and Present. Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, 5 vols. Latter-Day Pamphlets. Life of John Sterling. History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, 10 vols. The Early Kings of Norway ; Portraits of John Knox ; a General Index. Translations from the German, 3 vols. Other editions of Carlyle's collected works are : The People's Edition, 37 vols. London, 1871-1874. The Ashburton Edition, 20 vols. London, 1885-1891. The Centenary Edition. New York, 1896-1897, 30 vols., 8vo., now in publication. II. Editions of Single Works not included in Col- lected Works. On the Choice of Books ; the Inaugural Address at Edin- burgh. London, 1866. Last Words of Thomas Carlyle. Edinburgh, 1882 ; New York, 1891. Lectures on History of Literature. New York, 1892. Correspondence between Goethe and Carlyle, edited by Charles Eliot Norton. London, 1887 ; New York, 1887. The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, edited by Charles Eliot Norton, 2 vols. Boston, 1883. Early Letters of Thomas Carlyle, edited by Charles Eliot Norton, 2 vols. London and New York, 1886. BIBLIOGBAPHY XXXV Reminiscences by Thomas Carlyle, edited by Charles Eliot Norton, 2 vols. London, 1887 ; 2 vols, in one. New York, 1887. Reminiscences by Thomas Carlyle, edited by James An- thony Froude, 2 vols. London, 1881 ; 2 vols, in one, New York, 1881. Reminiscences of my Irish Journey in 1849. London, 1882. III. Biography and Criticism Arnold, Matthew. Discourses in America ; Emerson and Carlyle. London, 1885. Bayne, Peter. Lessons from my Masters (Carlyle, Ruskin, Tennyson). London, 1879. Birrell, Augustine. Obiter Dicta. London, 1884 ; New York, 1891. Boyesen, H. H. Essays on German Literature, Goethe and Carlyle. New York, 1892. Burroughs, John. Fresh Fields. Boston, 1890. In Carlyle's Country, A Sunday in Cheyne Row ; Indoor Studies. Boston, 1893. Emerson and Carlyle. Conway, Moncure D. Thomas Carlyle. London and New York, 1881. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. English Traits, new ed. Boston, 1894. Froude, James Anthony. Thomas Carlyle : History of First Forty Years. London and New York, 1882. Thomas Car- lyle : Life in London, 2 vols, in one. London and New York, 1884. Fuller, Margaret (Ossoli). Memoirs, Vol. II. Boston, 1874. Garnett, Richard. Life of Carlyle. London, 1887. Harrison, Frederick. Studies in Early Victorian Literature. New York, 1896. Hutton, Richard H. Contemporary Thought and Thinkers, Vol. I. London and New York, 1894. Modern Guides to English Thought in Matters of Faith. London and New York, 1891. xxxvi BIBLIOGRAPHY Ireland, Mrs. Alexander. Life of Jane Welsh Carlyle. New York, 1891. Masson, David. Carlyle Personally and in his Writings. London, 1885. Mazzini, Joseph. Essay on the Genius and Writings of Carlyle : Appendix to Socialism and Unsocialism of Car- lyle. New York, 1891. Also, in Life and Writings of Mazzini, Vol. IV. London, 1870. Mead, Edwin D. The Philosophy of Carlyle. Boston, 1881. Morley, John. Critical Miscellanies, Ser. I. London, 1886. Nicoll, H. J. Thomas Carlyle. London and New York, 1885. Kobertson, J. M. Modern Humanists. London, 1891. Saintsbury, George. Corrected Impressions. New York, 1896. Stephen, Leslie. Hours in a Library, Vol. III. ; Carlyle's Ethics. London, 1892. Sterling, John. Essays and Tales, Vol. I. London, 1848. Taine, H. A. English Literature, Vol. IV. Edinburgh, 1874. Thoreau, Henry David. A Yankee in Canada, etc. Bos- ton, 1866. Whipple, Edwin P. Essays and Keviews, Vol. 11. Bos- ton, 1856. ON HEROES, HERO-WORSHIP AND THE HEROIC IN HISTORY LECTURE I THE HERO AS DIVINITY. ODIN. PAGANISM: SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY [Tuesday, 5th May 1840] We have undertaken to discourse here for a little on Great Men, their manner of appearance in our world's business, how they have shaped themselves in the world's history, what ideas men formed of them, what work they did ; — on Heroes, namely, 5 and on their reception and performance; what I call Hero-worship and the Heroic in human affairs. Too evidently this is a large topic ; deserving quite other treatment than we can expect to give, it at present. A large topic ; indeed, an illimitable- one ; lo wide as Universal History itself. Eor, as I take it, Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here. They were the leaders of men, these great ones ; the mod- 15 B 1 2 LECTURES ON HEROES ellers, patterns, and in a wide sense creators, of whatsoever the general mass of men contrived to do or to attain ; all things that we see standing accomplished in the world are properly the outer 5 material result, the practical realisation and em- bodiment, of Thoughts that dwelt in the Great Men sent into the world: the soul of the whole world's history, it may justly be considered, were the history of these. Too clearly it is a topic we 10 shall do no justice to in this place ! One comfort is, that Great Men, taken up in any way, are profitable company. We cannot look, how- ever imperfectly, upon a great man, without gaining something by him. He is the living light-fountain, 15 which it is good and pleasant to be near. The light which enlightens, which has enlightened the dark- ness of the world ; and this not as a kindled lamp only, but rather as a natural luminary shining by the gift of Heaven ; a flowing light-fountain, as I say, 20 of native original insight, of manhood and heroic nobleness ; — in whose radiance all souls feel that it is well with them. On any terms whatsoever, you will not grudge to wander in such neighbourhood for a while. These Six classes of Heroes, chosen 25 out of widely-distant countries and epochs, and in mere external figure differing altogether, ought, if we look faithfully at them, to illustrate several things for us. Could we see them well, we should get some glimpses into the very marrow of the world's his- 30 tory. How happy, could I but, in any measure, in such times as these, make manifest to you the mean- ings of Heroism ; the divine relation (for I may well THE HERO AS DIVINITY 3 call it such) which in all times unites a Great Man to other men ; and thus, as it were, not exhaust my subject, but so much as break ground on it ! At all events, I must make the attempt. It is well said, in every sense, that a man's re- 5 ligion