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Letters of Thomas Carlyle, 1826-1836

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Letters of Thomas Carlyle, 1826-1836 <- '. THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE LETTERS OF THOMAS CARLYLE '"•^^'Wm^ 'oXI. IuaX Cv,. Ov,v<ArTS»tw ckA.^^ . i^u J^iiv '«,< *w ua&-ti«rTr k^ .^^j h, tnfii«^ u-nj.c/feo, •u3 *5w'^ »vij. /r Tn/iL*^ *" ^li.^ ; Xr] iij |i-Tn u</, x»K"icac^ , Y~^ i-ji^r '^ <i ""^ Cm] '^'W. fWn^ U^lt^A w <1^ 'W (~[ lAuij W^tCvIV* , , i^»t»»<it, Xicft I ^libfcaai} , O 1vy>!i^ )u^ (U <J«44,-lW«U.^ w^,_lW.l)-C- W,frtvWC) ^«^ «-J W-xJc^ y. Uj ^ «tl U*-| Ki& ? SCvT'u. (itu.' Hw aSX^- i^ . 'i^^^„ liiuUa C..»ir» .C/ftt Us Wi.'^tlu)' Wt 1v« , -uJ" ^ CivvMiLi^ ''w . iXKi i? i(^ UviWo^ ow , -iw tjMi. — (Til Hj , "^"^ W \y^ VI yJ tii l^wJJ -i ifom. a- letter toD^ QxrWb&Mujtixh' LETTERS OF THOMAS CARLYLE 1826— 1836 EDITED 15V CHARLES ELIOT NORTON VOL. II 1832—1836 2Loutroit MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK I 888 All 7ights resented COPYRIGHT By CHARLES ELIOT NORTON WADr AND pnlNTItO IN cnEAT eniTAiNi LETTERS OF THOMAS CARLYLE LXXXV.—To Alexander Carlyle, Craigenputtock. 4 Ampton Street, Gray's Inn Road, London, Saturday^ i /[ih January 1832. My dear Alick— . Several weeks ago I sent you a little Note for the Dumfries Post Office : this I think you must have got, though no answer has yet reached me. The present will be the third Letter for which you are now in my debt. I am getting very desirous to hear from you ; what you are doing and for- bearing ; how you get on with the preparatives for Catlinns, what you think of it, and of your outlooks generally ; how we are likely to find you when we return in Spring. Often does the picture of that lone mansion in the Dun- score wold come before me here ; it has a VOL. II. B LETTERS OF THOMAS CARLYLE 1832 Strange almost unearthly character, as it comes before me standing in the lone Night in the wintry moor, with the tumult of London raging around me, who was once your fellow-hermit, and am soon to be a yet more solitary hermit. I am wae to think that this, like all other earthly arrangements, is now drawing to its close ; we shall wander no more along the Glaisters Hill : it is the ugliest of hills, and none of us saw cheerfulness on the face of it, or anything but toil and vexation ; nevertheless now when it is all past, how can we be other than sad ? Alas, we ourselves are quickly that now passing ; a little while, and iw place knows us shall know us any more at all for- ever ! Let us strive to obtain a "continuing City"; for such, by God's goodness, there yet (in some is ; appointed for the just man ; who to us wholly mysterious way, yet surely as aught is sure) "shall dwell forever with God." Were it not for some faith in this, I see not how one could endure the tossing and toils of the World : but with this, while it holds steady before us, the very sorrows of our present 1832 TO ALEXANDER CARLYLE 3 dream of life, for it is but a dream, are bless- ings for us. Let us never lament then ; let us stand to it like brave men ; expecting no reward in this world, zvishing for none ; feeling that to serve our heavenly Taskmaster is itself the richest of all rewards. Our plans here are getting a little more fixed : I can now give you some faint fore- shadow of them. I pride myself that I have never gone half a foot out of my road in search of what are called "prospects": it is yet and has always been clear to me that I was one whom Promotion was least of all likely to visit. Thank Heaven I know my trade : it is to W7dte ti'uth while I can be kept alive by so doing, and to die writing it when I can no longer be kept alive. So feeling, I look upon all mortals with the friendliest humour ; let Kings and Chancellors fiorht their own battles, and all I speed to them : let the Devil go his way, and will go mine. Therefore after settling my Author-business in London, I will not stay an hour, "waiting at the pool," as some advise me. ... On the whole the world stands related ; 4 LETTERS OF THOMAS CARLYLE 1S32 to me very much as I could wish it. I find my- self respected by all whose judgment I respect feared and wondered at by a much greater number ; despised, at least openly, by no one. With incessant long-continued exertion, there is imich possible for me ; I may become a Preacher of the Truth, and so deliver my message in this Earth, the highest that can be entrusted to man. — I write all this, because I know well, you love me, and heartily, as a Brother and Scholar, wish me good speed. T. Carlyle. LXXXVL—To his Mother, Scotsbrig. 