But I was
heartily glad to read somewhere that your book
was nearly finished in the manuscript, for I could
wish you to sit and taste your fame, if that were
not contrary to law of Olympus.
heartily glad to read somewhere that your book
was nearly finished in the manuscript, for I could
wish you to sit and taste your fame, if that were
not contrary to law of Olympus.
Thomas Carlyle
handle.
net/2027/pst.
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? Emerson to Carlyle. 307
praise of the air, or of fire, or of the blessing of
love, and yet, I suppose, they are sensible of these,
and not less of this book, which is like these.
-ii
CLXV.
EMERSON TO CARLYLE.
Conconn, 16 April, 1860.
MY DEAR CARLYLE, -- Can booksellers break the
seal which the gods do not, and put me in com-
munication again with the loyalest of men? On
the ground of Mr. Wight's honest proposal to give
you a benefit from his edition,1 I, though unwilling,
allowed him to copy the Daguerre of your head.
The publishers ask also some expression of your
good will to their work. . . . .
I commend you to the gods who love and up-
hold you, and who do not like to make their great
gifts vain, but teach us that the best life-insurance
is a great task. I hold you to be one of those to
whom all is permitted, and who carry the laws
in their hand. Continue to be good to your old
friends. 'T is no matter whether they write to
1 Mr. O. W. Wight of New York, an upright " able editor," who
had just made arrangements for the publication of a very satisfac-
tory edition of Carlyle's Miscellaneous Essays.
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? 308 Carlyle to Bnerson.
you or not. If not, they save your time. When
Friedrich is once despatched to gods and men,
there was once some talk that you should come
to America! You shall have an ovation such,
and on such sincerity, as none have had. Ever
affectionately yours,
R. W. Emaeson.
I do not know Mr. Wight, but he sends his open
letter, which I fear is already old, for me to write
in: and I will not keep it, lest it lose another
steamer.
GLXVI.
CARLYLE TO EMERSON.
CHELSEA, Lennon, 30 April, 1860.
DEAR EMERSON,--It is a special favor of Heaven
to me that I hear of you again by this accident;
and am made to answer a word de Prqfundis. It
is constantly among the fairest of the few hopes
that remain for me on the other side of this Stygian
Abyss of a Friedrich (should I ever get through it
alive) that I shall then begin writing to you again,
who knows if not see you in the body before quite
taking wing! For I feel always, what I have some-
times written, that there is (in a sense) but one
completely human voice to me in' the world; and
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? Garlyle to Emerson. 309
that you are it, and have been,-- thanks to you,
whether you speak or not ! Let me say also, while
I am at it, that the few words you sent me about
those first Two volumes are present with me in the
far more frightful darknesses of these last Two; and
indeed are often almost my one encouragement.
That is a fact, and not exaggerated, though you
think it is. I read some criticisms of my wretched
Book, and hundreds of others I in the gross refused
to read; they were in praise, they were in blame;
but not one of them looked into the eyes of the
object, and in genuine human fashion responded to
its human strivings, and recognized it, -- completely
right, though with generous exaggeration! That
was well done, I can tell you: a human voice, far
out in the waste deeps, among the inarticulate sea-
krakens and obscene monsters, loud-roaring, in-
expressibly ugly, dooming you as if to eternal
solitude by way of wages,--" hath exceeding much
refreshment in it," as my friend Oliver used to say.
Having not one spare moment at present, I will
answer to you only the whole contents of that let-
ter; you in your charity will convey to Mr. Wight
what portion belongs to him. Wight, if you have
a chance of him, is worth knowing; a genuine bit
of metal, too thin and ringing for my tastes (ham-
mered, in fact, upon the Yankee anvils), but recog-
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? 31o Carlyle to Emerson.
' ". '"''__ "*1
nizably of steel and with a keen fire-edge. Pray
signify to him that he _has done a thing agreeable
to me, and that it will be pleasant if I find it will
not hurt him. Profit to me out of it, except to
keep his own soul clear and sound (to his own
sense, as it always will be to mine), is perfectly
indifferent; and on the whole I thank him heartily
for showing me a chivalrous human brother, in-
stead of the usual vulturous, malodorous, and much
avoidable phenomenon, in Transatlantic Bibliopoly!
This is accurately true; and so far as his pub-
lisher and he can extract encouragement from this,
in the face of vested interests which I cannot judge
of, it is theirs without reserve. . . . .
Adieu, my friend; I have not written so much in
the Letter way, not, I think, since you last heard of
me. In my despair it often seems as if I should
never write more; but be sunk here, and perish
miserably in the most undoable, least worthy, most
disgusting and heart-breaking of all the labors I
ever had. But perhaps also not, not quite. In
which case
Yours ever truly at any rate,
T. CARLYLE.
No time to re-read. I suppose you can de-
cipher.
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? Carlyle to Emerson. 31 1
CLXVII.
CARLYLE TO EMERSON.
CHELSEA, 29 January, 1861.
DEAR EMERSON,--The sight of my hand-writing
will, I know, be welcome again. Though I literally
do not write the smallest Note once in a month, or
converse with anything but Prussian Nightmares
of a hideous [nature], and with my Horse (who
is human in comparison), and with my poor Wife
(who is altogether human, and heroically cheerful
to me, in her poor weak state),--I must use the
five minutes, which have fallen to me to-day, in
acknowledgment, due by all laws terrestrial and
celestial, of the last Bookl that has come from
you.
