1795-1881
[Sidenote: Caroline Fox’s _Journals and Letters_.]
“Carlyle soon appeared, and looked as if he felt a well-dressed London
crowd scarcely the arena for him to figure in as a popular lecturer.
He is a tall, robust-looking man; rugged simplicity and indomitable
strength are in his face, and such a glow of genius in it,--not always
smouldering there, but flashing from his beautiful gray eyes, from the
remoteness of their deep setting under that massive brow. His manner is
very quiet, but he speaks like one tremendously convinced of what he
utters.... He began in a rather low nervous voice, with a broad Scotch
accent, but it soon grew firm, and shrank not abashed from its great
task.”--1840.
[Sidenote: Froude’s _Carlyle_.]
“He was then fifty-four years old; tall (about five feet eleven),
thin, but at the same time upright, with no signs of the later stoop.
His body was angular, his face beardless, such as it is represented
in Woolner’s medallion, which is by far the best likeness of him in
the days of his strength. His head was extremely long, with the chin
thrust forward; the neck was thin; the mouth firmly closed, the under
lip slightly projecting; the hair grizzled and thick and bushy. His
eyes, which grew lighter with age, were then of a deep violet, with
fire burning at the bottom of them, which flashed out at the least
excitement. The face was altogether most striking, most impressive
in every way. And I did not admire him the less because he treated
me--I cannot say unkindly, but shortly and sternly. I saw then what
I saw ever after--that no one need look for conventional politeness
from Carlyle--he would hear the exact truth from him and nothing
else.”--1849.
[Sidenote: Wylie’s _Carlyle_.]
“The maid went forward and said something to Carlyle and left the room.
He was sitting before a fire in an arm-chair, propped up with pillows,
with his feet on a stool, and looked much older than I had expected.
The lower part of his face was covered with a rather shaggy beard,
almost quite white. His eyes were bright blue, but looked filmy from
age. He had on a sort of coloured night-cap, a long gown reaching to
his ankles, and slippers on his feet. A rest attached to the arm of his
chair supported a book before him. I could not quite see the name, but
I think it was Channing’s works. Leaning against the fireplace was a
long clay pipe, and there was a slight smell of tobacco in the room....
His hands were very thin and wasted, he showed us how they shook and
trembled unless he rested them on something, and said they were failing
him from weakness.... He seemed such a venerable old man, and so worn
and old looking, that I was very much affected. Our visit was on
Tuesday, 18th May 1880, at about 2 P.M.”