THOMAS CARLYLE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3014, 22 February 1881, Page 4

THOMAS CARLYLE.

(From Chambers' journal.)

It is ono of the disadvantages or those who are the contemporaries of any great man, that they are not so favorably situated as are subsequent generations for knowing him, and forming a true estimate of his character and hia work. For example, we actually know less of Tennyson and J i-uiide and Sala, than we do of Swift and Addison and Pope. Of Thomas Carlyle, wo are equally ill-informed; and Mr Proude, we dare say, has no fear of his prophetic reputation when ho says, regarding the " Sago of Chelsea," that " a hundred years hence perhaps people at large will begin to understand how great a man has been amongst them."

Not much is known of Carlyle's parents, but what is known of them is highly favorable. Hβ himself calls his father " the remarkablest man he ever knew." He rented a small farm, and afterwards a larger, at Ecclefechan, DumfricsUire. Ho had great energy and decision of character, and was more than ordinarily intelligent; possessing, it is said, an extensive vocabulary of words, wliicli, as wo see in the case of his distinguished son, has not been lost in the family. He was an elder in the Kirk, on good terms with the minister, and hoped at one time to have seen his son Thomas in the high places of the Kirk too. His end was somewhat unexpected; he having died suddenly while Thomas was in London negotiating for the issue of Sartor Resartus. His mother, like the mothers of many great men, was a woman of more than ordinary sagacity and penetration ; and to this, it is said, is to be attributed much of that shewd instinct, and caustic insight into character, which marks the writings of her son. Carlyle, who was born on the 4th December, 1795, received his education partly at the parish school of Ecclefe.ehan and partly at Annan, entered Edinburgh University before he had completed his fifteenth year. Hero he studied hard in classics and mathematics, and read extensively and assiduously in all kinds of literature. Through too close attention to study he injured his naturally robust health, and speaking to the Edinburgh students in 1866 he Bounded a very serious warning to them on this point. Designed by his parents for the Church, a change of views when he ■was twenty-one made this impracticable. We next find him teaching mathematics in the burgh school of Annan ; and thereafter classics and mathematics at Kircaldy. Towards" the end of 1818 he again appeared at Edinburgh, with no definite prospects before him, but with' decided leanings towards literature. He executed, translations, wrote for the reviews arid' magazines, and fairly began his literary career. In 1826 he married Jane, daughter of Dr. John Welsh, Haddington, and a lineal descendant of John Knox. She was a remarkable woman; taught herself Latin ■while but a girl; and was in the habit when a child of secreting herself under her father's table so that she might listen to the philosophic and learned conversation that passed between him and his friends. Settling in 1828 at Craigenputtoch, Dumfriesshire, —a property belonging to his wife —Carlyle devoted his whole time to literature ; Sartor Resartus and the remai'kable essay on Robert Burns, being part of the fruit of his solitude.

A letter written to Gt-eothe in 1828, from Craigenputtoeh, revealed the simple life he led in that region, with its lonely surroundings. The neat substantial dwelling stood far away from any populous neighborhood, being 15 miles N W from Dumnfries j but two ponies that they possessed carried the author and his wife whither they would. Here he had come to simplify hie mode of life and remain true to himself. ' This bit of earth is our own,' he" remarks : : ' here ■we can live, write and think as best pleases ourselves.' On the library table were piled a cartload of French, German, American' and English journals and periodicals. WViing to De Quincy in December of tho same year, he remarks : ' Such a quantity of German periodicals and mystic speculation embosomed in plain v cotish peat-moor being nowhero else that I know of to be met with

. . . We have no society, but who has in the strict sense of that word ? I have never had any worth speaking much about since I came into this world . . My

■wife and I are busy learning Spanish ; far advanced in Don Quixote already. I purpose writing mystical reviews for somewhat more than a twelvemonth to come ; have Greek to read and the whole universe to efcudy (for I understand less and less of it.) During the visit which Carlyle made to Scotland to discharge the duty in connection with his appointment as Tiord Rector of Edinburgh University, in 1866, the sad intelligence reached him of the sudden death of his wife in London ; and few things of the kind are finer than the epitaph, which he caused to be placed on her tombstone in the family bnrying ground at Haddington : ' Here likewise now rests Jane Welsh Carlyle, spouse of Thomas Carlyle, Chelsea London. She was born at Haddington, 14th July, 1801, only child of the above John Welsh and of Grace Welsh, Caplegill, Dumfrieshire, his wife. In her bright existenc.e she had more sorrows than are common, but also a soft amiability, a capacity of discernment, and a noble loyalty of heart which are rare. For forty years she was tho true avA loving helpmate of her husband, und by act and word unweariedly forwarded him as none else could in all of worthy that he did or attempted. '-lie died at London, 21st April, ISOG, suddenly snatched away from him, and the light of his life as if ,gone out.'

Ralph Waldo Emerson found him at Craigenputtoch in 1833, and described him as ' tall and gaunt, with a clifflike brow, self-posses fed, and holding his extraordinary powers of conversation in easy command ; clinging bo his northern accent with evident relish ; full of lively anecdote, and wiHi a streaming humour, which floated everything he looked upon.' They discoursed pleasantly of books and philosophy, and Emerson accidentally discovered that his aspirations were directed towards London, whither he removed to Cheyne Eow, Chelsea in the following year. Between the years 1837-40, Carlyle delivered four sets of lectures, only one of which—Heroes, . Hero-worship, and the Heroic in History—has been published. These lectures created a great sensation in literary circles, and were delivered to crowded and select audiences. Charles Sumner, who heard him, declared that 'he seemed like an inspired boy ; truth and thoughts that made ono move on tho benches came from his apparently unconscious mind, couched in the most grotesque style, and yet condensed to a degree of intensity. Harriet Martineau, who had something to do with the arrangements for these lectures, did not consider them very successfully delivered, owing to his unconcealed nervousness, and the fact that he did not seem to enjoy his own efforts. These public appearances he termed in a sportive vein 'my day of execution.' As utterances, however, they are probably among the most notable of these times ; but except in 1866, ■when he addressed the Edinburgh students, ho has not again appeared in this capacity. (To be continued.)