is the chief fact with regard to him. (A man's, ^;ning with terrible veracity that forged notes are forged. But of a Great Man especially, of him I will venture to assert that it is incredible he should have been other than true. ' It seems to me the 10 primary foundation of him, and of all that can lie in him, this. No Mirabeau, Napoleon, Burns, Crom- well, no man adequate to do anything, but is first of all in right earnest about it; what I call a sin- cere man. I should say sincerity, a deep, great, 15 genuine sincerity, is the first characteristic of all men in any way heroic. Not the sincerity that calls itself sincere; ah no, that is a very poor matter indeed ; — a shallow braggart conscious sin- cerity; oftenest self-conceit mainly. The Great 20 Man's sincerity is of the kind he cannot speak of, is not conscious of : nay, I suppose, he is conscious rather of ^sincerity; for what man can walk ac- curately by the law of truth for one day ? No, the Great Man does not boast himself sincere, far 25 from that; perhaps does not ask himself if he is so : I would say rather, his sincerity does not de- pend on himself ; he cannot help being sincere ! The great Fact of Existence is great to him. Fly as he will, he cannot get out of the awful presence 30 of this Reality. His mind is so made ; he is great by that, first of all. Fearful and wonderful, real as Life,^ real as Death, is this Universe to him. THE HERO AS PHOPHET 6l Though all men should forget its truth, and walk in a vain show, he cannot. At aP moments the Flame-image glares-in upon him ; un deniable, there, there ! — I wish you to take this as my primary definition of a Great Man. A little man may have 5 this, it is competent to all men that God has made : but a Great Man cannot be without it. Such a man is what we call an original man; he comes to us at first-hand. A messenger he, sent from the Infinite Unknown with tidings to us. We lo may call him Poet, Prophet, God;— in one wa}^ or other, we all feel that the words he utters are as no other man's words. Direct from the Inner Fact of things; — he lives, and has to live, in daily com- munion Avith that. Hearsays cannot hide it from 15 him; he is blind, homeless, miserable, following hearsays ; it glares-in upon him. Really his utter- ances, are they not a kind of 'revelation'; — what we must call such for want of some other name ? It is from the heart of the world that he comes ; 20 he is portion of the primal reality of things. God has made many revelations ; but this man too, has not God made him, the latest and newest of all ? The 'inspiration of the Almighty giveth him under- standing ' : we must listen before all to him. 25 This Mahomet, then, we will in no wise consider as an Inanity and Theatricality, a poor conscious ambitious schemer; we cannot conceive him so. The rude message he delivered was a real one withal ; an earnest confused voice from the uu- 30 known Deep. The man's words were not false, nor his workings here below; no Inanity and Sinuila- VK V ••"' M^2^ 62 LECTURES ON HEROES cruDQ ; a fiery mass of Life cast-up from the great bosom of Nature herself. To kindle the world; the world's Maker had ordered it so. Neither can the faults, imperfections, insincerities even, of 6 Mahomet, if such were never so well proved against him, shake this primary fact about him. 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 10 to be conscious of none. Headers of the Bible above all, one w^uld think, might know better. Who is called there Hhe man according to God's own heart ' ? David, the Hebrew King, had fallen into sins enough ; blackest crimes ; there was no 15 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, temp- 20 tations, true, often-baffled, never-ended struggle of it, be forgotten ? ' It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. ' Of all acts, is not, for a man, repentance the most divine ? The deadliest sin, I say, were that same supercilious consciousness of 25 no sin; — that is death; the heart so conscious is divorced from sincerity, humility and fact ; is dead : it is ^ pure ' as dead dry sand is pure. David's life and history, as written for us in those Psalms of his, I consider to be the truest emblem ever given 30 of a man's moral progress and warfare here below. All earnest souls will ever discern in it the faith- ful struggle of an earnest human soul towards what THE HEBO AS PEOPHET 63 is good and best. Struggle often baffled, sore baffled, down as into entire wreck ; yet a struggle never ended ; ever, with, tears, repentance, true un- conquerable purpose, begun anew. Poor human nature ! Is not a man's walking, in truth, always 5 that : ' a succession of falls ' ? Man can do no other. A In this wild element of a Life, he has to struggle j onwards; now fallen, deep-abased; and ever, with \ tears, repentance, with bleeding heart, he has to rise again, struggle again still onwards. That his 16/ struggle be a faithful unconquerable one : that is the question of questions. We will put-up with many sad details, if the' soul of it were true. De- tails by themselves will never teach us what it is. I believe we misestimate Mahomet's faults even 15 as faults: but the secret of him will never be got by dwelling there. We will leave all this behind us ; and assuring ourselves that he did mean some true thing, ask candidly what it was or might be. These Arabs Mahomet was born among are cer- 20 tainly a notable people. Their country itself is notable ; the fit habitation for such a race. Savage inaccessible rock-mountains, great grim deserts, alternating with beautiful strips of verdure: wher- ever water is, there is greenness, beauty; odor- 25 iferous balm-shrubs, date-trees, frankincense-trees. Consider that wide waste horizon of sand, empty, silent, like a sand-sea, dividing habitable place from habitable. You are all alone there, left alone with the Universe ; by day a fierce sun blazing down on it 30 with intolerable radiance; by night the great deep 64 LECTUBES ON HEBOES Heaven with, its stars. Such, a country is fit for a swift-handed, deep-hearted race of men. There is something most agile, active, and yet most medita- tive, enthusiastic in the Arab character. The Per- 5 sians are called the French, of the East ; we will call the Arabs