"Thomas Carlyle—Philosopher, Theologian, and Sear."

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3424, 12 December 1879, Page 2

"Thomas Carlyle—Philosopher, Theologian, and Sear."

This was the subjeot of a lecture delivered by the Her. S. J. Nt ill at the Presbyterian Church last evening in aid of the funds of the Thames Young Men's Christian Association. There was a fair attendance and Major Murray occupied the chair. The lecturer introduced his subject by referring to the feur greatest English speaking men of the present age, viz.: Longfellow, the sweet poetof America, Tennyson, Isaac Pitman, the inventor of phonography, and Thomas Carlyle, the thinker, reformer and seer of the 19th century. Of these, the only one he knew was Pitman, though when at Chelsea once be had mad*- up his mind to call on Carlyle. Courage was an uncertain friend, and a consciousness overcame his hardihood, ao he postponed his visit. Carlyle was a Scotchman, born near Gretna Green, in Dumfriesshire, in 1795. He first went to the parish school, then to Annan, and afterwards went to the Edinburgh University. He was intended for the mir.istry, but in the middle of hit college curriculum he Ifelt wholly disinclined for the sacred office, and he took to the study of the law. He soon left the law and took, to literature, at which he has remained ever since, the guardian of sincerity, flash* tag forth lightening* on ail cant, shame and unreality. One .of hii ,

early works was a mathematical one, an essay ou Proportion. Ho wrote for Brewster's Encyclopedia. In 1824, appcarefL in the London Magazine his " Lifa ofUchilier." ami in the same year bis' translation of Goethe's " Wiihelm Meister." For this Curlylf was severely handled by the critics. In 1827, Cariyle married Miss Welch, a lineal descendant of the Scottish Iteformor, John Knox, and went to reside on a small property belonging to his wife, near Dumfries, and it was here his mind first weist oat, and many of his best works were written. . He closely wtu-ied German literature, and it said his knowledge of Gar man, writer a and literature has never been equalled. Ho wrote in a language of splintered fire, rapid and sudden as forked light* ning. and as jagged too. He was giftedja . an extraordinary degree for portrai-: ture. and paints on the English mind in ineffaceable colours the images of , Schiller. Fichte, and Jean Paul Kiobter. Gradually the educated circles began to realise that a literary Columbus had discovered a new world of letters. Cariyle moved to London, where he still resides. He found it a difficult matter.to.. get " Sartor lleiartus," (meaning Pateher Eepatched), published, as it was offered to various London firms, but noo* would have it. So a work which woald have made the fortune of half a- doat» publishers had to be cut up and struggle through the columns of Frazer's Magasiao . in 1838. The lecturer ■• made iev*al quotations from Sartor Bcsartus. As a historian, UarlyJe is not to be, sarpaased in his French Rovolution, ' OKveV Cromwell, and Frederick the Great. In conclusion the lecturer said in Cariyle* was to be seen an embodiment of-love for truth, honesty, and a reverence for virtue and goodness, something) tod, of that" everlasting freshness of which 'Rvakm speaks, and of which the New Taitamen't also speaks, viz., "the inward man ii renewed day by day." r ■- . ' At the conclusion of .the lrctura votes of thanks were tendered to the Loetarer/ Chairman, and' the Church Committee fdr~ the use of the Church. , . '„'!"' The fiev. S. J. rs'eill having iwspjMa'e&d the proceedings concluded with a pnjpMrl'-.i: offered up by the Key. R. Laishiey.' &%1\