Annan; but in two years the work of teaching became altogether
intolerable to him, although he did it conscientiously. Successful
opposition sprung up to Irving and himself, moreover, in the shape of
a third school. Irving resolved to leave Kirkcaldy, and, in September,
1818, Carlyle wrote to his father, who had now given up business in
Ecclesfechan and taken the farm of Mainhill, about two miles distant,
that, having saved about L70, he purposed removing to Edinburgh, where
he thought he "could," perhaps, find private teaching to support him,
till he could fall into some other way of doing. He had now totally
abandoned all thoughts of entering the ministry.
Carlyle removed to Edinburgh in November, 1818. His prospects were for
some time dubious; he even entertained the idea of emigrating to
America. Ultimately, however, he obtained fairly regular and well-paid
private teaching. An introduction to Dr. (afterward Sir David)
Brewster, the editor of the "Edinburgh Encyclopaedia," led to his
writing articles, chiefly biographical and geographical, for that
work, at "bread-and-butter wages," and subsequently to his translating
Legendre's "Elements of Geometry" from the French for L50. At the
beginning of the session of 1819, he enrolled in the class of Scots
Law, with the intention of becoming an advocate. But he found law as
uncongenial a study as divinity. Till 1822 he lived in various
lodgings in Edinburgh, finding his chief relief from tutorial drudgery
in visits to his parents in Dumfriesshire. His health, which had
suffered from too close application to study, was at times "most
miserable;" he was in a low fever for two weeks, "was harassed by
sleeplessness," and began to be tortured by his life-long foe,
dyspepsia. At the same time his mind was perplexed with doubt on
religious matters, regarding which he seems to have unburdened himself
solely to Irving, who was then assistant to Dr. Chalmers, in Glasgow.
For a period he was "totally irreligious." This struggle terminated in
June, 1821, "all at once," and when he was walking along Leith Walk
(the Rue St. Thomas de l'Enfer of "Sartor Resartus"), in what he
regarded as his "spiritual new birth." He was now absorbed in German
literature, especially the writings of Schiller and Goethe. The
latter, indeed, had a more abiding influence on him than any other
author.
In June, 1821, also, occurred his introduction, through Irving, to
Miss Jane Baillie Welsh (1801-66), only daughter of Dr. John Welsh,
medical practitioner in Haddington, who had died two years before,
leaving his daughter sole heiress of the small estate of
Craigenputtock, sixteen miles from the town of Dumfries. Miss Welsh,
who was descended through her father from John Knox, was then living
in Haddington with her mother, who claimed kindred with the patriot
Wallace, and, according to Carlyle, "narrowly missed being a woman of
genius." Miss Welsh had been the private pupil of Irving when he was a
teacher in Haddington, and the result of the acquaintance thus brought
about was a passionate attachment. They would, indeed, have been
married, but for Irving's engagement to Miss Martin. The introduction
of Carlyle to Miss Welsh, then twenty years of age, led to a
correspondence between them on literary matters. After a time, Carlyle
attempted to adopt the tone of a lover. This, however, she
peremptorily forbade, although she refused other suitors.
Early in 1822, Irving, who was on the point of entering on the
pastorate of the Caledonian Chapel, in Hatton Garden, London,
recommended Carlyle as tutor to the three sons of Mr. Buller, a
retired Anglo-Indian. The salary offered was L200 a year. Carlyle, who
had previously declined the editorship of a Dundee newspaper, accepted
the offer; and two of the three, Charles Duller and Arthur, came to
Edinburgh in the spring, to be under his care while attending classes
at the university. Carlyle found his duties pleasant, and was now able
to give substantial pecuniary aid to his family, particularly as
regarded the education of his younger brother John, who subsequently
became a physician, but is better known as the translator of Dante's
"Inferno" (1849). Carlyle, after contemplating a history of the
British commonwealth, and a novel in association with Miss Welsh,
arranged to write a "Life of Schiller" for Mr. Taylor, the proprietor
of the _London Magazine_, and a translation of the "Wilhelm Meister"
of Goethe for Mr. Boyd, an Edinburgh publisher. These two enterprises
fully occupied his leisure while he was engaged as a tutor to the
Bullers, whose parents, after spending the winter of 1822 in
Edinburgh, removed in the following spring to Kinnaird House, near
Dunkeld, on the Tay.
Carlyle paid his first visit to London in June, 1824, whither the
Bullers had gone, and although his engagement with them was abruptly
broken off, he remained there till March, 1825, superintending the
publication in book form of his "Life of Schiller." At this time he
received the first of a series of letters from Goethe and made the
acquaintance of Coleridge, Thomas Campbell, Allan Cunningham, Proctor,
and other literary notabilities. On March 26, 1825, he removed to the
farm of Hoddam Hill, about two miles from Mainhill, which he had
leased; his brother Alexander doing the practical work of farming,
while he himself translated German romances. Miss Welsh now consented
to become his wife, after a lengthened correspondence. In 1826 he
quarrelled with his landlord, his father gave up his farm, and both
removed to Scotsbrig, another farm in the vicinity of Ecclesfechan.
