Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-03-11

Last evening, President Raymond, Of
the West Virginia University, delivered
the third lecture in his series entitled,
"a Group of Social Philosophers"
Thomas Carlyle and Paternalism' was
the topic of the evening. DR.. Raymond
began by saying that Carlyle knew
that things were wrong in the world,
and he may have had some clearly de-
fined notion as to how they might be
improved, but nowhere has he distinct
ly told us just what his exact plan for
improving the world was. He has
given us hints in may places; he has
implied many schemes of social amel-
ioration but he has told us what to
do with such 'Delphic vagueness' that
he has virtually, like Browning, con-
demned the world to the task Of ex-
planning him.
Dr. Raymond proceeded to show that
in spite of his "Delphic vagueness' no
one should pass Carlyle by without
mastering him. He cited the opinions
of Harriet Martineau and of James
Russell Lowell, regarding the debt of
society to Carlyle, and then gave an
interesting sketch of the life of Car
lyle, touching upon his strong Scotch
parentage, his education and his strug-
giles of soul in attempting to choose a
profession. The speaker portrayed
Carlyle's domestic life, calling it zone
long tragedy, in which his wife was the
victim" Carlyle's character was
sketched-his strength of purpose, his
perseverance,. His creed was always,
Courage! courage! times will mend;
or if times will not mend, then in the
devils name let them stay as they are,
or grow worse While waiting for
success to crown his ecorts as a writer,
he never lost heart, saying always,
have a considerable quantity and quail
ity of things to impart to my brothers
in this earth if God see meet to keep
me in it, and no editor or body of edi-
JOIS, uOT lUuG6u Iuc WlOlC WO1 III tti1u
the devil to back it out, can wholly pre-
vent me from imparting them. For
ward, them All his earlier writings
were financial failures. 1t was not I'M
til he was forty-two years old that his
French Revolution made him famous
and put an end to his poverty"
DR.. Raymond then dwelt on Carlyle's
style as a writer,-his crispness, his
vividness. Everything must sparkle
and snap He has been called more
lover of earnestness than of truth, yet
it was truth he was after, neverthe-
less. He was verbose, arrogant, and
given to exaggeration. But in spite OF
all this. we must admire his hatred OF
hypocrisy and cant.
Carlyle was forever talking about the
value of silence, yet he was never ST.
lent. Speech is silver, silence is gold
en-" he said. Yet he wrote thirty books
to increase the hubbub in the world.
Conversation with Carlyle was mono
logue. He did the talking. Others
present had nothing to do but listen.
The speaker cited number of ques-
lions which Carlyle habitually de-
nounced,- utilitarianism, the move
ment for prison reform, the movement
for the emancipation of the negroes.
He hated Democracy. He eXecrated
the rule of the "mobocracy,
he called it. Cease to talk to me OF
America and it's model institutions"
he wrote. "On this side of the Atlantic
or on that, Democracy is forever i'm
possible. The universe is a monarchy
and a hierarchy, the noble in the high
places, the ignoble in the low; this is
in all times and in all places the AL
mighty makers law. Democracy,
take it where you will, is regulated
method of rebellion; it abrogates the
old arrangement of things and leaves
zero and vacuity. 1t is the consuma-
ton Of no-government and laissez-
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