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THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881)
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See also: A few lads in positions similar to his own began to look up to him as an intellectual See also:leader, and their See also:correspondence with him shows remarkable See also:interest in See also:literary matters . In 1814 Carlyle, still looking forward to the career of a See also:minister, obtained the mathematical mastership at Annan . The See also:salary of £6o or £70 a See also:year enabled him to See also:save a little See also:money . He went to Edinburgh once or twice, to deliver the discourses required from students of divinity . He does not seem, however, to have taken to his profession very earnestly . He was too shy and proud to see many of the Annan See also:people, and found his See also:chief solace in See also:reading such books as he could get . In 1816 he was appointed, through the recommendation of Leslie, to a school at See also:Kirkcaldy, where See also:Edward See also:Irving, Carlyle's See also:senior by three years, was also See also:master of a school . Irving's severity as a teacher had offended some of the parents, who set up Carlyle to be his See also:rival . A previous See also:meeting with Irving, also a native of Annan, had led to a little passage of arms, but Irving now welcomed Carlyle with a generosity which entirely won his See also:heart, and the rivals soon became the closest of See also:friends . The intimacy, affectionately commemorated in the Reminiscences, was of See also:great importance to Carlyle's whole career . " But for Irving," he says, " I had never known what the communion of See also:man with man means." Irving had a library, in which Carlyle devoured See also:Gibbon and much See also:French literature, and they made various excursions together . Carlyle did his duties as a schoolmaster punctiliously, but found the See also:life thoroughly uncongenial .
No man was less fitted by temperament for the necessary drudgery and worry
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A passing admiration for a See also:Miss See also:Gordon is supposed to have suggested the " Blumine " of Sartor Resartus; but he made no new friendships, and when Irving See also:left at the end of 1818 Carlyle also resigned his See also:post
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He had by this See also:time resolved to give up the ministry
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He has given no details of the intellectual See also:change which alienated him from the See also: At last, one See also:day in See also:June 1821, after three See also:weeks' See also:total sleeplessness, he went through the crisis afterwards described quite " literally " in Sartor Resartus . He See also:cast out the spirit of negation, and henceforth the See also:temper of his misery was changed to one, not of " whining," but of " indignation and grim See also:fire-eyed See also:defiance." That, he says, was his spiritual new-See also:birth, though certainly not into a life of serenity . The See also:conversion was coincident with Carlyle's submission to a new and very potent influence . In 1819 he had begun to study See also:German, with which he soon acquired a very remarkable familiarity . Many of his contemporaries were awakening to the importance of German thought, and Carlyle's knowledge enabled him before See also:long to take a conspicuous See also:part in diffusing the new intellectual See also:light . The chief See also:object of his reverence was See also:Goethe . In many most important respects no two men could be more unlike; but, for the See also:present, Carlyle seems to have seen in Goethe a See also:proof that it was possible to reject outworn dogmas without sinking into See also:materialism . Goethe, by singularly different methods, had emerged from a merely negative position into a lofty and coherent conception of the universe . Meanwhile, Carlyle's various anxieties were beginning to be complicated by See also:physical derangement . A See also:rat, he declared, was gnawing at the See also:pit of his See also:stomach . He was already suffering from the ailments, whatever their precise nature, from which he never escaped . He gave vent to his irritability by See also:lamentations so grotesquely exaggerated as to make it difficult to estimate the real extent of the evil .
Irving's friendship now became serviceable
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Carlyle's See also:confession of the See also:radical difference of religious See also:opinion had not alienated his friend, who was settling in See also:London, and used his oppottunities for promoting Carlyle's interest
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In See also:January 1822 Carlyle, through Irving's recommendation, became See also:tutor to See also: Carlyle, conscious of great abilities, and impressed by such instances of the deleterious effects of the social See also:atmosphere of London, resolved to See also:settle in his native See also:district . There he could live frugally and achieve some real work . He could, for one thing, be the interpreter of See also:Germany to See also:England . A friendly See also:letter from Goethe, acknowledging the translation of Wilhelm Meister, reached him at the end of 1824 and greatly encouraged him . Goethe afterwards spoke warmly of the life of Schiller, and desired it to be translated into German . Letters occasionally passed between them in later years, which were edited by See also:Professor Charles See also:Eliot See also:Norton in 1887 . Goethe received Carlyle's See also:homage with See also:kind complacency . The See also:gift of a See also:seal to Goethe on his birthday in 1831 " from fifteen See also:English friends," including See also:Scott and See also:Wordsworth, was suggested and carried out by Carlyle . The interest in German, which Carlyle did so much to promote, suggested to him other See also:translations and reviews during the next few years, and he made some preparations for a See also:history of German literature . British curiosity, however, about such matters seems to have been soon satisfied, and the demand for such work slackened . Carlyle was meanwhile passing through the most important crisis of his See also:personal history . Jane See also:Baillie Welsh, born 1801, was the only See also:child of Dr Welsh of See also:Haddington .
