University of California • Berkeley 
 
 From the Library of 
 
 Charles Erskine Scott Wood 
 
 and his Wife 
 
 Sara Bard Field 
 
 Given in Memory of 
 
 JAMES R.CALDWELL 
 
The Committee on Publication of the Grolier 
 Club certifies that this copy of "Two Note 
 Books of Thomas Carlyle " is one of an 
 edition of three hundred and eighty-seven 
 copies on hand-made paper, and three 
 copies on vellum; that the printing was 
 done from types which have been distrib- 
 uted, and that the press work was completed 
 in the month of April, 1898. 
 
TWO NOTE BOOKS OF 
 THOMAS CARLYLE 
 
TWO NOTE BOOKS 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE 
 
 FROM 23d MARCH 1822 
 TO 16th MAY 1832 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 CHARLES ELIOT NORTON 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE GROLIER CLUB 
 
 MDCCCXCVIII 
 
v^-^ 
 
 j 976 
 
TWO NOTE BOOKS 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE 
 
 FROM 23d MARCH 1822 
 TO 16th MAY 1832 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 CHARLES ELIOT NORTON 
 
 
 NE\ 
 THE GROLIER 
 MDCCCXCVIU 
 
Copyright, 1898, by the Grolier Club 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Notebooks of Carlyle printed in this 
 volume contain records of his thought and 
 work from March, 1822, to June, 1832 — ten 
 years which in many respects were the most 
 important of his life : for during their course he 
 was married, and his genius discovered its true 
 quality and bent ; he wrote his Life of Schil- 
 ler, Sartor Resartus, and many of his most 
 characteristic and interesting essays ; he be- 
 came widely known as a new power in litera- 
 ture ; he was in friendly relations with Goethe ; 
 he formed acquaintance with many of the 
 foremost men of letters in England, and en- 
 tered into relations with the life of the world 
 outside of Ecclefechan, Edinburgh, and Had- 
 dington. At the beginning of the books he 
 is a poor student, without definite prospects 
 or decided aims, without knowledge of his 
 own capacities, and little acquainted with the 
 world or known by it. At the end he is still 
 very poor, but with ascertained powers, al- 
 ready exercising a strong influence on the 
 thought of his time, and with a well-planted 
 and rapidly growing reputation. 
 
 The Notebooks display in their irregular 
 entries and miscellaneous contents the wide 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 range of his interests, the general course of 
 his reading, the increase of his intellectual 
 resources, the gradual maturing of his mind. 
 They contain his reflections upon books and 
 men, the first rough jottings of his thought, 
 and the records of current experience, set 
 down not for the eyes of others, but as pri- 
 vate memoranda for his own use. They ex- 
 hibit his unwearied industry, and his mental 
 ardor, vigor, and independence, while they 
 reveal as well the strength of his moral con- 
 victions and the tenderness of his affections. 
 To one who knows how to fill out the sketch 
 which they afford, the character of their writer 
 stands plain and impressive in its sincerity, 
 integrity, and originality. 
 
 A considerable part of these books was 
 printed by Mr. Froude in his Life of Carlyle, 
 but, as was generally the case with his tran- 
 scripts from manuscript, with many inaccu- 
 racies. 
 
 Although Mr. Froude's selections were ju- 
 diciously made, their fragmentary character 
 deprives them of a part of the interest and 
 value which the Notebooks as a whole pos- 
 sess, in their illustration of the disposition and 
 methods of their author. The very triviality 
 of some of the entries which the books con- 
 tain shows that mingling of trifling incidents 
 
TWO NOTE BOOKS. 
 
 and experiences with serious permanent con- 
 cerns which gives to every life a double 
 aspect. The deep, constant current flows 
 steadily on, while its surface is ruffled by the 
 breath of the moment, brightened by the 
 passing gleam, or darkened by the flitting 
 shadow. The picture of life is complete only 
 when the details, each insignificant in itself, 
 have their due part in the composition. 
 
 To the student of the growth of Carlyle's 
 intellectual powers and the development of 
 his opinions, these books afford material of 
 interest hardly inferior to that contained in 
 his Reminiscences and in his Letters — letters 
 remarkable beyond most others for the full- 
 ness of their exhibition of the character of 
 their writer, for their sincerity and directness, 
 and for the union in them of ease and rapid- 
 ity of composition with excellence of expres- 
 sion. The Notebooks display in like manner, 
 if in less degree, the mastery which Carlyle 
 possessed over his own faculties. He com- 
 plains often of the difficulty he experienced in 
 writing, but his letters and his journal alike re- 
 veal the mental discipline which enabled him 
 to give off-hand an adequate and clear expres- 
 sion to his thought. There is seldom an erasure 
 or defective phrase in his most rapid and in- 
 stant writing. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 apparently I had been altogether much in 
 luck in this didactic adventure. Which 
 proved abundantly the fact : the two Youths 
 both took to me with unhesitating liking, and 
 I to them; and we never had anything of 
 quarrel, or even of weariness and dreariness, 
 between us : such ' teaching ' as I never did, 
 in any sphere before or since ! Charles, by 
 his qualities, his ingenuous curiosities, his 
 brilliancy of faculty and character, was actu- 
 ally an entertainment to me, rather than a 
 labour; if we walked together (which I re- 
 member sometimes happening) he was the 
 best company I could find in Edinburgh. 
 I had entered him of Dunbar's Third Greek 
 Class in College. In Greek and Latin, in 
 the former in every respect, he was far my 
 superior, and I had to prepare my lessons by 
 way of keeping him to his work at Dunbar's. 
 Keeping him 'to work' was my one diffi- 
 culty, if there was one, and my essential func- 
 tion. I tried to guide him into reading, into 
 solid inquiry and reflection; he got some 
 mathematics from me, and might have had 
 more. He got, in brief, what expansion into 
 wider fields of intellect, and more manful 
 modes of thinking and working, my poor pos- 
 sibilities could yield him; and was always 
 generously grateful to me afterwards ; friends 
 
TWO NOTE BOOKS. 
 
 of mine, in a fine frank way, beyond what I 
 could be thought to merit, he, Arthur, and all 
 the Family, till death parted us." 
 
 The boys had arrived in Edinburgh about 
 the middle of January, and the charge of 
 them took up the better part of eVery day, 
 "from ten o'clock till about one, and from 
 six till nearly eight." During his free hours 
 one of Carlyle's chief occupations was the 
 translation of Legendre's " Elements of 
 Geometry," a work to which he had been set 
 by Dr. (afterward Sir David) Brewster, who 
 was then editing the "Edinburgh Encyclo- 
 paedia," to which Carlyle had contributed 
 various articles, mainly biographical. 1 
 
 But his thoughts were set upon a Book of 
 his own, and he was " riddling Creation " for 
 a subject. Early in 1822 he had well nigh 
 determined to write an Essay on the Civil 
 Wars and the Commonwealth of England; 
 not a history, but a study of the national 
 character as it' was then displayed, and it is 
 with notes made with this intention in mind 
 that the Notebooks begin. 
 
 l These articles were respectable compilations, ser- 
 viceable enough for their purpose, but of no distinguished 
 merit. They have been reprinted in a volume, as a 
 bookseller's speculation, under the title : Montaigne and 
 other essays, chiefly biographical, now first collected. By 
 Thomas Carlyle. London, 1897. 8vo. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The books have been printed in close con- 
 formity with the manuscript. A few correc- 
 tions of the errors of a hasty pen have been 
 made ; a few careless misspellings have been 
 set right, some words in foreign tongues have 
 been italicized, some quotation marks have 
 been supplied. But the integrity of the orig- 
 inal writing has been scrupulously preserved, 
 even at the cost of uniformity in printing. 
 The words in brackets, except a few which 
 supply obvious omissions, are not editorial 
 additions, but are bracketed in the manu- 
 script; a few words abridged in the writing are 
 filled out with bracketed letters in the printed 
 text. Some lines, in two or three places, not 
 amounting to a page in all, have been omit- 
 ted. The manuscript used for the press was 
 a copy of the originals made some years 
 since, but the proof-sheets have been care- 
 fully compared with the original Notebooks 
 by Mr. Alexander Carlyle of Edinburgh, their 
 present possessor. 
 
 Charles Eliot Norton. 
 
 Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
 February, 1898. 
 
The first Notebook is a volume of one 
 hundred and eighty- eight pages of small 
 duodecimo size. It has been carefully pre- 
 served, but on some of the pages the ink has 
 now somewhat faded, though nowhere so far 
 as to make the writing indistinct. The sec- 
 ond Notebook consisted originally of seventy- 
 six pages of nearly the same size as those of 
 the first, but to its original leaves others were 
 added, of different and somewhat smaller pa- 
 per, sewn into the cover. Of these addi- 
 tional pages forty-four are occupied with the 
 memoir of James Carlyle (printed in Carlyle's 
 Reminiscences), and thirty-four with the en- 
 tries with which this volume closes. 
 
LIST OF BOOKS CITED UNDER ABBREVIATED 
 TITLES IN THE NOTES. 
 
 Reminiscences. 
 
 Reminiscences by Thomas Carlyle. 
 Edited by Charles Eliot Norton. 2 
 vols., cr. 8vo, London, 1887. 
 
 Early Letters. 
 
 Early Letters of Thomas Carlyle. 
 1 8 14-1826. Edited by Charles Eliot 
 Norton. 2 vols., cr. 8vo, London, 1881. 
 
 Letters. 
 
 Letters of Thomas Carlyle, 1826- 
 1836. Edited by Charles Eliot Nor- 
 ton. 2 vols., cr. 8vo, London, 1889. 
 
 Essays. 
 
 Critical and Miscellaneous Essays by 
 Thomas Carlyle. People's Edition, 
 7 vols., i2mo, London, 1872. 
 
 Life. 
 
 Thomas Carlyle. A history of the 
 first forty Years of his Life, 1795- 
 1835. By James Anthony Froude. 
 2 vols., 8vo, London, 1882. 
 Thomas Carlyle. A History of his 
 Life in London. 1 834-1 881. By 
 James Anthony Froude. 2 vols., 8vo, 
 London, 1885. 
 
i822. (at Edin 1 } I suppose.) 1 
 
 NOTE BOOK. 
 
 Begun while reading Clarendon's History. 
 
 23d March, Quod bonum, faustum, felix, 
 
 1 8 2 2 . 2 fortunatum sit / 
 
 Dr. Burgess and Mr. Mar- 
 shal — who were they ? (page 239). 
 
 Oliver Cromwell's remark to L? Falkland 
 touching the " Remonstrance " or declaration 
 of grievances voted & printed by the P! — 
 about the date of King's return from Scot- 
 land. Oliver said " they would have a sorry 
 
 1 Note by Carlyle made in 1866, when, at the time of 
 writing his Reminiscences, he looked over this volume. 
 
 2 At the date of the beginning of this note-book, Car- 
 lyle, twenty-six years old, was engaged in reading for a 
 work he had in mind on the Civil War and the Com- 
 monwealth. On April 27, 1822, he wrote to his brother 
 Alexander: " Within' the last month I have well-nigh 
 fixed upon a topic. My purpose ... is to come out with 
 a kind of Essay on the Civil War and the Commonwealth 
 of England — not to write a history of them — but to ex- 
 hibit, if I can, some features of the national character as 
 it was then displayed, supporting my remarks by mental 
 portraits, drawn with my best ability, of Cromwell, Laud, 
 George Fox, Milton, Hyde, etc., the most distinguished 
 of the actors in that great scene." Early Letters, ii. 56. 
 Before the end of the year the design was relinquished 
 under the pressure of other engagements. Id. p. 171. 
 But the work done now stood him in good stead twenty 
 years later in the preparation of his Cromwell. 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 debate " — the thing being so plain j and next 
 day when the debate was done and not sor- 
 rily — he said, if the question had failed " he 
 w? have sold his all next morning, and never 
 seen Eng? more " — so near (quoth Claren- 
 don) was the poor Kingdom to its deliver- 
 ance (247). 
 
 Williams Archbishop of York (formerly 
 Lincoln) seems to have been a very queer 
 man (p. 272). He wrote a book against 
 Laud — what was it ? * 
 
 The King comes to the H. C. to seize 
 the members accused of Treason, viz. Pym, 
 Hambden, Hollis, Hazelrig & Strode — with 
 Lord Kimbolton — all this by advice of Lord 
 Digby (p. 280). 
 
 The grant of Londonderry and the adja- 
 cent districts had been wrested from the City 
 of London (together with a fine of ^50,000) 
 by the Star Chamber (first set up in Harry 
 7th's time) ; afterwards restored — but, as 
 the City tho*, more out of fear of the Par! 
 than a sense of justice. This one cause of 
 their Roundheadism. 
 
 " Perfunctorily "— "upstart companions." 2 
 
 1 How ' ' queer ' ' Archbishop Williams was appears from 
 Bishop Hacket's Life of him, which Coleridge called " a 
 delightful and instructive book," but which Johnson, in 
 his Life of Ambrose Phillips, described not less truly as 
 "written with such depravity of genius, such mixture of 
 the fop and pedant as has not often appeared." 
 
 2 Words used by Clarendon. 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 25th and 26th Read Milton's Defensio 
 March. Pop. Angl. ag* the Def. Peg. 
 
 of Saumaise. Exhibits some 
 new shades of John's character — his stern 
 detestation of tyranny — his contempt for 
 his enemies — and perhaps the ordinary 
 tone of his intercourse with them in private 
 life. There is a kind of rude wit mixed 
 up with his fierce invective. But what aus- 
 terity — what contempt for the mere pomp 
 and circumstance of things ! He seems to 
 tear the unhappy pedagogue into a thousand 
 shreds, to trample his remains and beat them 
 into perfect mire — and at last he sends his 
 soul to the infernal shades. Furcifer, Bipedum 
 nequissime, etc., etc. — all the terms of indig- 
 nation and contempt which the Latin affords 
 are exhausted in abusing Salmfasius]. His 
 wife too is said to have " worn the breeks " ; 
 & several cuts are made thro' this rent. The 
 whole seems very ill-bred: but John was not 
 a man of breeding. No newspapers then & 
 his work is like the concentration of fifty 
 " Couriers " or " Chronicles." Conceive that 
 all the Radicals had " one neck " and put 
 Gifford to strike it off — what a stroke he 
 would fetch ! So is it with Milton. Besides 
 Carolus II was then getting settled in Scot- 
 land, and M. naturally feared that the good 
 work would be destroyed and with it all that 
 was worth preserving in England. What is 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 the history of Salmasius ? {Les Daciers, les 
 Saumaises — Volt. Temple du gout 1 — I must 
 see — am very stupid to-night and bilious — 
 nHmporte, I must along with Clarendon second 
 vol. which I trust will suit me better than the 
 first did.) Milton's mode of reasoning has 
 something curious in it : he appeals to no first 
 principles hardly, but wanders in a wilderness 
 of quotations and examples, summoning to 
 his aid all that Jew or Gentile ever did or 
 said on the subject. Still more is this true of 
 Saumaise, who set the example of this species 
 of disceptation first — an example however 
 readily enough followed by his opponent. Are 
 our " first principles " more solid than his ? 
 I doubt if they are so much more, as we often 
 think. Nine tenths of our reasonings are ar- 
 tificial processes, depending not on the real 
 nature of things but on our peculiar mode of 
 viewing things, and therefore varying with all 
 the variations both in the kind and extent of 
 our perceptions. How is this ? Truth immer 
 wird nie ist ? 2 
 
 Newspapers did exist in Milton's time : the 
 first, " Mercurius," was set on foot during the 
 Spanish Armada (See Aikin's Memoirs of Q. 
 Elizabeth — a book about the weight of 
 
 1" La j'apercus les Daciers, les Saumaises, 
 Gens he'risse's de savantes fadaises." 
 
 Voltaire, Le Temple du Gotit. 
 2 " Is truth always relative, never absolute?" 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 McCrie's Knox — which is no immense 
 weight. She * talks of revels, masques, courtly 
 vanities, courtly feuds; he of Masses, sol[emnJ 
 conferences, synods, books of discipline : each 
 in a peculiar solid prosaic vein — hebetia in- 
 genia cum aliquanto doctrinae. 2 ) 
 
 I read the Defetisio but "perfunctorily." 
 I must read it again, if I persist in this work. 
 And Salm.'s too — which is no light matter. 
 
 Fleetwood — first a trooper in the Guards 
 sent by Essex to Shrewsbury — with a letter. 
 (See p. 21, notes.) 
 
 Stanza by Swift or Rochester on Charles II 
 his spouse Katherine of Portugal — 
 
 Here 's a health to Kate, 
 
 Our Master's mate, 
 
 Of the royal house of Lisbon ; 
 
 And the Devil take Hyde, 
 
 And the Bishop beside, 
 
 Who made her bone of his bone ! 
 
 Such is the power of rhyme, and of one 
 double ending — certainly indeed the happiest 
 possible. (From South ey's travels — the most 
 contemptible, pragmatical — Yet he writes 
 well now : Esperance ! — I read it 2 weeks 
 ago.)— 
 
 Excellent description of the Battle of Edge- 
 hill — very excellent (pp. 38, 39.) Edgehill 
 
 1 Miss Lucy Aikin. 
 
 2 " Dull natures, with somewhat of learning." 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 is near Keinton (Kington) on the east border 
 of Warwickshire. 
 
 Proposals — osals — osals, all abortive. 
 
 Second Battle — at Bradock-Down near 
 Liskard in Cornwall ; wherein the Parliament] 
 forces (under Ruthven a Scot) were defeated 
 by Hopton, in the winter of 1642. Indiffer- 
 ently described. 
 
 Third battle in March 1643 (on a Sunday 
 like the first) at Hopton-heath 2 miles from 
 Stafford. P. beat again. 
 
 An attempt at treaty in the beginning of 
 1643 at Oxford; then Reading taken. Wal- 
 ler (the poet) talked & vapoured much and 
 plotted a little for the King — was betrayed 
 by his servant, had Tomkins his brother-in- 
 law hanged with another, and saved his own 
 life by the most abject prostrations, affecting 
 to be " awakened " and listening with great 
 contrition to various ghostly comforters sent 
 to him; then glozing the H. C. with fair 
 speeches (for indeed he had a pleasant wit 
 and could plead very cunningly & moving- 
 ly) he prevailed on the P. to accept a fine 
 of £1 0,000, and banish him to the isle of 
 Bermuda — not hang him as he deserved but 
 for his poetry & pregnant parts. — This was 
 in June — '43. 
 
 The great Hambden killed at Chalgrove- 
 field, between Thame and Oxford on a Sun- 
 day morning, having ridden forth with many 
 
 6 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 others to punish Prince Rupert for beating 
 up Essex' quarters, an enterprise contrived 
 by one Hurry a Scot, who had served in the 
 Low Countries, and with the P. at Edgehill, 
 but deserted to the K. after — his abilities not 
 being as he tho* sufficiently rewarded. This 
 Hambden was undoubtedly a great char- 
 acter; & his worth has been sufficiently 
 acknowledged by the affection which his 
 country yet bears to him. Hambden & 
 Washington are the two people best loved of 
 any in history. Yet they had few illustrious 
 qualities about them ; only a high degree of 
 shrewd business-like activity, and above all 
 that honest-hearted unaffected fearless probity, 
 which we patriotically name English, in a 
 higher degree than almost any public men 
 commemorated in History. After all " hon- 
 esty is the best policy." Yet to have seen a 
 Caesar, an Alexander, a Napoleon honest — ! 
 What a splendid thing — what a difficult not 
 to say impossible one ! (fudge !). 
 
 Hambden lingered three weeks — his 
 wound was in the shoulder-bone. He seems 
 to have been the ablest and best man of 
 England. To Caesar, Alex!, Nap. &c. &c. 
 we may pause before assigning any superior- 
 ity even in talent (whatever they had in for- 
 tune) over him — his talents, at least were 
 unrivalled in political management ; and for 
 virtuous conduct he has no fellow. — Claren- 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 don draws his character well (p. 306). Staid, 
 sober, a keeper of his own counsel, resolute 
 yet meek, generous as the Lion, subtle as the 
 serpent. What a " Protector " he would 
 have made had he lived ! 
 
 Battle at Stratton hill on the w. side of 
 Cornwall, where the P. forces under Stam- 
 ford are shamefully defeated (16th May 
 1643). 
 
 Birch's " historical and critical account of 
 the Life & Writings of Milton." 
 
 Battles of Landsdown near Bath, and of 
 Roundway — down near Devizes — in both 
 of which Sir W. Waller is beaten. July 1643. 
 
 Geoffrey Chaucer's house Donnington, 
 within two miles 1 of Newbury — in Wilts. 
 Glo'ster recovered, and the battle of New- 
 bury fought by Essex, both sides claiming 
 the victory. Lord Falkland was killed here. 
 " Of so flowing and obliging a humanity and 
 goodness to mankind, and of that primitive 
 simplicity & integrity of life." Men came to 
 him by his commerce " to examine and refine 
 those grosser propositions, which laziness and 
 consent made current in vulgar conversation." 
 — Beautiful delineation of his character (p. 
 277) : a finer person, as here shadowed forth, 
 than even Hambden. — But it is wrong to set 
 
 1 Clarendon says, *' within a mile." 
 8 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 two such men at variance in their posthumous 
 reputation, now when the contests that set 
 them at variance in their conduct have passed 
 away into the vast and ever-increasing, ever- 
 stranger ruin of things that were. How ex- 
 pressive is that " sad and shrill " tone, with 
 which in the Council he would pronounce 
 the words, Peace! Peace! — when there was 
 no peace ! I know few finer specimens of 
 men than H. & F. What would a man not 
 give to be like them ? Vain bargain ! these 
 are the favourites of Nature; we are made 
 of poorer clay. — F. died in Lord Byron's 
 regiment. 
 
 "The learned & eminent Mr. Chilling- 
 worth" taken at the retaking of Arundel by 
 Sir W. Waller, and so ill-treated that he died 
 within a few days (sic scribit). This C. was 
 a sceptic finally, having been a catholic first. 
 
 Soon afterwards (29 th March 1644) Sir W. 
 defeated the K's army under Hopton & Brent- 
 ford, at Arlesford — between Winchester & 
 Farnham. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell was chosen to command 
 the horse, under Manchester head of the five 
 associated counties, Essex, Cambridge] 
 N[orfolk] S[uffolk] Bedf. Hunt. 1 — Year 1644 
 
 1 " This winter arise among certain counties ' Associa- 
 tions ' for mutual defense against Royalism and plunder- 
 ous Rupertism." Carlyle's Cromwell, 3d ed. i. 175. 
 
 Huntingdonshire was not of the association mentioned 
 in the text. 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 somewhat fertile in military exploits. King 
 eludes Waller very cunningly at Worcester 
 and comes back to Oxford (Essex being gone 
 to the west, whither the Queen — then with 
 child of the future Duchesse d'Orl6ans — see 
 Bossuet's Oraisons fwiebres — had retired) ; 
 goes out to meet him; fights at Cropredy- 
 bridge (on the Cherwell, Northamptonshire) 
 with moderate success (in June) ; follows Es- 
 sex into the West, and forces his foot to ca- 
 pitulate at Lostwithiel, then fights twice within 
 a week at Newbury — the first time, being 
 beaten as it seemed, and the second only 
 showing himself (reinforced) to deliver Don- 
 nington castle in which his old dotard drunk- 
 ard deaf General Brentford (Ruthven) was 
 besieged. He then went to Oxford. Shortly 
 after the skirmish of Cropredy-bridge, the 
 battle of Marston Moor was fought (close to 
 York on the South), Rupert and Newcastle 
 being " on the matter " beaten by Manchester, 
 and chiefly by Cromwell's iron ba?id — as the 
 Scots all ran like collies (fidem detis ? ). New- 
 castle went beyond sea immed. — Rupert rode 
 southward; each in a pet with the other: by 
 which means Charles' affairs in the north were 
 completely ruined. This Rupert seems to 
 have been a very boisterous man — brave 
 and impetuous — but somewhat too head- 
 strong and overbearing. His poor father, 
 the Ex-Elector Palatine, Ex- King of Bohmen, 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 &c. &c. was in the meanwhile come to Lon- 
 don ; had taken the Covenant, and been gifted 
 by a pension. (What became of him at last ?) 
 
 Goring the Par.'s guardian (and betrayer) 
 of Plymouth (or Portsmouth ?) and after- 
 wards the King's general of the horse ap- 
 pears to have been a very sufficient cozener; 
 there is something very clever in him and 
 very original. 
 
 The " self denying ordinance " proposed 
 by Cromwell and Sir H. Vane, the object be- 
 ing to get Essex and all Presbyterians ousted 
 from command. 
 
 Uxbridge-treaty is graphically delineated. 
 I would have gone some distance to see Mr. 
 Henderson pitted against Bishop Steward — 
 the theological democracy of 2xw<na against 
 the vain hierarchy of the South. It is very 
 curious to see the vehemence wherewith 
 those highly accomplished divines of the 
 Prelatical persuasion still insist upon the 
 continuous transmission of the Episcopal vir- 
 tue, maintaining it to have passed (like the 
 electric fluid) with undiminished purity and 
 intenseness, thro' all the dark and polluted 
 periods of the Romish superstition, thro' all 
 the Dunstans and Bonars & Gardiners, to rest 
 worthily in the liberal and enlightened souls 
 of Dr. Marsh, Mr. Tomline, and the like — 
 in our own times — and by them to be as 
 happily handed down to worthies destined 
 
 ii 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 to follow. There seems little danger that 
 the " Goddess Reason " will ever draw many 
 votaries to her idolatry from the followers of 
 that creed; considering that it is now 1822. 
 Why does not McCrie write a life of Hender- 
 son ? Dare he not ? 
 
 Secret history of Montrose as connected 
 with O'Neil and the Earl of Antrim (p. 
 470 &c). Would not this raid of Montrose's 
 make an admirable history of its kind — 
 somewhat like the Venice Conjuration 
 of St.-R6al? Why has [notj Walter Scott 
 seized it! 
 
 Battle of Naseby, where the poor King 
 was beaten : here is no bad description of it. 
 Curious anecdote of the Earl of Carnwath 
 laying hold of the K's bridle — when the 
 Guards and he were ready to dash upon 
 Cromwell; and bawling out with a loud 
 Scotch oath : Will you go upon your death 
 in an instant ? which exclamation introduced 
 a misconception and a panic; which panic 
 " begot " a flight ; which flight &c. &c. The 
 battle was fought in June 1645, Fairfax im- 
 perante, & Rupert on the other side " a fiery 
 ettercap, a fractious chiel." They found the 
 King's papers here and published them. 
 
 Strange that such disputes should be 
 'Twixt Tweedledum & Tweedledee ! 
 
 After the loss of Naseby every thing with 
 12 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Charles went to wreck & ruin. Sir Dick 
 Greenvil the Nabal, and Goring the dog kept 
 quarrelling & sparring with all men; there 
 was nothing but agitation confusion, mis-rule 
 & despondency. So that in fine C. retired to 
 Chepstow, thence to Cardiff — thence to va- 
 rious other places — wandering about with a 
 purpose ever-changing, a hope ever-declin- 
 ing — his own servants, even his own neph- 
 ews, rebelling against him, till nearly all had 
 "forsook" him & fled. He was twice or 
 thrice of mind to go and join Montrose; on 
 one occasion he despatched Lord Digby as 
 General of the North, who carried a little 
 army as far as Dumfreeze, and then em- 
 barked for the Isle of Man, leaving his peo- 
 ple to shift for themselves as they chose. 
 Disputes in the West ran higher than ever. 
 Goring drank and vapoured, wavering be- 
 tween insanity & treason, and at length set- 
 tling into the latter (he went to France, and 
 seemed to aim at selling his army to some 
 foreign prince, and becoming a Condottiere) : 
 Sir R. Greenvil intent upon stuffing his own 
 pantry well, acted even more inconsistently 
 than Goring; he levied enormous contri- 
 butions, squeezed fines out of every one he 
 disliked by imprisonment & hard usage, 
 commanded to-day what he countermanded 
 to-morrow, and after ruining all was at length 
 thrown into prison and allowed to escape 
 
 13 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 beyond seas, — when the L d Hopton, to whom 
 his army had been delivered, could make 
 no stop to the torrent of ill fortune that 
 swept away all the royalists of the Kingdom. 
 Prince Charles went to Scilly in March, 
 1646; his father being still at Oxford and 
 trying in vain to obtain a treaty from his 
 Pari., to engage the Scots to his side (by 
 the aid of Montrevil, a French agent), or the 
 Independents, or any one — before he per- 
 ished utterly. The Generals in the West 
 were Fairfax and Cromwell ; there was 
 Poyntz also, and David Lesly who went 
 from Hereford to beat Montrose, & after- 
 wards returned into those parts, his valiant 
 antagonist being defeated at Philipshaugh. 
 
 In April 1646, the King surrenders himself 
 to the Scotch army then at Newark which by 
 his direction was given up to them; where- 
 upon they forthwith marched to Newcastle, 
 keeping the K. with g? respect &c. but as a 
 prisoner. They seem not well to have 
 known what to do: the negotiation for his 
 surrender was managed by Montrevil the 
 French envoy. The prince meanwhile had 
 sailed for Jersey, and thence, after much op- 
 position from his Council, into France. 
 
 Third June 1647 King seized at Holmby 
 in Northamptonshire] by Cornet Joyce — 
 a knight of the needle, who refused to show 
 any authority for so doing but " That" (shew- 
 
 14 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 ing a large pistol), and carried himself rather 
 sturdily than rudely. He acted by order of 
 Cromwell, who having been detected in his 
 dissimulations and crocodile tears, and se- 
 cretly doomed to be committed one morning 
 to the Tower, had tho* good to set out to the 
 army before light, where he found indeed that 
 u the prejudice entertained against him was 
 less than he supposed." Charles was brought 
 to Newmarket. 
 
 One day Ireton and Hollis quarrelled; and 
 the matter went so far that on Ireton's refusal 
 from conscientious motives to fight Hollis, 
 the latter " pulled him by the nose " (proh 
 pudor ! ) and used great plainness of speech to 
 him ; which incensed the other officers of the 
 army not a little. 
 
 When Charles went to the Scots, old Hen- 
 derson turned out like a true man to convert 
 him to the Presbyterian persuasion ; but suc- 
 ceeded so ill that he was well-nigh converted 
 himself (credat Apella !), and soon after died 
 u of a broken heart." 
 
 " Clean contrary." 
 
 King's treaty with the Scots was signed in 
 Carisbrook castle in December 1647. 
 
 Machiavel " as great an enemy to tyranny 
 & injustice in any Gov* as any man then was 
 or now is." " A man were better be a dog " ; 
 could not " find in their hearts " ; " resolved 
 to pass themselves in boats." 
 
 15 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 In the summer of 1648, the Scots under 
 the Duke of Hamilton made an inroad into 
 England, and were defeated by Cromwell in 
 the most shameful manner, Ham 11 himself 
 being taken prisoner at Uttoxeter in Stafford- 
 shire, to which place the rout extended after 
 it had begun at Preston. Drivellers ! 
 
 The business of Pomfret Castle is a very 
 dramatic affair (p. 147. III). 
 
 The King was beheaded on the 30th Jan? 
 1649, and buried at Windsor without pomp. 
 He had previously been removed from Caris- 
 brook to Hurst Castle, and was conducted to 
 Westminster to the " High Court of Justice," 
 by Harrison who had once been a lawyer's 
 clerk in Cheshire and originally was a butcher's 
 son. Prince C. was in the meantime at the 
 Hague where he had been left by a part of 
 the fleet, which mutinied in his behalf, and 
 was then in Ireland under the command of 
 P. Rupert. There had been various insur- 
 rections &c. the year before; all of which 
 were speedily quelled: one in Kent, and then 
 in Essex where Colchester being seized was 
 besieged by Fairfax, and being taken three 
 of the chief officers were shot — Gascoigne 
 (a Florentine) excepted, when his doublet 
 was already off, and his mind made up to die. 
 There are many picturesque incidents in these 
 wars. As to the K., he seems to have been 
 a very good man, tho' weakish and ill-brought 
 16 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 up. Cromwell and the rest look much like a 
 pack of fanatical knaves — a compound of 
 religious enthusiasm, and of barbarous sel- 
 fishness ; which made them stick at no means 
 for gratifying both the one and the other. 
 Cromwell is a very curious person. Has his 
 character been rightly seized yet? I must 
 peruse the late documents about him. 
 
 House of Peers abolished soon after King's 
 Dth. Poor Lord Capel's escape and recap- 
 ture (p. 212). Duke Hamilton, L d Holland 
 with him, were beheaded. — L d Norwich — 
 was he our old friend Goring ? 
 
 The barbarous execution of Montrose (who 
 appeared in the North for Charles II. & was 
 easily defeated by Strahan — 1649-50) re- 
 flects indelible disgrace upon the Scottish 
 Kirk. Montrose is almost, if not altogether, 
 the brightest specimen of a man ever pro- 
 duced by the country. His character is a 
 fine sample of the heroic ambitious. 
 
 Scots again smashed to pieces at Worcester, 
 3 d September 1650 — Poor knaves ! 
 
 The act of Navigation passed in anger at 
 the Dutch about the year 1651 or 2. Where- 
 by all ships are prohibited from bringing into 
 England any commodity not produced in the 
 countries they belonged to. Raynal says this 
 act was passed by King James ! — This was 
 the beginning of their quarrel with the Eng- 
 lish; the mutual spite being aggravated by 
 
 2 17 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 various regulations about not " striking flags " 
 & so forth. The Dutch were dished we all 
 know. See lives of Blake, Van Tromp, De 
 Ruyter &c. May 1652. 
 
 Received " a brush " (p. 360 & elsewhere). 
 " Ludlow " succeeded Ireton, who died of the 
 Plague at Limerick in '50. Was this Ludlow 
 the Historian ? 1 
 
 Cromwell dissolves the Par* by Force ; in 
 about 3 months summons another elected by 
 himself; this (Barebone's Par*) delivered up 
 their commission in about 6 months (Decem- 
 ber 1653) whereupon he was declared Pro- 
 tector — by the officers of the Army, and as 
 such acknowledged by all the Kingdom. 
 His first Par* was in Sept? 1654, and fairly 
 elected — tho' by a rule different from the 
 common. " Strange man — don't know him 
 — don't." 
 
 Lilburn & Wildman curious personages — 
 particularly the former, first a book-binder — 
 persecuted by the Star Chamber, which raised 
 in him a marvfellous] appetite & inclin. to 
 suffer for the vind. or defense of any oppressed 
 Truth; then a soldier taken at Brentford & 
 ready to be condemned ; escapes, fights, then 
 attacks the Par* then Cromwell, by whom he 
 was at last tried — acquitted by the j ury . This 
 was theCobbett of those days — but howmuch 
 better than ours ! 
 
 1 He was the historian. See Carlyle's Cromwell, ii. 333. 
 18 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Cromwell dies 3 d September 1658 — a day 
 he always tho* very propitious to him — hav- 
 ing twice been victorious on it formerly. . . . 
 
 Fleetwood was the son of Sir Miles Fleet- 
 wood, and the "troopers of the Guards" to 
 Essex, among whom was Ludlow, were all 
 gentlemen's sons. (Began Ludlow 9 th April 
 1822.) 
 
 At the Battle of Edgehill Ludlow's "jaws 
 for want of use had almost lost their natural 
 faculty " ! 
 
 Milton to be appointed adjutant gen! to 
 Waller. — When did Cromwell & Fairfax 
 march thro' the city to quell Brown & Massy ? 
 "Progging" "Gobbet." 
 
 Saturday I have now finished the third 
 13 th April, volume of Clarendon — of which 
 more afterwards ; and the whole 
 of Ludlow's Memoirs, concerning which I can 
 make only a few vague remarks, having read it 
 hastily & without great study. Ludlow is not 
 a man of great parts ; but he describes with a 
 ready a modest & a graphic pencil, the scenes 
 in which he took part, presenting a distinct tho' 
 narrow sketch of what himself accomplished 
 in his walk thro' that confused riot, and of 
 what he saw in it on looking to the right hand 
 and to the left. He differs in no important 
 fact from Clarendon; and impresses us with 
 an idea of his frank ingenuousness at least 
 
 19 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 equal to that of his rival; while his stern sense 
 of honesty, his unflinching adherence to prin- 
 ciple thro' good and thro' bad report, his dis- 
 dain of truckling alike to the open enemies 
 as to the unworthy friends of republicanism, 
 tend to inspire us with a higher respect for 
 his heart & mind, than all the ingenious 
 speculation and shrewd watchful sagacity of 
 Clarendon can inspire us with for the mental 
 gifts which they presuppose. I admire Lud- 
 low's patient unaffected calmness very highly. 
 Neither Russell nor Sidney were better men. 
 Did he blanch before the Royalists at Ox- 
 ford ? before Cromwell at London ? before 
 Monk & the new " Convention " ? And 
 when he fled to Vevay — tho' banished from 
 his friends his country his wife his property 
 and cheated of his just fame, and daily beset 
 with barbarous assassins in a far land — does 
 he whine or make lament? Compare him 
 with Rousseau or Ovid or Necker — he is 
 like a pillar of marble compared with a weep- 
 ing willow. How was it such noble minds 
 were generated in those times ? I know not 
 but think it well worth inquiring into. — Lud- 
 low writes rather prettily; he describes graph- 
 ically the siege of Wardour Castle, the " fir- 
 ing" of a castle in Ireland; the troopers at 
 Marston Moor; &c. His best description 
 however, & that unconsciously, is of himself. — 
 Would it not be right to make out a list of 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 the chief personages of that period as well as 
 the chief events ? 
 
 Ellwood's Life of himself — Read it for 
 the sake of Milton to whom this person was 
 Reader of Latin at one time ; but found no- 
 thing therein beyond what is recorded in my 
 own Milton. Found however something ad- 
 vantageous and amusing, which I did not at 
 all anticipate — a picture of human nature 
 under a somewhat new aspect, delineated 
 with great liveliness & simplicity & clearness. 
 Ellwood seems to have been a cheerful quick 
 pure-minded rather clever little fellow. His 
 fanaticism is of a curious species : it is obsti- 
 nacy & enthusiasm without any moroseness 
 or rancour. He suffered persecutions out of 
 number, but cherished no revenge against the 
 authors of them ; his share of worldly com- 
 fort was small in comparison of what he once 
 might have hoped for; but his heart was 
 clear & healthful, and his life may justly be 
 called happy notwithstanding. What made 
 it so ? How came he to shew so complete 
 and consistent & respectable a walk and con- 
 versation amid so many drawbacks & ob- 
 structions? His creed was his support, his 
 all in all. Is it better then to have a straight 
 road formed for us, tho' a false one, thro' this 
 confused wilderness of things — than to be 
 waiting asking searching for a true one, if we 
 never find it altogether ? Compare Ellwood, 
 
 21 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 a weak man, with Alfieri, Goethe, Voltaire, 
 strong men ; & award the palm ! What is the 
 proper province of Reason ? 
 
 For the rest Ellwood's book is very amus- 
 ing. It affords a vivid tho' a brief glimpse 
 of English life in the middle & religious walks 
 of it, during the reign of Charles II. One 
 reads it like a kind of Novel. 
 
 Milton's history of Britain. The first part 
 of this is very beautiful — one simile about a 
 traveller setting out amid " smooth & idle 
 dreams " equal to anything I know of. * For 
 fine composition in matter & form see also 
 the first invasion of Anglesea, and the revolt 
 of Boadicea. The style is very Latinish, tho' 
 also very perspicuous : the prejudice against 
 woman-rule breaks out on all occasions; 
 some views too of Particular providence, 
 which did he really entertain? Invocation 
 at the beginning. On the whole, however, 
 it is unphilosophically composed. The Saxon 
 period cannot be better — so cannot be well- 
 related by any person upon this plan. Per- 
 haps the moderns have improved in their 
 mode of writing history. (See Stewart's life of 
 Robertson ?) Milton's history is like a stone- 
 
 1 " By this time, like one who had set out on his way by 
 night, and travail'd through a Region of smooth or idle 
 Dreams, our History now arrives on the Confines, where 
 day-light and truth meet us with a cleer dawn, represent- 
 ing to our view, though at a farr distance, true colours 
 and shapes."— Book i. ad Jin. 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 dike of ugly whinstones, numberless, shape- 
 less, joined together with the finest Roman 
 cement. They were not worth the pains ; ma- 
 teriem super at opus : better to have left the 
 cairn as he found it in Hoveden, Mat[thew 
 of] Westminster], Simeon of Durham, Hunt- 
 ington, &c. Here follow some agates picked 
 from it. 
 
 Estrildis (a small tragedy ?) & her daughter 
 Sabra p. 8. " Severn swift guilty of maiden's 
 death." 1 Boadicea (do ?) p. 28 — She was of 
 the Iceni about Norwich. A wild Semiramis. 
 Has not some one sung of her ? 2 
 
 Edwin p. 60. his conversion to Christian- 
 ity (another?) — his wavering fortunes, vis- 
 ions, loves, ultimate success — " Harryed the 
 coast" — "felled him" — "to chronicle the 
 wars of kites & crows fighting & flocking in 
 the air " — the sceptre found " too hot " for 
 a man's hand. 
 
 Christianity tho! to have come hither A.D. 
 180. 
 
 Monday 15 th April I have this moment fin- 
 1 \y 2 o'clock P. M. ished the perusal of Mil- 
 ton's first publication, 
 entitled " Of Reformation &c." Had he writ- 
 ten nothing else whatever, it would have 
 
 l Milton, "At a Vacation Exercise," v. 96. 
 2 Perhaps Carlyle had in mind Cowper's so-called Ode, 
 entitled " Boadicea." 
 
 23 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 stamped his name with the ineffaceable im- 
 press of genius, and shewn him to all the 
 world as a man no less high & solemn in his 
 moral nature than rare and richly gifted in his 
 intellectual powers. There are pieces of as 
 sublime eloquence here as I ever saw: the 
 learning of the piece is great, and the logic of 
 it powerful & as well ordered as in an oration 
 is needful. He begins by alluding to the cor- 
 ruptions of the church j then hails the reforma- 
 tion in a beautiful sentence (p. 250), and tries 
 to point out why it was less complete in Eng- 
 land than elsewhere. Solemn protestation 
 (252). Next comes the main gist of the per- 
 formance, the reasons that obstruct improve- 
 ment at this time. The enemies of it are 
 divided into three classes the Antiquitarians, 
 the Libertines, the Politicians. Th e t wo former 
 are discussed in the first book. Difference in 
 the power & dignity of ancient from those of 
 modern bishops — besides, the Fathers full of 
 errors — their works garbled — their example 
 therefore unbinding even when Constantine 
 had united the civil to the eccles. power. " How 
 then should the dim taper" (257). Besides 
 themselves refer to the Bible as all sufficient — 
 " homely & y eomanly religion " — Truth — Un- 
 derstanding (p. 260). " Wherefore should they 
 not urge only the Gospel, & hold it ever in 
 their faces like a mirror of Diamond till it 
 dazzle and pierce their misty eyeballs" (p. 
 24 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 261). — Libertines not convincible. — Figures 
 in the II? Book about vulgar politics. The 
 Pope's & clergy's small favour to monarchy- 
 shown by various instances. Rude fable of 
 a wen (p. 266). Their measures banish many 
 subjects, corrupt & irritate the rest — de- 
 stroy much revenue, and so disafFect Eng- 
 lishmen — unfitted for peace now make 
 war. Objections answered — Excommuni- 
 cation (272-3). Exuberant & felicitous 
 sarcasm (273). Majestic peroration in the 
 form of a prayer. 
 
 progging, fobbing, rooking, sconced, — 
 greasy palm — unctuous paunches — fiery 
 whip — blood diverted from the veins to the 
 ulcers — &c. Heu quantum ab Mo / 
 
 Second pamphlet — " Of Prelatical Epis- 
 copacy " against Usher. Judges of the Insuffi- 
 ciency of their " traditional ware " with the skill 
 and indifferentism of a complete connoisseur — 
 acquainted with this & with other sources of 
 truth far purer. Little order — being a reply 
 rather than an oration. " Drag-net " of 
 time (p. 239). Fine simile of the robe of 
 truth & the rags of time's garment (p. 242). 
 
 Brerewood — what of him? (p. 201). 
 
 Barclay his "Image of minds"? (217). 1 
 
 IJohn Barclay, best known by his Argents, extrava- 
 gantly praised by Coleridge {Lectures on Shakespeare, with 
 other Literary Remarks, 1849, ii, 236). His Icon Anima- 
 rum" Image of Minds," " a delineation of the genius and 
 customs of the European nation," was published in 1614. 
 
 25 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 The " sovran treacle of sound doctrine " 
 (235). " Lin pealing," leave pealing p. 236. 
 
 These latter extracts are from " The Reason 
 of Church Gov*," Milton's third pamphlet, 
 which I have just concluded, after many in- 
 terruptions (22 nd April — Saturday) particu- 
 larly to-day, when idlers not a few have been 
 here to consume my hours vainly. — The 
 general character of this tract is vigour of 
 feeling & thought, clothed in a garb of 
 rich metaphorical and emphatic language — 
 presenting a few large views of polity and 
 morals, and much indignant aversion for 
 everything connected with the sordid carnal- 
 ity & worldlymindedness of Prelates & their 
 office. 
 
 The first part is argumentative in the strict 
 sense; endeavoring to prove 1? that a govern- 
 ment is established for the Church by divine 
 Wisdom, and that either Episcopacy or Pres- 
 bytery (which latter point is avowedly as- 
 sumed without demonstration); 2? that no 
 argument can be drawn from Moses in favour 
 of E. ; 3? that it does not prevent schisms but 
 breeds them &c. The second book opens 
 with a fine exordium on the Author's own 
 studies and aspirations — by way of apology 
 for engaging in the controversy — then pro- 
 ceeds to shew that Prelacy both in the spirit 
 & form is clean contrary to the religion of 
 the Gospel. — There are many fine ideas 
 
 26 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 & fine delineations scattered thro'out; but 
 the thread of reasoning is not very easily fol- 
 lowed — partly perhaps because the whole 
 matter has long ago ceased to be a subject of 
 discussion or interest among men, & so to 
 be capable easily of arresting the attention 
 enough. It is only where we gain a brief 
 glimpse of the vast & sweeping ocean of 
 Milton's mind, with all its wonders, its curi- 
 ous fata morganas & stately navies & majes- 
 tic scenery (wretched figure !) that we feel a 
 complete participation in the beauties of the 
 composition. I never saw so eloquent a 
 person. What boundless store of metaphors ! 
 What infinitude of thoughts ! What strong 
 & continuous fervour of soul! — Upon the 
 whole however I am only beginning to see 
 Milton : I must have him far more intimately 
 present to me, must feel as it were with his 
 great spirit — or it will never do. The men 
 Symmons & Hayley 1 praise him loudly 
 enough — but it is nearly all flattery. I like 
 Hayley better : he is better-natured & almost 
 as readable a kind of person as his rival. In- 
 deed neither of them pass in this last quality ; 
 & Symmons is a very egotistical, pragmatical, 
 verse-scanning, gerund-grinding pert senti- 
 mental little companion : I love him not. 
 " Axle of Discipline " (p. 202. — Milton no 
 
 1 Hayley's Life of Milton was first published in 1794, 
 Symmons's in 1806. 
 
 27 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 leveller or Radical). — fine comparison about 
 the formation of a statue & that of any great 
 social improvement — both leave chips & 
 rubbish (p. 217) — Merchandize of Truth — 
 good (p. 219) — likening of the King to 
 Samson — good (p. 237). — bitter conclusion. 
 
 N. B. I am far too much of a critic — too 
 little of an artificer in all points ; always ask- 
 ing How ? or only saying Thus — No af- 
 fectation ! True feeling once — always true 
 partly. 
 
 The last two pamphlets of the year 1641 
 are "Animadversions on the Remonstrant's 
 defence of Smectymnuus " and the " Apology 
 for Sm." The first proceeds by way of ex- 
 tract and rejoinder; its aim is satire fully more 
 than argument. Milton's wit is sometimes 
 pungent, always unaffected, frequently not of 
 the finest. The Apology is written in a more 
 serious style; it contains many interesting 
 developments of the Author's own feelings 
 & purposes & history & hopes. It is written 
 with more equality than any of the former 
 treatises; and distinguished for a stately 
 march of eloquent ratiocination dressed out 
 in a rich and royal wardrobe of beautiful 
 metaphors & honourable staid enthusiasm. — 
 I am now at the "Divorce." (Must it 1 be 
 
 1 " It," that is, the book which Carlyle was thinking of 
 writing. 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 sketches of English character generally, dur- 
 ing the Commonwealth? Containing por- 
 traits of Milton, Cromwell, Fox, Hyde, &c, 
 in the manner of De StaeFs Allemagne. The 
 spirit is willing — but ah ! the flesh — !) 
 
 Prynne's Histrio-Mastix (should see it). 
 Sir James Harrington. Who was Au[thor] 
 of " Oceana " ? 
 
 Foot soldiers gave "four-pence a-piece." 
 (Cromwell's life. 1 18) — poor fellows ! 
 
 Sir J. Burrow's Anecdotes of Cromwell — 
 Dugdale, Bates, Harris. 
 
 Milton's " Areopagitica " — just perused 
 (6th May — after a long bout with Crom- 
 well's life, &c.) : it is a stately grave & dig- 
 nified oration in the manner of the ancients ; 
 contains a fair shew of candid argument, 
 generous feeling ; and is decked out with the 
 usual unrivalled richness of style, by which 
 this author is distinguished from all others. 
 What I desiderate in Milton is luminousness 
 of arrangement : he never reasons systemati- 
 cally, clearing all the ground before him as 
 he goes, and collecting all the scattered 
 brigades of his arguments to the final assault. 
 It is quite clear that he never studied mathe- 
 matics very deeply, or political economy — 
 or any subject merely logical. Even in this 
 Areopagitica splendid & powerful as it is, I 
 am clearly of opinion that Brougham or any 
 such person could discuss a similar subject 
 
 29 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 with more practical effect in the way of per- 
 suasion, than Milton with all his noble elo- 
 quence. The perusal of these old giants, 
 and the infirm appearance of their most ven- 
 erable structures in the department of phi- 
 losophy & controversy ought surely to make 
 us humble in our estimate of human Reason. 
 How is it ? The art of Logic seems to come 
 & go & change like the fashion of clothes 
 from age to age ! 
 
 As to this metaphorical talent, it is the first 
 characteristic of genius — tho' not the only 
 or an indispensable one, see Alfieri. It de- 
 notes an inward eye quick to perceive the 
 relations & analogies of things; a ready 
 memory to furnish them when occasion de- 
 mands; and a sense of propriety & beauty 
 to select what is best, from the immense store 
 so furnished. There is far far more in it than 
 this : but what — I have not time or power 
 to say. 
 
 The plan of this Areopagitica (not rigidly 
 adhered to) is fourfold — first that no worthy 
 community ever adhered to it ; 1 secondly that 
 reading many bad books is often useful; 
 thirdly that one might as well license fiddlers, 
 tailors &c. &c. as printers ; fourth the harm it 
 does. There is no great felicity in this arrange- 
 ment — but in executing it very very much. 
 
 1 " Ever adhered to it," that is, to the prohibition and 
 licensing of books. 
 
 30 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 " Not he who takes up arms for cote and 
 conduct, 1 and his four nobles of Dunegelt." 
 There is the " eagle muing " again. There 
 is a highly sarcastic description of some 
 tradesman's "Religion," & some clergy's 
 preaching. What were precisely the things 
 which Milton, Cromwell &c. aimed at so in- 
 tensely ? This should be clearly ascertained 
 in limine, more clearly than hitherto. 
 
 [Thus far was written in August 1822 — 
 what a horrid gap has followed ! It is now 
 the 4th of March 1823 ; and what have I 
 been doing since ? Fearful question ! I 
 will think no more of it. Goethe says it is 
 always wrong to spend time in looking back 
 at the road we have travelled over; it either 
 disheartens us vainly, or puffs us up with a 
 conceit as vain : the best plan is whatever our 
 handfindeth to do, to do it quickly. So be it 
 then ! — But alas ! alas ! — ] 
 
 The old Dramatists, Massinger, Beaumont 
 and Fletcher &c. have disappointed me a 
 good deal. Their language has often an echo 
 of richest melody in it ; their characters (par- 
 ticularly of Rips and Blackguards in B & F.) 
 are sometimes well conceived and happily 
 
 l ' Cote ' or coat-money was a tax for clothing new 
 levies, imposed on the counties by the King. ' Conduct' 
 a tax for defraying the cost of moving or conducting 
 troops from place to place. 
 
 31 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 presented ; there are in short many individual 
 beauties : but no one piece, so far as I recol- 
 lect, that I read to an end without disgust. 
 What horrid barbarism of taste ! what shock- 
 ing grossness of manners ! how little of gen- 
 uine philosophy or real insight into the depths 
 of human nature. Rich and royal Shake- 
 speare ! We should read his cotemporaries in 
 order rightly to prize him. — No this is not 
 the way for instructing myself! It is not. 
 
 What should I think of Goethe? His 
 Wilhelm Meister instructed, disgusted, moved 
 and charmed me. The man seems to under- 
 stand many of my own aberrations, " the na- 
 ture and causes " of which still remain mys- 
 terious to myself. I do feel that he is a wise 
 and great man. The last volume of his Life 
 is good also — gossipping,but full of intellect 
 and entertainment. 
 
 Lacretelle 1 is but a flashy superficial histo- 
 rian : he has nothing to tell me that I did 
 not know before. French chivalry — the 
 spirit of honour, and the everlasting Henri 
 Quatre — stuff — very wersh 2 stuff. It is really 
 curious to think how little knowledge there is 
 actually contained in these uncountable moun- 
 tains of books that men have written. A few 
 
 1 Author of many works on the history of France, born 
 1766, died 1835. 
 2 Wersh, Scottice, "insipid." 
 
 32 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 general ideas, a few facts in the history of 
 natural phenomena, a few observations on the 
 properties of our minds, a few descriptions of 
 our feelings — the whole repeated in ten thou- 
 sand times ten thousand forms ; — this is what 
 we call philosophy and poetry. Alas ! I am 
 not yet past the threshold of instruction! 
 Gott hilf mir ! as Luther said. 
 
 These German critics are curious people. 
 Griiber, Wieland, Doering, Schiller shew cu- 
 riously beside our Edin h and Quarterly Re- 
 views. How much better are they? More 
 learned at any rate, more full of careful re- 
 flection, displaying greatly more culture than is 
 usual among such people this side the water. 
 I rather fear however there is more cry than 
 wool. I must read some of them any way. 
 Herder I have some good hopes of. Here 
 is a place extracted from his Nemesis. After 
 mentioning that he thinks the notion of the 
 soul was first suggested by the phenomena 
 of dreams, and preluding a little on the simi- 
 larity of Sleep and Death and their common 
 relation to Night, he proceeds : 
 
 " Beautiful allegory which the Former of 
 our nature, by the alternation of light and 
 darkness of sleeping and waking, has placed 
 in the feelings of the most unthinking man ! 
 It seems as if He had wanted to give us a 
 daily emblem of the circuit of our destiny, 
 and had sent us daily to deliver it his mes- 
 
 3 33 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 senger, Sleep the brother of Death. Softly 
 do the dark wings of this Ambassador sweep 
 towards us, and overshadow us with the clouds 
 of Night. The Genius sinks his torch, and 
 refreshes us, if the day dazzled our eyes, with 
 some drops of forgetfulness from his ambro- 
 sial horn. Tired with the glare of the young 
 Sun, we look to our old Mother Night as she 
 comes with her two children in her arms, 
 shrouded in a dark veil, but circled with a 
 far-glancing crown of Stars. Whilst on the 
 Earth she obscures the eyes of our body, she 
 awakens the eyes of our soul to wide pros- 
 pects of other worlds. But the views there 
 are but dreams for our earthly spirit; the 
 Mother of Sleep and Rest can give us nothing 
 more." — Is not this a little in the vein of 
 Hervey ? Yet there is something very sweet 
 in it. Herder writes a Prize-essay about the 
 origin of Speech — Another about the decay 
 of taste, from which Mad. de Stael appears 
 to have borrowed something. 
 
 In voller Jugend glanzen sie (the stars) 
 
 Da schon Jahrtausende vergangen : 
 
 Der Zeitenwechsel raubet nie 
 
 Das Licht von ihren Wangen. 
 
 Hier aber unter unserm Blick 
 
 Verfallt, vergeht, verschwindet alles : 
 
 Der Erde Pracht, der Erde Gluck 
 
 Droht eine Zeit des Falles — 
 
 . TX Herder 
 
 (Last line bad.) 
 
 34 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 " But as to the place and hour of thy future 
 existence, fret not thyself O man; the Sun 
 which illuminates thy day measures out for 
 thee thy dwelling and thy earthly business, 
 and obscures for thee meanwhile all the stars 
 of Heaven. Soon as he goes down the world 
 appears in its wider form : the sacred Night 
 in which thou once layest shrouded up and 
 wilt again lie shrouded up, covers thy Earth 
 with shades but opens for thee in its stead 
 the shining books of Immortality in the sky. 
 There lie dwellings, worlds, and spaces." 
 
 " Unchanged they shine still young as ever 
 When thousand years have passed away; 
 And Time, the all-destroying, never 
 May smite their beauty with decay. 
 
 " But here while yet one views it 
 
 All fades and falls and mocks the eye ; 
 Earth's pomp — Destruction's foot pursues it, 
 To glance of joy is scowl of sorrow nigh. 
 