I read it a great while ago, mostly in sheets, and
again read it in the finely printed form,--I can
tell you, if you do not already guess, with a satis-
faction given me by the Books of no other living
mortal. I predicted to your English Bookseller a
great sale even, reckoning it the best of all your
Books. What the sale was or is I nowhere learned;
but the basis of my prophecy remains like the
1 "The Conduct of Life. "
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? 3 1 2 Carlyle to Emerson.
rocks, and will remain. Indeed, except from my
Brother John, I have heard no criticism that had
much rationality,--some of them incredibly irra-
tional (if that matter had not altogether become
a barking of dogs among us) ;--but I always be-
lieve there are in the mute state a great number
of thinking English souls, who can recognize a
Thinker and a Sayer, of perennially human type,
and welcome him as the rarest of miracles, in
" such a spread of knowledge " as there now is : -----
one English soul of that kind there indubitably is;
and I certify hereby, notarially if you like, that such
is emphatically his view of the matter. You have
grown older, more pungent, piercing; --I never read
from you before such lightning-gleams of meaning
as are to be found here. The finale of all, that of
" Illusions" falling on us like snow-showers, but
again of "the gods sitting steadfast on their
thrones" all the while, -- what a Fiat Luz is
there, into the deeps of a philosophy, which the
vulgar has not, which hardly three men living
have, yet dreamt of! Well done, I say; and so
let that matter rest.
I am still twelve months or so from the end of
my Task; very uncertain often whether I can,
even at this snail's pace, hold out so long. In my
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? Emerson to Carlyle. 313
life I was never worn nearly so low, and seem
to get weaker monthly. Courage! If I do get
through, you shall hear of me again.
Yours forever,
T. CARLYLE.
GLXVIII.
nnnnson TO CARLYLE.
Conconn, 16 April, 1861.
MY DEAR CARLYLE,-- . -. . . I have to thank
you for the cordial note which brought me joy,
many weeks ago. It was noble and welcome in all
but its boding account of yourself and your task.
But I have had experience of your labors, and these
deplorations I have long since learned to distrust.
We have settled it in America, as I doubt not it
is settled in England, that Frederick is a history
which a beneficent Providence is not very likely to
interrupt. And may every kind and tender influ-
ence near you and over you keep the best head in
England from all harm.
Afiectionately,
R. W. Emnnson.
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? 314 ' Enerson to Carlyle.
-. . _
GLXIX.
EMERSON T0 CARLYLE. 1
CONCORD, 8 December, 1862.
MY DEAR FRIEND,--LOI1g ago, as soon as swift
steamers could bring the new book across the sea,
I received the third volume of Friedrich, with your
autograph inscription, and read it with joy. Not a
word went to the beloved author, for I do not write
or think. I would wait perhaps for happier days,
as our President Lincoln will not even emancipate
slaves, until on the heels of a victory, or the sem-
blance of such. But he waited in vain for his
triumph, nor dare I in my heavy months expect
bright days. The book was heartily grateful, and
square to the author's imperial scale. You have
lighted the glooms, and engineered away the pits,
whereof you poetically pleased yourself with com-
plaining, in your sometime letter to me, clean out
of it, according to the high Italian rule, and have
let sunshine and pure air enfold the scene. First,
I read it honestly through for the history ; then I
1 Portions of this and of the following letter of Emerson have
been printed by Mr. Alexander Ireland in his " Ralph Waldo Em-
erson : Recollections of his Visits to England," ? tc. London, 1882.
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? lhnerson to Carlyle. 3 1 5
pause and speculate on the Muse that inspires, and
the friend that reports it. 'Tis sovereignly written,
above all literature, dictating to all mortals what
they shall accept as fated and final for their salva-
tion. It is Mankind's Bill of Rights and Duties,
the royal proclamation of Intellect ascending the
throne, announcing its good pleasure, that, here-
after, as heretofore, and now once for all, the World
shall be governed by Common Sense and law of
Morals, or shall go to ruin. \
But the manner of it! --the author sitting as
Demiurgus, trotting out his manikins, coaxing and
bantering them, amused with their good performance,
patting them on the back, and rating the naughty
dolls when they misbehave; and communicating his
mind ever in measure, just as much as the young
public can understand; hinting the futiue, when it
would be useful; recalling now and then illustrative
antecedents of the actor, impressing the reader that
he is in possession of the entire history centrally
seen, that his investigation has been exhaustive,
and that he descends too on the petty plot of Prus-
sia from higher and cosmical surveys. Better I
like the sound sense and the absolute independence
of the tone, which may put kings in fear. And, as
the reader shares, according to his intelligence, the
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? 3 1 6 Emerson to Carlyle.
haughty coup d'oeil of this genius, and shares it
with delight, I recommend to all governors, Eng-
lish, French, Austrian, and other, to double their
guards, and look carefully to the censorship of the
press. I find, as ever in your books, that one man
has deserved well of mankind for restoring the
Scholar's profession to its highest use and dignity}
I find also that you are very wilful, and have made
a covenant with your eyes that they shall not see
anything you do not wish they should.
But I was
heartily glad to read somewhere that your book
was nearly finished in the manuscript, for I could
wish you to sit and taste your fame, if that were
not contrary to law of Olympus. My joints ache to
think of your rugged labor. Now that you have
conquered to yourself such a huge kingdom among
men, can you not give yourself breath, and chat a
little, an Emeritus in the eternal university, and
write a gossiping letter to an old American friend
or so? Alas, I own that I have no right to say
this last,--I who write never.