The marriage between Carlyle and Miss Welsh took place on October 17,
1826, at her grandfather's house at Templand, Dumfriesshire, and they
at once settled in 21 Comely Bank, Edinburgh. Here Carlyle completed
four volumes of translations from Tieck, Musaeus, and Richter, which
were published under the title of "German Romance," and commenced a
didactic novel, but burned his manuscript. An introduction from
Proctor to Jeffrey led to his becoming a contributor to the _Edinburgh
Review_, his first article, on Jean Paul Richter, appearing in June,
1827. The same year he failed in his candidature for the chair of
moral philosophy in the University of St. Andrews, in succession to
Dr. Chalmers. Various subsequent attempts to obtain an academic
position for Carlyle met with no better success.
In May, 1828, the Carlyles removed to Mrs. Carlyle's little property
of Craigenputtock, which, in a letter to Goethe, he described as "the
loneliest nook in Britain, six miles removed from anyone likely to
visit me," and there they lived for about six years. Carlyle subsisted
during this period by writing for a number of reviews, including the
_Edinburgh_, the _Westminster_, the _Foreign Quarterly_, and _Fraser's
Magazine_. The chief of the essays which he produced at Craigenputtock
are those on Burns, Samuel Johnson, Goethe, Voltaire, Diderot, and
Schiller. He also wrote a "History of German Literature," the best
parts of which were subsequently published in the form of essays; and
in 1833-34 there appeared, by instalments in _Fraser's Magazine_,
"Sartor Resartus," his most characteristic work, the fantastic hero
of which, Diogenes Teufelsdroeckh, illustrates in his life and opinions
the mystical and grotesque "Philosophy of Clothes." "Sartor Resartus"
is notable in the literary history of Carlyle as revealing the
Germanization of his mind, and his abandonment of the comparatively
simple diction of his earlier essays for the thoroughly individual
style of his later works--eruptive, ejaculatory, but always powerful,
and often rising to an epic sublimity. Life at Craigenputtock was
varied on the part of Carlyle by occasional visits to Edinburgh, in
one of which the idea of writing his "French Revolution" occurred to
him; by a residence of six months in London, during which he made the
acquaintance of John Stuart Mill and John Sterling; and by visits from
old friends like Jeffrey, and new admirers like Emerson. In 1830
Carlyle was reduced to great straits; and he had to borrow L50 from
Jeffrey for the expenses of his journey to London, although he
declined to accept an annuity of L100 from the same source.
Having by 1834 again saved L200, Carlyle resolved to try his fortune
in London, and on June 10th established himself in the house, 5 Cheyne
Row, Chelsea, in which he lived till the day of his death. Here he
settled down to the writing of his "French Revolution," which appeared
in 1837. This enterprise was also put an end to in 1835, owing to the
destruction, by a servant-girl, of all but four or five leaves of the
manuscript of the first volume, which had been lent to John Stuart
Mill. Carlyle accepted L100 from Mill as compensation for his loss.
[Illustration: Carlyle at Chelsea.]
In the years 1837, 1838, 1839, and 1840, Carlyle lectured to
considerable, yet select, audiences on "German Literature," "The
Successive Periods of European Culture," "The Revolutions of Modern
Europe," and "Heroes, Hero-worship, and the Heroic in History."
Carlyle's yearly earnings from these lectures, the last series of
which had been published, varied between L135 and L300, and maintained
him and his wife till the "French Revolution" not only established his
reputation as a literary genius of the highest order, and as, in
Goethe's phrase, "a new moral force," but placed him beyond the
possibility of want. Yet, until late in life, his annual income from
literature was not more than L400. In 1838 appeared "Sartor Resartus"
in book form, and the first edition of his "Miscellanies." The
following year, Carlyle, who was at one time averse to the idea of
becoming a personal force in politics, published the first of a series
of attacks on the shams and corruptions of modern society, under the
title of "Chartism." This he followed in 1843 with "Past and Present,"
and in 1850 with "Latter-day Pamphlets," which proved among other
things that, if he did not quite approve of slavery, he disapproved of
the manner in which it had been abolished in the British dominions. In
1845 appeared "Cromwell's Letters and Speeches," perhaps the most
successful of all his works, inasmuch as it completely revolutionized
the public estimate of its subject. In 1851 he published a biography
of his friend, John Sterling. From this time Carlyle gave himself up
entirely to his largest work, "The History of Frederick II., commonly
called Frederick the Great," the first two volumes of which were
published in 1858, and which was concluded in 1865. The preparation of
this book led Carlyle to make two excursions to the Continent,
which, with a yachting trip to Ostend, two tours in Ireland (on which
he intended to write a book based on a diary that was published after
his death), and regular visits to his kindred and friends in Scotland,
formed the chief distractions from his literary labors. Among the few
public movements with which Carlyle identified himself was that which
resulted in the establishment of the London Library, in 1839. In
August, 1866, he also allowed himself to be elected chairman of the
committee for the defence of Mr. Eyre, who had been recalled from his
post of Governor of Jamaica on the ground of his having shown
unnecessary severity in suppressing a negro insurrection which had
broken out in October of the previous year, or, as Carlyle put it, for
having "saved the West Indies and hanged one incendiary mulatto, well
worth the gallows."