 " That Earth herself will be no more when 
 thou shalt still be, and in other dwelling- 
 places under other forms of existence shalt 
 enjoy thy God and his creation. Already 
 hast thou in this Earth enjoyed much good. 
 In it thou hast obtained that form of being, 
 in which as a son of Heaven it is allowed 
 thee to look around about thee and above. 
 Seek then to leave it in contentment, and 
 bless it as the green field where thou a child 
 
 35 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 of Immortality wert wont to play, and as the 
 school where in sorrow and in joy thou wast 
 reared to manhood. Thou hast no farther 
 claim upon it; it has no farther claim on thee : 
 crowned with the cap of freedom and girt 
 with the girdle of Heaven, take up thy pil- 
 grim staff with cheerfulness, and go on thy 
 way." Herder. 
 
 Schiller born ioth Nov' 1759 at Marbach 
 on the Neckar in Wurtemberg (same year 
 with our Burns). His father a Regiment 
 surgeon made a prayer for the boy — see the 
 Life in his Werke. Well answered. — What 
 ivere the regulations in the school at Stutt- 
 gard? Who was Schubart 1 } (51) — p. 72? 
 Mad [am von] Wollzogen was Schiller's pro- 
 tectress when he fled. Philosophische Briefe 
 what vol. ? Vol. 4. — His sailing in the Elbe, 
 100. Went to Weimar, saw Herder and 
 Wieland, and was induced by the latter to 
 take part in the Teutsches Mercur. Invited 
 by the F[rau] Wollzogen to come and see 
 her, he went to Rudolstadt and saw his fu- 
 ture wife. First interview with Goethe 106. 
 Blarney about history. Garden at Jena 118. 
 Kant's phil. 120. Goethe's Naturgeschichte 
 unci Morphologie. Jean Paul's Aesthetic. 
 Schiller about to write an epic poem on Fred- 
 
 l Carlyle answers this question in a long note in the 
 appendix to his Life of Schiller, 1825. 
 
 36 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 erick the Great — 124 Critical remarks — 
 Marries 130 — Garden 132 — Help from 
 Denmark 133 — Schiller's critique on Bur- 
 ger vol. 8. — The Xenienf little Epigrams — 
 are they to be found in S's Werke? Musen- 
 almanach? Horen? 158. Walks 164. Where 
 is Fr. SchlegePs Vorlesungen uber die neuere 
 Geschichte to be had? Schiller's triumph 
 at Leipzig 176 — Translate 193 &c. decent? 
 197 Must see the 8 vol. of W\erke~\ — 
 
 Morn, alas ! thy radiance tinges 
 
 A dead sepulchral stone. 
 And Eve thou throw'st thy crimson fringes 
 
 But o'er his slumber dark and lone. 
 
 Must see Jean Paul's Vorschule der Aes- 
 thetik. 
 
 "Schiller was tall in stature, of a strong 
 frame, yet withal very lean. His body ap- 
 peared visibly to be suffering under the keen 
 emotions of his spirit; but from his pale coun- 
 tenance, from his softly kindling (animated) 
 eye, there gleamed a still enthusiasm; and 
 his high free brow announced the deep 
 thinker. His cheeks and temples were hol- 
 low, the lips a little prominent, the chin 
 rather long and projecting. The colour of 
 his hair was inclined to reddish. 
 
 " In his external appearance there was lit- 
 tle to recommend him. In walking he kept 
 his eyes constantly bent on the ground ; he 
 
 37 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 often failed to notice the salutations of ac- 
 quaintances that passed him, but on hearing 
 such he caught hastily at his hat and gave 
 his cordial Guten Tag." 
 
 His rather stiff and slow gait, and plain 
 apparel were not calculated to draw atten- 
 tion towards him; and there was farther in 
 his manner a sort of painful backwardness 
 visible in large companies, and especially at 
 court. In such situations he felt himself op- 
 pressed by a certain constraint, he saw out- 
 ward show made the ruling principle; and 
 both were at variance with the inmost feel- 
 ings of his nature. 
 
 It was in the circle of his family or of a 
 few intimate friends that he became unem- 
 barrassed, talkative, mirthful with all that 
 loved mirth. He enjoyed no little recrea- 
 tion in a club which had been formed at 
 Weimar, and for which he and Goethe com- 
 posed some social songs. 
 
 To the noisy and tumultuous pleasures of 
 life Schiller was nowise inclined. Among 
 the few public places which he used to fre- 
 quent the Playhouse was the only one on 
 which he bestowed any positive attention. 
 It was especially his pleasure and concern to 
 communicate instruction to the actors. The 
 first reading of the new pieces was always 
 gone thro' in his or Goethe's house; a cir- 
 cumstance which of itself must have had the 
 
 38 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 most beneficial influence on many a player 
 of talents. Schiller indeed required much ; 
 he made strict demands on professors of the 
 art. Yet after the successful exhibition of 
 any of his later dramatic works, he was wont 
 to invite the more distinguished players to a 
 supper in the Town-house, where they had 
 merry songs, improvisoes, and all kinds of 
 jokes and diversion. 1 
 
 Schiller was in the highest degree benevo- 
 lent and the friend of men. His heart felt 
 the sorrows of another like his own. He 
 often said he wished for nothing more than 
 to see all men happy and contented with 
 their lot. 
 
 As a proof how upright his feelings were, 
 how far from petty self-interest, I may give 
 this example. A well-known Bookseller 
 hearing that Schiller was busied with Wallen- 
 stein waited upon him at Weimar, and of- 
 fered him 1 2 gold Carolins per sheet for the 
 property of the piece. The price was con- 
 siderably higher than Cotta of Tubingen, 
 with whom he was then treating on the same 
 subject, used to give; but Sc[hiller] did not for 
 that reason think of changing his publisher : 
 "Cotta" he said "deals honestly [solide) with 
 me, and I with him," and sent the Bookseller 
 
 1 Among other things the player Genast used at S's 
 request to recite the Capuchin's speech out of Wallen- 
 stein. T C. 
 
 39 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 away without even the hope of any future 
 trade with him. 
 
 Schiller has delineated himself with very 
 striking correctness. " The childlike charac- 
 ter " he observes " which genius expresses in 
 its works, it shews also in its morals and private 
 life. It is bashful, for nature is ever so ; but 
 it has not the art of concealment, for conceal- 
 ment is taught of perversion alone. It is 
 wise, for nature never can be otherwise ; but 
 it is not crafty, for that can by Art alone be. It 
 is true to its character and inclinations, but 
 not so much because it walks by principles as 
 because nature with all her aberrations ever 
 returns to her former aim, ever brings back 
 her original desire. It is prudent, nay timid, 
 for genius ever remains a secret to itself; but 
 it is not anxious, not knowing the dangers of 
 the path it treads. We know little of the pri- 
 vate life of the greatest geniuses ; but even 
 that little as it has been transmitted to us 
 proves the truths here stated." * 
 
 Schiller 2 seems to have been a very worthy 
 character, possessed of great talents, and for- 
 tunate in always finding means to employ 
 
 1 From ' ' Naive und Sentimentalische Dichtung. " The 
 passage was much better translated by Carlyle in his 
 Life of Schiller, 1825, p. 299. 
 
 2 The following passage is cited by Mr. Froude, in his 
 Life of Carlyle, Vol. i, p. 196, but inaccurately ; for ex- 
 ample, instead of "Schiller seems to have been," he 
 prints, "Schiller was." 
 
 40 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 them in the attainment of worthy ends. The 
 pursuit of the Beautiful, the representing of 
 it in suitable forms, and the diffusion of the 
 feelings arising from it, operated as a kind of 
 religion in his soul. He talks in some of his 
 essays about the Aesthetics being a necessary 
 means of improvement among political socie- 
 ties : his efforts in this cause accordingly 
 not only satisfied the restless activity, the 
 desire of creating and working upon others, 
 which forms the great want of an elevated 
 mind, but yielded a sort of balsam to his 
 conscience ; he viewed himself as an Apostle 
 of the sublime. Pity that he had no bet- 
 ter way of satisfying it ! A play-house shews 
 but indifferently as an arena for the Moral- 
 ist: it is even inferior to the synod of the 
 theologian. One is tired to death with his 
 and Goethe's palabra about the nature of the 
 fine arts. Did Shakespeare know aught of 
 the aesthetic ? Did Homer ? Kant's philos- 
 ophy has a monstrously gigantic appearance 
 at a distance — enveloped in clouds and dark- 
 ness, shadowed forth in types and symbols 
 of unknown and fantastic derivation, there is 
 an apparatus and a flourishing of drums and 
 trumpets and a tumultuous Marktschreyerei 
 as if all the Earth were going to renew its 
 youth; and the esoterics are equally allured 
 by all this pomp and circumstance, and re- 
 pelled by the hollowness and airy nothing- 
 
 4i 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 ness of the ware which is presented to them. 
 Any of the results which have been made in- 
 telligible to us turn out to be like Dryden in 
 the Battle of the Books, a helmet of rusty iron 
 large as a kitchen-pot and within it a head 
 little bigger than a nut. 1 What is SchlegeFs 
 great solution of the mystery of life — " the 
 strife of necessity against free-will " ? 2 Noth- 
 ing earthly but the old, old story that all men 
 find it difficult to get on in the world ; and 
 that one never can get all his humour out! 
 They pretend to admit that nature gives 
 people dim intimations of true beauty and 
 just principles in Art ; but the bildende Kunst- 
 ler and the richtende z ought to investigate the 
 true foundations of these obscure intimations 
 and set them fast on the basis of reason. 
 Stuff and nonsense ? I fear it is. The people 
 made finer pieces of workmanship when there 
 was not a critic among them. Just as people 
 do finer actions when there was no theory 
 of the moral sentiments among them. Na- 
 ture is the sure guide in all cases ; and per- 
 
 l Carlyle changes Swift's imagery. " The Helmet was 
 nine times too large for the Head, which appeared Situ- 
 ate far in the hinder Part, even like the Lady in a Lob- 
 ster, or like a mouse under a canopy of State, or like a 
 shrivled Beau from within the Pent-house of a modern 
 Perewig." The Battle of the Books, 1704, p. 263. 
 
 2 For "free-will" Mr. Froude prints "the will," and 
 five lines below, for "dim intimations " he substitutes 
 " true intimations." 
 
 3 " The artist and the critic." 
 

 
WCt t»ui %UJ^ fifM <hu»*_ fr*fyVUt*Vt ®S **— 
 ksK- ^W. i^ <Lj/ Uv^ *fiA4it^( 
 I fir 3<MK> yfi+r4 t c^ y^ ^ *^_ 
 
 *" ' ***** 1$2 ^^CwW^^ it ^^r 
 'frXCjvJtk e«ys*> ^t^u^ ^aj2^ 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 haps the only requisite is that we have 
 judgement enough to apply the sentiment im- 
 planted in us without our effort to the more 
 complex circumstances that will meet us more 
 frequently as we advance in culture, or move 
 in a society more artificial. Poor silly sons 
 of Adam ! you have been prating on these 
 things for 2 or 3000 years, and you have not 
 advanced a single hair's breadth towards the 
 conclusion. Poor fellows! and poorer me! 
 that take the trouble to repeat such insipidities 
 and truisms. 
 
 But what if I do not prodesse ? Why then 
 terar still, — dum I cannot help it ! This is 
 the end and beginning of all philosophy — 
 known even to Singleton the Blacksmith — 
 " we must just do the best we can, boy ! " 
 Oh most lame and impotent conclusion. 
 
 Welch eine Lage ! von tausend angstlichen 
 Trieben herumgejagt, von Bediirfnissen, 
 Thatigkeiten, zu wirken gefodert, gefodert, 
 gefodert ; und kann nichts thun ! Armseli- 
 ger Narr! Ich mochte tollwerden — und 
 was denn ? Schweige ! 1 
 
 Herder hated the new philosophy and wrote 
 against it bitterly. Wieland did the same, 
 for it shattered into powder the gim-crack 
 
 1 " What a condition ! driven by a thousand disquiet- 
 udes, by necessities, by actualities, obliged to work, 
 obliged, obliged, and can do nothing! Poor fool! I 
 am ready to go mad — and what then ? Silence ! " 
 
 45 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 palace of French rationality which he had 
 been chopping and putting together all his 
 life for Teutschland. Goethe was wiser than 
 either; he was clear for "letting it have its 
 time as everything has." This was right, old 
 Goethe, and I respect thee for the solid judge- 
 ment of this saying. Herder was not de- 
 terred by the terror of novelty, or yet by too 
 strong a rational faculty, too keen a judgement. 
 He believed in & greatly prized the scull- 
 doctrine of Df Gall ! But Gall had borrowed 
 his fundamental ideas from Herder's Ideen 
 zur Phil. — there it lay ! — and the new phil- 
 osophy was driving fiercely butting like a 
 wild Bull against the orthodox creed of Ger- 
 many. The poor divinity-students returned 
 from the prelections of Fichte and Reinhold 
 at Jena full of the most undigestible concep- 
 tions ; and appeared before the Consistoriums 
 in a state approaching to derangement, and 
 like deranged people frequently out-argued 
 the old stagers who believed orthodoxly. 
 Great scandal thereby; and severe repre- 
 hensions. One young divine shot himself at 
 Weimar. Fichte appears actually to have 
 been a metaphysical atheist. I wish I fully 
 understood the philosophy of Kant ! Is it a 
 chapter in the history of human folly or the 
 brightest in the history of h. wisdom ? Or 
 of both mixed ? And in what degree ? 
 That distinction of Coleridge's (which he 
 
 46 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 has borrowed or may have borrowed from 
 Woltmann) about talent and genius is com- 
 pletely blarney, — futile, very futile. — I am 
 tired and stupid and almost red-mud. 1 
 
 Farewell my books & pens and papers 
 My studies great and small ! 
 
 Most pitiful sickly farthing tapers 
 Are the sciences one and all. 
 
 Oh once your flaring light inspir'd me 
 I certainly thought you moons or suns 
 
 And I ran to catch what somehow fir'd me 
 As many a crack-brained ninny runs. 
 
 And when at length nigh broken-winded 
 I approached thro' many a glarry^ way 
 
 The glim was nearly douced^ or I was blinded 
 I strained my eyes, knew nought to think or 
 say. 
 
 Forsooth ye are most worthy rare devices 
 
 How clearly ye tell us all we know ! 
 And where we know not, still your art supplies 
 us 
 With excellent words and terms to come & 
 go- 
 
 1 Distracted. 
 
 2 Miry. 
 
 3 The light was nearly sunk. 
 
 47 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Oh that the old one had you to make 
 A kirk and mill of if so inclined ! 
 
 And this accursed queasy grumbling stomach 
 Would cease to trouble an ignorant mind ! 
 
 March, 1823. Andrew Macnay. 1 
 
 Poet should preach or poetize for his age, 
 should elevate and beautify the ideas which 
 are current in it : be Zeiiburger as well as 
 Staatsbiirger. — [Schiller] Review of Burger. 
 
 " What went before and what will follow me 
 I look at as at two black imperforable cur- 
 tains, which hang down at the two extremi- 
 ties of human life, and which no living man 
 has yet drawn aside. Many hundreds of 
 generations already stand before them with 
 their torches and guess and guess about what 
 lies behind. Many see their own shadows 
 the forms of their passions enlarged and put 
 in motion on the curtain of futurity; they 
 shrink in terror at their own image. Poets, 
 philosophers and founders of states have 
 painted it with their dreams — more smiling 
 or more dark as the sky above them was 
 gloomy or cheerful; and their pictures de- 
 ceive at a distance. Many jugglers too make 
 profit of this universal curiosity, and by 
 
 1 On the margin against the preceding verses the fol- 
 lowing note is written: "At Mrs. Wilkie's, near Pilrig 
 Street, Leith walk; I still dimly remember the night. 
 (May, 1866!)—" 
 
 48 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 their strange disguisings ( Vermummungen) 
 have set the outstretched Fantasy in astonish- 
 ment. (But) a deep silence reigns behind 
 this curtain; none once within it will an- 
 swer those he has left without; all you can 
 hear is a hollow echo of your question, as if 
 you shouted into a chasm. To the other 
 side of this curtain we are all bound, and 
 men catch it with shuddering, uncertain who 
 may stand behind to receive them, quid sit id, 
 quod tantum morituri vident. 1 Some incredu- 
 lous persons there have been who maintained 
 that this curtain but made a fool of men, and 
 that nothing could be seen because nothing 
 was behind it ; but to convince these persons, 
 the rest pushed them hastily behind." Schiller, 
 Geisterseher. [Vierter Brief.] IV. 350. 
 
 As gentle shepherd in sweet eventide 
 When ruddy Phoebus gins to welk in west 
 High on a hill, his flock to vewen wide, 
 Marks which do bite their hasty supper best. 
 Faery Queen B. 1. c. 1. [st. 23.] 
 
 A little lowly hermitage it was 
 Down in a dale hard by a forest's side, 
 Far from resort of people that did pass 
 In travel to and fro : a little wyde (distant ?) 
 There was a holy chapel edified, 
 
 1 ' What that may be which only those see who are 
 about to die.' 
 
 4 49 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Wherein the hermit duly wont to say 
 His holy things each morn and eventide : 
 Thereby a chrystal stream did gently play, 
 Which from a sacred fountain welled forth 
 
 away. (Do.) [st. 34.] 
 
 Error (battle with) graphical but beastly — 
 Morpheus' establishment is well done. " Bold 
 bad man " is Spenser's — it might have been 
 anybody's. 
 
 By this the northern waggoner had set 
 His sevenfold teme behind the stedfast starre 
 That was in ocean waves yet never wet. 
 But firm is fixt, and sendeth light from farre 
 To all that in the wide deep wandring arre: 
 And chearefull chaunticlere with &c. 
 
 B. i. c. ii. [st. 1.] 
 
 At last the golden orientall gate 
 Of greatest Heaven gan to open fayre ; 
 And Phcebus fresh as bridegroom to his mate, 
 Came dauncing forth shaking his deawie hayre 
 And hurld his glistring beams thro' gloomy 
 ayre B. i. c. v. [st. 2.] 
 
 This Spenser pleaseth me well : he is a 
 dainty body as ever I met with. 
 
 Hactenus in May 1823 : it is now Novem- 
 ber; 1 six weary months have passed away, 
 
 l 3 Nov 1 ; 1823. (at Kinnaird ! with Bullers.) [T. C. 
 1866.] Since the spring of 1822 Carlyle had remained 
 in Edinburgh as tutor of Charles and Arthur Buller. In 
 May, 1823, the Buller family removed to Kinnaird House, 
 
 50 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 another portion from my span of being ; and 
 here am I, in a wet dreary night, at Kinnaird, 
 with no recollections or acquisitions to fill 
 up that space with; but the recollection of 
 agonized days and nights, and the acquisition 
 of a state of health worse than it ever was ! 
 My time ! my time ! My peace and activity ! 
 My hopes and purposes ! Where are they ? 
 I could read the curse of Ernulphus, 1 or some- 
 thing twenty-times as fierce, upon myself and 
 all things earthly. What will become of me ? 
 Happiness! Tophet must be happier than 
 this : or they — But basta / It is no use talk- 
 ing. Let me get on with Schiller; then with 
 Goethe. " They that meaned at a gowden 
 gown gat aye the sleeve." I shall not even 
 get the listing. — These remarks are interest- 
 ing to read some months after date: I will 
 continue them . Schiller is in the wrong vein. 2 
 Laborious, partly affected, meagre, bombastic : 
 too often it strives by lofty words to hide 
 littleness of thought. Would I were done 
 with it! Oh Carlyle if ever thou become 
 happy ', think on these days of pain and dark- 
 ness; and thou wilt join trembling with thy 
 mirth! Forth! Forth! 3 d November 1823. 
 
 a beautiful place near Dunkeld on the Tay, and here Car- 
 lyle resided with them till, in 1824, they removed to Lon- 
 don. See Life, Vol. i. ; Early Letters, Vol. ii. 
 
 ISee Tristram Shandy, Book iii. c. 11. 
 
 2 The Life of Schiller which he was now engaged in 
 writing. 
 
 51 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 List of French books — to be read it ever 
 I have leisure and fall in with them. I tran- 
 scribe them from the back of an old Recipe 
 (the Bumming Doctor's — which I recollect 
 well) about three years of age. Some one or 
 two I have read since then, and omit here. 
 I suppose they must originally have been 
 taken from Chenevix' Articles in the Edin r 
 Review ; but I am not certain. 
 
 Malebranche, Recherche de la verite\ 
 
 Condillac, La Logique. 
 
 Bonnet, Psychologic 
 
 De Gerando, Des Connaissances humaines. 
 
 De Tracy (on Grammar, Ideology &c.) 
 
 Garat ? Charron ? La Mothe Le Vayer ? 
 
 Nicole, Essais de Morale. 
 
 St Lambert (weak I understand). Principes 
 de morale chez toutes les nations. 
 
 Servan, Dupaty, Calonne, Sieyes, Lebrun, 
 Roederer, Marbois, Neucours, Gamier, Per- 
 reau, Bexon, Bourguignon, Pastoret, Lacre- 
 telle, De Bonald. 
 
 These are marked u polit."'m the List: except 
 Sieyes and Lacretelle and Calonne I never 
 before heard their names, and know nothing 
 about them. Lacretelle I have read one 
 work of, the Religious Wars: it is a poor 
 flashy performance, readable because its sub- 
 ject is interesting ; and the author tho' half 
 a puppy has been among thinkers in the 19th 
 century. 
 
 52 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Cardinal de Retz. M6moires 
 
 Brantdme. 
 
 Froissart (this I should like best) 
 
 Seyssel (who is he ?) Velly, Mezeray. 
 
 Vertot, D'Orl6ans, Dubos, Anquetil (bad) 
 
 Rulhiere, Thouret, Royou (short hist, of 
 France) 
 
 I should also like to have Montaigne ; the vol. 
 of his Essais that I read was very good — at 
 least very curious. — Here are some rhymers: 
 
 Marivaux, Malherbe, Balzac, Voiture, Scu- 
 deri, Scarron, &c. I have long wished to 
 read Grammont : the parts of it known to 
 me are excellent. What of Mad. de La 
 Fayette, her Princesse de Cleves? Abb6 
 Prevost his Cleveland ? Laclos ? Louvet ? 
 Pigault-le-Brun ? — These I fear are but of 
 the small deer I have too long been used to. 
 There is something in a weak or dull book 
 very nauseous to me. Reading is a weariness 
 of the Flesh; after reading and studying 
 about two scores of good books, there is no 
 new thing whatever to be met with in the 
 generality of libraries ; repetitions a thousand 
 times repeated of the same general idea; 
 feelings, opinions and events — all is what we 
 might anticipate. No man without Themis- 
 tocles' gift of forgetting can possibly spend 
 his days in reading. 1 Generally about the age 
 
 l" Vain was the prayer of Themistocles for a talent 
 of Forgetting." Sartor Resartus, Book i. ch. viii. The 
 
 53 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 of five and twenty he should begin to put the 
 little knowledge he has acquired (it can be 
 but little) from books to some practical use. 
 If I could write y that were my practical use. 
 But alas! alas! Oh! Schiller what secret 
 hadst thou for creating such things as Max 
 and Thekla when thy body was wasting with 
 disease ? I am well nigh done I think. To die 
 is hard enough at this age ; to die by inches 
 is very hard. But I will not, tho' all things 
 human and divine are against me, I will not. 
 
 Schiller Part II. is off to London three 
 weeks ago : it was very bad. Part III. I am 
 swithering to begin : would it were finished. 
 I spent ten days (wretchedly) in Edinf and 
 Had n ; I was consulting doctors, who made 
 me give up my dear nicotiana and take to 
 mercury. I sometimes think I shall recover. 
 December 14th. 
 
 I am to write letters and then begin Schil- 
 ler. May God bless all my Friends — my 
 poor Mother at the head of them ! Oh it 
 sometimes comes over me like the shadow of 
 Death — the thought that we are all parting 
 from one another — each moving his several 
 his destined inevitable way, Fate driving us 
 on, inexorable dead relentless Fate ! No de- 
 liverance ? (mil dem Fusse stampfend). 1 No 
 
 saying of Themistocles is reported by Cicero, De Ora- 
 tore, ii. 74. 
 1 " Stamping with the foot." 
 
 54 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 help ? Alas poor sons of Adam ! But no 
 more of this. 
 
 31st December The year is closing; this 
 
 1823. time eight and twenty 
 
 years I was a child of three 
 
 weeks old lying sleeping in my mother's 
 
 bosom. 
 
 Oh little did my mither think 
 
 That day she cradled me, 
 The lands that I should travel in 
 The death I was to die. i 
 
 Another hour and 1823 is with the years 
 beyond the flood. What have I done to 
 mark the course of it ? Suffered the pangs 
 of Tophet almost daily, grown sicker and 
 sicker, alienated by my misery certain of my 
 friends, and worn out from my own mind a 
 few remaining capabilities of enjoyment, re- 
 duced my world a little nearer the condition 
 of a bare haggard desart, where peace and 
 rest for me is none. Hopeful youth Mr. C. ! 
 Another year or two and it will do ; another 
 
 1 To this, Carlyle in 1866 appended the words " Ex- 
 tract by Burns —first came to me thro' T. Murray." 
 
 The stanza is from the beautiful ballad, of much dis- 
 cussed origin, known as " Mary Hamilton," or " The 
 Queen's Marie." See Child's English and Scottish 
 Popular Ballads, Vol. iii. p. 379 and Vol. v. p. 246. " We 
 first hear of the Scottish Ballad," says Professor Child, 
 "in 1790, when a stanza is quoted in a letter of Robert 
 Burns." The letter is to Mrs. Dun lop, 25 th Jan. 1790. 
 See Currie's Works of Burns 1800, ii. 290. 
 
 55 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 year or two and thou wilt wholly be the caput 
 mortuum of thy former self, a creature igno- 
 rant, stupid, peevish, disappointed, broken- 
 hearted ; the veriest wretch upon the surface 
 of the globe. My curse seems deeper and 
 blacker than that of any man : to be immured 
 in a rotten carcass, every avenue of which is 
 changed into an inlet of pain; till my intellect 
 is obscured and weakened, and my head and 
 heart are alike desolate and dark. How have 
 I deserved this ? Or is it merely a dead in- 
 exorable Fate that orders these things, caring 
 no jot for merit or demerit, crushing our poor 
 mortal interests among its ponderous ma- 
 chinery, and grinding us and them to dust 
 relentlessly ? I know not j shall I ever know ? 
 " Then why don't you kill yourself Sir ? Is 
 there not arsenic ? Is there not ratsbane of 
 various kinds, and hemp and steel ? " Most 
 true, Sathanas, all these things are: but it 
 will be time enough to use them when I have 
 lost the game, which I am as yet but losing. 
 You observe Sir I have still a glimmering of 
 hope; and while my friends {my friends, my 
 Mother, Father, brothers and sisters) live, 
 the duty of not breaking their hearts would 
 still remain to be performed when hope had 
 utterly fled. For which reasons, even if 
 there were no other (which however I be- 
 lieve there are), the benevolent Sathanas will 
 excuse me. I do not design to be a suicide: 
 
 56 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 God in Heaven forbid! That way I was 
 never tempted. 1 
 
 But where is the use of going on with this ? 
 I am not writing like a reasonable man : if I 
 am miserable, the more reason there is to 
 gather my faculties together, and see what 
 can be done to help myself. I want health, 
 health, health. On this subject I am becom- 
 ing quite furious: my torments are greater 
 than I am able to bear. If I do not soon re- 
 cover I am miserable for ever and ever. They 
 talk of the benefit of ill-health in a moral 
 point of view. 2 I declare solemnly without 
 exaggeration that I impute nine tenths of my 
 
 l"From Suicide," says Teufelsdrockh, "a certain 
 aftershine (Nachschein) of Christianity withheld me: 
 perhaps, also, a certain indolence of character ; for was 
 not that a remedy I had at any time within reach ? " 
 
 Sartor Resartus, Book ii. ch. vii. 
 
 2 In later years Carlyle wrote, in recalling this period 
 of his life, " Other things might have made me hopeful 
 and cheerful as beseemed my years, — had not Dyspepsia, 
 with its base and unspeakable miseries, kept such fatal 
 hold of me, which, perhaps, needed only a wise Doctor, 
 too, as I found afterwards, when too late ! Heavy, grind- 
 ing, and continual has that burden lain on me ever since 
 to this hour, and will lie ; but I must not complain of it, 
 either ; it was not wholly a curse, as I can sometimes 
 recognize, but perhaps a thing needed, and partly a 
 blessing, though a stern one, and bitter to flesh and 
 blood." Early Letters, ii. 114, note. See also in regard to 
 his sufferings from dyspepsia, Reminiscences, ii. 107, no. 
 113, 115, 140. The evil was augmented by unwise doc- 
 tors, who dosed him with active but ineffectual drugs, 
 weakening his health without remedying the specific 
 trouble. 
 
 57 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 present wretchedness, and rather more than 
 nine tenths of all my faults to this infernal 
 disorder in the stomach. If it were once 
 away I think I could snap my fingers in 
 the face of all the world. The only good of 
 it is the friends it tries for us and endears 
 to us ! Oh ! there is a charm in the true 
 affection that suffering cannot weary, that 
 abides by us in the day of fretfulness and 
 dark calamity — a charm which almost makes 
 amends for misery. Love to my friends — 
 Alas ! I may almost say relations ! — is now 
 almost the sole religion of my mind. 
 
 In a month we quit this place ; they x with 
 a view to amusement, I in the hope of get- 
 ting Meister printed. 2 I have better hopes of 
 Meister than I had ; tho' still they are very 
 
 1 The Bullers. 
 
 2 In the spring of 1823 Carlyle had engaged with an 
 Edinburgh bookseller to translate Wilhelm Meister. 
 In a bit of reminiscences, printed in his Early Letters, 
 ii. p. 201, note, Carlyle, describing his life at Kinnaird 
 House, says : " I lodged and slept in the old mansion, a 
 queer, old-fashioned, snug enough, entirely secluded 
 edifice, sunk among trees, about a gunshot from the new 
 big House ; hither I came to smoke about twice or thrice 
 in the daytime ; had a good oak-wood fire at night, and 
 sat in a seclusion, in a silence not to be surpassed above 
 ground. I was writing Schiller, translating Meister ; 
 my health in spite of my diligent riding, grew worse and 
 worse ; thoughts all wrapt in gloom, in weak dispiritment 
 and discontent, wandering mournfully to my loved ones 
 far away ; letters to and from, it may well be supposed, 
 were my most genial solacement. At times, too, there 
 was something of noble in my sorrow, in the great soli- 
 tude among the rocking winds, but not often." 
 
 58 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 faint. Schiller P. III. I began just three 
 nights ago. I absolutely could not sooner. 
 These drugs leave me scarcely the conscious- 
 ness of existence. They take away all am- 
 bition, all wish for aught beyond deep sleep 
 if that might by any means be made to fall 
 upon me. I am scribbling not writing Schil- 
 ler : my mind will not catch hold of it ; I 
 skim it, do as I will, and I am anxious as 
 possible to get it off my hands. It will not 
 do for publishing separately : it is not in my 
 natural vein. I wrote a very little of it to- 
 night, and then went and talked ineptitudes 
 at the house. Also there is mercurial powder 
 in me, and a gnawing pain over all the or- 
 gans of digestion — especially in the pit and 
 left side of the stomach. Let this excuse the 
 wild absurdity above. 
 
 Half past eleven ! The silly Denovan * is 
 coming down (at least so I interpreted his 
 threat) with punch or wishes ; which curtails 
 the few reflections this mercury might still 
 leave it in my power to make. To make 
 none at all will perhaps be as well. It ex- 
 hibits not an interesting but a true picture of 
 my present mood — stupid, unhappy, by fits 
 wretched, but also dull, dull and very weak. 
 
 Now fare thee well old twenty-three ! 
 No power, no art can thee retain 
 
 1 Probably the butler of the Bullers. 
 59 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Eternity will roll away — Eternity ! 
 And thou wilt never come again. 
 
 And welcome thou, young twenty-four, 
 Thou bringer to men of joy and grief! 
 Whate'er thou bringest, in sufferings sore 
 The patient heart in faith will hope relief. 
 
 — Here thou art by Jove! Denny is not 
 come. Good night! "To whom?" 
 
 There is a good explanation of the aequo pul- 
 satpede in Swinburne's travels : it seems credit- 
 ors and other aggrieved persons still signify 
 their determined hostility and resolution to be 
 avenged by kicking at the door of the debtor. 
 
 I have sometimes been reading BoswelPs 
 Life of Johnson lately : Johnson talked well 
 but not more wisely than a common man; 
 at least very little more. Also his conversa- 
 tion is only intellectually felicitous; he has 
 no strange ideas to shew, no curious modes 
 of feelings; he only does well what every one 
 can do in some way. I figure Goethe or 
 even Coleridge to be more curious persons. 
 Poor Goethe is " again dangerously ill " the 
 papers say. Basta / 
 
 7th January Such three days I have had 
 [1824]. with the introduction to Schil- 
 ler / — and then to reject it 
 all ! I must insert some of it here to-mor- 
 
 60 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 row, for it cost me labour, and should not be 
 totally lost. To-night I am going to write to 
 Had"* 
 
 Last Sunday came the Times newspaper 
 with the commencement of Schiller Part II 
 extracted. So Walter 2 thought it on this side 
 zero ! I believe this is about the first com- 
 pliment (most slender as it is) that ever was 
 paid me, by a person who could have no in- 
 terest in hoodwinking me. I am very weak : it 
 kept me cheerful for an hour; even yet I some- 
 times feel it. — Certainly no one ever wrote with 
 such tremendous difficulty as I do. Shall I 
 learn to " write with ease " — ever learn ? 
 
 I have got half a new idea to-day about 
 history: it is more than I can say for any 
 day the last six months. 
 
 Confessio TiDKi of Wallensteins Jager {2$) 
 
 purposed 
 
 I mean to be quite easy and gay, 
 
 To see something new on each [new] day, 
 
 In joys of the sharing 
 
 To the moment merrily trusting, 
 
 [On the past or the future] not thinking or caring 
 
 No thought on the past or the future casting. 
 
 So, look, to the Kaiser I sold my bacon 
 
 And by him let the charge of all needful be 
 taken 
 
 lTo Miss Welsh, at Haddington. 
 2 The proprietor of the Times. 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 mid thickest 
 
 Order me on to the whistling cannon shot 
 
 Rhine's wild roaring tide 
 
 Over the red and roaring Rhine, 
 The second man must go to pot, — 
 
 not minding a jot 
 
 I mount and ride without loss of time. 
 
 d'ye see 
 
 But farther I humbly beg and pray, 
 
 you'd let me be 
 
 That in other things I may have my way. 
 
 Marketenderin. 
 
 Cousin ! since then I 've been wide and far, 
 To-day we come, to-morrow we go, 
 
 the rough rude 
 
 As it happens the besom of war 
 
 Pleases to shove us 
 
 Shakes one and sweeps one to and fro 
 
 Wallenstein. 
 
 Our life was but a battle and a march, 
 
 And like the wind's blast, never-resting, 
 homeless, 
 
 We stormed across the war-convulsed earth. 
 
 KUrassier — 
 
 This sword of ours is no plough or spade 
 You cannot delve or reap with the iron blade 
 
 falls 
 
 For us there springs no seed, no cornfield 
 grows 
 
 62 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 The soldier no home nor kindred knows, 
 Must wander over the face of the earth, 
 Must warm his hands at another's hearth, 
 
 From must onward roam 
 
 To the pomp of towns he bids adieu, 
 
 In the village green with its cheerful game, 
 
 laughing times of 
 
 In the vintage [time] or harvest-home, 
 No part or lot can the soldier claim. 
 
 In the place of goods of worth or pelf 
 
 Tell me then what goods or worth he has 
 
 What has he unless 
 
 If the soldier cease to honour himself? 
 
 naught to call 
 
 Leave him nothing of his own, what wonder 
 
 fellow 
 
 The creature should burn and kill and 
 plunder ? 
 
 VERSES TO MRS. BULLER ON SEEING 
 HER IN A HIGHLAND DRESS— 
 
 By Dr. John Leyden. 
 
 [From a copy in Mrs. B.'s handwriting — 
 
 Jan? 1824.] 
 
 That bonnet's pride, that tartan's flow, 
 My soul with wild emotion fills ; 
 
 Methinks I see in fancy's glow 
 A princess from the land of hills. 
 
 O for a Fairy's hand to trace 
 
 The rainbow tints that rise to view ! 
 
 That slender form of sweeter grace 
 Than e'er Malvina's poet drew ! 
 
 63 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Her brilliant eye, her streaming hair, 
 Her skin's soft splendour to display 
 
 The finest pencil must despair 
 Till it can paint the solar ray. 
 
 Calcutta, 1 8 1 1. 
 
 It must be night ere Friedland's star will beam. " 
 
 21st September, Hoddam Hill. 1 A hiatus 
 1825. valde deflendus / Since 
 
 the last line was written, 
 what a wandering to and fro, how many 
 sad vicissitudes of despicable suffering and 
 inaction have I undergone ! This little 
 book and the desk that carries it have 
 passed a summer and winter in London, 
 since I last opened it; and I their foolish 
 owner have roamed about the brick-built 
 Babylon, the sooty Brummagem, and Paris 
 the Vanity-fair of our modern world! My 
 mood of mind is changed : is it improved ? 
 Weiss nicht. 2 This stagnation is not peace, 
 or it is the peace of Galgacus' Romans : ubi 
 
 1 A little Farm, not far from Ecclefechan, with a cot- 
 tage for dwelling-house where " at noon-day (26th May, 
 1825) I established myself, set up my Books, and bits of 
 implements and Lares ; and took to doing German Ro- 
 mance as my daily work." " This year at Hoddam Hill 
 . . . lies now like a not ignoble russet-coated Idyll in 
 my memory ; one of the quietest on the whole, and per- 
 haps the most triumphantly important of my life." 
 Reminiscences , ii. 178. 
 
 2 " I know not." 
 
 64 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 solihidinem faciimt pacem appellatit. 1 How 
 difficult it is to free one's mind from cant ; 
 how very seldom are the principles we act on 
 clear to our own reason ! Of the great nos- 
 trums " forgetfulness of self " and "humbling 
 of vanity," it were better therefore to say 
 nothing: in my speech concerning them I 
 overcharge the impression they have made 
 on me, for my Conscience like my sense of 
 Pain or Pleasure has grown dull, and I 
 secretly desire to compensate for laxity of 
 feeling by intenseness of describing. How 
 much of these great nostrums is the product 
 of necessity ? Am I like a sorry hack con- 
 tent \.o feed on heather while rich clover seems 
 to lie around it at a little distance, because in 
 struggling to break the tether it has almost 
 hanged itself? O that I could " go out of 
 the body to philosophize ! " That I could 
 even feel as of old the glory and magnificence 
 of things till my own little me {mein kleifies 
 Ich) were swallowed up and lost in them ! 
 (partly cant ! ) But I cannot, I cannot ! Shall 
 I ever more ? Gott weiss. At present I am 
 but an abgerissenes Glied t a limb torn off from 
 the family of Man, excluded from activity, 
 with Pain for my companion, and Hope that 
 comes to all rarely visiting me, and what 
 is stranger rarely desired with vehemence! 
 
 1" Where they make a solitude they call it peace." 
 Tacitus, Life of Agricola, c. 30. 
 
 5 6 S 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Unhappy man in whom the body has gained 
 mastery over the soul ! Inverse Sensualist, not 
 drawn into the rank of beasts by pleasure, but 
 driven into it by pain ! Hush ! Hush ! Per- 
 haps this is the Truce which weary Nature has 
 conquered for herself to re-collect her scat- 
 tered strength! Perhaps like an Eagle (or a 
 Goose) she will " mew her mighty youth " 
 and fly against the sun, or at least fish pad- 
 docks with equanimity, like other birds of a 
 similar feather; and no more lie among the 
 pots, winged, maimed and plucked, doing 
 nothing but chirp like a chicken in the coop 
 for the livelong day. " Jook and let the 
 jaw gae by," 1 my pretty Sir: when this soli- 
 tude becomes intolerable to you, it will be 
 time enough to quit it for the dreary blank 
 which society and the bitterest activity have 
 hitherto afforded you. You deserve consid- 
 erable pity Mr. C. j and likewise considerable 
 contempt. Heaven be your comforter my 
 worthy Sir, you are in a promising condition 
 at this present; sinking to the bottom, yet 
 laid down to sleep ; Destruction brandishing 
 his sword above you, and you quietly desir- 
 ing him to take your life but spare your rest ! 
 Gott hilf Ihnen / — Now for Tieck and his 
 Runenberg : but first one whiff of generous 
 narcotic ! How gladly " we love to wander 
 on the plain with the summit in our eye ! " 
 
 l " Duck, and let the wave go by." 
 66 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Ach Du meine Einzige, die Du mich liebst 
 und Dich an mir anschmiegst, warum bin Ich 
 Dir wie ein gebrochenes Rohr ! — Sollst Du 
 niemals glucklich werden ! Wo bist Du heute 
 Nacht? Mogen Friede und Liebe und 
 Hoffnung deine Gefahrten seyn ! Leb' wohl ! 1 
 
 3d December Comley Bank. Married! 
 1826. Married! — Aber still da- 
 
 von! 2 — and of a thousand 
 other things. I am for business. 3 
 
 Read Sir T. Browne's Religio Medici and 
 Urne Burial lately ; his Vulgar Errors I had 
 already seen at Kew. The Urne Burial I 
 think (with little C. Lamb) the best; tho' 
 much of it is little edifying at this time of 
 day, or perhaps rather to this sort of reader. 
 Disquisitions on all imaginable modes of 
 sepulture; of mummies, bones, cremation, 
 inhumation, &c, &c, not without here and 
 there a straggling tone of pathetic feeling, or 
 a gleam of philosophic thought. But the 
 conclusion of the Essay is absolutely beauti- 
 ful. A still, elegiac mood ; so soft, so deep, 
 
 1 "Ah, mine only one, thou that lovest me and clingest 
 to me, why am I but as a broken reed for thee. Art 
 thou never to be happy ! Where art thou to-night ? 
 May Peace and Love and Hope be with thee ! Farewell ! ' ' 
 
 2 " But of that no words." 
 
 3 Carlyle's marriage had taken place on October 17 ; 
 and he and his wife were established at Comley Bank, a 
 house in the northwestern suburbs of Edinburgh, where 
 they lived till they went to Craigenputtock, in 1828. 
 
 67 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 so solemn and tender, like the song of some 
 departed Saint flitting faint under the ever- 
 lasting canopy of Night ! An echo of deep- 
 est meaning from "the great and famous 
 nations of the Dead." Browne must have 
 been a good man. What was his history ? 
 What the real form of his character? for as 
 yet I see him only thro' a glass darkly. " Abiit 
 ad p lures, he hath gone to the greater num- 
 ber." Life of him by Dr. Johnson. Qiialis? 
 
 Two infants reasoning in the womb about 
 the nature of this life might be no " unhand- 
 some " type of two men reasoning here about 
 the life that is to come. 1 
 
 Lux Jovi, tenebrae Oreo, 2 one stroke up, 
 the other stroke down. 
 
 These bones have slept quietly " beneath 
 the drums and trampling of three conquests." 3 
 
 The Quincunx I like worst : full of learn- 
 ing, but of a kind little to my taste, tho' I 
 blame not the taste of it in him. The last 
 chapter is better than all the rest. " The 
 hunters are up in Persia " 4 has been quoted 
 
 1 "A dialogue between two infants in the womb con- 
 cerning the state of this world, might handsomely illus- 
 trate our ignorance of the next." Urn Burial, ch. 4. 
 
 2 " Light unto Pluto is darkness unto Jupiter." Gar- 
 den of Cyrus, or the Quincuncial Lozenge, ch. 4. " Lux 
 Oreo, tenebrae Jovi ; tenebrae Oreo, lux Jovi." Hippo- 
 crates de Dieta ; S. Hevelii Selenographia. These refer- 
 ences are from Wilkin's note on the passage in his edi- 
 tion of Browne's Works, iii. 436. 3 Urn Burial, ch. 5. 
 
 4 " To keep our eyes open longer were but to act our 
 
 68 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 already in some Magazine. Browne stands 
 midway between a poet and an orator. 
 
 His Religio Medici is most readable of any, 
 and indeed contains many true and praise- 
 worthy things; only he gives himself fax too 
 good and orthodox a character, thereby leav- 
 ing us no refuge but to envy him in despair 
 of doing so likewise ; or, what will be a more 
 common resource, to disbelieve in and reject 
 him as a moral dandy. 
 
 I should like to know more of him ; but I 
 ought to understand his time better also. 
 What are we to make of this old English Lit- 
 erature ? Touches of true beauty are thickly 
 scattered over these works; great learning, 
 solidity of thought ; but much, much that now 
 cannot avail any longer. Certainly the spirit 
 of that age was far better than that of ours ; 
 is the form of our literature an improvement 
 intrinsically, or only a form better adapted to 
 our actual condition? I often think, the 
 latter. Difficulty of speaking on these points 
 without affectation. We know not what to 
 think, and would gladly think something 
 very striking and pretty. 
 
 Sir W. Raleigh's Advice to his Son; worldly- 
 wise, solid, sharp, farseen — The motto : " No- 
 thing like getting on / " — Of Burleigh's Ad- 
 vice the motto is the same ; the execution, if 
 
 Antipodes. The huntsmen are up in America, and they 
 are already past their first sleep in Persia." Garden of 
 Cyrus, ad fin. 
 
 69 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 I rightly remember, is in a gentler and more 
 loving spirit. Walsingham's Manual^ I did 
 not read. These men of Elizabeth's are like 
 so many Romans or Greeks. Were we to 
 seek for the Caesars, the Ciceros, the Pericles', 
 Alcibiades' &c. of England, we should find 
 them nowhere if not in that era. Wherefore 
 are these things hid ? Or worse than hid, 
 presented in false tinsel colours, originating 
 in affected ignorance and producing affected 
 ignorance ? Would I knew rightly about it, 
 and could present it rightly to others ! For 
 hear alas ! this mournful truth, nor hear it with 
 a frown : 2 There, in that old age, lies the o?ily 
 true poetical literature of England. The poets 
 of the last age took to pedagogy (see Pope 
 and his School) and shrewd men they were; 
 those of the present age to ground and lofty 
 tumbling, and it will really do your heart 
 good to see how they vault ! 
 
 1 A book attributed to Elizabeth's crafty and unscru- 
 pulous minister, Sir Francis Walsingham, entitled Ar- 
 cana Aulica or Walsingham's Manual of Prudential 
 Maxims. It was not published till long after Walsing- 
 ham's death. 
 
 2 Dr. Johnson's impromptu while Miss Reynolds was 
 pouring tea : 
 
 " Yet hear, alas ! this mournful truth, 
 Nor hear it with a frown, 
 Thou can' st not make the tea so fast 
 As I can gulp it down." 
 Hawkins' Life of Johnson (1787), p. 345, and Dr. Birk- 
 beck Hill's Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), ii. 315. 
 
 70 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 It is a damnable heresy in criticism to 
 maintain either expressly or implicately that 
 the ultimate object of Poetry is sensation. 1 
 That of Cookery is such, but not that of Poetry. 
 
 Sir W. Scott is the great Restaurateur of 
 Europe: he might have been numbered 
 among their Conscript Fathers ; he has chosen 
 the worser part, and is only a huge Publicanus. 
 What is his novel, any of them ? A bout of 
 champagne, claret, port or even ale drinking. 
 Are we wiser, better, holier, stronger ? No : 
 we have been — amused. O Sir Walter, thou 
 knowest too well, that Virtus laudatur et alget. 2 
 
 Byron, good, generous, hapless Byron! 
 And yet when he died he was only a Kraft- 
 mann, Power-man as the Germans call them. 
 Had he lived he would have been a Poet. 3 
 
 I have read Shaftesbury's Characteristics 
 (same date), but found it wofully difficult to 
 keep my attention fixed on him. He is not 
 at all a man according to my heart ; yet I 
 would not deny him the credit of being a 
 
 1" Sensation, even of the finest and most rapturous 
 sort, is not the end but the means." " State of German 
 Literature" (1827), Essays, i. 47, where the true nature 
 of Poetry is discussed. 
 
 2 " For Virtue is but drily prais'd and starves." Dry- 
 den, Translation of Juvenal's Satires, i. 113. 
 
 3 " With longer life all things were to have been hoped 
 for from Byron." " State of German Literature," Essays, 
 
 i- 59- 
 
 7i 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 man, that is a person conscious of himself 
 and his actions, fixed and determined on all 
 sides, not walking in darkness as others lead 
 him, but in light as he leads himself. He is a 
 Ciceronian sceptic, a philosopher of the eclec- 
 tic school ; the child of Culture not of Nature; 
 except to the men of his own age, therefore, 
 or to the historian of them, he has little to say. 
 Scarce a thought of his dwells with me, I am 
 sorry to say ; for which tho' I and my circum- 
 stances are partly, we are not wholly to blame. 
 " Pinch " for strait ; " anything worth " ; 
 " for good and all " &c. &c. — 
 
 What shall I say of Herder's Ideen zur 
 Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit? 1 
 An extraordinary Book, yet one which by no 
 means wholly pleaseth me. If Herder were 
 not known as a devout man and clerk, his 
 book would be reckoned atheistical. Every- 
 thing is the effect of circumstances and or- 
 ganisation : Er war was er seyn konnte / 2 
 The breath of life is but a higher intensa- 
 tion of Light and Electricity ! This is surely 
 very dubious, to say no worse of it. Theo- 
 ries of this and kindred sorts deform his 
 whole work here and there. — Immortality not 
 shewn us, but left us to be hoped for, and be- 
 lieved by Faith. Yet this world, as he thinks, 
 
 1 " Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind." 
 
 2 " He was what it was possible for him to be." 
 
 72 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 sufficiently explainable without reference to 
 another : Humanitat the great object of Na- 
 ture in all her arrangements of society; from 
 the Troglodytes to the wits of Paris and 
 Weimar. How true is this ? At least this 
 ought to be our object. On the whole Herder 
 shews much of it himself. If any thing he 
 has a leaning to the East. But indeed he 
 loves all men and all things: his very de- 
 scriptions of animals and inanimate agencies 
 are animated, cordial, affectionate; much more 
 so those of men in their varied Thun und 
 Treiben^ tho' perhaps the former are not less 
 poetical. 
 
 Strange ideas about the Bible and Reli- 
 gion; passing strange we think them for a 
 clergyman. Must see more of Herder : he is a 
 new species in some degree ; a sort of Browne 
 redivivus? — O Athens, modern Athens ! An- 
 drew Thomson versus J. Gottfried Herder; 
 the "Apocryphal Controversy" versus the 
 Philosophy of Man ! Certainly we are the 
 most intellectual people in nature at pre- 
 sent. — 
 
 Tieck's Genoveva is a poetical play. 
 Golo, 2 I think, is best. Grimoald even has 
 some touch of beauty. Genoveva second best. 
 Martel one of the worst; and all the Saracens. 
 
 1 " Doing and dealing." 
 
 2 Golo, Grimoald, and the rest are characters in the play. 
 
 73 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Plan of it imitated from Gb'tz von Berlichin- 
 gen ? Too much beautiful description of na- 
 ture. Fine scene with the witch in Strasburg. 
 Benno's death, &c, &c. 
 
 Good Marchen, Melusine, in his own style 
 follows. — Tieck is next to Goethe — now that 
 Richter is gone. 
 
 Hans Sachs is a curious fellow; both in 
 age and character; full of humour, reading, 
 honesty, good nature ; of the quickest obser- 
 vation, three hundred years old, and — a 
 shoemaker, what a strange medley may we 
 not expect ! i Is his way of treating Heaven, 
 Christus, &c. like that of our old Mysteries ? 
 See the Tailor with the flag; St. Peter and the 
 Landsknechts, &c. — Story of the water-doctor 
 which I have heard applied to Habbie Bell of, 
 Shortrig/ 2 In like manner the Monk and 
 Miller's wife: so stories travel. — The Nar- 
 renschneiden I think the best of his pieces : 
 the Holen-Krapferi* is curious but more local in 
 its interest. — What of these poetical Zunfts?^ 
 Where are they to be learned of? 
 
 S. Ranisch life of Hans Sachs (Altenb. 
 1765); Reformationsalmanach, 1821, by Chr. 
 Niemeyer. Busching has edited Sachs. — 
 
 1 See Carlyle's essay on the " State of German Litera- 
 ture" (1827), Essays, Vol. i. 
 
 2 Shortrig is the name of a farm in Dumfriesshire ; 
 Habbie Bell most likely the tenant of it. A. C. 
 
 3 Das Krappfen-holn. 4 " Guilds." 
 
 74 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Books recommended in Herder. 
 
 Beausobre, Mosheim, Brucker, W.alch, Jab- 
 lonski, Semler (writers on the Church opin- 
 ions ; the three last unknown to me). 
 
 Caylus, St. Palaye — their writings col- 
 lected from the Acad, des Inscriptions. 
 
 Pfeiffer (on Church matters). 
 
 Koch's Table des revolutions (trivial ?) 
 
 Fischer, Sibirische Geschichte 
 
 Whiston (What are his hist. & theological 
 works?) 
 
 Rosler's Bibl. der Kirchenvater. 
 
 Praise of Gibbon, p. 340 note. 
 
 Gatterer's Abriss der Universalgeschichte 
 (Gottingen 1773). 
 
 Mascou's Geschichte der Deutschen (Leipz. 
 1727). 
 
 Lucan, Mela, Columella, two Senecas, 
 Quintilian, Martial, Florus, Columella — 
 Spaniards. 
 
 Velasquez, History of Spanish poetry — in 
 German also (Gottingen 1769). ■ 
 
 Ferrara's Hist, of Spain. 
 
 Mannert's Geographie der Griechen und 
 Romer (much praised). 
 
 F. C. J. Fischer, Sitten und Gebrauche der 
 Europaer im 5 und 6 Jahrhundert (1784). 
 
 Fischer's Geschichte des deutschen Han- 
 dels (The same Fischer ?) 
 
 Le Bret's History of Venice. 
 
 75 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Moser's Osnabriickische Geschichte. 
 
 Curne de Ste. Palaye, Chivalry of the Mid- 
 dle Ages (in various treatises). 
 
 ( Reiske (orientalist), zum Thograi. 
 ( Cardonne (do) 
 
 Poiret, Arnold (writers on Mystik). 
 
 Fiissli, Geschichte (Ketzer- und Kirchen-) 
 of the middle age. 
 
 Middleton's Life of Cicero praised p. 203. 
 
 Grellmann, Historisch Versuch iiber die 
 Zigeuner. 
 
 Historical materials for the Slavonians, p. 
 290. Miiller, Sulzer only known to me. 
 
 Meierotto iiber die Sitten und Lebensart 
 der Romer. Berlin, 1776. 
 
 Paruta (who was he ? Wrote on the Ro- 
 mans like Machiavel). 
 
 Winckelmann, Geschichte der Kunst. 
 (Must see that work). 
 
 Heyne, Demster, Buonarroti on the Etrus- 
 cans — also Paralipom. Passerii (!) Florence 
 1723-67. 
 
 Spon, Stuart, Chandler, Riedesel's Travels 
 in Greece. 
 
 Heyne, Opuscula Academ. 
 
 Meiners, Geschichte der Wissenschaften in 
 Griechenland und Rom. 
 
 Gillies has translated Lysias and Isocrates. 
 
 Parrhasius painted the Demon Athenien- 
 sium (strange mixture), Pliny. 
 
 The Chest of Cypselus (Heyne's Essay on) 
 76 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 — his mother hid him in a xu^s'Xrj (chest) & 
 saved him from the Bacchiadae. 
 
 Eichhorn, Ges. des Ostindischen Handels. 
 
 Anquetil du Perron (orientalist). 
 
 Pallas, Nordische Beitrage. 
 
 Maillac, Hist, generate de la Chine. 
 
 Camper, Dutch comparative anatomist — 
 facial angle. 
 
 Forster, Zimmermann, Geographers. 
 
 Chardin, Voyages en Perse. 
 
 Reimarus (a naturalist. Triebe der Thiere 
 (are there two R's ?) 
 
 Blumenbach de varietate gen. hum. 
 
 Linnaei Amoenitates Academ. 
 
 5th Dp r To-morrow I write out a Pros- 
 pectus for a " Literary Annual 
 Register." Not at all likely that the Biblio- 
 polists will undertake such a thing at pres- 
 ent; however we will try. 
 
 To-day I have done, thought, said or seen 
 
 — nothing. Sofliehen meine Tage/ 1 Why 
 are the homines domes so happy ? Or is their 
 happiness rather cause than effect? Willie 
 Bell of Newfield 2 is not happy ; yet he is Mm- 
 ited enough. 
 
 Few men have the secret of being at once 
 determinate (besHtnmt) and open ; of know- 
 
 1 " Thus my days fly." 
 
 2 Newfield, a farm near Ecclefechan and Hoddam Hill. 
 
 A. C. 
 
 77 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 ing what they do know, and yet lying ready 
 for farther knowledge. 
 
 Coleridge says, " Many men live all their 
 days without ever having an idea; and some 
 of them with thousands of things they call 
 ideas; but an Idea is not a Perception or 
 Image, it cannot be painted, it is infinite." 
 Such was his meaning (not his words) : I 
 half or three-fourths seem to understand him. 
 
