these, in the main, we must gauge him. Nor must we attribute to him more than he claimed for himself, or deny his limitations.-THOMPSON, FRANCIS, 1901, Sartor Re-read, The Academy, vol. 61, p. 17.

Like Byron, Carlyle is in romantic revolt against convention; like Wordsworth and Shelley, though in a very different way than either, he seeks for some positive ideal upon which to construct a habitable moral world in place of the uninhabitable one he has striven to destroy. "Sartor Resartus," which is both destructive and constructive, is pre-eminent in doctrinal interest among all his books. It is also extremely ingenious in plan, and is written with a wonderful mingling of wild sardonic humor, keen pathos, and an eloquence and imaginative elevation almost biblical.MOODY, WILLIAM VAUGHN, AND LOVETT, ROBERT MORSS, 1902, A History of English Literature, p. 315.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

1837

He left us [John Stuart Mill] in a relapsed state, one of the pitiablest. My dear wife has been very kind, and has become dearer to me. The night has been full of emotion, occasionally of sharp pain (something cutting or hard grasping me round the heart) occasionally of sweet consolation. I dreamt of my father and sister Margaret alive; yet all defaced with the sleepy stagnancy, swollen hebetude of the grave, and again dying as in some strange rude country: a horrid dream, the painfullest too when you wake first. But on the whole should I not thank the Unseen? For I was not driven out of composure, hardly for moments. "Walk humbly with thy God." How I longed for some psalm or prayer that I could have uttered, that my loved ones could have joined me in! But there was none. Silence had to be my language. This morning I have determined so far that I can still write a book on the French Revolution, and will do it. Nay, our money will still suffice. It was my last throw, my whole staked in the monstrosity of this life-for too monstrous, incomprehensible, it has been to me. İ will not quit the game while faculty is given me to try playing. I have written to Fraser to buy me a "Biographie Universelle" (a kind of increasing the stake) and fresh paper: mean to huddle up the Fête des Piques and look farther what can

be attempted.-CARLYLE, THOMAS, 1835, Journal, March 6; Thomas Carlyle: A History of his Life in London, ed. Froude, vol. I, p. 24.

This is not so much a history, as an epic poem; and notwithstanding, or even in consequence of this, the truest of histories. It is the history of the French Revolution, and the poetry of it, both in one; and on the whole no work of greater genius, produced in this country for many years. either historical or poetical, has been

We need not fear to prophesy that the suffrages of a large class of the very best qualified judges will be given, even enthusiastically, in favor of the volumes before us; but we will not affect to deny that the sentiment of another large class of readers (among whom are many entitled to the most respectful attention on other subjects) will be far different; a class comprehending all who are repelled by quaintness of manner. For a style more peculiar than that of Mr. Carlyle, more unlike the jog-trot characterless uniformity which distinguishes the English style of this age of periodicals, does not exist. Nor indeed can this style be wholly defended even by its admirers. Some of its peculiarities are mere mannerisms, arising from some casual association of ideas, or some habit accidentally picked up; and what is worse, many sterling thoughts are so disguised in phraseology borrowed from the spiritualist school of German poets and metaphyscians, as not only to obscure the meaning, but to raise, in the minds of most English readers, a not unnatural or inexcusable presumption of there being no meaning at all. theless, the presumption fails in this instance (as in many other instances); there is not only a meaning, but generally a true, and even a profound meaning, and, although a few dicta about the "mystery" and the "infinitude" which are in the universe and in man, and such like topics, are repeated in varied phrases greatly too often for our taste, this must be borne with, proceeding as one cannot but see, from feelings the most solemn, and the most deeply rooted which can lie in the heart of a human being. These transcendentalisms, and the accidental mannerisms excepted, we pronounce the style of this book to be not only good, but of surpassing excellence; excelled, in its kind, only by the great masters of epic poetry;

Never

and a most suitable and glorious vesture for a work which is itself, as we have said, an epic poem.-MILL, JOHN STUART, 1837, The French Revolution, Early Essays, ed. Gibbs, pp. 271, 272.

After perusing the whole of this extraordinary work, we can allow, almost to their fullest extent, the high qualities with which Mr. Carlyle's idolaters endow him.THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE 1837, The Times, Aug.

By the way, have you read Carlyle's extraordinary History of that wonderful period? Does it offend your classical taste? It finds great favour with many intelligent people here. They seem to think that the muses of History and Poetry have struck up a truce, and are henceforth to go on lovingly together. I must confess myself much interested. Carlyle seems to be an example of the old proverb of "the prophet without honour in his own country.". CHANNING, WILLIAM ELLERY, 1838, To Miss Aikin, Feb. 7; Correspondence of William Ellery Channing and Miss Aikin, ed. Le Breton, p. 304.