Here we read no books. The war is our sole
1 As long before as 1843 Emerson wrote in his Diary : " Carlyle
in his new book " (Past and Present), " as everywhere, is a continuer
of the great line of scholars in the world, of Horace, Varro, Pliny,
Erasmus, Scaligcr, Milton, and well sustains their oflice in ample
credit and honor. "
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? Emerson to Carlyle. 3 I 7
and doleful instructor. All our bright young men
go into it, to be misused and sacrificed hitherto by
incapable leaders. One lesson they all learn,--to
hate slavery, teterrima causa. But the issue does
not yet appear. We must get ourselves morally
right. Nobody can help us. 'T is of no account
what England or France may do. Unless backed
by our profligate parties, their action would be
nugatory, and, if so backed, the worst. But even
the war is better than the degrading and descend-
ing politics that preceded it for decades of years,
and our legislation has made great strides, and if
we can stave ofl' that fury of trade which rushes
to peace at the cost of replacing the South in the
status ante bellum, we can, with something more of
courage, leave the problem to another score of
years,--free labor to fight with the Beast, and
see if bales and barrels and baskets cannot find
out that they pass more commodiously and surely
to their ports through free hands, than through
barbarians.
I grieved that the good Clough, the generous,
susceptible scholar, should die. I read over his
Bothie again, full of the wine of youth at Oxford.
I delight in Matthew Arnold's fine criticism in two
little books. Give affectionate remembrances from
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? 318 Carlyle lo Emerson. -
me to Jane Carlyle, whom ---- i's happiness
and accurate reporting restored to me in brightest
image. _ l
Always faithfully yours,
R. W. Ennason.
1
CLXX. .
CARLYLE TO EMERSON.
CHELSEA, 8 March, 1864.
DEAR EMERSoN,--This will be delivered to you
by the Hon. Lyulph Stanley, an excellent, intelligent
young gentleman whom I have known ever since
his infancy, --his father and mother being among
my very oldest friends in London; "Lord and
Lady Stanley of Alderley " (not of Knowesley, but
a cadet branch of it), whom perhaps you did not
meet while here.
My young Friend is coming to look with his own
eyes at your huge and hugely travailing Country;
--and I think will agree with you, better than he
does with me, in regard to that latest phenomenon.
At all events, he regards "Emerson" as intelli-
gent Englishmen all do; and you will please me
. . . ? ? _=--. _. _ii_'*"
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? Emerson to Carlv/le. 319
much by giving him your friendliest reception and
furtherance, -- which I can certify that he deserves
for his own sake, not counting mine at all.
Probably he may deliver you the Vol. IV. of
Frederic ; he will tell you our news (part of which,
what, regards my poor Wife, is very bad, though
God be thanked not yet the worst) ;--and, in
some six months, he may bring me back some
human tidings from Concord, a place which always
inhabits my memory, -- though it is so dumb
latterly!
Yours ever,
T. CARLYLE.
GLXXI.
EMERSON T0 CARLYLE.
CONCORD, 26 September, 1864.
DEAR CARLYLE,--Your friend, young Stanley,
brought me your letter now too many days ago.
It contained heavy news of your household,--yet
such as in these our autumnal days we must await
with what firmness we can. I hear with pain that
your Wife, whom I have only seen beaming good-
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? 32o Emerson to Carlyle.
ness and intelligence, has suffered and suffers so
severely. I recall my first visit to your house,
when I pronounced you wise and fortunate in rela-
tions wherein best men are often neither wise nor
fortunate. I had already heard rumors of her
serious illness. Send me word, I pray you, that
there is better health and hope. For the rest, the
Colonna motto would fit your letter, " Though sad,
I am strong. "
I had received in July, forwarded by Stanley, on
his flight through Boston, the fourth Volume of
Friedrich, and it was my best reading in the sum-
mer, and for weeks my only reading. One fact
was paramount in all the good I drew from it, that
whomsoever many years had used and worn, they
had not yet broken any fibre of your force:--a
pure joy to me, who abhor the inroads which time
makes on me and on my friends. To live too long
is the capital misfortune, and I sometimes think,
if we shall not parry it by better art of living, we
shall learn to include in our morals some bolder
control of the facts. I read once, that Jacobi de-
clared that he had some thoughts which--if he
should entertain them--would put him to death:
and perhaps we have weapons in our intellectual
armory that are to save us from disgrace and im-
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? Emerson lo Carlyle. 321
pertinent relation to the world we live in. But
this book will excuse you from any unseemly haste
to make up your accounts, nay, holds you to fulfil
your career with all amplitude and calmness. I
found joy and pride in it, and discerned a golden
chain of continuity not often seen in the works of
men, apprising me that one good head and great
heart remained in England,--immovable, superior
to his own eccentricities and perversities, nay,
wearing these, I can well believe, as a jaunty coat
or red cockade to defy or mislead idlers, for the
better securing his own peace, and the very ends
which the idlers fancy he resists. England's lease
of power is good during his days.
I have in these last years lamented that you had
not made the visit to America, which in earlier
years you projected or favored. It would have
made it impossible that your name should be cited
for one moment on the side of the enemies of man-
kind. Ten days' residence in this country would
have made you the organ of the sanity of England
and of Europe to us and to them, and have shown
you the necessities and aspirations which struggle
up in our Free States, which, as yet, have no organ
to others, and are ill and unsteadily articulated
here. In our to-day's division of Republican and
voL. 11. 21
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? 322 Emerson to Carlyle.