 Literary Annual Register might be the title 
 of a work performing, for the intelligent part 
 of the reading world, some such service as 
 our many Forget-me-nots, Souvenirs &c seem 
 to perform for the idle part of it. A work 
 which should exhibit by such means as the 
 Author found most attainable a compressed 
 view of the actual progress of Mind in its 
 various manifestations during the bygone 
 year. It might consist : 
 
 i. Of Biographical portraits of distinguished 
 persons lately deceased; the year 1827 might 
 contain Byron, Parr, Jean Paul, Talma &c. ; 
 delineated with some degree of care and mi- 
 nuteness, in the style of the German Romance 
 (ein sehr unbekanntes Werk *) only at greater 
 length, and with a more flowing, popular and 
 anecdotic aspect. Not a dead detail of this 
 or that man's actions and writings chrono- 
 logically arranged, and backed with pieces 
 
 1 " A very obscure work." 
 78 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 justificatives ; but an attempt, at least, to 
 bring a likeness of him before the reader ; for 
 which purpose it would naturally be neces- 
 sary first to have a likeness of him before 
 oneself. 
 
 2. Of Essays, Sketches, Miscellanies, of 
 various sorts, but all tending to exhibit the 
 distinctive phases of our existing style of Lit- 
 erature, Morals and Manners, to point out its 
 merits, and not hide its short-comings and 
 perversions ; on which points several things 
 might be adduced not a little surprising and 
 perhaps unpalatable to the optimists and mob 
 of gentlemen, that write with ease. Mechanics' 
 Institutes], Doctrine of Utility &c. &c. 
 
 3. Of Critiques, accompanied with consid- 
 erable extracts, of the few really good books 
 (or rather of the most considerable books) 
 produced lately in England, Germany, France, 
 Italy. This might be an interesting but ought 
 not to become too extensive a department of 
 the work. By right it should be an " Es- 
 sence of Reviewing," a spirit of the literary 
 produce of the year. 
 
 4. If there was any one (such might per- 
 haps be found) to give a similar account of 
 the works of Art for the year; the chief stat- 
 ues, pictures, engravings, a sheet or two might 
 very profitably be allotted to that purpose. 
 
 5. In case no better might be, I myself 
 would undertake to say something about 
 
 79 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Science ; to gather from Journals foreign and 
 domestic, something like a view of its actual 
 condition and progress within the year. On 
 this point to obtain help were no difficult 
 matter. 
 
 6. Tho' we propose to waive the consider- 
 ation of political and civil history, restricting 
 ourselves purely to what is intellectual & 
 moral; yet any such incidents, misfortunes, 
 delusions, crimes, heroic actions as seemed 
 strongly to illustrate the spiritual condition 
 of man in our time, it would be well to col- 
 lect, to sift, and preserve with as much accu- 
 racy as might be. The Prince Hohenlohe, 
 the Genevese Persecution ,the CommercialJoint 
 Stock Mania, the Catholic Association &c. (pro- 
 vided correct information could be obtained 
 regarding them) were well worth a few words. 
 
 Such are the leading elements of which this 
 work might consist. These ought not to be 
 arranged in distinct sections (at least not all 
 of them), so much depends upon the particu- 
 lar details of each individual year ; but min- 
 gled together in such manner as the Author 
 might judge most artist-like, and best calcu- 
 lated to fulfil his object, that of conveying to 
 the reader the truest impression he can give 
 him of the general progress of intellect during 
 the past year. 
 
 Poetry would not be excluded here and 
 there could such be come at; but from all 
 
 80 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 " Odes written at — " " Lines to — " " Verses 
 on — " &c. &c. and the whole genus of" Songs 
 by a Person of Quality," good Lord deliver 
 hooz / * 
 
 If the Bookseller liked he might add a 
 register of Patents &c. &c. and so recom- 
 mend his work to " practical men." (N. B. 
 Not do. Essayons /) 2 
 
 7th December. " My whole life has been a 
 continued night-mare; and 
 my awakening will be in Hell." — Tieck. 
 
 " There is just one man unhappy; he who 
 is possessed by some idea which he cannot 
 convert into an action, or still more which 
 restrains and withdraws him from action." 
 — Goethe. Wie wahr / 3 
 
 "The end of man is an Action not a 
 Thoughts — Aristotle. 4 
 
 How many eulogies of Activity, and No- 
 thing acted ! 
 
 Adam is fabled by the Talmudists to have 
 
 1 Vulgar Scotch pronunciation of "us." A. C. 
 
 2 The project of this Annual Register came to nothing. 
 3" How true ! " 
 
 4 " Hadst thou not Greek enough to understand thus 
 much : The end of Man is an Action, and not a Thought, 
 though it were the noblest?" Sartor Resartus, Book 
 ii. ch. vi. In his " Wotton Reinfred," — his unfinished 
 story, written in 1827, — Carlyle again cites this saying, 
 calling it "the wisest thing he [Aristotle] ever said." 
 The doctrine was one of the permanent articles of Car- 
 lyle's creed. The original is in the Ethics, x. 9. 1. 
 
 6 81 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 had a wife before Eve : she was called Lilis 
 (see Faust — Goldne Hochzeit); and their 
 progeny was all manner of terrestrial, aquatic 
 and aerial — Devils ! — Burton. 1 
 
 Read Zacharias Werner's Life by Hitzig, 2 
 and his Mutter der Makkabaer, a Judaico- 
 Christian Tragedy, attempting very unsuc- 
 cessfully to represent the spirit of religious 
 martyrdom. The play is surely bad in most 
 respects. No character exhibited in the slight- 
 est degree probable; no incident grounded 
 on reality, no interest grounded on anything. 
 Some half score of ghosts figure in the piece : 
 Salome and her seven sons have no more life 
 than the wooden characters in the well-known 
 popular drama of Punch, Jason the renegate 
 Highpriest, Antiochus, Nicanor (in a less de- 
 gree) &c. &c. could have been tolerated by 
 no true Artist. This is the only work of 
 Werner's known to me ; and surely it has not 
 increased my desire of becoming farther ac- 
 quainted with him. I doubt much if he was 
 a Poet. 
 
 But what of his history ? A cloudy, vague, 
 mystic existence it was; the true secret of 
 which I am not sure that I can unravel. To 
 
 1 Cited in Sartor Resartus, Book i., ch. v. 
 
 2 In 1827 Carlyle published a long article on Werner. 
 See Essays, Vol. i. He expresses in it a similar opinion 
 on the Mutter der Makkabaer to that which he formed on 
 first reading it. 
 
 82 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 say that he was mad is saying little : the 
 way in which fools unravel difficulties of that 
 sort. His mother was mad ; for she believed 
 herself to be the Virgin Mary, and that her 
 son was the Shiloh promised to the Gentiles : 
 but there is no such fatuity recorded of her 
 son. He had been extremely dissolute, it 
 would appear, in early life ; so much so that 
 his character was utterly broken, and his sen- 
 tient principles (strong at first) had got com- 
 plete mastery over his intellectual. There is 
 no knowing, in this case, what we may be 
 brought to believe. On the whole he was no 
 good man, this Werner: a sensualist, vain, 
 truckling, greedy, bent from first to last not 
 on being wise and good but on being gratified 
 and what he called happy. Chateaubriand, 
 Schlegel (Friedrich), Werner and that class 
 of men among ourselves, are one of the dis- 
 tinctive features of this time, when Babylon 
 the Great is about to be destroyed (her doom 
 is inevitably appointed) by Infidelity; and 
 Religion (too much interwoven with that 
 same Babylon) has not yet risen on her ruins, 
 but seems rather (only seems) as if about to 
 perish with her. — A curious Essay might be 
 written on the customary " Grounds of hu- 
 man Belief." — Yes, it is true! the decisions 
 of Reason ( Vernunft) are superior to those of 
 Understanding ( Verstand) : the latter vary in 
 every age (by what laws?), while the former 
 
 83 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 last forever, and are the same in all forms 
 of manhood. — 
 
 O Parson Alison, what an Essay on Taste 
 is that of thine! 1 O most intellectual 
 Athenians, what accounts are those you 
 give us of Morality and Faith, and all that 
 really makes a man a man! Can you be- 
 lieve that the Beautiful and Good have no 
 deeper root in us than "Association," " Sym- 
 pathy," " Calculation ? " Then if so, whence 
 in Heaven's name, comes this sympathy, the 
 pleasure of this Association, the obbligante 
 of this Utility ? You strive, like the witch 
 of the Seethor (in Hoffmann) " to work from 
 the outside inward," and two inches below 
 the surface you will never get. 
 
 Sir William Temple's works, I read several 
 weeks ago; but for facts or opinions I 
 scarcely find that I have drawn any from 
 him, or indeed aught at all but the elevated, 
 calm, accomplished, mildly sceptical, yet on 
 the whole wise and benignant figure of the 
 man himself. Indeed he was no Artist or 
 speculative Philosopher, but a man of action ; 
 almost the beau ideal of an English gentle- 
 
 1 Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste, by the 
 Rev. Archibald Alison, Edinburgh, 1790. A second 
 edition in 1811 was reviewed with high praise by Jeffrey 
 in the "Edinburgh Review." Alison's Theory of Taste 
 was based on the principle of " association." Dust lies 
 heavy on the book now. 
 
 84 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 man in the era of Queen Anne. He is not 
 the best of conceivable characters, but I 
 doubt greatly if we have improved. 
 
 Apud se, " his own man." Burton (strange 
 book that of his, yet full of amusement). 1 
 
 " Conclusum est contra Manichaeos," 2 cried 
 Thomas Aquinas smiting the table with his 
 fist, and forgetful that he was at supper with 
 — King Louis. 
 
 "Ad haras aptius quam ad aras." 3 — 
 "Mould-warps." " A gripe." " Pullus Jovis 
 et gallinae filius albae." 4 "To overshoot 
 himself" — go beyond his means. 
 
 " Crambem bis coctam reponere," set out 
 cabbage twice boiled — a nasty enough dish. 
 
 The philosophy of Voltaire and his tribe 
 exhilarates and fills us with glorying for a 
 season; the comfort of the Indian who 
 warmed himself at the flames of his — bed. 
 
 1 This and the next entries are derived from The Anat- 
 omy of Melancholy. 
 
 2 " It is settled against the Manichaeans." 
 
 3 " Fitter for styes than for altars." 
 
 4 "Jove's chick, and the son of a white hen." Festus, 
 in his de Significatione Verborum, says, "The ancients 
 were wont to call the boy whom anyone loved his chick 
 (pullum)," and gives a curious instance of one Q. Fabius, 
 nicknamed ' ' Ivory ' ' because of the whiteness of his skin, 
 who was called pullus Jovis, because scarred on the rump 
 and not otherwise hurt by a thunderbolt. It appears 
 from Juvenal, Satire xiii. 141, that the phrase gallinae filius 
 albae was used proverbially for a favorite of fortune. 
 
 85 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 " Deliquium." " Eating his own heart," 
 Homer of Bellerophon. II. 3. (6 ?) 
 
 A clown that killed his ass for drinking up 
 the moon, ut Lunam mundo redderet 1 — In 
 Ludfovicus] Vives. True of many critics of 
 sceptics: the latter have not drunk up the 
 moon but the reflexion of it in their own dirty 
 puddle; therefore need not be slain. 2 — 
 (Who was Lud. Viv. ? Should have a mod- 
 ern Biographical Dictionary.) 
 
 " Inter pontem et fontem, inter gladium et 
 jugulum," 3 mercy may come to suicides. 
 
 An asse and a mule went laden over a brook 
 
 — the former with wool, the latter with salt; 
 which being wetted was much lightened. 
 u He told the Asse, who thinking to speed as 
 well wet his packe likewise at the next water, 
 but it was much the heavier, hee quite tired " 
 
 — (Camerarius Emb.) Burton. 230 — 
 
 A fool or a physician at forty ? Tiberius 
 thought at thirty. Tacit. Annal. 6. 4 
 
 1 " That he might restore the Moon to the world." 
 2 Carlyle repeated this story at the end of his essay on 
 Voltaire (1829). Essays, Vol. ii. 
 
 3 "Between the bridge and the stream, 
 Between the sword and the throat, — " 
 with which compare the distich 
 
 ' ' Between the saddle and the ground, 
 He mercy sought and mercy found." 
 4 " He was accustomed to scoff at the arts of physi- 
 cians, and at those who after they were thirty years old 
 required advice as to what was serviceable or hurtful to 
 their health." Annals, vi., 46. 
 
 86 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 " Mosses " (for bogs) "and Marishes." 
 
 " Nequaquam nos homines sumus, sed par- 
 tes hominis; ex omnibus aliquid fieri potest, 
 idque non magnum, ex singulis fere nihil." * 
 (Scaliger.) Not men but man. 
 
 " Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire (where 
 I was once a grammar Scholar) " — Burton. 
 
 " Oldbury in the confines of Warwickshire, 
 where I have looked about me with great 
 delight, at the foot of which hill I was born." 
 — And in a note — " At Lindley in Leices- 
 tershire the possession and dwelling-house 
 of Ralfe Burton Esquire my late deceased 
 Father." 
 
 " Aganella a faire maid of Corcyra " held 
 by some to be the inventor of Tennis; 
 "for shee presented the first ball that ever 
 was made to Nausicaa the daughter of 
 King Alcinous, and taught her how to 
 use it." 
 
 " Carew's Survey of Cornwall," sometimes 
 quoted by Johnson. — Ascham. — 
 
 Domitian delighted to catch flies; Augustus 
 to play with nuts amongst children; Alex- 
 ander Severus was often pleased to play with 
 whelps and young pigs. 
 
 Glucupicron. Nocumentum Documentum. 
 
 1 " In no wise are we men, but parts of man ; out of 
 all something, at best no great thing, may be made ; out 
 of individuals, scarce anything." 
 
 87 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Julius Caesar Scaliger was born at Ripa 
 near Verona in 1484. His parentage was 
 much contested in his lifetime: he himself 
 (and his son) pretended a descent from the 
 Princes of Verona ; but on this matter their 
 assertions were " strongly doubted." Julius 
 led a wandering life; first a page at some 
 Court or other ; more than once in the army, 
 then as physician at Agen in France and 
 Paris where he died. He began to study in 
 his 30 th year : his first publication was in [his] 
 47* A man of vehement parts and temper; 
 malleus scienliae, who amassed knowledge (of 
 the kind then to be had) without stint; but 
 seems to have been in regard to wisdom very 
 scantily endowed even to the last. There is no 
 life of him that I know except some details 
 by his son Joseph Justus Scaliger, a man 
 also of huge erudition, who removed from 
 Paris to a Professorship at Leyden (with, ac- 
 cording to Menage, a most contemptuous 
 conge from Henry IV.) where he wrote An- 
 notations, (Equations of the Calendar ?) and 
 Letters concerning the Antiquity and Splen- 
 dour of the Scaliger family ; and after a fair 
 space "deed and did nocht ava\" * Has 
 Bayle any Life of him or his father ? 
 
 Roger Ascham's Life has been written by 
 
 1 " Sandy Blackadder, factor at Hoddam (long ago), 
 a heavy, baggy, big, long-winded man, was overheard 
 
 88 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Dr. Johnson; Edward Grant, the tutor of his 
 son Giles, has likewise printed an Oratio de 
 Vita et Obitu Rogeri Aschami. Chief work is 
 his Schoolmaster (which I must see); his 
 loxophilus ; Letters ; Letter on the State of 
 Germany. Born 15 15 (at Kirby Wiske near 
 Northallerton): died 1568. Was Queen 
 Elizabeth's Tutor ; a Protestant, yet tolerated 
 even favoured by Queen Mary. He seems 
 to have liked good living; and is reported to 
 have been very fond of " dice and cockfight- 
 ing " ! Yet undoubtedly a good sort of man, 
 and one well worth my study, which accord- 
 ingly by Heaven's grace he shall not fail to 
 have. (18 th December.) 
 
 Accipite cives veneti quod est optimum in 
 rebus humanis : res humanas contemnere. 1 — 
 Sebastian Foscarini, Doge of Venice, made 
 this be engraved on his tomb. 2 
 
 one day, in a funeral company which had not yet risen, 
 discoursing largely in monotonous undertones to some 
 neighbors about the doings, intentions, and manifold in- 
 significant proceedings of some anonymous fellow-man ; 
 but at length wound up with ' and then he deed and did 
 nought ava.' " Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh 
 Carlyle, i. 315, note. 
 
 1 " Hear, citizens of Venice, what is best in human af- 
 fairs : to hold them in low esteem." 
 
 2 This inscription may have been engraved on the 
 tomb of a Doge, but no Sebastian Foscarini was ever 
 Doge of Venice. Marco Foscarini was Doge in 1762, 
 but the words cited seem of earlier date. 
 
 89 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Ludovicus Vives was a Spaniard, at one 
 time Tutor to Queen Mary, but obliged to 
 leave England on occasion of Queen Cather- 
 ine his patroness' divorce, which he disap- 
 proved. He is buried at Bruges. His works 
 are in two folios (it seems), analogous to 
 those of les Daciers, les Saumaises. 1 
 
 Sir T. Browne was born in 1605 at London ; 
 father a merchant : he died on his birthday 
 1682 at Norwich. Knighted by Charles II. 
 The Religio Medici made a mighty noise at 
 its first appearance, over all Europe. Alex- 
 ander Ross opposed Browne on this as on 
 all occasions. Whitefoot, a contemporary, 
 has written a life of Browne (prefixed I 
 suppose to some edition of his works): so 
 also has Dr. Johnson (do.). Browne had 
 travelled over Europe; been at Padua uni- 
 versity &c. 
 
 Of Burton the Anatomiser of Melancholy 
 little is to be learned. Materials for a life 
 of him were collected by Peck. (Who were 
 these Pecks, Birches, &c. ?) He was a 
 younger brother; was born 1576; obtained 
 some little ecclesiastical preferment at Oxford 
 and in the neighborhood ; was a melancholic 
 man himself; the saddest in his dark fits and 
 one of the gayest and brightest in his lucid 
 intervals. A firm believer in astrology ; and 
 1 See ante, p. 4. 
 90 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 dying at the very time his horoscope calcu- 
 lated by himself, some people suspected he 
 " had assisted Nature." His book under- 
 taken for his own cure did not cure him : in 
 his black mood he used to go down to the 
 river side (at Oxford?) and listen to the 
 ribaldry of the boatmen, which made him 
 laugh till his sides ached again. Credat 
 Apella / If the man had been rightly melan- 
 choly, all the ribaldry in nature would have 
 failed to win a smile from him. His Brother 
 (elder) wrote a history of Leicestershire (their 
 native county) for which he is thought worthy 
 of the main article in the Biog. Britan. 
 
 FABLE.* 
 
 Once upon a time a man, somewhat in 
 drink belike, raised a dreadful outcry at the 
 corner of the market place, " that the world 
 was all turned topsy-turvy, that the men and 
 cattle were all walking with their feet upper- 
 most, that the houses and earth in general 
 (if they did not mind it) would fall into the 
 sky; in short that unless the most prompt 
 means were taken, things in general were on 
 the high road to the Devil." As the people 
 only laughed at him, he cried the more vehe- 
 mently, nay at last began to objure to foam 
 and imprecate, when a goodnatured auditor 
 
 1 " This and the following fables are reprinted, slightly 
 altered, in Carlyle's Essays," Vol. i, Appendix. 
 
 91 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 going up took the Orator by the haunches, 
 
 and softly inverting his position, set him down 
 
 — on his feet. The which upon perceiving 
 
 his mind was staggered not a little. " Ha ? 
 
 Deuce take it ! " said he, rubbing his eyes : " so 
 
 it was not the world that was hanging by its 
 
 feet, but I that was standing on my head ! " 
 
 Public Censor, Castigator Morum, Radical 
 
 Reformer, by whatever name thou art called ! 
 
 Have a care ! Especially if thou art getting 
 
 loud, look to it ! _,.. T . 
 
 Pilpay Junior. 
 
 The instruction communicated by Fable is 
 in its nature chiefly prohibitive ; therefore 
 not the highest species, which latter belongs 
 to the Province of Poetry. (?) 
 
 Nothing harder than to form a true judge- 
 ment of foreign minds and forms of charac- 
 ter, especially if they are separated from us 
 by diversity of language, institution, date and 
 place. A Bond-street Tailor can pronounce 
 with extreme readiness and certainty about 
 the beauty or deformity of foreign costumes, 
 and his judgement will be satisfactory to 
 other Bond-street Tailors; a Winckelmann 
 with far less readiness and certainty, and 
 other Artists and Critics may dispute or 
 deny his decision after all. For the one only 
 asks himself: Does this differ from the fash- 
 ion of Lord Petersham ? but the other : Does 
 
 92 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 this differ from the fashion of God Almighty ? 
 — You Travellers, Moores, Clarkes, Russels, 
 Morgans ! Ye should think of this. 
 
 What a fine thing a Life of Cromwell, like 
 the Vie de Charles XII would be ! The wily 
 fanatic himself, in his own most singular fea- 
 tures, at once a hero and a blackguard petti- 
 fogging scrub; and the wild image of his 
 Times reflected from his accompaniment ! I 
 would travel ten miles on foot to see his soul 
 represented as I once saw his body in the 
 Castle of Warwick. — 
 
 " Nave ferar magna an parva, ferar unus et 
 idem." 1 
 " Durum et durum non faciunt murum." 2 
 Two railers elicit no truth? — "Self-do, self- 
 have." ("His ain wand '11 whip him."). — 
 Helena's Nepenthe? supposed by some to be 
 Borage, by others to be Opium, by others 
 (me among them) to be — nothing. 
 
 FABLE II. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said a Conjuror, one fine 
 starry evening, "these Heavens are a deceptio 
 
 1 " Whether borne on a great ship or a small, let me be 
 borne one and the same man." — Horace, Epist. II. ii. 200. 
 
 2 " Hard and hard make not a wall." 
 
 3 A drug "which lulls sorrow and strife, and brings 
 forgetfulness of every ill." Odyssey, iv. 221. 
 
 93 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 visus, what you call stars are nothing but 
 fiery motes in the air: wait a little I will 
 clear them off, and shew you how the matter 
 really is." Whereupon the Artist produced a 
 long syringe of great force; and stooping 
 over the neighbouring puddle rilled it with 
 dirty water, which he then squirted with 
 might and main towards the zenith. The 
 wiser of the party unfurled their umbrellas ; 
 but most part looking up in triumph, cried : 
 " Aha, my little stars ! are ye out at last ? I 
 always thought you cheats: we have long 
 been — " Here the dirty water fell; and be- 
 spattered and beblotched these simple per- 
 sons ; and even put out the eyes of several, 
 so that they never saw the stars any more. 
 
 Critic ! Truth, Beauty, Goodness is the 
 Heaven and the Stars : These, the very 
 meanest of them, no effort of thy syringe is 
 likely to reach : and the higher thy puddle- 
 jet, the weightier and dirtier will be its re- 
 turn! Qui spuit in coelum in se spuit (P) 1 
 
 January, Read Mendelssohn's Phadon, a 
 1827. half translation, half imitation of 
 
 Plato's Phaedon, or last thoughts 
 of Socrates on the Immortality of the Soul. 
 Plato's work I have never seen but must 
 see. Mendelssohn's is certainly written with 
 great beauty and simplicity : the intro- 
 
 1 " He who spits at heaven spits on himself." 
 94 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 ductory part concerning the character of 
 Socrates is almost a model of graceful modest 
 narrative ; what follows is in a more difficult 
 style but scarcely less perfect. The work is 
 divided into three Dialogues : the First (so far 
 as I can remember) treats of the highest good 
 of man, namely wisdom, and proves that it 
 is a blessing to get out of the body to philoso- 
 phize. The Second, in answer to some objec- 
 tions from two of the interlocutors, endeav- 
 ours to prove the immateriality of the Soul, a 
 necessary condition of its indivisibility and 
 immortality. It is an answer to the Free- 
 thinkers' scheme in Martinus Scriblerus : 
 "The Jack has a meat-roasting quality ; so 
 likewise, &C." 1 Socrates' arguments turn on 
 this principle : all those qualities, indeed all 
 unity of any sort perceived in an object, be- 
 longs not to the object but to the mind that 
 sees it; hence this subject (the mind) from 
 which all qualities originate cannot itself be a 
 quality. (?) It cannot be a composite power; 
 because there is in reality no change of power 
 produced by a mixture of simple powers, but 
 
 1 " In every jack there is a meat-roasting quality, which 
 neither resides in the fly, nor in the weight, nor in any 
 particular wheel of the jack, but is the result of the whole 
 combination : so in an animal, the self-consciousness is 
 not a real quality inherent in one being (any more than 
 meat-roasting in a jack) but the result of several modes 
 or qualities in the same subject." Memoirs of the ex- 
 traordinary Life, Works, and Discoveries of Martinus 
 Scriblerus, Book i, ch. 12. 
 
 95 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 only a modification, the secret of which escap- 
 ing our sense, we call it a new power, but 
 falsely. An acid and an alkali produce a 
 neutral salt : what then ? Tho' to our eyes, 
 taste, touch &c, the properties of this new 
 substance seem entirely different from those 
 of its component parts, the truth is not so ; 
 there is nothing in it, but some virtues of the 
 acid obstructed, forwarded, cancelled, diver- 
 ted &c, by the virtues of the alkali; and so 
 in #// corporeal compositions: the newness oi 
 the power is only in our way of viewing it. 
 Hence the component parts of the soul 
 would be all souls ; hence the soul is one; 
 hence indestructible, indivisible, immortal. 
 The Third Dialogue meets the objection of 
 Cebes : How do we know that the soul is 
 not to fall into sleep (if not death) forever ? 
 It is chiefly Mendelssohn's own; talks of 
 Perfectibility (not of man alone but of the 
 whole universe ) ; Unhappiness of disbelief in 
 these truths, &c. &c; much less scientific 
 and more rhetorical than the foregoing. On 
 the whole, it is a good book; — and con- 
 vincing ? Ay de mi! These things, I 
 fear, are not to [be] proved, but believed; 
 not seized by the Understanding but by 
 Faith. However, it is something to remove 
 errors, if not introduce truth ; and to shew 
 us that our analogies drawn from corporeal 
 things are entirely inapplicable to the case. 
 96 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 For the present, I will confess it, I scarce 
 see how we can reason with absolute cer- 
 tainty on the nature or fate of attiring; 
 for it seems to me we only see our own 
 perceptions and their relations; that is to 
 say, our soul sees only its own partial re- 
 flex and manner of existing and conceiv- 
 ing. I should have this cleared up : How 
 does Kant manage it ? — (" White men know 
 nothing.") 
 
 " A weeping woman is as much to be pitied 
 as a goose going barefoot." — Burton. 
 
 "Done to his hand." — South. (What a 
 fierce, dogmatical, sarcastic, unchristian priest 
 is South !) 
 
 " Sleeveless errand." — Burton. 
 
 " Looks out at window." — B. " all out " 
 — quite. 
 
 Mali corvi malum ovum ; } Cat to her kind. 
 
 " Non qua eundum, sed qua itur." 2 
 
 It was Petronius that wrote that hemistich : — 
 Primus in orbe deos fecit Timor. 
 
 (Was he the author of the sentiment 7 3 it 
 is now trite enough.) 
 
 l'*The bad egg of a bad crow." The origin and 
 significance of this proverb are discussed by Erasmus, 
 Adagiorum Chil. i. Cent. ix. Prov. 25. 
 
 2 " Not where one should go, but where one is going." 
 
 3 " Fear first made the gods in the world." The words 
 form part of the first verse of a fragment ascribed to Pe- 
 tronius, but they are also part of a verse by Statius, 
 
 7 97 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 C'est nos craintes qui ont forme les cieux; a 
 line at which I once in the Theatre Francais 
 heard all the people standing up raise a vehe- 
 ment shout of approval. Unhappy France ! 
 Talma was then acting, CEdipe : he is now 
 dead ; one by one the stars go out. 
 
 " As common as a Barber's chair." 
 
 7 Jany After a considerable struggle, and 
 1827. not without many interruptions, I 
 have this morning finished Burton's 
 Anatomy of Melancholy. What to say of the 
 Book parum constat)- Dr. Johnson was in the 
 habit of commending it; 2 but chiefly, I should 
 think, from its subject, which with the Doctor 
 was constitutionally interesting. Burton doubt- 
 less had " a pleasant wit," a taste also for the 
 Beautiful (especially if it was the Comfortable 
 at the same time) and still more for the Cu- 
 rious ; but his mind looks as if he had sur- 
 veyed the world chiefly from the observatory 
 of his Library in an Oxford College ; and 
 found the gratification of these his tastes not 
 so much in actual inspection of things with 
 
 Thebaid, iii. 661. It is impossible, in the uncertainty 
 concerning the date of Petronius, to say to which poet 
 they actually belong. 
 
 1 " Is hardly clear." 
 
 2 " Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy ' he said, was the 
 only book that ever took him out of bed two hours 
 sooner than he wished to rise." Reported by the Rev. 
 Dr. Maxwell in his Collectanea : printed by Boswell in his 
 Life of Johnson. 
 
 9 S 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 his simple vision, as with armed vision, armed 
 by all the reading that it ever entered into the 
 head of lazy Bookworm to engage with. He 
 is a singular, a thinking, observing, character- 
 voile man ; but of no admirable gifts (except 
 memory), and of little or no wisdom but what 
 distinguishes the greater part of English 
 country Parsons; a cleanly, comfort-loving, 
 Greek-and-Latin-reading, but often too sec- 
 tarian and self-conceited, and withal shallow 
 and ill-informed race of persons. As a sci- 
 entific treatise his Book is worth absolutely 
 nothing : I may say there is no conclusion in 
 it in which anything is concluded. Dunce 
 neutralizes Dunce, and one quack prescrip- 
 tion stands (like bane and antidote) fronting 
 with hostile visage another as quackish. The 
 work is an olla podrida ; you cannot eat the 
 cursed dish as it stands cooked before you; 
 and tho' you pick many a most dainty morsel 
 from it, you wish with your whole soul the 
 man had been contented with purveying, and 
 never tried to cook the viands at all. (Schlechles 
 Bild/ 1 ) Burton however is over, and I do 
 not purpose soon to trouble him again. 
 
 Sapientia prima est stultitid caruisse 2 " The 
 prime wisdom is to have got rid of folly;" fully 
 
 l" A bad image." 
 
 2 — sapientia prima 
 
 Stultitia caruisse. Horace, Epist. i. i. 41. 
 
 99 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 as well thus: Stultitia prima est sapientid ca- 
 ruisse; the case of all material metaphysicians, 
 most utilitarian moralists, and generally of all 
 negative Philosophers, by whatever name they 
 call themselves. 
 
 It was God that said Yes : it is the Devil 
 that forever says No. 1 
 
 Leibnitz and Descartes found all Truth to 
 rest in our seeing and believing in God : we 
 English have found our seeing and believing 
 in God to rest on all Truth j and pretty work 
 we have made of it ! 
 
 Why dost thou despise that ignorant and 
 ill-mannered man, while thou pitiest and help- 
 est that poor and ragged one ? — I give the 
 pauper sixpence and my blessing; but if his 
 rags offend the nostril, I contrive to make 
 him go his ways. 
 
 Is not Political Economy useful; and 
 ought not Joseph Hume and MacCulloch 
 to be honoured of all men ? — My cow is 
 useful, and I keep her in the stall, and feed 
 her with oil -cake and " draff-and-dreg," and 
 esteem her truly: but shall she live in my 
 
 1 " The Everlasting No had said : ' Behold, thou art 
 fatherless, outcast, and the Universe is mine [the 
 Devil's].'" Sartor Resartus, Book ii. ch. vii. 
 
 ioo 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 parlour? No, by the Fates, she shall live 
 in the stall! — 
 
 FABLE III. 
 
 " It is I that support this household," said 
 a Hen one day to herself: "The master can- 
 not breakfast without an egg, for he is dys- 
 peptical and would die, and it is I that lay 
 it. And here is this lazy Poodle doing no- 
 thing earthly, and gets thrice the meat I do, 
 and is caressed all day ! By the Cock of 
 Minerva, they shall give me a double portion 
 of corn, or I will strike ! " But much as she 
 cackled and creaked, the scullion would not 
 give her an extra grain. Whereupon in dud- 
 geon, she hid her egg in the dunghill, and 
 did nothing but cackle and creak all day. 
 The scullion suffered her for a week; then 
 (by order) drew her neck; and purchased 
 other eggs at six-pence the dozen ! 
 
 Man ! why frettest and whinest thou ? This 
 blockhead is happier than thou, and still but 
 a blockhead ? So thy services are not ade- 
 quately repaid ? But art thou sure thou dost 
 not overrate them? 1 At all rates it is vain 
 for thee to strike work with Providence : He 
 is no Manchester manufacturer; Him thou 
 canst not force to thy terms. Believe it he 
 
 l Cf. Sartor Resartus, Book ii. ch. ix., where these re- 
 flections are developed. 
 
 IOI 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 will do without thee. 77 rty a point d'hofnme 
 necessaire. 
 
 1 6th J anuary , Qui spuit in coelum in se spuit. x 
 1827. (perhaps wrong arranged, for 
 
 I write from memory.) 
 
 Who was Gassendi ? and what were his Me- 
 taphysics ? I have seen his Commentaries on 
 Newton ; but know nothing more of him j 
 yet he is said (by Reinhold) to be the father 
 of the existing French Philosophy. 
 
 Locke, Hume, Reid &c. &c. are Empirics; 
 Descartes, Leibnitz, Kant &c. are Rational- 
 ists. Which is right ? I begin to see some 
 light thro' the clouds in Kantism ; tho' Rein- 
 hold is somewhat of a Will-o'-wisp guide, I 
 fear. Empiricism, if consistent, they say, 
 leads direct to Atheism! — I am afraid it does. 
 
 Yes, Virtue is its own reward; but in a 
 very different sense than you suppose, Dr. 
 Gowkthrapple ! 2 " The pleasure it brings " ? — 
 Had you ever a diseased liver ? I will main- 
 
 1 " Who spits at the sky spits on himself." 
 
 2 "That chosen vessel, Maister Gowkthrapple." 
 
 Waverley, ch. xxix. 
 In his Essay on Diderot Carlyle speaks of Naigeon, 
 
 Diderot's biographer, " as a man with the vehemence of 
 
 some pulpit-drumming Gowkthrapple." 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 tain, and appeal to all competent judges, that 
 no evil conscience with a good nervous sys- 
 tem ever caused tenth part of the misery that 
 a bad nervous system tho' conjoined with the 
 best conscience in nature will always produce. 
 What follows then ? Pay off your moralist, 
 and hire two Apothecaries and two Cooks. 
 Socrates is inferior to Captain Barclay, and 
 the Enchiridion of Epictetus must hide its 
 head before Kitchener's Peptic Precepts. 
 Heed not the Immortality of the Soul, so 
 long as you have Beefsteak, Port, and — 
 Blue Pills ! — Das hole der Teufel / — Virtue 
 is its own reward because it needs no reward. 
 
 The Hildebrands, the Philips and the Borgias 
 Where are they now ? Behind the scene ; mute as 
 The millions whom they butchered in their rage. 
 Hard task they had, poor men : what was their 
 
 wage? 
 From God, we know not, but may dread the worst ; 
 From man, a grave and memory forever curst : 
 Who worships self a foolish thought has ween'd, 
 Must offer all, and find his God — a Fiend. 
 (Our cousin Swift has no turn for poetry.) 
 
 To prove the existence of God as Paley 
 has attempted to do (a Kantean would say) 
 is like lighting a lantern to seek for the Sun : 
 if you look hard by your lantern, you may 
 even miss your search. 
 
 103 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 " My dear Sir," said Captain Esbie, "there 
 is nothing like getting on" Ay de mil 
 
 "The artist," it has been said, "collects 
 beauties and combines them; a bright eye 
 from this, a fair round chin from that, a taper 
 form from the other, and so makes up his 
 Venus." Ah no ! In this way he will form 
 a bed-quilt or a hearth-rug, but no poem. 
 
 A Poem springs, like Minerva from the 
 head of Jove, full armed and complete, if it 
 is to live and give life. 
 
 Do we think sometimes, as Schlegel says, 
 without thoughts ? Or what wind is it that 
 will rend asunder the thick clouds, and shew 
 us the fair golden landscape lying full perfect 
 and ready-formed without our having shaped 
 it, otherwise than in the dark ? Yet was not 
 Praxiteles' Jove created in this fashion, when 
 the evening song of the maidens coming from 
 the well revealed it to the struggling and long- 
 baffled statuary ? There is more in the poet's 
 heart than Mr Alison or Mr Stewart dreams 
 of. Bring it out then an' be hanged ! — 
 Eheu! — 
 
 FABLE. [IV] 
 
 " What is the use of thee, thou gnarled sap- 
 ling ? " said a young larch-tree to a young 
 oak. "I grow three feet in the year, thou 
 scarcely half as many inches ; I am straight 
 104 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 and taper as a reed, thou weak and twisted 
 as loosened withe": — "And thy duration," 
 answered the Oak, " is some third part of 
 man's life; and I flourish for a thousand years. 
 Thou art felled, and sawed into paling, where 
 thou rottest and art burnt after a single sum- 
 mer: of me are fashioned battleships, and I 
 carry mariners and heroes into unknown seas." 
 
 The richer a character, the harder and 
 slower in general is its development. Two 
 boys were once of the same class in our Edin- 
 burgh school; John ever trim precise and 
 dux, Walter ever slovenly confused and dolt : 
 in due time John became Baillie Waugh, and 
 Walter became Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 The quickest and completest of all vegeta- 
 bles is — the Cabbage. 
 
 The fraction of life will increase equally by 
 diminishing the denominator as by augment- 
 ing the numerator. 1 [March, 1827.] 
 
 Eschenburg'sDenkma/eratideufsc/ierDic/it- 
 kunst. 
 
 A popular delusion is like smoke : it is vain 
 
 1 " So true it is, what I then said, that the Fraction of 
 Life can be increased in value not so much by increasing 
 your Numerator as by lessening your Denominator. Nay, 
 unless my Algebra deceive me, Unity itself divided by 
 Zero will give Infinity." Sartor Resartus, Book ii. ch. ix. 
 
 105 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 to cut into it with swords and maces; leave 
 it alone, and the air will absorb it by degrees. 
 If it is in small quantity, &fan may sometimes 
 help you ; not if it is in great ; but there is 
 always hope in the air. 
 
 " Lieber ware mir's, wenn ich plotzlich 
 sttirbe." 1 Winckelmann [letter to Berends] 
 12 July, 1751. 
 
 " Marco Barbarigo and Franc. Trevisano, 2 
 two Nobilidi Venetia, whose memory has been 
 preserved in a rare piece of writing," are the 
 only two modern Friends, thinks Winckel- 
 mann. Where is the Schrift?* 
 
 Friendship not once mentioned in the 
 whole New Testament (so also says Hume) ; 
 und es ist vielleicht ein Gliick vor die 
 Freundschaft ; denn sonst bliebe gar kein 
 Platz vor den Uneigennutz; 4 all virtues hav- 
 ing there some temporal or eternal recom- 
 
 1 " I should be glad if I could die suddenly." 
 
 2 Carlyle cites the baptismal names incorrectly ; see 
 the following note. 
 
 3 Letter to Berends, 17 Sept., 1754. The "rare piece 
 of writing" referred to is entitled Breve racconto dell' 
 amicizia mostruosa in perfezione tra Niccolb Barbarigo e 
 Marco Trivisano. In Venezia, 1627, in 8vo. A Latin 
 translation seems to have been published the next 
 year. 
 
 4 "And this is perhaps fortunate for friendship, for 
 otherwise there would have been no place for unselfish- 
 ness." Id. 
 
 106 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 pense promised them. — No wonder Goethe 
 calls him a Heide. x 
 
 i 
 
 Mein Gott ich wollte sehr gerne sterben, 
 
 mit grosser Wohllust meiner Seele: so weit 
 habe ich es in der That und Wahrheit 
 gebracht. — Winckel. — 2 
 
 Ich habe nunmehro bald sechs Jahre in 
 Sachsen gelebet, und kann mich nicht entsin- 
 nen dass ich recht gelacht habe. 3 
 
 Allein : Erkenntlichkeit verlangen, heisst 
 beynahe — Undank verdienen. 4 
 
 Dr. Ebel best traveller in Switzerland. 
 
 Villemain, an able writer of Melanges. 
 
 Comte de Lacepede — general Hist, of 
 Europe, in 18 vol. — last — 1827. Consider- 
 ably praised ; apparently (from the extract) a 
 bagpipe. 
 
 Cicognara's History of Sculpture. 
 
 Spanish writers (from an article in the 
 Revue encyclopedique). h 
 
 1 " Him," that is, Winckelmann, " a heathen." 
 
 2 «« My God I would very willingly die, with entire de- 
 light of my soul: so far have I attained in deed and 
 truth." Letter to Berends, 17 Sept., 1754. 
 
 3 " I shall soon have lived six years in Saxony, and I 
 cannot recall having once honestly laughed." Id., 6 
 July, 1754. 
 
 4 " But to require gratitude comes very near deserving 
 unthankfulness." Id., 10 March, 1755. 
 
 5 Tome XXXIII, Feb. 1827. The article is by Muriel. 
 
 107 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Leandro-Fernandez de Moratin (the 
 younger) regarded here as the restorer of 
 the dramatic art in Spain. Has written five 
 or six Comedies (indifferent apparently and 
 in the style of the French) ; first in 1788 : he 
 seems to be still living. 1 
 
 Barthelemy Torres Naharro — a play-writer 
 of the 1 6th century. 
 
 Pinciano Philosophy of ancient Poesy. 1596. 
 
 Luzan {Poetics, Saragossa 1737) insists on 
 the French principles of taste. Followed up by : 
 
 Mayans (Rhetoric); Nasarre (prefacer of 
 Cervantes & comedies); Montiano y Luy- 
 ando (who wrote a comedia of his own). 
 
 Nicolas-Fernandez de Moratin (the father) 
 put forth three tragedies — moderates. 
 
 Cadahalso, Ayala, Huerta, Palacios wrote 
 plays also about the same time. The best 
 seemingly of only moderate merit; and in 
 imitation of the French. 
 
 Sempere (Best writers under the reign of 
 Charles III. In Spanish I presume tho' it is 
 not so stated). 
 
 "The muses of [Lope de Vega] Montal- 
 van, Calderon, Moreto, Rojas, Soils, Zamora 
 and Caiiizares; those of Bazo, Regnard 
 (French ? ) Laviato, Corneille, Moncin, Me- 
 tastasio, Cornelia, Moliere,Valladares, Racine, 
 Zabala, Goldoni, Nifo and Voltaire were aston- 
 ished at seeing themselves in company" [p. 469]. 
 1 He died in 1828. 
 108 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 D. Gaspar Melchior de Jovellanos wrote 
 the Delinquenie Honrado in 1770; a drame, 
 full of honest sentiments, if not of great 
 poetry. Genre mixte. 
 
 Trigueros, Melendez Valdes, Cristophe- 
 Maria Cortes, had three prizes for plays in 
 1784. Indifferent. 
 
 Tomas Iriarte ; sl satirist and sensible man, 
 but of no divine fire. 
 
 Juan de Iriarte — another of the same. 
 
 The period between 1780 and 1790 the 
 last years of the reign of Charles III. have 
 been most illustrious ; the government anxious 
 to forward improvement in any way, and tho' 
 arbitrary, enlightened and energetic. Here 
 " Jovellanos, Campomanes, Tavira, Roda and 
 Llaguno were at once the pride and the 
 support of philosophy and sound literature." 
 
 Boscan and Garcilaso were named Petrar- 
 quistes, as their modern successors are called 
 Gallicistes. 
 
 Hurtado de Mendoza, Saa de Miranda, 
 Montemayor, Herrera (surnamed the Divine), 
 Father Louis de Leon, Gil Polo were all 
 Petrarquists, yet " the glory of Spanish Lit- 
 erature." 
 
 Abbe Quadrio Sioria poetica (Italian ? ) 
 Capmany, Marchena — men of mould ? 
 
 What is the present state of Literature in 
 Spain ? How deep and total is our ignor- 
 ance on that point at present! Is there such 
 
 109 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 a thing as a Madrid Review ? A Spanish 
 newspaper would shew to us almost like a 
 Herculaneum one. This should be altered. 
 N. B. The Revue Encydopedique a review 
 of merit, and worthy to be imitated and 
 improved upon in Britain. 
 
 Nearly 14 millions of volumes are printed 
 annually in France ; of these 400,000 by F. 
 Didot. 
 
 665 printing offices in all France; 82 at 
 Paris: in 1825, there were 1550 presses in 
 activity, in Paris 850 of these. 
 
 At Paris there are 480 Booksellers, and 84 
 Boothkeepers ; elsewhere 922. 
 
 The whole money annually gained in the 
 producing of those 14 to 13 millions of 
 volumes, the Count Daru estimates at 33,- 
 750,000 francs; comprehending all from the 
 wages of the ragman to those of the Author. 
 Authors, it seems, come in for a very poor 
 share 500,000 francs being their whole in- 
 come in France. 1 
 
 In this the newspapers seem not to be 
 comprised, at least not the daily ones, the 
 feuilles quotidiennes. 
 
 Grassi, Niccolini, Pezzana, Gherardini, 
 Abbe Romani, Monti, Italian Grammarians 
 of some note. 
 
 1 See Revue encyclope'digtie, xxxiii. 562. 
 no 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Foscolo, Rossetti, Troya, etc., etc. Com- 
 mentators of Dante, who is at present lit- 
 erally the idol of Italians. 
 
 Champollion's system of Phonetic char- 
 acters has been well received in Italy : Mai, 
 Peyron, Orioli, Valeriani " savans les plus re- 
 commendables " do justice to him. 
 
 The Biblioteca Italiana of Milan and the 
 Antologia of Florence contend the first for 
 the Romantics, the second for the Classics ; 
 a dispute which seems at present to be 
 spreading over most part of Europe. The 
 Arcadic Journal of Rome is a classicist, but 
 often with more zeal than judgement. The 
 Anthology seems to be the best of these three. 
 
 Gherardini, the translator and impugner of 
 SchlegePs Dramaturgic lectures. 
 
 Manzoni, a poet and romanticist, but who 
 has failed in exemplifying his new theories as 
 applied to the practice of writing tragedies — 
 The Count of Carmagnola and Adelghis are 
 their titles. 
 
 Thomas Grossi a young poet, praised for 
 his Ildegonda, has written a new Epic entitled : 
 The Lombards in the first Crusade ; which 
 some have said, surpasses Jerusalem Delivered. 
 The pamphlets on the subject have been 
 numerous and loud : our French critic asserts 
 modestly that it is neither so good nor 
 so bad as it has been called. Grossi is a 
 Romantic. 
 
 in 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 The town of Milan alone publishes about 
 a score of Journals. 
 
 Wagner, Weiller, Hegel, Krug, are testators, 
 opposers or commentators of Kant. Eschen- 
 mayer also. 
 
 Bardili's Rational Realism, is it not like the 
 doctrine of Malebranche ? 
 
 Bouterwek, System of Virtuality : " the sub- 
 jective and objective are nothing without 
 each other." 
 
 Annihilation of the Subject — Spinosism and 
 materialism. 
 
 Fichte's Transcendental Idealism, " elimi- 
 nation of the object ; " that is deducing the 
 not-me from the me ? 
 
 Schelling's Ideal Realism, Philosophy of Na- 
 ture, but usually called the System of Identity ; 
 " because it represents the subject and the 
 object as absolutely identical and comming- 
 ling and compounding themselves in intellec- 
 tual intuition." — To this I can attach next to 
 no meaning. 
 
 Fichte pretended to have deduced his sys- 
 tem from Kant, which Kant eagerly denied. 
 Kant's system of morality is universal in Ger- 
 many; his metaphysics are disfigured, mis- 
 represented, no longer studied in his own 
 writings, but (says this critic) well worthy of 
 being studied. 
 
 Kant reminded me of father Boscovich : 
 
 112 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 but alas ! I have only read ioo pages of his 
 works. How difficult it is to live! How 
 many things to do, how little strength, how 
 little time to do them ! T. C. 
 
 There is an Historical Sketch of Indus- 
 trialism by one Dunoyer; 1 a political theory 
 this Industrialism of which I have hitherto 
 never heard, and which seems to mean very 
 little if anything. According to the Indus- 
 triels (the chief of whom was one Saint-Simon, 
 reputed mad) the proper object of legislation 
 is not this or that form of political govern- 
 ment, but the means of forwarding useful ac- 
 tivity which is or ought to be the ultimate 
 aim of all existing nations. — God help us! 
 has not this been understood and admitted in 
 all systems of political philosophy for the last 
 century. St. Simon was for wonders upon 
 wonders; a sort of priesthood of Savans, 
 and what not. " II se maria pour faire des 
 hommes de genie, et n'eut pas mSme des 
 enfants." — poor soul ! — He said he was de- 
 scended from Charlemagne. I understand, 
 he is dead. Thierry, Maignien, Auguste 
 Comte are more sensible men, who wrote 
 for him, and allowed themselves to be called 
 his pupils. 
 
 Mem. To read the Golden Ass of Apuleius. 
 Burney's Life of Metastasio. 
 
 lln the Revue encyclopidique, Feb., 1827. 
 8 113 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Of the world, for us, is made a world- 
 edifice ; of the Aether a Gas ; of God a 
 Power; and of the second world a Coffin. — 
 Jean Paul, Levana. 
 
 Intellectual Individuality to be respected 
 and maintained; moral Individuality to be 
 modified, but only by strengthening antagonist 
 qualities, not weakening those that appear 
 originally in excess. "Thus let Frederick 
 the Only (der Einzige) take his Flute, and 
 Napoleon his Ossian." 
 
 " Our present time is indeed a criticising 
 and critical one ; hovering betwixt the wish 
 and the inability to believe, a chaos of 
 conflicting times: but even a chaotic world 
 must have some Point, and Revolution 
 round that Point, and Aether too; there is 
 no pure entire Confusion and Discord, but 
 all such presupposes its Contrary, before it 
 can begin." 
 
 " But from of old, among nations the Head 
 has outrun and got before the Heart ; often 
 by centuries, as in the Negro trade ; nay by 
 tens of centuries, as perhaps in war." 
 
 Light goes quicker than warmth: hence 
 every new intellectual revolution, seems at 
 first destructive to morality. 
 
 " When in your last hour (think of this) all 
 within the broken spirit shall fade away, and 
 die into inanity, Imagining, Thinking, En- 
 deavouring, Enjoying — then at last blooms 
 
 114 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 on the night-flower of Belief alone, and re- 
 freshes with its perfume in the last darkness." 
 
 Heyne's Virgil, Leipzig, 1803,4 vol. 8vo., 
 the best edition (the London ones were mis- 
 managed); there is also a " Hand edition" of 
 1803 in 2 vol.; but whether it does not want 
 something I know not. This Book I must 
 have. 1 
 
 Tibullus, Pindar, Homer (8 vol. Leipz. & 
 London. 1822) 
 
 Sammlung antiquarischer Aussatze. 1778- 
 1779; about the Laocoon, Venus, Pliny's Au- 
 thorities, &c &c ; the Chest of Cypselus among 
 the rest. 
 
 An immensity of papers in the Gottingen 
 Society. Chiefly upon Art (Etruscan &c.) and 
 the philosophy of Fables and My thuses. Some- 
 thing of Sparta. Of the influence of sudden 
 increase of wealth in ancient states. Of Baby- 
 lonian women annually at the Temple of Venus. 
 On Winckelmann's history of Art. &c. &c. 
 
 filoges &c. Michaelis, Miiller, Gmelin, 
 Kattner, Gatterer, &c. 
 
 Prolusiones Academicae (at London. 1790 
 no table of contents; but I suppose all in- 
 cluded in the) 
 
 Opuscula Academica. Gotting. 1785- 
 1812. Chiefly on Aesthetical Antiquity. De 
 
 1 The following paragraphs contain a list of Heyne's 
 works. 
 
 115 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 morum vi ad sensum pulchritudinis. De 
 Genio Saeculi Ptolemaeorum. The Doctrine 
 of the most ancient poets. Physical causes 
 of Myths. Use of History. Invention of 
 Bread. Some ancient beginnings of Greek 
 Legislation. Fifteen Prolusions on the states 
 of Magna Graecia and Sicily. On the Arca- 
 dians more ancient than the Moon. Life of 
 the most ancient Greeks. Leo the Pope and 
 Attila. Epidemic Fever of Rome called 
 plagues. Rise, decline and fall of Mace- 
 donia. Athenian liberty as seen in Aris- 
 tophanes. Natural History in prodigies. 
 Disease of Proselytising. Critique or Char- 
 acteristic of Symmachus; of Ausonius; of 
 Ammianus Marcellinus; of six writers of 
 Augustus' history (historiae Augustae?); 
 of panegyric-writers &c. Alexander Severus. 
 
 Heyne was born at Chemnitz (the birth- 
 place of Puffendorf) in 1729; his father was 
 the poorest of weavers. The history of the 
 man was a series of misery (he at one time 
 lived on pease-cods and had no bed), till 
 towards the middle of it; and all along of 
 most wonderful diligence. He died in 181 2. 
 Little representation of his character comes 
 of this Biography by Heeren his son-in-law, 
 who seems to be no very deep person. Heyne 
 it appears was a sharp-tempered, but good- 
 hearted, peaceable, methodical and well- 
 
 116 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 beloved man. Not great but large. I know 
 only his Virgil, which certainly appeared to 
 me to leave all other commentaries of the sort 
 I had seen very far behind it. The Homer 
 I long to see. — O that I could read it! 1 
 
 Schlozer, Spittler, Gatterer, Martens, Wolt- 
 mann, — mostly men of mould, — are com- 
 memorated in the same vol. with Heyne. 
 They were all Gottingen Professors; for a 
 time at least, for in Germany that class of 
 men is essentially wandering. Spittler's little 
 book on Church history is highly praised. 
 Martens wrote on trade; and collected a 
 body of Fcedera from 1761 to 1819, which 
 must be very useful. Schlozer was a Jour- 
 nalist ; the first public whig in Germany : he 
 writes of Russia, where he once lived. Gat- 
 terer, a strange old virtuoso, wrote various 
 chronologies, universal-history essays or com- 
 pendiums; it seems on a greatly improved 
 plan. He is said to have been in the habit 
 of getting all the newspapers of the year col- 
 lected sometime in December, and then read- 
 ing them at one fell swoop. Ex uno. 
 
 Muller is also sketched here ; not well. 
 
 Is it not singular that so many men of note 
 
 1 In 1828 Carlyle wrote an admirable account of Heyne, 
 mainly derived from Heeren's Life of him. It appeared 
 in the " Foreign Review," No. 4. See Essays, Vol. i. 
 
 117 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 should have been produced or gathered at 
 Gottingen? Mosheim — Blumenbach. These 
 Germans put us to shame! We have lost 
 our old honesty ; even in literature we are 
 eye-servants. Go thou, and do otherwise / 
 
 Michaud Histoire des Croisades (recom- 
 mended — 4 me edit.) 
 
 Beck's Repertorium is unspeakably stupid. 
 
 Der liebste Bube den wir han 
 Der liegt in unserm Keller, 
 Er hat ein holzin Rocklein an, 
 Und heisst der Muskateller. 1 
 
 From "Ballhorn" golden A. B. C. 
 Horn i. p. 88 
 
 Erasmus belongs to that species of writers 
 who with all their heart would build the good 
 God a most sumptuous church ; at the same 
 time however, not giving the Devil any of- 
 fence; to whom accordingly they set up a 
 neat little chapel close by, where you can 
 offer him some touch of sacrifice by a time, 
 and practice a quiet household devotion for 
 him without disturbance. 
 
 Leser wie gefall ich Dir ? 
 Leser wie gefallst du mir ? 
 Reader, how lik'st thou me ? 
 Reader, how like I thee? 
 
 T. von Logau. 
 1 See p. (177) for translation of this quatrain. 
 Il8 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Der Mai. 
 Dieser Monat ist ein Kuss, den der Himmel 
 
 giebt der Erde, 
 Dass sie, jetzo eine Braut, kunftig eine Mutter 
 
 werde ' 1 The same. 
 
 Andreas Gryph died of apoplexy in the 
 Council where he was syndic at Glogau. 
 Mem. Must read Mignet's French Revol. 
 
 The Palm is said to make saws and hatchets 
 blunt: hence came it to be a symbol of 
 Peace. 
 
 Wolff's most characteristic writing is said 
 to be: Vernunftige Gedanken von Gott, der 
 Welt und der Seele des Menschen. Halle. 
 1720. 
 
 Picinelli Mundus Symbolicus j a book of 
 mottoes. 
 
 Works which I could like to see written : 
 
 1. A Biography and History of Luther; 
 a picture of the great man himself, and of 
 the great scenes and age he lived in. 
 
 2. A History of English Literature ; from 
 the times of Chaucer! Warton's Hist, of 
 Eng. Poet, would do something in the way 
 
 1 "May. 
 ' ' This month is a kiss, which Heaven gives to the Earth, 
 That she, now a Bride, may in time become a Mother." 
 
 119 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 of help, but nothing as a model. The men 
 ought to be judged, not prated of; and the 
 whole environment of their talent, as well 
 as their talent itself, set fairly before the 
 reader. 
 
 3. Failing which, I reckon one of the fin- 
 est Essays of an aesthetic sort that could be 
 written, were an intelligible account of 
 Shakespeare. How did that wonderful 
 being live and think and write ? We treat 
 him commonly as a miracle, and launch out 
 into vague admiration of him, out of which 
 comes nothing. A miracle he was not, ex- 
 cept as genius is always a miracle ; but a man 
 that was born and bred as other men, and 
 lived in a strange shrivelled little brick-house, 
 which I have seen at Stratford on Avon ; the 
 one end of which, repaired and new-bediz- 
 ened was then (1825) inhabited by a — 
 Butcher. Would I saw the Poet and knew 
 him, and could then fully understand him ! 
 