On November 11, 1865, Carlyle was elected lord rector of Edinburgh
University, by a majority of 657 votes over 310 recorded for Mr.
Disraeli. On April 2, 1866, the ceremony of his installation took
place amid extraordinary demonstrations of enthusiasm, when he
delivered an address in which he embodied his moral experiences in the
form of advice to the younger members of his audience. The success
attending this visit to Edinburgh was quite obliterated by the news,
which reached him in Dumfries, of the death, on April 21st, of Mrs.
Carlyle, as she was driving in her carriage in Hyde Park. Carlyle's
grief developed into remorse when he discovered, from certain of her
letters, and from a journal which she kept, that during a period of
her married life his irritability of temper and unconscious want of
consideration for her wishes, had caused her much misery and even
ill-health, which she studiously concealed from him. It has also been
demonstrated, by the letters and memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle, that
in the years 1855 and 1856 they were somewhat estranged, owing to
Carlyle's liking for the society of Harriet, Lady Ashburton. After the
death of Lady Ashburton, there were no differences between them,
except such as might be expected in the case of two persons of
irritable and high-strung natures, and of uncompromising veracity.
These memorials are also of note as proving Mrs. Carlyle to have been
one of the keenest critics, most brilliant letter-writers, and most
accomplished of women of her time.
Carlyle wrote no important work after his wife's death, although after
a visit to Mentone in 1867, where he partially composed his "Personal
Reminiscences," he settled down to his old life in London. In August,
1867, there appeared in _Macmillan's Magazine_ his view of British
democracy, under the title of "Shooting Niagara." He prepared a
special edition of his collected works, and added to them, in 1875, a
fresh volume containing "The Early Kings of Norway" and an essay on
the "Portraits of John Knox." On November 18, 1870, he wrote a letter
to the _Times_ on the "Franco German Question," defending the attitude
of Germany. He expressed privately strong opposition to the Irish
policy of Mr. Gladstone. In February, 1874, he was offered and
accepted the Prussian Order of Merit in recognition of his having
written the "Life of Frederick the Great," who founded the Order.
Toward the end of the same year Mr. Disraeli offered him the Grand
Cross of the Bath (with the alternative of a baronetcy) and a pension
of "an amount equal to a good fellowship," but he declined both.
His eightieth birthday, December 4, 1875, brought Carlyle many
tributes of respect, including a gold medal from a number of Scottish
admirers, and "a noble and most unexpected" note from Prince Bismarck.
On May 5, 1877, he published a short letter in the _Times_, referring
to a rumor that Mr. Disraeli, as Premier, meditated forcing on a
"Philo-Turk war against Russia," and protesting against any such
design. This was his last public act. On February 5, 1881, he died at
his house in Chelsea. A burial in Westminster Abbey was offered, but
in accordance with his own wish, he was laid in the churchyard of
Ecclesfechan, beside his kindred.
The time has not yet come for the passing of a final judgment on
Carlyle's position in British literature. He was, above all things, a
prophet in the guise of a man of letters, who predicted the reverse of
smooth things for his country and for the world; and it has yet to be
seen if his predictions will be fulfilled. But it may be said even
now, and without risk of contradiction, that, for good or evil, he
exerted a greater influence on British literature during the middle of
the nineteenth century, and, through that literature, on the ethical,
religious, and political beliefs of his time, than any of his
contemporaries; that, as a humorist, using humor seriously and as a
weapon for the enforcement of his opinions, he has no superior,
combining in himself what is best in Dunbar, Burns, Rabelais, and
Swift; that, as a master of the graphic in style, he has no rival and
no second--showing an equal facility in photographing nature, and in
grasping and presenting in appropriate phraseology the salient points
of personal character as exhibited in expression, habits, features,
build, and dress.
