New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-07-06


ness ard tact he must have utterly broken down
and failed in his most important tasks-if that
could have satisfied her, she would have had her
reward But nature such as hers required some
thing more. Sympathy, consideration, tenderness,
companionship gratitude essential to her hap
piness and she was taught that she must do with
out them. AS Carlyle became more and more
absorbed in bis writing he drew AWAY from his wife,
Worse still. he began to find entertainment In other
houses The painful episode of his intimacy with
the family of Lord Ashburton, and the grief which
thence ensued TO Mrs. Carlyle. have been told In the
Letters and Memorials and the judcious accom-
panying note of Mr.. Froude. Mrs. Carlyle saw, or
fancied that after she bad worked for her husband
like slave and made 1t possible for him to rise
into fame, she was becoming mere accident OF
his lot" and that he had leisure for the society OF
others though he had none for her, Beyond a
doubt she was unreasonaby jealous; yet her hus-
band owed her an immense debt which he seems TO
have had little disposition to pay. She made no
secret of her dislike to the frequent visits at Bath
House and the Grange. but Carlyle would brook no
opposition, and as long Lazy Ashburton lived the
cause Of dissension continued. The consequence
was serious estrangemeut. of which the traces
are sadly perceptible in the correspondence Yet
even before this trouble began it to us that
in Mrs Caryles letters: she writes to her husband
with not less genteness; she watches over him
with the same unsleeping care; she is as eager as
ever to give up everything to his comfort; but q
certain light has gone out of her condolences; she
turns with new impulse of tenderness to her best
female friends we cannot help wondering whether
she has begun to think of her life as possibly
mistake her sacrifice as possibly too great fol one
who "gave her no human help nor tenderness"
Young, and pretty, and happy" she writes in her
diary; 81 God bless me. to think that was once
all thatw 1t does not appear, from anything In
these volumes th at Mrs. Carlyle looked beyond this
world for consolation and support in her troubles,
but once this despairing cry breaks from her:
Have mercy upon me, Lord for am weak: o
Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. by soul
also Is sore vexed: but thou, Lord, how long 7
Return, o Lord. deliver my soul: o save me- for
Thy mercies' sake"
There were few days Of happiness reserved for
her at the very last. Tho Ashburton trouble was
over. VI" Frederick" WAS nearly finished. Mrs
Carlyle had met with q severe accident entailing
long and terrible sufferinRs, and her husband, who
had never been moro than half conscious of her all
ments until now, suddenly awoke to realities. All
tho old affection revived her part, and on his we
find some remarkable manifestations Of tenderness
and sympathy. She is returning homo after tour
Of convslescence. and Mr.. Carlyle rushed ont in
his dressing gown and kissed me. and wept over
me. and was in the act of getting down out Of the
cab-much to the ediflcation of the ncighbors at
their windows Ihave no doubt" II was still her
fortune to DO Of some notable to her husband in
the ordering Of his affairs, and to rejoice in IN
wonted evidences Uf his appreciation and love. He
went to Edinburgh In 1866 to deliver his address
~ Lord Rector Of the University, and she waited
with feverish anxiety for news Of how he Jared.
This is the letter she wrote him the next day:
al made so sure of letter this morning from some
Of you--and nothing but q double letter tor Miss
Welsh Perhaps should--that is ought to-havo
confronted myself with Tyndalps adorable telegram.
which reached me Mt Chsyne Row five minutes after
LAST evening, considering tho sensation 1t made:
me for Forsters birthday. when the telegraph boy
gave his double knock 'Thereit isP / said. i
pun afraid, cousin, it is only the postman,' said
tore il open and read. From John Tyndsil oh,
God bless john Tyndall in this world and the next
. to Mrs. Carlyls' "A perfect triumph l read
chorus And chorus all began to dance and oIao
their hands. En- Mrs &C! CARLYLE Eh; hear G,it tG
snat cried JeT; ,Ud Ior 1o Soxy Gp rdad rfa
so glad. cousin you'll be all right now, cousin
twittered Maggie executing sort Of leap-frog
till there arose among them n sudden cry for
brandy Get her some branoyp DO. ma'aln,
swallow this spoonful Of brandy; Just spoonful y
IT.
tension with which have been holding in my anx-
ieties for days-nay, weeRs. past-throw me into
rs pretty little ft Of Mysteries as you ever saw.
gram In my hand. and John Iyndall' In the core
OF my heart And II was pleasant TO see with what
hearty good will all tlere-Dickens and Wilkie
Collins rs we'll as Fuz-reoeived the news; and we
drank your health with great glee.
Eighteen days after this, Carlyle being still in
she wrote an afectionate letter to her
dearest" proposing to buy for min certain
portrait of Frederick the Great which she thought
he might like. In the afternoon she went out for
drive in Hyde Park, a carriage which he had
lately given her. The coachman noticed that she
was very still, and growing alarmed. asked lady
to look in. She was dead, with her hands laid on
her lap, and beautiful expression On her face.n
The lines on which her character was lad down."
said her intimate friend, Miss Jewsbury, "were
grand but the result blurred and distorted and
confused" Whose fault that was, we need not
pause 70 ask.
1t is q fair presumption that Carlyle, even after
his loss cannot really have understood the tragedy
OF this desolate and noble life. or he would never
have published Its secrets. There are some bitter
letters especially. belonging to the darkest period
Of Mrs. Carlyle's unhappincss, which only a hus-
band of extraordinarily blunt sensibilities could
have exposed to the vulgar gaze But even in the
notes OF lamentation and remorse with which he
has sprinkled the correspondence. one can detect
the intense self-absorption which fatally warped
his character. @Alas, alas, sinner that amp he
ci les again aud again bat he leaves us in doubt
whether he IS not weeping far more over his own
sorrows than over hers. and 1t IS certain that the
manner In which he refers from time TO time to his
indicates most inadequate sense of
their CAVITY. Even in her last desperate and
pain full illness, when she was clinging to him with
such touching renewal Of the old affection, aud
be was beginning 20 something of the suffering
TO which he had SO long closed his eyes, we do not
perceive that he thought Of giving her much CON-
He exhibits himself taking gloomy
rides with companion but his horse, and brood
ing over his multfoim disgusts; or shutting him
,elf up with his dreary Prussian books away from