New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-02-06

usually is. But this man who made havoc of
all established rhetorical laws was a great, IL
not always a healthy and accurate, thinker.
Even this might not have saved him from
neglect, if he had not put into his best books
an amount of careful research and tTeles'
labor which rendered them authorities Ill MS
torical way. "The French Revolution " gave
the first intimation of Mr.. Caryle's tendency
to minute research, and to his lndeiatigaDie
pursuit of material III quarters heretofore neg
lected. The world speedily discovered that
his new way of writing history was a con-
sceniOus One and in strange contrast WIFI
that of many of his predecessors Probably no
man who has written historically IN the Eng
lish language, with the single exception OF
Gibbon, has investigated with such minuteness
and lahorcd with such diligence as the author
of the Letters aud Speeches OF Ohver CrOh-
well" and the "Life of Frederick the Great.
In odd corners of libraries, in forgotten books,
in beaps of mlsty manuscripts, III files OF news
papcrs, here there and everywhere, the writer
has found his materials and used them to
Good nurpose. even while sneering at his own
authorities. OF all literary men of his time he
has been n worker. That he has toilcd terri
DIV no one ItlillIldI WIN ui' '''h' N'H 'NNND'
thouch very few can be competent Judges OF
his erudtiOn. The result is that his histories are
repertolirs of facts, Judged AMI sifted to hand,
from which other writers can gather ana
appropriate material. 1t would not be strange
if his should be in some respects the nara
fortune of Burton, who wrote the Anatomy
of Melancholy" apparently that indolcnt book
makers might, generation after generation,
plfer from his pages. Nobody, whatever he
NAV think of Mr.. Carlylc's English or of his
philosophy, can deny that, in sense, he has
been one of the literary benefactors of the
age. He has adorcd his heroes to some real
and practical purpose.
Much has been i'd and probably will con-
tinue to be said, of the cynical and despairlng
character of most of Mr.. Cary'es produc-
tons. but upon the whole, making allowance
for an undoubtcd irritability of manner for an
ungovernable propensity to speak strongly, Tor
an occasional inability to discern the exact
proportions of things, and a somewhat un-
charitable hatred of failure and of prctence,
Mr. Carlylc's books do not appear to us other
wise than agreeable. A good deal OF his ap-
parent misanthrOpy seems to us only hall
serious, 1t hardly becomes lis to accuse such
q man of aflectation, but there can be no
harm in hint.ng that he was fond of jest,
and mav often have said much more than he
really meant. Doubtless he thought that mat
tcrs were not ~ wei arranged as they might
he in this world; that in all human affairs
there was more than Il modlcum OF ialschOOd,
stupidity, Incidence. prctcnce ana selilshness-
and so there was, and alis. Is. Most OF Mr..
Carlylc's practical philosophy Is summed MP
i'm the maxim that whatever Is worth dong
Is worth doing well. Most of his hero worship
may be reduced to that other maxim which
me was fond of Quoting" The tools to him
who can use thcm.' Much of Mr.. Carlvl,'s
apparent cynlcism is merely saying, in his
strange and strong wy what other writers
give Us after conventional and feeble
fashion. Moreover, those who have read
him have done 80 to little purpose if they
have failed to discover III HIM great depths of
tenderness, and of an infinite pity to which
seems always unwilling to give fair play.
Sometimes too, he yields to n playful impulse,
and handles his topic with II thorough good
humOr which we cannot help feeling Is SIN
ccre. OF late years, he has hardly, it is true,
in luged much IN the expression of his liter
any and personal affections; but of these who
doubts the depth and strength lie may not
have retained his somewhat lnOrlinatc carly
admiration q. Goethe OF Schiller or OF Richter;
but who can conjecture that he did not keep
his affection for poor Leigh Hunt and did not
think of Sterling with many sigh or even
tear TO the lasti Even wnlr rcmorSrleS~ly
DENYING the claim of Sir Walter Scott to be-
lcglIded IA a great literary artist did he not
take leave OF him i'll a tone of trembling
tenderness, and rs he hid him farewell, hall
HIM the pride of SCOtchmcn : That adlcu
We may adopt to-day. So many Of It's owe
him 80 much that no need of thanks can
seem sufficient Long ago, when hopes were
strong and youthful blood ran riot in our veins;
when we still trusted that We might be- some
thing or do something worthy of the wondrOus
chances Of life, how near AMI dear to us was
this strong and militant nature! We may have
lost something of the reverence with winch we
regarded II "a we have grown older. 1t has
gone with many a bright dream aud earnest
impulse; but maybe our successors in the
shining fields of youth will still cherish the
old Affection and still call Thomas CARLYLE
their guide philosopher and friend. lie was
not always just toward us, but we can afford
to forgive such % man and to forget his
errors.
THE CHARTER SCHEJfE
Ii il believed that the Charter bill repOrted by