 Luther's Werke, herausgegeben von Walch, 
 1724. 
 
 Mascov's Geschichte der Deutschen; 
 
 Biinau's Teutsche Kaiser-und-Reichshis- 
 torie ; best books of that sort (says Horn) at 
 their time. 
 
 Should see Moser : why have I not cata- 
 logue ? 
 
 Dr. Althofs Life of Burger. 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 On the silk-worm : — 
 Arte mea pereo, tumulum mihi fabricor ipse : 
 Fila mei fati duco, necemque neo. 1 
 
 Miller (of Gottingen's ?) Siegwart the be- 
 ginning of the sentimental period. 
 
 The two Stolbergs — F. Leopold became 
 a Catholic. Jung (Stilling's) Selbstbiogra- 
 phie. Matt. Claudius; the Wandsbecker 
 Bote. — Lichtenberg's writings — 
 
 Johann Christian Brandes, Autobiography; 
 said to be interesting. 
 
 Die Tugend ist das hochste Gut, 
 Das Laster Weh dem Menschen thut. 2 
 Puppenspieler Jahrm arktfest. 
 
 i. Weisheit auf der Strasse, a Book of 
 Proverbs, relating many of them to the time 
 of the Reformation. 
 
 2. Moser, Osnabricckische Geschichtej a very 
 good history. Fantasiefistucke, by the same. 
 
 3. Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstauffen ; 
 said to be very good. 
 
 4. Ritter a writer on statistics, of great 
 merit; professor at Berlin. 
 
 These four recommended by Mr. Aitken. 
 
 1 " By my own art I die, for myself I make my tomb ; 
 I spin the thread of my own fate, and weave my own 
 death." 
 
 2 " Virtue is the highest good, 
 While Vice does harm to man." 
 
 121 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 With regard to the right and left bank of 
 a river, you keep your face down the stream. 
 
 Genus hominum, quod in civitate nostra 
 semper et retinebitur et vetabitur. — Tacitus. 1 
 
 A countryman [Bauer) one morning 
 knocked at Gellert's door, and asked if " he 
 was the man that wrote those fine Fables ? " 
 Being answered in the affirmative, the Bauer 
 added that " here was a cartload of wood 
 which he had brought to warm him thro' 
 winter, as an acknowledgement for the pleas- 
 ure he (the B.) had got from those writings; " 
 and so saying, he tumbled up his cargo of 
 billets, and with best compliments, took his 
 leave. This was worth a dozen Reviews. 
 
 Quicunque solitudine delectatur aut fera 
 aut deus est. 2 
 
 1 Mathematici ' ' genus hominum . . . quod in civitate 
 nostra et vetabitur semper, et retinebitur." Hist. i. 22. 
 " Astrologers, a class of men which will always be pro- 
 hibited in our city and always maintained." 
 
 2 Bacon begins his essay "Of Friendship" with the 
 words : "It had been hard for him that spake it to have 
 put more truth and untruth together in few words, than 
 in that speech, Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either 
 a wild beast or a god." The adages which follow are cited 
 in the same essay. Bacon's reference was undoubtedly 
 to the well-known passage in Aristotle, Politics, i. 2, 
 which is to the effect that "he who is unable to live in 
 
 122 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Magna civitas, magna solitude 1 
 Cor ne edito (eat not your heart), Pythag. 
 (These are from Bacon.) 
 
 Stag-heads in Fontainebleau under which 
 stood inscribed ; " Louis so-and-so did me 
 the honour to shoot me." Richter, Levana. 
 
 Turba medicorum perdidit Caesarem. 2 
 
 Hadrian's epitaph. 
 
 Anton, Geschichte der Deutsche Nation. 
 Schmidt's " 
 
 Levesque, Moralistes anciens. 
 (Somebody's) " " Francais. 
 Suard, Melanges Litteraires. 
 Duval, Memoires surle royaume de Naples. 
 Varillas, Histoire secrete de la Maison de 
 Medicis. 
 
 Tasso's Essay Del Poema Eroico. 3 
 
 society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for 
 himself, must be either a beast or a god," — but Bacon 
 gives the words a false turn, and then proceeds to argue, 
 on the basis of his own error, against the position which 
 he ascribes to Aristotle. Carlyle had obviously been 
 reading the essay in the Latin translation published by 
 Dr. Rawley in 1638. 
 1 " A great town is a great solitude." 
 
 2 " The crowd of doctors killed Caesar." 
 
 3 In a letter to his brother John, Oct. 25, 1827, Car- 
 lyle wrote : " Meanwhile I am beginning (purpose seri- 
 ously beginning to-morrow) an article on Zacharias 
 Werner ... I design afterwards, if Jeffrey is willing, to 
 
 123 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Ultimate object of the Poet is to profit 
 (prodesse as superordma.te to delectare). p. 
 350. — very clear and logical, giovar dilet- 
 tando. 
 
 (An Historian must write (so to speak) in 
 lines ; but every event is a superficies / nay 
 if we search out its causes, a solid : hence a 
 primary and almost incurable defect in the 
 art of Narration; which only the very best 
 can so much as approximately remedy. — 
 N. B. I understand this myself. I have known 
 it for years; and written it now, with the 
 purpose perhaps of writing it at large else- 
 where.) 1 
 
 Curious (p. 367) division of Theology. 
 The mistico much the same as Vernunft? 2 
 
 Instar omnium Plato, said Antimachus 
 
 Clarius, when only this one vote went in his 
 
 favour; " Plato is worth them all." 3 
 
 give a Discourse on Tasso." Letters, i. 90. The arti- 
 cle on Werner was written, and is to be found in Car- 
 lyle's Essays ; the proposed discourse on Tasso seems 
 not to have been accomplished. 
 
 IThis purpose was fulfilled in his paper "On His- 
 tory" published in Fraser's Magazine, in 1830. See 
 Essays, ii. 258. 
 
 2 For the definition of Vernunft "Reason," as used 
 by the Kantists, and its relation to Mysticism, see " State 
 of German Literature" (1827), Essays, i. 69. 
 
 3 — " dixisse Antimachum, Clarium poetam, ferunt, qui 
 quum convocatis auditoribus legeret eis magnum illud, 
 quod novistis, volumen suum, et eum legentem omnes, 
 praeter Platonem, reliquissent, ' Legam ' inquit ' nihilo 
 minus; Plato enim mihi unus instar est omnium mil- 
 Hum.' " Cicero, Brutus, 51. 
 
 124 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Convien cWuom poggt ; man should ascend. 
 
 I have gone over (not regularly read) the 
 Essay Del Poema Eroico. Must not say that 
 I have derived any benefit from it generally ; 
 or even specially any great insight into the 
 individuality of Tasso himself. It is unspeak- 
 ably diffuse, and appeals to no principles of a 
 scientific sort; the main source of his light 
 being Aristotle and the practice of ancient 
 poets. One gathers only that he was a seri- 
 ous man, and had high views of the dignity 
 and moment of Epic poetry; tho' how from 
 so complicated and generally so barren a 
 system of rules he modulated so harmonious 
 a whole as the Gerusalemme seems nowise 
 clear. — On the whole I have not strength to 
 study Tasso at present, nor even to express 
 what I have studied concerning him. 
 
 Tasso was a mystic, as we should call him : 
 Must not every true poet be so ? That is to- 
 say, must he not have a sense of the Invisible 
 Existences of Nature, and be enabled as it 
 were to read the symbols of these in the vis- 
 ible ? Can any man delineate with life the 
 figure even of a Trinculo or Caliban other- 
 wise ? For is not the poorest nature a mys- 
 tery ; the most grovelling street-porter, the 
 most arid Kanzlerverwandte a type in some 
 obscurer sense and an emanation from the 
 Land of wonders ? Is he not an individual; 
 and who shall explain all the significance of 
 
 125 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 that one word ? — Not one of Scott's Fair- 
 services or Deanses &c. is alive. As far as prose 
 could go, he has gone ; and we have fair out- 
 sides ; but within all is rather hollow, nicht 
 wahr ? — Alas! I do not see into this, and 
 must talk rather falsely of it, or " altogether 
 hold my peace," which perhaps were better. — 
 Jan y 8 th 1828.— 
 
 La Bruyere I have found, for the second 
 time, strive as I might, exceedingly shallow. 
 " He has point and brilliancy ; but so has a 
 brass pin." — Yet I do not know the French : 
 what do I know ? — 
 
 The courtesies of polished life too often 
 amount to little more than this: "Sir, you 
 and I care not two brass farthings the one 
 for the other, we have and can have no 
 friendship for each other or for aught else in 
 nature ; nevertheless let us enact it, if we can- 
 not practise it ; do you tell so many lies, and 
 I shall tell so many, and depend on it the 
 result will be of great service to both. For 
 is not this December weather very cold? 
 And tho' our grates are full of ice, yet if you 
 keep a picture of fire before yours, and I 
 another before mine, will not this be next to 
 a real coal-and-wood affair ? 
 
 Goethe has been called ill-bred, a low and 
 vulgar man by certain British Critics. He is 
 
 126 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 of all past and present writers the farthest 
 from this. Except himself, I might say, there 
 is no man of books known to me, who can 
 delineate a Gentleman, or even so much as 
 conceive him. Scott goes as far as the Up- 
 holsterer and Gentleman-Usher go; but little 
 farther : his highest gentleman (at all events) 
 might be a writer to the Signet : Bonaparte 
 himself becomes a sort of Parliamenteering, 
 game-preserving, Road-commissioning Coun- 
 try-Squire in his hands. Put together a Gen- 
 tleman as e.g. Burns can put together a 
 Peasant ! They give us a sort of shell of one ; 
 but the kernel is not there. 
 
 What is the unhappiest quality in man ? 
 For his moral worth, malignity (excess of em- 
 ulation corrupted)) for his civic prosperity, 
 irresolution. How long halt ye between two 
 opinions ? 
 
 To be read : 
 
 Mill's History of Chivalry. 
 " " Crusades. 
 i( Theodore Ducas ? 
 Sharon Turner's Anglo-Saxons. 
 " " England. 
 
 " Henry VIII. 
 Works of Ritson (never seen by me) 
 Percy's Relicks (almost forgotten) 
 Ellis I have read and partly esteemed. 
 127 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 What of all these Memoirs by Lucy Aikin, 
 Miss Benger, and Mrs. Thomson ? I will 
 take down their names. 
 
 Lucy A's Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 " " King James I. 
 Miss B's Queen of Bohemia (Eliz. Stuart) 
 " " Mary Q. of Scots 
 " " Anne Boleyn. 
 " « Henri IV. [II. ?] 
 " " Mrs. Hamilton. 
 " " Mr. Tobin. 
 Mrs. TVs Henry VIII. 
 
 The Saxon Chronicle (translated) by J. 
 Ingram. 
 
 Coxe's Memoirs of Duke Marlborough. 
 " " " Sir R. Walpole. 
 
 Goethe (Dichtung und Wahrheit II. 14) 
 asserts that the sublime is natural to all young 
 persons and peoples ; but that day-light (of 
 reason) destroys it, unless it can unite itself 
 with the Beautiful, in which case it remains 
 indestructible. — A fine obs. 
 
 p. 39. Grotius said he read Terence other- 
 wise than Boys do. " Happy limitedness of 
 youth ! nay of men in general, that at all mo- 
 ments of their existence they can look upon 
 themselves as complete; and ask neither for 
 the True nor the False, the High nor the 
 Deep, but simply what is suitable to them." 
 
 128 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 — Alles was daher von mir bekannt ge- 
 worden sind nur Bruchstiicke einer grossen 
 Confession, welche vollstandig zu machen 
 dieses Buchlein ein gewagter Versuch ist. 
 p. 109. — x 
 
 Banier's Mythology. 
 
 Finished a Paper on Burns. September 
 16, 1828; at this Devil's Den, Craigenput- 
 tock. 
 
 Ersch his Handbuch der deutschen Liter- 
 atur seit der Mitte des i8 ten Jahrh. bis auf die 
 neueste Zeit. 2 Bde. Amsterdam & Leip- 
 zig. 1812-14. There has been a second and 
 better Edition. 
 
 1 Das Kind mit dem Bade ausgeschiittet ! ' 
 — Killed instead of curing ? [" Fling out not 
 the dirty water only but y r washed child/" 
 A very pretty proverb.] 2 
 
 Der Deutsche Improvisator ? Two Books 
 of him published at Gera. The man Goethe 
 speaks of? 
 
 F. SchlegePs Philosophy of Life. Literat. 
 Zeit. Marz, 462. rather sensible. 
 
 1 " All my pieces which have thus become known are 
 only fragments of a great confession which this little 
 book is a venturesome attempt to make complete." 
 
 2 " The Germans say, You must empty out the bath- 
 ing-tub, but not the baby along with it." ' Nigger Ques- 
 tion,' 1849. Essays, vii. 97. 
 
 9 129 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Camillo Ugoni Hist, of Italian Literature 
 — goodish? 175-1800 is its Spielraum. 1 
 
 Corniani has also written a Secoli della Let. 
 It. in nine volumes. 
 
 Giuseppe Tartini Italian Fiddler dreamed 
 one night that he had made a paction with 
 the Devil, who ' did, nay surpassed ' all his 
 bidding. In particular he (the Devil) played 
 (by request) such a Sonata as for beauty was 
 never played before; the ravishments of which 
 indeed woke poor Tartini, who clutching his 
 fiddle tried at least to retain some tones of 
 this Devil's Sonata; but almost in vain, so 
 unearthly was it. However he did what he 
 could j and his best is still called the Devil's 
 Sonata. Beppo died at Padua 1770. 
 
 Boscovich died mad! 1787. 
 
 Passeroni cooked for himself — in Milan; 
 an old woman made his bed : he himself was 
 to be seen with cap and apron. He wrote a 
 Poem [//] Cicerone in six volumes, containing 
 11,047 stanzas (octave). This great and very 
 good humoured Author died — perhaps about 
 1800. 
 
 Baretti was born at Turin (1719). Would 
 not be an Architect, and so ran off from home 
 at the age of 16. London (1757) — from 
 Venice. — He travelled thro' Spain and Por- 
 tugal home (1760); but came back to Lon- 
 
 l "Area." 
 130 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 don, where he died (1789). Three fellows, 
 (robbers seemingly) attacked him on the 
 street (of L.) and he killed one of them with 
 a silver knife (!) Burke, Reynolds, Johnson, 
 Fitzherbert (quotha) got him off. His works 
 are 
 
 Frusta Litteraria (Literary Scourge). 
 
 The Italians. 
 
 Travels. Discorso on Shakesp. 
 
 &c. partly in Italian, partly in English. He 
 is a rugged hard keen man — as his Diet, it- 
 self shows. 1 
 
 Galiani, a Neapolitan Abb6 — See Grimm. 
 
 Gries has translated Tasso, Ariosto, Cal- 
 deron — the latter as I partly know well. 
 
 Palestrina, Scarlatti. Italian (earliest) 
 musicians. 
 
 Handel, Bach, Hasse. 
 
 Darstellungen aus der Geschichte der Mu- 
 sik, by Krause — Gottingen. 
 
 Millot, Histoire Litt6raire des Trouba- 
 dours. 
 
 Raynouard, Choix des Poesies des Tr. 
 
 Geschichte der Jungfrau von Orleans by 
 Fouque" — 1826. Berlin, 2 vol. 
 
 1 Boswell has conferred immortality on Baretti, by the 
 frequent mention of him in his Life of Johnson. 
 
 131 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Et sibi res non se rebus submittere tentat. 
 
 (Hor.) 1 
 Piece a iiroir ; a Play of detached scenes. 
 
 Has the mind its cycles and seasons like Na- 
 ture, varying from the fermentation oiwerden 2 
 to the clearness of seyny 3 and this again and 
 again ; so that the history of a man is like the 
 history of the world he lives in ? In my own 
 case, I have traced two or three such vicissi- 
 tudes : at present if I mistake not, there is 
 some such thing at hand for me. Feb y 1829. 
 
 Above all things, I should like to know 
 England, the essence of social life in this 
 same little Island of ours. But how ? No 
 one that I speak to can throw light on it; 
 not he that has worked and lived in the 
 midst of it for half a century. The blind 
 following the blind! Yet each cries out: 
 What a glorious sunshine we have ! The 
 1 old Literature ' only half contents me : it is 
 ore and not metal. I have not even a history 
 of the country, half precise enough. With 
 Scotland, it is little better. To me there is 
 
 1 The verse in Horace runs : 
 
 Et mihi res, non me rebus, subjungere conor. 
 
 Epist., i. i. 19. 
 " I strive to master things, not let them master me." 
 Compare Emerson's 
 
 " Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind." 
 
 2 " Becoming." 3 " Being." 
 
 132 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 nothing poetical in Scotland, but its Religion. 
 Perhaps because I know nothing else so well. 
 England with its old Chivalry, Art and 
 ' creature comfort ' looks beautiful, but only 
 as a cloud-country, the distinctive features 
 of which are all melted into one gay sunny 
 mass of hues. After all, we are a world 
 'within ourselves'; a 'self-contained house.' 
 
 The English have never had an Artist, ex- 
 cept in Poetry ; no Musician, no Painter; Pur- 
 cell (was he a native? 1 ) and Hogarth are not 
 exceptions, or only such as confirm the rule. 
 
 He who would understand England must 
 understand her Church, for that is half of the 
 whole matter. Am I not conscious of a 
 prejudice on that side ? Does not the very 
 sight of a shovel-hat in some degree indis- 
 pose me to the wearer thereof? shut up my 
 heart against him ? This must be looked in- 
 to : without love there is no knowledge. 2 
 
 Do I not also partly despise partly hate 
 the Aristocracy of Scotland ? I fear, I do, 
 tho' under cover. This too should be rem- 
 edied. — On the whole, I know little of the 
 Scottish Gentleman ; and more than enough 
 
 1 Purcell was born in Westminster. 
 
 2 This thought is more fully written out in ' Biography ' 
 (1832). Essays, iv. 62. 
 
 133 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 of the Scottish Gigman. — All are not mere 
 rent- gatherers and game-preservers. 
 
 Have the Scottish Gentry lost their na- 
 tional character of late years, and become 
 mere danglers in the train of the wealthier 
 English ? Scott has seen certain characters 
 among them ; of which I hitherto have not 
 heard of any existing specimen. 
 
 Is the true Scotchman the Peasant and Yeo- 
 an ; chiefly the former ? 
 
 Shall we actually go and ride thro' England 
 to see it ? Mail-coaches are a mere mockery. 
 
 A national character, that is, the descrip- 
 tion of one, tends to realize itself, as some pro- 
 phecies have produced their own fulfilment. 
 Tell a man that he is brave, and you help 
 him to become so. The ' national charac- 
 ter ' hangs like a pattern in every head ; each 
 sensibly or insensibly shapes himself thereby, 
 and feels pleased when he can in any meas- 
 ure realize it. 
 
 Is the characteristic strength of England 
 its Love of Justice, its deep-seated, univer- 
 sally-active sense of Fair Play? — On many 
 points it seems to be a very stupid people; 
 
 i34 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 but seldom a hide-bound, bigoted, altogether 
 unmanageable and unaddressable people. 
 
 The Scotch have more enthusiasm and 
 more consideration; that is, at once, more 
 sail and ballast : they seem to have a deeper 
 and richer character as a nation. — The old 
 Scottish music, our Songs &c., are a highly- 
 distinctive feature. 
 
 Must see Southey's Book of the Church & 
 Tytler's History of Scotland. Also Sir W. 
 Scott's Tales of a Grandfather. 
 
 Read Novalis Schriften for the second time 
 some weeks ago, and wrote a Review of them. 
 A strange, mystic, unfathomable Book ; but 
 full of matter for most earnest meditation. 
 What is to become (next) of the world and 
 the sciences thereof? Rather, what is to be- 
 come of thee and thy science ? Thou longest 
 to act among thy fellow men, and canst (yet) 
 scarcely breathe among them. 
 
 Friedrich Schlegel dead at Dresden on 
 the 9 th of January! — Poor Schlegel what 
 toilsome seeking was thine: thou knowest 
 now whether thou hadst found — or thou 
 carest not for knowing ! 
 
 What am I to say of Voltaire ? (His name 
 i35 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 has stood at the top of a sheet for three days, 
 and no other word !) Writing is a dreadful 
 Labour; yet not so dreadful as Idleness. 
 
 Every living man is a visible mystery : he 
 walks between two Eternities and two Infini- 
 tudes (said already I) 1 — Were we not blind as 
 moles we should value our Humanity at x, 
 and our Rank, Influence &c. (the trappings 
 of our Humanity), at o. Say, I am a man; 
 and you say all : whether King or Tinker is 
 a mere appendix. — (" very true, Mr. Carlyle, 
 but then " — we must believe Truth and prac- 
 tise Error ?)— 2 
 
 — Pray that your eyes be opened, that you 
 may see what is before them ! The whole world 
 is built as it were, on Light and Glory; only 
 that our spiritual eye must discern it : to the 
 bodily eye Self is as a perpetual blinder, and 
 we see nothing but darkness and contradic- 
 tion. 
 
 Luther, says Melanchthon, would often, tho' 
 in robust health, go about ioxfour days eating 
 and drinking — nothing! — "Vidi continuis 
 quatuor diebus, cum quidem recte valeret, 
 
 1 " In any point of Space, in any section of Time, let 
 there be a living man ; and there is an infinitude above 
 him and beneath him, and an Eternity encompasses him 
 on this hand and on that." ' State of German Literature,' 
 Essays, i, 73. 
 
 2 In this paragraph lies the germ of Sartor Resartus. 
 
 1 36 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 prorsus nihil edentem aut bibentem. Vidi 
 saepe alias multis diebus quotidie exiguo pane 
 et halece contentum esse" — content for many 
 days with a little piece of bread and herring. 
 O tempora ! O mores ! 
 
 Luther's last words : 
 
 " ' Mein himmlischer Vater, ewiger barm- 
 herziger Gott, du hast mir deinen lieben Sohn, 
 unsern Herrn Jhesum Christum offenbaret; 
 den hab ich geleret, den hab ich bekandt, 
 den liebe ich und den ehre ich fur meinen 
 lieben Heiland und Erloser, welchen die 
 Gottlosen verfolgen, schenden und schelten. 
 Nim meine Seele zu dir.' Then he repeated 
 thrice : ' In manus tuas commendo Spiritum 
 meum; redemisti me, Deus veritatis. Also 
 hat Gott die Welt geliebet ' x &c. repeating these 
 prayers several times, he was called away by 
 God into his eternal school, and eternal bless- 
 edness; where he enjoys the presence of the 
 Father, Son, Holy Ghost; of all the Prophets 
 and Apostles. Ah! the chariot and chari- 
 
 l"My heavenly Father, eternal and merciful God, 
 Thou hast revealed to me thy dear Son, whom I have 
 followed and known, and whom I love and honor as my 
 beloved Saviour and Redeemer, whom the godless per- 
 secute, revile and abuse. Take Thou my soul to Thy- 
 self" 
 
 " Into thine hand I commit my spirit; Thou hast re- 
 deemed me, O Lord God of truth." (Psalm xxxi. 5.) 
 
 " God so loved the world." (John hi. 16.) 
 
 137 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 oteer of Israel is departed; he who guided 
 the church in this last old age of the world." 
 — Melanchthonis (p. 33.) de vita Martini Lu- 
 theri Narratio — a very brief, meagre, and 
 unsatisfactory performance. I must try to 
 see Seckendorf Historia Luth. (a large Latin 
 book, but said to be authentic). — 
 
 Keil's Leben der Aeltern Luther's. 
 
 KeiFs M. Luther's merkw. Lebensum- 
 stdnde. 
 
 " Ich bin eines Bauern Sohn," says Luther. 
 " Mein Vater, Grossvater, Ahnherr sind rechte 
 Bauern gewest. Darnach ist mein Vater gen 
 Mansfeld gezogen, und daselbst ein Berghauer 
 geworden." 1 Luther used to say, in miner 
 fashion, to the last: wohlauf 1 instead of 
 wohlan / 
 
 Mathesii Histor. Luth. (ed. 1576). 
 
 Motschmanus in his Erfordia literata (Lit- 
 erary Erfurt) has diligently narrated Luther's 
 proceedings while in that town — as student 
 and monk. 
 
 Luther was a monk for fifteen years : " Ein 
 frommer Munch bin ich gewesen, und habe 
 so theure meinen Orden gehalten dass ich 
 sagen darf, ist jemahls ein Munch gen Him- 
 mel gekommen durch Miincherey, so wollte 
 
 l " I am a peasant's son. My father, grandfather, and 
 forefather were mere peasants. After a time my father 
 went to Mansfeld, and there became a miner." 
 
 138 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 ich auch hinein gekommen seyn. Dies wer- 
 den mir zeugen alle meine Kloster-Gesellen de 
 mich gekennet haben. Denn ich hatte mich, 
 wo es langer gewahret hatte, zu Tode gemar- 
 tert mit Wachen, Beten, Lesen und anderer 
 Arbeit." 1 
 
 Luther was born Nov. io*. 11 1483; he died 
 Feb. 18* 1546 — aged 63: his disease was 
 Cardiaca (the last fit, apparently some sort of 
 Colic.) 
 
 Tetzel's business came on 15 17 — when L. 
 was 34 years old. Worms Diet 38. 
 
 Luther's character appears to me the most 
 worth discussing of all modern men's. He 
 is, to say it in a word, a great man in every 
 sense; has the soul at once of a Conqueror 
 and a Poet. His attachment to Music is to 
 me a very interesting circumstance: it was 
 the channel for many of his finest emotions ; 
 for which words, even words of prayer, were 
 but an ineffectual exponent. Is it true that 
 he did leave Wittenberg for Worms 'with 
 nothing but his Bible and his Flute ' ? There 
 is no scene in European History so splendid 
 
 1 " I was a pious Monk, and held my Rule so dear that 
 I venture to say that if ever a monk got to Heaven 
 through monkery, I ought to have got there. All my 
 cloister companions who have known me will testify this 
 of me. For I should have tormented myself to death, 
 if it had lasted much longer, with vigils, prayers, read- 
 ings, and other labor." 
 
 139 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 and significant. — I have long had a sort of 
 notion to write some life or characteristic of 
 Luther. A picture of the public Thought in 
 those days, and of this strong lofty mind over- 
 turning and new-moulding it, would be a fine 
 affair in many senses. It would require im- 
 mense research. — Alas ! alas ! — When are 
 we to have another Luther ? Such men are 
 needed from century to century : there seldom 
 has been more need of one than now. 
 
 Wrote a Paper on Voltaire for the Foreign 
 Review (sometime in March & April 1829). 
 It appears to have given some (very slight) 
 satisfaction : pieces of it breathe afar off the 
 right spirit of composition. When shall I 
 attain to write wholly in that spirit ? 
 
 Paper on Novalis for F. R. just published ; 
 written last January amid the frosts. Gener- 
 ally poor. Novalis is an Anti-Mechanist; 
 a deep man; the most perfect of modern 
 spirit-seers. I thank him for somewhat. 
 
 Also just finished an Article on the Signs 
 of the Times, for the Edf Review; as Jeffrey's 
 last speech. 1 Bad in general ; but the best I 
 could make it under such incubus influences. 
 
 1 Jeffrey was on the point of giving up the editorship 
 of the Edinburgh Review. 
 
 140 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 (August 5. To see Jeffrey at Dumfries the 
 day after to-morrow). 
 
 Every age appears surprising and full of 
 vicissitudes to those that live therein ; as in- 
 deed it is and must be: vicissitudes from 
 Nothingness to Existence ; and from the tu- 
 multuous wonders of Existence forward to the 
 still wonders of Death. 
 
 Politics are not our Life (which is the prac- 
 tice and contemplation of Goodness), but 
 only the house wherein that Life is led. Sad 
 duty that lies on us to parget and continually 
 repair our houses: saddest of all when it 
 becomes our sole duty. 
 
 An Institution (a Law of any kind) may 
 become a deserted edifice; the walls stand- 
 ing, no life going on within, but that of bats, 
 owls and unclean creatures. It will then be 
 pulled down if it stand interrupting any thor- 
 oughfare ; if it do not so stand, people may 
 leave it alone till a grove of .natural wood 
 grow round it, and no eye but that of the ad- 
 venturous antiquarian may know of its exist- 
 ence, such a tangle of brush is to be struggled 
 thro' before it can be come at and viewed. 
 
 All Language but that concerning sensual 
 141 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 objects is or has been figurative. 1 Prodigious 
 influence of metaphors ! Never saw into it 
 till lately. A truly useful and philosophical 
 work would be a good Essay on Metaphors. 
 Some day I will write one ! 
 
 Begin to think more seriously of discussing 
 Martin Luther. The only Inspiration I 
 know of is that of Genius : it was, is, and 
 will always be of a divine character. 
 
 Wonderful Universe ! Were our eyes but 
 opened, what a ' secret' were it that we 
 daily see and handle, without heed ! 
 
 Understanding is to Reason as the talent 
 of a Beaver (which can build houses, and uses 
 its tail for a trowel) to the genius of a Prophet 
 and Poet. Reason is all but extinct in this 
 age : it can never be altogether extinguished. 2 
 
 Books : 
 Must see Thomas a Kempis. 
 
 1 " Examine Language ; what, if you except some few 
 primitive elements (of natural sound), what is it all but 
 Metaphors, recognized as such, or no longer recog- 
 nized: still fluid and florid, or now solid-grown and 
 colourless ? " Sartor Resartus, Book i. ch. xi. 
 
 Sartor itself may be regarded as the fulfilment of the 
 intention one day to write ' a good Essay on Metaphors. ' 
 
 2 Cf. "State of German Literature." (1827.) Essays, 
 i. 86. 
 
 142 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Webster's Dramatic Works. 
 Marston's do. (Never heard of him.) 
 Life of Sir T. More. 
 
 Thorns' Collection of Ancient English 
 fictions. 
 (One Nicholas Harris Nicolas seems to be 
 a determined English Antiquarian.) 
 
 (These Books are all in Pickering's List.) 
 
 What a strange thing is that Quarterly- 
 Review ! How insular, how lawn-sleeved ! 
 What will the world come to ? 
 
 Das Seligseyn ist um eine Ewigkeit alter 
 als das Verdammtseyn. 1 — Jean Paul. 
 
 " The mixture of those things by speech 
 which by nature are divided is the mother of 
 all error." — Hooker, p. 61. — 
 
 Error of Political Economists about im- 
 proving waste lands as compared with manu- 
 facturing : the manufacture is worn and done 
 (the machine itself dies) ; the improved land 
 remains an addition to the Earth forever. 
 What is the amount of this error ? I see not ; 
 but reckon it something considerable. 
 
 Is it true that of all quacks that ever quacked 
 (boasting themselves to be somebody) in any 
 
 l " Salvation is by an Eternity older than Damnation." 
 143 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 age of the world, the Political Economists of 
 this age are, for their intrinsic size, the loudest ? 
 Mercy on us what a quack-quacking; and their 
 egg (even if not a wind one) is of value simply 
 one half-penny ! — 
 
 Their whole Philosophy (!) is an Arithmeti- 
 cal Computation — performed in words ; re- 
 quires therefore the intellect not of Socrates 
 or Shakespear but of Cocker or Dil worth. 
 Even if it were right ! which it scarcely ever 
 is, for they miss this or the other item, do as 
 they will, and must return to practice and 
 take the low posteriori road after all. 
 
 The question of money-making, even of 
 National Money-making, is not a high but a 
 low one : as they treat it, among the lowest. 
 Could they tell us how wealth is and should be 
 distributed, it were something; but they do 
 not attempt it. Political Philosophy ! Pol. 
 Ph. should be a scientific revelation of the 
 whole secret mechanism whereby men cohere 
 together in society; should tell us what is 
 meant by "country" {patria), by what causes 
 men are happy, moral, religious, or the con- 
 trary : instead of all which, it tells us how 
 "flannel jackets" are exchanged for "pork 
 hams," and speak much about the "land last 
 taken into cultivation." They are the hod- 
 men of the intellectual edifice, who have got 
 upon the wall, and will insist on building, as 
 if they were masons. 
 
 144 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 The Utilitarians are the " crowning mercy " 
 of this age : the summit (now first appearing 
 to view) of a mass of tendencies which stretch 
 downwards and spread sidewards over the 
 whole intellect and moral of the time. By 
 and by, the clouds will disperse, and we shall 
 see it all, in dead nakedness and brutishness ; 
 and Utilitaria will pass away with a great 
 noise. You think not ? — Can the Reason of 
 man be trodden under foot forever by his 
 sense; can the Brute in us prevail forever 
 over the angel ! — x 
 
 The Devil has his Elect. 2 
 
 Pero digan lo que quisieren (los historia- 
 dores) que desnudo naci, desnudo me hallo, 
 ni pierdo ni gano, aunque por verme puesto 
 in libros y andar por ese mundo de mano en 
 mano, no se me da un higo que digan de 
 mi todo lo que quisieren. — says Sancho — 
 Quixote 4. 117. 3 
 
 1 Compare with this passage, Sartor Resartus , Book iii. 
 ch. vi. 
 
 I " Let us offer sweet incense to the Devil, and live at 
 ease on the fat things he has provided for his Elect." 
 Sartor Resartus, Book ii. ch. vii. 
 
 3 " But let them [the historians] say what they will, for 
 naked was I born, naked I am, I neither lose nor gain, 
 and though I find myself put into books, and passing 
 from hand to hand through the world, I care not a fig, 
 let them say of me what they will." Don Quixote, Part 
 ii, ch. 8. 
 
 10 145 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 What is the Censura Literaria ? 
 Granger's Biographical History of England. 
 
 "The wishers and woulders were never 
 good householders." — Greene (in Drake 1 ). 
 " Hell is paved with good resolutions." 
 
 This is the only way to make a woman 
 
 dum : 
 To sit and smile and laugh her out and 
 
 not a word but mum. 
 
 L[eonard] Wright (from D[rake].) 2 
 
 Capel LoffVs Aphorisms of Shakespeare. 
 Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature (and) 
 Scarce Books. 
 
 Oldys' British Librarian. 
 
 Brady's Clavis Calendaria. 
 
 Brand (or Bourne's) Popular Antiquities. 
 
 Burnett's Specim. Eng. Prose writers. 
 
 Orford's Royal & Noble Authors. 
 
 Die Moncherei oder geschichtliche Dar- 
 
 1 " Drake " refers to the well-known " Shakespeare and 
 his Times," by Nathan Drake, London, 1817. 2 vols., 
 4to. The saying here cited (vol. i, p. 490) is from 
 Greene's tract, entitled " Never Too Late," 1590. 
 Greene says " thinking this old sentence to be true The 
 wishes, etc." He writes it as prose, but it must originally 
 have been a couplet, "woulders" written and pro- 
 nounced after the 16th century fashion " wolders, " rhym- 
 ing with "holders." 
 
 2 Id., p. 513. The couplet is from Wright's " Display 
 of Dutie," 1589. 
 
 146 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 stellung des Klosterwelt (Stuttgard, 1820, 
 3 Bde.) 
 
 See also Hermes no. 15. for a Review of it. 
 
 Dr. Berkenhout (the English son of a 
 Dutch Leeds merchant) has published a 4 to 
 vol. which treats of the Lit. Hist, of Eng- 
 land, prior to Elizabeth; with what merit I 
 know not. 
 
 It is the sharpest (black) Frost I have seen 
 for some years. 14? 1 Jan? 1830. — I am quite 
 idle. Eheu ! 
 
 My worthy Uncle " Sandy " is dead, and 
 to be buried to-morrow " The heaviest-laden 
 wayfarer at length lays down his load." Un- 
 cle Sandy's widow survived him but a week ; 
 their eldest son lay sick of fever, and at the 
 time insensible. 1 
 
 The week following died my Aunt Mary 
 (Stewart), after eight years of ill health and 
 weary dreary Death-in-Life. 
 
 March I am occupied writing a 
 
 (perhaps 1st.) History of German Litera- 
 ture (save the mark!) which 
 will nowise fashion itself into any shape 
 in my hands. 2 Few men have attempted a 
 
 1 [Now (1866) J as Aitken, Husband of his cousin, my 
 sister Jean.] 
 
 2 In October, 1829, the proposal had come to Carlyle, 
 already known, by his Life of Sqhiller and by articles in 
 
 H7 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 compilation under such circumstances: no 
 Books, continual disappointments from Book- 
 agents, etc., etc. But what boots complain- 
 ing? Bear a hand, and let us do our best; 
 the strongest can do no better. 
 
 Does it seem hard to thee that thou 
 shouldst toil, in dullness, sickness, isolation ? 
 Whose lot is not even this ? Toil, then, et 
 tais-toi. 
 
 Either I am degenerating into a caput 
 moriuum, and shall never think another rea- 
 sonable thought; or some new and deeper 
 view of the world is about to arise in me. 
 Pray Heaven, the latter ! It is dreadful to 
 live without vision: where there is no light 
 the people perish. — 
 
 With considerable sincerity I can pray at 
 this moment : Grant me, O Father, enough 
 of wisdom to live well ; prosperity to live 
 happily (easily) grant me or not, as Thou 
 
 the Foreign and Foreign Quarterly Review, to be compe- 
 tent for the task, to write a History of German Litera- 
 ture, for publication in the series of volumes of the 
 Cabinet Cyclopcedia. His plan for it is set forth at length 
 in a letter to Goethe of May 23, 1830. The first volume 
 was then complete. But on August 31, he writes that 
 the plan had fallen through, after he had brought down 
 the narrative, in the space of a volume and a half, to the 
 Reformation. See Correspondence between Goethe and 
 Carlyle, pp. 159, 187, 207. The book was never com- 
 pleted. Some parts were made into independent articles 
 and printed in the Reviews ; of these were the essays on 
 " The Nibelungen Lied," and on " Early German Liter- 
 ature," which are now to be found in Carlyle's Essays. 
 
 148 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 seest best. — A poor faint prayer, as such, yet 
 surely a kind of wish ; as indeed it has gen- 
 erally been with me : and now a kind of 
 comfort to feel it still in my otherwise too 
 withered heart. — 
 
 I am a ' dismembered limb • ; and feel it 
 again too deeply. 1 Was I ever other? Stand 
 to it tightly, man; and do thy utmost. Thou 
 hast little or no hold on the world; promo- 
 tion will never reach thee; nor true fellow- 
 ship with any active body of men : but hast 
 thou not still a hold on Thyself? Ja, beym 
 Himmel! — 
 
 Religion, as Novalis hints, is a, social 
 thing. Without a Church there can be lit- 
 tle or no Religion. The action of mind on 
 mind is mystical, infinite ; Religion, worship 
 can hardly (perhaps not at all) support itself 
 without this aid. The derivation of Schwdr- 
 merey indicates some notion of this in the 
 Germans. To schwdrmen (to be enthusias- 
 tic) means, says Coleridge, to swarm, to 
 crowd together, and excite one another. — 
 
 What is the English of all quarrels that 
 have been are or can be between man and 
 man ? Simply this : Sir you are taking more 
 
 l " For thee the Family of Man has no use ; it rejects 
 thee ; thou art wholly as a dissevered limb ; so be it ; 
 perhaps it is better so ! " 
 
 Sartor Resartus, Book ii. ch. viii. 
 
 149 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 than your share of Pleasure in this world, 
 something from my share ; and by the gods, 
 you shall not; nay I will fight you rather. 
 Alas ! and the whole lot to be divided is 
 such a beggarly account of empty boxes; 
 truly a 'feast of shells,' not eggs, for the 
 yolks have all been blown out of them ! Not 
 enough to fill half a stomach, and the whole 
 human species famishing to be at them ! Bet- 
 ter we should say to our Brother : Take it, 
 poor fellow, take that larger share, which I 
 reckon mine, and which thou so wantest : 
 take it with a blessing : would to Heaven I 
 had but enough for thee! 1 — This is the 
 Moral of the Christian Religion : how easy 
 to write, how hard to practice ! (Suggested 
 itself one wet evening, on the Trailtrow 
 moss, 2 as I came from Annan, in 1825 ; or 
 perhaps I only mentioned it to Jack then, 
 as a thing I had lately seen. — I love to be 
 particular.) 
 
 I have now almost done with the Ger- 
 mans. Having seized their opinions, I must 
 turn me to inquire how true are they ? That 
 truth is in them, no lover of Truth will 
 doubt : but how much ? And after all, one 
 needs an intellectual Scheme (or ground plan 
 
 l The foregoing paragraph appears, with some verbal 
 changes, in Sartor Resartus, Book ii. ch. ix. 
 Near Ecclefechan. A. C. 
 
 150 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 of the Universe) drawn with one's own in- 
 struments. — 
 
 I think I have got rid of Materialism: 
 Matter no longer seems to me so ancient, 
 so unsubduable, so certain and palpable as 
 Mind. / am Mind : whether matter or not 
 I know not — and care not. — Mighty glimpses 
 into the spiritual Universe I have sometimes 
 had (about the true nature of Religion, the pos- 
 sibility, after all, of ' supernatural' (really natu- 
 ral) influences &c. &c.) : would they could but 
 stay with me, and ripen into a perfect view ! 
 
 — Miracle? What is a Miracle? 1 Can 
 there be a thing more miraculous than any 
 other thing ? I myself am a standing won- 
 der. It is 'the inspiration of the Almighty 
 that giveth us understanding.' — 
 
 What is Poetry? Do I really love Po- 
 etry ? I sometimes fancy almost, not. The 
 jingle of maudlin persons, with their mere 
 (even genuine) ' sensibility ' is unspeakably 
 fatiguing to me. My greatly most delightful 
 reading is, where some Goethe musically 
 teaches me. Nay, any fact, relating especi- 
 ally to man, is still valuable and pleasing. — 
 
 My Memory, which was one of the best, 
 has failed sadly of late years, (principally the 
 last two) : yet not so much by defect in the 
 faculty, I should say, as by want of earnest- 
 
 1 Cf. Sartor Resartus, Book iii. ch. viii. " What spe- 
 cially is a' Miracle ? " 
 
 151 
 
 t 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 ness in using it. I attend to few things as I 
 was wont : few things have any interest for 
 me; I live in a sort of waking dream. 
 
 Doubtful it is in the highest degree, whether 
 ever I shall make men hear my voice to any 
 purpose or not. Certain only that I shall be 
 a failure if I do not, and unhappy: nay un- 
 happy enough (that is with suffering enough) 
 even if I do. My own talent I cannot in the 
 remotest attempt at estimating. Something su- 
 perior often does seem to be in me, and hitherto 
 the world has been very kind ; but many things 
 inferior also; so that I can strike no balance. 
 — Hang it, try ; and leave this Grubeln / % 
 
 What we have done is the only mirror that 
 can show us what we are. 
 
 One great desideratum in every society is 
 a man to hold his peace. 
 
 O Time, how thou fliest, 
 False heart, how thou liest ; 
 Leave chattering and fretting, 
 Betake thee to doing and getting ! 
 
 I must have a whiff of tobacco, first ! God 
 help me ! 
 
 Wer vom treuen stirbt, dem soil man mit 
 Furtzen zum Grab lauten (Epist. obs. viror. 
 l " Speculating." 
 152 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 449). Wer vom Drauen stirbt, dem &c. mit 
 Fiirzen . . . lauten! ! ! — 1 
 
 Wrote a Letter to the Dumfries Courier, 
 about poor Tom Bell's Massacre at Knock- 
 hill, and the Public Prosecutor's neglect to 
 indict his Slayer. 2 Can say that I did it from 
 a feeling that it was necessary. Whether the 
 man will print it or not I shall know to-mor- 
 row; in the negative case, I must send it to 
 the Journal; and then have done with it. The 
 word is spoken, if they see good to shut the 
 public ear against it; a la bonne heure / I 
 have other work to follow. 
 
 1 These words may be found in Boecking's edition of 
 Hutten, Op. Suppl. i. 278, 11. 26 sqq. The context is as 
 follows : " Item Bilibaldus nescio quis, qui debet esse in 
 Nurmberga : ipse fecit multas minas dicens quod realiter 
 vult expedire Theologos scriptis suis. Tunc ego dixi : 
 ' Qui moritur minis, Ille compulsabiturbombis,' few&w/V*, 
 Wer von trewen stirbt, den sol man mit furtzen zum grab 
 leutten." I owe this reference to my friend Professor 
 von Jagemann, who says : " The Latin context makes it 
 clear that Carlyle's second version was intended only as 
 a modernization of the first ; but even the first version is 
 in a form quite modern as compared with the original." 
 The words are too coarse to translate. 
 
 2 This letter is printed by Froude, Life, ii. ch. 3: 
 " The young man [Tom Bell] it appeared had been en- 
 gaged in some courtship with one of the maid servants of 
 the house ; had come that night to see her in the fashion 
 common, or indeed universal, with men of his station in 
 that quarter, was overheard by the butler, was challenged, 
 pursued, and, refusing to answer any interrogatory, but 
 hastening to escape, was shot dead by him on the spot." 
 Knockhill was near Ecclefechan. 
 
 153 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Got dreadfully ill on with a most tremen- 
 dous speculation on History, intended first 
 as an introduction to my German work ; then 
 found at last that it would not do there ; so 
 cut it out (after finishing it) and gave it to 
 my Wife. 
 
 I carry less weight now, and skim more 
 smoothly along (April 12): why cannot I 
 write books (of that kind) as I write letters ? 
 They are and will be of only temporary use. 
 
 A man writes me out of Kent (the Rev? 
 G. R. Gleig the " Subaltern" 1 ) wanting a Life 
 of Goethe ; then still more anxious for one of 
 
 1 The Subaltern, published in 1825, is a story founded 
 on incidents in the Peninsular War, in which Gleig had 
 served. The book was a good one of its kind, and 
 brought reputation to its author, who had left the army 
 and taken orders. In 1846 he became Chaplain-general 
 of the army. He died in 1885. The Lives which he 
 wanted were for some " Library of General Knowledge " 
 of which he was editor. In a letter to Eckermann of 
 March 20, 1830, Carlyle wrote: "The other day there 
 came a letter to me . . . earnestly requesting a ' Life 
 of Goethe.' Knowing my correspondent as a man of 
 some weight and respectability in literature, I have just 
 answered him that the making of Goethe known to Eng- 
 land was a task which any Englishman might be proud 
 of; but that, as for his Biography, the only rational plan, 
 as matters stood, was to take what he himself had seen 
 fit to impart on the subject ; and by proper commentary 
 and adaptation, above all, by a suitable version, and not 
 perversion of what was to be translated, enable an 
 Englishman to read it with the eye of a German." Cor- 
 respondence between Goethe and Carlyle, p. 170. 
 
 154 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Luther ; — which I have refused. If I write 
 Luther, it must be more than a Biographic 
 chronicle or less. Shall we go to Weimar 
 then in winter, and prepare all the documents 
 for that end? — Manos a la obra\ — Take 
 the task which is nearest thee ! 
 
 Francis Jeffrey the other week offered me 
 a hundred a year; 1 having learned that this 
 sum met my yearly wants : he did it neatly 
 enough, and I had no doubt of his sincerity. 
 What a state of society is this; in which a 
 man would rather be shot thro' the heart, 
 twenty-times, than do both himself and his 
 neighbour a real ease / How separate Pride 
 from the natural necessary feeling of Self? 
 It is ill to do ; yet may be done. 
 
 On the whole, I have been somewhat in 
 
 1 In his Reminiscences, ii, 254, Carlyle, writing thirty- 
 six years later, says : ' ' Jeffrey about this time gener- 
 ously offered to confer on me an annuity of ^"ioo ; — 
 which annual sum, had it fallen on me from the clouds, 
 would have been of very high convenience at that time, 
 but which I could not, for a moment, have dreamt of 
 accepting as gift or subventionary help from any fellow 
 mortal." He goes on to set forth his motives for refusing 
 the offer in a passage of acute analysis of his own and 
 Jeffrey's feelings in the matter, in which he perhaps 
 hardly does justice to the simplicity of Jeffrey's kind in- 
 tention. The whole transaction was creditable to both. 
 It reminds one of the Wedgwoods' annuity to Coleridge. 
 The contrast between Coleridge and Carlyle in their re- 
 spective dealing with a similar matter is striking. 
 
 155 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 the wrong about ' independence ' ; man is not 
 independent of his brother. Twenty men 
 united in love can accomplish much that to 
 two thousand isolated men were impossible. 
 Know this ; and know also that thou hast a 
 power of thy own, and standest with a Heaven 
 above even thee. — And so, im TenfeVs Namen, 
 get to thy work then ! — 
 
 Quid mortui viventium legitis epitaphia ? 1 
 
 /-Hart-man v. Kirch- 
 
 I berg's Epitaph on 
 
 Hutteni opera I. 234 J himself: he was 
 
 Abbot of Fulda 
 V about 1500. 
 
 8 th June. Am about beginning the Second 
 Volume of that Germ. Lit. Hist. : 
 dreadfully lazy to start. I know and feel 
 that it will be a trivial insignificant Book, do 
 what I can : yet the writing of it sickens me 
 and inflames my nerves, as if it were a Poem / 
 Were I done with this, I will endeavour to 
 compile no more. 
 
 30 th June. On the 22 nd of June 1830, my 
 
 Sister Margaret died at Dumfries, 
 
 whither she had been removed exactly a week 
 
 before for medical help. It was on a Tuesday 
 
 night, about 20 minutes past ten. Alick and 
 
 l •« Why do ye dead read the epitaphs of the living? " 
 
 156 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 I were roused by express about midnight, 
 and we arrived there about four. That sol- 
 stice night with its singing birds and sad 
 thoughts I shall never forget. She was in- 
 terred next Saturday at Ecclefechan. I reck- 
 oned her the best of all my sisters, — in some 
 respects the best woman I had ever seen. 
 Fain would I have saved her, but it was not 
 to be. — 
 
 " Whom bring ye us to the still dwelling?" 
 " Tis a tired playmate whom we bring you: 
 let her rest in your still dwelling, till the songs 
 of her heavenly sisters awaken her." 1 
 
 spirit 
 
 Thy quiet goodness, [heart so] pure & brave 
 
 now with tears 
 
 [With tears] what boots it [here] to tell ? 
 
 Peace [Rest] 
 
 The path to [God] is thro' the grave; 
 
 take our long 
 
 Thou loved one, for a while, farewell ! 2 
 
 And so this morning (Wednesday), let me 
 
 1 These words are from Wilhelm Meister's Appren- 
 ticeship, Book viii. ch. 8. [What a tragedy was this to 
 us; how vivid still in all its details to me! (1866.)], is 
 written on the margin of the Note-book. In his Reminis- 
 cences, ii. 193-195, Carlyle gives a touching account of his 
 sister's illness and death. It shows the depth and per- 
 manence of his affection. It should be read in connec- 
 tion with a letter to his brother John, of June 29, 1830 — 
 a most affecting contemporary narrative. Life, ii. 109. 
 
 2 The bracketed words of this stanza are erased in 
 the manuscript. 
 
 157 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 betake myself again, with what energy I can, 
 to the commencement of my task. Work is 
 for the living, Rest is for the dead. 
 
 Is not the Christian Religion, is not every 
 truly vital interest of mankind (?) a thing 
 that grotvs ? Like some Nile ' whose springs 
 are indeed hidden, but whose full flood bring- 
 ing gladness and fertility from its mysterious 
 mountains is seen and welcomed by all.' 
 (from myself!) — 
 
 Received • about four weeks ago a strange 
 letter from some Saint- Simoniens at Paris, 
 grounded on my little Signs of the Times. 1 
 These people have strange notions, not with- 
 out a large spicing of truth, and are them- 
 selves among the Signs. I shall feel curious 
 to know what becomes of them. La classe 
 la plus pauvre is evidently in the way of rising 
 from its present deepest abasement : in time, 
 it is likely, the world will be better divided, 
 and he that has the toil of ploughing will 
 have the first cut at the reaping. — I answered 
 these St. Ss. and partly expect to hear from 
 them again. 2 
 
 l Published a few months before in the Edinburgh 
 Review. The thought contained in the preceding para- 
 graph is treated at large in it. 
 
 2" I forget whether I mentioned last week," writes 
 Carlyle to his mother, "that we had a parcel from Goethe, 
 with pictures of his House, etc. ; and a still stranger 
 parcel from Paris addressed to the Author of the Signs 
 
 I 5 8 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 A man with ^200,000 a year eats the 
 whole fruit of 6,666 men's labour thro' a year ; 
 for you can get a stout spademan to work 
 and maintain himself for that sum of ^30. 
 Thus we have private individuals whose wages 
 are equal to the wages of 7 or 8 thousand 
 other individuals : what do those highly bene- 
 ficed individuals do to society for their wages ? 
 
 of the Times. The people there seem to think me a very 
 promising man, and that some good will come of me. 
 Thus a prophet is not without honor save in his own 
 country. Poor prophet! However, in my present soli- 
 tude, I am very glad of these small encouragements." 
 Letters, i. 226. In a letter of the 31 August, 1830, to 
 Goethe, Carlyle tells of the letter and books sent to 
 him by La Sociiti Saint Simonienne and adds : " If you 
 have chanced to notice that Saint Simonian affair, 
 which long turned on Political Economy, and but lately 
 became Artistic and Religious, I should like much to 
 hear your thoughts on it." Correspondence of Goethe and 
 Carlyle, p. 215. In his reply on the 17th October, Goethe 
 merely says: "Von der Socie'te' St. Simonienne bitte 
 Sich fern zu halten." " From the St. Simonian Society 
 pray hold yourself aloof." Id. p. 226.. Writing again 
 to Goethe, on the 22d June, 1831, Carlyle tells of another 
 gift of documents from the Saint-Simonians, and says : 
 "They seem to me to be earnest, zealous and nowise 
 ignorant men, but wandering in strange paths. I should 
 say they have discovered and laid to heart this momen- 
 tous and now almost forgotten truth, Man is still Man, 
 and are already beginning to make false applications of 
 it. I have every disposition to follow your advice, and 
 stand apart from them ; looking on their Society and its 
 progress nevertheless as a true and remarkable Sign of 
 the Times." Id. p. 258. In Sartor Resartus, Book iii. 
 ch. xii, Carlyle repeats his opinion of the Saint Simo- 
 nians in almost the same words as those he had used 
 concerning them to Goethe. 
 
 159 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Kill Partridges! Can this last ? No, by the 
 soul that is in man, it cannot and will not 
 and shall not ! — 
 
 Our Political Economists should collect 
 statistical facts / such as, What is the lowest 
 sum a man can live on in various countrie's ; 
 what is the highest he gets to live on ; How 
 many people work with their hands, How 
 many with their heads, How many not at all; 
 
 — and innumerable such. What all want to 
 know is the condition of our fellow men, and 
 strange to say, it is the thing least of all un- 
 derstood, or to be understood as matters go. 
 
 — The present ' Science ' of Political Econo- 
 my requires far less intellect than successful 
 Bellows-mending; and perhaps does less 
 good, if we deduct all the evil it brings us. 
 1 Tho' young it already carries marks of de- 
 crepitude ' : a speedy and soft death to it ! 
 
 You see two men fronting each other ; one 
 sits dressed in red cloth, the other stands 
 dressed in threadbare blue ; the first says to 
 the other: Be hanged and anatomised! — 
 and it is forthwith put in execution, and the 
 matter rests not till Number Two is a skele- 
 ton ! Whence comes it ? These men have 
 
 1 Readers of Sartor Resartus will recall that one of the 
 particulars in the famous epitaph of Count Zahdarm is : 
 Dum sub Luna agebat, quinquies mille Perdrices plumbo 
 confecit. 
 
 160 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 no physical hold of each other, they are not in 
 contact ; each of the Bailiffs &c. is included 
 within his own skin, and not hooked to any 
 other. The Reason is: Man is a spirit ; in- 
 visible influences run thro' Society, and make 
 it a mysterious whole, full of Life and inscrut- 
 able activities and capabilities. Our individ- 
 ual existence is mystery; our social still 
 
 more.- 
 
 Nothing can act but where it is ? True, 
 if you will; only where is it? Is not the 
 Distant, the Dead, whom I love and sorrow 
 for, Here, in the genuine spiritual sense, as 
 really as the Table I now write on ? Space 
 is a mode of our Sense ; so is Time (this I 
 only half understand) : we are — we know 
 not what ; light-sparkles floating in the Aether 
 of the Divinity ! — So that this solid world, 
 after all, is but an air-image ; our Me is the 
 only reality, ' and all is Godlike or God.' — 2 
 
 Thou wilt have no Mystery and Mysticism ; 
 wilt live in the daylight (rushlight ?) of Truth, 
 and see thy world and understand it ? Nay 
 thou wilt laugh at all that believe in a Mys- 
 tery ; to whom the Universe is an Oracle and 
 Temple as well as a Kitchen and Cattle-stall ? 
 Armer Teufel 7 Doth not thy Cow calve, doth 
 not thy Bull gender? Nay (peradventure) 
 
 IThis paragraph, in fuller development, is embodied 
 in Sartor Res artus, Book i. ch. ix. 
 2 Cf. Sartor Resartus, Book i. ch. vii. 
 
 ii 161 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 dost not thou thyself gender ? Explain me 
 that ; or do one of two things : Retire into 
 private places with thy foolish cackle; or, 
 what were better, give it up, and weep, not 
 that the world is mean and disenchanted and 
 prosaic, but that thou art vain and blind. — 1 
 
 Is anything more wonderful than another, 
 if you consider it maturely ? / have seen no 
 men rise from the Dead; I have seen some 
 thousands rise from Nothing: I have not 
 force to fly into the Sun, but I have force to 
 lift my hand ; which is equally strange. 2 
 
 Wonder is the basis of worship : the reign 
 of Wonder is perennial, indestructible ; only 
 at certain stages (as the present) it is (for 
 some short season) in partibus infidelium? 
 
