New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-04-08
Tile CdRLYLES.

tiOn they TO consider TOMORROW.
THE CdRLYLES.
The marriages of the hereditary princes are
of small account TO p0sterity In comparison
with the marriages of the intellectual princes.
The home-life of the man of original genius.
the helps or the hindrances which domestic
compani0nship offers to him i'll his studies,
labOrs and achievements, the invigorating
effect of woman's sympathy and faith, and the
paralysis of effort caused by an ill-mated
union, are an urfailing source OF conjecture
and discussion in the modern world. The In
tellectua homes are those which have the
least privacy. The public seems privileged to
stare the occupants ont of cOuntcnance IN life,
and thereafter to hold an interminable post
mortem on all their domestic relations. The
wbisperings abou, the intellectual disparity of
the domestic drudge, or the GOODNESS. reserve
and downright brutality of the man OF genius,
follow them to their graves; and then the
skeletOn-closets are opened, there is rummag-
ing among the letter-files ana private diaries,
and all that has been deepest and most sacred
in the pTiyacy of home becomes peep-show
for vulgar curiosity.
The freshest study of an intellectual interior
is furnished by the two volumes Of Mrs. Car
lvles correspondence which Mr.. Froude has
edited These letters were collected by Car
lyle annotated by HIM, and finally placed III
the printers hand mainly because 1t was his
wish that tie world should know what manner
of woman his wife had been. They not only
disclose her character, but contain internal
evidences of incompatibility, GOODNESS. ca
priciousness, neglect blindness and conjugal
nfelicity which are seized upon with avidity
by unchartable critics and cynical natures.
The letters from wife to husband are dismissed
by them cursorily as revealing resources OF
cOnstancy, patience and love that were not APP
prcciated by him until it was time to write her
cpitaph and gather materials for his own BIZ
ography. The remaining letters in the cOllec-
ton are eagerly caught up as containing
irrefutable proofs that Thomas Carlyle in his
home life was little better than brute. Mrs.
Carlyle had number of intimate friends who
were made the victims of interminable conf
dcnces respecting her husbands habits and
ecccntricitics and her own pangs and grew
ances. Carlyle is described in these letters rs
the world has always pictured him-working in
n frenzy Of heat and earnestness, arrogant
under contradiction, savage and irritable when
interrupted in his labors or crossed in his pur
poses, worrying and growing from morning
TO night, and boiling ont of bed once or twice
after midnight to smoke a pipe, walk the
floor or quiet his nerves with cold bath.
He il also portrayed as making an
unsparing use of his wife's literary
aid and practical talents, drilling her in proof
reading, forcing her to pay his taxes, and even
to buy his clothes for him, and evincing only
- L., L.. Al
ny and the household and when prosperity
came and he had less reason to be constantly
absorbed III work, he is shown by the entries
in her diary to have had leisure Tor Bath House
and Lady Ashburton, but no time to waste on
his devoted wife. faithful though she had
been, poor drudge, in the days of obscurty
and poverty This array of evidence, in the
opinion of these bristling critics, points to only
one concusion-that Carlyle was an I'M
feeling brute, and his wife the victim of neg
lect, selishncss and ingrautudc and they viii
not allow that a glowing epitaph or the tardy
tributes to her virtues found in the annOta-
tons compensate IN any measure for a life
time OF indifference. GOODNESS and neglect.
On the other hand, strong case can be made
out from these letters against the wife as well
ms the husband. Like himself, she was afflicted
with continuous il-hcalth, and her nervous
ness was probably as wearing upon him as was
his upon her Her letters are filed, dd nduseam,
with detailed statements and complaints of
her symptoms, ailments suifcrings and mental
depressons. Housekeeping was drag upon
her and she was always in trouble over her
servant and her correspondents had n minute
account of all these vcxations, her husband
being highly favored in this respect whenever
he was in Scotland for breath of fresh air
and the restful silence of the hills. Sometimes
i'm his absence from Chelsea he is invigorated
with an animated recital of O search for YER
min in the servants bedroom and the pro-
cesses of determination the description covering
sheet after sheet, so that he must have ex-
hausted his pipe long before the fate of bed
bug or moth was settled. She worried through
life with nerves unstrung and her temper
often the worse for being crossed, precisely as
he did. Like him she was eccentric in cher
ways, coarse and violent in speech, and
not without unlovely traits. She was irritated
by the compliments which the blue-stockings
lavished upon him, and downright jealous of
Lady Ashburton for reasons which he disdains
in his annotations to notice. Ii the phllOs-
opher tried her patience, she must also have
tried his. There were two of them, each cold
and hard in spOts-he with a soul aflame with
genius and an icy crust of selfshness withal
she with grand traits of heart and mind and