Oriental Italians. A gifted noble people ; a people of wild strong feelings, and of iron restraint over these : the characteristic of noble- mindedness, of genius. The wild Bedouin welcomes 10 the stranger to his tent, as one having right to all that is there ; were it his worst enemy, he will slay his foal to treat him, will serve him with sacred hospitality for three days, will set him fairly on Ms way ; — and then, by another law as sacred, kill 15 him if he can. In words too, as in action. They are not a loquacious people, taciturn rather ; but eloquent, gifted when they do speak. An earnest, truthful kind of men. They are, as we know, of Jewish, kindred : but with, that deadly terrible ear- 20 nestness of the Jews they seem to combine some- thing graceful, brilliant, which, is not Jewish. They had ' Poetic contests ' among them before the time of Mahomet. Sale says, at Ocadh, in the South of Arabia, there were yearly fairs, and there, when the 25 merchandising was done, Poets sang for prizes : — the wild people gathered to hear that. One Jewish quality these Arabs manifest; the outcome of many or of all high qualities : what we may call religiosity. From of old they had been 30 zealous worshippers, according to their light. They worshipped the stars, as Sabeans ; worshipped many natural objects, — recognised them as symbols, im- THE HERO AS PROPHET 65 mediate manifestations, of the Maker of Nature. It was wrong ; and yet not wholly wrong. All God's works are still in a sense symbols of God. Do we not, as I urged, still account it a merit to recognise a certain inexhaustible significance, ^ poetic beauty ' 5 as we name it, in all natural objects whatsoever ? A man is a poet, and honoured, for doing that,, and speaking or singing it, — a kind of diluted worship. They had many Prophets, these Arabs; Teachers each to his tribe, each according to the light he had. 10 But indeed, have we not from of old the noblest of proofs, still palpable to every one of us, of what de- voutness and noblemindedness had dwelt in these rustic thoughtful peoples ? Biblical critics seem agreed that our own Book of Job was written in 15 that regioD of the world. I call that, apart from all theories about it, one of the grandest things ever written with pen. One feels, indeed, as if it were not Hebrew ; such a noble universality, different from noble patriotism or sectarianism, reigns in 20 it. A noble Book ; all men's Book ! It is our first, oldest statement of the never-ending Problem, — man's destiny, and God's ways with him here in this earth. And all in such free flowing outlines ; grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity ; in its epic 25 melody, and repose of reconcilement. There is the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart. So true everyway ; true eyesight and vision for all things ; material things no less than spiritual : the Horse, — ' hast thou clothed his neck with thunder f ' 30 — he ' laughs at the shaking of the spear ! ' Such living likenesses were never since drawn. Sublime 66 LECTURES ON HEROES sorrow, sublime reconciliation ;, oldest choral melody as of tlie heart of mankind ; — so soft, and great ; as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars ! There is nothing written, I think, in 5 the Bible or out of it, of equal literary merit. — To the idolatrous Arabs one of the most ancient universal objects of worship was that Black Stone, still kept in the building called Caabah at Mecca. Diodorus Siculus mentions this Caabah in a way 10 not to be mistaken, as the oldest, most honoured temple in his time ; that is, some half-century be- fore our Era. Silvestre de Sacy says there is some likelihood that the Black Stone is an aerolite. In that case, some man might see it fall out of Heaven ! 15 It stands now beside the Well Zemzem ; the Caabah is built over both. A Well is in all places a beau- tiful affecting object, gushing out like life from the hard earth ; — still more so in those hot dry coun- tries, where it is the first condition of being. The 20 Well Zemzem has its name from the bubbling sound of the waters, zem-zem; they think it is the Well which Hagar found with her little Ishmael in the wilderness : the aerolite and it have been sacred now, and had a Caabah over them, for thousands of 25 years. A curious object, that Caabah ! There it stands at this hour, in the black cloth-covering the Sultan sends it yearly ; ' twenty-seven cubits high ; ' with circuit, with double circuit of pillars, with festoon-rows of lamps and quaint ornaments : the 30 lamps will be lighted again this night, — to glitter again under the stars. An authentic fragment of the oldest Past. It is the Keblah of all Moslem : THE HERO AS PBOPHET 67 from Dellii all onwards to Morocco, the eyes of in- numerable praying men are turned towards it, five times, this day and all days : one of the notablest centres in the Habitation of Men. It had been from the sacredness attached to this 5 Caabah Stone and Hagar's Well, from the pilgrim- ings of all tribes of Arabs thither, that Mecca took its rise as a Town. A great town once, though mach decayed now. It has no natural advantage for a town ; stands in a sandy hollow amid bare 10 barren hills, at a distance from the sea ; its provi- sions, its very bread, have to be imported. But so many pilgrims needed lodgings : and then all places of pilgrimage do, from the first, become places of trade. The first day pilgrims meet, merchants have 15 also met : where men see themselves assembled for one object, they find that they can accomplish other objects which depend on meeting together. Mecca became the Eair of all Arabia. And thereby indeed the chief staple and warehouse of whatever Com- 20 merce there was between the Indian and the West- ern countries, Syria, Egypt, even Italy. It had at one time a population of 100,000 ; buyers, for- warders of those Eastern and Western products; importers for their own behoof of provisions and 25 corn. The government was a kind of irregular aristocratic republic, not without a touch of theoc- racy. Ten Men of a chief tribe, chosen in some rough way, were Governors of Mecca, and Keepers of the Caabah. The Koreish were the chief tribe 30 in Mahomet's time; his own family was of that tribe. The rest of the