ON THE CHOICE OF BOOKS
THOMAS CARLYLE
_WITH A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR_
[Illustration: _No_. 5 _Great Cheyne Row.
The Residence of Mr. Carlyle from_ 1834 _until his Death_]
_A NEW EDITION_
CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY
[Illustration]
CONTENTS. PAGE
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION 7
ADDRESS DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS OF EDINBURGH
UNIVERSITY, APRIL 2, 1866 125
THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY CHAIR IN EDINBURGH
UNIVERSITY 189
FAREWELL LETTER TO THE STUDENTS 192
BEQUEST BY MR. CARLYLE 195
INDEX 201
[Illustration]
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
There comes a time in the career of every man of genius who has
devoted a long life to the instruction and enlightenment of his
fellow-creatures, when he receives before his death all the honours
paid by posterity. Thus when a great essayist or historian lives to
attain a classic and world-wide fame, his own biography becomes as
interesting to the public as those he himself has written, and by
which he achieved his laurels.
This is almost always the case when a man of such cosmopolitan
celebrity outlives the ordinary allotted period of threescore years
and ten; for a younger generation has then sprung up, who only hear
of his great fame, and are ignorant of the long and painful steps
by which it was achieved. These remarks are peculiarly applicable
in regard to the man whose career we are now to dwell on for a short
time: his genius was of slow growth and development, and his fame was
even more tardy in coming; but since the world some forty years ago
fairly recognised him as a great and original thinker and teacher,
few men have left so indelible an impress on the public mind, or
have influenced to so great a degree the most thoughtful of their
contemporaries.
Thomas Carlyle was born on Tuesday, December 4th, 1795, at
Ecclefechan, a small village in the district of Annandale,
Dumfriesshire. His father, a stone-mason, was noted for quickness of
mental perception, and great energy and decision of character;
his mother, as affectionate, pious, and more than ordinarily
intelligent;[A] and thus accepting his own theory, that "the history
of a man's childhood is the description of his parents' environment,"
Carlyle entered upon the "mystery of life" under happy and enviable
circumstances. After preliminary instruction, first at the parish
school, and afterwards at Annan, he went, in November, 1809, and when
he was fourteen years old, to the University of Edinburgh. Here
he remained till the summer of 1814, distinguishing himself by his
devotion to mathematical studies then taught there by Professor
Leslie. As a student, he was irregular in his application, but when he
did set to work, it was with his whole energy. He appears to have been
a great reader of general literature at this time, and the stories
that are told of the books that he got through are scarcely to be
credited. In the summer of 1814, on the resignation of Mr. Waugh,
Carlyle obtained, by competitive examination at Dumfries, the post of
mathematical master at Annan Academy. Although he had, at his parents'
desire, commenced his studies with a view to entering the Scottish
Church, the idea of becoming a minister was growingly distasteful to
him. A fellow-student describes his habits at this time as lonely and
contemplative; and we know from another source that his vacations
were principally spent among the hills and by the rivers of his
native county. In the summer of 1816 he was promoted to the post of
"classical and mathematical master" at the old Burgh or Grammar School
at Kirkcaldy. At the new school in that town Edward Irving, whose
acquaintance Carlyle first made at Edinburgh, about Christmas, 1815,
had been established since the year 1812; they were thus brought
closely together, and their intimacy soon ripened into a friendship
destined to become famous. At Kirkcaldy Carlyle remained over two
years, becoming more and more convinced that neither as minister nor
as schoolmaster was he to successfully fight his way up in the world.
It had become clear to him that literature was his true vocation,
and he would have started in the profession at once, had it been
convenient for him to do so.
[Footnote A: James Carlyle was born in August, 1758, and died January
23, 1832. His second wife (whose maiden name was Margaret Aitken), was
born in September, 1771, and died on Christmas Day, 1853. There
were nine children of this marriage, "whereof four sons and three
daughters," says the inscription en the tombstone in the burial-ground
at Ecclefechan, "survived, gratefully reverent of such a father and
such a mother."]
He had already written several articles and essays, and a few of them
had appeared in print; but they gave little promise or indication of
the power he was afterwards to exhibit. During the years 1820--1823,
he contributed a series of articles (biographical and topographical)
to Brewster's "Edinburgh Encyclopaedia,"[1] viz.:--
[Footnote 1: Vols. XIV. to XVI. The fourteenth volume bears at the end
the imprint, "Edinburgh, printed by Balfour and Clarke, 1820;" and the
sixteenth volume, "Printed by A. Balfour and Co., Edinburgh, 1823."
Most of these articles are distinguished by the initials "T.C."; but
they are all attributed to Carlyle in the List of the Authors of the
Principal Articles, prefixed to the work on its completion.]
1. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
2. Montaigne
3. Montesquieu
4. Montfaucon
5. Dr. Moore
6. Sir John Moore
7. Necker
8. Nelson
9. Netherlands
10. Newfoundland
11. Norfolk
12. Northamptonshire
13. Northumberland
14. Mungo Park
15. Lord Chatham
16. William Pitt.
The following is from the article on _Necker_:--
"As an author, Necker displays much irregular force of imagination,
united with considerable perspicuity and compass of thought; though
his speculations are deformed by an undue attachment to certain
leading ideas, which, harmonizing with his habits of mind, had
acquired an excessive preponderance in the course of his long and
uncontroverted meditations. He possessed extensive knowledge, and
his works bespeak a philosophical spirit; but their great and
characteristic excellence proceeds from that glow of fresh and
youthful admiration for everything that is amiable or august in the
character of man, which, in Necker's heart, survived all the blighting
vicissitudes it had passed through, _combining, in a singular union,
the fervour of the stripling with the experience of the sage_."[A]
[Footnote A: "In the earliest authorship of Mr. Carlyle," says Mr.
James Russell Lowell, alluding to these papers, "we find some not
obscure hints of the future man. The outward fashion of them is that
of the period; but they are distinguished by a certain security of
judgment, remarkable at any time, remarkable especially in one so
young. Carlyle, in these first essays, already shows the influence of
his master Goethe, the most widely receptive of critics. In a
compact notice of Montaigne there is not a word as to his religious
scepticism. The character is looked at purely from its human and
literary sides."]
Here is a passage from the article on _Newfoundland_, interesting as
containing perhaps the earliest germ of the later style:--
"The ships intended for the fishery on the southeast coast, arrive
early in June. Each takes her station opposite any unoccupied part of
the beach where the fish may be most conveniently cured, and retains
it till the end of the season. Formerly the master who arrived first
on any station was constituted _fishing-admiral_, and had by law the
power of settling disputes among the other crews. But the jurisdiction
of those _admirals_ is now happily superseded by the regular
functionaries who reside on shore. Each captain directs his whole
attention to the collection of his own cargo, without minding the
concerns of his neighbour. Having taken down what part of the rigging
is removable, they set about their laborious calling, and must pursue
it zealously. Their mode of proceeding is thus described by Mr.
Anspach, _a clerical person, who lived in the island several years,
and has since written a meagre and very confused book, which he calls
a_ HISTORY _of it_."
To the "New Edinburgh Review" (1821-22) Carlyle also contributed
two papers--one on Joanna Baillie's "Metrical Legends," and one on
Goethe's "Faust."
In the year 1822 he made a translation of "Legendre's Geometry," to
which he prefixed an Essay on Proportion; and the book appeared a
year or two afterwards under the auspices of the late Sir David
Brewster.[A] The Essay on Proportion remains to this day the most
lucid and succinct exposition of the subject hitherto published.
[Footnote A: "Elements of Geometry and Trigonometry," with Notes.
Translated from the French of A.M. Legendre. Edited by David Brewster,
LL.D. With Notes and Additions, and an Introductory Chapter on
Proportion. Edinburgh: published by Oliver and Boyd; and G. and W.B.
Whittaker, London. 1824, pp. xvi., 367. Sir David Brewster's
Preface, in which he speaks of "an Introduction on Proportion, by the
Translator," is dated _Edinburgh, August_ 1, 1822.]
"I was already," says Carlyle in his _Reminiscences_, "getting my head
a little up, translating 'Legendre's Geometry' for Brewster. I still
remember a happy forenoon in which I did a _Fifth Book_ (or complete
'doctrine of proportion') for that work, complete really and lucid,
and yet one of the briefest ever known. It was begun and done that
forenoon, and I have (except correcting the press next week) never
seen it since; but still I feel as if it were right enough and
felicitous in its kind! I only got £50 for my entire trouble in that
'Legendre;' but it was an honest job of work, honestly done."[A]
[Footnote A: _Reminiscences by Thomas Carlyle_, Edited by James
Anthony Froude. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1881, Vol. 1., pp.
198-199.]
The late Professor de Morgan--an excellent authority--pronounced a
high eulogium upon this Essay on Proportion.
In 1822 Carlyle accepted the post of tutor to Charles Buller, of whose
early death and honourable promise, two touching records remain to us,
one in verse by Thackeray, and one in prose by Carlyle.
For the next four years Carlyle devoted his attention almost
exclusively to German literature.
His Life of Schiller first appeared under the title of "Schiller's
Life and Writings," in the London Magazine.
Part I.--October, 1823.