The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-01-15
MISCELLANY.
From Harper's Magazine for January.l
Carlyie-s Table.Talk.


Carlyle, according to the unanimous report of
all who have ever had the honor of knowing
him, is the most wonderful converser of the
day. Probably no other American has seen
so much of him as has Mr.. Milburn, the Blind
Preacher" Those who have heard him tell
"What a Blind Man Saw in England'-and
those who have not, have missed hearing the
most thoroughly charming lecture ofthe times
will remember that he gives some specimens
of Mr.. Carlyle's talk. These, however, form
but a small part of the "reminiscences laid up
in a memory gifted with an almost preternat-
ural power OF retentlon--a memory which will
retain almost word for word the whole of
long conversation or discourse. Wehappened
one evening to be present while Mr.. Milburn
was describing the men and things which most
interested him abroad. Foremost among
these were his interviews with Thomas Car
lyle.
Carlyle's residence has for many years been
at Chelsea, one of the suburbs of London, on
the Thames. Passing the famous hospital, and
going up the river, you come to Cheyne Walk,
once fashionable resort, and the residence of
many famous people. Opening upon this is
Cheyne Row, a respectable, but now by no
means fashionable street. The houses are of
brick, three stories high, and rather narrow,
the entrance pair of steps from the pave
ment. They were built in Queen Anne's time
and to an American look old, but they are of
good honest architecture, and seem as though
they would be habitable for a couple of centu-
ries yet. Carlyle resides at No I. 1t is a
dwelling suited to man of quiet habits and
moderate means. His days ara given up to
earnest and persistent labor in his vocation as
a "writer of books" He tells Indignantly how
a certain "blatherskite American traveller
once came at 10 O'Clock with a letter of intro
duction, and staid for hours, "robbing me of
whole working-day, which l shall never get
back again to all eternity"
Milburn's invitations were always "to tea
at o'clock" Tea at Carlyle's is Just what
its name imports-merey bread and butter,
with a cup OF the infusion of the Chinese herb.
This despatched, the host would usually in
wife his guest into the garden, = or, as we
would say, the "yard," "a narrow plot of
ground of the breadth of the house, with a
grass-plot in the center, having tree at each
of the four corners. From the tree is sus-
pended an awning; and under this pine ia
Bile, and a few wooden chairs. Upon the Ia
BILE is canister of Virginia tobacco, and sew
eral common clay pipes, their long stems
tipped with sealing wax. Here were held the
talks which we have noted down.
Carlyle is now yerging upon threescore and
ten; tall, gaunt man, with STOPPING Shout
ders, as though he had spent much time bend
ing over his desk. A Scottish newspaper writ
er thus describes him as he looked a dozen
years ago:
''The long, tall, spare figure is before me-
wiry, tough, and elastic, stretched at careless,
homely ease in his elbow-chair, yet ever with
strong, natural motions and starts as the in
ward spirit strs. The face, too, is before me-
long and thin, witha certain tnge of paleness,
but no sickness or attenuation; pensive, al
most solemn, vet open, and cordial, and ten
delivery tender. The eye, as generally hap
pens, Is the chief outward index of the soul
an eye not easy to describe, but felt ever
after one has looked thereon and therein.
1t is dark and full, Swallowed over by a COM
pact and prominent forehead. The express
sion, Is, so to speak, heavy-laden-as If betok-
ening untold burdens of thought. and long
fiery struggles resolutely endured-endured
until they had been in some practical manner
overcome. The whole form and expression of
the face reminded one of Dante. 1t wants the
classic element and the mature and matchless
harmony which distinguish the countenance
of the great Florentine; but something in the
cast and in the look, especially in the heavy
laden and dauntless eye, is very much alike.
Thus does the presence of Thomas Carlyle
rise before me-a true man in all his bearings
and in all his sayings. He sees the very thing
he speaks of; it breathes and moves palpable
to him, and hence his words form picture
When you come from him the impression is
like having seen great brilliant panorama;
everything has been made brilliant and palpa-
BILE to your sight. But more and better far
than that; you bear home with you an indeli-
bic feeling of love for the man-deep at the
heart, and long as lfe."
A residence of more than thirty years in
London has not modified the strong Doric pro-
nunciation which Carlyle brought with him
from Dnmfrieshre. The vowels come out
broad and full; the gutterals-which are so
sadly clipped in modern English enuncation,
depriving the speech of all its maculine vigor
have all their due prominence His manner
is striking and peculiar: now bursting into
gigantic laughter at some odd conceit now
swelling into fierce wrath at some meanness
or wrong now sinking into low tones of ten
derest pathos. But running through all is a
rhythmic flow, sustained and persistent recit-
alive, like that in which we can imagine old
Homer chanted his long-resounding hexame-
tiers. Mr.. Milburns presentation gives not
merely the words, but reproduces the very
pronunciation and tone of Carlyle We have
been assured, by those who have heard both
that the incest ear could scarcely distinguish
the copy from the original. We have not at
tempted to reproduce this. The reader must
imagine the words we have written down to
be uttered in the fullest and broadcast Scotch
which he ever heard. "Never" says Milburn,
chad any idea OF what eloquent talk meant
until listened to Carlyle" But it must not
be supposed that he is one of those egregious
takers who, like Coleridge, monopolize the
whole discourse, and keep up one continual
How OF speech. He is capital listener, if one
has anything to say; and has, moreover. unlike
Macauley, brilliant flashes Of silence" devo-
ted TO pipe devotion; in fact, we must suppose
the pipe to be in constant use even during his
most earnest talk.
The sttings of this Tobacco Parliament. are
held through the long English summer twilight
till far into the night; while all around the
great roar of London surges up like the voice of
the ocean breaking in continuous roll upon
a sandy beach, growing fainter indeed as the
night wears on, but never for an instant ceas-
inc