The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-07-20

Lnan the great SCOtchnan, IIlOf1aS
CARLYLE. l am unable to determine
whether his fame maintains the high
place TO which he assembled during the
last quarter of the century Of his life.
Whether he is now read 50 widely as
he was thirty or fifty years ago [ can
not say, but 1 am confident that he is
just as worthy of special study as he
was when in the zenith of his fame.
He is an author well worthy OF high
consideration now. for he is a genius
in letters and has gifts that will long
give him a high place aluOnS the
greatest authors of his native Scotland.
During the last quarter of 4 century
or 50 a great many of
Thomas Carlyle have been given~and
most of them illustrative Of his coarse
ness, abTuptness, incivility and self
assertion, rather than revelations Of
his highest qualities as q man and
author. Like DR.. Sam Johnson,
another great author and man Of
genius, the salient points of Carlyle
are such as to be exaggerated easily
and invite criticism, ridicnle and GER
sure. Much has appeared in derision
and dispraise. But he .lad human
tenderness and sympathy as we'll is
great ability and resource. Johnson
was the most robust author. OF his
time perhaps in the eighteenth cen
tury. He has many peculiarities that
excited riuicule and provoked the
tongue of the s%landerer. CARLYLE is
about the most potential intellectual
factor in the last century among his
contemporaries in Great Britain. and
if not the very greatest, he was equal
to almost any author, and perhaps he
was second to but one or two. Samuel
Taylor Coleridge was possibly the
more royalty endowed than any other.
He was a marvel of genius, and Of most
impressive performances. But CARLYLE
exerted a great influence in letters
during the last fifty years Of the nine
tenth century SO rich in authors of
very rare and splendid genius. His
influence L am sure has not yet
fallen into decay if it has
rally appreciably waned. Stories of
him and critical depreciationtion
more or less hound, and they con-
Germ his last years of his long life
more than in middle life, or even
earlier, when his power and influence
were dominant. He was q marvellous
desC1iber of men, and while not en-
dowed with the poetic gift in ryth-
mical expression. he often wrote ine
poetry, nevertheless, as may be seen
in Tartar Resortus," one of the Won
ders and glories of nineteenth century
literature. He had many personal adj
mirers and friends among his most
lllustriOuS contemporaries. When two
SuCll IlitI OF genius, WIN the priest
and noblest character, could be drawn
closely TO the rugged, dogmatic Scot.
YOU may be sure there was in him the
fibre of a great man, who was not
without a rich, true hunan sympathy,
II he did hate shams and pretenses.
Dear Farrar, an English divine OF
fame and real merit, tells us in one of
his latest productions, "R commissioners
several stories of Carlyle. Here is one,
and it is true, we may believes:
I remember once being told by a
friend that he happened to visit Car
lyle just after a brilliant man of gent
us had left him, whom my friend had
NIT on his way-to Carlyle's door.
All. said the visitor, L have just oeen
visiting poor Carlyle. He is a mere
wreck-a mere wreck so you have
jdst had Mr.. -- with your said ny
friend to Carlyle. Yes, was the an
s"cr of the mere wreck and he
thinks God Almighty never made such
aEother!'"
The tendency in latter-day critics
is to GeDreciate genius by magE.fying
or emphasizing foibles or peculiari-
ties. A man may be intellectually
great and be of such qualities end
characteristics as to repel admiration
or affection. Carlyle was hOnest and
critically bent, full Of complaints and
of our temper, but he was an intense
~dysreptic through more than half Of
his H1e-he lVed TO be elghty-S'X-
and described his sufferings to that Of
many rats gnaWing the coats of his
stomach. Those who know what that
most miserable form of Indigestion is
can appreciate the petulant and quer-
rilGus ScOtSman'S tribulatiOnS when a
constant victim of such severe punish
ment. It is no Wonde that he groWl-
ed and groaned. Mr.. Balfour, a Scots
man himself. and a distinguished
statesman, has a sober view of the all
mients of his great cOuntryman. lie
delivered an address several years ago
and in discussing Stevenson as q writ
err, turned to Carlyle, of whom he is
not one Of the "strictcst set" of ad-
mirer, and among other entertaining