Of Carlyle as a man, it is also permissible to say that, irritable,
impatient, intolerant, fiercely proud, occasionally hasty in his
judgments though he was, preserving to the last, nor caring to get rid
of, certain Scottish and Annandale rusticities of manner and mental
attitude, no one was ever more essentially self-controlled, patient,
and humble than he, or ever faced the real misfortunes of life with a
calmer courage; that he was as incapable of conscious injustice,
unkindliness, or vindictiveness, as he was of insincerity or impurity;
that in pecuniary straits, even in despair, he never wrote a line that
he did not believe, never swerved by a hair's breadth from the noble
purposes which dominated his life and extinguished all selfish
ambition.
* * * * *
The following letter was written by Carlyle, in 1876, to a young man
who had asked his advice on the choice of a profession:
"Dear Sir,--I respect your conscientious scruples in regard to
choosing a profession, and wish much I had the power of giving you
advice that would be of the least service. But that, I fear, in my
total ignorance of yourself and the posture of your affairs, is pretty
nearly impossible. The profession of the law is in many respects a
most honorable one, and has this to recommend it, that a man succeeds
there, if he succeeds at all, in an independent and manful manner, by
force of his own talent and behavior, without needing to seek
patronage from anybody. As to ambition, that is, no doubt, a thing to
be carefully discouraged in oneself; but it does not necessarily
inhere in the barrister's profession more than in many others, and I
have known one or two who, by quiet fidelity in promoting justice, and
by keeping down litigation, had acquired the epithet of the 'honest
lawyer,' which appeared to me altogether human and beautiful.
"Literature, as a profession, is what I would counsel no faithful man
to be concerned with, except when absolutely forced into it, under
penalty, as it were, of death. The pursuit of culture, too, is in the
highest degree recommendable to every human soul, and may be
successfully achieved in almost any honest employment that has wages
paid for it. No doubt, too, the church seems to offer facilities in
this respect; but I will by no means advise you to overcome your
reluctance against seeking refuge _there_. On the whole, there is
nothing strikes me likelier for one of your disposition than the
profession of teacher, which is rising into higher request every day,
and has scope in it for the grandest endowments of human faculties
(could such hitherto be got to enter it), and of all useful and
fruitful employments may be defined as the usefullest, fruitfullest,
and also indispensablest in these days of ours.
"Regretting much that I can help you so infinitely little, bidding you
take pious and patient counsel with your own soul, and wishing you
with great truth a happy result, I remain, dear sir,
"Faithfully yours,
"T. CARLYLE."
VICTOR HUGO
By MARGARET O. W. OLIPHANT
(1802-1885)
[Illustration: A man and children.]
The greatest of literary Frenchmen, the greatest man of genius whom
this century has known, the Altissimo Poeta, the most splendid
romancist of his age, has accomplished his great career. He was the
last survivor of a great period in French literature--the last member
of one of the greatest literary brotherhoods which has ever existed;
and he carried with him to the very portals of the grave a lamp of
genius scarcely dimmed, and a personal power and influence which every
year increased. Not very long ago, all Europe gathered round him to
offer congratulations on his hale and hearty old age; since then, with
more than the hands full of flowers of the classic tradition, with
honors and praises from every quarter of the earth, he has been
carried to his grave. The very sight of a man so distinguished, the
consciousness of his honored existence as the representative of the
noblest and most all-embracing of the arts--that which depends for its
effects upon the simplest and most universal of instincts--was an
advantage to the world. The extravagances of hero-worship are
inevitable, and in nothing is the ridiculous so tremblingly near to
the sublime; but allowing for all that, and for what is worse, the
almost equally inevitable foolishness which adulation creates, the
position of Victor Hugo was of itself an advantage to the world. In a
soberer _pose_ altogether, and with a noble modesty which we may claim
as belonging to our race, Walter Scott occupied a somewhat similar
position--which would have been all the greater had he lived to Hugo's
age, an element which must necessarily be taken into consideration;
but, save in this one case, there has been no parallel to the eminence
of the great Frenchman in the estimation of his country and of the
world.
It is not now that the critic requires to step forth to establish the
foundations of this great fame, or decide upon its reality or lasting
character. This has been done in the poet's lifetime by a hundred
voices, favorable and otherwise; no need to wait for death to give the
final decision, as in some cases has been necessary. It is scarcely
possible to imagine that, after so long a time, any discovery can be
made, or any change of taste occur, which would interfere with the
supreme position of Victor Hugo. A new generation has been born in the
faith which to their elders is a matter of assured and triumphant
conviction. But it is a grateful office to go over again some of the
noblest productions which human genius has ever given forth, and to
contemplate in their unity the many works of a life as much longer
than that of ordinary men as its inspiration was above theirs.
[Illustration: Victor Hugo.]