She had shown precocious See also:talent, and was sent to the school at Haddington where Edward Irving (q.v.) was a master
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After her father's See also:death in 1819 she lived with her mother, and her wit and beauty attracted many admirers
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Her old tutor, Irving, was now at Kirkcaldy, where he became engaged to a Miss See also: The publication of the letters certainly seems to justify Norton's view.] Miss Welsh's previous affair with Irving had far less importance than Fronde ascribes to it; and she soon came to regard her past love as a childish See also:fancy . She recognized Carlyle's vast intellectual superiority, and the respect gradually deepened into genuine love . The process, however, took some time . Her father had bequeathed to her his whole See also:property (£200 to £300 a year) . In 1823 she made it over to her mother, but left the whole to Carlyle in the event of her own and her mother's death . She still declared that she did not love him well enough to become his wife . In 1824 she gradually relented so far as to say that she would marry if he could achieve independence . She had been brought up in a station See also:superior to that of the Carlyles, and could not accept the life of hardship which would be necessary in his present circumstances . Carlyle, accustomed to his father's See also:household, was less frightened by the prospect of poverty . He was determined not to abandon his vocation as a man of genius by following the See also:lower though more profitable paths to literary success, and expected that his wife should partake the necessary See also:sacrifice of comfort . The natural result of such discussions followed . The attraction became stronger on both sides, in spite of occasional spasms of doubt . An See also:odd incident precipitated the result . A friend of Irving's, Mrs See also:Basil Montague, wrote to Miss Welsh, to exhort her to sup-See also:press her love for Irving, who had married Miss Martin in 1823 . Miss Welsh replied by announcing her intention to marry Carlyle; and then told him the whole See also:story, of which he had previously been ignorant . He properly begged her not to yield to the impulse without due See also:consideration . She answered by coming at once to his father's See also:house, where he was staying; and the marriage was finally settled . It took See also:place on the 17th of See also:October 1826 . Carlyle had now to arrange the mode of life which should enable him to fulfil his aspiration . His wife had made over her income to her mother, but he had saved a small sum upon which to begin housekeeping . A passing See also:suggestion from Mrs Carlyle that they might live with her mother was judiciously abandoned . Carlyle had thought of occupying Craigenputtock, a remote and dreary farm belonging to Mrs Welsh . His wife objected his utter incapacity as a farmer; and they finally took a small house at Comely See also:Bank, Edinburgh, where they could live on a humble See also:scale . The brilliant conversation of both attracted some See also:notice in the literary society of Edinburgh . The most important connexion was with See also:Francis, See also:Lord See also:Jeffrey, still editor of the Edinburgh See also:Review . Though Jeffrey had no intellectual sympathy with Carlyle, he accepted some articles for the Review and became warmly attached to Mrs Carlyle . Carlyle began to be known as leader of a new " mystic " school, and his earnings enabled him to send his brother John to study in Germany . The public appetite, however, for " See also:mysticism " was not keen . In spite of support from Jeffrey and other friends, Carlyle failed in a candidature for a professorship at St See also:Andrews . His brother, Alexander, had now taken the farm at Craigenputtock, and the Carlyles decided to settle at the See also:separate dwelling-house there, which would bring them nearer to Mrs Welsh . They went there in 1828, and began a hard struggle . Carlyle, indomitably determined to make no concessions for immediate profit, wrote slowly and carefully, and turned out some of his most finished work . He laboured " passionately " at Sartor Resartus, and made articles out of fragments originally intended for the history of German literature . The money difficulty soon became more pressing . John, whom he was still helping, was trying unsuccessfully to set up as a See also:doctor in London; and Alexander's farming failed . In spite of such drawbacks, Carlyle in later years looked back upon the life at Craigenputtock as on the whole a comparatively healthy and even happy period, as it was certainly one of most strenuous and courageous endeavour . Though often absorbed in his work and made both gloomy and irritable by his anxieties, he found See also:relief in rides with his wife, and occasionally visiting their relations . Their letters during temporary separations are most affectionate . The See also:bleak See also:climate, however, the solitude, and the See also:necessity of managing a household with a single servant, were excessively trying .to a delicate woman, though Mrs Carlyle concealed from her See also:husband the