 What is a man if you look at him with the 
 
 1 Cf. Sartor Resartus, Book i. ch. x, where this para- 
 graph appears with some enlargement. 
 
 2 " Thus were it not miraculous, could I stretch forth 
 my hand and clutch the Sun ? Yet thou seest me daily 
 stretch forth my hand and therewith clutch many a thing, 
 and swing it hither and thither. Art thou a grown baby, 
 then, to fancy that the Miracle lies in miles of distance, 
 or in pounds avoirdupois of weight ; and not to see that 
 the true inexplicable God-revealing Miracle lies in this, 
 that I stretch forth my hand at all ; that I have free force 
 to clutch aught therewith ? " 
 
 Sartor Resartus ; Book iii. ch. viii. 
 
 3 This sentence appears in Sartor Resartus, Book i. 
 ch. x. 
 
 162 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 mere Logical sense, with the Understanding ? 
 A pitiful hungry biped that wears breeches. 
 Often when I read of pompous ceremonials, 
 drawing-room levees and coronations, on a 
 sudden the clothes fly off the whole party in 
 my fancy, and they stand there straddling, 
 in a half-ludicrous, half-horrid condition! — 
 August 1830. 1 
 
 September 7^ Yesterday I received tid- 
 ings that my project of 
 cutting up that thrice-wretched Hist. G. 
 Literature into Review Articles, and so 
 realizing something for my Year's work, 
 will not take effect. The ' Course of Provi- 
 dence ' (nay sometimes I almost feel that 
 there is such a thing even for me) seems 
 guiding my steps into new regions ; the ques- 
 tion is coming more and more towards a 
 decision : Canst thou, there as thou art, ac- 
 complish aught good and true, or art thou to 
 die miserably as a vain Pretender ? It is 
 above a year since I wrote one sentence that 
 came from the right place ; since I did one 
 action that seemed to be really worthy. The 
 want of money is a comparatively insignifi- 
 cant affair : 2 were I doing well otherwise, I 
 
 1 Here is the first formal expression of the thought 
 that grew into Sartor Resartus. Cf. Book i. chs. ix, x, 
 in which the special fancies of this paragraph have their 
 full play. 
 
 2 "We are very poor at present; but that is all, and 
 
 163 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 could most readily consent to go destitute 
 and suffer all sorts of things. On the whole 
 I am a — But tush! — 
 
 The Moral Nature of a man is not a com- 
 posite factitious concern, but lies in the very 
 heart of his being, as his very Self of Selves. 
 The first alleviation to irremediable Pain is 
 some conviction that it has been merited; 
 that it comes from the All-just, from God. — 
 
 What am I but a sort of Ghost? Men 
 rise as Apparitions from the bosom of Night, 
 and after grinning, squeaking, gibbering some 
 space, return thither. The earth they stand 
 on is Bottomless; the vault of their sky is 
 Infinitude; the Life- Time is encompassed 
 with Eternity. O wonder! And they buy 
 cattle or seats in Parliament, and drink 
 coarser or finer fermented liquours, as if all 
 this were a City that had foundations. 1 
 
 I have strange glimpses of the power of 
 spiritual Union, of Association among men 
 of like object. Therein lies the true Element 
 of Religion : it is a truly supernatural cli- 
 mate. All wondrous things, from a Pennen- 
 den Heath, or Penny-a-week Purgatory So- 
 
 we will get over that. Fear nothing: we mean nothing 
 but honest things, and must and will prosper in them, 
 seeing the very effort is success." Carlyle to his brother 
 John, Aug. 6, 1830. Letters, i. 230. 
 l Cf. Sartor Resartus, Book i. ch. iii. 
 
 164 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 ciety, to the foundation of a Christianity, or 
 the (now obsolete) exercise of magic, take 
 their rise here. Men work godlike miracles 
 thereby, and the horridest abominations. 
 Society is a wonder of wonders ; x and Politics 
 (in the right sense, far, very far from the 
 common one) is the noblest Science. 
 
 Cor ne edito ! 2 Up and be doing ! Hast thou 
 not the strangest grandest of all talents com- 
 mitted to thee; namely Life itself? O 
 Heaven ! And it is momently rusting and 
 wasting, if thou use it not. Up and be do- 
 ing; and pray (if thou but can) to the Un- 
 seen Author of all thy Strength to guide thee 
 
 1 Cf. Sartor Resartus, Book iii. ch. ii. 
 
 2 See ante, p. 131. This injunction is among the say- 
 ings ascribed to Pythagoras by Diogenes Laertius in his 
 Life of the philosopher, § 18. Plutarch cites it in his 
 essay 'Of the Training of Children.' "Eat not thy 
 heart ; which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste them 
 with vexatious cares." But, as was long since pointed out, 
 the conception of eating one's own heart is to be found 
 in Homer, in the pathetic verses describing Bellerophon : 
 
 — olog dXutOf 
 Ov &Vfiov xatidoiv, ndtov dv&QOJrttav aXsshcov. 
 " He wandered solitary, eating his own heart, avoiding 
 the path of men." Iliad, vi. 201-2; and again in the 
 ninth book of the Odyssey, vv. 74, 75, "There," says 
 Ulysses, "for two nights and days we lay, eating our 
 hearts because of toil and trouble." Carlyle had expe- 
 rienced the bitterness of this diet. "It was my own 
 heart . . . that I kept devouring," says Teufelsdrockh, 
 Sartor Resartus , Book ii. ch. viii. And in Wotton Rein/red, 
 Carlyle wrote, "He hurried into the country, not to 
 possess his soul in peace as he had hoped, but, in truth, 
 like Homer's Bellerophon, to eat his own heart." P. 43. 
 
 165 
 
NOTE / BOOK OF 
 
 and aid thee; to give thee if not Victory 
 and Possession, unwearied Activity and 
 Entsagen. — 
 
 Is not every Thought properly an Inspira- 
 tion ? Or how is one thing more inspired 
 than another ? Much is in this. — 
 
 Why should Politeness be the peculiar 
 characteristic of the Rich and Well-born ? 
 Is not every man alive ; is not every man 
 infinitely venerable to every other ? ' There 
 is but one Temple in the Universe ' says No- 
 valis, ' and that is the body of man.' 1 — 
 
 Franz von Sickingen was one of the no- 
 blest men of the Reformation Period. He 
 defended Ulrich von Hutten j warred against 
 perfidious Wiirtemberg; was the terror of 
 evil doers the praise of whoso did well. 
 Hutten and he read Luther together : Light 
 rising in Darkness! He also stood by 
 Gotz von Berlichingen, and now walks in 
 Poetry. But why I mention him here is his 
 transcendent good-breeding. He was at 
 feud with his superior the Bishop of Triers, 
 and besieged by him, and valiantly defend- 
 ing himself against injustice, at the moment 
 when he received his death-wound. His 
 Castle was surrendered; Triers and others 
 
 1 Novalis Schriften, ii. 126. Berlin, 1826. The pre- 
 ceding entry is developed in Sartor Resartus, Book iii. 
 ch. iv. 
 
 166 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 approached the brave man over whose coun- 
 tenance the last paleness was already spread- 
 ing. He took off his cap to Triers, there as 
 he lay in that stern agony. What a picture ! 
 — "He had feud with the Archbishop of 
 Trier, whom the Elector Palatine, the Land- 
 graf of Hessen, and a large portion of the 
 German Nobles were assisting. His castle 
 Landstein was besieged by these Allies in 
 1523; the hero defended it night and day 
 with unflinching steadfastness and valour. 
 At last he was struck on the roof [Dach- 
 mauer) by a musket ball, and fell. He lived 
 four and twenty hours; spoke kindly with 
 the Princes who had conquered him; and 
 tho' already todtschwach 1 took off his cap 
 (Muzze) to the Archbishop whose vassal he 
 was. Even his Enemies wept at the lordly 
 obsequies that in the Church at Landstein 
 were rendered him." Ulrich von Hutien by 
 Wagenseil (page already lost in turning to 
 the Title!) — Lands tuhl the Conv. Lexicon 
 calls the Castle. Munch, F. von Sickingen's 
 Plane, Thaten, Freunde und Ausgang is in two 
 volumes. Should like to see it. — 
 
 Nulla dies sine lineal — Eheu! Eheu ! 
 Yesterday (Monday) accordingly I wrote a 
 thing in dactyls, entitled the Wandering 
 Spirits, which now fills and then filled me 
 
 1 " Faint with death." 
 167 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 ' with detestation and abhorrence.' No mat- 
 ter: to day I must do the like. Nulla dies 
 sine lineal To the persevering, they say, 
 all things are possible. Possible or impossi- 
 ble, I have no other implement for trying. 
 
 Last night I sat up very late reading 
 Scott's History of Scotland. An amusing 
 Narrative, clear, precise and I suppose accu- 
 rate j but no more a History of Scotland than 
 I am Pope of Rome. A series of Palace 
 intrigues, and butcheries and battles little 
 more important than those of Donnybrook 
 Fair; all the while that Scotland, quite un- 
 noticed, is holding on her course in Industry, 
 in Arts, in Culture, as if Langside and 
 Clean-the- Causeway had remained unfought. 
 Strange that a man should think he was 
 writing the History of a Nation, while he is 
 chronicling the amours of a wanton young 
 woman called Queen, and a sulky booby 
 recommended to Kingship for his fine limbs, 
 and then blown up with gunpowder for ill- 
 behaviour. Good Heaven ! let them fondle 
 and pout and bicker ad libitum : what has 
 God's fair Creation, and man's immortal Des- 
 tiny to do with them and their trade ?— 
 
 One inference I have drawn from Scott: 
 that the people in those old days had a singu- 
 lar talent for nicknames : King Toom-Tabard, 
 Bell the Cat (less meritorious), the Foul Raid, 
 the Roundabout 'Raid, Clean-the- Causeway , the 
 1 68 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 lulchan Prelates, 1 &c. &c. Apparently there 
 was more Humour in the national mind then 
 than now. 
 
 For the rest, the Scottish History looks like 
 that of a Gypsey encampment : industry of 
 the rudest, largely broken by sheer indolence ; 
 smoke, sluttishness, hunger, scab and — blood. 
 Happily, as hinted, Scotland herself was not 
 there. 
 
 Lastly it is noteworthy that the Nobles of 
 the country have maintained a quite despi- 
 cable behaviour, from the times of Wallace 
 downwards. A selfish, ferocious, famishing, 
 unprincipled set of hyaenas, from whom at 
 no time and in no way has the country de- 
 rived any benefit. The day is coming when 
 these our modern hyaenas (tho' toothless, still 
 mischievous, and greedy beyond limit) will 
 (quickly I hope) be paid off. " Canaille fain- 
 e'ante, que faites-vous la ? Down with your 
 double-barrels ; take spades, if ye can do no 
 better, and work or die ! " 
 
 The quantity of Pain thou feelest is indica- 
 tion of the quantity of Life, of Talen t, thou hast : 
 a stone feels no Pain. — (' Is that a fact ? ') 
 
 1 A tulchane is, according to Jaraieson, Dictionary of the 
 Scottish Language, " a calf's skin stuffed with straw, and 
 set beside a cow, to make her give milk;" and a Tul- 
 chane Bishop, "one who received the episcopate on 
 condition of assigning the temporalities to a secular 
 person." 
 
 169 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Thursday, Wrote a fractionlet of verse 
 9 th September entitled The Beetle 1 (a real 
 incident on Glaisters Moor), 
 which alas ! must stand for the Linea both 
 of Tuesday and Wednesday. To day I am 
 to try I know not what. Greater clearness 
 will arrive ; I make far most progress when 
 I walk, on solitary roads — of which there 
 are enough here. 
 
 Last night came a whole Bundle of Fraser 
 Magazines &c. : two little Papers by my 
 Brother in them; some (small-beer) Fables 
 by me ; and on the whole such a hurlyburly 
 of rhodomontade, punch, loyalty, and Saturna- 
 lian Toryism as eye hath not seen. This out- 
 Blackwoods Blackwood. Nevertheless the 
 thing has its meaning : a kind of wild popu- 
 lar Lower-Comedy; of which John Wilson is 
 the Inventor: it may perhaps, for it seems 
 well adapted to the age, carry down his name 
 to other times, as his most remarkable achieve- 
 ment. All the Magazines (except the New 
 Monthly) seem to aim at it : a certain quick- 
 ness, fluency of banter, not excluding sharp 
 insight, and Merry- Andrew Drollery, and 
 even Humour, are available here ; however, 
 the grand requisite seems to be Impudence, 
 and a fearless committing of yourself to talk 
 in your Drink. — Literature has nothing to do 
 with this, but Printing has; and Printing is 
 l See Essays, i., Appendix, for these verses. 
 170 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 now no more the peculiar symbol and livery 
 of Literature than writing was in Gutenberg's 
 day. — 
 
 Great actions are sometimes historically 
 barren; smallest actions have taken root (in 
 the moral soil) and grown like banana-forests 
 to cover whole quarters of the world. Aris- 
 totle's Philosophy and the Sermon on the 
 Mount (and both too had fair trial) ; the 
 Mecanique Celeste and the Sorrows of Wer- 
 ter ; Alexander's Expedition, and that of 
 Paul an Apostle of the Gentiles ! Of these, 
 however, Werter is half a gourd, and only by 
 its huge decidua (to be used as manure) will 
 fertilize the Future. So too with the rest ; all 
 are deciduous, and must at last make manure ; 
 only at longer dates. Yet of some the root 
 also (?) seems to be undying. 
 
 What are Schiller and Goethe, if you try 
 them in that way ? As yet it is too soon to 
 try them. No true effort can be lost. 
 
 One thing we see: the moral nature of 
 man is deeper than his intellectual ; things 
 planted down into the former may grow as 
 if forever ; the latter as a kind of drift mould 
 produces only annuals. What is J esus Christ's 
 significance ? Altogether moral. 
 
 What is Jeremy Bentham's significance ? 
 Altogether intellectual, logical. I name him 
 as the representative of a class, important 
 only for their numbers; intrinsically weari- 
 
 171 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 some, almost pitiable and pitiful. Logic is 
 their sole foundation, no other even recog- 
 nized as possible : wherefore their system is 
 a Machine, and cannot grow or endure ; but 
 after thrashing for a little (and doing good 
 service that way) must thrash itself to pieces, 
 and be made fuel. — Alas poor England, 
 stupid, purblind, pudding-eating England ! 
 Bentham with his Mills grinding thee out 
 Morality; and some Macaulay, also be- 
 aproned and a grinder, testing it and decry- 
 ing it, because it is not his own Whig-estab- 
 lished Quern-morality ! I mean that the 
 Utilitarians have Logical Machinery, and do 
 grind fiercely and potently, on their own 
 foundation; whereas the Whigs have no 
 foundation but must stick up their handmills, 
 or even pepper-mills, on what fixture they can 
 come at, and there grind as it pleases Heaven. 
 The Whigs are Amateurs, the Radicals are 
 Guild-brethren. 
 
 The Sin of this age is Dilettantism; the 
 Whigs, and all 'moderate Tories,' are the 
 grand Dilettanti : I begin to feel less and less 
 patience for them. This is no world where 
 a man should stand trimming his whiskers, 
 looking on at work, or touching it with the 
 point of a gloved finger. Man sollte greifen 
 zu ! 1 There is more hope of an Atheist Utilita- 
 rian, of a Superstitious Ultra, than of such a 
 
 1 " One must grip hold." 
 172 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 lukewarm, withered mongrel. He would not 
 believe tho' one rose from the dead. He is 
 wedded to his idols, let him alone. 
 
 September Rain! Rain! Rain! The 
 
 (about the 28th). crops all lying tattered, 
 
 scattered and unripe j the 
 
 winter's bread still under the soaking clouds ! 
 
 God pity the poor ! 
 
 The Jeffreys were here for about a week. 1 
 Very good and interesting beyond wont was 
 our worthy Dean. He is growing old, and 
 seems dispirited and partly unhappy. — The 
 fairest cloak has its wrong side, where the 
 seams and straggling stitches afflict the eye ! 
 Envy no man ; nescis quo urit, thou knowest 
 not where the shoe pinches. 
 
 Jeffrey's essential talent sometimes seems 
 to me to have been that of a Goldoni ; some 
 comic Dramatist not without a touch of true 
 lyrical pathos. He is the best mimic (in the 
 lowest and highest senses) I ever saw. All 
 matters that have come before him he has 
 taken up in little dainty comprehensible forms ; 
 chiefly logical (for he is a Scotchman and 
 Lawyer) and encircled with sparkles of con- 
 versational wit ox persiflage ; yet with deeper 
 
 ISee Reminiscences, "Lord Jeffrey," ii. 245, sqq. for 
 Carlyle's recollections of this visit, and his final estimate 
 of his friend. 
 
 173 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 study he would have found poetical forms for 
 them, and his persiflage might have incor- 
 porated itself gracefully with the Love and 
 pure humane feeling that dwells deeply in 
 him. This last is his highest strength, tho' 
 he himself hardly knows the significance of 
 it : he is one of the most loving men alive ; 
 has a true kindness, not of blood and habit 
 only, but of soul and spirit. He cannot do 
 without being loved. He is in the highest 
 degree social ; and in defect of this, gregar- 
 ious ; which last condition he (in these bad 
 times) has for most part had to content him- 
 self withal. Every way indeed he has fallen 
 on evil days : the prose spirit of the world (to 
 which world his kindliness draws him so 
 strongly and closely) has choked up and all 
 but withered the better poetic spirit he de- 
 rived from nature. Whatever is highest, he 
 entertains (like other Whigs) only as an orna- 
 ment, as an appendage. The great business 
 of Man he (intellectually) considers as a 
 worldling does : To be happy. I have heard 
 him say : ? If Folly were the happiest, I would 
 be a fool.' Yet his daily Life belies this 
 doctrine, and says : \ Tho' Goodness were the 
 most wretched I would be Good.' 
 
 In conversation he is brilliant (or rather 
 sparkling), lively, kind, willing either to speak 
 or listen, and above all men I have ever seen, 
 ready and copious. On the whole exceed- 
 
 i74 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 ingly pleasant in light talk. Yet alas light, 
 light, too light! He will talk of nothing 
 earnestly, tho' his look sometimes betrays an 
 earnest feeling. He starts contradiction in 
 such cases, and argues, argues. Neither is 
 his arguing like that of a Thinker, but of an 
 Advocate ; Victory not Truth. A right Terrae 
 Filius would feel irresistibly disposed to 
 ' wash him away.' He is not a strong man 
 in any shape ; but nimble and tough. 
 
 He stands midway between God and 
 Mammon ; and his preaching thro' Life has 
 been an attempt to reconcile these. Hence 
 his popularity; a thing easily accountable when 
 one looks at the world and at him ; but little 
 honourable to either. Literature ! Poetry ! 
 Except by a dim indestructible Instinct, 
 which he has never dared to avow, yet being 
 a true Poet (in his way) could never eradicate 
 — he knows not what they mean. A true 
 Newspaper Critic, on the great scale; no 
 Priest, but a Concionator ! 
 
 Yet on the whole, he is about the best man 
 I ever saw. Sometimes I think he will ab- 
 jure the Devil (if he live), and become a pure 
 Light. Already he is a most tricksy dainty 
 beautiful little Spirit : I have seen gleams on 
 the face and eyes of the man that let you 
 look into a higher country. God bless him ! 
 And I will blab no more. These jottings are 
 as sincere as I could write them, yet too dim 
 
 i75 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 and inaccurately compacted. I see the nail, 
 but have not here hit it on the head. Basta / 
 
 I am going to write — Nonsense. It is 
 on " Clothes." * Heaven be my comforter ! — 
 
 It was a wise regulation, which ordained 
 that certain days and times should be set 
 apart for Seclusion and Meditation; whether 
 as Fasts or not may reasonably admit of 
 doubt, the business being * to get out of the 
 Body to philosophize.' But, on the whole, 
 there is a deep significance in Silence. 
 Were a man forced for a length of time but 
 to hold his peace, it were in most cases an in- 
 calculable benefit to his insight. Thought 
 works in Silence ; so does Virtue. One might 
 erect statues to Silence. I sometimes think 
 it were good for me, who after all cannot err 
 much in loquacity here, did I impose on my- 
 self at set times, the duty — of not speaking 
 for a day. What folly would one avoid, did 
 the tongue lie quiet till the mind had fin- 
 ished, and were calling for utterance. Not 
 only our good Thoughts but our good Pur- 
 poses also are frittered asunder and dissipated 
 by unseasonable speaking of them. Words, 
 the strangest product of our nature, are also 
 the most potent. Beware of speaking. Speech 
 
 1 Sartor Resartus ; begun at this time, the book was 
 completed in July, 1831. See Letters, i. 235, 300. 
 
 176 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 is human, Silence is divine : yet also brutish 
 and dead ; therefore we must learn both arts, 
 they are both difficult. Flower-roots hidden 
 under soil; Bees working in Darkness, &c. 
 The soul too in Silence. — Let not thy left 
 hand know what thy right hand doeth. In- 
 deed, Secrecy is the element of all Goodness j 
 every Virtue, every Beauty is mysterious. I 
 hardly understand even the surface of this. — * 
 
 Written a strange piece " On clothes " : 
 know not what will come of it. October 28^ 
 
 1830- 
 
 See in Goethe's Werke B[and] 31, about 
 page 220, for the possible material of an 
 Article. 
 
 Our loveliest dear doth sit down stairs 
 Seek well and the gay sweetheart you'll find 
 A timber gown is the suit she wears, 
 And her name is the Muscadine. 2 
 
 Seb. Brandt. 
 
 Gutes Pferd 
 
 Ist's Hafers werth. 3 
 
 (Myself! November 24th) 
 
 Received the ■ ornamented Schiller ' from 
 
 1 Cf. Sartor Resartus, Book iii. ch. iii, where the sub- 
 stance of this entry is reworked. 
 
 2 See ante (page 118). 
 
 3 "A good horse is worth his oats." 
 
 12 177 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Goethe, and wondered not a little to see poor 
 old Craigenputtock engraved at Frankfort on 
 the Meyn. If I become anything it will look 
 well; if I become nothing, a piece of kind 
 dotage (on his part). 1 — Sent away the Clothes ;^ 
 of which I could make a kind of Book ; but 
 cannot afford it. Have still the Book in 
 petto (?) but in the most chaotic shape. 
 
 The Whigs in office, and Baron Brougham 
 Lord Chancellor ! Hay-stacks and corn- 
 stacks burning over all the South and 
 Middle of England ! Where will it end ? 
 Revolution on the back of Revolution for a 
 
 1 On the sixth of June, 1830, Goethe wrote to Carlyle : 
 " Further you will find in the little box the last sheets of 
 the translation of your Life of Schiller. The publication 
 has been delayed, and I wished to make the little work 
 especially pretty, for the sake of the publisher, as well as 
 for its own. I have certainly pleased the public, so may 
 you excuse it. The frontispiece represents your house 
 from a near point of view, the vignette on the title-page, 
 the same from a distance. . . . Outside, on the front 
 cover is a view of Schiller's house in Weimar ; and on 
 the cover at the back, a little garden-house [at Jena] 
 which he himself built in order that he might withdraw 
 from his family and all the world." , Correspondence be- 
 tween Goethe and Carlyle, p. 203. To this volume, which 
 has now become scarce, Goethe prefixed a long preface 
 of much interest, a translation of which forms the first 
 appendix to the above-cited Correspondence, occupying 
 pp. 299-323. 
 
 2 It was Carlyle's first intention to make two magazine 
 articles of what became the book Sartor. This paper 
 which he sent to Fraser's Magazine was entitled 
 " Thoughts on Clothes." See Letters, i. 238, 249. 
 
 178 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 century yet ? Religion, the cement of Society ■, 
 is not here: we can have no permanent 
 beneficent arrangement of affairs. 
 
 Not that we want no Aristocracy, but that 
 we want a true one. While the many work 
 with their hands, let the few work with their 
 heads and hearts, honestly, and not with a 
 shameless villainy only pretend to work, or 
 even openly steal — Were the Landlords all 
 hanged, and their estates given to the poor, 
 we should be (economically) much happier 
 perhaps for the space of thirty years j but the 
 Population would be doubled then, and again 
 the Hunger of the unthrifty would burn the 
 granary of the industrious. Alas! that there 
 is no Church ; and as yet no apparent possi- 
 bility of one ! 
 
 The divine right of Squires is equal to the 
 right divine of Kings, and not superior ? A 
 word has made them, and a word can un- 
 make. 
 
 I have no Property in anything whatsoever ; 
 except perhaps (if I am a virtuous man) in 
 my own Free-will : of my Body I have only 
 a life-rent; of all that is without my Skin 
 only an accidental Possession — so long as I 
 can keep it. Vain man ! are the stars thine 
 because thou lookest on them ; is that piece 
 of Earth thine because thou hast eaten of its 
 
 179 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 fruits ? Thy proudest Palace, what is it but a 
 Tent; pitched not indeed for days, yet for 
 years ? The earth is the Lord's. Remember 
 this, and seek other Duties than game-pre- 
 serving, wouldest thou not be an interloper, 
 sturdy beggar, and even thief : — 
 
 Faules Pferd 
 
 Keins Hafers werth.i 
 
 The Labourer is worthy of his Hire; and the 
 Idler of his also, — namely of Starvation. 
 
 What is Art and Poetry ? Is the Beautiful 
 really higher than the Good ? A higher form 
 thereof ? Thus were a Poet not only a Priest 
 but a High- Priest. 
 
 Examine by Logic the import of thy Life, 
 and of all lives : What is it ? A making of 
 Meal into Manure; and of Manure into 
 Meal. 2 To the Cui-bono there is no answer 
 from Logic. 
 
 Clara gives a kiss, is it much for her to do ? 
 When she gives one don't she take one too ? 
 
 Canst keep thy own secret 
 No other will break it. 
 
 1 " The idle horse not worth his oats." 
 
 2 Compare the humorous development of this thought 
 in the epitaph on Count Zahdarm, Sartor Resartus \ Book 
 ii. ch. iv. 
 
 180 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 These two from Logaiu A Latin transla- 
 tion of Mai in Jordens B[and] 6. 
 
 (Written here to get rid of a rag of Paper 
 — it is a sorting day — Ach !) 
 
 29th December The old year just expiring ; 
 1 830. one of the most worthless 
 
 years I have spent for a 
 long time. Durch eignes und andrer Schuld! * 
 But words are worse than nothing. To thy 
 Review' 1 (Taylor's Hist. Survey.) Is it the 
 most despicable of work ? Yet is it not too 
 good for thee ? O, I care not for Poverty, lit- 
 tle even for Disgrace, nothing at all for want 
 of Renown : but the horrible feeling is when 
 I cease my own struggle, lose the conscious- 
 ness of my own strength, and become posi- 
 tively quite worldly and wicked. — 
 
 In the paths of Fortune (Fortune ! ) I have 
 made no advancement, since last year; but 
 on the contrary (owing chiefly to that German 
 Literary History, one way and another) con- 
 siderably retrograded. No matter; had I 
 but progressed in the other better path ! But 
 alas ! alas ! — Howsoever, pocas palabras I I 
 am still here. 
 
 Bist Du glucklich, Du Gute, dass Du unter 
 die Erde bist ? — Wo stehst Du ? Liebst Du 
 
 1 " Through my own and others' fault." 
 
 2 Historic Survey of German Poetry. By W. Taylor of 
 Norwich, 3 vols., 8vo. London, 1830. 
 
 181 
 

 NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 mich noch ? I — God is the God of the Dead 
 as well as of the living: the Dead, as the 
 Living, are where — He wills. 
 
 Kehret ins Leben zuruck t ■• — Jack 3 writes 
 miserably hurried letters : I fear he is un- 
 happy j there is no doubt he is a little unwise ; 
 yet I think him gathering wisdom. 
 
 This Taylor is a wretched Atheist and 
 Philistine : it is my duty (perhaps) to put the 
 flock, whom he professes to lead, on their 
 guard. Let me do it well I 
 
 In a purse from my wife, yesterday (De- 
 cember 30th 1830); written with pencil on a 
 slip of paper, which I now burn : 
 
 Fortunatus' Purse was a mighty fine thing, 
 Yet a pest, nothing else, to its owner ; 
 For me, neither guineas nor troubles I bring, 
 My whole worth is the Love of my donor. 
 
 Feby7*M831. Finished the Review of 
 Taylor some three weeks 
 ago, and sent it off: no tidings about it yet. 
 It is worth little, and only partially in a right 
 spirit. — 
 
 l " Art thou fortunate, thou Good One, in being under 
 the earth ? Where art thou ? Still lovest thou me?" 
 
 2 " Let us come back to life." 
 
 3 Dr. John Carlyle, then in London. 
 
 182 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Sent to Jack to liberate my Teufelsdreck 1 
 from Editorial durance in London, and am seri- 
 ously thinking to make a Book of it. 2 The 
 thing is not right, not Art j yet perhaps a 
 nearer approach to Art than I have yet made. 
 We ought to try. I want to get it done ; and 
 then translate Faust, as I have partially prom- 
 ised to Goethe. Thro' Teufelsdreck I am yet 
 far from seeing my way ; nevertheless mate- 
 rials are partly forthcoming. — 
 
 Goethe has lost his son, and been on the 
 point of death himself. Venerable old man ! 
 Shall I never see thee with these eyes ? — A 
 letter of mine will be about this time in his 
 hands. 
 
 No sense from the Foreign Quarterly Re- 
 view ; have nearly determined on opening a 
 correspondence on the matter of that ' ever- 
 lasting MS ' with Bowring of the Westminster. 
 Could write also a Paper on the Saint-Simo- 
 nians. One too on Dr. Johnson — for Napier. 
 Such are the financial aspects. N. B. I have 
 some ^5 to front the world with; and ex- 
 pect no more for months. Jack too is in 
 the neap tide. — Hand to the oar ! — 
 
 All Europe is in a state of disturbance, of 
 
 1 See Letters, i. 249. " Teufelsdreck, that is the title of 
 my present Schrift." Id. 237. 
 
 2 Had gone to Fraset first, then ? [T. C. 1866.] 
 
 183 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Revolution. About this very time they may 
 be debating the question of British 'Reform,' 
 in London : the Parliament opened last week, 
 our news of it expected on Wednesday. The 
 times are big with change. Will one century 
 of constant fluctuation serve us, or shall we 
 need two ? Their Pari. Reforms, and all that, 
 are of small moment ; a beginning (of good 
 & evil) nothing more. The whole frame of 
 Society is rotten and must go for fuel-wood, 
 and where is the new frame to come from ? 
 I know not, and no man knows. 
 
 The only Sovereigns of the world in these 
 days are the Literary men (were there any 
 such in Britain), the Prophets. It is always 
 a Theocracy; the King has to be anointed 
 by the Priest, and now the Priest (the Goethe 
 for example) will not cannot consecrate the 
 existing King, who therefore is a usurper, and 
 reigns only by sufferance. What were the 
 bet that King William were the last of that 
 Profession in Britain, and Queen Victoria 
 never troubled with the sceptre at all ? Mighty 
 odds ; yet nevertheless not infinite ; for what 
 thing is certain now ? No mortal cares two- 
 pence for any King, or obeys any King ex- 
 cept thro' compulsion: and Society is not a 
 Ship of war, its Government cannot always be 
 a Pressgang. 
 
 What are the Episcopal Dignitaries saying 
 184 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 to it ? Who knows but Edward Irving may 
 yet be a Bishop! They will clutch round 
 them for help, and unmuzzle all manner of 
 Bulldogs when the thief is at the gate : Bull- 
 dogs with teeth ; the generality have no teeth 
 in that Kennel. 
 
 Kings do reign by divine right, or not at 
 all. The King that were God-appointed, 
 would be an emblem of God, and could de- 
 mand all obedience from us. But where is 
 that King ? The Best Man, could we find 
 him, were he. Tell us, tell us, O ye Codifiers 
 and Statists and Economists, how we shall 
 find him and raise him to the throne : — or 
 else admit that the science of Polity is worse 
 than unknown to you. 
 
 Earl {Jarl, Yirl), Count, Duke, Knight, &c. 
 &c. are all titles derived ixom. fighling : the 
 honour-titles, in a future time, will derive 
 themselves from knowing and well-doing. 
 They will also be conferred with more deli- 
 beration, and by better judges. This is a 
 prophecy of mine. 1 
 
 God is above us ! Else the figure of the 
 world were well nigh desperate. ' Go where 
 we may the deep Heaven will be round us.' 
 
 Jeffrey is Lord Advocate and M. P. Sobbed 
 and shrieked at taking office, like a bride going 
 l Cf. Sartor Resartus, Book iii. ch. vii. 
 I8 5 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 to be married. I wish him altogether well j 
 but reckon that he is on the wrong course : 
 Whiggism, I believe, is all but forever dofie. 
 Away with Dilettantism and Machiavelism, 
 tho' we should get Atheism and Sanscullotism 
 in their room ! The latter are at least sub- 
 stantial things, and do not build on a con- 
 tinued wilful falsehood. — 
 
 But oh ! But oh ! Where is Teufelsdreck 
 all this while ? — The Southwest is busy thaw- 
 ing off that horrible snow-storm ; Time rests 
 not : thou only art idle. To pen ! to pen ! 
 (I shall have Benvenuto Cellini at night.) — 
 
 Feb? 14*!? Ay de mil Another week 
 gone, painfully and lazily 
 and no work done ! — 
 
 Benvenuto Cellini a very worthy Book, 
 gives more insight into Italy than fifty Leo- 
 Tenths would do. 1 A remarkable man Ben- 
 venuto and in a remarkable scene. Religion 
 and Art with Ferocity and Sensuality ; pol- 
 ished Respect with stormful Independence; 
 faithfully obedient subjected to Popes who 
 are not Hierarchs but plain scoundrels ! Life 
 was far sunnier and richer then; but a time 
 of change (loudly called for) was advancing, — 
 and but lately has reached its crisis. — Goethe's 
 Essay on Benvenuto quite excellent. — 
 
 1 The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, compared 
 with Roscoe's Life of Leo X. 
 
 186 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Pope's Homer's Odyssey, surely a very- 
 false and tho' ingenious and talented yet bad 
 translation. The old Epics are great because 
 they (musically) show us the whole world of 
 those old days : a modern Epic that did the 
 like would be equally admired, and for us far 
 more admirable. But where is the genius that 
 can write it ? Patience ! Patience ! he will 
 be here one of these centuries. 
 
 Is Homer or Shakespeare the greater ge- 
 nius? Were hard to say. Shakespeare's 
 world is the more complex, the more spir- 
 itual, and perhaps his mastery over it was 
 equally complete. 'We are such stuff as 
 Dreams are made on ' : there is the basis of 
 a whole Poetic universe; to that mind all 
 forms, and figures of men and things, would 
 become ideal. — 
 
 What is a Whole ? Or how, specially, does 
 a Poem differ from Prose ? Ask not a defini- 
 tion of it in words, which can hardly express 
 common Logic correctly; study to create in 
 thyself a feeling of it : like so much else, it 
 cannot be made clear, hardly even to thy 
 thought (?) — Alas, 'white men know no- 
 thing.' 
 
 I see some vague outline of what a Whole 
 is : also how an individual Delineation may 
 be ' informed with the Infinite ' ; may appear 
 hanging in the universe of Time & Space 
 
 187 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 (partly) : in which case is it a Poem and a 
 Whole ? Therefore, are the true Heroic Poems 
 of these times to be written with the ink of 
 Science I Were a correct philosophic Biog- 
 raphy of a Man (meaning by philosophic all 
 that the name can include) the only method 
 of celebrating him ? The true History (had 
 we any such, or even generally any dream of 
 such) the true Epic Poem? — I partly begin 
 to surmise so. — What after all is the true pro- 
 portion of St. Matthew to Homer, of the 
 Crucifixion to the Fall of Troy! 
 
 On the whole I wish I could define to 
 myself the true relation of moral genius to 
 poetic genius; of Religion to Poetry. Are 
 they one and the same, different forms of the 
 same ; and if so which is to stand higher, the 
 Beautiful or the Good ? Schiller and Goethe 
 seem to say the former, as if it included the 
 latter and might supersede it : how truly I 
 can never well see. — Meanwhile that the fac- 
 ulties always go together seems clear. It is a 
 gross calumny on human nature to say that 
 there ever was a mind of surpassing talent 
 that did not also surpass in capability of 
 virtue; and vice versa ; nevertheless in both 
 cases there are ' female geniuses" too, minds 
 that admire and receive, but can hardly 
 create; I have observed in these also the 
 taste for Religion and for Poetry go to- 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 gether. The most wonderful words that I ever 
 heard of being uttered by man are those in 
 the four Evangelists, by Jesus of Nazareth. 
 Their intellectual talent is hardly inferior to 
 their moral. On this subject, if I live, I hope 
 to have much to say. 
 
 And so ends my first Notebook, after nigh 
 eight years, — here at Craigenputtock, at my 
 own hearth, and tho' amid trouble and dispir- 
 itment enough, yet with better outlooks 
 than I had then. My outward world is not 
 much better (yes it is, though I have far less 
 money), but my inward is ; and I can prom- 
 ise myself never to be so miserable again. 
 Farewell ye that have fallen asleep since 
 then; farewell, tho' distant perhaps near me ! 
 Welcome the Good and Evil that is to come, 
 thro' which God assist me to struggle wisely ! 
 What have I to look back on ? Little or 
 nothing. What forward to ? My own small 
 sickly force amid wild enough whirlpools! 
 The more diligently apply it then. NOg 
 
 1 M The night cometh." John ix. 4. 
 
 [89 
 

SECOND 
 NOTE BOOK. 
 
 Begun in London. 
 
 August 4* Left Craigenputtock, 1 and my 
 1831. kind little wife, Alick 2 driving 
 
 me, at 2 o'clock in the morn- 
 ing. Shipped at Glencaple 3 : hazy day : saw 
 Esbie 4 in the steerage ; talked mysticism with 
 him during six weary hours we had to stay 
 at Whitehaven. Reimbarkment there, amid 
 bellowing and tumult and fiddling unutter- 
 able : all like a spectral vision — ' she is [not] 
 there.' St. Bees Head. Man with the Nose. 
 Sleep in the steamboat cabin: confusion 
 worse confounded. Morning : views of Chesh- 
 ire, the Rock, Liverpool and steamboats. 
 Boy — Man. 
 
 1 For a long contemplated visit to London in the hope 
 of finding a publisher for Sartor Resartus, which had 
 just been completed. 
 
 2 His brother. 
 
 3 Five miles beyond Dumfries. 
 
 * An old acquaintance, described in a letter of 27 Nov., 
 1818, to Mr. Robert Mitchell, asa" double-refined trav- 
 elling tutor. "—Early Letters, i. 191. 
 
 I 9 I 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 5* 7^ in the morning. Land at Liver- 
 pool : all abed at Maryland street. 1 Boy 
 Alick 2 accompanies me over Liverpool. Ex- 
 change-Dome : dim view there. Dust, toil ; 
 cotton-bags, hampers, repairing ships, dis- 
 loading stones. Carson 3 a hash. Melancholy 
 body of the name of Sloan. Wifekin's assi- 
 duity in caring for me. 4 
 
 6^ (Saturday) taken to one Johnstone a 
 Frenchified Lockerby man, 
 who leads me to 'Change; place in 'the In- 
 dependent Tallyho, Sir! ' — See George John- 
 stone, Surgeon, whom I had unearthed the 
 night before. Patient of his. He dines with 
 us. Walk on the Terrace near the Cemetery. 
 Have seen the Steam-coaches 5 in the morn- 
 ing. Liverpool a dismembered aggregate of 
 streets and sandpits. Market-hubbub. 
 
 1 Home of Mrs. Carlyle's uncle, Mr. John Welsh, 
 "a most munificent, affectionate and nobly honorable 
 kind of man." Reminiscences i. 156; see also pp. 166-168. 
 
 2 Son of Mr. John Welsh. 
 
 3 A Liverpool doctor. See Letters, ii. 367. 
 
 4 "Delightful it was" Carlyle writes to his wife on 
 August 11, "on opening my trunk to find everywhere 
 traces of my good 'coagitor's' [coadjutor's] care and 
 love. Heaven reward thee, my clear-headed, warm- 
 hearted, dearest little Screamikin ! " Life, ii. 165. 
 
 5 The Steam-coaches were still novelties ; the first ex- 
 perimental trip with a steam engine was on the Liverpool 
 & Manchester railway in October, 1829. The celebra- 
 tion of the opening of the road for regular steam travel 
 and traffic was on Sept. 15, 1830, a memorable event 
 made tragic by the death of Mr. Huskisson. 
 
 192 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 8*! 1 x Oleum ricini. Go out to find Esbie : 
 he calls on me. Confused family din- 
 ner; do. tea. G. Johnstone again. Talk: 
 to bed. 
 
 9th Off on Monday morning. Shipped 
 thro' the Mersey; coached thro' East- 
 ham, Chester, Overton (in Wales) Ellesmere, 
 Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, Birmingham : 
 attempt at tea there. Discover (not without 
 laughter) the villainy of the Liverpool Coach- 
 Bookers. Henley in Arden; Stratford on 
 Avon (horses lost there); get in to sleep. 
 Oxford at 3 in the morning. Out again there : 
 chill but pleasant. Henley, Maidenhead &c. 
 Arrive full of sulphur at the Whfite] Horse Cel- 
 lar, Piccadilly: dismount at the Regent Circus, 
 and am wheeled (not whirled) hither, 2 about 
 half past 10; poor Jack waiting all the while 
 at the Angel, Islington. Talk together when 
 he returns; dine at an Eatinghouse among 
 Frenchmen, one of whom ceases eating to 
 hear me talk of the St. Simonians. Leave 
 my card at the Lord Advocate's, 3 with 
 promise to call next morning. Sulphurous 
 enough. 
 
 1 The dates from the 8th to the 14th inclusive are 
 wrong by a day in advance. 
 
 2 To 6 Woburn Buildings, Tavistock Square, the 
 dwelling of Edward Irving's brother George, where 
 Dr. John Carlyle lodged. 
 
 3 Jeffrey. 
 
 13 193 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 11th (Wednesday) Go to the Advocate's: 
 am kindly received, the 
 A. looking better than I expected : a Dr. 
 Baron there (whom I knew not as such till 
 after he was gone). Napier's Letter in the 
 hands of the Postman. 1 Am advised to try 
 Murray with my MS. rather ; get a letter to 
 him j see him with difficulty ; send over my 
 Papers, to have the answer affirmative or 
 negative next Wednesday. A tall squinting 
 man; not of the wisest aspect; seems to 
 know me, and smiles on my description of 
 Breck 2 (the dog! I fear he will make me 
 greet on it yet) : the favour of the Ministry, 
 through Jeffrey's interest, buoys me up with 
 him. See the Badamses that evening (B. 
 had already called on me very shortly after 
 my arrival) : poor B. seemed flushed and to 
 have been drinking; his Wife a true soul, 
 talented, true, but girlish; her mother a 
 gigantic French-woman, now Wife of one 
 Kenny a Playwright. Look in upon the 
 Montagues as I return : Procter standing 
 at the door; 3 Mrs. M. in the dusk, colder 
 
 1 Napier was Jeffrey's successor as editor of the Edin- 
 burgh Review. His letter enclosed one of introduction of 
 Carlyle to Mr. Rees, of the publishing house of Long- 
 man & Co. 2 " Dreck," that is, Teufelsdreck. 
 
 3 The Basil Montagus ; Procter, the poet who wrote 
 under the pseudonym of Barry Cornwall, was their son- 
 in-law. Carlyle's relations with the Montagus had be- 
 gun during his visit to London with the Bullers in 1824. 
 See Life, i. 120; Reminiscences, ii. 112, 127-130. 
 
 194 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 than might have been expected, yet with 
 professions enough. 1 
 
 1 2th (Thursday) Go out to see about a Seal- 
 cutter at Mrs. M.'s; am 
 by her detained with a most vituperative his- 
 tory of the Badams Bankrupt, or a cheat dis- 
 covered. Seems to me all overcharged; at 
 best common-place, vindictive, nowise mag- 
 nanimous. Speaking of John, almost get 
 provoked, yet do not. Alas ! \ all things go 
 round and round ' there : old friends utterly 
 gone there; I too am no longer necessary. 
 The people to be pitied ; the ' noble lady ' is 
 alone, with her so shewy Iety? Can say no- 
 thing of the Seal; and now I have hardly 
 
 1 See for the filling out of this and the preceding en- 
 tries the letter to Mrs. Carlyle of that date. Life ii. 164. 
 Carlyle had become acquainted with Mr. Badams, a 
 friend of Irving, in 1824, and had spent two months with 
 him in that year at Birmingham. " This man, one of 
 the most sensible, clear-headed persons I have ever met 
 with, seems also one of the kindest," is what he writes of 
 him to his mother. Life, i. 229. "A most inventive, 
 light-hearted, and genially gallant kind of man ; sadly 
 eclipsed within the last five years, ill-married, plunged 
 amid grand mining speculations, which were and showed 
 themselves sound, but not till they had driven him to 
 drink brandy instead of water, and next year to die mis- 
 erably overwhelmed." Reminiscences, i. 93. 
 
 2 The ' Noble Lady ' was Edward Irving's epithet 
 for Mrs. Montagu. Irving had introduced Carlyle to 
 the Montagus in 1824, and in his " Reminiscences of Ir- 
 ving" Carlyle gives a vivid description of the Montagu 
 household. Reminiscences, ii. 123-134. 
 
 195 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 time remaining to write a most confused Let- 
 ter to my Own, which I do in all sorrow at 
 such loss of time, and the sight of such havoc 
 and dismemberment as 6 years have brought. 
 The Montagues are wicnderliche Menschen j 1 
 worth what? 
 
 13t. h (Friday) Out to Longman's with my 
 Napier Letter. State to them 
 my German Lit. History : they " decline the 
 article," civilly enough. Shall I try them with 
 Dreck if Murray fail ? Schwerlich. 2 On to the 
 India House : see Strachey 3 and talk con- 
 sentaneous Politics: invited to Sh[ooter's] Hill 
 for Saturday. Returning call on Bowring, 4 
 he is in the country, but coming and going. 
 Steer over to Allan Cunningham's 5 at night. 
 (Have a Letter from my little Hermitess which 
 makes me glad and sad.) Allan as of old : 
 full of honesty and loud talk; I promised 
 
 l ' Strange people.' 2 Hardly. 
 
 3 The Stracheys were old acquaintances. Mrs. 
 Strachey was the sister of Mrs. Buller. Mr. Strachey 
 was a Somersetshire gentleman, ex-Indian, an exam- 
 iner in the India House. See Reminiscences, ii. 49, 102, 
 124 et al. Often mentioned in Life. 
 
 4 Dr., afterward Sir John, Bowring, a well-known radi- 
 cal and man of letters ; described in a letter to Mrs. 
 Carlyle, Life, ii. 172. 
 
 5 At this date more or less a London celebrity, "a 
 genuine, interesting man." "Solid Dumfries mason, 
 with a surface polish," and a touch of native genius. 
 For description of him, see Reminiscences, i. 175 ; ii. 169. 
 See also Life, i. 220. 
 
 196 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 something of dining there next week. Have 
 bought this Book in the mg. 
 
 14th Write to Goethe, to Buller, to Fraser. 
 Off to Shooter's Hill. See Mrs. Ba- 
 dams by the way. She has engaged Godwin 
 to meet us at tea ; and countermanded him, 
 and again talks of countermanding him for 
 still a new night. Shooter's Hill looks as 
 well as ever * : Strachey as talkative and full 
 of vivacity as ever : his wife has an unhealthy, 
 faded air; looks rather afraid of me, yet 
 friendly and earnest. Kitty 2 is Mrs Phillips, 
 a mother, and almost a widow (as I hear). 
 
 Foolish Miss whom the Unregene- 
 
 rate demolishes with a shovel-hat. 3 Awake 
 in the country with rooks (on the 15 th or Sun- 
 day), beautiful morning ; views of the Thames 
 and Essex; talk, dinner; return (forgetting 
 my umbrella) by Woolwich, Greenwich and 
 the river to Tower Stairs ; thence home, where 
 a Letter lies from Bowring ' to breakfast on 
 Tuesday.' Shave, wash, drink tea ; argue on 
 the everlasting ' spirit of the time ' with Jack ; 
 
 1 " I have seldom seen a pleasanter place, a panorama 
 of green, flowery, clean, and decorated country all round ; 
 an umbrageous little Park, with roses, gardens ; a modest- 
 ly excellent House." Reminiscences, ii. 124. 
 
 2 Kitty Kirkpatrick, cousin of Mrs. Strachey, with 
 whom she had been living at the time of Carlyle's visit 
 to London in 1824. She is described charmingly in 
 Reminiscences, ii. 117, 125. 
 
 3 Cf. letter to Mrs. Carlyle, Life, ii, 170. 
 
 197 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 bolt off, and write thus far: will now read 
 my Goody's Letter again, and therewith Gute 
 nachtf (15 th 10 24 o'clock at night — up 
 stairs.) — 
 
 15 th (believe I misdated on Sunday, and 
 that Monday was the i5 l . h ) Went to 
 breakfast with the Jeffreys : all very kind. 
 The Adv. entered in his yellow night-gown, 
 with his greyish face, clear roguish eyes, and 
 said : " Why Charly * I've got cholera I be- 
 lieve." Nichts welter passim, except that I 
 got a frank for Goody. Empson 3 not at home. 
 The Seal-cutter not to be found (in Warwick 
 Court). Write to my Jeannie and my Mother : 
 barely in time for the Post. Go to Irving's to 
 tea; talk of St. Simonism, etc. ; Irving at heart 
 the old friend. To dine with Drummond 4 
 (Banker) in his company on Friday. Off for 
 Southampton Row to meet Godwin. Eheu ! 
 find there the French woman with Mrs. God- 
 win, presently afterwards the Badamses. Then 
 a multifarious collection of Dilettanti, Play- 
 
 l His wife Charlotte. 2 " Nothing further occurred." 
 
 3 Jeffrey's son-in-law. See Reminiscences, ii. 269; and 
 Correspondence of Goethe and Carlyle, p. 282. 
 
 4 Henry Drummond, a worldly mystic, the most im- 
 portant figure in the sect that grew up around Irving, 
 and the chief of the Apostles of the Catholic Apostolic 
 Church, which still (1898) survives with a faint and what 
 seems like an expiring life in America and in Germany, 
 as well as in England. See Reminiscences, ii. 187, 198 ; 
 Life, ii. 177. 
 
 198 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 wrights and Nondescripts : G. has in the 
 meanwhile arrived. A little thickset man, 
 with bushy eyebrows (white), grey open eyes, 
 large coarse nose and chin ; bald, hoary, yet 
 brisk, and hearty of aspect, tho' old. He 
 speaks little: what he says has a certain 
 epigrammatic effect-character. Ask him, after 
 some skirmishing about the bush, what he 
 thinks of Literary London now as compared 
 with the same object of old. He answers 
 that old men always prefer the bygone time; 
 that many of his friends are now gone ; but 
 that on the whole the old was the best. 
 ' Deeper questions were mooted.' I des- 
 cribe to him somewhat of my notions about 
 cooperation, proselytism and so forth: he 
 looks gratified, seems beginning to talk, when 
 they force him up to — play whist, and I only 
 see him for the rest of the night ! A furious 
 jingle of pianos ensues ; Rossini's operatic me- 
 lodies almost driving me deaf; and so from 
 amid the chaotic jargoning, I glide off, seeing 
 symptoms of a Supper m. the other room. God- 
 win has not impressed me with very high no- 
 tions of him : yet I still see him with his quick 
 short laugh (in the end of which lies a chirl, 
 as there did in Gilbert Burns's), parson's black 
 coat, firm position in his chair, and general 
 handfest 1 appearance. Will try to see him 
 again under better circumstances. — He drinks 
 l" Sturdy." 
 
 199 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 * strong green tea ' by himself.— After ten at 
 night, John brings up a certain young Mr. 
 Glen, of whom much might be made : a figura- 
 tive mind, eager for insight ; self-helping: but 
 very talkative and confused ; hovering as yet 
 between light and darkness. 1 Bed at twelve. 
 
 16th (whereon I now write). Awoke some 
 time before seven ; sickish, unslept ; 
 must have drugs: am for breakfasting with 
 Bowring. Not very well. 
 
 27 th Have some time ago discontinued 
 this Journal-writing; my Wife's Let- 
 ters 2 being properly a Journal. This afternoon 
 I am just returned from Enfield. 3 Bibliopolic 
 speculation languid enough : i nothing mov- 
 ing upon wheels ' : ach Nichis / 
 
 Is all Education properly an unfolding: 
 does all Knowledge already exist in the mind, 
 and Education only uncover it? There is 
 something in this: but not what is here (so 
 ill) expressed. 
 
 1 " Glen was a young graduate of Glasgow, studying 
 law in London, of very considerable though utterly con- 
 fused talent. Ultimately went mad, and was boarded 
 in a farmhouse near Craigenputtock, within reach of 
 us, where in seven or eight years he died." Life, ii. 200, n. 
 See also pp. 225, 278, 403, and Letters, i. 336. 
 
 2 His letters to his wife. 
 
 3 Where the Badams's lived. 
 
 20O 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Vision of all the suits of " Clothes " you 
 have ever worn ! — 
 
 October Wife arrived ten days ago ; we here 
 1 th quietly enough (in 4 Ampton Street) , 
 and the world jogging on at the old 
 rate. 1 Jack must be by this time in Paris. 
 Teufelsdreck, after various perplexed destinies, 
 returned to me, and now lying safe in his box. 
 There must he continue, till the Book-trade 
 revive a little ; if forever, what matter ? The 
 Book contents me little ; yet perhaps there is 
 material in it : in any case I did my best. — 
 To see Gustave d'Eichthal 2 the St. Simonian 
 this night ! 
 
 l"The beggarly history of poor Sartor among the 
 Blockheadisms is not worth my recording ... 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,' . . . I said, 'We will make it No then ; wrap up 
 our MS. ; wait till this ' Reform Bill ' uproar abate; and 
 see, and give our brave little Jeannie a sight of this big Ba- 
 bel, which is so altered since I saw it last (in 1824-25) ! ' 
 —She came right willingly ; and had, in spite of her ill- 
 health, which did not abate but the contrary, an interest- 
 ing, cheery, and, in spite of our poor arrangements, a 
 really pleasant winter here. We lodged in Ampton 
 Street, Gray's Inn Lane, clean and decent pair of rooms, 
 and quiet decent people . . . reduced from wealth to 
 keeping lodgings, and prettily resigned to it; really 
 good people." Reminiscences, i. 92. 
 
 2 ' ' The most interestin g acquaintances we have m ade, 
 wrote Mrs. Carlyle in December, 1831, " are the St. Si- 
 monians . . . Gustave d'Eichthal is a creature to 
 
 201 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Their Reform Bill lost (on Saturday morn- 
 ing at six o'clock) by a majority of 41. 1 The 
 Politicians will have it, the people must rise. 
 The People will do nothing half so foolish — 
 for the present. London seems altogether 
 quiet (however, I will go out and see) ; here 
 they are afraid of Scotland, in Scotland of us. 
 ' Spanish banditti ' — the sign of a general 
 apprehensiveness. — Poor Jeffrey very ill, but 
 not dangerously. 
 
 On Saturday saw Sir J. Macintosh (at Jef- 
 frey's), and looked at and listened to him tho' 
 without speech. A broadish, middle-sized, 
 gray-headed man; well dressed and with a 
 plain courteous bearing; grey intelligent (un- 
 healthy yellow-whited) eyes, in which plays a 
 
 love at first sight — so gentle and trustful and earnest- 
 looking, ready to do and suffer all for his faith." Life, 
 ii. 224. 
 
 Gustave d'Eichthal had a friendly acquaintance with 
 Emerson as well as with the Carlyles. See Letters, ii. 113. 
 
 On Emerson's first visit to Carlyle, at Craigenputtock, 
 in 1833, he brought to him from Rome a letter from 
 d'Eichthal. See Emerson 's English Traits, p. 18, where, 
 however, the name of d'Eichthal is not mentioned. 
 
 1 It was between seven and eight o'clock, in the morn- 
 ing of Saturday, the 8th of October, after an exciting 
 debate for five successive nights, that the House of 
 Lords rejected the Reform Bill, which had passed the 
 Commons on the 21st of September, by a majority of 
 one hundred and nine. Carlyle's lack of interest in a 
 matter of such grave concern to the nation, and one 
 which was stirring the people more deeply than they had 
 been stirred for many years, is noticeable as an illustra- 
 tion of his engrossment with things of still deeper import. 
 
 202 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 dash of cautions vivacity (uncertain whether 
 Fear or latent Ire ; remember old Dr. Flem- 
 ing's 1 ) ; triangular unmeaning nose; business 
 mouth and chin : on the whole, a sensible, 
 official air, not without a due spicing of hy- 
 pocrisy and something of Pedantry — both no 
 doubt involuntary. The man is a whig Philo- 
 sopher and Politician, such as the time yields, 
 our best of that sort, — which will soon be ex- 
 tinct. — He was talking mysteriously with 
 with other " Hon. Members," about " what 
 was to be done." — Something a la Dogberry 
 the thing looked to me ; tho' I deny not that 
 it is a serious conjuncture ; only believe that 
 any change has some chance to be for the 
 better, and so see it all with composure. 
 