Nation, fractioned and cut- 68 LECTURES ON HEROES asunder by deserts, lived under similar rude patri- archal governments by one or several : lierdsmen, carriers, traders, generally robbers too ; being of ten- est at war one with another, or with all : held to- 5 gether by no open bond, if it were not this meeting at the Caabah, where all forms of Arab Idolatry assembled in common adoration ; — held mainly by the inward indissoluble bond of a common blood and language. In this way had the Arabs lived for 10 long ages, unnoticed by the world ; a people of great qualities, unconsciously waiting for the day when they should become notable to all the world. Their Idolatries appear to have been in a tottering state ; much was getting into confusion and fermentation 15 among them. Obscure tidings of the most impor- tant Event ever transacted in this world, the Life and Death of the Divine Man in Judea, at once the symptom and cause of immeasurable change to all people in the world, had in the course of centuries 20 reached into Arabia too; and could not but, of itself, have produced fermentation there. It was among this Arab people, so circumstanced, in the year 570 of our Era, that the man Mahomet was born. He was of the family of Hashem, of 25 the Koreish tribe as we said; though poor, con- nected with the chief persons of his country. Al- most at his birth he lost his Eather ; at the age of six years his Mother too, a woman noted for her beauty, her worth and sense : he fell to the charge 30 of his Grandfather, an old man, a hundred years old. A good old man: Mahomet's Father, Abdallah, THE HERO AS PROPHET 69 had been his youngest favourite son. He saw in Mahomet, with his old life-worn eyes, a century old, the lost Abdallah come back again, all that was left of Abdallah. He loved the little orphan Boy greatly ; used to say, They must take care of that 5 beautiful little Boy, nothing in their kindred was more precious than he. At his death, while the boy was still but two years old, he left him in charge to Abu Thaleb the eldest of the Uncles, as to him that now was head of the house. By this Uncle, a just 10 and rational man as everything betokens, Mahomet was brought-up in the best Arab way. Mahomet, as he grew up, accompanied his Uncle on trading journeys and suchlike ; in his eighteenth year one finds him a fighter following his Uncle in 15 war. But perhaps the most significant of all his journeys is one we find noted as of some years' earlier date : a journey to the Eairs of Syria. The young man here first came in contact with a quite foreign world, — with one foreign element of end- 20 less moment to him : the Christian Eeligion. I know not what to make of that ^ Sergius, the Nes- torian Monk,' whom Abu Thaleb and he are said to have lodged with ; or how much any monk could have taught one still so young. Probably enough it 25 is greatly exaggerated, this of the Nestorian Monk. Mahomet was only fourteen ; had no language but his own : much in Syria must have been a strange unintelligible whirlpool to him. But the eyes of the lad were open ; glimpses of many things would 30 doubtless be taken-in, and lie very enigmatic as yet, which were to ripen in a strange way into views, 70 LECTURES ON HEROES into beliefs and insights one day. Tiiese journeys to Syria were probably the beginning of mucli to Mahomet. One other circumstance we must not forget : that 5 he had no school-learning; of the thing we call school-learning none at all. The art of writing was but just introduced into Arabia; it seems to be the true opinion that Mahomet never could write ! Life in the Desert, with its experiences, 10 was all his education. What of this infinite Uni- verse he, from his dim place, with his own eyes and thoughts, could take in, so much and no more of it was he to know. Curious, if we will reflect on it, this of having no books. Except by what 15 he could see for himself, or hear of by uncertain rumour of speech in the obscure Arabian Desert, he could know nothing. The wisdom that had been before him or at a distance from him in the world, was in a manner as good as not there for him. Of 20 the great brother souls, flame-beacons through so many lands and times, no one directly communi- cates with this great soul. He is alone there, deep down in the bosom of the Wilderness ; has to grow up so, — alone with Nature and his own Thoughts. 25 But, from an early age, he had been remarked as a thoughtful man. His companions named him ^Al Amin, The Faithful.' A man of truth and fidelity ; true in what he did, in what he spake and thought. They noted that he always meant something. A 30 man rather taciturn in speech; silent when there was nothing to be said ; but pertinent, wise, sincere, when he did speak ; always throwing light on the THE HERO AS PROPHET 71 matter. This is the only sort of speech loorth speaking ! Through life we find him to have been regarded as an altogether solid, brotherly, genuine man. A serious, sincere character; yet amiable, cordial, companionable, jocose even ; — a good laugh 5 in him withal: there are men whose laugh. is as untrue as anything about them ; who cannot laugh. One hears of Mahomet's beauty : his fine sagacious honest face, brown florid complexion, beaming black eyes ; — I somehow like too that vein on the brow, lO which swelled-up black when he was in anger : like the 'liOTse-slioe vein' in Scott's Redgauntlet. It was a kind of feature in the Hashem family, this black swelling vein in the brow ; Mahomet had it promi- nent, as would appear. A spontaneous, passionate, lo yet just, trne-meaning man ! Full of wild faculty, fire and light ; of wild worth, all uncultured ; work- ing out his life-task in the depths of the Desert there. How he was placed with Kadijah, a rich Widow, 20 as her Steward, and travelled in her business, again to the Fairs of Syria ; how he managed all, as one can well understand, with fidelity, adroitness ; how her gratitude, her regard for him grew: the story of their marriage is altogether a graceful intelligi- 25 ble one, as told us by the Arab authors. He was twenty-five; she forty, though still beautiful. He seems to have lived in a most affectionate, peace- able, wholesome way with this wedded benefactress ; loving her truly, and her alone. It goes