No More Learning

CXXIV.
CARLYLE TO EMERSON.
Rawnon, NEAR LEEDS, YORKSHIRE,
31 August, 1847.
DEAR EMERsoN,--Almost ever since your last
Letter reached me, I have been wandering over
the country, enveloped either in a restless whirl
of locomotives, view-hunting, &c. , or sunk in the
deepest torpor of total idleness and laziness,-
forgetting, and striving to forget, that there was
any world but that of dreams;--and though at
intervals the reproachful remembrance has arisen
sharply enough on me, that I ought, on all ac-
counts high and low, to have written you an answer,
never till to-day have I been able to take pen in
hand, and actually begin that operation! Such is
the naked fact. My Wife is with me ; we leave no
household behind us but a servant; the face of
1-
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? Carlyle to Emerson. I69
England, with its mad electioneerings, vacant tour-
ist dilettanteings, with its - shady woods, green-
yellow harvest-fields and dingy mill-chimneys, so
new and old, so beautiful and ugly, every way so
abstruse and unspeakable, invites to silence; the
whole world, fruitful yet disgusting to this human
soul of mine, invites me to silence; to sleep, and
dreams, and stagnant indifierence, as if for the time
one had got into the country of the Lotos-Eaters, and
it made no matter what became of anything and all
things. In good truth, it is a wearied man, at least
a dreadfully slothful and slumberous man, eager
for sleep in any quantity, that now addresses you!
Be thankful for a few half-dreaming words, till we
awake again.
As to your visit to us, there is but one thing to
be said and repeated: That a prophet's chamber is
ready for you in Chelsea, and a brotherly and sisterly
welcome, on whatever day at whatever hour you
arrive: this, which is all of the Practical that I can
properly take charge of, is to be considered a given
quantity always. With regard to Lecturing, &c. ,
Ireland, with whom I suppose you to be in corre-
spondence, seems to have awakened all this North
Country into the fixed hope of hearing you,-- and
God knows they have need enough to hear a man
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? 170 Carlyle to Emerson.
with sense in his head ;--it was but the other day I
read in one of their Newspapers, " We understand
that Mr. Emerson the distinguished &c. is certainly
&c. this winter," all in due Newspaper phrase, and I
think they settled your arrival for " October " next.
May it prove so! But on the whole there is no
doubt of your coming; that is a great fact. And
if so, I should say, Why not come at once, even as
the Editor surmises? You will evidently do no
other considerable enterprise till this voyage to
England is achieved. Come therefore;--and we
shall see; we shall hear and speak! I do not
know another man in all the world to whom I can
speak with clear hope of getting adequate response
from him: if I speak to you, it will be a breaking
of my silence for the last time perhaps, -- perhaps
for the first time, on some points! Allons. I shall
not always be so roadweary, lifeweary, sleepy, and
stony as at present. I even think there is yet an-
other Book in me; "Exodus from Houndsditch"
(I think it might be called), a peeling off of fetid
Jewhood in every sense from myself and my poor
bewildered brethren: one other Book; and, if it
were a right one, rest after that, the deeper the
better, forevermore. Ach Gott I --
Hedge is one of the sturdiest little fellows I have
'-
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? Carlyle to Emerson. 1 71
come across for many a day. A face like a rock;
a voice like a howitzer; only his honest kind gray
eyes reassure you a little. We have met only once;
but hope (mutually, I flatter myself) it may be of-
ten by and by. That hardy little fellow too, what
has he to do with "Semitic tradition" and the
"dust-hole of extinct Socinianism," George-Sand-
ism, and the Twaddle of a thousand Magazines?
Thor and his Hammer, even, seem to me a little
more respectable; at least, " My dear Sir, en-
deavor to clear your mind of Cant. " Oh, we are
all sunk, much deeperthan any of us imagines.
And our worship of "beautiful sentiments," &c. ,
&c. is as contemptible a form of long-ears as any
other, perhaps the most so of any. It is in fact
damnable. --We will say no more of it at present.
Hedge came to me with tall lank Chapman at his
side,--an innocent flail of a creature, with con-
siderable impetus in him : the two when they stood
up together looked like a circle and tangent,--in
more senses than one. -
Jacobson, the Oxford Doctor, who welcomed
your Concord Senator in that City, writes to me
that he has received (with blushes, &c. ) some grand
" Gift for his Child " from that Traveller; whom I
am accordingly to thank, and blush to,-- Jacobson
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? I72 Enerson to Carlyle.
not knowing his address at present. The " ad-
dress" of course is still more unknown to me at
present :, but we shall know it, and the man it in-
dicates, I hope, again before long. So much for
that.
And now, dear Emerson, Adieu. Will your next
Letter tell us the when ? O my Friend! ---- ----
We are here with Quakers, or Ex-Quakers rather;
a very curious people, "like water from the crystal
well"; in a very curious country too, most beauti-
ful and very ugly: but why write of it, or of any-
thing more, while half asleep and lotos-eating!
Adieu, my Friend; come soon, and let us meet
again under this Sun. Yours,
T. CARLYLE.
CXXV.
EMERSON T0 CARLYLE.
CONCORD, 30 September, 1847.
MY DEAR CARLYLE,--The last steamer brought,
as ever, good tidings from you, though certainly
from a new habitat, at Leeds, or near it. _ If Leeds
will only keep you a little in its precinct, I will
search for you there; for it is one of the parishes
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? Emerson to Carlyle. I 7 3
in the diocese which Mr. Ireland and his friends
have carved out for me on the map of England.