 Meanwhile what were the true duty of a 
 man; were it to stand utterly aloof from Poli- 
 tics (not ephemeral only, for that of course, 
 but generally from all speculation about so- 
 cial systems &c. &c.) ; or is not perhaps the 
 very want of this time, an infinite want of 
 Governors, of Knowledge how to govern it- 
 self? — Canst thou in any measure spread 
 abroad Reverence over the hearts of men ? 
 That were a far higher task than any other. 
 Is it to be done by Art ; or are men's minds as 
 yet shut to Art, and open only at best to ora- 
 
 1" A good old Dr. Fleming, 'a clergyman of mark* 
 informer years in Edinburgh." Reminiscences, ii. 103. 
 
 203 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 tory; not fit for a Meister, but only for a 
 better and better Teufelsdreck / Dentt und 
 schweig 1 1 
 
 The stupidity I labour under is extreme. 
 All dislocated, prostrated, obfuscated ; cannot 
 even speak, much less write. What a dogged 
 piece of toil lies before me, before I get afoot 
 again! Set doggedly to it then. 
 
 When Goethe and Schiller say or insinuate 
 that Art is higher than Religion, do they 
 mean perhaps this: That whereas Religion 
 represents (what is the essence of Truth for 
 men) the Good as infinitely (the word is em- 
 phatic) different from the Evil, but sets them 
 in a state of hostility (as in Heaven and 
 Hell), — Art likewise admits and inculcates 
 this quite infinite difference ; but without hos- 
 tility, with peacefulness ; like the difference 
 of two Poles which ca?inot coalesce, yet do 
 not quarrel, nay should not quarrel for both 
 are essential to the whole ? In this way is 
 Goethe's morality to be considered as a higher 
 (apart from its comprehensiveness, nay uni- 
 versality) than has hitherto been promul- 
 gated ? — Sehr einseitig / 2 Yet perhaps there 
 is a glimpse of the truth here. 
 
 Mary Wollstonecraft's Life by Godwin : 
 
 1 ** Think and be silent." 
 
 2 " Very one-sided," or "partial " view. 
 
 204 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 an Ariel imprisoned in a brickbat ! It is a 
 real tragedy, and of the deepest: sublimely 
 virtuous endowment ; in practice misfortune, 
 suffering, death, — by Destiny and also by 
 Desert. — An English Mignon; Godwin an 
 honest Boor that loves her, but cannot guide 
 or save her. — Ever wondrous is the pilgrim- 
 age of man ! — 
 
 Shalll write about Milliner? — Gott weiss. 1 
 
 1 Uh October. Last night, saw Mill and 
 d'Eichthal (Brother of Gus- 
 tave the St. Simonian), and discoursed largely 
 upon men and things. M. continues to please 
 me. — 
 
 Strange tendency everywhere noticeable 
 to speculate on Men not on Man. Another 
 branch of the Mechanical Temper. Vain 
 hope to make mankind happy by Politics! 
 You cannot drill a regiment of knaves into a 
 regiment of honest men, enregiment and or- 
 ganise them as cunningly as you will. Give 
 us the honest men, and the well-ordered regi- 
 ment comes of itself. Reform one man (re- 
 
 l " God knows." Carlyle had already, in his article 
 on " German Playwrights," 1829, written at considerable 
 length about Milliner, of whom he had said, "no Play- 
 wright of this age makes such a noise as Miillner" . . . 
 but " we must take liberty to believe . . . that he ' is no 
 dramatist. ' " 
 
 205 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 form thy own inner man), it is more than 
 scheming out reforms for a nation. 1 
 
 Hear talk of a " Convention of Delegates " 
 about to assemble from all the four winds 
 here at London, to expedite the Reform Bill. 
 — Some noises in the streets last night ; but 
 as yet no reports of rioting : general or serious 
 rioting for the present I do not expect. 
 
 Now to Milliner; not to write upon him ; 
 he is not worth that : but to scrawl upon him 
 and get him off my hands. Allons 7 — Eheu! 
 
 22 nd October. The principle of Laissez-faire 
 fast verging, as I read the 
 symptoms, to a consummation. Let people 
 go on, each without guidance, each striving 
 only to gain advantage for himself, the result 
 will be this : Each, endeavouring by " com- 
 petition " to outstrip the others, will en- 
 deavour by all arts to manufacture an article 
 (not better) only cheaper and showier than 
 his neighbour. As we see in all things ! A 
 newly built house is more like a tent than a 
 house ; no Table that I fall in with here can 
 
 1 " To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man 
 will undertake, and all but foolish men know that the 
 only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each 
 begins and perfects on himself." With these words 
 Carlyle had ended his paper on " Signs of the Times," 
 in 1829. 
 
 206 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 stand on its legs; a pair of good Shoes is 
 what I have not been able to procure for the 
 last ten years. The Tradesman, in every de- 
 partment, has become an eye-servant ; and 
 could not help it, without being a martyr, — 
 as indeed all men should be. 
 
 Hence too comes the so incessant fluctua- 
 tion in the modes of things. Is the taste of 
 the article better ? Its durableness increased ? 
 Its end more completely answered? Its 
 utility in any way extended ? No : generally 
 altogether the reverse. The childishness of 
 men (often it is their bad passions) must be 
 ministered to; that is the surest course for 
 getting payment : so the workman turns his 
 whole effort in that direction. 
 
 But if such is the condition of things in 
 regard to the Useful which is said to promote 
 itself what will it be in regard to the Beauti- 
 ful, the Moral, which is of no value till once 
 it be had posse ssion of! Look round on all 
 hands and see — in the Church, in the Arts, 
 in Literature. {This last part due to Mill.) 
 
 Expect not a pair of tolerable "shoes" 
 (even tolerably made ones) here ! x They are 
 
 1 Even in later life Carlyle used to complain humor- 
 ously that no tolerable shoes could be found in London ; 
 and to declare that his only pair of well-made shoes came 
 from an old shoemaker in Dumfries, that he had worn 
 them for years, ' had them upper-leathered and under- 
 leathered,' and they would last a long while yet. 
 
 207 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 all made incalculably too wide in the instep : 
 thou puttest them on (and payest for them) 
 easily ; they pinch and becorn thy toes all 
 the time thou wearest them ; and daily thou 
 growlest over the " Competition Principle," 
 exemplified here, as in all other provinces 
 lowest and highest. — Important remark! 
 
 One problem lies before man in all ages 
 and places; Ascertain what thou canst do, 
 and do it. Here in London, lies a second 
 problem often harder than the first : having 
 done thy work, convince the world that thou 
 hast done it. 
 
 John told me of having seen in Holborn a 
 man walking steadily along with some six 
 Baskets all piled above each other, his Name 
 and Address written in large characters on 
 each, so that he exhibited a stature of some 
 twelve feet, and so by the six separate an- 
 nouncements had his existence sufficiently 
 proclaimed. The trade of this man was 
 Basket-making ; but he had found it needful 
 to study a quite new Trade, that of walking 
 with six (or twelve) baskets on his head in a 
 crowded street. 
 
 In like manner : Colburn and Bentley the 
 Booksellers are known to expend Ten thou- 
 sand pounds annually (I had this from Dilke, 1 
 
 l Editor and proprietor of the Athenceum, father of Sir 
 Charles Dilke. 
 
 208 
 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 who had it from their man of business) on 
 what they call " advertising," more commonly 
 called puffing. 
 
 Puffing (which is simply the second trade, 
 that of Basket-carrying) flourishes in all coun- 
 tries ; but London is the true scene of it ; 
 having this one quality beyond all other cities : 
 a quite immeasurable size. It is rich also, 
 stupid and ignorant, beyond example ; thus, 
 in all respects, the true Goshen of Quacks. 
 
 Every man I meet with mourns over this 
 state of matters ; no one thinks it remediable ; 
 you must do as the others do, or they will get 
 the start of you, or tread you under foot. 
 " All true, Mr. Carlyle ; but "— I say: " All 
 true, Mr. Carlyle; and" — The first begin- 
 ning of a remedy is that some one believe a 
 remedy possible; believe that if he cannot 
 live by truth, then he can die by it. Dost 
 thou believe it ? Then is the new Era 
 begun I 1 
 
 In a better time this huge monster of a city 
 will contract itself into some third part of its 
 
 1 Of Dilke " I have little to say, except that the man is 
 very tolerant, hospitable ; not without a sense for the good, 
 but with little power to follow it, and defy the evil. That is 
 the temper in which I find many here ; they deplore the 
 prevalence of dishonesty, quackery, and stupidity; many 
 do it (like Dilke) with apparent heartiness and sorrow ; but 
 to believe that it can be resisted, that it will and shall be 
 resisted, herein poor Teufelsdreck is well-nigh singular." 
 Letters, i. 319. 
 
 1 4 209 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 present bulk. The Landed People have 
 almost no business here except incidentally ; 
 they should be governing in their respective 
 districts; not here flaunting and flirting. 
 Were the quite superfluous population of 
 London shipped off, it would shrink to the 
 third part of its bulk, and be still large 
 enough. 
 
 Potatoes (one penny per lb.) are exactly 
 ten times the price they are in Annandale. 
 (Of their quality I say nothing.) So is it in 
 all things, in a less or greater ratio : so many 
 mortals living together hamper and hinder 
 one another in innumerable ways. 
 
 How men are hurried here ; how they are 
 haunted and terrifically chased into double 
 quick speed; so that in self-defence they 
 must not stay to look at one another ! Miser- 
 able is the scandal mongery and evil idle 
 speaking of the country population : more 
 frightful still the total ignorance and mutual 
 heedlessness of these poor souls in populous 
 city pent. " Each passes on, quick transient ; 
 regarding not the other or his woes." Each 
 must button himself together, and take no 
 thought (not even for evil) of his neighbour. 
 There in their little cells divided by partitions 
 of brick or board, they sit strangers, unknow- 
 ing, unknown ; like Passengers in some huge 
 
 210 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Ship, each within his own cabin : Alas ! and 
 the Ship is Life, and the voyage is from Eter- 
 nity to Eternity ! 
 
 Everywhere there is the most crying 
 want of Government, a true all-ruining 
 anarchy : no one has any knowledge of Lon- 
 don in which he lives; it is a huge aggre- 
 gate of little systems, each of which is again 
 a small Anarchy, the members of which do 
 not work together but scramble against each 
 other. 
 
 The Soul, what can properly be called the 
 Soul, lies dead in the bosom of man ; starting 
 out only in mad ghastly Nightwalkings (e. g. 
 " the gift of tongues x ") : Ignorance eclipses 
 all things with its owlet wings; man walks 
 he knows not whither; walks and wanders 
 till he walk into the jaws of Death, and is 
 there devoured. — Nevertheless, God is in it : 
 here, even here, is the Revelation of the In- 
 finite in the Finite; a majestic Poem (tragic, 
 comic or epic), couldst thou but read it and 
 recite it ! Watch it then ; study it, catch the 
 secret of it, and proclaim the same in such 
 accent as is given thee. — Alas ! the spirit is 
 willing, but the flesh is weak. 
 
 Milliner is not written or perhaps worth 
 writing; however the rude materials of it are 
 
 1 " In the course of the winter, sad things had occurred 
 in Irving's history. His enthusiastic studies and preach- 
 
 211 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 on paper, and lie tied up with packthread, 
 abiding their time. — I am now to write 
 something {what thing ?) for the Edin r Review. 
 Two subjects I have; both distant, both 
 vague. Sad struggle I shall have! "On 
 man," " On Authors " : which ? Or neither ? 
 
 Serious thoughts are rising in me about the 
 possibility of attempting a Course of Lectures 
 here. 3 The subject should be " Things in 
 general " (under some more dignified title) : 
 but as yet the ground is quite unknown to 
 me ; the whole process towards the cathedra, 
 even much of the process there lies hidden. 
 Let me look and study. — 
 
 What are the uses, what is the special pro- 
 vince of oral teaching at present ? Wherein 
 superior to the written or printed mode, and 
 when? — For one thing, as I can see, Lon- 
 don is fit for no higher Art than that of Ora- 
 tory: they understand nothing of Art; 
 scarcely one of them anything at all. — But 
 hast thou any Eloquence ? Ja wokl, ein klein 
 
 ings were passing into the practically 'miraculous'; 
 and to me the most doleful of all phenomena, the ' Gift 
 of Tongues ' had fairly broken out among the crazed 
 weakliest of his wholly rather dim and weakly flock." 
 Reminiscences, ii. 204. 
 
 1 It was not till the spring of 1837, nearly six years 
 after the date of the entry, that Carlyle gave his first 
 Course of Lectures in London. His "Things in Gen- 
 eral "had dwindled to ' ' German Literature. ' ' See Life, 
 iii. 97-105. 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 weniges, 1 were my tongue once untacked. Ach, 
 dass es so ware 1 2 — 
 
 Have been reading in Hazlitt's Table 
 Talk: an incessant chew-chewing, the Nut 
 never cracked, nothing but teeth broken and 
 bleeding gums. The man has thought 
 much ; even intently and with vigor : but he 
 has discovered nothing; been able to believe 
 nothing. One other sacrifice to the Time ! 3 — 
 Ritson's Fairy Tales and Old Ballads worth 
 almost nothing: thickheaded discourteous 
 boor of an Editor, and almost nothing of the 
 smallest moment to edit. — 
 
 — On Thursday night last (this is Monday, 
 the 24 th Oct! 1 831) dined with Fonblanque 
 Editor of the Examiner. An honourable Rad- 
 ical; might be something better: London- 
 bred; limited, by education more than by 
 nature. — Something metallic in the tone of 
 his voice (like that of the Professor Austin) : 
 for the rest, a tall, loose, lankhaired, wrinkly, 
 wintry, vehement looking flail of a man. I 
 
 1 " Perhaps so, a little bit." 
 
 2 " Ah, would it were so ! " 
 
 3 " How many a poor Hazlitt must wander on God's 
 verdant earth, like the Unblest on burning deserts : pas- 
 sionately dig wells, and draw up only the dry quicksand ; 
 believe that he is seeking Truth, yet only wrestle among 
 endless Sophisms, doing desperate battle as with spectre- 
 hosts ; and die and make no sign." ' Characteristics.' 
 Essays, iv. 28. 
 
 213 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 reckon him the best of the Fourth Estate 
 now extant in Britain. — Shall see him again. 1 
 
 Allan Cunningham with us, last night. 
 Jane calls him a genuine Dumfriesshire ma- 
 son still ; and adds that it is delightful to see 
 a genuine man of any sort. Allan was, as 
 usual, full of Scottish-anecdotic talk. Right 
 by instinct j has no principles or creed that I 
 can see : but excellent old Scottish habits of 
 character : an interesting man. — 
 
 — Walter Scott left Town yesterday on his 
 way to Naples. He is to proceed from Ply- 
 mouth in a Frigate, which the Government 
 have given him a place in. Much run after 
 here (it seems) ; but he is old and sick and 
 cannot enjoy it : has had two shocks of Palsy, 
 and seems altogether in a precarious way. — 
 To me he is and has been an object of very 
 minor interest for many many years ; the Nov- 
 el-wright of his time, its favourite child, and 
 therefore an almost worthless one. Yet is there 
 something in his deep recognition of the 
 worth of the Past, perhaps better than any- 
 thing he has expressed about it : into which I 
 
 1 Cf. Letters, ii. 359. Albany Fonblanque was editor 
 of The Examiner from 1830 to 1847. He was in the main 
 a disciple of Bentham ; and by his wit and vigorous in- 
 telligence he secured a wide hearing. His England un- 
 der Seven Administrations (3 vols. 1837), a selection of his 
 editorial articles, is a good record of current opinion 
 during the reign of William IV. 
 
 214 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 do not yet fully see. — Have never spoken 
 with him (tho' I might sometimes, without 
 great effort) ; and now probably never shall. 
 
 What an advantage has the Pulpit, where 
 you address men already arranged to hear 
 you, and in a vehicle which long use has 
 rendered easy : how infinitely harder when 
 you have all to create, not the ideas only 
 and the sentiments, but the symbols and the 
 mood of mind ! Nevertheless in all cases, 
 where man addresses man, on his spiritual 
 interests especially, there is a sacredness, 
 could we but evolve it, and think and speak 
 in it. — Consider better what it is thou mean- 
 est by a symbol; how far thou hast insight 
 into the nature thereof. — 
 
 — Is Art in the old Greek sense possible 
 for man at this late era ? Or were not (per- 
 haps) the Founder of a Religion our true 
 Homer at present? — The whole Soul must 
 be illuminated, made harmonious: Shake- 
 speare seems to have had no religion, but his 
 Poetry. — 
 
 — Where is Tomorrow resident even now ? 
 Somewhere, or somehow, it is, doubt not of 
 that. On the common theory thou mayest 
 think thyself into madness on this question. 
 
 Society I have for some years been wont 
 to divide into four classes : Noblemen, Gen- 
 
 215 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 tlemen, Gigmen, and Men. When is the De- 
 fensio Gigmanica to make its appearance ? 1 
 
 Priest-ridden, wife-ridden, plague-ridden, 
 
 Who escapes his lot ? 
 Bearing, forbearing, paying, obeying, 
 
 Will ye, will ye not. 
 Child-ridden, tremble at my Doll's pouting : 
 
 Fortune, spare me that ! 
 
 Richard Brothers (1798); a most wonder- 
 ful madman; believes himself to be the prom- 
 ised Deliverer of the Jews ; writes a " Letter 
 to Miss Cott the recorded Daughter of King 
 David and Future Queen of the Hebrews." 
 (which I see to-day in the Brit. Museum.) — 
 Deals exceedingly in study of the Scriptures. 
 — "Dated from Islington Madhouse March 
 the 18* 1798." — What became of him 
 ultimately? 2 
 
 1 The notion of the gigman, " one who kept a gig," 
 as the type of British Respectability and Philistinism had 
 struck Carlyle's sense of humour, and recurs often about 
 this time in his writing. The source of it is given in a 
 note in his essay on Richter (1830). " In Thurtell's 
 trial (says the Quarterly Review) occurred the following 
 colloquy : ' Q. What sort of person was Mr. Weare. A. 
 He was always a respectable person. Q. What do you 
 mean by respectable ? A. He kept a gig.' Since then 
 we have seen a ' Defensio Gigmanica, or apology for the 
 Gigmen of Great Britain ' composed not without elo- 
 quence, and which we hope one day to prevail on our 
 friend, a man of some whims, to give to the public." 
 Essays, iii. 32 ; cf. id. iv. 150. 
 
 2 Brothers was born in 1757, and lived, maintaining 
 
 216 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 November 2«d- How few people speak for 
 Truth's sake, even in its 
 humblest modes! I return from Enfield, 
 where I have seen Lamb &c &c. Not one 
 of that class will tell you a straightfor- 
 ward story, or even a credible one, about 
 any matter under the sun. All must be 
 perked up into epigrammatic contrasts, star- 
 tling exaggerations, claptraps that will get a 
 plaudit from the galleries ! I have heard a 
 hundred anecdotes about W. Hazlitt (for ex- 
 ample) ; yet cannot, by never so much cross- 
 questioning even, form to myself the smallest 
 notion of how it really stood with him. — 
 Wearisome, inexpressibly wearisome to me is 
 that sort of clatter : it is not walking (to the 
 end of time you would never advance, for 
 these persons indeed have no whither); 
 it is not bounding and frisking in graceful 
 natural joy; it is dancing — a St. Vitus 
 dance. Heighho ! — 
 
 Charles Lamb I sincerely believe to be in 
 some considerable degree insane. A more 
 pitiful, ricketty, gasping, staggering, stam- 
 mering Tom fool I do not know. 1 He is 
 
 his character as madman, enthusiast, and prophet, 
 till 1824. According to the Dictionary of National Biog- 
 raphy (1886), "the believers in Brothers are not yet ex- 
 tinct." 
 
 1 Time did not change Carlyle's judgment of Lamb 
 (see Reminiscences, i. 94), but added to it, "yet something 
 too of humane, ingenuous, pathetic, sportfully much- 
 enduring." 
 
 217 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 witty by denying truisms, and abjuring good 
 manners. His speech wriggles hither and 
 thither with an incessant painful fluctuation ; 
 not an opinion in it or a fact or even a phrase 
 that you can thank him for : more like a con- 
 vulsion fit than natural systole and diastole. 
 — Besides he is now a confirmed shameless 
 drunkard ; asks vehemently for gin-and-water 
 in strangers' houses ; tipples till he is utterly 
 mad, and is only not thrown out of doors 
 because he is too much despised for taking 
 such trouble with him. 1 Poor Lamb ! Poor 
 
 1 Knowing what we now know of Lamb's life this 
 judgment appears unsympathetic and hard. But it was 
 not unjust to Lamb as he displayed himself to Carlyle. 
 In October of this year, 1831, Carlyle and his wife went 
 to stay for three or four days with Mr. and Mrs. Badams 
 at Enfield. Mr. Alexander Carlyle narrates in a letter 
 to me an incident which took place during this visit : 
 " Lamb was present one evening at supper. The Car- 
 lyles were supping on oat-meal porridge, their usual dish. 
 Lamb began to quiz Mrs. Carlyle about her queer dish, 
 and ended by dipping his spoon into her bowl, saying 
 ' Let us taste the stuff anyhow.' Mrs. Carlyle, greatly 
 annoyed at such ill-breeding and familiarity on the part 
 of a person she had not met before, gave him a cutting 
 retort to the effect that, ' your astonishment at my por- 
 ridge cannot exceed my surprise at your manners,' and 
 had her bowl removed." In writing to her mother soon 
 afterward, she said, ' ' Some of them [London literary 
 men], C. Lamb for instance, would not be tolerated in 
 any society out of England." Carlyle, too, referred to the 
 incident in a letter to his brother, Dr. Carlyle, 13 Nov., 
 1831, " He [Lamb] also loudly criticized our Scotch por- 
 ridge that evening, and being swept away, as a trouble- 
 some insect should, got more and more obstreperous." 
 
 218 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 England where such a despicable abortion is 
 named genius! — He said: There are just 
 two things I regret in English History ; first 
 that Guy Faux's Plot did not take effect 
 (there would have been so glorious an explo- 
 sion); second, that the Royalists did not 
 hang Milton (then we might have laughed at 
 them) : &c. &c. Armer Teufel! 1 
 
 News of wild riots from Bristol : many 
 lives lost, much mischief much scandal per- 
 petrated. The Noodles, if they mind not, 
 will have an old house about their ears. Sir 
 C. Wetherell affirmed and re-affirmed that 
 " there was a reaction, that the people had 
 ceased to care for reform " &c. &c: argu- 
 ment, evidence, was of no use; the man's 
 brain was not to be reached that way; so 
 the Rascality took another : that of knock- 
 in a letter now in my possession, undated, but written 
 probably not far from this time, from Mrs. Procter to 
 Mrs. Jameson, is the following narrative: "Charles 
 Lamb dined here on Monday at five, and by seven was 
 so tipsy he could not stand. Martin Burney carried 
 him from one room to the other like a sack of coals, he 
 insisting upon singing ' diddle, diddle, diddle dumpty, 
 my son John.' He slept until ten and then awoke more 
 tipsy than before, and between his fits of beating Mar- 
 tin Burney kept saying, ' please God I never enter this 
 cursed house again.' He wrote a note the next day beg- 
 ging pardon, and asking when he may come again. — 
 Poor Miss Lamb is ill." 
 1 " Poor devil." 
 
 219 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 ing it in with clubs. 1 — O the wondrous wild 
 ways of this world : how knaves and noodles 
 rise to the summit, and huge movements of 
 society must depend on their good pleasure, 
 on their best insight! — Parvd sapientid, 2 in- 
 deed ! Why it is Dementia; even with that it 
 will go on. 
 
 Dull, Dull ! yet have a " striking Article " 
 to write ! I mean to try if I can write a 
 true one, let it strike or not : would I were 
 able. The fight must be unspeakable first. 
 Gott hilfmirf 
 
 All the world is in apprehension about the 
 
 1 Sir Charles Wetherell, Recorder of Bristol, had been 
 a determined opponent of the Reform Bill in the House 
 of Commons. This had made him unpopular in Bristol, 
 where on the 29th of October he opened the City Ses- 
 sions. The Mansion House where he took up his resi- 
 dence was attacked by a mob. Dealt with too timidly 
 at first, the violence of the mob increased, and for two 
 days Bristol was given over to arson and plunder. 
 
 2 These words are from Chancellor Oxenstiern's 
 famous saying to his son, as it is usually cited, /, mi fili, 
 vide quamparva sapientia mundus regitur, " Go, my son, 
 see with how little wisdom the world is governed." The 
 correct form of the saying seems to be, An nescis, mi fili, 
 quantilla prudentia mundus regatur ? ' ' Do you not know, 
 my son, with how little good sense the world may be 
 governed? " The son was hesitating, on account of his 
 inexperience, to accept a mission to which he had been 
 appointed. Buchmann, Gefiugelte Wb'rte, 1884, S. 310. 
 4 Thou little thinkest,' said Selden, ' what a little foolery 
 governs the world.' 
 
 220 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Cholera Pestilence ; * which indeed seems ad- 
 vancing towards us with a frightful, slow, 
 unswerving constancy. For myself I cannot 
 say that- it costs me great suffering: we are 
 all appointed once to die ; Death is the grand 
 sum-total of it all. — 
 
 Generally now it seems to me as if this 
 Life were but the inconsiderable portico of 
 man's Existence, which afterwards in new, 
 mysterious environment were to be con- 
 tinued without end. I say, ' seems to me; * 
 for the proof of it were hard to state by Logic; 
 it is the fruit of Faith ; begins to show itself 
 with more and more decisiveness, the instant 
 you have dared to say : Be it either way ! 
 The ho he Bedeutung des Entsagen! 1 — But on 
 
 1 This was the last great visitation of cholera to Eng- 
 land. It was a blessing in disguise, for it compelled at- 
 tention to the public health, which led to the sanitary 
 measures that have gradually made England the best 
 protected country in the world against pestilence and 
 epidemic disease. For the wisdom by which these mea- 
 sures were devised and carried out, England is mainly in- 
 debted to the venerable, still living, Sir John Simon, 
 K.C.B., who had charge of them as the Medical Officer 
 of the Privy Council. 
 
 2 "The deep significance of renunciation." ' The great 
 doctrine of Entsagen,' as Carlyle calls it in his essay on 
 Novalis (1829) was one that he had learned for himself 
 from life, but for which Goethe had given him the word. 
 " Well did the wisest of our time write : ' It is only with 
 Renunciation (Entsagen) that Life, properly speaking, 
 can be said to begin." Sartor Resartus, Book ii. ch. ix. 
 This word Entsagen Carlyle had cut upon a seal, which 
 he and his wife frequently used. An engraving of the 
 
 221 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 the whole, our conception of Immortality 
 (as Dreck too has it) 1 depends on that of 
 Time ; which latter is the deepest belonging 
 to Philosophy, and the one perhaps wherein 
 modern Philosophy has earned its best tri- 
 umph. Believe that there properly is no 
 Space and no Time, how many contradic- 
 tions become reconciled ! — 2 
 
 " Sports " are all gone from among men : 
 there is now no holiday either for rich or 
 poor. Hard toiling, then hard drinking, or 
 hard fox-hunting : this is not the era of sport, 
 but of martyrdom and persecution. Will the 
 new morning never dawn? — It requires a 
 certain vigour of the imagination, and of the 
 social faculties before Amusement, popular 
 Sport, can exist; which vigour at this era is 
 all but total inanimation. Nay, you have to 
 argue and redargue (with most men) before 
 they will admit that it is not total. — Do but 
 think of the Christmas Carols and Games ; 
 the Abbots of Unreason, the Maypoles &c 
 &c! Then look at your Manchesters on 
 Saturday ; and on Sunday ! — 
 
 " Education " is beyond being so much as 
 
 seal is in Early Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle, etc. Ed- 
 ited by David G. Ritchie, London, 1889. 
 
 1 In Book iii. ch. viii of Sartor. 
 
 2 " Time and Space are but quiddities, not entities." 
 Essays, i. 143. 
 
 222 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 despised : we must praise it when it is not 
 Zteducation, or an utter annihilation of what 
 it professes to foster. The best-educated man 
 you will often find to be the Artizan, at all 
 rates the man of Business. For why ? He 
 has put forth his hand, and operated on Na- 
 ture ; must actually attain some true insight 
 or he cannot live. — The worst-educated man 
 is usually your man of Fortune. He has not 
 put forth his hand upon anything, except 
 upon his Bell-rope. Your scholar proper, 
 generally too your so-called man of Letters, 
 is a thing with clearer vision — thro' the hun- 
 dredth part of an eye. A Burns is infinitely 
 better educated than a Byron. — 1 
 
 Authors must unite; must form themselves 
 into a Corporation, into a Church. It is one of 
 my prophecies that they one day will. In this 
 present race there is not virtue enough to form 
 a Drinking Club. But what then? Other races 
 and innumerable centuries are coming. — 
 
 A common persuasion among serious ill- 
 informed persons that the end of the world is 
 at hand : Henry Drummond, E. Irving, and 
 all that class. — So was it at the beginning of 
 the Christian era ; say rather, at the termina- 
 tion of the Pagan one. 
 
 1 The thoughts in the preceding paragraph are devel- 
 oped in a passage near the beginning of Carlyle's article 
 on " Corn-Law Rhymes," which appeared in the Edin- 
 burgh Review in 1832. 
 
 223 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Which is the most ignorant creature of his 
 class even in Britain ? Generally speaking, 
 the Cockney, the London-bred man; and for 
 reasons. He has no Libraries, no schools, no 
 clergy : nothing but a workshop, where indeed 
 he is the expertest of men. — In literature, think 
 of Heraud, Lamb, P., 1 &c. &c. — What does 
 the Cockney boy know of the muffin he eats ? 
 Simply that a hawker brings it to the door, 
 and charges a penny for it. The country 
 youth sees it grow in the fields, in the mill, in 
 the Bake house. Thus of all things, pertain- 
 ing to the Life of man. 
 
 November 4t. h Yesterday reading Strutt's 
 1831. Games and Brand's Popular 
 
 A?itiquities in the British Mu- 
 seum. Both good solid serviceable Books. — 
 Playing-cards commonly said to have been 
 introduced in the time of Charles VI. (the 
 mad Dauphin & King) of France ; to appear- 
 ance erroneously ; for they are mentioned by 
 some court-officer of his predecessor. The 
 first law against them is in Spain. Primero 
 a Spanish name; spades was originally espada, 
 and had the figure of a sword. Probably 
 came from the East in the Crusade times ; as 
 Chess then or earlier did. — Strange old in- 
 ventions ! who was the author of them ? — 
 Merelles called also (in Shakespeare for 
 
 1 The initial probably stands for Procter. 
 224 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 instance) nine men's morrice is the game I 
 have played at fifty times in boyhood under 
 the title of Corsicrown (cross i' the crown) ; 
 or rather our poor Corsicrown played with 
 only three men, was but the first portion of 
 the game. — Vauxhall was once Spring Gar- 
 dens (in the Spectator's time) ; Ranelagh was 
 the Earl of R's House; Sadler's Well (in 
 London ?) was once a sacred Holywell ; then 
 walled in at the Reformation, and subsequently 
 discovered by the successor of one Sadler. 1 
 Could any Well or Rock, or other natural 
 Product, but relate its history! — Will look 
 at Brand today, when my work (strenuous no- 
 work !) is done here. Meanwhile to it thou 
 Taugenichts ! 2 Gird thyself, stir, struggle, for- 
 ward ! forward ! Thou art bundled up here, 
 and tied as in a sack ? On then, as in a sack- 
 race. " Running not raging." Gott sey mir 
 gnadig / — 3 
 
 12 November. Have been two days as good 
 as idle! Am far from any 
 approximation to health; hampered, disturbed, 
 quite out of sorts. As it were quite stranded ; 
 no tackle left, no tools but my ten fingers, 
 
 1 Peter Cunningham, in his " Handbook of London " 
 says : " Discovered by one Sadler, in 1683, in the garden 
 of a house which he had newly opened as a public music- 
 room." 
 
 2 " Do-nothing." 
 
 3 " God be gracious to me." 
 
 15 225 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 nothing but accidental drift-wood to build 
 even a raft of. " This is no my ain house." 
 — Art thou aware still that no man and no 
 thing but simply thy own self can permanently 
 keep thee down ? Act thou on that convic- 
 tion. — 
 
 How sad and stern is all Life to me ! Home- 
 less, Homeless ! Would my Task were done : 
 I think I should not care to die ; in real earn- 
 estness should care very little : this earthly 
 Sun has shown me only roads full of mire and 
 thorns. Why cannot I be a kind of Artist ! 
 Politics are angry, agitating, for the present 
 little productive business: what have I to 
 do with it ? Will any Parliamentary Reform 
 ever reform me ? — 
 
 On the ioth, the beginning of my Idleness, 
 breakfasted with a Mr. Taylor, 1 and various 
 parliamentary diplomatic young men in Gros- 
 venor street. Men of pleasant, easy manners; 
 a rather pleasant party. Hyde Villiers gave 
 me a frank, and I wrote a long stupid letter 
 to my mother 2 ; accompanying John's (from 
 Turin). — Yesterday, sick enough, and was 
 visited by Glen: a perfect refining furnace, 
 chaotically melting and weltering, in which 
 
 1 Henry, later Sir Henry, Taylor, " author of Artevelde 
 and various similar things." In his Reminiscences, ii. 278, 
 Carlyle records the " early regard, constant esteem, and 
 readiness to be helpful and friendly" of this "solid, 
 sound-headed, faithful" man. 
 
 2 See Letters, i. 360. 
 
 226 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 there is yet nothing cast, nor any mould to 
 cast in. Advised him to establish forthwith 
 a few " great Possibles" — as poor Davie 
 Halliday, when mad, had established cer- 
 tain " great Impossibles," and was wont in 
 hunting down his theological chimeras, from 
 proposition out of proposition, to exclaim 
 at length: "that is one of the great Im- 
 possibles!" and so terminate the chase. — 
 Poor Glen's Life, as I told him, has been 
 a soliloquy ; he has not yet acquired the 
 gift of communicating, and chiefly there- 
 fore, not of practically understanding — Was 
 wird von ihm werden ? Weiss nicht j hoff 1 
 dock. — Was wird von Dir ? Ach GottJ * 
 
 This I begin to see, that Evil and Good 
 are everywhere like Shadow and Substance : 
 inseparable (for man) ; yet not hostile, only 
 opposed. 2 There is considerable signifi- 
 cance in this fact — perhaps the new moral 
 principle of our Era. {How?) — It was fa- 
 miliar to Goethe's mind. — 
 
 Everywhere and Everywhen lie the ma- 
 terials of Art : these waggons and Drivers in 
 
 l " What will become of him ? I know not, but have 
 hope. What will become of thyself? Ah, God ! " 
 
 2" Evil . . is precisely the dark, disordered material 
 out of which man's Freewill has to create an edifice of 
 order and Good." " Characteristics," (1831). Essays, 
 iv. 25. 
 
 227 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Holborn are a Dance of Death, — also of Life. 
 Man and his ways reach always from Heaven 
 to Hell. But where, O where is the Artist 
 that can again body this forth ! — Not yet 
 born ? — 
 
 Cholera Morbus arrived at Sunderland. — 
 If men are united no other way, contagion 
 and pestilence unite them. — Poor Ricker is 
 dead of it at Berlin; poor Dickenson dead 
 (also of infection) at Edinburgh. Death's 
 thousand doors stand open. Eheu / 
 
 But now, to thy Sheet ! Complain not, still 
 more, ziirrf not. As the saints say: " Pray to 
 the Lord," rather (in such dialect as thou 
 canst) ; also handsomely and heartily set thy 
 shoulder to the wheel ! Heave-oh ! 
 
 The nobleness of Silence. The highest 
 melody dwells only in silence (the Sphere me- 
 lody, the melody of Health) ; the eye cannot 
 see Shadow, cannot see Light, but only the two 
 combined. General Law of Being. (Think 
 farther of this. NovT 17*). — 
 
 As it is but a small portion of our Thinking 
 that we can articulate into Thoughts, so again 
 it is but a small portion, properly only the 
 outer surface of our morality that we can shape 
 into Action, or into express Rules of Action. 
 Remark farther that it is but the correct cohe- 
 rent shaping of this outer surface, or the in- 
 
 228 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 correct incoherent monstrous shaping of it, 
 and nowise the moral Force which shaped it, 
 which lies under it, vague, indefinite, unseen, 
 that constitutes what in common speech we 
 call a moral conduct or an immoral. Hence 
 too the necessity of tolerance, of insight, in 
 judging of men. For the correctness of that 
 same outer surface may be out of all propor- 
 tion to the inward depth and quantity; nay 
 often enough they are in inverse proportion ; 
 only in some highly favoured individuals can 
 the great endowment utter itself without ir- 
 regularity. Thus in great men, with whom 
 inward and as it were latent morality must 
 ever be the root and beginning of greatness, 
 how often do we find a conduct defaced by 
 many a moral impropriety ; and have to love 
 them with sorrow! Thus too poor Burns 
 must record that almost the only noble- 
 minded men he had ever met with were among 
 the class named Blackguards. 1 
 
 Extremes meet. Perfect Morality were no 
 more an object of consciousness than perfect 
 Immorality, as pure Light cannot any more 
 be seen than pure Darkness. — 
 
 l " I have often courted the acquaintance of that part 
 of mankind, commonly known by the ordinary phrase of 
 blackguards ... I have yet found among them, in not 
 a few instances, some of the noblest virtues." Burns, 
 " Common Place Book," March, 1784. In Cromek's 
 Reliques of Burns, 1817, p. 323. 
 
 229 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 The healthy moral nature loves virtue; 
 the unhealthy at best makes love to it. 1 
 
 Friday Finished th e Characteristics, 
 
 23 d December, about a week ago; bad- 
 dish, with a certain begin- 
 ning of deeper insight in it. 
 
 Reading the Corn Law Rhymes? " Balaam's 
 Ass has not only stopt,but begins to speak ! " 
 Witness Detrosier too. — 3 
 
 Byron we call " a Dandy of Sorrows, and 
 acquainted with grief." That is a brief defi- 
 nition of him. 
 
 13t h January London still. — Have spent 
 1832. nearly three weeks in reading 
 
 Croker's BoswelFs Johnson; 
 on which I have now (and had) some pur- 
 pose of writing an Essay. I mean to try 
 whether I cannot get into a more currente 
 calamo style of writing; for magazines and 
 the like, it were far more suitable : whether 
 also for me and my objects ? The Charac- 
 
 1 The thought in this and the preceding entry is worked 
 out in the " Characteristics." 
 
 2 By Ebenezer Elliott. These poems furnished the 
 text of the article with the same title. 
 
 3 Detrosier was a " Manchester Lecturer to the Work- 
 ing Classes," brought by John Mill to Carlyle. " The 
 Saint Simonians, Manchester, Detrosier, etc., were stir- 
 ring and conspicuous objects in that epoch, but have 
 now fallen all dark and silent again." T. C. 1866. 
 Life, ii. 224, n. 
 
 230 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 teristics was written with almost intolerable 
 difficulty, and is ill written, I fear no one will 
 understand it. We shall see in a week or 
 two, for it is coming out. — 
 
 Have made a kind of engagement with 
 Lardner of the Cabinet Cyclopedia to furnish 
 him a Zur Geschichte 1 of German Literature; 
 incorporating my Papers in the Foreign Re- 
 view &c, 170 pages of original writing: do 
 not yet above three-fourths see my way thro' 
 it ; am to have it ready next November. No 
 list of "Books wanted" yet made out; this 
 should be my first task. The work will serve 
 me perhaps pretty tolerably thro' the sum- 
 mer ; I shall get done with German Litera- 
 ture; a little money too (^300) for my two 
 volumes, and pay off that ^60^ my only 
 debt which sometimes grieves me a little. — I 
 have been sick of a kind of cold; and am 
 still in rather uncomfortable health ; but do 
 not mind it very much. 
 
 Plenty of Magazine Editors applying to 
 me; indeed sometimes pestering me. Do 
 not like to break with any; yet must not 
 close with any. Strange state of Literature, 
 periodical and other ! A man must just lay 
 out his manufacture in one of those Old- 
 
 1 A book ' ' on the history " of German Literature. See 
 Letters, i. 389. 
 
 2 Money lent by Jeffrey to Carlyle's brother John. 
 See Letters, i. 314. It was paid in August, 1832. See 
 Id., ii. 64. 
 
 231 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 Clothes shops, and see whether any one will 
 buy it. The Editor has little to do with the 
 matter, except as Commercial Broker; he 
 sells it and pays you for it. — Lytton Bulwer * 
 has not yet come into sight of me : is there 
 aught more in him than a Dandiacal Philoso- 
 phist? Fear, not. — Tait the Bookseller 
 about beginning a new Magazine, on the 
 Radical side of things : my feeling is that the 
 chances are greatly against him ; for my own 
 share I have nothing to do with him or it as 
 yet, my hands full otherwise. Then of the 
 infatuated Fraser, with his Dog's-meat Cart 
 of a magazine, what? His pay is certain, 
 and he means honestly ; but is a goose. It 
 was he that sent me Croker's Boswell : am I 
 bound to offer him the (future) Article? — 
 Or were this thy Rule in such cases : " Write 
 thy best and the Truth; then publish it 
 where thou canst best " ? An indubitable 
 rule ; but is it rule enough ? — 
 
 Last Friday, saw my name in large letters 
 at the Athenaeum Office in Catherine street 
 Strand; hurried on with downcast eyes, as 
 if I had seen myself in the Pillory. Dilke 
 (to whom I had entrusted Dreck to read it, 
 and see if he could help me with it) asked 
 me for a scrap of writing with my name : I 
 could not quite clearly see my way thro' the 
 business (for he had twice or thrice been civil 
 
 l Then editor of the New Monthly Magazine. 
 232 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 to me, and I did reckon his Athenaeum to be 
 the bad best of literary Newspaper syllabubs, 
 and tho* I might harmlessly say so much) ; 
 gave him Fausfs Curse, which hung printed 
 there. Incline now to believe that I did 
 wrong; at least imprudently. Why yield 
 even half a hair's-breadth to Puffing ? Abhor 
 it, utterly divorce it, and kick it to the Devil ! 
 — This little adventure, however, hat nichts 
 zu bedeuten ; l so trouble not thyself with it. 
 
 On Tuesday last (10 th Jan y ) wrote to John 
 in Rome ; 2 from whom I am getting impatient 
 for a Letter. 
 
 Have an Article in prospect (still within 
 myself) on the Radical plebeian who writes 
 Cornlaw Rhymes. Wish to do the poor soul 
 a justice and a kindness. 
 
 Singular how little wisdom or light of any 
 kind I have met with in London. Do not 
 find a single creature that has communicated 
 an idea to me ; at best one or two that can 
 understand an idea. Yet the sight of Lon- 
 don works on me strongly ; I have not per- 
 haps lost my journey hither. 3 
 
 Dreck unpublished, to all appearance un- 
 punishable. One Tilt of Fleet-street (a triv- 
 iality) " glanced over it," then " regretted" 
 
 1 " Is really insignificant." 
 
 2 See Letters, i. 382. 3 See Id., i. 391. 
 
 233 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 &c. Dilke had no light to throw on the 
 business, and I think will have none : the 
 MS at this moment in the hands of Charles 
 Buller. Glen, Mill and he have all read it ; 
 apparently, not without result : it was intended 
 for such, therefore seems not wholly verfehlt. 1 
 As for the publication of it, I grow indifferent 
 about that matter ; indeed the whole concern 
 is becoming unimportant to me. What is 
 true today will be true tomorrow and next 
 day. — We can wait, — forever. 2 
 
 Hay ward, of the Temple, 3 a small but ac- 
 tive and vivacious ' man of the time,' by a 
 strange impetus, takes to me ; the first time, 
 they say, he ever did such a thing, being one 
 that lives in a chiaro-scuro element of which 
 goodhumoured contempt is the basis. I met 
 him at Mr Gray's, where also was one Dr. 
 Bach, a German zealously kind to me : Hay- 
 ward started this scheme of the Germ. Lit. 
 Hist., and made it all ready for me. 4 Singu- 
 lar enough. (Lardner ein Langohriger)? Dined 
 
 1 " A failure." 2 See Letters, i. 391. 
 
 3 Mr. Abraham Hayward, translator of the first part 
 of Faust, editor of Autobiography », Letters, etc. of Mrs. Pi- 
 ozzi, 1861, writer of a multitude of gossiping papers. He 
 died in 1884. 
 
 4 Cf. Letters, i. 389. 
 
 5-Dr. Dionysius Lardner, " a long-eared" man of sci- 
 ence, of some transient repute, editor of the Cabinet Cy- 
 clopaedia, in which this History was to appear. He after- 
 ward became sadly notorious. He died in 1859. 
 
 234 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 in his rooms (once Dunning's 1 !) with a set of 
 Oxonian Templars : stupid (in part), limited 
 (wholly), conceited, obscene. A dirty even- 
 ing; I at last sunk utterly silent. Bernays 
 (a German Professor — in the "King's Col- 
 lege " here) understood what I was saying : 
 but could say little, tho' in many words. Am 
 to go thither today, and meet a certain Sir 
 Alexander Johnston : small things expected 
 of him. He has been in China, and knew 
 Schiller.— 2 
 
 I have never again seen Bowring or Fon- 
 blanque. Mean to see at least the latter. 
 None of the great personages of Letters have 
 come in my way here ; and except as sights, 
 they are of little moment to me. Jeffrey 
 says he "praised me to Rogers," who, &c. 
 &c : it sometimes rather surprises me that his 
 Lordship does not think it would be kind to 
 show me the faces of those people : some- 
 thing discourages or hinders him ; what it is 
 I know not, and indeed care not. — The Aus- 
 tins, at least the {la) Austin I like j 3 eine 
 
 1 " The great lawyer," as Johnson called him in aletter 
 to Boswell, July 22, 1777 ; afterward the first Lord Ash- 
 burton. 
 
 2 Sir Alexander Johnston had as a young man, near the 
 beginning of the century, studied at Gottingen, and 
 probably then saw Schiller. A large part of his life was 
 passed in Ceylon, where in the organization and admin- 
 istration of the government he did excellent service. 
 
 3 The John Austins were living at Hampstead. " Mrs. 
 Austin is described by Carlyle, after first seeing her, as 
 
 235 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 verstandige, herzhafte Frau. 1 Empson a di- 
 luted, goodnatured, languid Anemfifindler. 2 
 The strongest young man, one Macaulay 
 (now in Parliament, as I from the first pre- 
 dicted), an emphatic, hottish, really forcible 
 person; but unhappily without divine idea? 
 Perhaps he could play the part of a Canning; 
 were the scene now the same, which however 
 it is not. Rogers (an elegant, politely malig- 
 nant old lady, I think 4 ) is in Town (and prob- 
 ably I might see him) : Moore is I know not 
 where, — a lascivious triviality, of great name. 
 Bentham is said to have become a driveller, 
 and garrulous old man : perhaps I will try for a 
 look of him ; he is or was a forcible product. 
 — I have much to see, and many things to 
 
 ' the most enthusiastic of German Mystics I have ever met 
 with : an exceedingly vivid person, not without insight, 
 but enthusiastic, as it were astonished, rapt to ecstasy 
 with the German apocalypse, and as she says herself 
 verdeutscht " (Germanised). Letters, i. 320. Author of 
 Characteristics of Goethe, 3 vols., 1833. The friendly ac- 
 quaintance begun at this time continued through later 
 years. 
 
 1 "An intelligent, resolute woman." 
 
 2 " Adopter of the sentiments of another." 
 
 3 Macaulay had distinguished himself greatly in the 
 debate in the House of Commons on the Reform Bill. 
 One of his speeches was said by Jeffrey to put him 
 ' ' clearly at the head of the great speakers, if not the de- 
 baters of the House." Cockburn, Life of Lord Jeffrey, i. 
 
 324- 
 
 4 " Rogers was a kindly old man, excepting when he 
 was bilious." Tennyson reported by Mr. Locker- 
 Lampson. Life of 'Tennyson, ii. 72. 
 
 236 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 wind up in London, before we leave it — in 
 March. 
 
 I went one morning searching for John- 
 son's places of abode. Found, with difficulty, 
 the house in Gough (Goff ) Square where the 
 Dictionary was composed : * the landlord, 
 whom Glen and I incidentally inquired of, 
 was just scraping his feet at the door; invited 
 us to walk in; showed us the garret rooms 
 &c. (of which he seemed to have the obscu- 
 rest traditions ; taking Johnson for a school- 
 master!); interested us much; but at length 
 (dog of a fellow !) began to hint that he had 
 all these rooms to let as lodgings ! — I saw 
 also Savage's Birthplace (Foxcourt, Brook st. 
 & Gray's Inn Lane) one of the horridest holes 
 in London. — Must speak with old Smith of 
 the Museum, on the subject. — 
 
 London is of all the places I ever walked 
 and inquired in, that where you oftenest have 
 the answer : " Don't know." A quite anarchic 
 place in all respects. The men that could 
 tell you, exist, but where ? You cannot even 
 find a Library to borrow Books from. 2 Were 
 
 1 Cf. article on Johnson. Essays, iv. 112. 
 
 2 After Carlyle settled in London, and especially when 
 he was at work on Cromwell, this want of a lending li- 
 brary in London was pressed home upon him, and he 
 set earnestly at work to supply the need. He interested 
 people of influence in the matter, and mainly through 
 his efforts the invaluable London Library was estab- 
 
 237 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 it not for the Museum one where you have 
 a certain help, the obstruction were total. 
 
 Biography is the only History : * Political 
 History, as now written and hitherto, with its 
 Kings and changes of Taxgatherers, is little 
 (very little) more than a mockery of our 
 want. This I see more and more. 
 
 The world grows to* me evermore as a Magic 
 Picture, a true Supernatural Revelation ; infi- 
 nitely stern, but also infinitely grand. Shall I 
 ever succeed in copying a little therefrom. 
 
 " What I gave I have ; what I spent I had, 
 what I left I lost." Epitaph at Doncaster (?) 
 from Johnson's Letters. 2 The first, and only 
 
 lished. He wrote to Emerson, 8 Feb., 1839, " We have 
 no Library here, from which we can borrow books home ; 
 and are only in these weeks striving to get one : think 
 of that!" In the course of the year the Library was 
 opened. Carlyle was for many years its President. See 
 Life, iii. 152, 188. 
 
 1 Cf. ' Biography,' Essays, iv. 53. 
 
 2 Carlyle cites this epitaph in his fine essay on John- 
 son. The epitaph varying slightly in form is found on 
 several tombs. Gibbon in his History cites from Cleave- 
 land's Genealogical History of the Family of Courtenay, 
 1735. P- 142, the epitaph of Edward, the blind Earl 
 of Devon of the 15th century, which is in the words 
 given by Carlyle, except for having ! we ' in the place of 
 ' I.' The epitaph at Doncaster which Johnson cited was 
 on the tomb of one Robyn of Doncaster and ran : 
 
 "That I spent, that I had ; 
 That I gave, that I have ; 
 That I left, that I lost." 
 
 238 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 true, clause of it was long ago a perception 
 of my own. 
 
 Dies irae, dies ilia : where shall I find that 
 old chant? Must investigate. (Now en- 
 ough for one morning ! ) — 
 
 Dies irae, dies ilia 
 Solvet saeclum in favilla : 
 Teste David cum Sybilla. 
 
 2. 
 Quantus tremor est futurus 
 Quando Judex est venturus, 
 Cuncta stricte discussurus ! 
 
 The tomb perished in the fire that destroyed the church 
 in 1853. See Letters of Johnson, edited by G. Birkbeck 
 Hill, 1892, i. 224, n. In the church of St. Peter at Veru- 
 lam (St. Alban's), Bedfordshire, there is, or was at the 
 beginning of the century, a brass plate engraved with a 
 similar epitaph in Latin, with an English translation, 
 the two in concentric circles, the outer circle being 
 formed of the English words, the inner of the Latin. 
 The English, modernized, ran thus : 
 
 Lo all that ere I spent, that sometime had I ; 
 All that I gave in good intent, that now have I ; 
 That I neither gave nor lent, that now abie I ; 
 That I kepte till I went, that lost I. 
 The Latin was as follows : 
 
 Quod expendi habui, 
 Quod donavi habeo, 
 Quod negavi punior, 
 Quod servavi perdidi. 
 See Beauties of 'England and Wales, 1808, vii. ioo, where 
 is an engraving of this curious plate. 
 
 239 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 3- 
 
 Tuba, mirum spargens sonum 
 Per sepulchra regionum, 
 Coget omnes ante thronum. 
 
 4- 
 Mors stupebit et natura, 
 Cum resurget creatura, 
 Judicanti responsura. 
 
 5- 
 Liber scriptus proferetur, 
 In quo totum continetur, 
 Unde mundus judicetur. 
 
 6. 
 Judex ergo cum sedebit, 
 Quidquid latet, apparebit : 
 Nil inultum remanebit. 
 
 7. 
 Quid sum miser tunc dicturus, 
 Quern patronum rogaturus, 
 Cum vix Justus sit securus? 
 
 8. 
 Rex tremendae majestatis, 
 Qui salvandos salvas gratis, 
 Salva me, fons pietatis. 
 
 9- 
 Recordare Jesu pie, 
 Quod sum causa tuas viae ; 
 Ne me perdas ilia die. 
 
 240 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE, 
 
 Quaerens me, sedisti lassus ; 
 Redemisti crucem passus : 
 Tantus labor non sit cassus. 
 
 Juste Judex ultionis, 
 Donum fac remissionis, 
 Ante diem rationis. 
 
 12. 
 Ingemisco tanquam reus, 
 Culpa rubet vultus meus, 
 Supplicanti parce, Deus. 
 
 13- 
 Qui Mariam absolvisti, 
 Et latronem exaudisti, 
 Mihi quoque spem dedisti. 
 
 14. 
 
 Preces meae non sunt dignae 
 Sed Tu bonus fac benigne 
 Ne perenni cremer igne. 
 
 15. 
 Inter oves locum praesta, 
 Et ab haedis me sequestra, 
 Statuens in parte dextra. 
 
 16. 
 
 Confutatis maledictis, 
 Flammis acribus addictis, 
 Voca me cum benedictis. 
 
 16 241 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 17- 
 Oro supplex et acclinis, 
 Cor contritum quasi cinis : 
 Gere curam mei finis. 
 
 18. 
 Lachrymosa dies ilia 
 Qua resurget ex favilla. 
 Judicandus homo reus. 
 Huic ergo parce, Deus. 
 
 Pie Jesu Domine dona eis requiem. — Amen. 
 
 [Copied from the " Mass for the Dead on 
 the Day of decease or burial " in the Romish 
 Missal (London, 1806 p. 512) this 14 th Jan?: 
 long sought for; found by Jane, last night ac- 
 cidentally.] 
 
 — Did not see the Sir A. J. yesterday; and 
 cared less than nothing. — Invited to see Hogg 
 (the Ettrick Shepherd) for Friday next. 
 
 Books to be looked after. 
 
 Grose's Olio. — The Foundling Hospital 
 of Wit. 
 
 Arnold on Insanity. Carleton's Memoirs 
 (of the Duke of Ormond ? — 17th century. 
 Republished 1808). 
 
 Psalmanazar's Memoirs. Wool's Life of 
 War ton. 
 
 Moore's Life of Smollett (worth anything?) 
 242 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Hardy's Life of Charlemont. Pennant's 
 London. 
 
 Cradock's Memoirs (when? who?) 
 
 Spence's Anecdotes. Davies's Life of Gar- 
 rick. 
 
 Life of Goldsmith (by Sir Joseph Mawbey ?) 
 
 Maty's Life of Chesterfield. Leland's, Itin- 
 erary. 
 
 Seward's Anecdotes of Eminent Persons. 
 
 Nichols's Anecdotes. — Miss Hawkins's 
 Memoirs. 
 
 These works are noted down from Croker's 
 edition of Boswell's Johnson; which work I 
 have just been earnestly reading; and now 
 propose writing some kind of Essay upon. — 
 January 18*, 1832. — 
 
 Parson Hackman (Narrative of) in " Love 
 & Madness ; " a foolish, partially indecent, 
 altogether frothy Book. He killed M's 1 mother 
 (Lord Sandwich's mistress, a Miss Ray) at the 
 door of the Theatre, and was executed at Ty- 
 burn in 1779 ( ms Trial was 16* April). 2 — What 
 stuff men are made of! It is very true that a 
 madman lies within every sane man ; is the ma- 
 terial whereof the sane man fashions himself. 
 
 Hazlitt's Liber Amoris read for the first 
 
 1 Basil Montagu, born 1770, died 1851, husband of the 
 'Noble Lady' (see ante, p. 195), and not without other 
 claims to remembrance. 
 
 2 Cf. Reminiscences, ii. 126 ; and see Boswell's Johnson, 
 edited by Dr. Birkbeck Hill, iii. 383. 
 
 243 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 time : quite an enchantment, like one of those 
 in the Midsummer Nighfs Dream; a most 
 hairy-faced, long-eared Bottom the weaver ! 
 No ' Confession ' perhaps ever exhibited a 
 a man in more despicably pitiable, ludicrously 
 abominable light, since confessions first came 
 into fashion. 
 
 II volto sciolto, i pensieri stretti. ( This is 
 Wotton's word.) 1 
 
 Campbell's Hermippus Redivivus (gives ac- 
 count of the Hermetic Philosophy). — Lives 
 of the Admirals by the same. This was he 
 who " always pulled his hat off when passing 
 a church." 2 
 
 Came upon Shepherd, the Unitarian Par- 
 son of Liverpool, yesterday for the first time, 
 at Mrs. Austin's. A very large purply flabby 
 
 1 " At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto 
 Scipioni, an old Roman Courtier in dangerous times 
 . . . and at my departure toward Rome ... I had 
 won confidence enough to beg his advice how I might 
 carry myself securely there, without offence of others, or 
 of mine own conscience. Signor Arrigo mio (sayes he) / 
 Pensieri stretti, e il viso sciolto: That is, Your thoughts 
 close, and your countenance loose, will go safely over the 
 
 whole World." Letter to Master Reliquice Wot- 
 
 tonuzna, 1651, p. 434. The letter was to Milton; see Notes 
 and Queries, July, 1852, p. 5. 
 
