The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-06
Roosevelt on Carlyle.


Roosevelt took it into his head to write
a life of Cromwell. and forthwith sat
down and did it. There is rather more
Roosevelt than Cromwell in the book,
but the opening statement is worth COM
ment, taken all by itself In the first
chapter we are informed that Carlyle
failed to appreciate Cromwell properly
because he was closet philosopher
and not accustomed to active life. The
inference is that he ought to have fol-
lowed Roosevelt's example, and gone
bear hunting as a preparation for his
serious work. peculiar contrast here
presents itself. Here is Carlyle. on the
one hand, refusing to begin his great
work on the French Revolution without
the aid of an entire wagon-1oad of books;
Roosevelt, on the other. debating a his
tory of the war in Cuba and life of
Cromwell in the intervals of shooting
Spaniards and mountain lions. 1t APP
pears that instead of ordering wagon
lead of books. the Scotch historian
should have gone out and gotten a wagon
load of tiger-skins. and written his his
tory while perched in the howdah wait
ing for the tigers to appear.
The characteristic popularity of Car
lyle was that he took his work seriously.
He considered it to be bigger than him
self-so much bigger that it was worth
all the time and attention he could give
it for his whole working life. He be-
came absorbed in 1t, dominated by it; he
was merely the medium through which
the idea came into being. He saturated
himself with the life and thought of a
period before he touched pen to paper;
and if. when the work was finished. it
spoke of Carlyle in every line it was te
cause the crowding thoughts presented
themselves in such rapid succession that
they demanded the peculiar concentra-
tion and graphic force of his style. He
was obscure, when he was obscure, he
cause the subject was, to him. crammed
with suggestions and associations with
which the ordinary reader was not ia
miliar. Roosevelt is never obscure. The
style of his book on Cromwell is per-
fectly transparent.
When Carlyle wished to write he was
impatient of any intrusion upon his
thought. He chose the lonely farm in
Scotland partly because of its free
dom from distractions He believed the
work upon which he was engaged to be
greater, worthier finer, than any every
day affairs, or doings of society or ad-
venture, with which he personally might
have been busted There are those who
ola hot &c Iaf to do u ha, 20
describe the doiIgs OF others; but it must
be remembered that were it not for the
collections and correlatiOns OF facts made
by the historian and the philosopher there
might easily be TO aim in the doing. It is
as If the civil engineer, scaling mountains
and fording riveIs, and using at every step
the mathematical knowledge gained at the
technical school, should belittle the work
Of the mathematician who discovered and
elaborated the system by which he is
guided. The true historian is no mere
recorder of events. no dry-as-d dust statis-
tician He must show the life of period as
it was. estimate its characters al their true
worth, and to this task he must bring not
only a spirit of untiring research and pa
tient comparison of records. but that half
poetic insight which can enter into the
life of the past and grasp the hidden mo-
tiyes of its people. This almost super
human intuition is not the result of ex'
perience or observation so much as OF
concentrated reflection-what Roosevelt
would call closet philosophy. According %
his idea history is side issue, to be
taken up as old ladies take up their knit
ting, between the dark and the daylight
Carlyle's opinion Of this life of Crom-
well might be unfit for publication. for, as
all the world knows. the great scotchman
was irritable by nature. But Cromwell
himself. the calm. infiexible, Biblical lead.
er OF the Ironsides. might say. gazing
down upon his Rough Rider biographer:
Thou thoughtest / was altogether such a one
thyself."