Litchfield enquirer., 1881-03-17
Carlyle's Autobiographical Sketches.

D Carlyle's Autobiographical Sketches.
 Carlyle's Autobiographical Sketches were published last week by Scribner's. They con tain decidedly breezy notices of the celebrities, literary and other, with whom he came in contact. We select the following from among those which have appeared in the papers 3
 Carlyle began hls literary work in Scotland where he married in 1928. He speaks thus of Lord Jeffrey. the great editor of the Edinburgh Review: F.. yr1 #u s7f;3. ..-.,
 T got ready admission into Jeffrey's study, or rather office, for it had mostly that air; a roomy, not over neat apartment on the ground floor, with big baize covered table, loaded with book-rows and paper bundles. Our dia- logue was perfectly human and successful; i; lasted for perhaps 20 minutes (for I could not consume great mans time, turned upon the usual topics, what was doing, what had published, German Romance translation my last thing; to which l remember he said kindly, We must give you a lift, an offer which in some complimentary way Imanaged to his satisfaction to decline. *y ' ' He was not deep enough, pious or reverent enough, to have been great in literature; but he was man intrinsicafiy of veracity said nothing without meaning it to some consider
 able degree had the quickest perceptions, excellent practical discernment of what lay before him; was in earnest, too, though not 'dreadfully in earnest ; in short, was well fitted to set forth that Edinburgh Review, Cat the dull opening of our now so tumultuous century,) and becomes corypeus of his gener- ation in the waste, wide-spreading, and incal- cuable course appointed tt among the centur- ies fused to find in him finer talent than any he has evidenced in writing sn,.-'a
 In 1880 Carlyle removed to London. , ~.
 We lodged in Ampton street, Gray's Inn Lane, clean and decent pair of rooms and quite decent people, reduced from wealth to keeping lodgings. and prettily resigned to it :; really good people. Visitors, etc., she (Mrs. Carlyle) had in plenty j; John Mill, one of the most interesting, SO modest, ardent, ingenu- ous, and so very fond of me at that time
 Mrs. Basil Montague lalready a correspondent of her, ) now accurately seen, was another of the distinguished. Jeffrey, Lord Advocate, often came on an afternoon; never could learn his road to and from the end of Pccadilly, though showed it him again and again.
 Charles Lamb and his sister came daily once or oftener a very sorry pair of phenom- ena. Insuperable procivity to gin in poor old Lamb. His talk contemptibly small, indicat- ing wondrous ignorance and shallowness, even when 1t was serious and good-mannsred, which it seldom was, usually i'll hammered ito de- gree, screwed into frosty artficialites, ghastly make believe of wit, in fact more like ''diluted insanity" Gas defined it) than anything of real jocosty, humor or genialty. A most slender fiber of actual worth in that poor Charles, abundantly recognizable to me as to others. in his better times and moods but he xUo ro tr1 fha opI shouting ''gloriously. marvellous, unparallel- ed in nature p all his days had quite bewild- cred his poor head, and churned nearly all the sense out of the poor man. He was the lean. est of mankind tiny black brooches buttoned to the knee-cap and no further, surmounting spindle.legs also in black, face and head fin. ish, black, bony, lean, and of Jew type rather; in the eyes kind of smoky brightness | or confused sharpness spoke with stutter ; in walking tottered and shuff1ed emblem oi imbecilty bodily and spiritual (something of real insanity l have understood and yet something too, of human, ingenious, pathet. | ic sportfnlly much enduring. Poor Lamb he was infinitely astonished at my wife, and her quiet encounter of his toe ghastly London wit by cheerful native ditto. Adeu poor
 Lamb! He soon after died, as did Badams, much more to the sorrow of us both
 LEIGH HUNT AND JOHN STUART MILL.
 Leigh Hunt was in the next street, sending kind unpractical messages in the evenings, think, personally coming in we had made acquaintance with him (properly he with us, just before leaving ln spring, 1882. Hugger I mngger was the type of his economies, in all
 respects, financial and other but he was him. self pretty man, in clean cotton nightgown, ! and with the airiest, kindly style of sparkling talk, wanting only wisdom of sound kind, | and true insight into fact. A great want. He came always neatly dressed, was thorough | ly courteous, friendly of spirit and talked like singing bird. Good insight, plenty of g kind of humor too; Iremember little warbles r | the tones of hls fine voice which were full of | fun and charm. We gave him Scotch DOT | ridge ("nothing in nature so interesting and | delightful" ) she played him Scotch tunes g | man he to understand and feel them well His talk was often enough (perhaps at first oftener,) literary, biographical, autobiographi cal, wandering into criticism, reform of socie | ty, progress, etc., etc., on which latter points l he gradually found me very shocking q be- | fieve-so fatal to his rose -colored visions on the subject.) An innocent-hearted, but mis. guided, in fact rather foolish, impractical and often much suffering man., ,..s
 John Mill was another steady visitor Chad Oy tHls tituo iuttOuuCeu Ills D1TS. 1aylOr LOU l very will-o'. wispish ''iridescence" of $ creature meaning nothing bad either). She at first considered my Jane to be rustic spirit it for rather tutoring and twirling about | when the humor took her; but got taught bet ter (to he- lasting metnory) before long, Mil l was very useful about French Revolution 7 lent me all his books, which were quite col lection on the subject; gave me, frankly, clearly, and with zeal, all his better knowl. edge than my own (which was pretty ire. l quently of use in this or the other detaill being full of eagerness for such an advotate in that cause as he felt should be. His even! ings here were sensibly agreeable for mosi part: Talk rather wintry ('sawdustish," as old Sterling once called it), but always we'll
 informed and sincere The Mrs. Taylor busi. ness was becoming more and more of uues- tionable benefit to him (we could see), but or that subject we were strictly silent and he was pretty still. For several years he came hithei and walked with me every Sunday. Dia. logues fallen all dim, except that they were never in the least genial to me, and that took them as one would wine where no nectar IS to be had, or even thin ale where no wine. Her view of him was very kindly, though pre-. cisely to the same effect s T @ '
 THE BURNT MANUSCRIPT. s4
 How well do I still remember that nigh, when he came to tell us, pale as Electors ghost, that my unfortunate first volume wal burnt. It was like half sentence of death tc us both, and we had to pretend to take il lightly. so dismal and ghastly was his horror at 1t, and try to talk of other matters. He stayed three mortal hours or SO his departure was quite a relief to us. Oh, the burst of sym pathy my poor darling then gave me, fling ing her arms around my neck, openly lament. ing, eondoling and encouraging like nobler second self Under heaven is nothing beau tifuiler. We sat talking till late: ..shall be written again." my fixed word and resolution to her. Which proved to be such task as I never tried before or since. ''I wrote out Feast of Pikes'' (voii ID, and then went at It.. Found it fairly impossible for about g fortnight; passed three weeks (reading Mar ryars novels, tried cautious cautiously, as on ice paper-thin, once more and in shart had a job more like breaking my heart than any other in my experlence. Jennie, alone of x bAkS ll