Democrat, it is certain that the American nation-
ality lies in the Republican party (mixed and mul-
tiform though that party be) ; and I hold it not less
certain, that, viewing all the nationalities of the
world, the battle for Humanity is, at this hour, in
America. A few days here would show you the
disgusting composition of the Party which within
the Union resists the national action. Take from
it the wild Irish element, imported in the last
iwventy-five years into this country, and led by
Romish Priests, who sympathize, of course, with
despotism, and you would. bereave it of all its
numerical strength. A man intelligent and vir-
tuous is not to be found on that side. Ah! how
gladly I would enlist you, with your thunderbolt,
on our part! How gladly enlist the wise, thought-
ful, eflicient pens and voices of England! We want
England and Europe to hold our people stanch to
their best tendency. Are English of this day in-
capable of a great sentiment? Can they not leave
cavilling at petty failures, and bad manners, and at
the dunce part (always the largest part in human
affairs), and leap to the suggestions and finger-
pointings of the gods, which, above the under-
standing, feed the hopes and guide the wills of
men? This war has been conducted over the
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? Emerson to Carlyle. 32 3
heads of all the actors in it; and the foolish ter-
rors, "What shall we do with the negro? " "The
entire black population is coming North to be
fed," &c. , have strangely ended in the fact that the
black refuses toileave his climate; gets his living
and the living of his employers there, as he has
always done ; is the natural ally and soldier of the
Republic, in that climate; now takes the place of
two hlmdred thousand white soldiers ; and will be,
as the conquest of the country proceeds, its garri-
son, till peace, without slavery, returns. Slave-
holders in London have filled English ears with
their wishes and perhaps beliefs; and our people,
generals, and politicians have carried the like, at
first, to the war, until corrected by irresistible ex-
perience. I shall always respect War hereafter.
The cost of life, the dreary havoc of comfort and
time, are overpaid by the vistas it opens of Eter-
nal Life, Eternal Law, reconstructing and uplifting
Society,--breaks up the old horizon, and we see
through the rifts a wider. The dismal Malthus,
the dismal DeBow, have had their night.
Our Census of 1860, and the War, are poems,
which will, in the next age, inspire a genius like
your own. I hate to write you a newspaper, but,
in these times, 't is wonderful what sublime lessons
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? 324 Carlyle to Emerson.
I have once and again read on the Bulletin-boards
in the streets. Everybody has been wrong in his
guess, except good women, who never despair of
an Ideal right.
I thank you for sending to me so gracious a gen-
tleman as Mr. Stanley, who interested us in every
manner, by his elegance, his accurate information
of that we wished to know, and his surprising ac-
quaintance with the camp and military politics on
our frontier. I regretted that I could see him so
little. He has used his time to the best purpose,
and I should gladly have learned all his adventures
from so competent a witness. Forgive this long
writing, and keep the old kindness which I prize
above words. My kindest salutations to the dear
invalid!
R. W. Emnnson.
CLXXII.
CARLYLE TO EMERSON.
Cummnrarnnns, ANNAN, Scornnnn,
14 June, 1865.
DEAR EMERSON, --Though my hand is shaking
(as you sadly notice) I determine to write you a lit-
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? Carlyle to Emerson. 32 5
tle Note to-day. What a severance there has been
these many sad years past! --In the first days of
February I ended my weary Book; a totally worn-
out man, got to shore again after far the ugliest sea
he had ever swam in. In April or the end of
March, when the book was published, I duly handed
out a Copy for Concord and you; it was to be sent
by mail; but, as my Publisher (a new Chapman,
very unlike the old) discloses to me lately an in-
credible negligence on such points, it is quite possi-
ble the dog may not, for a long while, have put it
in the Post-Oflice (though he faithfully charged me
the postage of it, and was paid), and that the
poor waif may never yet have reached you! Pa-
tience: it will come soon enough,--there are two
thick volumes, and they will stand you a great deal
of reading; stifi rather than " light. "
Since February last, I have been sauntering
about in Devonshire, in Chelsea, hither, thither;
idle as a dry bone, in fact, a creature sinking into
deeper and deeper collapse, after twelve years of
such mulish pulling and pushing; creature now
good for nothing seemingly, and much indifferent
to being so in permanence, if that be the arrange-
ment come upon by the Powers that made us.
Some three or four weeks ago, I came rolling down
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? 326 Carlyle to Emerson.
hither, into this old nook of my Birthland, to see
poor old Annandale again with eyes, and the poor
remnants of kindred and loved ones still left me
there; I was not at first very lucky (lost sleep, &c. );
but am now doing better, pretty much got adjusted
to my new element, new to me since about six
years past,-- the longest absence I ever had from
it before. My Work was getting desperate at that
time; and I silently said to myself, " We won't
return till it is done, or you are done, my man! "
This is my eldest living sister's house ; one of the
most rustic Farmhouses in the world, but abound-
ing in all that is needful to me, especially in the
truest, silently-active affection, the humble gener-
osity of which is itself medicine and balm. The
place is airy, on dry waving knolls cheerfully (with
such water as I never drank elsewhere, except at
Malvern) all round me are the Mountains, Cheviot
and Galloway (three to fifteen miles off), Cumber-
land and Yorkshire (say forty and fifty, with the
Solway brine and sands intervening). I live in to-
tal solitude, sauntering moodily in thin checkered
woods, galloping about, once daily, by old lanes and
roads, oftenest latterly on the wide expanses of Sol-
way shore (when the tide is out! ) where I see bright
busy Cottages far ofi, houses over even in Cumber-
? ?
