The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-02-01
PRLF. PHELPS ON CARLYLE
INSTRUCTIVE ADDRESS BEFORE SELECT AUDIENCE IN STRAIT FORD LIBRARY.

FORD LIBRARY.
 Tn beginning his discourse on Carlyle a night or two ago. before select au- dience at the library in Stratford. Prof. Phelps of Yale said that there are some authors one reads for insp1ration' some for pleasure and some for refuge. He said he read Shakespeare for pleas ure, Browning for instruction. anu Stevenson for a refuge when sick. Carlyle is an inspiration-he takes hoio of Us when we need inspiring. IL IS the practice at Yale to have the Fresh men read Sarter Resartus. ana III many instances the effect is very bene- ficial It wakens the young man from the indifference into which he has fallen, or from which he has never emerged. and gives him courage and hope.
 When Prof. Phelps was a school boy in HaJ tford he said he read F,roude, life of Carlyle and it produced upon him a tremendous impression. He re- marked that Carlyle and Keats were both born in the same year-1795, but they were apostles. Keats was the apostle of beauty; Carlyle the apostle of duty. They never met and woulu not have understood each other if they had. When Carlyle died Prof. Phelps felt that a prophet had fallen in ls- rael. On account of all the little do- mestic infelicities revealed in Froude biography Swinburne called Carlyle ""dead snake" It is admitted that ne had a bad stomach. but that was fact of. much more interest to him thar to us. The love letters of Car lyle to Jane Welsh were spoken Of as very remarkable and well worth read ing They make a very 1nteresting and fascinating volume. Jane was the woman he was after, and although we adv ira h complished his result. He met her and fell in love with her Immediately and for five years he persued the one object of making her his wife. l see, said Prof. Phelps to his audience. from the smiles on your faces you nave all been in love at one time or another! lane Welsh cared nothing for Carlyle at first. She disdained. ignored. snub- bed and gave him the cold shoulder: And Carlyle found she was full pr faults. Finally she began to admire him and at last loved him. "I love YOU but I am not in love with you. she wrote And Prof. Phelps sa1d there is quite a difference from loving and being in love. Both of them were eaten up with ambition. She wanted to tSogns mary gsrse,f man writer us of ability They married each other not because they expected to be happy. but because they thought they might be more un- happy if they didn't and would try to get along somehow. After they nad been married for some time Mrs Car. lyle found her husband was miles and miles. intellectually. above her. She had not one single trace of literary genius. And she wrote to a friend that of all women in the world she was the most miserable. Prof. Phelps said the sincerity of the whole thing is quite wonderful.
 Carlyle's place is established as prose master of the 18th century. His style differs from all others. Never man spoke as he spoke. He nao q peculiar, original highly passionate style Many people are odd and pe- culiar. We all know how to write purely simple style. He first com r,lefely mastered the normal. and then came his wonderful style. He nad at his command an enormous vocaDulaTy' using a great many more words tnap words. sketched all people he met. and thus formed a verbal picture gallery. He once met Daniel Webster. but knew nothing of him. and cared less for an American politician. He wrote or him. "He has a forehead and broWs like a beetling cliff; eyes like hard coal which would burn hotly if set on fire, and a mouth and chin like bulldogs. T would hate to be his nigger! He used many compound words. and cer- tain idioms which he got from the German. He was fond of surprises at the end of a sentence. and had fancy for certain words. He studied rythm, which makes a very impressive style. He began as a writer expecting to be a novelist and he wrote few poems, and in some of his translations. as from Goethe, was quite successful. But he had to found his great Works on the bed rocks of history. There have never been writers who told and described things as he did. He felt at home with facts. and not with fc- tion. He must know something of people before he could critieise them. He was a very irritable man. Once Bronson Alcott went to see Carlyle. Since Emerson had received such a cordial welcome. Alcott counted upon the same. And who are you?' ask ed MT. Carlyle. 'I am Bronson AL colt" was the reply. "Get back to America with your d---d potato gos- pel." was Car1y1e's command, and he dismissed his visitor. He was blind on the side of art and had a contempt for poetry. He once said to Tenny- son, "Alfred, you are sitting on asdung heap surrounded by dead cats. Why do you write such stuff when there is so much to be done in the world?'' But when Carlyle wrote book he was a citizen of the world. He would rec ognize a great man in any nation. His father had no knowledge of literature and was an illiterate stone mason. Thel 8 was the widest possible distance between the father and son intellect ually.
 When alone with his pen he was all