greatly 30 against the impostor theory, the fact that he lived in this entirely unexceptionable, entirely quiet and 72 LECTURES ON HEROES commonplace way, till the heat of his years was done. He was forty before he talked of any mission from Heaven. All his irregularities, real and sup- posed, date from after his fiftieth, year, when the 5 good Kadijah died. All liis ' ambition/ seemingly, had been, hitherto, to live an honest life ; his 'fame,' the mere good opinion of neighbours that knew him, had been sufficient hitherto. Not till he was already getting old, the prurient heat of his life all burnt 10 out, and peace growing to be the chief thing this world could give him, did he start on the ' career of ambition ' ; and, belying all his past character and existence, set-up as a wretched empty charlatan to acquire what he could now no longer enjoy ! For 15 my share, I have no faith whatever in that. Ah no : this deep-hearted Son of the Wilderness, with his beaming black eyes and open social deep soul, had other thoughts in him than ambition. A silent great soul ; he was one of those who cannot 20 hut be in earnest; whom Nature herself has ap- pointed to be sincere. While others walk in for- mulas and hearsays, contented enough to dwell there, this man could not screen himself in for- mulas; he was alone with his own soul and the 25 reality of things. The great Mystery of Existence, as I said, glared-in upon him, with its terrors, with its splendours ; no hearsays could hide that unspeak- able fact, "Here am I!". Such sincerity, as we named it, has in very truth something of divine. 30 The word of such a man is a Voice direct from Nat- ure's own Heart. Men do and must listen to that as to nothing else ; — all else is wind in comparison. THE B^BO AS PROPHJST 73 From of old, a thousand thoughts, in his pilgrim- ings and wanderings, had been in this man : What am I ? What is this unfathomable Thing I live in, which men name Universe ? What is Life ; what is Death ? What am I to believe ? What am I to 5 do? The grim rocks of Mount Hara, of Mount Sinai, the stern sandy solitudes answered not. The great Heaven rolling silent overhead, with its blue- glancing stars, answered not. There was no answer. TEeTiimi's own soul, and what of God's inspiration lO dwelt there, had to answer ! It is the thing which all men have to ask them- selves; which we too have to ask, and answer. This wild man felt it to be of infinite moment ; all other things of no moment whatever in comparison. 15 The jargon of argumentative Greek Sects, vague tra- ditions of Jews, the stupid routine of Arab Idolatry : there was no answer in these. A Hero, as I repeat, has this first distinction, which indeed we may call first and last, the Alpha and Omega of his whole 20 Heroism, That he looks through the shows of things into things. Use and wont, respectable hearsay, respectable formula : all these are good, or are not good. There is something behind and beyond all these, which all these must correspond with, be the 25 image of, or they are — Idolatries; ''bits of black wood pretending to be God ; ' to the earnest soul a mockery and abomination. Idolatries never so gilded, waited on by heads of the Koreish, will do nothing for this man. Though all men walk by 30 them, what good is it ? The great Eeality stands glaring there upon him. He there has to answer 74 LECTUBES OJSr HEROES it, or perish, miserably. ISTow, even now, or else tlirough all Eternity never ! Answer it ; tJiou must find an answer. — Ambition ? What could all Ara- bia do for this man; with the crown of Greek 5 Heraclius, of Persian Chosroes, and all crowns in the Earth ; — what conld they all do for him ? It was not of the Earth he wanted to hear tell ; it was of the Heaven above and of the Hell beneath. All crowns and sovereignties whatsoever, where would 10 tJiey in a few brief years be ? To be Sheik of Mecca or Arabia, and have a bit of gilt wood put into your hand, — will that be one's salvation? I de- cidedly think, not. We will leave it altogether, this impostor hypothesis, as not credible ; not very 15 tolerable even, worthy chiefly of dismissal by us. Mahomet had been wont to retire yearly, during the month Ramadhan, into solitude and silence ; as indeed was the Arab custom ; a praiseworthy custom, which such a man, above all, would find natural and 20 useful. Communing with, his own heart, in the silence of the mountains ; himself silent ; open to the ' small still voices ' : it was a right natural custom ! Mahomet was in his fortieth year, when having withdrawn to a cavern in Mount Hara, near 25 Mecca, during this E,amadhan, to pass the month in prayer, and meditation on those great questions, he one day told his wife Kadijah, who with his house- hold was with him or near him this year. That by the unspeakable special favour of Heaven he had 30 now found it all out ; was in doubt and darkness no longer, but saw it all. That all these Idols and Eormulas were nothing, miserable bits of wood; THE HERO AS PROPHET 75 that there was One God in and over all; and we must leave all Idols, and look to Him. That God is great ; and that there is nothing else great ! He is the Eeality. Wooden Idols are not real ; He is real. He made us at first, sustains us yet ; we and 5 all things are but the shadow of Him ; a transitory garment veiling the Eternal Splendour. ^ Allah akbar, God is great ; ' — and then also ' Islam/ That we must submit to God. That our whole strength lies in resigned submission to Him, whatsoever He 10 do to us. For this world, and for the other ! The thing He sends to us, were it death and worse than death, shall be good, shall be best ; we resign our- selves to God. — ^ If this be Islam,'' says Goethe, * do we not all live in Islam 9 ' Yes, all of us that 15 have any moral life; we all live so. It has ever been held the highest wisdom for a man not merely to submit to Necessity, — Necessity will make him submit, — but to know and believe well that the stern thing which Necessity had ordered was the 20 wisest, the best, the thing wanted there. To cease his frantic pretension of scanning this great God's- World in his small fraction of a brain; to know that it had verily, though deep beyond his sound- ings, a Just Law, that the soul of it was Good ; — 25 that his part in it was to conform to the Law of the Whole, and in devout silence follow that; ,not questioning it, obeying it as unquestionable. I say, this is yet the only true morality known. A man is right and invincible, virtuous and on the 30 road towards sure conquest, precisely while he joins himself to the great deep Law of the World, in T6 LECTUBlSS ON HEROES spite of all superficial laws, temporary appearances, profit-and-loss calculations ; he is victorious while he cooperates with that great central Law, not vic- torious otherwise : — and surely his first chance of 5 cooperating with it, or getting into the course of it, is to know with his whole soul that it is; that it is good, and alone good ! This is the soul of Islam ; it is properly the soul of Christianity ; — for Islam is definable as a confused form of Christianity ; 10 had Christianity not been, neither had it been. Christianity also commands us, before all, to be resigned to God. We are to take no counsel with flesh-and-blood ; give ear to no vain cavils, vain sor- rows and wishes : to know that we know nothing ; 15 that the worst and crudest to our eyes is not what it seems; that we have to receive whatsoever be- falls us as sent from God above, and say. It is good and wise, God is great ! " Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." Islam means in its way De- 20 nial of Self, Annihilation of Self. This is yet the highest Wisdom that Heaven has revealed to our Earth. Such light had come, as it could, to illuminate the darkness of this wild Arab soul. A confused 25 dazzling splendour as of life and Heaven, in the great darkness which threatened to be death : he called it revelation and the angel Gabriel ; — who of us yet can know what to call it ? It is the ^inspiration of the Almighty that giveth us un- 30 derstanding.' To know; to get into the truth of anything, is ever a mystic act, — of which the best Logics can but babble on the surface. ^ Is THE HEBO AS PROPHET 77 not Belief tlie true god-announcing Miracle ? ' says Novalis. — That Mahomet's whole soul^ set in flame with this grand Truth vouchsafed him, should feel as if it were important and the only important thing, was very natural. That Providence had un- 5 speakably honoured him by revealing it, saving him from death and darkness ; that he therefore was bound to make known the same to all creatures : this is what was meant by ^Mahomet is the Prophet of God ' ; this too is not without its true 10 meaning. — The good Kadijah, we can fancy, listened to him with wonder, with doubt : at length she answered : Yes, it was true this that he said. One can fancy too the boundless gratitude of Mahomet ; and how 15 of all the kindnesses she had done him, this of believing the earnest struggling word he now spoke was the greatest. ^ It is certain,' says Novalis, ' my Conviction gains infinitely, the moment another soul will believe in it.' It is a boundless favour. — 20 He never forgot this good Kadijah. Long after- wards, Ayesha his young favourite wife, a woman who indeed distinguished herself among the Mos- lem, by all manner of qualities, through her whole long life; this young brilliant Ayesha was, one 25 day, questioning him : " Now am not I better than Kadijah ? She was a widow ; old, and had lost her looks : you love me better than you did her ? " — " No, by Allah ! " answered Mahomet : " No, by Allah ! She believed in me when none else would 30 believe. In the whole world I had but one friend, and she was that ! " — Seid, his Slave, also believed 78 LECTURES ON HEROES in him ; these with his young Cousin Ali, Abu Thaleb's son, were his first converts. He spoke of his Doctrine to this man and that ; but the most treated it with ridicule, with indiffer- 5 ence ; in three years, I think, he had gained but thirteen followers. His progress was slow enough. His encouragement to go on, was altogether the usual encouragement that such a man in such a case meets. After some three years of small suc- 10 cess, he invited forty of his chief kindred to an entertainment ; and there stood-up and told them what his pretension was : that he had this thing to promulgate abroad to all men ; that it was the highest thing, the one thing : which of them would 15 second him in that ? Amid the doubt and silence of all, young Ali, as yet a lad of sixteen, impatient of the silence, started-up, and exclaimed in passion- ate fierce language. That he would ! The assembly, among whom was Abu Thaleb, All's Father, could 20 not be unfriendly to Mahomet ; yet the sight there, of one unlettered elderly man, with a lad of sixteen, deciding on such an enterprise against all mankind, appeared ridiculous to them ; the assembly broke- up in laughter. Nevertheless it proved not a laugh- 25 able thing; it was a very serious thing! As for this young Ali, one cannot but like him. A noble- minded creature, as he shows himself, now and always afterwards ; full of affection, of fiery daring. Something chivalrous in him ; brave as a lion ; yet 30 with a grace, a truth and affection worthy of Chris- tian knighthood. He died by assassination in the Mosque at Bagdad ; a death occasioned by his own THE HERO AS PROPHET 79 generous fairness, confidence in the fairness of others : lie said, If the wound proved not unto death, they must pardon the Assassin; but if it did, then they must slay him straightway, that so they two in the same hour might appear before 5 God, and see which side of that quarrel was the just one ! Mahomet naturally gave offence to the Koreish, Keepers of the Caabah, superintendents of the Idols. One or two men of influence had joined 10 him: the thing spread slowly, but it was spread- ing. Naturally he gave offence to everybody : Who is this that pretends to be wiser than we all ; that rebukes us all, as mere fools and worshippers of wood! Abu Thaleb the good Uncle spoke with 15 him : Could he not be silent about all that ; believe it all for himself, and not trouble others, anger the chief men, endanger himself and them all, talking of it ? Mahomet answered : If the Sun stood on his right hand and the Moon on his left, ordering 20 him to hold his peace, he could not obey ! No : there was something in this Truth he had got which was of Nature herself; equal in rank to Sun, or