Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-10-15

lot0- III tilt tluls lilllleulltelV lOlloNiiS
the appearance Of his work on the French
Revolution, the suggestion had been
made, by courteous critic, that he should
write on the times of the great Civil War
of England, Q642 1651.) "OliveI Crom-
wells Letters and Speeches." which ap-
peared i'll 1915, may have been the conse-
quence of this suggestion. This work is
a history of Cromwell in the same sense
that the authors work on the French
Revolution is n history of that wonderful
incident. 1t can he read and enjoyed,
that is to say. only by persons who have
the Cromwellian history by heart, per
sons who are familiar with Rushworth
and Ludlow, Carte and Clarendon. Aiken
and Strickland, Sanford and Hallam,
Alacaulay and Forster, and fifty others Of
the writers of the last two hundred and
forty years, s,-ai.d never forgetting Dryas-
dust, without whose ail not even Mr..
Carlyle could have written any Of his
books.
Whatever could be thought Of Mr..
Carl yle's view of Cromwell's place in his
tory, there can not be any doubt rs to the
value of the work OF which the greatest
Prince that ever ruled England is the
alton, and it appears likely to stand the
test of time In this respect 1t resem-
bles Cromwell himself, who, though he
was not faultless, has ever been much adj
mired, and whose place in history is rs
secure as that of the most popular of
great and leading men. The worl. has
done much to place Cromwell right with
the world. and to make OF him a perfectly
intelllgIbie statesman.
The well-remembsrci Latter Day
Pamphlets" were published in 1919. The
author. it should seen, had .ight NJ
Ell by the events of 1878, or annoyed by
their Stiffness, or iisglIsted by the ridi
culous outcome of 81 much action. So
he pitched into" that luckless yenr, its
men andthilgs receiving no quarter from
HIM, but the most unsparing condemna-
ton. He ran anok against everything
liberal, from philanthropy to printing.
All things were about as bad as bad could
be, and apparently Mr. Carlyle had been
born To set them right but world re
markable for its intense stupidity would
not recognize the EMISSION he had Set
up for himself. And no wonder, for he
never condescended to tell men how re-
form was to be effected. He tells them
that evil ever predominatcs and rules, "A
point established TO their dissatisfaction
before he was brought INTO So wicked
world. Practically, all men are Pessi-
mists but their pcssimism is not Of such
proof that they are not ready entirely to
give 1t up for reasons good, to he set
forth by the wisest of their number. Such
reasons really arc not to be found i'll
Pamphlets, old or new, that tell men that
they are miserable apes, and therefore
have no more claim to be saved, even i'll
this world, than other apes, those carica-
tu~as of ta-AA@.-it.- tl---t -,.s l-4.ial III
possession Of hearts and minds and souls.
When men are suffering, they do not re-
quire TO be told that, unless they should
do something which something their
teacher nowhere defines they are doom
ed to Hela's death-realm, and the abyss
where mere brutes are buried Who's
Hela, and where is Helas leath-realm =
most of them would ask IL assert, for
your benefit, is the substance Of what
Mr.. Carlyle taught thirty years since,
that you are going to the devil, 10y ex-
press-train. There is way to avoid his
death-realm, but you know nothing about
it,-and neither do /. Meantime, take
comfort from the fact that you are sure
to reach your destination"
Mr.. Carlyle's Life of john Sterling"
appeared in lSjl. 1t is moderate work,
compared with most OF the authors writ
ings ; but it Is not the less valuable on
that account. Ii is tribute to friend
ship, that had been dissolved by death,
one good man doing justice to another.
No man is happier than Mr.. Carlyle in
work OF the kind and this fact IS one OF
many facts that speak for the real nobili-
ty of his nature.
The History of Friedrich the Second,
called Frederick the Great" Ill six large
pages, occupied Mr.. Carlyle for many
years. The first two volumes were pub
lished Just twenty-five years ago and
the work was completed eight years later,
III 1866, when the author had got be
yond his SEVENTEEN year and no reader
whose Judgment Is worth anything can
lind III the closing volume even the siiShi-
est evidence of intellectual decline. He
had been working for almost half cen
tury, and far down into The evening OF
life and yet he was even more vigorous
than he had been in ls22 His subject lis
great one, and he has done it full JUS
tice. We may not subscribe to all that
lie says, or We may dissent from most of
hls opinions but there can not he two
views as to worth of his theme, or ro-
speeding the manner III which he has han
died 1t. His last great work IA thought
by many to be his greatest work and 1t
must ever rank with the masterpieces of
historical literature Here are two para
graphs from the closing chapter, CON
cerning Frederick when he lay dying, III
the summer of 1856, now rs dead rs the
victor Of Rosbach and Leuthen
''Hle well knew himself to be dying ;
but some think, expected that the end
might be little further on. There is II
grand simplicity Of stoicism in him :;
coming M if by nature, or 10y long ec!nd
nature finely unconscious Of itself, and
finding nothing of peculiar iii this new
trial laid on it. From of old, l.lfc has
been infinitely /; contcmptible to him. In
death, think, he has neither fear nor
hope. Atheism, truly, he never could
abide to him, as to all of us, 1t WAS flat
ly inconccivable that intellect, moral emo
ton. could have been put into him 10y an
Entity that had none OF its own. But
there, pretty much, his Theism seems to
have stopped. lnstinctively, too he he
lieved, no man more firmly, that Right
alone has ultimately any strength iii this
world ; ultimately, yes but FOR him
and his poor brief interests, what good
was 1t? Hope for himself i'll Divine JUS
tee, i'll Divine Providence, | think he had
not practically any that the uniathona-
BILE Demiurgus should concern himself
with such set of paltry i'll given ANNA
cules as oneself and mankind are. this
also, as We have often noticed, Is ia The
main incredible to him.
"A sud Creed, this of the Kings h.
had to do his duty without fee or reward
Yes, reader and wlnt IL we'll worth
your attention, you will have difficulty ia
| iind, III the annals of any Creed, II King
or man who stood more faithfully t. lIln
duty and, till the last hour, alone con
cerned himself with doing that To poor
| Friedrich TINT WAS all the Law and all the
| Prophets and much recommend YOU
to sIrpass HIM, If You. 10y good luck,
have better Copy of those mestimahlc
| Documents. lnurticulutr notions. fan
sles. transient aspirations, he might have,
i'll the background of his mind One div,
sitting for while out of doors. gazing
into the Sun, hc was heard To murmur,
Perhaps ! shall be nearer thee soon
and indeed nobody knows what his
thoughts were IN these final months.
There is tracenble only II complete supc.
riority TO Fear and Hope i'll parts, too,
are half glimpses "f great motlonlrss
interior lake of Sorrow, saddcr than any
tears or complninngs, which ar alto
gether wanting to it, ~
His Early Kings OF Norway" and
what he has written ON John Knox, were
published but recently; and they shpwec