? Emerson to Carlyle. 307
praise of the air, or of fire, or of the blessing of
love, and yet, I suppose, they are sensible of these,
and not less of this book, which is like these.
-ii
CLXV.
EMERSON TO CARLYLE.
Conconn, 16 April, 1860.
MY DEAR CARLYLE, -- Can booksellers break the
seal which the gods do not, and put me in com-
munication again with the loyalest of men? On
the ground of Mr. Wight's honest proposal to give
you a benefit from his edition,1 I, though unwilling,
allowed him to copy the Daguerre of your head.
The publishers ask also some expression of your
good will to their work. . . . .
I commend you to the gods who love and up-
hold you, and who do not like to make their great
gifts vain, but teach us that the best life-insurance
is a great task. I hold you to be one of those to
whom all is permitted, and who carry the laws
in their hand. Continue to be good to your old
friends. 'T is no matter whether they write to
1 Mr. O. W. Wight of New York, an upright " able editor," who
had just made arrangements for the publication of a very satisfac-
tory edition of Carlyle's Miscellaneous Essays.
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? 308 Carlyle to Bnerson.
you or not. If not, they save your time. When
Friedrich is once despatched to gods and men,
there was once some talk that you should come
to America! You shall have an ovation such,
and on such sincerity, as none have had. Ever
affectionately yours,
R. W. Emaeson.
I do not know Mr. Wight, but he sends his open
letter, which I fear is already old, for me to write
in: and I will not keep it, lest it lose another
steamer.
GLXVI.
CARLYLE TO EMERSON.
CHELSEA, Lennon, 30 April, 1860.
DEAR EMERSON,--It is a special favor of Heaven
to me that I hear of you again by this accident;
and am made to answer a word de Prqfundis. It
is constantly among the fairest of the few hopes
that remain for me on the other side of this Stygian
Abyss of a Friedrich (should I ever get through it
alive) that I shall then begin writing to you again,
who knows if not see you in the body before quite
taking wing! For I feel always, what I have some-
times written, that there is (in a sense) but one
completely human voice to me in' the world; and
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? Garlyle to Emerson. 309
that you are it, and have been,-- thanks to you,
whether you speak or not ! Let me say also, while
I am at it, that the few words you sent me about
those first Two volumes are present with me in the
far more frightful darknesses of these last Two; and
indeed are often almost my one encouragement.
That is a fact, and not exaggerated, though you
think it is. I read some criticisms of my wretched
Book, and hundreds of others I in the gross refused
to read; they were in praise, they were in blame;
but not one of them looked into the eyes of the
object, and in genuine human fashion responded to
its human strivings, and recognized it, -- completely
right, though with generous exaggeration! That
was well done, I can tell you: a human voice, far
out in the waste deeps, among the inarticulate sea-
krakens and obscene monsters, loud-roaring, in-
expressibly ugly, dooming you as if to eternal
solitude by way of wages,--" hath exceeding much
refreshment in it," as my friend Oliver used to say.
Having not one spare moment at present, I will
answer to you only the whole contents of that let-
ter; you in your charity will convey to Mr. Wight
what portion belongs to him. Wight, if you have
a chance of him, is worth knowing; a genuine bit
of metal, too thin and ringing for my tastes (ham-
mered, in fact, upon the Yankee anvils), but recog-
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? 31o Carlyle to Emerson.
' ". '"''__ "*1
nizably of steel and with a keen fire-edge. Pray
signify to him that he _has done a thing agreeable
to me, and that it will be pleasant if I find it will
not hurt him. Profit to me out of it, except to
keep his own soul clear and sound (to his own
sense, as it always will be to mine), is perfectly
indifferent; and on the whole I thank him heartily
for showing me a chivalrous human brother, in-
stead of the usual vulturous, malodorous, and much
avoidable phenomenon, in Transatlantic Bibliopoly!
This is accurately true; and so far as his pub-
lisher and he can extract encouragement from this,
in the face of vested interests which I cannot judge
of, it is theirs without reserve. . . . .
Adieu, my friend; I have not written so much in
the Letter way, not, I think, since you last heard of
me. In my despair it often seems as if I should
never write more; but be sunk here, and perish
miserably in the most undoable, least worthy, most
disgusting and heart-breaking of all the labors I
ever had. But perhaps also not, not quite. In
which case
Yours ever truly at any rate,
T. CARLYLE.
No time to re-read. I suppose you can de-
cipher.
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? Carlyle to Emerson. 31 1
CLXVII.
CARLYLE TO EMERSON.
CHELSEA, 29 January, 1861.
DEAR EMERSON,--The sight of my hand-writing
will, I know, be welcome again. Though I literally
do not write the smallest Note once in a month, or
converse with anything but Prussian Nightmares
of a hideous [nature], and with my Horse (who
is human in comparison), and with my poor Wife
(who is altogether human, and heroically cheerful
to me, in her poor weak state),--I must use the
five minutes, which have fallen to me to-day, in
acknowledgment, due by all laws terrestrial and
celestial, of the last Bookl that has come from
you.