 2 See Bos well's Johnson (ed. Hill), ii. 418. Dr. Camp- 
 bell was but the translator of the Hermippus Redivivu, 
 the author was Dr. J. H. Cohausen of Coblentz, See 
 Id., iii. 427, note, for an account of the book. 
 
 244 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 man ; massive head with long thin grey hair; 
 eyes both squinting, both overlapped at the 
 corners by a little roof of brow; giving him 
 (with his ill-shut mouth) a kind of lazy, eat- 
 ing, goodhumoured aspect. For the rest, a 
 Unitarian Radical ; clear, steadfast, but every 
 way limited. . . : He said Jeffrey did not 
 strike him as " a very taking man." Lanca- 
 shire accent, or some provincial one. — Have 
 long known the Unitarians intus et in cute ; 
 and never got any good of them ; or any ill. 
 
 Was the building of St. Paul's or the writ- 
 ing of Paradise Lost more necessary to Eng- 
 land ? The one cost us ;£i 50,000, the other 
 ^15. — Literature cannot be rewarded in 
 money : it is priceless. — Have an Essay " on 
 Authors " in my eye. 
 
 Franklin, I find twice or thrice in Boswell, 
 defines man as "a Tool-making Animal." 
 Teufelsdreck therefore has so far been antici- 
 pated. 1 Vivant qui ante nos nostra dixerunt ! 
 
 Saturday 21?t Yesterday sat scribbling 
 January. some stuff, close on the bor- 
 
 ders of nonsense, about Bi- 
 ography, as a kind of introduction to " John- 
 
 1 " ' But on the whole,' continues our eloquent Pro- 
 fessor, ' Man is a Tool-using Animal.' " Sartor, Book i. 
 ch. v. See Boswell's Johnson (ed. Hill), iii. 245 for the 
 citation of Franklin's definition. 
 
 245 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 son." 1 How is it to be ? I see not well ; 
 know only that it should be light, and written 
 (by way of experiment) currente calamo. I 
 am sickly, not dispirited, yet sad. As is my 
 wont : when did I laugh last ? Alas, ' light 
 laughter, like heavy money, has altogether 
 fled from us.' The reason is we have no com- 
 munion j company enough, but no fellow- 
 ship. Time brings roses. Meanwhile, the 
 grand perennial Communion of Saints is 
 ever open to us : enter, and worthily com- 
 port thyself there ! 
 
 Nothing in this world is to me more mourn- 
 ful, distressing and in the end intolerable, 
 than mirth not based on Earnestness (for it is 
 false mirth) ; than wit, pretending to be wit, 
 and yet not based on wisdom. Two objects 
 would reduce me to gravity had I the spirits 
 of a Merry Andrew : a Death's Head and a 
 modern London Wit. The besom of destruc- 
 tion should be swept over these people; or 
 else perpetual silence (except when they 
 needed victuals or the like) imposed on 
 them. 
 
 In the afternoon, Jeffrey, as he is often 
 wont, called in on us : very lively, quick and 
 — light. Chatted about " cholera ; " a sub- 
 ject far more interesting to him than it is to 
 us. Walked with him to Regent street; in 
 
 1 It was printed as an independent paper in Fraser's 
 Magazine. 
 
 246 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 hurried assiduous talk. Shiel (the Irish ora- 
 tor) had been once, he said, convicted of a lie : 
 it was some story he had told, of Police tor- 
 tures or such like, in the Catholic Associa- 
 tion; having been that very day convinced 
 that it was not true. O'Connell I called a 
 real specimen of the almost obsolete species 
 Demagogue. (Why should it be obsolete, this 
 being the very scene for it ? Chiefly because 
 we are all Dilettantes, and have no heart of 
 Faith, even for the coarsest of beliefs.) His 
 " cunning " the sign, as cunning ever is, of a 
 weak intellect, as of a weak character. — Very 
 few Irish Appeals come to the House of 
 Lords; a far greater proportion of Scotch. 
 Why? The Irish Courts are identical with 
 the English; their decisions little apt to be 
 reversed : in any Scotch case, from the Chan- 
 cellor's ignorance, there is a chance (like the 
 throwing of dice) that he may decide either 
 way. Eldon often decided palpably wrong. 
 Nevertheless not above i case in 70, even of 
 those decided in the Scotch Inner House, is 
 appealed from. Of those that stop in the 
 Outer House, " perhaps not one in 500." All 
 causes that go from the Outer to the Inner 
 House go thither in the shape of appeal. 
 Scotch law, Jeffrey agrees, is much better 
 than English. He tells, what so few here can 
 do, an intelligible tale about what he is work- 
 ing in. Seemed to admit with me that the 
 
 247 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 whole system of English Law has provoked 
 not unjustly a fixed spirit of revolt in the 
 minds of all men, and that it must be totally 
 new-made. ' In my younger days, it was 
 said if you had a contention about ^30, let 
 it go either way, do not enter Court at all : 
 now the ^30 has become ^80, and the ad- 
 vice is repeated with that variation. Very 
 bad.' — I have an immense appetite for 
 statistics; but can get no proviant of that 
 kind. 
 
 At my return home, whom should I find 
 standing but Gustave d'Eichthal the Saint- 
 Simonian ! A little, tight, cleanly pure lov- 
 able Geschopfchen .- 1 a pure martyr and apos- 
 tle, as it seems to me ; almost the only one 
 (not ' belonging to the Past ') whom I have 
 met with in my pilgrimage. Mill goes so far 
 as to think there might and should be mar- 
 tyrs : this is one. He spoke French and 
 English. His ideas narrow, and sore dis- 
 torted ; but his mind open, his heart noble. 
 I have pleasure in the prospect of meeting 
 him again. — 
 
 Soon after, Arthur Buller called with a 
 "mein bester Freund!" A goodish youth; 
 affectionate, at least attached : not so hand- 
 some as I had expected, tho' more so than 
 enough. He walked with me to Fraser's 
 Dinner in Regent street; or rather to the 
 
 1 ' Little creature.' 
 248 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 door of Fraser's house, & there took leave 
 with stipulation of speedy re-meeting. 1 
 
 Enter thro' Fraser's Bookshop into a back- 
 room, where sit Allan Cunningham, W. Fra- 
 ser 2 (the only two known to me personally), 
 James Hogg (in the easy-chair of honour), 
 Gait, and one or two nameless persons ; pa- 
 tiently waiting for dinner. Locjdiart (whom 
 I did not know) requested to be introduced 
 to me. A precise brief active person, of con- 
 siderable faculty, which however had shaped 
 itself gigmanically only. Fond of quizzing, 
 yet not very maliciously. Has a broad black 
 brow indicating force and penetration, but a 
 lower half of face dwindling into the char- 
 acter at best of distinctness, almost of trivial- 
 ity. Rather liked the man, and shall like to 
 meet him again. 3 — Gait looks old, is deafish ; 
 has the air of a sedate Greenock Burgher; 
 
 1 In a letter to his mother, 22 Jan., Carlyle said, " The 
 Bullers are here, both parents and sons all in the friend- 
 liest relation to me . . . The two boys are promising 
 fellows and may one day be heard of in the world" 
 (as, indeed, they were). Letters, ii. 10. 
 
 2 James Fraser was the proprietor of the Bookshop, 
 and publisher of Fraser s Magazine. William Fraser 
 was for some time editor of the Foreign Review, to which 
 Carlyle was the most important contributor. 
 
 3 In 1839 Carlyle's acquaintance with Lockhart was 
 renewed, and he wrote to his brother, ' Had a long 
 interview with the man [Lockhart] yesterday, found him 
 a person of sense, good breeding, even kindness.' 
 Life, iii. 163. After this their relations continued on 
 terms of mutual respect and friendliness. 
 
 249 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 mouth indicating sly humour, and self-satis- 
 faction; the eyes old and without lashes, 
 gave me a sort of wae interest for him. He 
 wears spectacles, and is hard of hearing : a 
 very large man; and eats and drinks with a 
 certain west-country gusto and research. 
 Said little; but that little peaceable, clear 
 and gutmuthig. 1 Wish to see him also again. 2 
 — Hogg 3 is a little, red-skinned, stiff, sack of 
 a body, with quite the common air of an Et- 
 trick shepherd ; except that he has a highish 
 tho' sloping brow (among his yellow-grizzled 
 hair), and two clear little beads of blue or 
 grey eyes, that sparkle if not with thought 
 yet with animation. Behaves himself quite 
 easily and well. Speaks Scotch, and mostly 
 narrative absurdity (or even obscenity) there- 
 with. Appears in the mingled character of 
 Zany and raree-show : all bent on bantering 
 him, especially Lockhart; Hogg walking 
 thro' it, as if unconscious, or almost flattered. 
 His vanity seems to be immense, but also his 
 
 1 ' Good-natured.' 
 
 2 John Gait, 1779-1839, a busy and prolific man of 
 letters, whose ' Annals of the Parish ' are still worth 
 reading as a true picture of rustic Scotch life ; liked 
 and praised by Scott. 
 
 3 The ' Ettrick Shepherd,' eternized not so much by 
 his own works, as by Scott's goodness to him, and 
 Wordsworth's verses upon his death. "He was un- 
 doubtedly," wrote Wordsworth, in the note prefixed to 
 his 'Extempore Effusion,' "a man of original genius, 
 but of coarse manners and low and offensive opinions." 
 
 250 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 goodnature: I felt interest for the poor 
 ' Herd Body ' ; wondered to see him blown 
 hither from his sheepfolds, and how, quite 
 friendless as he was, he went along cheerful, 
 mirthful and musical. I do not well under- 
 stand the man : his significance is perhaps 
 considerable. His poetic talent is authentic, 
 yet his intellect seems of the weakest, his 
 morality also limits itself to the precept : Be 
 not angry. Is the charm of this poor man 
 chiefly to be found herein, That he is a real 
 product of Nature, and able to speak natur- 
 ally — which not one in the thousand is? 
 An ' unconscious talent/ tho' of the small- 
 est 5 emphatically naive. Once or twice in 
 singing (for he sung of his own) there was an 
 emphasis in poor Hogg's look, expressive of 
 feeling, almost of enthusiasm. The man is a 
 very curious specimen : Alas he is a Man ; 
 yet how few will so much as treat him like a 
 specimen, and not like a mere wooden Punch 
 or Judy 1 / — For the rest our talk was utterly 
 despicable. Stupidity, insipidity, even not a 
 little obscenity (in which all save Gait, Fra- 
 ser and myself seemed to join) was the only 
 outcome of the night. 2 Literary men / They 
 are not worthy to be valets of such. Was a 
 
 1 Cf. Letters, ii. 9. 
 
 2 ' The conversation was about the basest I ever as- 
 sisted in," wrote Carlyle to his brother John, 18 Febr. 
 Life, ii. 263. 
 
 251 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 thing. said that did not even solicit in mercy 
 to be forgotten ? Not so much as the at- 
 tempt or wish to speak profitably. Trivi- 
 alitas trivialitatum ; omnia trivia Mas / — I 
 went to see, and I saw ; and have now said, 
 and mean to be silent, or try if I can speak 
 elsewhere. — Enough for once. 
 
 #1 
 
 [What follows was written under another 
 binding; and is now slit out, and sewed in 
 here, another better Note book having come 
 to hand. 15* May.] 2 
 
 March (about 8*) 1832 — Finished a has- 
 tened Paper on Johnson; which now (i5 l . h ) 
 lies at Press. Perhaps not wholly without 
 
 1 On the 22 January Carlyle's Father died, and the re- 
 maining pages of the original Note Book (pp. 52-76), and 
 an addition sewed into it of forty-two pages, are occupied 
 with Carlyle's Reminiscences of his Father. They be- 
 gin : " On Tuesday, January the 24th 1832, I received 
 tidings that my dear and worthy Father had departed 
 out of this world." And a few pages further on Carlyle 
 writes : ' I purpose now, while the impression is more 
 pure and clear within me, to mark down the main things 
 I can recollect of my Father.' This record of his Fa- 
 ther's life, one of the most impressive biographical 
 sketches in the language, is printed in Reminiscences, i. 
 1-52. The date at its close is ' Sunday night, 29th Janu- 
 ary 1832.' • 
 
 2 " What follows " occupies an addition to the Note- 
 book, of which the pages are numbered 1 19-152. 
 
 252 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 worth : we shall see. — [Have been interrupted, 
 and no time is left at present.] — 
 
 British Museum (Saturday, St Patrick's day 
 for I saw Irishmen with shillelahs!) Came 
 hither to look after Diderot, whereof here is 
 what lies in the Biog. Universelle : 
 
 He translated Stanyan's History of Greece 
 (1743). Diet. deMedecine (1746). Essaisurle 
 Merite et laVertu (1745) half-translated out of 
 Shaftesbury — Pensees Philosophiques (1746) 
 made much noise — Lettre sur les aveugles 
 for the use of those that see (1749) : sent to 
 Vincennes in consequence. Encycloped. 
 (1751) the two first vol. — and excited atten- 
 tion — 1752 it was suspended (de par le roi) 
 for 18 months. Stopt again in 1759 when 
 d'Alemb. retired : Dider. exerted himself 
 (honour of the nation, advantage to trade, 
 &c.) ; the Direct, de la librairie (who ? what ? ) 
 and due de Choiseul granted a protection (7 
 vol. already out); and the rest of the work' was 
 published with the entirest freedom, each striv- 
 ing who should emit the most " philosophical 
 idea" : hastily got up too : Diderot was alone 
 in it ; took such workmen as he could get. — 
 
 In the fidelite conjugale ne voit qu'un 
 entetement et un supplice. Supplem. to the 
 voyage of Bougainville. — Obscene novels 
 (vols. 10, 11, 12 of Naigeon 1 ) very obscene it 
 
 l Naigeon was the editor of the Works of Diderot, in 
 
 253 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 is said. — Eleutheromanes (Liberty-mad), these 
 two lines (qu'on lui a tant reproch£) 
 
 Et ses mains ourdiraient les entrailles du pretre, 
 A defaut d'un cordon, pour etrangler les rois. 1 
 
 — Vol. 4. contains his pieces de theatre. 
 
 Bishop Douglas 2 (Dr Johnson's) came from 
 Pittenweem in Fife ! The son of a ' mer- 
 chant ' [fiegociant] there : wrote against Hume 
 and on Politics. 
 
 Home? (This appears to be the 17 th of 
 March). Have just finished with Lardner 
 about the Lit. Hist, of Germany; and am 
 off with him, eitimal und immertnehr.^ 'Tis 
 as well, perhaps better. A History will grow 
 
 15 volumes, published in 1798, and reprinted often after- 
 wards. He inserted in the text passages of an atheistic 
 character, without indication that they were his own, and 
 not Diderot's. See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du Lundi 
 (1851), Tome iii. p. 227. 
 
 1 Carlyle cites and comments on these verses "sur- 
 passing all yet uttered or utterable in the Tyrtaean way ' ' 
 in his article on Diderot. Essays, v. 43. 
 
 2 Dr. John Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury, 1721-1807 ; 
 a member of the Literary Club, noted for his exposure 
 of Lauder's forgeries, commemorated by Goldsmith in 
 Retaliation, — 
 
 " Here Douglas retires from his toils to relax, 
 The scourge of impostors, the terror of quacks." 
 
 3 'Home,' that is, the lodgings in Ampton Street; the 
 last entry having been made at the British Museum. 
 
 4 * Once and forever.' 
 
 254 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 among my hands (by Review Articles) into 
 a fitter shape; and may, one day, be pub- 
 lished on its own foundation, — if the world 
 require it; if not, not. Meanwhile, I have 
 other work to seek for myself: The Sheffield 
 Radical, 1 Diderot, Authors, Lessing, Thoma- 
 sius, Fichte ; plenty of them ! 
 
 Settled yesterday, with Fraser, about the 
 dividing of Johnson? A foolish vehicle his 
 scavenger-cart of a Magazine is : but what 
 then ? We must speak ; if not by one organ, 
 then by another. — Make not so much of 
 those pitiful lucubrations of thine : cast them 
 forth ; wirfsie schweigend in die ewige Zeit / 3 
 They are but rubbish, — as all Time-things 
 are : do thy best with them ; then let the 
 world do its. 
 
 Bookselling (as I told Lardner, much to 
 his surprise) is in the state of ' delirium be- 
 fore death ': the more needful is it that thou 
 walk wisely thro' the middle of it. 
 
 We are both (Weibchen and I) considera- 
 bly hurt in health, and longing to be home ; 
 which we expect soon. The climate of this 
 
 1 Ebenezer Elliott. 
 
 2 By the separation of the introductory pages on Bi- 
 ography in general, to form an independent article. 
 
 3 " Cast them silently away for ever." 
 
 255 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 place is among the most detestable on Earth : 
 otherwise, the place has been wholly agree- 
 able to us. 
 
 Yesternight I saw Sir Nicholas Harris Nic- 
 olas Knight of the Guelphic Order, Antiqua- 
 rian and what not j a good-natured, rattling, 
 small rather than thick-headed mortal : he said 
 (coming home with me thro' Chancery Lane), 
 " I believe I have ruined (or done more to 
 ruin) more Booksellers than any man living: 
 no Book of mine ever paid its expenses." 
 
 The evening before (at W. Fraser's), I had 
 seen this Knight, and another of the same, 1 
 Sir David Brewster! B. is still full of pro- 
 jects and purveyor-activity : for the rest, has 
 become a Whig and Reformer, and speaks 
 about this Chancellor 2 exactly as about the 
 Chancellor; whose sublime mind (he took 
 pains to say) had included even me in its 
 contemplations. A tough, vivacious man! 
 Not without kindness, at least great sociality, 
 of disposition ; and for his practical opinions : 
 
 O wonder, O wonder ! enter and see : 
 
 A weathercock's head where his tail sh d be. 
 
 Leigh Hunt and I have come into contact 
 by occasion of the Characteristics : he sought 
 me out, and has been twice here; I once with 
 
 1 ' Another of the same ' is a phrase from the Scotch 
 version of the Psalms, in frequent use in Scotland. A. C. 
 
 2 Lord Brougham. 
 
 256 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 him. A pleasant, innocent, ingenious man ; 
 filled with Epicurean Philosophy, and steeped 
 in it to the very heart. He has suffered more 
 than most men; is even now bankrupt (in 
 purse and repute), sick, and enslaved to daily- 
 toil : yet will nothing persuade him that Man 
 is born for another object here than to be 
 happy. Honour to tenacity of conviction ! 
 Credo quia impossibile. — A man copious and 
 cheerfully sparkling in conversation ; of grave 
 aspect, never laughs, hardly smiles; black 
 hair shaded to each side ; hazel eyes, with a 
 certain lifting up of the eyebrows that has no 
 archness in it, rather sentient, well- satisfied 
 self-consciousness. He is a real lover of 
 Nature, and even singer thereof; and, for the 
 rest, belongs to London in the opening of the 
 igth century. — x 
 
 The ' Cockney School ' will one day be 
 historically significant ; in a small way. Its 
 chief character is even this Epicurism ; half- 
 vision it had, but then only half. . . . Not 
 Stare super antiquas vias, thencefrom to look 
 out for new ways, and walk thereon ; but sim- 
 ply to leap the hedges, and so sink in quag- 
 mires: this has been their method. They 
 knew the wrong, not the right : worst of all, 
 they did not care properly to know it, but 
 
 1 The acquaintance with Hunt was renewed when 
 Carlyle settled in London in 1834. See Reminiscences, i. 
 104, 174 ; Letters, ii. 150, 701, et al. 
 
 17 257 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 sought only self. We shall see them all bet- 
 ter one day. 
 
 Wrote to John at Rome (a double Letter, 
 which would go off yesterday). — 
 
 Schlegel is here : I left my card ; and hope 
 not, and care not, to see the old fool. His 
 usual wig is blond; his face he paints ! Ach ! 
 Finally, he is a literary Gigman. They are to 
 give him a dinner at the " Literary Union " 
 to-day: who? One Hay ward (the "cleverest 
 of the second-rate men," who has been much 
 here), and Dionysius Lardner! — The day of 
 small things. — 
 
 " Dr. Maginn "was at Fraser's with the two 
 Sirs. 1 A rattling Irishman, full of quizzicality 
 and drollery, without ill-nature, without earn- 
 estness, certainty of conviction or purpose in 
 regard to any subject, except this one : Punch 
 is Punch. A shortish thickset man (looks up- 
 wards of forty) with a fine (almost genial) gray 
 eye ; wears a wig. Is the proper Palinurus 
 and originator of Fraser's Magazine; wherein, 
 and in the Standard Newspaper, he finds his 
 chief threshing-floor at present. I understand 
 he " works mostly for the dead horse." 
 
 1 William Maginn (1794 — 1842) was one of the most 
 prolific and versatile magazine-writers of his time ; he 
 had cleverness, wit, and a store of miscellaneous learn- 
 ing. But he wrote little or nothing of permanent value. 
 
 258 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Fraser's Magazine took being first in the 
 head of William Fraser ; has, or had no Editor, 
 Aim, or Principle: a chaotic, fermenting, dung- 
 hill heap of compost (as all these things are) ; 
 of which I have at last succeeded in forming 
 to myself some comprehensible notion. Its 
 circulation only is still obscure to me; the 
 methods of circulating it. One day I will jot 
 down what I know: such things will rather 
 soon, I think, be strange. The Bookseller is 
 no knave : that is perhaps the only merit of 
 the whole. 
 
 What have I to do now, before quitting 
 London ? Let me consider well, and have a 
 plan of it, for next week, and attain something. 
 — For once, enough ! 1 
 
 [Times.] London, Monday, April 2, 1832. 
 
 " These papers announce a death which may 
 almost be considered an event in politics as 
 well as in literature, — the celebrated Goethe 
 died at Weimar on the 2 2d ult. He expired, 
 without any apparent suffering, in his arm- 
 chair, having a few minutes previously called 
 for paper for the purpose of writing, and ex- 
 pressed his delight at the arrival of spring. 
 He had, however, for the last two years en- 
 
 l The Carlyles left London on the 25th March, and 
 after a few days in Liverpool and Dumfries returned to 
 Craigenputtock in the middle of April. 
 
 259 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 joyed little of his usual health, and had fallen 
 off greatly in personal appearance. We believe 
 that he had passed his 82d year. All Europe 
 knows the literary era of Germany which com- 
 menced with this distinguished man, which 
 ends with him, and which may be considered 
 as identified with his personal history." 
 
 This came to me at Dumfries, on my first 
 return thither. I had written to Weimar, 
 asking for a Letter to welcome me home j and 
 this was it. My Letter 1 would never reach its 
 address ; the great and good Friend was no 
 longer there ; had departed some seven days 
 before. — Craigenputtock, 19th April, 1832. 
 
 Tribula was a kind of threshing-machine ; 
 a chest roughened with wood-bars, or iron or 
 flint notches on the bottom, and so trailed 
 by cattle back and forward over the ears of 
 corn till the grain was hustled out of them. 
 The driver sat on it; and (as among the 
 modern Turks) might have a ladle wherein 
 to catch the dung / 
 
 Tribulatio is from this word; and so origin- 
 ally signifies something like what we Scotch 
 mean by a Heckelling ( Hatch elling) : use has 
 made it honourable. 
 
 The Fuller's was a great craft among the 
 
 1 In regard to this letter see Correspondence of Goethe 
 and Carlyle, p. 298, n. 
 
 260 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Romans, for they had no shirts (?), and on 
 gala-days dressed all in white woolen. The 
 smell of the Fullones was not the pleasantest : 
 they were sent to work, therefore, in fields, 
 remote from the nostrils of men. Their use 
 of a certain Liquor was great : they had pots 
 or jars set at street-corners to tempt the 
 Public to produce it, at least to yield it 
 freely. Thus instead of " Whitbread's Entire" 
 might there be a sign-post of quite inverse 
 quality : Somebody's " Effete." — Consider 
 also the Chinese ; and sniff not at the wants 
 and the ingenuity of poor man. 
 
 It is proof of the height to which Anti- 
 quity also had carried the art of Taxation, 
 that Vespasian laid a Duty on these same 
 Fuller's Pots ; so that whoso was pleased to 
 set forth his urinal to the world must pay the 
 Prince for it. — It was on occasion of Titus' 
 reproaching him with this meanness, that old 
 V. bid him smell a piece of the money pro- 
 duced thereby, and said : Dulcis odor lucri ex 
 requalibet. 1 — Works of the Learned (or rather 
 Repub. of Letters), v. I. (150 &c) where lies 
 some curious matter. 
 
 Caxton printed in the Almonry of West- 
 
 l Vespasian's words, according to Suetonius, in his 
 Life of the Emperor, c. xxiii, were Atqui e lotio est. It 
 is Juvenal who wrote : 
 
 . . . Lucri bonus est odor ex re 
 Qualibet. Sat. xiv. 204. 
 
 261 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 minster Abbey (why there specially is not 
 known) : hence, say some, our English 
 Printers still call their workshop a Chapel. — 
 (do. elsewhere) — 
 
 I squelched my finger-nail (curing smoke 
 in company with Pate Easton, at Scotsbrig ; 
 audi effectually, I believe!): the nail is quite 
 black, but sticks there until a new white one 
 be formed under it ; the old black nail dead 
 and worthless, yet performing a worthy sort 
 of service : how like many a Social Institution 
 of these days ! But, indeed, so it is ever ; as 
 I have often enough remarked. 
 
 A sneering, jeering Review of Hume's 
 Essay on Human Nature in Repub. Lett. 1 for 
 November 1739: to be farther looked into. 
 The poor Reviewer no doubt imagined he 
 had done a feat. How the Tables turn ! 
 
 Saturday, Have now been here for a week : 
 
 April 22 n <* 2 quite sickly, lazy, lost, stranded 
 
 in a Juan Fernandez ; do not 
 
 remember that I have passed many more 
 
 l"The present State of the Republick of Letters," 
 London, 1723-1736, was the chief literary journal of its 
 time. In 1736 it was united with the " Literary Mag- 
 azine," and published as "The History of the Works of 
 the Learned." This ran from Jan., 1737, to Dec., 1743, 
 and it. was in it that the review of Hume's Essay ap- 
 peared. 
 
 2 In 1832 Saturday was the 21st of April. 
 
 262 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 despicable or unjoyful or unprofitable weeks 
 in my life. No work will forward with me. 
 What a week ! — A day of it, this day, yet 
 remains for thee : To work ! To work ! — 
 Repent not uselessly ; only amend. — I have 
 fasted (from bread) this breakfast time : may 
 that be the beginning of better things. — Now 
 for the " Sheffield Radical." 
 
 Sunday Yesterday quite down-pressed, 
 morning, over-powered (with bodily ob- 
 struction chiefly) and worthless, or 
 next to that. Did no work, that can be shown ; 
 tho' I rather zealously attempted it. Again 
 endeavour ! Times will mend. 
 
 The whole thing I want to write seems 
 lying in my mind; but I cannot get my eye 
 on it. The Machine is lazy, languid; the 
 motive Principle cannot conquer the inertia. 
 
 A question arises, whether there ought to 
 be, in a perfect society, any class of purely 
 speculative men ? Whether all men should 
 not be of active employment and habitude ; 
 their speculation only growing out of their 
 activity, and incidental thereto ? — 
 
 The grand Pulpit is now the Press; the 
 true Church (as I have said twenty times of 
 late) is the Guild of Authors. How these 
 two Churches and Pulpits (the velvet-cushion 
 one and the metal-type one) are to adjust 
 
 263 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 their mutual relations and cognate workings : 
 this is a problem which some centuries may 
 be taken up in solving. It is the deepest 
 thing to be solved in these days. 
 
 Every man that writes is writing a new 
 Bible; or a new Apocrypha; to last for a 
 week, or for a thousand years : he that con- 
 vinces a man and sets him working is the 
 doer of a miracle. [Strange language this : 
 but it is as in the immigration of the North- 
 men, or any other great world-revolution, 
 two languages must get jumbled together, and 
 old words get new meanings ; all things for 
 a time being confused enough.] 
 
 Ought any writing to be transacted with 
 such intense difficulty ? Does not the True 
 always flow lightly from the lips and pen ? 
 I am not clear in this matter; which is a 
 deeply practical one with me. Consider the 
 following also : 
 
 The True indeed flows lightly ; but how 
 stands it with the mixture of True and Un- 
 true (or Unknown), wherein the latter ele- 
 ment has to be continually eliminated, and 
 elaborated, or rejected ? — 
 
 One thing, at all events, is plain: Take 
 not too much care about thy writing, or about 
 aught else that belongs to thee. Know that 
 it is intrinsically trivial (as thyself ait) and 
 
 264 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 will soon perish, — let vanity whisper what she 
 may. Quick, then ; thro' with it ! Learn 
 to do it honestly (learn what that means) ; 
 perfectly thou wilt never do it. 
 
 Time flies; while thou balancest a sen- 
 tence, thou art nearer the final Period. 
 
 Cast thy thought forth (so soon as thou 
 hast thought it) with some fearlessness : let it 
 sink into the great mass of Action (under 
 which rolls Eternity !) : let it sink there, since 
 such was its allotment. Dissolved (what we 
 call Dead), the Life of it will still go on work- 
 ing there. Deny thyself; whatsoever is 
 thyself, consider it as nothing. 
 
 This, however, I must say for myself: It 
 is seldom or never the Phraseology, but al- 
 ways the Insight, that fails me, and retards 
 me. 
 
 On, then; on! why stand describing how 
 thou shouldst move ; forward, and move, in 
 any way. 
 
 April 28t. h (Saturday). Finished the day be- 
 fore yesterday a 
 Leichenrede on Goethe. 1 Stiff and starched, 
 and a poor expression of my feelings. 
 
 Yesterday wrote to John, &c. To-day am 
 for these villainous " Corn Law Rhymes " 
 again : a task that is beginning to get hate- 
 
 1 " Funeral discourse," ' Death of Goethe,' published 
 in the ' New Monthly Magazine ' ; Essays, iv. 
 
 265 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 ful to me; so small, so unmanageable — in 
 the way I have taken it up. 
 
 N. B. Be very cautious how you take up 
 anything. I have a strange reluctance to re- 
 nounce the road I have entered on, how 
 stony soever, how roundabout soever. You 
 do not like to turn back : On then ! 
 
 Thus does a Time pass, and with the time 
 its man. The man who can live and work 
 thro' two Times, and welcome a Palingenesia 
 after mourning for a Death, is rarely to be 
 met with — T[iec\k. 
 
 When the State Cauldron leaks, there is 
 nothing but a hissing, and foul ashy steaming 
 and sputtering; the social Cookery can no 
 longer be carried on. It must be mended, 
 then ; let it be mended. Easy to say, difficult 
 to do ! There are Tinkers that in mending 
 one hole make a couple. But especially, if 
 your whole Cauldron has ceased to be metal 
 at all, and become one thick laminated mass 
 of rust and corrugation, without heart or soli- 
 dity anywhere, how then is the soldering-iron 
 to be applied ; what Tinker so cunning as to 
 operate with effect there. They do it in this 
 way : mend with putty. Each mending lasts 
 for a week, and the outbreaks get more and 
 more frequent. At last when the mending has 
 become a daily and hourly matter, and per- 
 266 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 petually there is a puttying and never an end 
 of leakage, but ever as the puttying proceeds 
 on the one hand, the dripping and hissing 
 proceeds on the other, — some indignant State- 
 Tinker says, Putty will no longer do, but they 
 must have metal cloutings ; and so sets him 
 to rivet and to solder, and smites resolutely 
 with hammer and punch on the old rust 
 cauldron : what is the issue then ? Ask Earl 
 Grey with his Reform Bill 1 
 
 Gotf? Sauerteig. 1 
 
 Sometime about the 4 th of May, finished, 
 rapidly enough, a Paper on the Corn Law 
 Rhymer, very little to my mind. It still lies 
 here ; intended for Napier, who however may 
 well be excused for rejecting it, so intensely 
 " speculative-radical " is the whole strain of it. 
 Perhaps times may have a little changed with 
 him, even during the last fortnight. — 
 
 Purposed next to draw up an Encyclopedia 
 
 1 Gottfried Sauerteig (" Leaven," "Yeast") is one of 
 the names, like Teufelsdrockh, invented by Carlyle, as a 
 transparent symbolic cloak for his own individuality. In 
 his Essay on Biography, he thus introduces this person- 
 age. 4 Here, however, ... we may as well insert some 
 singular sentences on the importance and significance 
 of Reality, as they stand written for us in Professor Gott- 
 fried Sauerteig's ALsthetische Springwiirzel [Aesthetic Cas- 
 tor-oilplant]; a work, perhaps, as yet new to most Eng- 
 lish readers. The Professor and Doctor is not a man 
 whom we can praise without reservation. . . Neverthe- 
 less in his crabbed, one-sided way he sometimes hits 
 masses of the truth.' Essays, iv. 55. 
 
 267 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 memoir of Lord Byron (for N. and purely in 
 compliance with his request) ; had accordingly 
 jotted down some pages of it : but now an 
 uncertainty arises whether my service (as I 
 explained the possibility of rendering it) is 
 wanted ; which uncertainty will soon become 
 a certainty that said service cannot be had. 
 I had no manner of call to speak there about 
 Lord Byron ; and had much rather eschew it. 
 — I am now for a long Essay on Goethe to 
 be printed in the Foreign Quarterly Review : 
 do not in the least see any way thro' it ; feel 
 only that there is much to be said, or repeated. 
 Have been idle (from xhepen) for twelve days, 
 and must alter very soon. — Bulwer Lytton l 
 writes me, euphuistically announcing that the 
 Leichenrede, on ' our Greatest that has de- 
 parted ' is at press, and will be forwarded as 
 Proofsheet soon: I partly expect it to-night. 
 Very unsatisfactory was the whole to me. On, 
 however, taking small heed of it! — 
 
 Went down to Scotsbrig on Thursday to 
 settle about family affairs there. All was 
 already clear for settlement, by the wise pru- 
 dence of him who had left us. His last Will 
 I read over, with a sad and obstructed feel- 
 ing, yet as a necessary task. All was meth- 
 odical, just, decisive. He divides his property 
 equally among the five children who had 
 helped by their toil to earn it. At first, I 
 l Bulwer was editor of the New Monthly Magazine. 
 268 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 can remember he was for introducing John 
 and me also ; but I dissuaded him, inasmuch 
 as our share was already received, I having 
 been educated, and John thro' me. A sad 
 and earnest look was the answer to this pro- 
 posal: but I now found, for the first time, 
 that it had been complied with. — All the im- 
 movable property (some Houses in Eccle- 
 fechan, yielding between twenty and thirty 
 Pounds annually) are left in life-rent to my 
 Mother; reverting finally to the other five. 
 — My two Brothers valued what was at 
 Scotsbrig, I acting as Umpire and Father on 
 the occasion; the whole was managed last 
 Saturday, not without some study and dis- 
 cussion, yet in a spirit which ought to satisfy 
 me; without covetousness or ill-nature ap- 
 pearing on any side, which in such cases 
 I understand usually do appear violently 
 enough. The valuation was somewhere near 
 the verge of ^600 : James and his two Sisters 
 made an arrangement, which is to last on 
 trial for a year ; our good Mother, who how- 
 ever is independent, will stay with them, and 
 keep them together. They are not foolish, 
 far from it, as people go ; but they are young ; 
 and no community can subsist without a gov- 
 ernor. — Scotsbrig is much changed for me; 
 yet the place where of all others I feel among 
 my loved ones. At home here, I am with 
 my loved one, and among my tools : other- 
 
 269 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 wise it has never yet become homelike to. me. 
 Let us be content ; let us hope. Der Mensch 
 ist eigentlich auf Hoffnung gestellt. This is 
 the 'Place of Hope.'— 1 
 
 On Sunday evening I went over with Alick 
 and Jamie to see our " Aunt Fanny." Found 
 her in a miserable hut (named Knowehead, 
 or some such thing) ; a vehement, fiercely- 
 assiduous and fiercely- thrifty old woman; 
 very dirty in apparel and environment ; not 
 without a touch of antique courtesy; and 
 much flattered by the visit. She is now in 
 her eightieth year; the last survivor of the 
 past Time. Her memory seemed excellent, 
 but she would not talk to questions. A nat- 
 ural garrulity had become heightened to end- 
 less copiousness by old age. She described 
 to me when and where she first saw her Hus- 
 band; stepping Middlebie Burn, with a blue 
 jacket and doe-skin breeches, a proper man 
 to look upon. 2 Also, with infinite minute- 
 ness, her journey to Peebles, rencontres and 
 adventures at the Crook Inn; all which 
 stood perfect in her memory as things of 
 yesterday. It was in 1773 that she was 
 wedded. The beginning of the apprentice- 
 
 1 " ' Man is properly speaking based upon Hope,' he 
 has no other possession but Hope; this world of his is 
 emphatically the Place of Hope." Sartor Resartus, 
 Book ii. ch. vii. 
 
 2 Her husband's name was William Brown. See 
 Reminiscences, i. 32. 
 
 270 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 ships she could not date with accuracy. She 
 was six years older than my Father. In such 
 a scene and with so many auditors there was 
 little to be gathered from her. I partly cal- 
 culate on seeing her again, when her son and 
 she have removed to their Farm. He (" Wull," 
 a strange, half-inspired, half-idiotic character, 
 miserly, rich, to be wondered at and laughed 
 at) stands in the strictest subjection to her ; 
 is not without awe of her, as of a really su- 
 perior mind. In all points spiritual, the 
 withered old woman is clearly stronger than 
 the lumpish, pausing, prosing man. 
 
 On Monday morning I came off hither. 
 Vague rumours of the loss of the Reform 
 Bill had been circulating in our remote cir- 
 cle ; these at Dumfries were made clear cer- 
 tainties. 1 The people have been burning (in 
 effigy) their Patriot King ; a Butcher at An- 
 nan had been put in jail for beheading him. 
 All the things were in a flutter and fluster at 
 Dumfries, politically speaking ; one of those 
 tout est perdu's, which occur often enough in 
 
 1 On the 7th of May the new Reform Bill was before 
 the House of Lords, and the Ministry were defeated on 
 an amendment. On the 9th Lord Grey and his col- 
 leagues resigned. Then followed the Duke of Welling- 
 ton's ineffectual attempt to form a ministry. On the 
 15th Lord Grey resumed office, and on the 4th of June 
 the Bill was finally carried in the House of Lords by a 
 majority of eighty-four. 
 
 271 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 men's affairs. Rien rf est perdu ; il n'y avait 
 rien a gagner. 
 
 Poor M'Diarmid 1 amused me with his 
 soap-bubble frothing. A wild little man; 
 dark in the face; anger and vehemence, 
 trepidation, indignation, in determination ; a 
 look too as if he still were not angry enough : 
 wholly as if a posse of sheriff's officers had 
 come upon him, and were selling his bed. 
 Three times, tho' sad enough in heart under 
 the chill May moonshine, in driving home, 
 I laughed outright to remember him. The 
 foolish Editor that he is! A snuff drop 
 hanging at his nose, smoke (not fire) in his 
 eye, distraction in his aspect: and all for 
 what? Because a batch of Incapables had 
 been turned to the street, and a batch of 
 Capables, perhaps a shade more knavish 
 than the other had been substituted in their 
 room. — Our withers are unwrung. 
 
 The question now arises which no one is 
 prepared to answer : what will follow next ; 
 what is to be done next ? I comforted poor 
 Mac that " King Arthur " (so he would name 
 poor Wellington) would not try governing by 
 the bayonet; would study to seat himself 
 firmly on the coachbox, and then drive — 
 whither the people forced him : at all events 
 would drive ; not sit flourishing the whip and 
 
 1 Editor of The Dumfries Courier. 
 272 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 stirring no hair's breadth, as the others had 
 done for eighteen months long. To me (who 
 know nothing whatever of these latest doings) 
 it seems not unlikely that Arthur will pass a 
 Bill, perhaps very like the other, perhaps 
 better. Let him take his own mind : me or 
 mine he cannot help much or hinder much. 
 One great comfort I shall have : talk will be 
 changed into actions the country will not 
 die of starvation, but at worst by grapeshot 
 and gunshot. — 
 
 So then our " Friends " are all on the 
 pavement ; ousted in one short week ! One 
 Tuesday M'Diarmid crows stout defiance, 
 triumphant note of victory; next Tuesday, 
 the crow has become a screaming cackle; 
 a kite has pounced down and eaten up the 
 sun. Lord Chancellor Brougham, that vir- 
 tuous man Viscount Althorp, the incompara- 
 ble Earl Grey, Lord Advocate and all the 
 rest — must take the road in such weather as 
 chances to be blowing. — For Jeffrey (to 
 whom alone the slightest interest attaches 
 me) I rather esteem it a happiness. Brougham 
 but "bides his time;" and, if he live, will 
 come again, not whig but radical. Earl Grey 
 deserves his fate : he set the interests of Eng- 
 land and those of his own small fractional 
 (unjustifiable) part of England on the same 
 level; would in his own way save both or 
 neither; has in consequence lost only him- 
 
 18 273 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 self. Can the man not see that Lordhood is 
 becoming obsolete, that Manhood is hence- 
 forth the only order ? Be he reputed honest 
 (I believe him to be so, whiggishly speaking) : 
 and with that character let him retire from 
 the public scene forever and a day. 
 
 Or is this the state of it ? Granting the 
 King to be an Imbecile and Nonentity, has 
 he changed so much for the worse ? He gets 
 a professed Dugald Dalgetty or Soldier of 
 Fortune, able to fight, ready to fight on any 
 side, for his pay : he parts with a ' Soldier of 
 Principle,' but who unhappily did not know 
 what his principle was, or who had two in- 
 compatible principles, and so stood ready to 
 fight on some side, could he have seen which; 
 but unable to fight on any. — 
 
 Poor " Patriot King"! I never cheered 
 him or heeded him; only once laughed at 
 him (as I witnessed his Coronation proces- 
 sion); and now do not upbraid him. The 
 wisest man in the world might pause in that 
 situation : what shall the foolishest do ? 
 
 The only Reform is in thyself. Know this 
 O Politician, and be moderately political. 
 
 For me I have never yet done any one po- 
 litical act; not so much as the signing of a 
 
 274 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 petition. My case is this : I comport myself 
 wholly like an alien ; like a man who is not 
 in his own country ; whose own country lies 
 perhaps a century or two distant. When the 
 time comes, should it ever come, that I can 
 do any good in such coming forward, then let 
 me not hang back. Meanwhile pay thy taxes 
 to his Majesty and the rest, so long as they 
 can force thee ; the instant they cannot force 
 thee, that instant cease to pay. This has 
 been my political principle for many a year. 
 The passing or the failing of innumerable Re- 
 form Bills might not alter it much : money is 
 paid to him who does a service worth money; 
 obedience is due to him who governs : to him 
 who wears the governor's mask, the mask of 
 obedience, — as to the ass in lion's skin (who 
 in any case could kick) — while you are near 
 him. — 
 
 And now a truce to Politics. All this I 
 have written down, this Wednesday, May 
 16th, 1832 years: knowing that it is trivial; 
 also that some day even these transitory 
 phrases will have meaning. 
 
 Reminiscence. Two nights before leaving 
 London I went down to the House of Com- 
 mons with W. Fraser, who however could not 
 get admittance for himself and me ; a thing I 
 partly rejoiced at. We went to a Club house 
 in S* James's, the first and only one I was 
 
 275 
 
NOTE BOOK OF 
 
 ever in. Waited also afterwards a while in 
 the Lobby of the " House " : while here saw 
 Macaulay (Thomas Babington) come out, 
 and buy two oranges; a sign, Fraser said, 
 that he was going to speak; which accord- 
 ingly next day showed that he had done. 
 Macaulay, whom I noted strictly, is a short 
 squat thickset man of vulgar but resolute en- 
 ergetic appearance. Fair-complexioned, keen 
 gray eyes, a large cylindrical head set close 
 down between two strong round shoulders; 
 the brow broad and fast-receding, the crown 
 flat — perhaps it was baldish. Inclines al- 
 ready to corpulence, tho' I suppose he is not 
 five-and-thirty, of which age or a somewhat 
 higher he wore the air. The globular will one 
 day be his shape, if he continue. I likened 
 him, in my own mind, to a managing Iron- 
 master (I know not well why); with vigorous 
 talent for that or some such business (on what 
 scale fortune may order) ; with little look of 
 talent for anything higher. He is the young 
 man of most force at present before the world. 
 Successful he may be to great lengths, or not 
 at all, according as the times turn: mean- 
 while, the limits of his worth are discernible 
 enough. Great things lie not in him. It is 
 a fatal circumstance that he rests satisfied with 
 being a Critic, feels not the want of any force 
 belonging to himself, wherewith he might do 
 somewhat ; has yet attained to no belief, and 
 276 
 
 Q 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 apparently is not wretched for not having any. 
 The moral nature of the man I take to be in- 
 trinsically common ; hence, if no otherwise, 
 were his intellectual nature marked as com- 
 mon also. He is the only young man of any 
 gift, at this period, who is a whig; another 
 characteristic. He may be heard of, and 
 loudly; but what is being heard of? Who- 
 soever beats a drum is heard of. Let us 
 hope too that M. will gain better insight, a 
 clear, manly foundation, and be what he might 
 be : "a man among clothes-screens." 
 
 As for Fraser's Clubhouse, it was a splen- 
 did mansion, with dining-rooms (where 
 whiskered hungry people, Irishmen mostly, 
 sat devouring viands and drinking cham- 
 pagne), drawing-rooms full of sofas, pier 
 glasses, periodicals &c &c. We went and 
 lounged in one for a quarter of an hour. It 
 is called the Windham Club, I think. The 
 house had belonged to some dissipated dis- 
 tracted Irish Nobleman, who had married a 
 woman of infamous character, still living, 
 and sinning, her husband having made the 
 world rid of him some years before. 
 
 The Clubs are a curious feature of Lon- 
 don : the principle of Sociality being quite 
 gone, that of Gregariousness is there in full 
 action. Men combine together, professing 
 no other object than that they may have 
 277 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 cheaper food and drink and accommodation 
 than separately could be come at. They 
 have all grown up since I was in London 
 before. A more significant phenomenon 
 than is usually recognized in them. 
 
 But here, my paper being done, let me 
 close. Joy and sorrow ; irreparable losses ; 
 toils fruitless or fruitful : a share of all lies 
 noted in this little Tome. Onwards are we 
 going, ever onwards: Eternity alone can 
 give back what Time daily takes away. I 
 am Fatherless now, (thank God, not yet 
 Motherless) : be all that remains the dearer. 
 Improve, cherish, laudably work with what- 
 ever Time gives and leaves. Gedenke zu 
 leben ! 1 Farewell ye loved ones ! I have 
 still zu leben. 
 
 l " Resolve to live! " 
 
 278 
 
Autograph Letter. 
 
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Chelsea, 25 June, 1862. 
 
 11 Seekest thou great things, seek them not 
 
 /» 
 
 / could do no good with your ' ' Tragedy, " after 
 never so much endeavour, it depends on Playhouse 
 Managers, etc. etc.; — and is, I must say, likely to 
 have been an unreasonable, tho" 1 innocent attempt, 
 on the part of a young man, inexperienced in Life, 
 much more in the suitable ways of Delineating 
 and Expounding what Life is and should be. 
 
 Forgive my plainness of Speech. But it is my 
 standing advice to all young persons who trace in 
 themselves a superior capacity of mind, to select, 
 beyond all other conditions, a silent course of ac- 
 tivity ; — and to disbelieve totally the babble of re- 
 views and newspapers, and loud clamour of Non- 
 sense everywhere prevalent, that " Literature" 
 (even if one were qualified) is the truly noble hu- 
 man career. Far other, very far ! since you ask 
 my opinion. The greatest minds I have known, 
 or have authentically heard of, have not been the 
 speaking ones at all, — much less in these loud 
 times ; raging with palaver, and with so little 
 else, from sea to sea! — 
 
 In very great haste (wishing you well, not ill), 
 
 T Carlyle. 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Action and Morality, 228 
 
 Actions, great, sometimes histori- 
 cally barren, 171; smallest, some- 
 times very fruitful, 171 
 
 Adam, fable concerning, 81, 82 
 
 Advertising, Carlyle upon, 208, 
 209 ; amount spent by two book- 
 sellers annually in, 208 
 
 Aikin, Lucy, " Memoirs of Queen 
 Elizabeth," 4 
 
 Air, always hope in the, 106 
 
 Age, every, full of vicissitudes to its 
 people, 141 
 
 Alexander, remark by Carlyle con- 
 cerning, 7; compared with 
 Hambden, 7 ; expedition of, 
 compared with St. Paul's mis- 
 sion, 171 
 
 Alfieri, on genius, 30 
 
 Alison, Rev. Archibald, " Essay 
 on Taste," 84; criticism of, 84 
 
 "Anatomy of Melancholy," ex- 
 tracts from, 85; anecdote con- 
 cerning, 98 
 
 Antimachus Clarius, on Plato, 124 
 
 Areopagitica, Milton's, Carlyle on, 
 2 9> 3° 
 
 Aristocracy, a true, wanted, 179 
 
 Aristotle, as to Action andThought, 
 81; upon solitude, 122 {note 2) ; 
 "Philosophy" of, contrasted with 
 " Sermon on the Mount," 171 
 
 Arlesford, Battle of, defeat of Roy- 
 alists at, 9 ; location of, 9 
 
 Art, is, higher than Religion ? 204 ; 
 possibility of, at this era, 215; 
 materials of, everywhere, 227, 
 228 
 
 Ascham, Roger, birth and death, 
 89; tutor to Queen Elizabeth, 
 89; his chief and other works, 
 89; life of, by Dr. Johnson, 89; 
 "a good sort of man and well 
 worth study," 89 
 
 Bacon, on solitude, 122, 123 
 Badams, friend of Irving, calls on 
 
 Carlyle, 194 ; described by Mrs. 
 