extent of her sacrifices . The position was gradually becoming untenable . In the autumn of 183'1 Carlyle was forced to accept a See also:loan of £5o from Jeffrey, and went in See also:search of work to London, whither his wife followed him . He made some engagements with publishers, though no one would take Sartor Resartus, and returned to Craigenputtock in the See also:spring of 1832 . Jeffrey, stimulated perhaps by his sympathy for Mrs Carlyle, was characteristically generous . Besides pressing loans upon both Thomas and John Carlyle, he offered to settle an See also:annuity of boo upon Thomas, and finally enabled John to support himself by recommending him to a medical position.' Carlyle's proud spirit of independence made him reject Jeffrey's help as long as possible; and even his See also:acknowledgment of the generosity (in the Reminiscences) is tinged with something disagreeably like resentment . In 1834 he applied to Jeffrey for a post at the Edinburgh See also:Observatory . John Aitken Carlyle (1801-1879) finally settled near the Carlyles in See also:Chelsea . He began an English See also:prose version of See also:Dante's Divine See also:Comedy—which has earned him the name of " Dante Carlyle "—but only completed the translation of the Inferno (1849) . The work included a See also:critical edition of the See also:text and a valuable introduction and notes .
Jeffrey naturally declined to appoint a man who, in spite of some mathematical knowledge, had no See also:special qualification, and administered a See also:general lecture upon Carlyle's arrogance and eccentricity which left a permanent sense of injury
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In the beginning of 1833 the Carlyles made another trial of Edinburgh
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There Carlyle. found materials in the See also:Advocates' Library for the See also:article on the See also:Diamond Necklace, one of his most perfect writings, which led him to study the history of the French Revolution
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Sartor Resartus was at last appearing in See also:Fraser's See also:Magazine, though the See also:rate of See also:payment was cut down, and the publisher reported that it was received with " unqualified dissatisfaction." Edinburgh society did not attract him, and he retreated once more to Craigenputtock
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After another See also:winter the necessity of some change became obvious
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The Carlyles resolved to " See also:burn their See also:ships." They went to London in the summer of 1834, and took a house at 5 (now 24) See also:Cheyne See also:Row; Chelsea, which Carlyle inhabited till his death; the house has since been bought for the public
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Irving, who had welcomed him on former occasions, was just dying,—a victim, as Carlyle thought, to fashionable cajoleries
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A few young men were beginning to show appreciation
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See also: Carlyle was charmed with Emerson, and their letters published by Professor Norton show that his regard never cooled . Emerson's interest showed that Carlyle's fame was already spreading in See also:America . Carlyle's connexion with Charles Buller, a zealous utilitarian, introduced him to the circle of " philosophical radicals." Carlyle called himself in some sense a radical; and J . S . Mill, though not an intellectual See also:disciple, was a very warm admirer of his friend's genius . Carlyle had some expectation of the editorship of the London Review, started by Sir W . See also:Molesworth at this time as an See also:organ of philosophical radicalism . The See also:combination would clearly have been explosive . Meanwhile Mill, who had collected many books upon the French Revolution, was eager to help Carlyle in the history which he was now beginning . He set to work at once and finished the first See also:volume in five months . The See also:manuscript, while entrusted to Mill for annotation, was burnt by an See also:accident . Mill induced Carlyle to accept in See also:compensation £zoo, which was urgently needed . Carlyle took up the task again and finished the whole on the 12th of January 1837 . " I can tell the See also:world," he said to his wife, " you have not had for a See also:hundred years any See also:book that comes more See also:direct and flamingly from the heart of a living man . Do what you like with it, you —" The publication, six months later, of the French Revolution marks the turning-point of Carlyle's career . Many readers hold it to be the best, as it is certainly the most characteristic, of Carlyle's books . The failure of Sartor Resartus to attract See also:average readers is quite intelligible . It contains, indeed, some of the most impressive expositions of his philosophical position, and some of his most beautiful and perfectly written passages . But there is something forced and clumsy, in spite of the flashes of grim See also:humour, in the machinery of the Clothes See also:Philosophy . The mannerism, which has