Carlyle does offend my classical taste; but the worst of it is that I have been absolutely riveted to his first volume, which I have this minute finished, and that I am hungering for the next. A very extraordinary writer certainly, and though somewhat, I must think, of a jargonist, and too wordy and full of repetition, yet sagacious, if not profound, and wonderfully candid. I think, too, that he shows an exactness and extent of knowledge of his subject which very advantageously distinguishes him from poetical historians in general. I assure you he is not without enthusiastic admirers here.-AIKIN, LUCY, 1838, To Dr. Channing, April 18; Correspondence of William Ellery Channing and Lucy Aikin, ed. Le Breton, p. 309.

People say the book is very deep: but it appears to me that the meaning seems deep from lying under mystical language. There is no repose, nor equable movement in it: all cut up into short sentences half reflective, half narrative; so that one labours through it as vessels do through what is called a short sea-small, contrary going waves caused by shallows, and straits, and meeting tides, etc.-FITZGERALD, EDWARD, 1838, To Bernard Barton, April; Letters, ed. Wright, vol. I, p. 42.

Of all books in the English language which the present age has given birth to, it is that which, most surprising and disheartening men at first sight, seems afterwards, so far as can be judged from the very many known experiments, the most forcibly to attract and detain them. The general result appears to be an eager, wide ebullience of the soul, issuing in manifold meditations, and in an altered and deepened feeling of all human life. The book has made no outward noise, but

has echoed on and on within the hearts of men.-STERLING, JOHN, 1839, Carlyle's Works, London and Westminster Review, vol. 33, pp. 59, 60.

I commend to your notice, if it comes in your way, Carlyle on the French Revolution. A queer, tiresome, obscure, profound and original work. The writer has not very clear principles and views, I fear, but they are very deep.-NEWMAN, JOHN HENRY, 1839, To Mrs. J. Mozley, Apr. 23; Letters and Correspondence during his Life in the English Church, ed. Mozley, vol. II, p. 251.

He has done no more than give us tableaux, wonderful in execution, but nothing in conception, without connection, without a bearing. His book is the French Revolution illustrated-illustrated by the hand of

master, we know, but one from whom we expected a different labour. . . . The eternal cursus et recursus inexorably devours ideas, creeds, daring, and devotedness. The Infinite takes, to him, the form of Nihilation. It has a glance of pity for every set of enthusiasms, a smile, stamped with scepticism for every act of great devotedness to ideas. Generalities are odious to it; detail is its favorite occupation, and it there amuses itself as if seeking to lay at rest its inconsolable cares.Mazzini, Joseph, 1840, Monthly Chronicle, No. 23.

In these times there have appeared in Europe few works so worthy of attention; few so notable at once for their repulsive and attractive qualities. If your glance stops at the surface, and external singularities repel you, do not read this strange book. The mystic and obscure form chosen by Carlyle will soon fatigue you, and you will chafe at so many disguises which are not even transparent. If you are charmed by purity of diction, if you are accustomed to the Anglo-Gallic style of

Addison, to the brief, incisive, altogether British sentences of Bacon, to the energetic and robust periods of Southey, Carlyle will displease you. . . . If you are an historian of fact, and pride yourself above all on a practical study of events and circumstances, you will be still more annoyed; for facts are badly told by him, sometimes magnified as to their importance, sometimes heaped together or scattered apart, always without that clear arrangement which constitutes history. But if you are a philosopher, that is to say a sincere observer of mankind, you will re-read his work more than once. It will specially charm you, if you dare lift yourself above parties, and the prejudices of the day. It is neither a well-written book, nor an exact history of the French Revolution. It is not an eloquent dissertation,-still less a transmutation of events and men into romantic narrative. It is a philosophic study, mingled with irony and drama, nothing more. . . In writing it, the author concerned himself much more with the thought than the expression; he has thought more of the work than he has elaborated it. He has almost always seen clearly; he has often spoken badly. His narrative has all the glow of a present and actual scene. He has found himself profoundly isolated in England. This misfortune for his life is auspicious for his glory. He has sacrificed nothing to party. He has been the man of his own thought, and the expression of his own character.CHASLES, VICTOR EUPHÉMION PHILARÈTE, 1840, Revue des Deux Mondes, 4th S. vol. 24. Mr. Carlyle has written too well himself on the unconsciousness of man's highest faculty not to be aware that however dramatic a work should be, no showman is required to stand by and interrupt the course of the action by perpetually appearing on the stage. This is the great fault of his "French Revolution." would be idle to complain that it is not a history; for probably (notwithstanding its title-page), it never seriously pretended to such a character. But looking on it as a series of scenes and pictures, and fragmentary sketches of remarkable events etched out in a bold, rough, Callot-like outline, they do possess this singular defect, that everywhere the shadow of the writer himself comes across and perplexes

the eye.