I read it a great while ago, mostly in sheets, and
again read it in the finely printed form,--I can
tell you, if you do not already guess, with a satis-
faction given me by the Books of no other living
mortal. I predicted to your English Bookseller a
great sale even, reckoning it the best of all your
Books. What the sale was or is I nowhere learned;
but the basis of my prophecy remains like the
1 "The Conduct of Life. "
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? 3 1 2 Carlyle to Emerson.
rocks, and will remain. Indeed, except from my
Brother John, I have heard no criticism that had
much rationality,--some of them incredibly irra-
tional (if that matter had not altogether become
a barking of dogs among us) ;--but I always be-
lieve there are in the mute state a great number
of thinking English souls, who can recognize a
Thinker and a Sayer, of perennially human type,
and welcome him as the rarest of miracles, in
" such a spread of knowledge " as there now is : -----
one English soul of that kind there indubitably is;
and I certify hereby, notarially if you like, that such
is emphatically his view of the matter. You have
grown older, more pungent, piercing; --I never read
from you before such lightning-gleams of meaning
as are to be found here. The finale of all, that of
" Illusions" falling on us like snow-showers, but
again of "the gods sitting steadfast on their
thrones" all the while, -- what a Fiat Luz is
there, into the deeps of a philosophy, which the
vulgar has not, which hardly three men living
have, yet dreamt of! Well done, I say; and so
let that matter rest.
I am still twelve months or so from the end of
my Task; very uncertain often whether I can,
even at this snail's pace, hold out so long. In my
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? Emerson to Carlyle. 313
life I was never worn nearly so low, and seem
to get weaker monthly. Courage! If I do get
through, you shall hear of me again.
Yours forever,
T. CARLYLE.
GLXVIII.
nnnnson TO CARLYLE.
Conconn, 16 April, 1861.
MY DEAR CARLYLE,-- . -. . . I have to thank
you for the cordial note which brought me joy,
many weeks ago. It was noble and welcome in all
but its boding account of yourself and your task.
But I have had experience of your labors, and these
deplorations I have long since learned to distrust.
We have settled it in America, as I doubt not it
is settled in England, that Frederick is a history
which a beneficent Providence is not very likely to
interrupt. And may every kind and tender influ-
ence near you and over you keep the best head in
England from all harm.
Afiectionately,
R. W. Emnnson.
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? 314 ' Enerson to Carlyle.
-. . _
GLXIX.
EMERSON T0 CARLYLE. 1
CONCORD, 8 December, 1862.
MY DEAR FRIEND,--LOI1g ago, as soon as swift
steamers could bring the new book across the sea,
I received the third volume of Friedrich, with your
autograph inscription, and read it with joy. Not a
word went to the beloved author, for I do not write
or think. I would wait perhaps for happier days,
as our President Lincoln will not even emancipate
slaves, until on the heels of a victory, or the sem-
blance of such. But he waited in vain for his
triumph, nor dare I in my heavy months expect
bright days. The book was heartily grateful, and
square to the author's imperial scale. You have
lighted the glooms, and engineered away the pits,
whereof you poetically pleased yourself with com-
plaining, in your sometime letter to me, clean out
of it, according to the high Italian rule, and have
let sunshine and pure air enfold the scene. First,
I read it honestly through for the history ; then I
1 Portions of this and of the following letter of Emerson have
been printed by Mr. Alexander Ireland in his " Ralph Waldo Em-
erson : Recollections of his Visits to England," ? tc. London, 1882.
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? lhnerson to Carlyle. 3 1 5
pause and speculate on the Muse that inspires, and
the friend that reports it. 'Tis sovereignly written,
above all literature, dictating to all mortals what
they shall accept as fated and final for their salva-
tion. It is Mankind's Bill of Rights and Duties,
the royal proclamation of Intellect ascending the
throne, announcing its good pleasure, that, here-
after, as heretofore, and now once for all, the World
shall be governed by Common Sense and law of
Morals, or shall go to ruin. \
But the manner of it! --the author sitting as
Demiurgus, trotting out his manikins, coaxing and
bantering them, amused with their good performance,
patting them on the back, and rating the naughty
dolls when they misbehave; and communicating his
mind ever in measure, just as much as the young
public can understand; hinting the futiue, when it
would be useful; recalling now and then illustrative
antecedents of the actor, impressing the reader that
he is in possession of the entire history centrally
seen, that his investigation has been exhaustive,
and that he descends too on the petty plot of Prus-
sia from higher and cosmical surveys. Better I
like the sound sense and the absolute independence
of the tone, which may put kings in fear. And, as
the reader shares, according to his intelligence, the
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? 3 1 6 Emerson to Carlyle.
haughty coup d'oeil of this genius, and shares it
with delight, I recommend to all governors, Eng-
lish, French, Austrian, and other, to double their
guards, and look carefully to the censorship of the
press. I find, as ever in your books, that one man
has deserved well of mankind for restoring the
Scholar's profession to its highest use and dignity}
I find also that you are very wilful, and have made
a covenant with your eyes that they shall not see
anything you do not wish they should.
But I was
heartily glad to read somewhere that your book
was nearly finished in the manuscript, for I could
wish you to sit and taste your fame, if that were
not contrary to law of Olympus. My joints ache to
think of your rugged labor. Now that you have
conquered to yourself such a huge kingdom among
men, can you not give yourself breath, and chat a
little, an Emeritus in the eternal university, and
write a gossiping letter to an old American friend
or so? Alas, I own that I have no right to say
this last,--I who write never.
