Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-10-15
Thomas Carlyle.
L. ) LIFE ND WORKS.

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Thomas Carlyle.
l. LIFE Nd WORKS.
Condensed from the BpJtor Trayelle
Thomas Carlyle, one of the greatest,
of the many eminent men for whom the
world Is indebted to Scotland, was born
III 1875 but his birthday is not, appa-
rcntly, established, though it has been
assigned to December 9TH. His birth
took place when the French Revolution
was beginning to suffer from reaction,
and Wien 1t could not have been antici-
lfited that the man who WIS to write the
most brilliantly Oh that most wonderful
of events lad made his appearance ill Il
Scottlsii Ilriniiopse, the son of pious pa
rents. HIS birthplace ls SAID to be Eccie-
iscli;th- Ii Lcclcsfeclian Il meant, II Is
d,sciip1d rs belns Il prosperous village
III the parish oI HUuldaln, Annalld.iit,
DumfIies-s!ilrc and as lying sixteen
miles east cf Dumfrles, the chief piace
III southwestern Scotland, and one OF the
most noted places III Scottish history,
where BGrnh spent the last years of his
HE, and where lie died, When Thomas
Carlyis Was III his first year. The father
OF tine iuturc historian OF Frederick the
Great lnIdcI, WAS, like most Scotchmen
ut his class, II sincerely religious man
ald, according to his sou, he WAS II man
OF remarkable powers of mind, which
were To be the sons inheritance. His
mother WIS woman of much force Of
character, and 1t Is the general opinion
tilat IL Is from their mothers that men
take all that makes them great. He was
the eldest born Of this remarkable couple,
and his training began at home, AS 1t
does with most men, though the assertion
Is hi.de with more than the usual force
III regard 10 Thomas Carlyle. Scott has
pointed out how common WAS the desire
of persons Of the elder Carlyle's class TO
see their sons become clergymen, who
still formed n, order" i'll the early part
OF tins century, and looked down upon
, The .l,.lty, net dream ming that before the
tsn'u III Us close the sceptre should depart
n. iion, 'hem. We know mo- that the youth
ena s ms purpose fro II, u, his paienlS' pu. m al
one time he purposed to become Pres,
os'efian preacher. He was seii' 10 SCHOOL
al AAnan, where he became acquainted
WIN Edward Irving, who was his senior
ny three years, but whom he has survived
almost half century and whose char
""ter ha v'n''rcatad 'rnr-n al;atnl,y alto. +ha4
wonderful preachers death. He consid-
cred that he lay under the highest of OBJ
legations to Irving, and declared that he
was the best man he had ever found, or
hoped to find, in this world.
Sent to the University of Edinburgh
Carlyle seems to have contracted for that
renowned institutions modes of instruc-
ton feeling not unlike to that which
Bacon contracted for what he saw at the
English University of Cambridge, at u
much earlier period. The only obliga
ton that he was under to it, in his own
estimation, followed from his use Of the
library, which he turned to grand ac-
count. Thorough readers seldom are
very remarkable scholars but Mr.. Car
lyle seems to have been an exception to
the rule. Of his scholarship there never
has been any doubt ; and his writings
show him to be man of marvellous
knowledge, his reading evidently being
as profound as it is various.
Students who do not shine in regular
study often leave college with more
knowledge than those who carry off the
pilLtS sDltl WIS Tie CuSt' Will
Carlyle. At what time he gave up all
thought of becoming leader in the
Presbyterian Church. we know nothing
but he, like many another man, had his
doubts on theological matters,-and he
was too honest to attempt the teaching Of
others when he felt the necessity of being
taught himself. He became an ordinary
teacher, and followed the calling for two
years, when he resolved to enter upon 4
new line Of life and devoted himself to
the calling of n hlan of letters He took
up his residence in Edinburg, and be-
came an author, soon to become one of
the greatest of authors, the head of his
order. His first work hardly can be said
to have given any indication of his ''mis-
sion, or of the part he was to have in
literature. 1t was translation of the
best of Legendres works Elements de
G,oNstric. with an Essay on Proportions
added to it. But at the University of
Edinburgh he had been distinguished, as
IL student, for his mathematical knowl-
edge and probably those who knew him
as a student thought he was following
the true bent of his genius when he
translated Legendrs, and, as it were, ex-
| tended hls principal production. His
next work was Of very different charac-
! ter. II was his Life of Schiller" which
sill Commando the high admiration which
was promptly accorded it much more
thnn half II century since 1t has been
SAID Of tins fine work. that it is written,
not III Carlylese, but III English and
probably IT IL better known to the gone
raj reading public than any other of his
productions. Ii was the first of his
books that admitted the world to the Sc
cret that Mr.. Carlyle was master of the
key that opened to English readers the
rich and wonderful stores of German lit
craturc. His Life of Schiller" appear
ed, first, III the Lontion Wayd-ine, the
most noted contributors 10 which were
Thomas DE Quincy and William Hazlitt
Tins WAS IN lS23 - and i'll 1875 it was
made to take book form, and not allowed
to remain smothered by the weight of as
s"riatej mediocrity in the pages of II
monthly magazine. 1t was in 1925 that
Mr.. Carlyle published his version of
"Wilhclm Meister," which was SO well
done TINT it had fair claim to rank IA an
original work. 1t received much praise,
and 1t IL the version of tlInt work of
Goethe's that has made the great German
'''''' "'''"h ''ii VI iii0 'Mh
ryIng IN ls25, Mr. Carlyle went to reside
at Cralgenputtock, farm in the moors of
Dumiries-shire. Here he continued his
German studies, and corresponded with
Goethe. He wrote much, contributing
to the Endinbnrgh Encyclopedia articles
on some of the ablest of distinguished
men and to the EdHtburyh Rericw his
famous paper on jean Paul, and that on
Burns. He wrote, too, for the Foreign
Q"0rtcriy Rccicw. and for some of the
mngazincs To this time belong his ''Speci-
mems of German Literature" most ex-
quisite versions of stories by Jean Paul
Friedrich Richter, Tieck, Hoffman, and
others. In 1888 "a his ''s5artor Resartus'
appeared, in Ftazor's Waya-inc. 1t Ii
= the strangest Of all his writings, in some
respects, and it never became popular un
til 1t hal been lifted into notice 10y the
+ fame of his Inter works Indeed, Mr.
Carlyle had to create his own public
, which has always been more remurkubl,
for selectness than numbers. He removed
To London, in 1884, where he has resided
, for almost half century. II was IN lS3I
that the world began to recognize him n
q n man Of genus for it was in that yea
, that he placed before it his 'French Rev
: olution, a History" tho work through