Moon, or whatsoever thing Nature had made. It would speak itself there, so long as the 25 Almighty allowed it, in spite of Sun and Moon, and all Koreish and all men and things. It must do that, and could do no other. Mahomet answered so; and, they say, 'burst into tears.' Burst into tears : he felt that Abu Thaleb was good to him ; 30 that the task he had got was no soft, but a stern and great one. 80 LECTURES ON HEROES He went on speaking to who would listen to him ; publishing his Doctrine among the pilgrims as they came to Mecca ; gaining adherents in this place and that. Continual contradiction, hatred, open or se- 5 cret danger attended him. His powerful relations protected Mahomet himself ; but by and by, on his own advice, all his adherents had to quit Mecca, and seek refuge in Abyssinia over the sea. The Koreish grew ever angrier; laid plots, and swore 10 oaths among them, to put Mahomet to death with their own hands. Abu Thaleb was dead, the good Kadijah was dead. Mahomet is not solicitous of sympathy from us ; but his outlook at this time was one of the dismalest. He had to hide in cav- 15 erns, escape in disguise; fly hither and thither; homeless, in continual peril of his life. More than once it seemed all-over with him ; more than once it turned on a straw, some rider's horse taking fright or the like, whether Mahomet and his Doc- 20 trine had not ended there, and not been heard of at all. But it was not to end so. In the thirteenth year of his mission, finding his enemies all banded against him, forty sworn men, one out of every tribe, waiting to take his life, 25 and no continuance possible at Mecca for him any longer, Mahomet fled to the place then called Yathreb, where he had gained some adherents ; the place they now call Medina, or ' Medinat al Nahi, the City of the Prophet,' from that circum- 30 stance. It lay some 200 miles off, through rocks and deserts; not without great difiiculty, in such mood as we may fancy, he escaped thither, and THE HEEO AS PROPHET 81 found welcome. The whole East dates its era from this Flight, Hegira as they name it: the Year 1 of this Hegira is 622 of our Era, the fifty- third of Mahomet's life. He was now becoming an old man; his friends sinking round him one 5 by one; his path desolate, encompassed with dan- ger : unless he could find hope in his own heart, the outward face of things was but hopeless for him. It is so with all men in the like case. Hitherto Mahomet had professed to publish his lo Religion by the way of preaching and persuasion alone. But now, driven foully out of his native country, since unjust men had not only given no ear to his earnest Heaven's-message, the deep cry of his heart, but would not even let him live if he is kept speaking it, — the wild Son of the Desert resolved to defend himself, like a man and Arab. If the Koreish will have it so, they shall have it. Tidings, felt to be of infinite moment to them and all men, they would not listen to these; would 20 trample them down by sheer violence, steel and murder : well, let steel try it then ! Ten years more this Mahomet had ; all of fighting, of breath- less impetuous toil and struggle ; with what result we know. 25 Much has been said of Mahomet's propagating his Religion by the sword. It is no doubt far nobler what we have to boast of the Christian Religion, that it propagated itself peaceably in the way of preaching and conviction. Yet withal, 30 if we take this for an argument of the truth or falsehood of a religion, there is a radical mistake 82 LECTUBES ON EEEOES in it. The sword indeed : but where will you get your sword ! Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a mmority of one. In one man's head alone, there it dwells as yet. One man alone 5 of the whole world believes it ; there is one man against all men. That he take a sword, and try to propagate with that, will do little for him. You must first get your sword ! On the whole, a thing will propagate itself as it can. We do 10 not find, of the Christian Religion either, that it always disdained the sword, when once it had got one. Charlemagne's conversion of the Saxons was not by preaching. I care little about the sword: I will allow a thing to struggle for itself 15 in this world, with any sword or tongue or imple- ment it has, or can lay hold of. We will let it preach, and pamphleteer, and fight, and to the uttermost bestir itself, and do, beak and claws, whatsoever is in it; very sure that it will, in the 20 long-run, conquer nothing which does not deserve to be conquered. What is better than itself, it cannot put away, but only what is worse. In this great Duel, Nature herself is umpire, and can do no wrong: the thing which is deepest-rooted in 25 Nature, what we call truest, that thing and not the other will be found growing at last. Here however, in reference to much that there is in Mahomet and his success, we are to remember what an umpire Nature is ; what a greatness, com- 30 posure of depth and tolerance there is in her. You take wheat to cast into the Earth's bosom: your wheat may be mixed with chaff, chopped straw. THE HERO AS PBOPHET 83 barn-sweepings, dust and all imaginable rubbish; no matter : you cast it into the kind, just, Earth ; she grows the wheat, — the whole rubbish she silently absorbs, shrouds it in, says nothing of the rubbish. The yellow wheat is growing there ; the 5 good Earth is silent about all the rest, — has silently turned all the rest to some benefit too, and makes no complaint about it ! So everywhere in Nature ! She is true and not a lie ; and yet so great, and just, and motherly in her truth. She lo requires of a thing only that it be genuine of heart; she will protect it if so; will not, if not so. There is a soul of truth in all the things she ever gave harbour to. Alas, is not this the history of all highest Truth that comes or ever came into 15 the world ? The body of them all is imperfection, an element of light in darkness: to us they have to come embodied in mere Logic, in some merely scientific Theorem of the Universe; which cannot be complete ; which cannot but be found, one day, 20 mcomplete, erroneous, and so die and disappear. The body of all Truth dies ; and yet in all, I say, there is a soul which never dies ; which in new and ever-nobler