Dear Friend,--Some four days ago I wrote you a long Letter,
rather expressive of anxiety about you; it will probably come to
hand along with this. I had heard vaguely that you were unwell,
and wondered why you did not write. Happily, that point is as
good as settled now, even by your silence about it. I have, half
an hour ago, received your Concord Letter of the 19th of March.
The Letter you speak of there as "written last Saturday" has not
yet made its appearance, but may be looked for now shortly: as
there is no mention here of any mischance, except the shortcoming
of Printers' copy, I infer that all else is in a tolerably
correct state; I wait patiently for the "last Saturday" tidings,
and will answer as to the matters of copy, in good heart, without
loss of a moment.
There is nothing of the manuscript sort in Teufelsdrockh's
repositories that would suit you well; nothing at all in a
completed state, except a long rigmarole dissertation (in a
crabbed sardonic vein) about the early history of the Teutonic
Kindred, wriggling itself along not in the best style through
Proverb lore, and I know not what, till it end (if my memory
serve) in a kind of Essay on the _Minnesingers._ It was written
almost ten years ago, and never contented me well. It formed
part of a lucklessly projected _History of German Literature,_
subsequent portions of which, the _Nibelungen_ and _Reinecke
Fox,_ you have already printed. The unfortunate "_Cabinet
Library_ Editor," or whatever his title was, broke down; and I
let him off,--without paying me; and this alone remains of the
misventure; a thing not fit for you, nor indeed at bottom for
anybody, though I have never burnt it yet. My other Manuscripts
are scratchings and scrawlings;--children's _infant_ souls
weeping because they never could be born, but were left there
whimpering _in limine primo!_
On this side, therefore, is no help. Nevertheless, it seems to
me, otherwise there is. _Varnhagen_ may be printed I think
without offence, since there is need of it: if that will make up
your fourth volume to a due size, why not? It is the last faint
murmur one gives in Periodical Literature, and may indicate the
approach of silence and slumber. I know no errors of the Press
in _Varnhagen:_ there is one thing about Jean Paul F. Richter's
_want_ of humor in his _speech,_ which somehow I could like to
have the opportunity of uttering a word on, though _what_ word I
see not very well. My notion is partly that V. overstates the
thing, taking a Berlin _propos de salon_ for a scientifically
accurate record; and partly farther that the defect (if any) was
_creditable_ to Jean Paul, indicating that he talked from the
abundance of the heart, not burning himself off in miserable
perpetual sputter like a Town-wit, but speaking what he had to
say, were it dull, were it not dull,--for his own satisfaction
first of all! If you in a line or two could express at the right
point something of that sort, it were well; yet on the whole, if
not, then is almost no matter. Let the whole stand then as the
commencement of slumber and stertorous breathing!
Varnhagen himself will not bring up your fourth volume to the
right size; hardly beyond 380 pages, I should think; yet what
more can be done? Do you remember Fraser's Magazine for October,
1832, and a Translation there, with Notes, of a thing called
Goethe's Mahrchen? It is by me; I regard it as a most
remarkable piece, well worthy of perusal, especially by all
readers of mine. The printing of your third volume will of
course be finished before this letter arrive; nevertheless I
have a plan: that you (as might be done, I suppose, by
cancelling and reprinting the concluding leaf or leaves) append
the said Translated Tale, in a smaller type, to that volume. It
is 21 or 22 pages of _Fraser,_ and will perhaps bring yours up to
the mark. Nay, indeed there are two other little Translations
from Goethe which I reckon good, though of far less interest than
the _Mahrchen;_ I think they are in the Frasers almost
immediately preceding; one of them is called _Fragment from
Goethe_ (if I remember); in his _Works,_ it is _Novelle;_ it
treats of a visit by some princely household to a strange
Mountain ruin or castle, and the catastrophe is the escape of a
show-lion from its booth in the neighboring Market-Town. I have
not the thing here,--alas, sinner that I am, it now strikes me
that the "two other things" are this one thing, which my
treacherous memory is making into two! This however you will
find in the Number immediately, or not far from immediately,
preceding that of the _Mahrchen;_ along with which, in the same
type with which, it would give us letter-press enough. It ought
to stand _before_ the _Mahrchen:_ read it, and say whether it is
worthy or not worthy. Will this _Appendix_ do, then? I should
really rather like the _Mahrchen_ to be printed, and had thoughts
of putting [it] at the end of the English _Sartor._ The other I
care not for, intrinsically, but think it very beautiful in its
kind.--Some rubbish of my own, in small quantity, exists here and
there in _Fraser;_ one story, entitled _Cruthers and Jonson,_*
was written sixteen years ago, and printed somewhere early
(probably the second year) in that rubbish heap, with several
gross errors of the press (mares for maces was one!): it is the
first thing I wrote, or among the very first;--otherwise a thing
to be kept rather secret, except from the like of you! This or
any other of the "original" immaturities I will _not_ recommend
as an Appendix; I hope the _Mahrchen,_ or the _Novelle_ and
_Mahrchen,_ will suffice. But on the whole, to thee, O Friend,
and thy judgment and decision, without appeal, I leave it
altogether. Say Yes, say No; do what seemeth good to thee.--Nay
now, writing with the speed of light, another consideration
strikes me: Why should Volume Third be interfered with if it is
finished? Why will not this _Appendix_ do, these _Appendixes,_
to hang to the skirts of Volume Four as well? Perhaps better!
the _Mahrchen_ in any case closing the rear. I leave it all to
Emerson and Stearns Wheeler, my more than kind Editors: E. knows
it better than I; be his decision irrevocable.
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* "Cruthers and Jonson; or, The Outskirts of Life. A True
Story." _Fraser's Magazine,_ January, 1831.
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This letter is far too long, but I had not time to make it
shorter.--I got your _French Revolution,_ and have seen no other:
my name is on it in your hand. I received Dwight's Book, liked
it, and have answered him: a good youth, of the kind you
describe; no Englishman, to my knowledge, has yet uttered as
much sense about Goethe and German things. I go this day to
settle with Fraser about printers and a second edition of the
_Revolution_ Book,--as specified in the other Letter: five
hundred copies for America, which are to cost he computes about
2/7, and _your_ Bookseller will bind them, and defy Piracy. My
Lectures come on, this day two weeks: O Heaven! I cannot
"speak"; I can only gasp and writhe and stutter, a spectacle to
gods and fashionables,--being forced to it by want of money. In
five weeks I shall be free, and then--! Shall it be Switzerland,
shall it be Scotland, nay, shall it be America and Concord?
Ever your affectionate
T. Carlyle
All love from both of us to the Mother and Boy. My Wife is
better than usual; rejoices in the promise of summer now
at last visible after a spring like Greenland. Scarcity,
discontent, fast ripening towards desperation, extends far
and wide among our working people. God help them! In man as
yet is small help. There will be work yet, before that account
is liquidated; a generation or two of work! Miss Martineau is
gone to Switzerland, after emitting _Deerwood_ [sic], a Novel.*
How do you like it? people ask. To which there are serious answers
returnable, but few so good as none. Ah me! Lady Bulwer too has
written a Novel, in satire of her Husband. I saw the Husband not
long since; one of the wretchedest Phantasms, it seemed to me, I
had yet fallen in with,--many, many, as they are here.
The L100 Sterling Bill came, in due time, in perfect order; and
will be payable one of these days. I forget dates; but had well
calculated that before the 19th of March this piece of news and
my gratitude for it had reached you.
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* _Deerbrook_
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