New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-12-12

gressiye man %! his ege.
We then have rather pangeut description OF
CARLYLE5 CRITICS
Though MS itsaueuce has been thus extensive
and profound there haze never been wanting men
openly antipathetic to It. Even deiuctins thar
large class Of persons VINO have oinei in attack.
pg him. either from mean envy o! bis superior re-
uatRtion, OF from a dastardly anxiety u avoid the
importation at haginG been indebted 70 him, there
would still remain many whose dislike TO HIM was
honestly determined by some constitutional pc.
culisrity that made il impossible for them read
him without extreme discomfort 10 some men
humor Is a00minabe; others detesr the very
semblauce of yehemeuce; and not te5 are quail
fed TO relish truths only when they are presented
IN abstract form and in what is called logical CO
herence. To all such Ar Carlyle must have been
either Indifferent or dlsagreeable Just as there
nav be men that dislike Cervantes, aOhor Dante,
and wonder what people fad to admire ia Rich
ter On the whole however, it can have been but
asnlall proportion of the critical antlpethy OF MI
CARLYLE that vas determined by such exceptional
causes. The allegations on which that anupathy
sought publicly to ground itself were rather these
three that Mr. Carlyle had an atroclous and
horrible style that he was deficient in real specu-
latiye originality, MS leading notions not being
new but only impOrtations from the German mar
ket and that he was also deficient IN real lnyen'
tveness or practical sagacity, bis forte being to
denounce and destroy what was wrong, while ne
was the last man in the world to whom one would
look for definite plan OF rectitcaton or improve
ment. One had TO listen again and again to these
criticisms they were repeated IN review articles
and across dinner-tables, and each time with the
same look of confidence, and almost IN the same
set words. The mode Of attack being thus fixed,
no wonder that the opposite party were prepared
with their Inc Of defense. Mr.. Carlyles style,
they said was certainly strange and anomalous,
-.,i.e ~nElr aNr-rp
to a sane human being it was, IN the first place,
individually natural to him, being IN fact exactly
TRAITS of verbal conditions and methods which
his mind had wrought out as best adapted tor the
production of what was most valuable IN It; and
it was moreover--its characteristic eccenttcitles
apart-a singularly accurate and careful style
rigid to its very commas and semcolons, and put
tocetherso as to defy INTELLECTUALLY even the test
of the microscope. Then, again, IN E4e matter OF
his intellectual originality, Mr. Carlyle they al
mtted did not belong in any strict sense to the
class of uurelv speculative thinkers, and many oil
its fayorite forms Of thought were really to be
found in the works OF Goethe JacoOi, t.Ichtei and
Richter; bat they maintained, at tie same tlale
that if he had seized these continental truths, he
had seized them as scarcely another man OF his
age had done, pelpetreting IN the very act OF seZ-
ure what was almost the highest intellectual ieat
omen to a writer in this island Mt the tune; they
maintained also, that the manner IN which he mad
seized these truths, and the uEeXampIeu Iorce ana
significance he had given to them, argued lntei
lectua as well as nora originality some deep Scot
fish pith and Gifcreata not TO be found IN Goethe,
in Fichte or in any German soul OF them and,
finally, they retaliated by affirming that TINS test
OF the ncrueSS Of a writer's propositions Or con-
illusions was IN itself poor and begSariy one,
thing of mere speech and thoughtlessness, that,
fairly applied and carried out, would sweep all
mere men of letters whateverout OF the estimation
of mankind and leave us only Aristotle and the
cold Gshy demigods Lastly as regarded the
charges of mere propensity to neSatoa and de-
structiveness. unaccompanied by practical inyen-
tiveness or by power to give any clear and post
tive instructions for REFORM MIR. Carlyle admirers
were accustomed to argue what Mr. Grote has
very beautifully argued IN his appreciation OF the
character of Socrates that this same critical or
purely diaectic function has been very much ma
iigned that to leave man sniYering without a
rag Of dogma that he can logically pin around hun,
is often the greatest service you eau tor the mo-
ment do him adding, moreover, that the office OF
dilfusing great transcendental 9eneraItes regard
ing truth and Justice through the sentiment OF
people, was in itself higher one than that OF
initiating specific social remedies or modes of pal
iation, and also that they believed that even in
this latter respect, Mr.. Carlyle hadmoro sense and
sagacitythan he usually got credit for AS vi9o-
rously as the adversares of Mr. Carlyle piled their
criticisms so vigorously did his admirers ply these
responses. STILL however, in review articles and
Il
styleis horrible; he is very disagreeabe writer,
said Mr. A mere Richter in kits insinuat-
ed b. 81 wish he would tell US what he would
have us do, said all the rest of the alphabet And
SO the controversy went gaily on.
And another equally SO of
THE EFFECT OF THE LATTER-D A YNPAM PHLErS.
The publication of the Latter Day Pamphlets
has brought the controversy to a crisis. Never
before, probably, was there publication SO pro-
yocative of rage, hatred, and personal maleyoence
Whatever amount OF antlpathy to Mr.. Carlyle
previously existed drought the reading commanl
ty, has been by this concentrated and brought out
intorexplicit manifestation. Simultaneously over
the whole kingdom the scattered elements OF dis
like have mustered themselves so that nearly the
whole force of the critical demonstration that has
been made dDrOp0S OF the authors temperance
in the field OF literature, has been ON the part OF the
reaction In all circles, and on the most various
occasions there have been outbreaks of a spirit OF
resistance TO him amounting almost to malI6nlty.
Lord John Russell in the House OF Commons takes
q highly elaborated revenge for certain lmpolite
illusions to him in the Pamphlets, by incidentally
referring to their author as clever but Whl1nsl-
cal writer With a similar attectatlon Of con
descending unconcern to cover what Is IN realty
the most intense bitterness otteeling, some critics
write as if they would have it believed they
thought OF the author only as poor drlyeler that
al persons Of sense had long ceased TO listen to-
Others, again. more honestly, assail and yituperate
him with the whole force OF their undIsgulsed ao'
horrence. The correspondent of one American
newspaper coolly accounts to the Transa slantio
public for the insane tone of the PamPtle5s by
the information that Thomas is believed to have
recently taken to whisky We have ourselves
heard him cursed by name IN open society an. ana
we're it possible to accumulate N some ulStlnOs
expressions exp Of rage and l,wfIl that the Pamphlets
have elected, we fancy the display would be be
something fearful. In short, at the present mo.
ment Mr. Carlyle is unpopular with at least one
halt OF the kingdom.
"RrroRr OF TIE casE or JoHN w.
WEBSTER By GEORGE BEAis Esq one oil toe
- :. ~. cnse is & large octave, containing |