Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-06-23

q new edition Of his smaller writings inspires i
s with the desire Ct analyzing, at least. cur own
Impressions regarding 81 author whose works have
lways, for many years, been welcomed By Us with
ksener interest," and perused with more eagerness5
ban those Of any other contemporary v1sser.
We win first, however, describe, technically, the I
-olumss now before us. They comprise all the ar
icles, whether reviews, tranalali0ns, biographical
memoirs, q literary essays, which were written
" Mr. CaaLYrE for various English periodicals !
Iarng the period extending from 1927 70 1851, and
IS we suppose him to have been too much occupied
nce the latter date, with his LIE OF fEEERIcK TEE
SRE1q to contribute much to the reviews the infer
snee ihe whole Of his minor writings have been
Beluasd. We are further informed chat they have
been collected and republished under the express
supervision Of the author indeed we sometimes
meer with q note, unmistakably dropped from his
and no other PEN in which he briefly notices the cir
eumstances Of the first appearance Of the article,
sometimes eTen dropping q few words Of condo
scending half-patronizHg comments, very. pleasant
and amusing to read when applied BY veteran au-
thor to the offspring Of bis youthful genius. The
English edition, Of which tins is a Republication,
seems to have been printed in 1857 or early in 1885,
we dare scarcely hope that any pecuniary profit
acerues to the author from the sale Of the reprint
would it were otherwise, for the many readers Of
CARLYLE in the United States would feel gratAed in
believing that some Of the money expended in its
purchase went towards adding to the comforts Of
an author they so highly esteen though even with
out this substantial satisfaction we doubt not Mr..
CARIYIE's qualification in knowing that he has
thousands Of appreciatiEe readers in this country.
For the rest printing paper and binding in the
best Boston style and no more need be said on that
head.
Add now for our somewhat rash undertaking to
investigate in somewhat less than a column what
has been the influence exerted upon English Litara-
ture by Mr. CAIHE1Rs writings and how has it been
exercsed9 It seems at first sight much easier to say
how It has not been done, Certainly not by throwing
himself into any Of the great movements social poll
teal or religious, which have produced such vast
changes within the time specified, not by joining
any one Of the great parties factions schools Of re-
gion or literature or morals, either in the capacity
Of leader OF follower; from all these he seems to
have carefully held himself aloof Not that he has
been Indifferent to the vast progress in civil and re-
lgous freedom, to the removal Of shaekles from the
ton Of new thought, but he seems especially sus-
picious Of party organizations as tending to bind
down mems exertiOns to narrow and inadequate
fields Of action, while they deaden the conscience by
dividing responsibility. Without therefore denying
that it is mems right or even duty to unite for de-
finite purposes in party organizations he deems it
his higher mission to impress upon them the neces
sity of broader principles than party and sectaian
formulas an allegiance higher than devotion to
party interests, a moral status in which the party
or sect is made subordinate to principles rather
than principles to the party. If we desired to state
what these principles are where, this allegiance
conferred, in es brief a statement as possible
we should say that his most characteristic position
that which he he keeps most necessarily before his
mind is the denial Of that cardinal doctrine which
lies at the foundation of all theories of morals or poll
tics in tie present day. that the pursuit Of happiness
is the master motive of all human action. This he
denies; he contends that no really great purpose
was ever achieved upon such principles, that no
man ever became really great through the pursuit Of
happiness, but that the first step towards that
moral integrity Of purpose which renders life really
sublime is an abnegatiOn Of self, steady defiance
Of all consequences, as affecting his personal pros
perty, and devotion to that course of life which he
believes to be his special field of action, all other
considerations being trampled undertook except his
consciousness of walking before God by the light of
conscience This is his cardinal doctrine. man must
walk by faith not by sense 1t is the doctrine Of a
much greater BOOK than any which Mr.. CAR
LYLE has written or is likely to write-why state
It aeain then, one asks-because at the time when
our author commenced writing such a vast proper
ton Of the reading public mad ceased to read that
book at all, while so many who did read it sought
in it rather theological battery for the demolition
of rival sects than rule of life. We, say then,
that our author is the great lay preacher Of faith
against sight, and in virtue of his intrepid and in
domitable perseverance in cOntending for this, his
great cause we recognize MIN as THE MOST RELIGIOUS
WRITER OF HIS DAY, at least among lsymen,
We are quite aware that in making this avowal we
are taking position which viii be stOuty contested
and for which we are liable to have cur own Ortho-
doxy called in question butw neveress take it after
a thoughtful study of his works continued now for
many years There are many reasons why jealous re-
gionists should lock with suspicion and even angry
hostility on the opinions Of author For to select
one out of many most religious writers of the pre-
sent day are occupied IN vindicating the cause Of
some particular Sect as if all Christianity we're
comprised within its narrow confines now sects
and their champions are all liable to indulge in cunt,
in stereotyped declarations of what is true but
trite. and when alleged in tehafof sectarian claims
even false and untensble and CARLYLE is the avOw-
ed enemy Of cant in all forms, and viii spare no
manifestation of it, show its head where it viii /;
hence there is scarcely sect theological school
of the present day which has not felt the weight Of
his fustigation, and heavy are his blows when his
club does come down; hence he is held in little IA
vor BY the curious denominations.
But if CARLYLE deals incorporating blows up
on the foibles Of the sects (Which are not their re-
ligion) how enthusiastic his recognition Of the great
ness Of that soul, in which penetrating sense Of
walking in Gods presence is the one exclusive rule
Of life How enthusiastic, we say, and how catho-
lie wherever such souls are to be met with How
heartily this one criterion of religion is appreciated
in persons whose special creeds and associations are
as wide as the poles asunder in the Catholic Abbot
SAMPSON, the Protestant LUTHER, the Puritan CRoN
WELL, the Quaker Fox, &c, &c, the one condition
of his approval is, that man shall devote himself
50 the doing Of Gods work as God shall help him,
and to trample underfoot the works o. the Devil
without fearing what man or devil can do to him.
Another ground on which the religious character
Of our author has been impeached is the couEte-
nance which he seems to have given to the sceptics
and seepticism of the eighteenth century-to Vol
rARE and DmERoT to the Encyclopaedia the The0-
of the French revolution.
/: is true that to men Of high intellect and strong
convictions, he represents skepticism as the only
field Of thought open in that wretched period of
apathy and corruption, the commencement of the
eighteenth century. He holds that preliminary
to the establishment of anything better than the
ifeess orthodoxy and dreary infdelty which divid-
ed the world between them at that time, must 6e
the sweeping away Of the accumulated rubbish Of
which had survived their missions, and
opinions, which true in the abstract were relative
" the plea Of corruption. That was the day
when religion was represented in France by cox
comb abbes who cringed in the train Of court
strumpets and discussed inidelity and partridge
suppers in the saloons Of the palais royal; in Eng
land by burly, orthodox parsons, who drank death
and damnation atheists and dssenters in six bottles
OF port day; IN Germany by writers Of treStises on
Greek participles and Hebrew points in six volumes
foho an OF whom, however, were jealousy
alive to the sanctity of institutions and pro-
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