 Montagu 195 (see note 1) 
 
 Ballhorn, stanza from Golden A B 
 C, 118 (for trans, see p. 177) 
 
 Barclay, John, 25 (see note) 
 
 Bardili, his "Rational Realism," 
 112; similar to Malebranche ? 112 
 
 Baretti, short account of, 130, 131 ; 
 adventure of, in London, 131 ; 
 his works and character, 131 (see 
 also note) 
 
 Beaumont (and Fletcher), drama- 
 tists, disappointing to Carlyle, 
 31; criticism of 31, 32 
 
 Bentham, Jeremy, significance of, 
 171; senility of, 236 
 
 "Benvenuto Cellini," criticism 
 upon, 186 
 
 Berkenhout, Dr., his "Literary 
 History of England," 147 
 
 Biography, the only history, 238 
 
 Bohmen, ex-king of, comes to Lon- 
 don, takes Covenant, and re- 
 ceives pension, n 
 
 Book, by Carlyle, description of 
 projected, 29 
 
 Books (French), to be read, 52, 
 53; where met with, 52; (Ger- 
 man) recommended in Herder, 
 75» 7°> 77; recommended by Mr. 
 Aitken, 121 ; more, to be read, 
 123, 127; more, to be seen, 142, 
 143 ; list of English, 146 ; list 
 of, copied from Croker's Bos- 
 well's Johnson, 242, 243 
 
 Boscovich, Kant reminds Carlyle 
 of, 112; died mad, 130 
 
 Bossuet, " Oraisons funebres," 10 
 
 Bouterwek, his "System of Vir- 
 tuality," 112 
 
 Bo wring, Sir John, meets Carlyle, 
 196 (see note 4) 
 
 Bradock-Down, Battle of, 6 ; loca- 
 tion of, 6; defeat of the Par- 
 liament at, 6; indifferently de- 
 scribed, 6 
 
 Brandes, Johann Christian, " Au- 
 tobiography," 121 
 
 Brentford, Royalist general, de- 
 feated at Arlesford by Waller, 
 9 ; rescued from Donnington, 10 
 
 289 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Brerewood, what of? 25 
 
 Brewster, Sir David, meets Car- 
 lyle, 256; Carlyle's opinion of, 
 256 
 
 Brothers, Richard, 216 (see also 
 note 2) 
 
 Brougham, Lord, Carlyle prophe- 
 sies concerning, 273 
 
 Browne, Sir T., his " Religio Me- 
 dici," "Urne Burial," and 
 "Vulgar Errors," 67; Carlyle's 
 opinion of, 68 ; midway between 
 poetand orator, 69 ; his '* Religio 
 Medici" most readable, 69 ; errs 
 in giving himself too good a 
 character, 69; account of, 90; 
 knighted by Charles II, 90 
 
 Bruyere, La, characterization of, 
 of, 126 
 
 Buller, Mrs., verses to, by Dr. 
 Leyden, 65 
 
 Burgess, Dr. , who was ? 1 
 
 Burns, contrasted with Scott, 127; 
 Carlyle finishes a paper on, 129 
 
 Burrow, Sir J., 29 
 
 Burton, quotations from, 85, 86; 
 little to be learned about him, 
 90 ; short account of 90 ; firm 
 believer in Astrology, 90 ; anec- 
 dote of his life at Oxford, 01 ; 
 quotations from, 97; Carlyle's 
 characterization of, 99 
 
 Byron, a "kraftmann," at his 
 death, 17; Carlyle's opinion of 
 him, 71 (see also note) ; a brief 
 definition of, 230 
 
 Cabbage, the, characterization of, 
 105 
 
 Caesar, remark by Carlyle concern- 
 ing, 7 ; compared with Hambden, 
 7; Hadrian's epitaph on, 123 
 
 Capel, Lord, 17 
 
 Carisbrook Casde, Charles I con- 
 fined in, 15; treaty with Scots 
 signed by Charles in, 15 
 
 Carlyle (Mrs.), Jane Welsh, arrives 
 in London, 21 (see note 1) 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, begins first note- 
 book while reading Clarendon's 
 History, 1 ; invokes fortune, 1 ; 
 finishes third volume of Claren- 
 don, 19; ill health of, 54; 
 despondency of, 55; rejection of 
 suicide by, 56 (see note, p. 57) ; 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas — continued. 
 estimate of true affection, 58; 
 to leave Kinnaird, 58; hopes of 
 Wilhelm Meister (translation), 
 58; Schiller, Part II, sent to Lon- 
 don, 54; Schiller, Part III, be- 
 gun, 59; effect of drugs on, 59 ; 
 scribbling, not writing Schiller, 
 59; anxiety about Schiller (the 
 book), 59; farewell to 1823, 59, 
 60; has trouble with the intro- 
 duction to Schiller, 60; at Hod- 
 dam Hill, 64; despondency of, 
 64, 65, 66 ; marries, 67 ; finishes 
 " Anatomy of Melancholy," 98 ; 
 doubtful what to say concerning 
 it, 98; sums up Burton and his 
 book, 98, 99 ; on a diseased liver, 
 and virtue as its own reward, 
 103; finishes article for "Edin- 
 burgh Review," 140; to see Jef- 
 frey at Dumfries, 141 ; thinks 
 seriously of discussing Martin 
 Luther, 142 ; proposes to write 
 an essay on Metaphors, 142 ; 
 criticizes Political Economists, 
 144; is occupied writing a " His- 
 tory of German Literature," 147 
 (see note) ; comments on his 
 difficulties in doing so, 148 ; re- 
 bukes himself, 148, 149; on the 
 origin of quarrels, 149, 150; has 
 "done with the Germans,'' 150; 
 inquires how much truth is in 
 them, 150; gets rid of Material- 
 ism, 151 ; inquires into the na- 
 ture of a miracle, 151 ; asks what 
 is poetry, 151 ; laments his lack 
 of memory, 151 ; doubts if he 
 shall succeed, 152, cannot judge 
 of his own talent, 152; writes 
 letter to Dumfries "Courier," 153 
 (see note) ; gets on badly with a 
 speculation on History, 154 ; 
 is asked to write a life of Goethe, 
 154 (see note) ; also of Luther, 
 x 54> J 55; his sentiment as re- 
 gards a life of Luther, 155; is 
 offered an annuity by Jeffrey, 
 but refuses, 155 (see note) ; com- 
 ments upon this, 155 ; confesses 
 his error about independence, 
 156; begins second volume of 
 " German Literary History," 
 156; his impression concerning 
 
 290 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas — continued. 
 it, 156; on the death of his sister 
 Margaret, 157 ; on the Saint- 
 Simonians, 158 (see also note 
 2) ; failure of project as to " His- 
 tory of German Literature," 163 ; 
 reproaches himself, 163 (see 
 note 2) ; has glimpses of the 
 power of spiritual union, 164; 
 exhorts himself to be up and 
 doing, 165, 166; writes "The 
 Beetle," 170; undefined aim of, 
 170; criticizes " Fraser's Maga- 
 zine," 170; refers to John Wil- 
 son ("Christopher North"), 
 170; declares printing not to be 
 the symbol of literature, 170, 
 171 ; compares great and small 
 actions, 171 ; quotes examples, 
 171; compares moral and in- 
 tellectual nature of man, 171; 
 defines the significance of Christ, 
 171 ; defines the place of Jeremy 
 Bentham, 171; pities England, 
 172; contrasts Utilitarians and 
 Whigs, 182; has no patience 
 with Dilettanti, 172 ; defines the 
 Sin of the age, 172; condemns 
 the idle, 172; visit of the Jeffreys 
 to, 173 (see note) ; criticizes 
 Jeffrey at length, 173, 174, 175; 
 begins "Sartor Resartus," 176; 
 on Seclusion and Meditation, 
 176; on Silence, 176; as to 
 Words, 176; as to Silence and 
 Speech, 177; as to Secrecy, 177; 
 "On Clothes," 177; receives 
 the ornamented " Schiller" from 
 Goethe, 177 (see note i,p. 178) ; 
 sends the "Clothes "to Fraser, 
 178 (see note 2) ; comments on 
 political state of England, 178, 
 179; divine right of squires equal 
 to that of kings, 179; as to prop- 
 erty, 179; as to Art and Poetry, 
 180; the logical import of life, 
 180; analyzes his condition, 181; 
 hears from his brother John, 
 182; criticizes Taylor, 182; on a 
 stanza by Mrs. Carlyle, 182; 
 trouble with " Teufelsdreck," 
 183 (see notes 1, 2) ; refers to 
 Goethe, 183; literary prospects 
 of, 183 ; on the state of Europe, 
 183; on the state of England, 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas — continued. 
 184 ; on the frame of society, 
 184 ; as to the only sovereigns 
 of the world, 184 ; as to divine 
 right in kings, 184, 185; the 
 derivation of honor-titles, past 
 and future, 185; reliance on 
 God, 185; comment on Jeffrey, 
 185; criticizes Benvenuto Cellini, 
 186; on Pope's "Odyssey of 
 Homer," 187; Homer or Shakes- 
 peare the greater ? 187; inquires 
 as to constitution of a Whole, 
 187 ; as to the true Heroic Poems, 
 188 ; seeks the true relation of 
 moral to poetic genius, 188; 
 characterizes the words of Jesus, 
 189; ends the first Note-book at 
 Craigenputtock, 189; exhorts 
 himself, 189; leaves Craigen- 
 puttock for London, 191 (see note 
 1) ; account of journey, 191, 192, 
 193 ; calls on the Lord Advocate, 
 193; is advised to try Murray 
 with " Sartor " and sees him, 
 194; comment on the meeting, 
 194 ; meets the Badamses, 194 ; 
 renews acquaintance with the 
 Montagues, 194 (see note 3) ; 
 calls on Mrs. Montagu, 195 (see 
 notes 1 and 2) ; calls on Long- 
 man's with Napier's letter, 196; 
 meets with refusal of "German 
 Literary History," 196; renews 
 acquaintance with the Stracheys 
 and Bowring, 196; sees Allan 
 Cunningham, 196 ; writes to 
 Goethe, 197; visits Shooter's 
 Hill, 197 (see note 1) ; breakfasts 
 with the Jeffreys, 198 ; sees 
 Edward Irving, 198; appoints to 
 dine with Drummond, 198 (see 
 note 4) ; meets Godwin, 198 ; 
 characterization of Godwin, 
 199; ill health of, 200; journal 
 writing discontinued by, 200; in- 
 quiry as to education, 200 ; 
 notes the arrival of Mrs. Carlyle, 
 201 ; comments on " Sartor Re- 
 sartus," 201 (see note 1) ; meets 
 Gustave d'Eichthal, the Saint- 
 Simonian, 201 ; notes loss of Re- 
 form Bill, 202; notes illness of 
 Jeffrey, 202 ; meets Sir J. Macin- 
 tosh and describes him, 202, 
 
 2 9 ] 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas — continued. 
 203; refers to Dr. Fleming, 203 
 (see note 1) ; inquires as to the 
 true duty of a man, 203 , as to 
 Reverence the need of men, 
 203 ; complains of stupidity, 
 204; inquiry into dictum by 
 Goethe and Schiller that art is 
 higher than religion, 204; notes 
 tendency to speculate on men, 
 not man, 205 ; comments on the 
 general condition of things, 206, 
 207: complains that good shoes 
 cannot be had in London, 207 
 (see note) ; states the universal 
 problem of man, 208; notes a 
 harder problem, to be found in 
 London, 208; upon advertising 
 ox puffing, 208,209; caus Lon- 
 don the Goshen of quacks, 209 ; 
 on how to remedy things, 209 ; 
 on the size of London, 209, 210; 
 notes extravagant price of po- 
 tatoes, 210; comments on the 
 hurry of life in London, 210; 
 notes the isolation of life in Lon- 
 don, 210; on the want of Gov- 
 ernment in, 211 ; on the torpidity 
 of the Soul, 211 (see note 1) ; to 
 write for the "Edinburgh Re- 
 view," 212; as to a course of lec- 
 tures in London, 212 {note 1) ; 
 inquires as to province of oral 
 teaching, 212; avers London to 
 be ignorant of art, 212 ; as to 
 eloquence in himself, 212; upon 
 Hazlitt's "Table Talk," 213 
 (see note 3) ; dines with Fon- 
 blanque, 213; describes him, 
 213 ; receives Allan Cunning- 
 ham, 214 ; analyzes him, 214 ; 
 as to Sir Walter Scott, 214 ; upon 
 the advantage of the pulpit, 215 ; 
 as to the meaning of symbol, 
 215; on the possibility of Art at 
 this era, 215; "where is to- 
 morrow?" 215; classifies so- 
 ciety, 215, 216; note on Richard 
 Brothers, 216; meets Charles 
 Lamb at Enfield, 217; opinion 
 of Lamb, 217, 218, 219 (see 
 note 1, p. 217, and note 1, p. 
 218) ; on the difficulty of obtain- 
 ing the truth, 217; notes wild 
 riots in Bristol, 219 (see notes 1, 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas — continued. 
 2, p. 220) ; has a " striking ar- 
 ticle " to write, but finds it " un- 
 speakably " difficult, 220 ; gen- 
 eral apprehension of cholera 
 unshared by, 221 (see note 1) ; 
 as to "Life "and "Existence," 
 221; the "hohe Bedeutung des 
 Entsagen," 221 (see note 2) ; 
 conception of Immortality de- 
 pends on that of Time, 222 ; 
 laments the absence of" Sports," 
 222; upon education, 222, 223; 
 upon the best and the worst 
 educated man, 223 ; prophesies 
 the union of authors, 223 ; as to 
 the end of the world, 223; the 
 Cockney the most ignorant 
 creature of his class, 224; on the 
 date and origin of playing cards, 
 224; on "Merelles," 224, 225; 
 idle and out of sorts, 225 ; relates 
 origin of Sadler's Well, 225; 
 finds life sad and stern, 226; 
 longs for the end, 226 ; meets Mr. 
 (later Sir Henry) Taylor, 226; 
 visited by Glen, 226 ; characteri- 
 zation of, and advice, to Glen, 
 
 226, 227; inseparability (for man) 
 of evil and good, 226, 227; finds 
 materials of Art everywhere, but 
 not the artist to embody them, 
 
 227, 228; notes arrival of cholera 
 at Sunderland 228 ; urges him- 
 self to work, 228; "the noble- 
 ness of Silence," 228 ; as to 
 Thinking and Thoughts, 228 ; 
 as to Morality and Action, 228, 
 229 ; perfect morality not an ob- 
 ject of consciousness, 229 ; fin- 
 ishes the " Characteristics," 
 230; his opinion of it, 230; de- 
 fines Byron, 230; reads Croker's 
 Boswell's Johnson, 230; pur- 
 poses an essay on it, 230 ; diffi- 
 culty in writing the "Character- 
 istics," 230, 231 ; engages with 
 Lardner to furnish a " History 
 of German Literature," 231 ; 
 difficulty concerning it, 231 ; 
 pestered by magazine editors, 
 231 ; comments on the strange 
 state of literature, 231, 232 ; as 
 to Bulwer Lytton, 232; feeling 
 as to Tait and his new Radical 
 
 292 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas — continued. 
 magazine, 232 ; as to Fraser and 
 his magazine, 232 ; a rule for writ- 
 ing, 232 ; writes for the " Athen- 
 aeum," 232; dislikes being ad- 
 vertised, 232 ; blames himself for 
 writing for Dilke, 233 ; writes to 
 his brother John in Rome, 233 ; 
 proposes article on the author 
 of the Corn Law Rhymes, 233 ; 
 remarks scarcity of ideas in Lon- 
 don, 233 ; " Sartor" still unpub- 
 lished, 233 ; indifferent as to the 
 publication of it, 234; meets 
 Abraham Hayward, 234; Hay- 
 ward's service to, 234 ; dines 
 with Hayward, 235 ; describes 
 the evening, 235 ; meets Sir 
 Alexander Johnston, 235 ; char- 
 acterizes Macaulay, 236; epito- 
 mizes Rogers, 236 ; opinion of 
 Moore, 236; on Bentham, 236; 
 seeks to visit Dr. Johnson's 
 places of abode, 237 ; difficulty 
 of finding places in London, 
 237 ; notes the need of a lending 
 library in London, 237 (see note 
 2) ; sees that biography is the 
 only history, 238; the aspect 
 of the world to, 238 ; quotes 
 epitaph from Johnson, 238 (see 
 note 2); quotes "Dies Irae," 
 239 et seq. ; comments on Parson 
 Hackman, 243 ; reads Hazlitt's 
 " Liber Amoris," 243, 244 ; 
 ridicules it, 244 ; as to Dr. Camp- 
 bell, 244 ; meets Mr. Shepherd 
 (Unitarian parson), 244 ; de- 
 scribes him, 245; characterizes 
 Unitarians, 245 ; St. Paul's or 
 " Paradise Lost " the more neces- 
 sary? 245; finds Franklin's defi- 
 nition of man in Boswell, 245; 
 avers literature to be priceless, 
 245 ; writes unsatisfactory intro- 
 duction to essay on Johnson, 245, 
 246 ; sadness of mirth not based 
 on earnestness, 246 ; receives Jef- 
 rey, 246; as to 0'Connell,247; as 
 to the Scotch, English, and Irish 
 courts, 247; convinced that 
 English law must be re-made, 
 248; meets Gustave d'Eichthal 
 again, 248 ; opinion of him, 248 ; 
 sees Arthur Buller, 248 ; dines 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas — continued. 
 with Fraser in Regent Street, 
 248; meets Allan Cunningham, 
 James Hogg, and Lockhart, 
 248; describes Lockhart, 249; 
 describes Gait, 249 ; describes 
 Hogg (the "Ettrick Shep- 
 herd"), 250; condemns the 
 evening spent with Fraser, 251, 
 252 ; chronicles death of his fa- 
 ther, 252 (see note 1) ; finishes 
 paper on Johnson, "not wholly 
 without worth," 252; investi- 
 gates Diderot, 253 ; quotes con- 
 cerning Diderot from the " Biog- 
 raphie Universelle," 253; as to 
 Bishop Douglas, 254; breaks with 
 Lardner, 254 ; settles with Fraser 
 about essay on Johnson, 255 ; 
 criticizes " Fraser's Magazine," 
 255 ; as to the state of book- 
 selling, 255; longs (with Mrs. 
 Carlyle) to be home, 255; likes 
 London, but not the climate, 
 256 ; quotes remark of Sir N. H. 
 Nicholas as to booksellers, 256 ; 
 describes Sir David Brewster, 
 256; meets Leigh Hunt through 
 "Characteristics," 256; de- 
 scribes him, 257 ; writes to John 
 Carlyle at Rome, 258; calls on 
 Schlegel, but hopes not to see 
 him, 258 ; terms Schlegel a liter- 
 ary Gigman, 258; meets William 
 Maginn, 258 ; describes him, 258 
 (see also note) ; as to the origin 
 of " Fraser's Magazine," 259 ; 
 leaves London, 259 (see note) ; 
 hears of the death of Goethe, 
 259 ; realizes his last letter to 
 Goethe would arrive too late, 
 260 ; describes the Tribula, 260 ; 
 comments on the fuller's craft 
 among the Romans, 260, 261 ; 
 as to Vespasian and the fuller's 
 craft, 261; " squelches " his fin- 
 ger-nail, 262 ; philosophizes on 
 it, 263 ; complains of ill health, 
 262, 263 ; as to the true pulpit 
 and true Church, 263; upon 
 the right of speculative men to 
 exist, 263; on writers, 264; 
 should writing be difficult ? 264 ; 
 cautions himself as to writing, 
 264 ; exhorts himself to honesty 
 
 293 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas — continued. 
 in writing, 265 ; defines his diffi- 
 culty in writing, 265; finishes 
 funeral discourse on Goethe, 265 
 (see note 1) ; takes up Corn Law 
 Rhymes, 265 ; his reluctance to 
 renounce a road once entered on, 
 266; reflects on the tinkering 
 of the State, 266, 267 (see note, 
 p. 267) ; finishes a paper on the 
 Corn Law Rhymer, 267; pur- 
 poses memoir of Lord Byron for 
 "New Monthly Magazine," 
 268; projects essay on Goethe 
 for "Foreign Quarterly Re- 
 view," 268 ; is idle for twelve 
 days, 268; hears from Lytton 
 about the Goethe funeral dis- 
 course, 268 ; goes down to Scots- 
 brig to settle family affairs, 268 ; 
 gives an account of the settle- 
 ment of his father's will, 268, 
 269 ; as to his Aunt Fanny and 
 her son, 270, 271 ; hears rumors 
 of loss of New Reform Bill, 271,* 
 on the political situation, 272, 
 2 73> 274 ; on the only Reform, 
 274 ; his alienation from politics, 
 274 ; his political principle, 275 ; 
 goes with Fraser to House of 
 Commons, but fails to get in, 
 275; sees Macaulay in lobby of 
 House, 276; describes Macau- 
 lay, 276, 277; visits Windham 
 Club with Fraser, 277 ; describes 
 Windham Club, 277 ; on clubs 
 in general, 277; farewell reflec- 
 tions, 278 
 
 Carnwath, Earl of, anecdote of, at 
 Naseby, 12 
 
 Chalgrove-field, skirmish at, be- 
 tween Thame and Oxford, 6 
 
 Champollion, inventor of phonetic 
 characters, in ; well received in 
 Italy, in 
 
 Chapel, origin of the word, as used 
 by printers, 261, 262 
 
 Character, national, the description 
 of a, tends to realize itself, 154 
 
 Characters, phonetic, well received 
 in Italy, in 
 
 Charles I, seizes members of Com- 
 mons "accused of Treason," 2; 
 eludes Waller at Worcester, 10 ; 
 rejoins Queen at Oxford, 10; 
 
 Charles I — continued. 
 fights at Cropredy-bridge, 10; 
 follows Essex into the West, 10 ; 
 defeats him at Lostwithiel, 10 ; is 
 beaten at Newbury, 10; retires 
 to Oxford, 10; retires to Chep- 
 stow after Naseby, 13; thence to 
 Cardiff, etc., 13; inclines to join 
 Montrose, 13 ; sends Lord Digby 
 north to Dumfries, 13; at Ox- 
 ford in 1646, 14; surrenders to 
 Scotch army at Newark, 14; 
 seized at Holmby by Cornet 
 Joyce, 14 ; brought to Newmar- 
 ket, 15 ; Henderson attempts to 
 convert, to Presbyterianism, 15 ; 
 signs treaty with Scots in Caris- 
 brooke, 15; beheaded, 16; Car- 
 lyle's opinion of, 16 
 
 Charles II, "getting settled in 
 Scotland," 3 ; Milton's fear con- 
 cerning, 3; stanza on, 5 ; goes 
 to Stilly in 1646, 14 ; at the 
 Hague, 16 
 
 Charles III, of Spain, last years of, 
 most illustrious, 109 
 
 Chaucer, Godfrey, his house Don- 
 nington, near Newbury in Wilts,8 
 
 Chillingworth, Mr., taken at Arun- 
 del, 9 ; illtreatment of, 9 
 
 Cholera,apprehensionof,not shared 
 by Carlyle, 221 
 
 Christ, Jesus, the significance of, 
 171 ; the words of, characterized, 
 189 
 
 Christianity,, introduced into Eng- 
 land about A. d. 180, 23 
 
 Church, the true, 263 
 
 Cicero, anecdote of Antimachus 
 Clarius, 124 
 
 Cockney, the, the most ignorant 
 man of his class, 224 
 
 Coleridge, on talent and genius, 
 46; on ideas, 78 
 
 Comley Bank, 67 (see note) 
 
 Conduct, 31, note 
 
 Confessio fidei (of Wallensteins 
 Jager), translation of, 61, 62,63 
 
 Cookery, the ultimate object of, 71 
 
 Cor ne edito, 165 (see note) 
 
 Corniani, "Secoli della Let. It," 
 130 
 
 Cote, 31, note 
 
 Courtesies, of polished life, Carlyle 
 on the, 126 
 
 294 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Craft, the fuller's, among the 
 Romans, 260, 261 
 
 Critics, German, curious people, 
 33 ; comparison of, with English 
 and Scotch, 33; favorable to 
 Germans, 33 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, remark to Lord 
 Falkland touching The Remon- 
 strance, 1; chosen to command 
 force under Manchester, 9; his 
 " iron band " at Marston Moor, 
 10; proposes "self denying ordi- 
 nance," 1 1 ; general in the West, 
 14 ; orders Joyce to seize Charles 
 I, 14; secretly doomed to the 
 Tower, but escapes to the army, 
 15 ; defeats Scotch under Duke 
 of Hamilton, 16 ; Carlyle com- 
 ments upon, 17; dissolves the 
 Parliament by force, 18; sum- 
 mons Barebone's Parliament, 18 ; 
 declared Protector, 18 ; prose- 
 cutes Lilburn, 18; death, 19; 
 Carlyle to ascertain more clearly 
 the aims of, 31 ; a life of, desira- 
 ble, 93 
 
 Cunningham, Allan, meets Car- 
 lyle in London, 196; visits the 
 Carlyles, 214; meets Carlyle at 
 Fraser's, 249 
 
 Dante, commentators on, in 
 
 " Defensio Gigmanica," the, 216 
 (see note 1) 
 
 D'Eichthal, Gustave, the Saint- 
 Simonian, meets Carlyle (see 
 note 2) ; acquainted with Emer- 
 son, 201 (see note 2) 
 
 Delegates, Convention of, to ex- 
 pedite Reform Bill, 206 
 
 Delusion, popular, as to, 105, 106 
 
 Denovan, Denny, 59 
 
 Descartes, founds all truth on God, 
 100; differs from the English, 
 who found God on truth, 100 
 
 Desideratum, the great, in society, 
 
 152 
 Didot, F. , French printer, number 
 
 of volumes produced annually 
 by, no 
 Digby, Lord, advises king to seize 
 members of the House of Com- 
 mons, 2; despatched north by 
 Charles I, 13; deserts his army 
 at Dumfries, 13 
 
 Dilettantism, the Sin of the age, 
 
 172 
 Dilke, C. W., 208, 209 (see notes) 
 " Dumfries Courier," the, Carlyle 
 
 writes letter to, 153 (see also 
 
 note 2) 
 Dunoyer, writer on Industrialism, 
 
 113 
 Drake, various quotations from, 
 146 (see also note 2) 
 
 Ebel, Dr., 107 
 
 Economists, Political, error of, 143 ; 
 Carlyle's query as to, 143, 144; 
 the whole phdosophy of, 144 ; 
 uselessness of, 144; should col- 
 lect statistical facts, 160 
 
 Economy, Political, as to, 100; 
 present science of, requires little 
 intellect, 160; though young, is 
 decrepit, 160 
 
 Edgehill, Battle of, 5 ; location of, 
 6 
 
 Education, Carlyle upon, 222, 223 
 (see note 1, p. 223) 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, men of her time 
 the Romans or Greeks of English 
 history, 70; her literature the 
 only true poetical literature of 
 England, 70 
 
 Ellwood, reader of Latin to Milton, 
 21 ; his life of himself, 21 ; Car- 
 lyle's opinion of, 21 ; life of, why 
 read by Carlyle, 21 ; description 
 of, 21 ; compared with Alfieri, 
 Goethe, Voltaire, 22 
 
 Emperors, Roman, anecdotes of 
 
 8 7 . . . 
 
 Empiricism, does it lead to Athe- 
 ism? 102 
 
 Empirics, the, 102 
 
 England, Carlyle desires to know, 
 132; no precise history of, 132; 
 the old literature of, 132 ; to un- 
 derstand her, one must under- 
 stand her Church, 133; dearth 
 of artists in, 133; dearth of mu- 
 sicians and painters in, 133 ; the 
 characteristic strength of, 134 ; 
 character of the people of, 134 
 
 English, the, found all truth on 
 God, 100 
 
 Entsagen (Renunciation), 221 (see 
 note 2) 
 
 Erasmus, characterization of, 118 
 
 295 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Esbie, Captain, "there is nothing 
 
 like getting on," 104 
 Evil, inseparable (for man) from 
 
 good, 227 (see note 2) 
 Existence, individual, a mystery, 
 
 161; social, still more, 161 (see 
 
 note); speculations on, 161, 162; 
 
 life only the portico of man's, 221 
 Eye, the spiritual and bodily, 136 
 
 Fable, 91 ; instruction communi- 
 cated by, chiefly prohibitive, 92 ; 
 the Conjurer (II), 93; as to the 
 necessity of any man (III), 101; 
 as to development of character 
 (IV), 105 
 
 Fairfax, Lord, defeats Royalists at 
 Naseby, 12; general in the 
 West, 14 ; seizes Colchester, 16 
 
 Falkland, Lord, Cromwell's remark 
 to, concerning The Remon- 
 strance, 1 ; killed at Battle of 
 Newbury, 8; Clarendon's opin- 
 ion of, 8; Carlyle on, 8, 9; be- 
 longed to Lord Byron's regi- 
 ment, 9 
 
 Fichte, a metaphysical atheist, 46; 
 his "Transcendental Idealism," 
 112 ; pretended to have deduced 
 his system from Kant, 112 
 
 Fleetwood, a trooper in the 
 Guards, 5; sent by Essex to 
 Shrewsbury, 5 ; son of Sir Miles 
 Fleetwood, 19 
 
 Fletcher (and Beaumont), drama- 
 tists, disappointing to Carlyle, 
 31; criticism of, 31, 32 
 
 Fonblanque (editor of "Exam- 
 iner"), entertains Carlyle, 213, 
 214 (see note 1, p. 214) 
 
 Foreign minds and characters hard 
 to judge truly, 92 ; exemplifica- 
 tion, 92 
 
 Foscarini, Sebastian, Doge of 
 Venice, inscription on tomb of, 
 89 (see also note 2) 
 
 France, printers, booksellers and 
 authors in, 1 10 ; number of vol- 
 umes printed annually in, no; 
 number of printing offices in, 
 no; number of active presses in, 
 no; amount spent annually in 
 printing in, no; number of book- 
 sellers in, no; amount earned 
 by authors annually in, no 
 
 Franklin, definition of man by, 
 245; anticipates " Teufelsdreck " 
 in it, 245 
 
 Fraser, James (publisher of 
 " Fraser's Magazine"), enter- 
 tains Carlyle at dinner, 249; set- 
 tles with Carlyle about essay on 
 Johnson, 255 
 
 "Fraser's Magazine," criticized 
 by Carlyle, 170; characterized 
 by Carlyle, 232; described by 
 Carlyle, 259 
 
 Fraser, W. (brother to James 
 Fraser), editor of " Foreign Re- 
 view," 249 (see note) ; entertains 
 Carlyle, 256; is denied admit- 
 tance to the House of Commons 
 with Carlyle, 275 ; takes Carlyle 
 to the Windham Club, 275 ; sees 
 Macaulay in lobby of House, 
 276 ; remark concerning Macau- 
 lay, 276 
 
 Friendship, not mentioned in New 
 Testament, 106 
 
 Fuller, craft of the, among the 
 Romans, 260, 261 
 
 Gall, borrows from Herder, 46 
 
 Gallicistes, the, 109 
 
 Gait, John, meets Carlyle at Fra- 
 ser's, 249 ; described by Carlyle, 
 249, 250 
 
 Gassendi, as to the metaphysics of? 
 102; "the father of existing 
 French Philosophy," 102 
 
 Gellert, anecdote of, 122 
 
 Genius, Alfieri on, 30; Coleridge's 
 distinction between talent and, 
 46; the true relation of moral to 
 poetic, inquired into, 188 
 
 " Genoveva," Tieck's, considera- 
 tion of characters in, 73 
 
 Gherardini, translator and im- 
 pugner of Schlegel, in 
 
 Gleig, G. R., Rev., writes to Car- 
 lyle concerning Goethe and 
 Luther, 154 (see note) 
 
 Glen, , 200 (see note 1) 
 
 Godwin, William, meets Carlyle, 
 198; characterized by Carlyle, 
 199 ; his life of Mary Wollstone- 
 craft, 204; epitomized by Car- 
 lyle, 205 
 
 Goethe, on the spending of time, 
 31; Carlyle's query as to, 32 
 
 296 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Goethe — continued. 
 effect of " Wilhelm Meister " on 
 Carlyle, 32; his comprehension 
 of Carlyle, 32; "a wise and 
 great man," 32; last volume of 
 life of, 32; meets Schiller, 36; 
 wiser than Herder or Wieland, 
 46; Carlyle's approval of, 46; 
 "again dangerously ill," 60; on 
 idea and action, 81; called ill- 
 bred by British critics, 126 ; Car- 
 lyle's opinion of, 127 ; on the 
 sublime, 128; on his work, 129 
 (see note) ; death of, 259 
 
 Good, inseparable (for man) from 
 Evil, 227 (see note 2) 
 
 Goring, Lord, the Parliament's 
 guardian and betrayer, 1 1 ; after- 
 ward Royalist general of Horse, 
 11 ; "a very sufficient cozener," 
 but "clever" and "very origi- 
 nal," 11; "the dog," 13; mis- 
 behaves, 13 ; goes to France, 13 
 
 Gottingen, professors at, account 
 of, 117; many men of note pro- 
 duced at, 117 
 
 Gowkthrapple, Dr., 102 (see note 2) 
 
 Grammarians, Italian, no 
 
 " Grammont," Carlyle's desire to 
 read, 53 
 
 Greenvil, Sir Dick, the Nabal, 13 ; 
 levies enormous contributions, 
 13; is imprisoned, but escapes, 
 
 r 3 
 
 Grey, Earl, Carlyle on, 273, 274 
 
 Gries, translations by, 131 
 
 Grossi, Thomas, poet and Ro- 
 mantic, in; said to surpass 
 Tasso, in 
 
 Grotius, his method of reading 
 "Terence," 128 
 
 Gryph, Andreas, death of, 119 
 
 Guards, troopers of the, all gentle- 
 men's sons, 19 
 
 Hacket, Bishop, Life of Abp. Wil- 
 liams, 2, note 
 
 Hackman, Parson, comment on, 
 243. 
 
 Hadrian, epitaph on Csesar, 123 
 
 Hambden, accused of treason, 2 ; 
 killed at Chalgrove-field, 6 ; Car- 
 lyle's estimate of, 7; coupled 
 with Washington by Carlyle, 7 ; 
 portrait of, by Clarendon, 8 
 
 Hamilton, Duke of, defeated by 
 Cromwell, 1 6 ; taken prisoner at 
 Uttoxeter, 16; beheaded, 17 
 Harrison, conducts Charles I to 
 
 Westminster, 16 ; origin of, 16 
 Hazelrig, accused of treason, 2 
 Hazlitt, Carlyle's opinion of, 213 
 Honor-titles, derivation of, past and 
 
 future, 185 
 Heeren, biographer of Heyne, 116 
 Henderson, Mr., pitted against 
 Bishop Steward, 11 ; " why does 
 not McCrie write a life of? " 12 ; 
 tries to convert Charles I, 15; 
 dies of a broken heart, 15 
 Herder, Carlyle has good hopes of, 
 33; his "Nemesis," 33; account 
 of and quotation from, 33, 34; 
 compared to Hervey, 34 ; his 
 essay about the decay of taste 
 used by Madame de Stael, 34; 
 quotation from Herder, 35, 36 ; 
 hates the " new philosophy," 45 ; 
 his " Ideen," 72 ; Carlyle's criti- 
 cism of it, 72 ; Carlyle's desire to 
 see more of, 73 ; a sort of "Browne 
 redivivus," 73 
 Heyne, list of works of, 115, 116; 
 birthplace of, 116; short account 
 of, 116; "not great, but large," 
 
 "7 . 
 Historian, the, disadvantage of, 
 
 . I2 4. 
 
 Histrio-Mastix, Prynne's, 29 
 
 Hoddam Hill, 64 (see note) 
 
 Hogg, James (the"Ettrick Shep- 
 herd") , meets Carlyle at Fraser's, 
 249; described by Carlyle, 250, 
 251 
 
 Holland, Lord, 17 
 
 Hollis, accused of treason, 2 ; quar- 
 rels with Ireton, 15; pulls Ire- 
 ton by the nose, 15 
 
 Homer, greater than Shakespeare ? 
 187 
 
 Hooker, as to the " Mother of 
 Error," 143 
 
 Hopton, defeats Parliament at 
 Bradock-Down, 6; defeated at 
 Arlesford by Waller, 9; fails to 
 save Royalist cause after Naseby, 
 
 14 
 Hopton-heath, Battle of, 6; loca- 
 tion of, 6; Parliament beaten 
 at, 6 
 
 297 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Horace, on mastering things, 132 
 (see also note) 
 
 Hume, " Essay on Human Na- 
 ture," 262 (see note) 
 
 Hunt, Leigh, seeks out Carlyle, 
 256; Carlyle's opinion of, 257 
 
 Hurry (a Scot), account of, 7 
 
 Individuality, as to intellectual, 
 
 114 ; as to moral, 114 
 Industrialism, historical sketch of, 
 
 XI 3 
 Industrials, the, 113 ; Saint-Simon 
 
 the chief of the, 113; political 
 
 theories of the, 113 
 Institutions (or Laws), as to, 141 
 Immortality, conception of, de- 
 pends on that of Time, 222 
 Ireton, Henry, quarrels with Hol- 
 
 lis, 15 ; refuses to fight him, 15 ; 
 
 dies of plague at Limerick, 1 8 ; 
 Iriarte, Tomas, Spanish writer, 
 
 109; Carlyle's opinion, 109 
 Irving, Edward, "may be yet a 
 
 Bishop," 185 
 
 Jeffrey, resigns editorship of" Ed- 
 inburgh Review," 140 (see note); 
 to see Carlyle at Dumfries, 141 ; 
 offers Carlyle an annuity, 155 ; 
 visits Carlyle at Craigenputtock, 
 173; as viewed by Carlyle, 173, 
 174, 175 ; Lord Advocate and M. 
 P., 185; emotion on taking of- 
 fice, 185 ; receives Carlyle in 
 London, 193, 194 
 Johnson, Dr., Carlyle on, 60 
 Joyce, Cornet, seizes Charles I at 
 Holmby, 14 ; his authority for 
 doing so, 14, 15 
 
 Kant, Carlyle on, 41, 46 ; writers 
 on, 112; his system of morality 
 universal in Germany, 112; de- 
 nies that Fichte made use of his 
 system, 112; reminds Carlyle of 
 Father Boscovich, 112 
 Katherine of Portugal (and Charles 
 II), stanza on, by Swift or Roch- 
 ester, s 
 Kimbolton, Lord, 2 
 Kings, divine right of, 184, 185 
 Kinnaird, Carlyle at (1823), 50, 51 
 Kirchberg, Hartman von, his epi- 
 taph on himself, 156 
 
 Know, how to, what we are, 152 
 " Knox," McCries', of no im- 
 mense weight, 5 
 
 Lacepede, Comte de, history of 
 Europe by, 107; Carlyle's opinion 
 of it, 107 
 
 Lacr6telle, a superficial historian, 
 32 ; estimate of, 32 ; his " Re- 
 ligious Wars," 52; Carlyle's 
 opinion of it, 52 
 
 Landsdown, Battle of, near Bath, 
 8 ; Parliament beaten at, 8 
 
 Language, all, except concerning 
 sensual objects, figurative, 141, 
 142 (see note, p. 142) 
 
 Lardner, Dr. Dionysius (of the 
 Cabinet Cyclopedia), seeks Car- 
 lyle's aid, 231 (see notes, P» 2 34): 
 a "Langohriger,"234 (see note); 
 loses Carlyle, 254 
 
 Leibnitz, locates truth, 100; re- 
 verse view by the English, 100 
 
 Lesly, David, defeats Montrose at 
 Philipshaugh, 14 
 
 Leyden, Dr. John, verses to Mrs. 
 Buller, 63 
 
 Life, logical import of, 180; the 
 portico of man's Existence, 221 
 
 Lilburn, persecuted by Star Cham- 
 ber, 18; taken at Brentford, 18; 
 attacks Cromwell, 18; is prose- 
 cuted by Cromwell,but acquitted, 
 18; the Cobbett of those days, 18 
 
 Lilis, first wife of Adam, 82 
 
 Literature, the old English, spirit 
 of better than that of ours, 69 ; 
 touched with true beauty, 69; 
 Elizabethan, the only truly poeti- 
 cal, of England, 70 ; printing not 
 the symbol of, 170, 171 
 
 Literary men, the only sovereigns 
 of the world, 184 
 
 Logau, T. von, couplet by, 118; 
 couplet by, 119 
 
 London, as to the size of, 209, 210; 
 hurry of life in, 210; Carlyle on 
 the want of Government in, 211 ; 
 description of, 211 ; difficulty of 
 finding places in, 237; no lend- 
 ing library in London, 237 (see 
 note 2) 
 
 Londonderry, wrested from the 
 City of London by Star Chamber, 
 afterwards restored, 2 
 
 298 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Longman & Co., Carlyle presents 
 letter of introduction to, 196; re- 
 fuse Carlyle's "German Lit. 
 History," 106 
 
 Lostwithiel, Essex's foot capitu- 
 lates at, 10 
 
 Ludlow, succeeds Ireton, 18 ; at 
 Battle of Edgehill, 191a trooper 
 of the Guards, 19; his "Mem- 
 oirs," 19; Carlyle's opinion of 
 his U Memoirs," 19 
 
 Luther, asceticism of, 136; last 
 words of, 137; Melanchthon's 
 life of, 138; Seckendorf's history 
 of, 138; other works concerning, 
 138; ancestry 0^138; monastic 
 life of, 138; Motschmanus on, at 
 Erfurt, 138; character of, as a 
 monk, 138, 139 (see note, p. 139) ; 
 chronology of life of, 139; char- 
 acter of, 139; attachment to 
 music of, 139 ; Carlyle desires to 
 write a life of, 140; such men as, 
 needed in each century, 140; 
 Carlyle thinks seriously of dis- 
 cussing, 142. 
 
 McCrie, his " Knox," no immense 
 weight, 5 
 
 McDiarmid (editor of " Dumfries 
 Courier "), Carlyle describes, 272 
 
 Macaulay, T. B., Carlyle on, 236 
 (see note 3), 276; bought oranges 
 before speaking in House of 
 Commons, 276 
 
 Machiavel, comment on, 15 
 
 Maginn, William, meets Carlyle 
 at Fraser's, 258; described by 
 Carlyle, 258 ; the real originator 
 of " Fraser's Magazine," 258 
 
 Man, history of a, like that of his 
 world, 132; Carlyle's own ex- 
 perience as to the history of a, 
 132; a visible mystery, 136; is a 
 spirit, 161; viewed in a mere 
 logical sense, 163; the moral na- 
 ture of, 164; is an apparition, 
 164; infinitely venerable to every 
 other man, 166; Novalis on the 
 body of, 166 
 
 Manchester, Earl of, defeats Ru- 
 pert and Newcastle at Marston 
 Moor, 10 
 
 Manzoni, poet and romanticist, 
 hi; failure as a tragedian, 11 1 
 
 Massinger (dramatist), disappoint- 
 ing to Carlyle, 31; criticism of, 
 
 3i» 3 2 
 
 Marshall, Mr., who was? 1 
 
 Marston Moor, Battle of, 10; 
 Royalists defeated by Manches- 
 ter at, "chiefly by Cromwell's 
 iron band," 10; location of, 10 
 
 Meditation and Seclusion, Carlyle 
 on, 176 
 
 Memoirs, various, list of, 128 
 
 Mendelssohn, the "Phadon " of, a 
 half imitation of Plato's "Phae- 
 don," 94; possesses beauty and 
 simplicity, 94 ; divided into three 
 dialogues, 95 ; summary of them, 
 95,96 . 
 
 "Mercunus, newspaper, set on 
 foot during Spanish Armada, 4 
 
 Merelles, same as Corsicrown, 224, 
 225; also called "nine men's 
 morrice," 225 
 
 Metaphors, prodigious influence of, 
 142 ; essay on, needed, 142 ; 
 Carlyle determines to write essay 
 on, 142 ; " Sartor Resartus " to 
 be regarded as the essay on, 142 
 (see note 1) 
 
 Michaud, "Histoire des Croi- 
 sades," 118 
 
 Milan, number of journals in, 112 
 
 Mill, J. S., sees Carlyle, 205; 
 pleases Carlyle, 205 
 
 Millot, work on the Troubadours, 
 
 Milton, Defensio Pop. Angl. ag 1 . 
 the Def. Reg. of Saumaise, 3, 
 5 ; Carlyle's analysis of, 3 ; 
 "not a man of breeding," 3; 
 wife of, said to "have worn the 
 breeks," 3; life and writings of, 
 by Birch, 8 ; adjt-gen'l. to Wal- 
 ler, 19; his history of Britain, 
 22 ; criticism of, by Carlyle, 22 ; 
 some " agates " picked from it, 
 23 ; his first publication, " Of 
 Reformation," 23 ; praise of it, 
 by Carlyle, 24; examination of 
 it, 24, 25 ; his second pamphlet, 
 "Of Prelatical Episcopacy, 25; 
 characterization of it, 25; his 
 third pamphlet, "The Reason 
 of Church Government," 26; 
 examination of it, 26 ; praise of 
 it, 27 ; Carlyle only beginning to 
 
 299 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Milton — continued. 
 understand Milton, 27; Sym- 
 mons' life of, and Hayley's life 
 of, characterized, 27 ; '* Axle of 
 Discipline," 27; account of the 
 "Axle," 28; Carlyle's criticism 
 of himself as a critic of, 28 ; last 
 two pamphlets of 1641, "Anim- 
 adversions on the Remonstrant's 
 defense of Smectymnuus" and 
 "Apology for Sm.," 28; criti- 
 cism of both, 28; the "Areopa- 
 gitica" of, 29; account and criti- 
 cism of it, 29, 30 ; Brougham in 
 comparison with, 29 ; Carlyle to 
 ascertain more clearly the aims 
 of, 31 
 
 Mind, compared with nature, 132 
 
 Montaigne, Carlyle's opinion of 
 "Essais" of, 53 
 
 Montrose, secret history of, 12; 
 defeated at Philipshaugh by 
 Lesly, 14; execution of, a dis- 
 grace to Scottish Kirk, 17 ; char- 
 acter of, 17 
 
 Montrevil, a French agent, 14; 
 negotiates surrender of Charles 
 I to the Scotch, 14 
 
 Moore, Thomas, Carlyle's opinion 
 of, 236 
 
 Morality, and action, 228 ; perfect, 
 not an object of consciousness, 
 229 
 
 Moratm, L.-F. de, restorer of dra- 
 matic art in Spain, 108 
 
 Moratin, N-F. de, father of L-F. 
 de M., writer of tragedy, 108 
 
 Miillner, German playwright, 205 
 (see note 1), 206, 211 
 
 Murray, offered "Sartor Resar- 
 tus" by Carlyle, 194; described 
 by Carlyle, 194 
 
 Musicians, earliest Italian, 13T ; 
 German, 131 
 
 Mystery, every living man a vis- 
 ible, 136 
 
 Naharro, B. T., playwright of 1 6th 
 
 century, 108 
 Napier, succeeds Jeffrey on the 
 
 " Edinburgh Review" and gives 
 
 Carlyle letter to Longman's, 194 
 
 (see note 1) 
 Napoleon, remark by Carlyle on, 
 
 7 ; compared with Hambden, 7 
 
 Narration, primary defect in the 
 art of, 124 ; this understood by 
 Carlyle, 124 
 
 Naseby, Battle of, King defeated 
 at, 12 ; good description of, by 
 Clarendon, 12; ruin of Royalist 
 cause after, 13 
 
 Navigation, Act of, passed in an- 
 ger at the Dutch, 17, its intent, 
 17 ; attributed by Raynal to King 
 James, 17 ; was the beginning of 
 the Dutch-English'quarrel, 17 
 
 Nepenthe, Helena's, supposition 
 concerning, 93 
 
 Newbury, battle of, both sides 
 claim victory, 8 ; Lord Falkland 
 killed at, 8 
 
 Newcastle, Duke of, beaten by 
 Manchester at Marston Moor, 
 10; flies beyond the sea, 10 
 
 Newspapers, in Milton's time, 4 
 
 Nicolas, Sir Nicholas Harris, 143 ; 
 remark of, to Carlyle, concerning 
 booksellers, 256 
 
 "No day without writing a line," 
 167 
 
 Note book (No. 1) begun while 
 reading Clarendon's History 
 (Edin. 1822), 1, note 
 
 Novalis, "Schriften" of, review of 
 the, 135; review published, 140; 
 Carlyle's opinion of, 140; upon 
 religion, 149 ; on the body of 
 man, 166 
 
 O'Connell, a real demagogue, 247 
 " Oceana," 29 
 
 Oxford, attempted treaty in 1643 
 at, 6 
 
 Pain, irremediable, alleviation to, 
 164 ; the measure of life and of 
 talent, 169 ; a stone feels no, 169 
 
 Paley, Carlyle's criticism of, 103 
 
 Palm, the, legend of, 119 
 
 Paris, number of booksellers in, 
 no; number of printing houses 
 in, no; number of active presses 
 in, no 
 
 Passeroni, anecdote of, 130; his 
 "Cicerone," 130; death of, 130 
 
 Peers, House of, abolished soon 
 after King's death, 17 
 
 Petrarquistes, the, 109; "the glo- 
 rious Spanish Literature," 109 
 
 3OO 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Petronius, quotation from, 97 
 "Phadon," the, of Mendelssohn 
 
 (see Mendelssohn) 
 Philosophy, Political, what it 
 
 should be, 144; what it is, 144 
 Phonetic characters well received 
 
 in Italy, 111 
 Plato, Antimachus Clarius on, 124 
 Playing cards, on the date and 
 
 origin of, 224 
 Poem, does a, differ from prose? 187 
 Poems that live, birth of, 103; he- 
 roic, as to the true, 188 
 Poet, what a, should be, 48; the 
 
 ultimate object of a, 124 
 Poetry, the ultimate object of, 71 
 Politeness, peculiar to the rich and 
 
 well-born, 166 
 Politics, not Life but the house 
 
 wherein Life is lead, 141 ; the 
 
 noblest science, 165; Carlyle's 
 
 alienation from, 274 
 Pope, and his school, pedagogical 
 
 poets, 70 
 Potatoes, in London, exorbitant 
 
 price of, 210 
 Principle, Carlyle's political, 275 
 Printing, not the symbol of litera- 
 ture, 170, 171 
 Problem, the eternal, of man, 208; 
 
 a further and harder, found in 
 
 London, 208 ; the deepest, in 
 
 these days, 264 
 Profane, the, proportion of, to the 
 
 sacred, 188 
 Prose, does it differ from a poem ? 
 
 187 
 Proverb, German, a, 129 (see also 
 
 note 2) 
 Pullus Jovis, etc., 85 (see note) 
 Pulpit, the, advantage of, 215 ; the 
 
 true, 263 
 Pym, accused of treason, 2 
 
 Quincunx, the, 68 ; Carlyle on, 68. 
 
 Quixote, Don, philosophical indif- 
 ference of Sancho Panza in, 145 
 
 Qualities, in man, the unhappiest, 
 127 
 
 Quarrels, origin of all, 149, 150 
 
 " Quarterly Review," the, Car- 
 lyle's opinion of, 143 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, advice of, to 
 his son, 69 
 
 Ranelagh, formerly the Earl of R.'s 
 
 house, 225 
 Rationalists, 102 
 Reading (town), taken 1643, 6 
 Reading, a weariness of the flesh, 
 
 53 
 
 Reason, decisions of, superior to 
 those of understanding, 83; re- 
 lation of, to Understanding, 142 ; 
 can never be extinguished, 142 
 
 Reform Bill, lost, 202 (see note 1) ; 
 the New, carried, 271 (see note) 
 
 "Register, Literary Annual," 
 prospectus for, 77-81 
 
 Reinhold (coupled with Fichte), 46 
 
 "Religio Medici," the, Carlyle's 
 opinion of, 69 ; " made a mighty 
 noise at its first appearance," 90 
 
 Religion, moral of the Christian, 
 150; easy to write, hard to prac- 
 tice, 150; the Christian, like 
 some Nile, 158; the true element 
 of, 164; the cement of Society, 
 179; is Art higher than? 204 
 
 Reluctance, to turn back, Carlyle's, 
 266 
 
 Remedy, the beginning of a, 209 
 
 Remonstrance, The, 1 
 
 " Revue Encyclopedique" (French 
 magazine) worthy of imitation 
 in Britain, no 
 
 Richter, Jean Paul, quotation from 
 the " Levana" of, 114 ; anecdote 
 from the "Levana," 123; on 
 salvation, 143 
 
 Ritson, "Fairy Tales" and "Old 
 Ballads," 213 
 
 River, a, as to the right and left 
 bank of, 122 
 
 Rochester (or Swift), stanza on 
 Charles II and Katherine of 
 Portugal, 5 
 
 Rogers, Samuel, characterization 
 of, by Carlyle, 236 (see note 4) 
 
 Romantics versus Classics, 111 
 
 Roundway, Battle of, near Devizes, 
 8 ; Parliament beaten at, 8 
 
 Rupert, Prince, beaten by Man- 
 chester at Marston Moor, 10; 
 goes southward, 10; son of ex- 
 king of Bohmen, 10; Carlyle's 
 estimate of, 10 ; defeated at 
 Naseby by Fairfax, 12; "a fiery 
 ettercap, a fractious chiel," 12; 
 in command in Ireland, 16 
 
 3OI 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Ruthven ("a Scot"), defeated by 
 Hopton at Bradock-Down, 6 ; 
 afterward General Brentford, 
 "dotard, drunkard, deaf," 10 
 
 Sachs, Hans, Carlyle on, 74 
 
 Sacred, the, to the profane, pro- 
 portions of, 18S 
 
 Sadler's Well, origin of, 225 (see 
 note 1) 
 
 St. Paul's or " Paradise Lost " the 
 greater necessity? 245 
 
 Saint-Simon, chief of the Indus- 
 triels, 113; reputed to be mad, 
 113; descended from Charle- 
 magne, 113 
 
 Saint-Simonians, write to Carlyle, 
 158 ; have strange notions, with 
 a large spicing of truth, 158 ; are 
 among the Signs of the Times, 
 158; answered by Carlyle, 158 
 (see note 2) 
 
 " Sandy," Uncle, death of, 147 
 
 "Sartor Resartus," the germ of, 
 136 (see note 2) 
 
 Saumaise, Defensio Reg., 3, 5; 
 Milton's abuse of, 3; Voltaire's 
 reference to, 4, note; his mode 
 of reasoning, 4 
 
 Scaliger, Joseph Justus, professor 
 at Leyden, 88 ; his works, 88 
 
 Scaliger, Julius Csesar, quotation 
 from, 87 ; his birth and paren- 
 tage, 88; life and character of, 
 88 
 
 Schelling, his " System of Iden- 
 tity," 112 
 
 Schiller, birth and origin, 36 ; ob- 
 ligation to Madame von Woll- 
 zogen, 36 ; visit to Weimar, 36 ; 
 sees Herder and Wieland, 36 ; 
 joins "Teutsches Mercur," 36; 
 visits Rudolstadt and meets his 
 future wife, 36 ; sees Goethe, 36 ; 
 various remarks on, 36, 37; de- 
 scription of, 37, 38 ; not inclined 
 to noisy pleasures, 38 ; close con- 
 nection with the theatre of, 38 ; 
 strict demands upon the per- 
 formers of his plays, 39 ; his 
 benevolence and kindliness, 39 ; 
 his upright conduct in business, 
 39 ; delineation of himself by, 
 40 ; Carlyle's summing up of, 40, 
 41 ; quotation from, 48, 49 
 
 Schlegel, A., called on by Carlyle, 
 258; dined by Hayward and 
 Lardner, 258 ; a literary Gig- 
 man, 258 
 
 Schlegel, F., Carlyle on, 42; as to 
 thought, 104: his "Philosophy 
 of Life," 129; death of, 135; 
 comment on, by Carlyle, 135 
 
 Scotland, nothing poetical in, but 
 its religion, 133 ; Carlyle's atti- 
 tude toward, 133 ; Carlyle's un- 
 equal knowledge of, 133; have 
 the gentry of, lost their national 
 character ? 134 ; is the peasant of, 
 the true Scotchman ? 134; people 
 of, compared with people of Eng- 
 land, 135 ; music and songs of, 
 135 ; books on, to be consulted, 
 135 ; Scott's history of, not a his- 
 tory, 168; what history of, is like, 
 169; herself not there, 169; be- 
 havior of the nobles of, 169 ; pro- 
 gressed independent of her his- 
 tory, 169 
 
 Scots, "ran like collies (fidem 
 detis?) " at Marston Moor, 10 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, " the great Res- 
 taurateur of Europe," 71 ; what 
 he might have been, and what 
 he is, 71; his novels character- 
 ized, 71 ; Carlyle on some char- 
 acters in, 126 ; the " gentlemen " 
 of, Carlyle on, 127; as to his 
 "Bonaparte," 127; his charac- 
 ter-building contrasted with 
 Burns's, 127 ; Carlyle on his 
 " History of Scotland," 168; in- 
 ference drawn from, by Carlyle, 
 168; leaves England for Naples 
 on a Government ship, 214; in 
 precarious health, 214; estimate 
 of, by Carlyle, 214 
 
 Seclusion, and Meditation, Carlyle 
 on, 176 
 
 Secrecy, the element of all Good- 
 ness, 177 
 
 " Self denying ordinance," pro- 
 posed by Cromwell and Vane, 
 11; object of, 11 
 
 Shaftesbury, Earl of, his " Charac- 
 teristics," 71; criticism of, 72 
 
 Shakespeare, how to prize, 32 ; re- 
 vision of above as to Carlyle, 32 
 (see also p. 121) ; greater than 
 Homer? 187 
 
 302 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Shepherd (Unitarian parson), Car- 
 lyle's meeting with and opinion 
 of, 244, 245 
 
 Shiel (Irish orator), convicted of 
 lying, 247 
 
 Shoes, good, not to be had in 
 London, 207 
 
 Sickingen, Franz von, one of the 
 noblest men of the Reformation 
 period, 166 ; defended Ulrich von 
 Hutten, 166; fought against 
 Wiirtemberg, 166 ; the terror of 
 evil-doers, 166 ; read Luther with 
 Hutten, 166; good breeding of, 
 166 ; is killed fighting against 
 the Bishop of Triers, 166; anec- 
 dote concerning death of, 166, 
 167; enemies weep at the fune- 
 ral of, 167 
 
 " Siegwart," Miller's, the begin- 
 ning of the sentimental period, 
 120 
 
 Silence, Carlyle on, 176; contrasted 
 with Speech, 177; the nobleness 
 of, 228 
 
 "Sister Margaret," death of, 156 ; 
 
 Society, a wonder of wonders, 165 ; 
 division of, by Carlyle, 215 
 
 Sonata, Devil's, the, 130 
 
 South, quotation from, 97 ; Car- 
 lyle's opinion of, 97 
 
 Southey, Carlyle on the " Travels " 
 
 of > 5 . 
 Spain, literature in, English igno- 
 rance of, 109 
 Speech and Silence, Carlyle on, 177 
 Spenser, quotation from, 49, 50 ; 
 pleases Carlyle, 50 ; a dainty 
 body, 50 
 Spirits, Wandering, the, 167 
 " Sports," Carlyle laments the ab- 
 sence of, 222 
 Stamford, defeated by Royalists at 
 
 Stratton Hill, 8 
 Stanza (by Swift or Rochester), on 
 Charles II and Katherine of Por- 
 tugal, 5 
 Star Chamber, date of institution, 2 
 Steward, Bishop, "pitted against 
 
 Mr. Henderson," 11 
 Stewart, " Aunt Mary," death of, 
 
 i47 
 Strahan, defeats Montrose, 17 
 Stratton hill, Batde of, 8 ; Parlia- 
 ment defeated at, 8 ; location of, 8 
 
 Strode, accused of treason, 2 
 Swift (or Rochester), stanza on 
 
 Charles II and Katherine of 
 
 Portugal, 5 ; quotation from, 103 ; 
 
 Carlyle's comment on, 103 
 Swinburne, travels of, explanation 
 
 of the aequo pulsat pede in, 60 
 
 Tacitus, as to physicians, 86; as to 
 
 astrologers, 122 
 Tait (bookseller), to start a new 
 
 Radical magazine, 232 
 Talent, Coleridge's distinction be- 
 tween genius and, 46 
 Talma, seen in role of CEdipe, 98 
 Tartini, Giuseppe, anecdote of, 130 
 Tasso, Carlyle proposes a discourse 
 on, 123 (note 3); his "Del 
 Poema Eroico," Carlyle on, 125; 
 his " Gerusalemme," 125; a 
 mystic, 125 
 Teaching, is oral superior to the 
 
 written mode of? 212 
 Temple, Sir William, Carlyle's 
 opinion of, 84 ; no artist or phi- 
 losopher, but man of action, 84; 
 "Terence," how Grotius read, 128 
 Themistocles, his gift of forgetting, 
 
 53 (see note) 
 Theology, curious division of, 124 
 Thinking and Thoughts, 228 
 Thought, is every, an inspiration, 
 
 166 
 Thoughts and Thinking, 228 
 Tieck, Runenberg, 66; his "Ge- 
 noveva," 73; consideration of 
 characters in it, 73 ; next to 
 Goethe, Richter being dead, 74; 
 quotation from, 81 
 Time, Goethe on the spending o», 
 31 ; conception of, determines 
 the meaning of Immortality, 222 
 " Times," the, criticism of Schil- 
 ler, Part II, by, 61 ; Carlyle's 
 comment on, 6i 
 Titus, reproaches Vespasian for 
 
 imposing tax on fullers, 261 
 Tribula, described by Carlyle, 260 
 Tribulation, derivation of the word, 
 
 200 
 Truth, difficult to obtain the, 217 
 
 Ugoni, Camillo, his " History of 
 Italian Literature," 130; its 
 scope, 130 
 
 3°3 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Understanding, decisions of, in- 
 ferior to those of Reason, 83 ; re- 
 lation of, to Reason, 142 
 Union, spiritual, power of, 164, 165 
 Unitarians, Carlyle and the, 245 
 Universe, wonder of the, 142 
 " Upstart companions," Claren- 
 don's epithet, 2 
 " Urne Burial," the best of Sir T. 
 Browne's books, 67; Carlyle's 
 criticism of, 67 
 Utilitarians, the crowning mercy 
 of the age, 145 ; trend of, 145 ; 
 contrasted with Whigs, 172 
 Uxbridge-treaty, graphically de- 
 lineated, 11 
 
 Vane, Sir H., proposes "self-de- 
 nying ordinance," 11 
 
 Vauxhall,formerly Spring Gardens, 
 225 
 
 Vespasian, lays a tax on fullers, 
 261; reproached by Titus for 
 doing so, 261 
 
 Villemain, writer of "Melanges," 
 107 
 
 Virtue, its own reward, why ? 103 ; 
 as regarded by a healthy or an 
 unhealthy moral nature, 230 
 
 Vives, Ludovicus, comment on, 
 86 ; history of, 90 
 
 Voltaire, his philosophy character- 
 ized, 85; Carlyle finds difficulty 
 in writing on, 135; Carlyle's 
 paper on, 140 
 
 Wages, disparity of, 159 
 
 Waller, SirW., Parliamentary gen- 
 eral, beaten at Landsdown and 
 Roundway, 8 ; retakes Arundel, 
 9 ; defeats Royalists at Arlesford, 
 9 ; loses king at Worcester, 10 
 
 Waller (the poet), betrayed to the 
 Parliament, 6; arraigned by 
 Parliament and banished to Ber- 
 muda, 6 
 
 Washington, coupled with Hamb- 
 den by Carlyle, 7 
 
 Werner, Zacharias, life by Hitzig, 
 82; his "Mutter der Makka- 
 baer," 82; his history, 82; Car- 
 lyle's opinion of, 83 
 
 Whigs, contrasted with Utilitarians, 
 172 ; the grand " Dilettanti," 
 172 
 
 Whole, as to the constitution of a, 
 
 * 8 7 
 
 Wieland, meets Schiller, 36; in- 
 duces Schiller to join the " Teut- 
 sches Mercur," 36; opposes the 
 " new philosophy," 45 ; his 
 reason for doing so, 45, 46 
 
 Williams, Archbishop of York, "a 
 very queer man," 2 
 
 Winckelmann, quotation from, 106; 
 "the only two modern Friends, 
 106; Goethe's opinion of, 107; 
 quotations from, 107 
 
 Wolff, most characteristic writing 
 of, 119 
 
 Wollstonecraft, Mary, life by God- 
 win, 204 ; epitomized by Carlyle, 
 205 
 
 Wonder, the basis of worship, 162; 
 the reign of, 162 
 
 Worcester, Scots defeated at, 17 
 
 Words, the strangest and most po- 
 tent product of our nature, 176 
 
 Works Carlyle would like to see 
 written, 119, 120 
 
 Writers, Spanish, 108, 109 
 
 Writing, Carlyle on, 136 
 
 "Youth, happy limitedness of," 128 
 
 304 
 
n 
 
V