4 Ampton Street, Mecklenburg Square, London, i2d Ja7itiary^ 1832. My dear Mother — It is not very long since I wrote to you yet I make no doubt you ; are wearying to hear from me again ; as indeed I am to write again, for there are few things that give me greater pleasure. A letter from Jack having arrived, I have now a decided call made on me ; and snatch a few minutes as I ^ The day of his father's death. 1832 TO HIS MOTHER 5 can get them to fulfil it. You have no notion how hard it is even to command minutes here, such streams of visitors and other interruptions come upon one : for example, since I wrote the first sentence of this, there have been no fewer than six persons, simultaneously and suc- cessively, breaking in on my privacy, and I have had to talk almost as much as would make a volume. First, Glen and some insignificant etceteras; then John Mill with Detrosier (the Manchester Lecturer to the Working Classes, whom you may have seen mentioned in the Examiner^, and, much stranger, an actual Saint - Simonian Frenchman, arrived as a ^ missionary here ! I have since taken my dinner ; and now sit writing before tea, after which we have another engagement : to go and hear the famous Mr. Owen - (of whom also the Newspapers are full enough) preach in his "Institution" for the perfection of Society, or for something else equally noble, which I forget. So you see partly how I am situated, and will take the wish for the deed. 1 Gustave D'Eichthal. ^ Robert Owen of Lanark. ; 6 LETTERS OF THOMAS CARLYLE 1832 My worthy and kind Correspondent "little with of late Jean" has been rather stingy me ; though I must speak in regret rather than in blame ; for were she to dry up on me, what should I do ? Remind her only how very long it is since I had a Letter, and how gratifying a Letter from her always is. I am not in any great anxiety, for I struggle always to hope the best : indeed Alick wrote to me last week, bringing down the good news, at least want of ill news, to a recent date : neither will I now let myself believe that anything bad has be- that some soon coming fallen ; but think always day will bring me direct confirmation. Alick said that you, my dear Mother, were fully as strong as usual ; that the rest were all well only that my Father was again afflicted with his old complaint of cold. I pray you take all all charpfe of him ; let himself too avoid ex- posure to these winter damps : he should get himself warmer clothing, above all sufficient shoes, or well-lined clogs ; and not stir out at all, except he cannot help it, especially when the sun is not shining. This advice applies also to ; 1 832 TO HIS MOTHER 7 I you are yourself much you ; only that know more of a doctor than he is. We are struggling along here in the old way, and now see better what we are going to do, and when we are to move. Jane has been sickly almost ever since the winter began ; but by rigorous adherence to regimen is now fairly recovering, and already much stronger than she was. The weather here has been more un- comfortable, and the place altogether more full of annoyances, than one could almost anywhere else experience : reek and glar and fogs damp and dry, these are the grand elements man lives in on the streets of London. Were it not that the city is full of people whom it is pleasant and profitable to converse with, tJiis is nowise the habitation I would choose for myself. You are ill-lodged, in brick houses, thin as shells, with the floors all twisted, and every article indicating its showiness and its weakness. You ill-fed, live upon beef your are unless you can ; milk is of the bluest, your water of the muddiest your eggs rotten, your potatoes watery, and exactly about ten times the price they are in 8 LETTERS OF THOMAS CARLYLE 1832 Annanclale, namely one penny per pound ! You are ill-bedded and ill-clothed unless you prefer show to substance ; all these things are against you. Nevertheless there is a great charm in being here ; at the fountain-head and centre of British activity, in the busiest and quickest- moving spot that this whole Earth contains.
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