New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-08-02
THE CARLYLE MlSERIES.
MRS. IRELAND'S BOOK.

1t is difficult to understood Why Mrs Ireland
hhould have taken the trouble 10 write this book
With the exception of four not important letters
she offers us nothing which may not be found
already in Mr.. Froude's work; in the
Early Letters" of Mrs. Carlyle; IN
Mr. LarRins Renaissance" and in Colonel
Davidson's Memorials" To Mr.. Froude,
indeed, she is largely indebted LOT
material that her book seems little more than
an abstract and condensation OF his. AS Tor
her interpretations of the domestic sorrows tha1
vexed Mrs. Carlyle's soul, they are in no sense
new, being merely the impressions which any
casual reader would naturally derive from Mr.
Froude's work The chief interest of these In
terpretatons lies in the strictly feminine fashion
in which they are expressed. Mrs. Ireland has
q womans kindness for her heroine-a touch OF
esprit du corps-and in considering Mr.. CarlyIes
treatment of his wife, a woman's resentment OF q
mans obtuseness. She struggles bravely, wlthal'
TO do the Chelsea Sage full justice, TO write WIN
the impartiality of trained biographer; ana III
must be said that her sudden efforts In this drec-
ton occasionally curve the lips of the reader INTO
an unavoidable smile. A gentle nature and KIND
heart speak in her pages-we intend no unamlaoie
criticism in saving her unnecessary pages
For have we not had enough of Mrs. Carlylee
domestic trials? Surely Froude's chronicle is
will be better appreciated in future years, ana
which has shown its author TO be- in virtue Oh thaC
honesty. one of the great biographers of all time
Much of the story of Mrs. Carlyles clouded
days NAV be easily understood by one
who knows the Scotch peasant. Caryle's many
commentators have placed hardly sufficient stress
upon the fact that, intellect aside, their canny
Scot retained, TO the end of his days many OF the
PEASANTS habits of thought, feeling and opinion.
His good old mother, the ignorant stone-masons
ignorant apd hardy wife, spent her days IN the
toughest domestic toll; therefore her son TOOK 10
for granted, quite without thinking perhaps, that
the same lot highly suitable for JEANNE Welsh
the dainty accomplished, petted and not strong
only daughter of q family much higher in social
rank-a girl nurtured in refinement and modest
luxury lie had the Scotch PEASANTS deep integ-
rity-and the Scotch PEASANTS penurousneis. Dur
ing most of their forty years together, and long
after their circumstances had justified greater eN-
penditure, the delicate. ailing littde woman strug-
gled with the cares Of her house aided only by
"onc cheap servant; and when the cost OF their
living in London had unavoidahly increased with
the rise of prices of taX.rates. etc, the peasant
nature showed in his anger when asked for money
by wife already painfully careful economical and
:elf-sacridcing "She pestered his life out about
money!" he told her; his soul was sick with
bearing about it,; she had better make the
money she had serve: and all this while she was
pairing down household expenses IN every direction
and was using, 20 pay for food and fuel, the patry
e25 year allowed her for personal expenses
Even a cheap London cab was too expensive for
her, and when frail invalid, past middle age, she
continued TO 60 about London by omnibus 1t was
in this way that she met with the accident which
finally caused her death 1t was during her last
illness when too late for any permanent effect,
that her husband bought for her the carriage that
he was quite able TO have purchased long before
The history of their lives together is story OF
domestic cheese-paring, practsed with feminine
self-devotion and to the complete loss OF health
and comfort by the woman whose girlhood was
one of ease and plenty. There is no record OF
any generosity on the part of Carlyle, save
toward his family. He assisted his able
bodied brothers at time when to do so meant
the infction Of undue toll and suffering on his
delicate wife This family loyalty is a fine
trait when it does not involve disloyalty TO the
nearest of all tics; and it is of the elements
of the measureless pride of the Scotch peasant
With this pride, which Carlyle possessed to the
full he had the peasants obtusenesS as regards
the sensitiveness of refined, educated imaginative
women His sturdy mother and sisters did not
suffer from hurt feelings; their sensibilites
had not been considered: what did he know OF
such things? He saw cruelty in Withholding
all tenderness from his wife; in shutting himself
away from her, weeks and months at q time
while at work upon his boOks-even TO the point
of taking all his meals apart from her. His self
absorption partly arose, no doubt, from his ire
mendous estimate Of his own intellectual powers
To the descendant of terate laborers the use
Of such abilities seemed a thing of transcendent
importance to which most other duties, as recog
nized by ordinary men, must yield To Carlyle
Me" was of vast meaning, all his readers
know. Whatever other attributes of genius he
possessed, humility not one Of them.
In all sobernese, them we say that for his do
mestic shortcomings Carlyle does not deserve all
the unsparing blame which has been heaped upon
him-especiay by which is not always as
fair in Judgment as in feature. AS a man he was
not of fine texture; be was hard and selfish; he
was dOur"; but he was the Lord and a line
OF ancestors of temperament like to his had made
him. Even vast intellect" does not much
help man to root up and do away with the in.
herted feelings and opinions that are of the very
fibre of his nature. The truth is that Carlyle
should either have remained a bachelor, or mar
ried kindly, unsensitve woman. who
would have been, without repining, what
Jeanne Welsh with wrath and unavailing
wptchedness becamc-a competent. ustiring upper
servant and guardian. The primary condition
of his work was solitude and he was impatient
of every intrusion Of homc-life upon his creative
loneliness. He wanted 10 be taken care Of not
20 be bothered and a gentle, stOld and quite I'M
educated woman who at once good house
keeper, an accomplished economist and an ad.
miring worshipper would have made him com
paratvely happy and comfortable As it was,
brilliant, witty. fery-hearted. lOve-cavng
gypsy was wasted upon hm-one who, by force of
her woes, undoubtedly led him a life" A good
deal of the feminine sympathy poured out upon
Mrs. Carlyle might well 90 to her husband.
1t is 10 he hoped that we have now seen the
last of Carlyle books. Let the selfish and power
full man, the clever. yearning and disappointed