The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-04-28
OH A RI E S T O N.
SATURDAY MORNING, APRIL 2s, 1866.
THOMAS CARLYLE.

literature. AS he has been before the read
ing public for nearly half a century, it is
fair to suppose that even he, the great
JUPITER ToNANs, must soon disappear from
this sublunary Olympus, and take his place
with the gods and heroes in another sphere. |
During the last six or seven years we
have had but few of his utterancee, save in |
his magaum opus. the great FRIEDRICH, |
where, under the guise of history, he finds
abundant opportunity of delivering himself of
all the swollen mass Of splenetio cynioism
that had been accommodating during life
time of three score and ten. Had CARLYLE
written nothing but this "History," we should
know him pretty much as we do now. Nor
is this to be wondered at when we consider
his rugged, unpliable mould, that sternly
refused to adapt itself to the oanons of the
schools, as though he had said: eff you want
my criticisms, pamphlets, biographies, histo-
ries, etc. land know you do want them),
you must not oonfne me to silly, schoolboy
rules am a law to myself. must tell my
story my own way. Dictionaries are very
we'll, and KA1NEs, BLAIR and WHATELY are
very respectable people; but will none of
them. Shams and humbugs! Away with
| theml3
This course he struck out in his SARToR
REsARTys, and ut once electrified the public.
Here was bold, independent thinker, ao-
knowledging allegiance to NO authority, and
expressing himself in terse, foroble, bril-
liant language, in style peculiarly his own;
| fill Of o;f h,,t ILL
the more original for that. The young every
where were carried away with it ;,those of
ripper years were reluctant in their endorse
ment of q genius 80 erratic, 80 entirely counter
to all the received notions of the orthodox
didaotio. They conceded his originality; but
l1Why can be not tell us what he hes to say
in English W, We do not mean to insinuate
that CARLYLE:s merit lies in his eoeentricity
;: Of style; though we have not nnfrequently
been tempted to the belief that great deal
of his manner was Effected. This may have
been the case at first; in his later writings, we
feel assured, it had become natural. His
earliest published writings, we believe, are
q series Of biographies in the Edinburgh
Encyclopedia, where the outward psealiari-
ties just adyerted to do not appear. In
aSartpr Resartus, nand "Hero.. Worship,"-
many Of his critical essays-in "BURNs,n
Z "OLIyER CRoMwELL,n and AFrench Revolu-
tion,"-they obtrude themselves more and
more. When we read the "Latter Day
Pamphlets" we began to think that the
, author had run stark mad on the subject of
, shams: But the History of FRIEDR1cH, we
: are now free to confess, carries off the palm.
CARLYLE became early enamored of Ger
man literature, and worshipped at the shrine
of JEAN PAUL RICHTER and GOETHE But
, while his admiration for the latter was un-
bounded, his natural bent drew him to
RICHTER, deep, fanciful, brilliant, wa yward
and lawless. GOETHE made it one of the
great studies of his life not to be eccen.
trio, but to conform to established rules; to
. be and do as other men, only greater and
better. But he was too straight-laced for the
ardent young Scotch student
, CARLYLE's "Frederiok Schiller is not of
this character; more "human,' as he himself
would term it; and we we'll remember, when
: we read his "Life of SrERL1Ne," how thank
: full we felt that the great worshipper Of
heroes, tho universal Shamoclast had for once
a deigned to lay by his hobbies, and condo
: scended to write q simple, touching nara
i tive, in style and language appropriate to the
n theme. 1t was tribute of friendship nobly
generously rendered; and though in all proba
:. bility not rated very high by the author him
0 self, had perhaps done more to enshrine hin
l. in the hearts and affections of his readers
It than those works on which he professedly re
l. poses his fame. We may admire CARLYL,
!, pouring forth the vials Of his wrath upor
n society and governments, schools and diplo
r macies; but we love him when he takes Of
9 his scolding boots, sits down, and talks lik'
o other folks. ma.t
But we have already spent too much tim
, talking about the style ofthe great Scotsman
a we will now examine some Of the leading
# chara cteristics of his mental constitution
o His matter is no lees singular than his man
/ ncr. Here again he is great phenomenon
. = and may be said to stand alone. of cours
10 we have no reference to his numef GUS imita
.. tors. He seeks not such society. The grea
d leading principle Of his writings and teach
l. ings is his worship Of power. At first thi
;, was perhaps nothing moro than the usna