The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-05-01
4 ROLFE LECTURE
A Comprehensive Review
Of Work of Carlyle.
Early Trainings Selecting Lire
Work-Notable Books and
Their Preparation.

tension lecture delivered at the High
school assembly hall, Honolulu, April
IS, 1899
his almost bewilderlng al
nuence OF thought. fancy, feeling, hu-
NOR, pathos; his biting pen; his
scorching criticism; his WORLDWIDE
sympathy with everything but the
commonplace
Carlyle, il has been said, was the
literary embodiment of Scotch Pres
byterianism; not of it's dogmas, but OF
its spirit and its attitude toward the
problems Of life. He inherited this
Calvanistic temper from both Of his
parents. But his literary gifts came
almost entirely through his father
He was born in 1895, at Ecclefechan,
an unattractive village in the south OF
Scotland. His early training he re-
ceived partly from his parents, partly
at the village school and from the vii
lage pastor. AT the age of nine he was
taken TO the neighboring town Of An
nan, that he mi ght be fitted for the
university. Nils somewhat unhappy
experiences there, as Well as his child
hood at Ecclefechan, are described
(under faint disguise) in ''Sartor Re
sartus."
Toward the end Of his thirteenth
year he entered Edinburgh University,
to prepare himself, as his parents
hoped, for the ministry. He remained
there for five years, engaged in gen
eral study Then he left and became a
teacher; keeping up a slight univer-
sity connection, however, in the ca
pacity of rural divinity student"
But he soon severed this relation. hav-
ing decided that the ministry was not
! his calling. In a short time he with
| drew from teaching also, and returned
TO Edinburgh, where various occupa-
| tiOns were tried, and one by one re-
| jected.
His difficulty in deciding upon his
| life work was complicated by poor
| health The combination OF mental
anxiety and physical distress drove
him almost to despair. He was res
cued from this condition through a
strange experience, described in ''Sar-
tor Resartus, in the chapter on "The
Everlasting No" 1t is probable that
the reaction was somewhat fastened
| by an acquaintance that he formed at
about this time with a young lady,
Jane Welsh, who afterwards became
his wife
Before his marriage (Which occurred
| in 1920 he had definitely adopted lit
erature as his calling, and had made
some progress in it, having published
a life of Schiller, and various essays
mainly on literary topics. But this
work was all critical, rather than ere
ative, in its nature. He had written
nothing as yet in which he had been
able to give full expression to his own
thought concerning life and its prob
lens and mysteries. This he now at
tempted. He gave up his Edinburgh
home and moved to his wife's farm
CraigenputtOck, a remote and solitary
place, but for that very reason favor
able to concentrated effort. Here, in
1881, he produced 'tSartor Resartus'
(The Tailor Retailored, a book in
which, under the quaint semblance
that man and all things cognizable
by him are but vestures of the only
reality, God"
Soon after the completion of 'Sar-
tor Resartus' they took up their abode
in London, where they lived for the
rest of their lives. The change was
partly owing to the need of being mean
large libraries, for Carlyle had begun
to read widely in preparation for his
history Of the French Revolution
This book, which occupied him fol
three years, was published in 1887
when he was fOrty-one. 1t was vel
ingS yielded him a sufficient income.
Certain courses of lectures Were
written next. One of them was after
wards published, under the title 'OI
Heroes, HerO-WOrship, and the Heroic
in History" His next work of inn
portance was OLIVER Cromwell's Let
JerS and Speeches, with Fluctuations.
The calculations" are of the creates
value. NO single work has gone 81
far to reverse traditional estimate.
The last great book was The Histor.
of Frederick the Great" which ha
been called the most brilliant and tn
most readable account of a large par
of the eighteenth century" 1t wa
, completed in 1865, when he was in hi
SEVENTEEN year.
Shortly after the publication o
FREDERICK Carlyle was elected Lore
Rector of Edinburgh University. 1
was an honor that gave him great sat
isfactiOn. He was pleased, too, by tn
nature of his reception when he wen
to Edinburgh to deliver the Inaugural
address. But his pleasure was soOl
changed to the deepest sorrow, by tn
news of the sudden death OF his wife
Out of his mourning and intense grie
grew the "reminiscences" He wrot
little else during the fifteen years tina
remained to him after this loss. Hi
own death occurred on February
1881, in his eighty-sixth year
SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS AND
l. What does Carlyle mean by 'Th
Everlasting Mop" Consider especial
Iy chapters Z and g. book II of ''Sar