The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1882-04-16
SOME NEW hooks.
Froude's Life OF Carlyle.

~ 10 hOb bo IhuOh u pioBiu uc " WI
tribution to biography that Mr.. Froude has
produced in the work OF which an installment
has been published by the Longmans in
London. The period with which the volumes
now laid before us deal are the first forty years
OF Caryle's life. but they do not purport TO give
an exhaustive account of even this preliminary
portion Of his career Mr.. Froude had neces-
sarily to forcgo anything like complete por-
traiture from the moment that he decided to
! print the memoirs written by Carlyle himself.
| which were published Immediately after the
latters death. As regards too. the London
| life Of Carlyle. during which the greater
part Of his effective work was executed.
/ this is to be SGT forth in the letters of
his wife. for which Carlyle himself sup
| piled n connecting narrative. 1t is plain, there
! fore. that the task imposed on Mr.. Froude
| was much more limited than that which is
! usually undertaken by the bogruphcr He has
simply to furnish an account of his subjects
| early life in Scotland. so far as that is unex-
! planned by the memoirs already published. and
ultimately after Mrs. Caryles letters have been
given 10 the world. TO add "A brief description Of
! his last years. when Mr.. Froude was in con-
| slant intercourse with him. 1t follows, as Mr..
Froude is prompt to acknowledge in his pref
| ace. that these volumes have no prctenSions
! to constitute n biography but merely supple
ment cXtant data with new materials. leaving
the final estimate of Carlyle's character and
achievement to be attempted by another at
some future day.
it is nevertheless. true that this book will
! prove extremely useful to tho student Of Car
! lyle. 1t lights up much that was obscure both
in the man and in his work. Carlyle himself
we are told. expressed Mt one time desire
that OF him no biography should be written.
because no one, he said was likely to under
stand a history the secret of which was un-
known 10 his closest friends. II we read the
| present book Alright. this secret was twofold.
| Over the domestic life Of Carlyle hung a cloud
| which seems to have been never lifted. but
whose presence was disguised as lar as posi-
| BILE from all his friends. On the other hand
there was an element OF obscurity in his phi
losophy. an uncertain noto in the message he
assumed to deliver. and whose fundamental
purport he himself at times despaired OF
| interpreting. The principal outcome Of Mr..
| Froude's volumes is. first. to disclose
in all its breadth and seriousness the
blundcr committed by Mr.. and Mrs. Car
lyle in marrying-a blunder which had nat
urally much graver consequences for the
woman, but which planted in Carlyle himself
n breeding sense OF responsibilities incurred
too lightly. and too imperfectly discharged.
In the second place, this fragment of biog-
IdIlly HOLDS us 10 reach LIe point oil view Wllcn
diHcrontiates Carlyle's teaching from that OF
any OF his contemporaries the author having
had the advantage of long conferences with
Carlyle touching this very point. and of exam
lining some unfinished and unpublished essays
! in which the latter undertook to define his
philosophy.
Mr.. Froude has received good deal Of hasty
censure from those who prize truth less than
! what they choose to consider seemly. for pub
fishing after Carlyles death. the me-
mors Just as they were written. II truth
telling be an offence. Mr.. Froude will be found.
we fear. doubly offensive in this volume.
We cannot see how Carlyle the literary work
man. can in the least suffer from this estimate;
but Carlyle. the man and the philosopher is
revealed to us in anything but m amiable and
admirable light. Touching the propriety OF
such yeraci,y. we ourselves have no doubt
whatever; indeed, it seems to US that biogra.
ply constructed on any other principle Is the
most impertinent and superhuous OF impos-
lures. We have mendacity enough already
in avowed works Of fiction. without counte-
nancins its intrusion under the cloak OF
reverence into the judgment hall OF biography
and history. But. Mr.. Froude shrewdly
points out this whole question was raised
and argued on the appearance OF Lock
mart Llle OF DcOlI. ana IL was then
finally disposed OF by Carlyle himself
At all events. his own blographers may be
permitted to follow his own judgment touch
ing the right methods of biography. How
delicate. decent" wrote Carlyle lis English
biography. bless its meay mouth. The English
biographer has long felt that il he wrote down
anything that could by possibility offend any
man he had written wrong. The plain conse-
quence was that, properly speaking. no biogra-
ply whatever would be produced. There
was no biography. but some vague ghost Of a BIZ
ography. white. stainless. without feature or
substance; vacuum. as we say. and wind and
| shadow or all the praises copiously bestowed
on Mr.. Lockharts work. there is none In re-
| ality SO creditable TO him as this same censure
lfor indIscretion and over comnunicativenessl
which has also been pretty copious. 1t is es-
sentially better than good many praises. He
| Is found guilty OF having said this and that
calculated not to be entirely pleasant to this
mau and that; in other words. calculated to
give Scott, and the thing he worked in, a living
set OF features. not to leave him vague
in the white. beatiled, ghost con-
dtion. Several men, as We hear, cry out,
See. there is something written not
entirely pleasant to mo! Good friend it Is
pity; but who can help 1t? They that will
| crowd about bonlres may sometimes very
they pay ior such illumination. Natural twi-
light is safo and free to all. For our part wo
hope all manner Of biographies that are writ
| ten IN England will henceforth be written
! so. The other crn,ure of Scott being
made unher1c, springs from the same stem,
and IS perhaps a still moro wonderful dover OF
, IT, Your true hero. 1t seems. must have no
features but he IL white, stainless impersonal
ghost hero. Connected with this is an by
| IOthos.s that Mr.. Lockhart ut heart has dis
like TO Scott, and has done his best. in an
| undcrhrnd, treaChcrOus manner, to dishcro
him. - II Mr.. Lockhart is fairly char-eabo
with any radical defect IL on any side his in
/ sight entirely fails him, II scomS even 10 be in
this that scott is altogether lovely to him. that
| Scott greatness spreads out before him on
all hands beyond reach Of eye, that his
very faults become beautiful and that of
his worth there is no measure On this
| sinGularly pertinent passage from Car
lyIcs own writings, which was apparently
overlooked by AIr. Iroude censors. MIR. Froudo
/ himself makes no comment iurl her thnn 10 saw