The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-05-06
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

A delightful and important addition to
the Carlyle literature is the volume re-
Gently published by Messrs. Houghton.
Mifflin & Co, portland: Loring. Short
& Harmon,) which contains the Letters
of Thomas Carlyle to His Youngest Sis
ter, edited, with an Introductory essay
by Charles Townsend Copeland, lecturer
ON English literature in Harvard Univer-
sity.
Biography is usually very good or ex-
treInely bad, and the Carlyles were unfor-
tunate in their Froude as was Dickens in
his Forster, so that in both cases the read
er is inclined to cry ''save us from our
friends. " One does not desire, in biogra-
ply, anatomical speclment; on.the CON
trary, ones subject should be viewed
from afar, in order to give posterity
true portrait, with true proportions Too
much minutiae and detail distract the
mind from the more important features,
although Gail Hamilton in speaking of
Eroude's life of the Carlyle said that she
"loved every bug that crawled over its
pages " Nevertheless posterity will, pos
sibly, prefer it without these addenda.
In painting flower one puts the bios
som to be copied SO far off that 1t is a
beautiful and perfect suggestion, not u
botanical study. In that way the soul
of the flower is transferred by the artist
to the c-nvas AT closer range the picture
would be misleading, the oolors crude and
harsh, and the delicate perception of the
trra III, naf yyOnld ha lack
ing. So it is in drawing the portrait of a
man or woman, a human life and soul;
! we want broad perspective, and the
touch of genius in the artist which makes
his subject live again.
Mr.. Copeland's editing of Carlyles let
tiers Is admirable, and the essay with
which he approaches them is unrivalled
for charm and dignity,
The letters are chiefly written to Mrs.
Hanning, Carlyle's youngest sister, but
number of them are addressed to his
mother, and several to other mem bers of
the Carlyle family. They invariably show
the tenderest and most gentle side of Car
lyle's nature, for he possessed these quail
ties. which were frequently latent, but
WHICH s66ln " ulfb bttil tSOhslOnhify
drawn out by his affection for his Dearest
of kin. For my own part / cannot help
feeling that his beloved Goody" was oft
times thorn in the flesh, and rasped the
susceptible nerves of the Sage, who, we
all know, was none too amiable.
Many of the letters contained in the
present volume have been printed in the
Atlantic Monthly, and we may, for the
moment give our attention chiefly to
what Mr. Copeland has to say Of the
famous man whose letters, he declares,
are in 1.-THE blacklist contrast" to those of
Horace Walpole, Gray, Chesterfield,
Charles Lamb, Madame de Sevigne, and
all "theIgenial traditions of letter-wfit-
ing"
The editor says, in his preface, that his
Introductory essay on Carlyle as letter
writer grew out of comparison between
Carlyle's correspondence with his family,
and his letters to other persons, already
printed by Mr.. Norton and MIR. Froude.
Whatever may have been his reason for
giving it US, the reader will be grateful
for it.
Mr.. Copeland Writes.
AS early as. when he (Carlyle)
was with the Buffers at kinnaird,
he lad frightened his family with
an eloquent diagnosis of the tor
ments of dyspepsia, and afterward often
practiced IA becoming caution siu COM
planning too loudly of anything to them.
"a famous English physician says in
recent article, ''if IA man has chronic dys-
pepsia he may as well go out and hang
| himself at once" But what a loss TO
the world of letters would 1t have been
had Carlyle taken that adyice). Usually,
however, what he felt he thought. and
what he thought, he wrote. I" 1.-The de-
| mandatory MOOD was frequent with
Carlyle and it would be Easy enough TO
| collect anathemas for oil sort Of com
mination service. Men, women and
children came In for his curses. All an
noyances spoke to Carlyle and his vile
through megaphone. and were pro-