It

We are speaking now solely of

the composition. Of the historical views contained in the work we may speak elsewhere. But this personal appearance of the writer is to be noticed, because it is unhappily too much in accordance with the general practice and a very bad practice-of our modern literature. It is egotistical. Until it ceases to be egotistical, it will achieve nothing great or good. Shakespeare painted all things but himself. -SEWELL, WILLIAM, 1840, Carlyle's Works, Quarterly Review, vol. 66, p. 456.

I prefer his history of the French Revolution to all those we have ourselves produced; I find it quite as dramatic, and I will venture to say more profound.MONTÉGUT, ÉMILE, 1849, Revue des Deux Mondes, 6th. S. vol. 2.

The last great book published in his lifetime, wherein he recognized at once the presence of a new literary potentate, was Carlyle's "French Revolution." Never

had he read a history, he declared, which interested him so much; and doubtless all the more because of the emotion which the tremendous course of events it describes had excited in him, when, in his own and Landor's youth, he read of them day by day. Not a few opinions, indeed, he found rising to the surface of that book to which he hardly knew what reception to give; but with wisdoin and with feeling he found it to be full to overflowing, nor could he rest satisfied till he had seen and spoken with the author.-FORSTER, JOHN, 1869, Walter Savage Landor, a Biography, p. 562.

He

The

He saw nothing but evil in the French Revolution. He judges it as unjustly as he judges Voltaire, and for the same reasons. He understands our manner of acting no better than our manner of thinking. looks for Puritan sentiment; and, as he does not find it, he condemns us. idea of duty, the religious spirit, selfgovernment, the authority of an austere conscience, can alone, in his opinion, reform a corrupt society; and none of all these are to be met with in French society. -TAINE, H. A., 1871, History of English Literature, tr. Van Laun, vol. II, bk. v, ch. IV, p. 472.

So overmastering is the interest of the story, that it is only by an effort that the supreme intellectual feat implied in the creation of such a work can be realised. To consult all authorities, however insignificant, which could throw light on the

events, to keep the thread of narrative and chain of circumstances distinct in the mind, and weld all into one well-balanced piece of artistic work, nowhere marred by undue insistance on trivial points, or insufficient examination of important onesthis could be accomplished only by the possessor of an unexampled historic imagination. It is small wonder that such a history as this was hailed by the leading minds of England and America as the production of a great man of genius.SHEPHERD, RICHARD HERNE, 1881, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Carlyle, vol. I, p. 166.

That it is worthy of the position which, in England at least, is generally assigned it, of the best of its author's works, judged from all points of view, I have no doubt.

It is the most practically serviceable in the education of the citizen and the man of letters, and above all, it is the first sprightly running of its author's mind in the direction of practical and historical application of an original, if partial and one-sided, view of human life and human affairs. SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1881, The Literary Work of Thomas Carlyle, Scribner's Monthly, vol. 22, pp. 96, 97.

Carlyle's book on the French Revolution has been called the great modern epic, and so it is an epic as true and germane to this age, as Homer's was to his. . . . Of all Carlyle's works, his "French Revolution" is, no doubt, the greatest, that by which he will, probably, be longest remembered. It is a thoroughly artistic book, artistically conceived, and artistically executed. On it he expended his full strength, and he himself felt that he had done so.-SHAIRP, JOHN CAMPBELL, 1881, Prose Poets, Aspects of Poetry, pp. 429, 433.

This is truly a marvellous book. But it is not so much a history as a succession of pictures, or perhaps a succession of poems in prose. It is pervaded with Carlyle's philosophy, and is probably his most brilliant work. He finds abundance of demons to hate, and a few heroes to admire. Mirabeau and Danton seem to be his favorites, while Lafayette and Bailly are treated with a more or less obvious contempt. He gives us a picture of pandemonium, interspersing it with judgments that seem sometimes preposterous and sometimes inspired. Every student of the Revolutionary period should read the book;

but he will gain his chief advantage from it after his studies have already made him master of the leading facts of the history. Though it is probably the most remarkable work ever written on the Revolution, it will prove unsatisfactory to nearly every student unless it be studied in connection with a work of more commonplace merits. -ADAMS, CHARLES KENDALL, 1882, A Manual of Historical Literature, p. 331.

Mr. Carlyle's Revolution is more and more felt to be a literary picture, and less and less a historical examination. It is based on an idea now recognised to be thoroughly inadequate; it is saturated with doctrines for which the author himself no longer retained any trust or hope; and it leads us to a conclusion which all that is manly and true in our generation rejects with indignation. — HARRISON, FREDERIC, 1883, Histories of the French Revolution, The Choice of Books and Other Literary Pieces, p. 410.