Here we read no books. The war is our sole
1 As long before as 1843 Emerson wrote in his Diary : " Carlyle
in his new book " (Past and Present), " as everywhere, is a continuer
of the great line of scholars in the world, of Horace, Varro, Pliny,
Erasmus, Scaligcr, Milton, and well sustains their oflice in ample
credit and honor. "
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? Emerson to Carlyle. 3 I 7
and doleful instructor. All our bright young men
go into it, to be misused and sacrificed hitherto by
incapable leaders. One lesson they all learn,--to
hate slavery, teterrima causa. But the issue does
not yet appear. We must get ourselves morally
right. Nobody can help us. 'T is of no account
what England or France may do. Unless backed
by our profligate parties, their action would be
nugatory, and, if so backed, the worst. But even
the war is better than the degrading and descend-
ing politics that preceded it for decades of years,
and our legislation has made great strides, and if
we can stave ofl' that fury of trade which rushes
to peace at the cost of replacing the South in the
status ante bellum, we can, with something more of
courage, leave the problem to another score of
years,--free labor to fight with the Beast, and
see if bales and barrels and baskets cannot find
out that they pass more commodiously and surely
to their ports through free hands, than through
barbarians.
I grieved that the good Clough, the generous,
susceptible scholar, should die. I read over his
Bothie again, full of the wine of youth at Oxford.
I delight in Matthew Arnold's fine criticism in two
little books. Give affectionate remembrances from
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? 318 Carlyle lo Emerson. -
me to Jane Carlyle, whom ---- i's happiness
and accurate reporting restored to me in brightest
image. _ l
Always faithfully yours,
R. W. Ennason.
1
CLXX. .
CARLYLE TO EMERSON.
CHELSEA, 8 March, 1864.
DEAR EMERSoN,--This will be delivered to you
by the Hon. Lyulph Stanley, an excellent, intelligent
young gentleman whom I have known ever since
his infancy, --his father and mother being among
my very oldest friends in London; "Lord and
Lady Stanley of Alderley " (not of Knowesley, but
a cadet branch of it), whom perhaps you did not
meet while here.
My young Friend is coming to look with his own
eyes at your huge and hugely travailing Country;
--and I think will agree with you, better than he
does with me, in regard to that latest phenomenon.
At all events, he regards "Emerson" as intelli-
gent Englishmen all do; and you will please me
. . . ? ? _=--. _. _ii_'*"
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? Emerson to Carlv/le. 319
much by giving him your friendliest reception and
furtherance, -- which I can certify that he deserves
for his own sake, not counting mine at all.
Probably he may deliver you the Vol. IV. of
Frederic ; he will tell you our news (part of which,
what, regards my poor Wife, is very bad, though
God be thanked not yet the worst) ;--and, in
some six months, he may bring me back some
human tidings from Concord, a place which always
inhabits my memory, -- though it is so dumb
latterly!
Yours ever,
T. CARLYLE.
GLXXI.
EMERSON T0 CARLYLE.
CONCORD, 26 September, 1864.
DEAR CARLYLE,--Your friend, young Stanley,
brought me your letter now too many days ago.
It contained heavy news of your household,--yet
such as in these our autumnal days we must await
with what firmness we can. I hear with pain that
your Wife, whom I have only seen beaming good-
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? 32o Emerson to Carlyle.
ness and intelligence, has suffered and suffers so
severely. I recall my first visit to your house,
when I pronounced you wise and fortunate in rela-
tions wherein best men are often neither wise nor
fortunate. I had already heard rumors of her
serious illness. Send me word, I pray you, that
there is better health and hope. For the rest, the
Colonna motto would fit your letter, " Though sad,
I am strong. "
I had received in July, forwarded by Stanley, on
his flight through Boston, the fourth Volume of
Friedrich, and it was my best reading in the sum-
mer, and for weeks my only reading. One fact
was paramount in all the good I drew from it, that
whomsoever many years had used and worn, they
had not yet broken any fibre of your force:--a
pure joy to me, who abhor the inroads which time
makes on me and on my friends. To live too long
is the capital misfortune, and I sometimes think,
if we shall not parry it by better art of living, we
shall learn to include in our morals some bolder
control of the facts. I read once, that Jacobi de-
clared that he had some thoughts which--if he
should entertain them--would put him to death:
and perhaps we have weapons in our intellectual
armory that are to save us from disgrace and im-
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? Emerson lo Carlyle. 321
pertinent relation to the world we live in. But
this book will excuse you from any unseemly haste
to make up your accounts, nay, holds you to fulfil
your career with all amplitude and calmness. I
found joy and pride in it, and discerned a golden
chain of continuity not often seen in the works of
men, apprising me that one good head and great
heart remained in England,--immovable, superior
to his own eccentricities and perversities, nay,
wearing these, I can well believe, as a jaunty coat
or red cockade to defy or mislead idlers, for the
better securing his own peace, and the very ends
which the idlers fancy he resists. England's lease
of power is good during his days.
I have in these last years lamented that you had
not made the visit to America, which in earlier
years you projected or favored. It would have
made it impossible that your name should be cited
for one moment on the side of the enemies of man-
kind. Ten days' residence in this country would
have made you the organ of the sanity of England
and of Europe to us and to them, and have shown
you the necessities and aspirations which struggle
up in our Free States, which, as yet, have no organ
to others, and are ill and unsteadily articulated
here. In our to-day's division of Republican and
voL. 11. 21
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? 322 Emerson to Carlyle.