been attributed to an See also:imitation of See also:Jean See also:Paul, appeared to Carlyle himself to be derived rather from the phrases current in his father's house, and in any See also:case gave an appropriate See also:dialect for the expression of his See also:peculiar See also:idiosyncrasy . But it could not be appreciated by readers who would not take the trouble to learn a new See also:language . In the French Revolution Carlyle had discovered his real strength . He was always at his best when his See also:imagination was set to work upon a solid See also:frame-work of fact . The book shows a unique combination: on the one See also:hand is the singularly shrewd insight into character and the vivid realization of the picturesque; on the other is the "mysticism" or poetical philosophy which relieves the events against a background of See also:mystery . The contrast is marked by the humour which seems to combine a cynical view of human folly with a deeply pathetic sense of the sadness and suffering of life . The convictions, whatever their value, came, as he said, " flamingly from the heart." It was, of course, impossible for Carlyle to satisfy See also:modern requirements of See also:matter-of-fact accuracy . He could not in the time have assimilated all the materials even then extant, and later accumulations would necessitate a See also:complete revision . Considered as a " prose epic," or a vivid utterance of the thought of the period, it has a permanent and unique value . The book was speedily successful . It was reviewed by Mill in the See also:Westminster and by See also:Thackeray in The Times, and Carlyle, after a heroic struggle, was at last touching See also:land . In each of the years 1837 to 1840 he gave a course of lectures, of which the last only (upon " See also:Hero See also:Worship ") was published; they materially helped his finances . By . Emerson's management he also received something during the same period from See also:American publishers . At the See also:age of See also:forty-five he had thus become See also:independent . He had also established a position among the chief writers of the day . Young disciples, among whom John Sterling was the most accepted, were gathering See also:round him, and he became an object of social curiosity . 
Monckton Milnes (Lord See also:Houghton), who won universal popularity by the most genuine kindliness of nature, became a cordial friend . Another important intimacy was with the Barings, afterwards Lord and Lady See also:Ashburton . Carlyle's conversational See also:powers were extraordinary; though, as he won greater recognition as a See also:prophet, he indulged too freely in didactic See also:monologue . In his prophetic capacity he published two remarkable books: See also:Chartism (1829), enlarged from an article which See also:Lockhart, though personally approving, was afraid to take for the Quarterly; and Past and Present (1843), in which the recently published Mediaeval See also:Chronicle was taken as a text for the exposure of modern evils . They may be regarded as expositions of the See also:doctrine implicitly set forth in the French Revolution . Carlyle was a " radical " as sharing the sentiments of the class in which he was born . He had been profoundly moved by the widely-spread distresses in his earlier years . When the See also:yeomanry were called out to suppress riots after the See also:Peace, his sympathies were with the people rather than with the authorities . So far he was in See also:harmony with Mill and the " philosophical radicals." A fundamental divergence of principle, however, existed and was soon indicated by his speedy separation from the party and See also:alienation from Mill himself . The Revolution, according to him, meant the sweeping away of effete beliefs and institutions, but implied also the necessity of a reconstructive process . Chartism begins with a fierce attack upon the laissez faire theory, which showed See also:blindness to this necessity . The prevalent See also:political See also:economy, in which that theory was embodied, made a principle of neglecting the very evils which it should be the great See also:function of See also:government to remedy . Carlyle's doctrines, entirely opposed to the See also:ordinary opinions of Whigs and Radicals, found afterwards an expositor in his ardent disciple See also:Ruskin, and have obvious See also:affinities with more See also:recent See also:socialism . At the time he was as one crying in the See also:wilderness to little See also:practical purpose . Liberals were scandalized by his apparent See also:identification of " right " with " might," implied in the demand for a strong government; and though he often declared the true See also:interpretation to be that the right would ultimately become might, his See also:desire for strong government seemed too often to See also:sanction the inverse view . He came into collision with philanthropists, and was supposed to approve of despotism for its own See also:sake . His religious position was equally unintelligible to the average mind . While unequivocally rejecting the accepted See also:creeds, and so scandalizing even liberal theologians, he was still more hostile to si |