embodiment lives immortal as man himself ! It is the way with Nature. The genuine 25 essence of Truth never dies. That it be genuine, a voice from the great Deep of Nature, there is the point at Nature's judgment-seat. What we call pure or impure, is not with her the final question. Not how much chaff is in you; but whether you 30 have any wheat. Pure ? I might say to many a man ; Yes, you are pure ; pure enough ; but you 84 LECTURES ON HEROES are chaff, — insincere hypothesis, hearsay, formal- ity; you never were in contact with the great heart of the Universe at all; you are properly neither pure nor impure ; you are nothing, Nature 5 has no business with you. Mahomet's Creed we called a kind of Christian- ity ; and really, if we look at the wild rapt earnest- ness with which it was believed and laid to heart, I should say a better kind than that of those 10 miserable Syrian Sects, with their vain j anglings about Homoiousion and Homoousion, the head full of worthless noise, the heart empty and dead! The truth of it is embedded in portentous error and falsehood; but the truth of it makes it be 15 believed, not the falsehood: it succeeded by its truth. A bastard kind of Christianity, but a liv- ing kind ; with a heart-life in it ; not dead, chop- ping barren logic merely ! Out of all that rubbish of Arab idolatries, argumentative theologies, tradi- 20 tions, subtleties, rumours and hypotheses of Greeks and Jews, with their idle wi redrawings , this wild man of the Desert, with his wild sincere heart, earnest as death and life, with his great flashing natural eyesight, had seen into the kernel of the 25 matter. Idolatry is nothing : these Wooden Idols of yours, 'ye rub them with oil and wax, and the flies stick on. them,' — these are wood, I tell you ! They can do nothing for you; they are an impo- tent blasphemous pretence; a horror and abomi- 30 nation, if ye knew them. God alone is ; God alone has power; He made us, He can kill us and keep us alive: 'Allah aJcbar, God is great.' Understand THE HEBO AS PBOPHET 85 that His will is the best for yon ; that howsoever sore to flesh-and-blood, you will find it the wisest, best: you are bound to take it so; in this world and in the next, you have no other thing that you can do! 5 And now if the wild idolatrous men did believe this, and with their fiery hearts lay hold of it to do it, in what form soever it came to them, I say it was well worthy of being believed. In one form or the other, I say it is still the one thing worthy lo of being believed by all men. Man does hereby become the high-priest of this Temple of a World. He is in harmony with the Decrees of the Author of this World; cooperating with them, not vainly withstanding them : I know, to this day, no better 15 definition of Duty than that same. All that is right includes itself in this of cooperating with the real Tendency of the World : you succeed by this (the World's Tendency will succeed), you are good, and in the right course there. Homoiousion, Ho- 20 moousion, vain logical jangle, then or before or at any time, may jangle itself out, and go whither and how it likes : this is the thing it all struggles to mean, if it would mean anything. If it do not succeed in meaning this, it means nothing. Not 25 that Abstractions, logical Propositions, be correctly worded or incorrectly ; but that living concrete Sons of Adam do lay this to heart: that is the important point. Islam devoured all these vain jangling Sects; and I think had right to do so. 30 It was a Keality, direct from the great Heart of Nature once more. Arab idolatries, Syrian for- 86 LECTURES ON HEROES mulas, whatsoever was not equally real, had to go up in flame, — mere dead fuel, in various senses, for this which was JirSo It was during these wild warfarings and strug- 5 glings, especially after the Flight to Mecca, that Mahomet dictated at intervals his Sacred Book, which they name Koran, or Heading, ' Thing to be read.' This is the Work he and his disciples made so much of, asking all the world, Is not that a mira- 10 cle ? The Mahometans regard their Koran with a reverence which few Christians pay even to their Bible. It is admitted everywhere as the standard of all law and all practice ; the thing to be gone- upon in speculation and life: the message sent 15 direct out of Heaven, which this Earth has to con- form to, and walk by ; the thing to be read. Their Judges decide by it ; all Moslem are bound to study it, seek in it for the light of their life. They have mosques where it is all read daily; thirty relays 20 of priests take it up in succession, get through the whole each day. There, for twelve-hundred years, has the voice of this Book, at all moments, kept sounding through the ears and the hearts of so many men. We hear of Mahometan Doctors that 25 had read it seventy-thousand times ! Very curious : if one sought for ' discrepancies of national taste,' here surely were the most eminent instance of that ! We also can read the Koran ; our Translation of it, by Sale, is known to be a very 30 fair one. I must say, it is as toilsome reading as I ever undertook. A wearisome confused jumble. THE HERO AS PROPHET 87 crude, incondite ; endless iterations, long-winded- ness, entanglement ; most crude, incondite ; — in- supportable stupidity, in short ! Nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European through the Koran. We read in it, as we might in the State- 5 Paper Office, unreadable masses of lumber, that perhaps we may get some glimpses of a remarkable man. It is true we have it under disadvantages : the Arabs see more method in it than we. Mahomet's followers found the Koran lying all in fractions, 10 as it had been written-down at first promulgation ; much of it, they say, on shoulder-blades of mut- ton, flung pell-mell into a chest: and they pub- lished it, without any discoverable order as to time or otherwise ; — merely trying, as Avould seem, and 15 this not very strictly, to put the longest chapters first. The real beginning of it, in that way, lies almost at the end: for the earliest portions were the shortest. Eead in its historical sequence it perhaps would not be so bad. Much of it, too, they 20 say, is rhythmic ; a kind of wild chanting song, in^ the original. This may be a great point ; m»