Arizona republican., 1893-01-28
LIFELONG FRIENDS.
THE STRANGE FRIENDSHIP OF EM-
 ERSoN AND CARLYLE.

Opposed -Dissimilar in Temperament
 and Tastes--Disliked Each Other as
 Thinkers, but Loved as Men.
 The friendship of Goethe and Schiller, of Beaumont and Fletcher, of Irving and Paulding, of Socrates and Plato, have often been noticed as among the Friendships of literary or philosophical minds.
 But perhaps one of the strangest lit- erary friendships was the lifelong inti- macy between Emerson and Carlyle.
 This intimacy was not fostered by per sonal contact, for Emerson and Carlyle met each other only upon two or three occasions. All their lives a wide ocean of space divided thom, and wide ocean pf tastes and temperament. It would be hard to find two men who were more totally unlike. Carlyle was fierce, tu- multuous, the most terrific scold in all history. Emerson was mild and benig- nant as an afternoon in September. Car lyle frowned like thunder cloud, and Emerson glowed like sunburst.
 
 ture of the race and believe that the crazy old world was rattling on the down grade to destruction. Emerson was one of the most persistent optimists in all history. The past looked great to him, the present looked grand and the future looked grander. Carlyle's style was jerky, explosive and smashed to- gether like railroad wreck. Emerson's style was compact, smooth and epigram- matic. Carlyle wrote long histories like "Frederick the Great" and the French Revolution" which read like long drawn out series of spasms, as if their authors pen was afflicted with the St. Vitus dance. Emerson wrote short, com pact essays, in which every thought was packed in the smallest possible compass
 The views of these two men were al- most diametrically opposed. Carlyle, es- pecially in his later days, seemed to believe in an absolute monarchy. He ad- mired the czar of Russia. His great his- torical heroes were men who had ruled men with hand of iron. Emerson was a firm champion of republican institu- tions.
 Both Emerson and Carlyle were semi invalids all their lives. But Emerson's invalidism only served to draw out the latent sunshine of his nature. The more he was chasteued by disease the sweeter grew his disposition. Carlyle's invalid ism made him rage like a caged tiger. All his life long he thundered lurid de- nunciations at his own stomach. Emer- son wished to be known as lover of men; Carlyle called the public mostly fools.
 Yet these two men, so dissimilar in their tastes and temperaments, main- tained lifelong friendship, and in fact Emerson and Edward Irving were about the ouly men of this generation that Carlyle ever spoke of with respect.
 "Sartor Ecsartus," Carlyle's first lengthy work and probably his master piece, was first brought out, in book form, in America by Emerson. The first words of warm appreciation that the book received came from this side of the Atlantic. In England it was re- ceived with gibes and sneers and con tempt. It was, and still remains, one of | the strangest books that was ever writ ten, but it is full charged with Carlyle's l volcanic and dynamic genius. Emerson | was one of the first to appreciate this | genius and help to find it public. ! All of Carlyle's successive books as they appeared found warm admirer in Emerson, though he must have violent l ly disagreed with many of their senti- ments. | A perpetual correspondence was kept | up between the two men. In this corre- | spondence Emerson was at his best, and | Carlyle never was more characteristic | than ip his letters to Emerson. He must have, in his inmost heart, despised the | theories and thoughts expressed in Elm erson's books, for his whole life was a battle against these theories and | thoughts. But in spite of this radical difference of ideas there was something | about the man he liked. Emerson must i have abomiuated many of the expressed l opinions of Carlyle, and yet he was pow erfully impressed by Carlyle's person. allty.
 They both hated each other as think CTS, but loved each other as men. [ This friendship ought to demonstrate that the strongest attachments grow up | sometimes between men of entirely di- | vergent tendencies of thought. Men | seek their opposites for friends as they seek their opposites for wives. It is easy for one man to like and respect | another man without agreeing with him. It is possible, however, that if Emerson and Carlyle had been thrown | into closer intimacy they would not | have continued their friendship so long. ! Carlyle was not an easy man to live | with, us his own wife discovered to her | sorrow. He became chronic scold. | He found fault with his food. He scold- ed if draft of air blew too rudely upon his cheek. He was mad if dog parked, | a cat mewed or hen cackled. He hated | all his neighbors inversely as he loved himself, And genius as he was, his style seems to indicate that he loved |