The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-04-26
Emerson on Carlyle.
Personal Impressions of the Scotch Phil
osopher as He Appeared in 1848.
Scribner's Monthly !

[Scribner's Monthly.l
Thomas Carlyle is an Immense talker, as ex-
traordinary in his conversation as in his writ
lng,-l think even more so. He is not mainly
scholsr, like the most OF my acquaintances,
but practical Scotchman, such as you would
find in any saddlers or iron-dealer's shop, and
then only accidentally, and by surprising ad-
dition, the admirable scholar and writer he is.
If you would know precisely how he talks, Just
suppose Hugh Whelan (the gard, .er) had
found leisure enoug'', in addition to all his
daily work, to read Plato and Shakespeare, Au-
gustine and Calvin, and, remaining Hugh
Whelan all the time, sho ould talk scornfully of
all this nonsense of buoks that he had been
bothered with, and you shall have Just the
tone and talk and laughter of Carlyle.
called him atrip-hammer with IAN Eolan
attachment He has, too, the strong religi-
Gus tinge you sometimes find in burly people,
That, and all his qualities, have certain vr-
ulence, coupled though it be in his case with
the utmost impatience of Christendom and
Jewdom and all existing presentments of the
good old story. He talks like very unhappy
man, profoundly solitary, displeased and him
dered by all men and things about him, and,
bidmg his time, meditating how to undermine
and explode the whole world of nonsense
which tormen,s him. He is obviously greatly
respected by all sorts of people,-understand
his own value quite as we'll as Webster, of
whom his behavior sometimes reminds me-
and can see society on his own terms.
And, though no mortal in America could
..,,I taIlr ,,,.l, t,l. -.
markable in England as in the Tower of Lon
don, neither woull he in any manner satisfy us
(Americans) or begin to answer the questions
which we ask. He is very national figure,
and would by no means bear transplantation.
They keep Carlyle as sort of portable cathe-
dral bell, which they like to produce in COM
panies where he is unknown, and set a-swing-
ing, to the surprise and CONSERVATION of all
persons, bishops, courtiers, writer's, and, as in
companies here lin England) no man is named
or introduced, great is the effect and great the
inquiry. Foster of Rawdon described to me
dinner at the table d'h6te of some provincial
hotel where he carried Carlyle, and where an
Irish canon had uttered something; CARLYLE
began to talk, first to the walters aud then to
the walls and then, lastly, Enthusiastically to the
priest, in manner that frightened the whole
company,
Young men, especially those holding liberal
opinions, press to see him, but it strikes me
like being hot to see the mathematical or Greek
professor before they have got their lesson 1t
needs something more than a clean shirt and
reading German to visit him. He treats them
with contempt; they profess freedom, and he
stands for slavery; they praise republics, and
he likes the Russian Gar; they admire Golden
and free trade, and he is protec,ionist in po-
litical economy; they will eat vegetables and
drink water, and he is Scotchman who thinks
English national character has a pure enthu-
siasni for beef and mutton, describes with gus
to the crowds of people who gaze at the sirlon
in the dealers shop-window, and even likes
The Scotch night-cap; they praise moral sua-
slOn he goes for murder, money, capital pun
islilnent, and other petty denominations of En-
glish lw. They wish freedom of the press,
and he thinks the FIRST thing he would do, ii
he got into Parliament, would be to turn out
the reporters, and stop all manner OF miscaiev-
Gus speaking to Buncombe and wind-bags
"In the Long Parliament" he says, "the only
great Parliament,-they sat secret and silent,
grave as an 9cumenical council, and know
not what they would have done to anybod,
that had got in there and attempted to tell out
of-doors what they did," They go for free in
stitutions, for letting things alone, and only
giving opportunity and motive to every man;
he, Tor stringent government that shows peo-
pie what they must do, and makes them do it.
"Here," he says, "the Parliament gathers up
six millions of pounds every year, to give to
the poor, and yet the people starve. / think if
they would give it to me, to provide the poor
with labor, and with authority to make them
work or shoot them,-and to be hanged if /
did not do it, could find them in plenty of
Indian meal"
He throws himself readily on the other side
Ii you urge free trade. he remembers that ey-
cry aborer is mOnOpolist The navigation
laws of England made its commerce. ''St.
Tnh, i,,ctI fa1 hxy thA
home, got the law passed that foreign vessels
should pay high fees, and it cut the throat of
the Dutch and made the English trade" If
you boast of the growth of the country and
show him the wonderful results of the census,
he finds nothing depressing as the sight of
great mob. He saw once, as he told me- three
or four miles of human beings, and fancied
that "the airth was some great cheese and
these were mites" If tory takes heart at
his hatred of stump oratory and model repub-
lies, he replies: eyes, the idea of a pig headed
soldier who will obey orders and fire on his own
father at the command of his officer, is a great
comfort to the aristocratic mind.'' 1t is not so
much that Carlyle cares for this or that dogma
as that he likes genuineness (the source of all
strengtb) in his companions.
Ii scholar goes into camp of lumbermen
or gang of riggers, those mon will quickly de-
tect amy fault OF character. Nothing will pass
with them but what is real and sound. So this
man is a hammer that crushes mediocrity and
pretenson. He detects weakness on the in
stant, and touches it. He has a vivacous, az
gressive temperament, and unimpressionable.
The literary, the fashionable, the political
nan, each fresh from triumphs in his own
sphere, comes eagerly to see this man, whose
fun they have heartily enjoyed, sure of well
come, and are struck with despair at the first
onset His firm, victorious, soothing vitupera-
tion strikes them with chill and hesitation His
talk often reminds you OF what was said OF
Johnson ''If his pistol missed fire he would
knock you down with the butt end.'
Mere intellectual partisanship wearies him;
he detects in an instant If man stands for
any cause to which he is not born and organi-
cally committed. A natural defender of ary-
thing, a lover who will live and die for that
which he speaks for, and who does not care for
him, or for anything but his own business,-he
and the nobler the object of course,
the better. He hates literary triher, and if,
after Guizot had been tool of Louis Philippe
for years, he is now to come and write essays
on the character of Washington, on 1.-The
Beautiful" and on philosophy of History he
thinks that nothing.
Great is his reverence for realities-ror all
such traits as spring from the intrinsic nature
of the actor. He humoIs this into the idolatry
Of strength. A strong nature has charm for
him, previous, it would seem, to all inquiry
whether the force be divine or diabolic. He
breaches, as by cannonade, the doctrine that
every noble nature was made by God, and con-
grand impulses, and, however extravagant will
keep its orbit and return from far. Nor can
that decorum which is the idol of the English
man, and in attaining which the Engishman
exceeds all other nations, win from him any
obesance. He is eaten up with Indignation
against such as desire to make fair show in
the flesh. Combined with this warfare on re-
spectabihties, and. indeed, pointing all his sat
ire, is the severity of his moral sentiment. In
to the peals OF laughter amid which
he strips the plumes of pretender and shows
the lean hypocrisy to every vantage of
does he worship whatever enthusiasm
love, or other sign of good nature
is in man.
There is nothing deeper in his constitution
than his humor, than the considerate, conde.
scending good nature with which he looks at
every object in existence as man might look
at mouse. He feels that the perfection of
health is sportiveness, and will not look grave
even at dullness or tragedy. His guiding ge-
MUS is his moral sense, his perception of the