Democrat, it is certain that the American nation-
ality lies in the Republican party (mixed and mul-
tiform though that party be) ; and I hold it not less
certain, that, viewing all the nationalities of the
world, the battle for Humanity is, at this hour, in
America. A few days here would show you the
disgusting composition of the Party which within
the Union resists the national action. Take from
it the wild Irish element, imported in the last
iwventy-five years into this country, and led by
Romish Priests, who sympathize, of course, with
despotism, and you would. bereave it of all its
numerical strength. A man intelligent and vir-
tuous is not to be found on that side. Ah! how
gladly I would enlist you, with your thunderbolt,
on our part! How gladly enlist the wise, thought-
ful, eflicient pens and voices of England! We want
England and Europe to hold our people stanch to
their best tendency. Are English of this day in-
capable of a great sentiment? Can they not leave
cavilling at petty failures, and bad manners, and at
the dunce part (always the largest part in human
affairs), and leap to the suggestions and finger-
pointings of the gods, which, above the under-
standing, feed the hopes and guide the wills of
men? This war has been conducted over the
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? Emerson to Carlyle. 32 3
heads of all the actors in it; and the foolish ter-
rors, "What shall we do with the negro? " "The
entire black population is coming North to be
fed," &c. , have strangely ended in the fact that the
black refuses toileave his climate; gets his living
and the living of his employers there, as he has
always done ; is the natural ally and soldier of the
Republic, in that climate; now takes the place of
two hlmdred thousand white soldiers ; and will be,
as the conquest of the country proceeds, its garri-
son, till peace, without slavery, returns. Slave-
holders in London have filled English ears with
their wishes and perhaps beliefs; and our people,
generals, and politicians have carried the like, at
first, to the war, until corrected by irresistible ex-
perience. I shall always respect War hereafter.
The cost of life, the dreary havoc of comfort and
time, are overpaid by the vistas it opens of Eter-
nal Life, Eternal Law, reconstructing and uplifting
Society,--breaks up the old horizon, and we see
through the rifts a wider. The dismal Malthus,
the dismal DeBow, have had their night.
Our Census of 1860, and the War, are poems,
which will, in the next age, inspire a genius like
your own. I hate to write you a newspaper, but,
in these times, 't is wonderful what sublime lessons
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? 324 Carlyle to Emerson.
I have once and again read on the Bulletin-boards
in the streets. Everybody has been wrong in his
guess, except good women, who never despair of
an Ideal right.
I thank you for sending to me so gracious a gen-
tleman as Mr. Stanley, who interested us in every
manner, by his elegance, his accurate information
of that we wished to know, and his surprising ac-
quaintance with the camp and military politics on
our frontier. I regretted that I could see him so
little. He has used his time to the best purpose,
and I should gladly have learned all his adventures
from so competent a witness. Forgive this long
writing, and keep the old kindness which I prize
above words. My kindest salutations to the dear
invalid!
R. W. Emnnson.
CLXXII.
CARLYLE TO EMERSON.
Cummnrarnnns, ANNAN, Scornnnn,
14 June, 1865.
DEAR EMERSON, --Though my hand is shaking
(as you sadly notice) I determine to write you a lit-
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? Carlyle to Emerson. 32 5
tle Note to-day. What a severance there has been
these many sad years past! --In the first days of
February I ended my weary Book; a totally worn-
out man, got to shore again after far the ugliest sea
he had ever swam in. In April or the end of
March, when the book was published, I duly handed
out a Copy for Concord and you; it was to be sent
by mail; but, as my Publisher (a new Chapman,
very unlike the old) discloses to me lately an in-
credible negligence on such points, it is quite possi-
ble the dog may not, for a long while, have put it
in the Post-Oflice (though he faithfully charged me
the postage of it, and was paid), and that the
poor waif may never yet have reached you! Pa-
tience: it will come soon enough,--there are two
thick volumes, and they will stand you a great deal
of reading; stifi rather than " light. "
Since February last, I have been sauntering
about in Devonshire, in Chelsea, hither, thither;
idle as a dry bone, in fact, a creature sinking into
deeper and deeper collapse, after twelve years of
such mulish pulling and pushing; creature now
good for nothing seemingly, and much indifferent
to being so in permanence, if that be the arrange-
ment come upon by the Powers that made us.
Some three or four weeks ago, I came rolling down
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? 326 Carlyle to Emerson.
hither, into this old nook of my Birthland, to see
poor old Annandale again with eyes, and the poor
remnants of kindred and loved ones still left me
there; I was not at first very lucky (lost sleep, &c. );
but am now doing better, pretty much got adjusted
to my new element, new to me since about six
years past,-- the longest absence I ever had from
it before. My Work was getting desperate at that
time; and I silently said to myself, " We won't
return till it is done, or you are done, my man! "
This is my eldest living sister's house ; one of the
most rustic Farmhouses in the world, but abound-
ing in all that is needful to me, especially in the
truest, silently-active affection, the humble gener-
osity of which is itself medicine and balm. The
place is airy, on dry waving knolls cheerfully (with
such water as I never drank elsewhere, except at
Malvern) all round me are the Mountains, Cheviot
and Galloway (three to fifteen miles off), Cumber-
land and Yorkshire (say forty and fifty, with the
Solway brine and sands intervening). I live in to-
tal solitude, sauntering moodily in thin checkered
woods, galloping about, once daily, by old lanes and
roads, oftenest latterly on the wide expanses of Sol-
way shore (when the tide is out! ) where I see bright
busy Cottages far ofi, houses over even in Cumber-
? ?