Carlyle wrote the last word of "The French Revolution" as the clock was striking ten and the supper of oatmeal porridge was coming up. He naturally felt the house too narrow, and went forth into the night. Before departing he said to his wife, "I know not whether this book is worth anything, nor what the world will do with it, or misdo, or entirely forbear to do, as is likeliest: but this I could tell the world: You have not had for a hundred years any book that comes more direct and flamingly from the heart of a living man. Do what you like with it, you." which oration, the hall-door closed upon the most angry and desperate man of genius then in the flesh; with cause, had he known it, to have been the most thankful and hopeful.-GARNETT, RICHARD, 1887, Thomas Carlyle (Great Writers), pp. 81, 86.

After

But by-and-bye another book opened up a new world to me. up a new world to me. Fond of historical reading, in the later years of my university life I had drenched myself with French memoirs, largely connected with the Revolution period. In those days they might be picked up on stalls, cheap, from Arthur Young's travels down to the malicious gossip of the Duchesse d'Abrantes. But they left a very confused impression on one's mind. It happened to me now, however, happily to get hold of Carlyle. Had I been a true Carlylean, of course I should have been absorbed in "Sartor

The

Resartus," and, from that starting point, gone on to see all things in the light of the clothes' philosophy. But I did not read "Sartor" till years after, and not then, I fear, with proper appreciation. "French Revolution," however, I devoured eagerly, being sufficiently versed in the story already really to profit by its vivid pictures and singular insight. I found it to be the epic poem of our age, with the vision of a seer and the moral power of a Hebrew poet, even though I had to protest against some of its verdicts. If Coleridge gave me clear guiding lights in the realm of theology, Carlyle introduced me to deeper and broader views of human life and history. I did not, indeed, accept all his judgments; yet the book was like a revelation to me, and still remains, of all his works, the one I read oftenest, and never weary of reading. Certainly it is an era in one's life when one gets rid of Dryasdust, and comes face to face with the grand poetic justice of Providence. An epic poem, and yet a great history! But must not a great history be always an epic?SMITH, WALTER C., 1887, Books Which Have Influenced Me, p. 94.

Even Carlyle, rugged and harsh in his John-Knox nature, could have been a poet, as his "Heroes and Hero Worship," Burns's "Essay," and "French Revolution" prove. In no poem ever written was there more use of what is to be felt for what is to be known than in the last-named work. As history it is, of course, a failure; but that is true of other attempts than his, and oftener because there is too little feeling than too much. The man who writes only generalizations, without giving first the facts, writes history to as little purpose as Carlyle. If we are first to know the facts before we read our history, Carlyle's volumes are as good as Green's, and, as interpretative literature, far better.SHERMAN, L. A., 1893, Analytics of Literature, p. 420, note.

One of the first literary distinctions of Queen Victoria's reign was the publication of this book. . . . The perfection at once of that new grandiose yet rugged voice, which broke every law of composition and triumphed over them all, which shocked and bewildered all critics and authorities, yet excited and stirred the whole slumbrous world of literature, and rang into the air like a trumpet, and of a new manner alto

gether of regarding the events of history, a great pictorial representation, all illuminated by the blaze, sometimes lurid, sometimes terrible, of the highest poetic genius and imagination, were fully displayed in this astonishing work. . . . Carlyle seized the reality of the most lamentable, the most awful, the most influential of recent epochs. It is no mere record, but a great drama passing before our eyes. . . . A book more interesting than any romance, which those who took it up could not lay down, and which was far too impressive in its general character, too powerful and novel in its art, to be mistaken or overlooked.-OLIPHANT, MARGARET O. W., 1894, The Victorian Age of English Literature, pp. 120, 121, 123.

His "French Revolution" is not history in the proper sense of the word. It is a set of lurid pictures illustrative of that great event, by an artist of singular power, pictures which bring out its real significance in a quite unique manner.-LILLY, WILLIAM SAMUEL, 1895, Four English Humourists of the Nineteenth Century, p. 123.

Its passion, energy, colour, and vast prodigality of ineffaceable pictures, place it undoubtedly at the head of all the pictorial histories of modern times.- HARRISON, FREDERIC, 1895, Studies in Early Victorian Literature, p. 51.

Probably nowhere is there a history which in every chapter, and almost in every sentence, breathes the artistic purpose as Carlyle's "History of the French Revolution" does. It has been frequently called the "epic" of the Revolution. point of fact, as Froude justly says, the conception is rather dramatic, and the best comparison is to Eschylus.-WALKER, HUGH, 1897, The Age of Tennyson, p. 27.

CHARTISM

1840

In

I will tell you some good things to readthough not sure they are quite in your way: viz., Carlyle's "Chartism." . . Carlyle is a very striking writer; full of a sort of grim humour: the grin-horribly-a-ghastlysmile kind of style; the subject, too, being one which develops such a power well. This is not an inviting or flowery description to give of an author; but for a variety he is wonderfully impressive.-MOZLEY, JAMES BoWLING, 1840, To his Sisters, March 7; Letters, ed. his Sister, p. 101.

We pass through the book as through