I have taken a berth in the packet-ship " Wash-
ington Irving," which leaves Boston for Liverpool
next week, 5 October ; having decided, after a little
demurring and advising, to follow my inclination in
shunning the steamer. The owners will almost
take oath that their ship cannot be out of a port
twenty days. At Liverpool and Manchester I shall
take advice of Ireland and his ofiicers of the "In-
stitutes," and perhaps shall remain for some time
in that region, if my courage and my head are
equal to the work they ofier me. I will write you
what befalls me in the strange city. Who knows
but I may have adventures--I who had never
one, as I have just had occasion to write to Mrs.
Howitt, who inquired what mine were?
Well, if I survive Liverpool, and Manchester,
and Leeds, or rather my errands thither, I shall
come some fine day to see you in your burly city,
you in the centre of the world, and sun me a
little in your British heart. It seems a lively
passage that I am entering in the old Dream
World, and perhaps the slumbers are lighter and
the Morning is near. Softly, dear shadows, do not
scatter yet. Knit your panorama close and well,
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? 1 74 Carlyle to Emerson.
till these rare figures just before me draw near, and
are greeted and known. --
But there is no more time in this late night-
and what need? since I shall see you and yours
Soo11.
Ever yours,
R. W. E.
CXXVI.
CARLYLE TO EMERSON.
CHELSEA, 15 October, 1847.
MY DEAR EMERSON, --Your Letter from Concord,
of the 31st of July, had arrived duly in London;
been duly forwarded to my transient address at
Buxton in Derbyshire, -- and there, by the faithless
Postmaster, retained among his lumber, instead of
given to me when I called on him! We staid in
Buxton only one day and night; two Newspapers,
as I recollect, the Postmaster did deliver to me on
my demand; but your Letter he, with scandalous
carelessness, kept back, and left me to travel for-
wards without: there accordingly it lay, week after
week, for a month or more ; and only by half-acci-
dent and the extraordinary diligence and accuracy
of our Chelsea Postman, was it recovered at all,
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? Carlyle to Emerson. I75
not many days ago, after my Wife's return hither.
Consider what kind of fact this was and has been
for us! For now, if all have gone right, you are
approaching the coast of England; Chelsea and
your fraternal House hidden under a disastrous
cloud to you ; and I know not so much as whither-
ward to write, and send you a word of solution. It
is one of the most unpleasant mistakes that ever
befell me; I have no resource but to enclose this
Note to Mr. Ireland, and charge him by the strong-
est adjurations to have it ready for you the first
thing when you set foot upon our shores}
Know then, my Friend, that in verity your Home
while in England is here; and all other places,
whither work or amusement may call you, are but
inns and temporary lodgings. I have returned
hither a day or two ago, and free from any urgent
calls or businesses of any kind ; my Wife has your
room all ready;--and here surely, if anywhere in
the wide Earth, there ought to be a brother's wel-
come and kind home waiting you ! Yes, by Allah !
1 Mr. Ireland, in his Recollections of Emerson's Visit to England,
p. 59, prints Carlyle's note to himself, enclosing this letter, -and
adds : " The ship reached Liverpool on the 22d of October, and Mr.
Emerson at once proceeded to Manchester. After spending a few
hours in friendly talk, he was 'shot up,' as Carlyle had desired, to
Chelsea, and at the end of a week returned to Manchester, to begin
his lectures. "
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? 1 76 Carlyle to Emerson.
-- An "Express Train" leaves Liverpool every
afternoon; and in some six hours will set you
down here. I know not what your engagements
are; but I say to myself, Why not come at once,
and rest a little from your sea-changes, before
going farther? In six hours you can be out of
the unstable waters, and sitting in your own room
\~ here. You shall not be bothered with talk till you
' Murepose; and you shall have plenty of it, hot and
hot, when the appetite does arise in you. "No. 5
Great Cheyne Row, Chelsea " : come to the "Lon-
don Terminus," from any side; say these magic
words to any Cabman, and by night or by day you
are a welcome apparition here,-- foul befall us
otherwise! This is the fact: what more can I
say? I make my aflidavit of the same; and require
you in the name of all Lares and Penates, and
Household Gods ancient and modern which are
sacred to men, to consider it and take brotherly
account of it ! --
Shall we hear of you, then, in a day or two:
shall we not perhaps see you in a day or two!
That depends on the winds and the chances; but
our afiection is independent of such. Adieu; au
revoir, it now is! Come soon; come at once.
Ever yours,
T. CARLYLE.
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? Extracts from Emerson's Diary. I77
EXTRACTS FROM EMERSON'S DIARY,
OCTOBER, 1847.
"I found at Liverpool, after a couple of days, a
letter which had been seeking me, from Carlyle,
addressed to 'R. W. E. on the instant when he
lands in England,' conveying the heartiest welcome
and urgent invitation to house and hearth. And
finding that I should not be wanted for a week
in the Lecture-rooms I came down to London on
Monday, and, at ten at night, the door was opened
by Jane Carlyle, and the man himself was behind
her with a lamp in the-hall. They were very lit-
tle changed from their old selves of fourteen years
ago (in August), when I left them at Craigenput-
tock. ' Well,' said Carlyle, ' here we are shovelled
together again. ' The floodgates of his-talk are
quickly opened, and the- river is a plentiful stream.
We had a wide talk that night lmtil nearly one
o'clock, and at breakfast next morning again. At
noon or later we walked forth to Hyde Park and
the Palaces, about two miles from here, to the
National Gallery, and to the Strand, Carlyle melt-
ing all Westminster and London into his talk and
laughter, as he goes. Here, in his house, we break-
fast about nine, and Carlyle is very prone, his wife
voL. II. 12
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?
178 Extracts from Emersoris Diary.
says, to sleep till ten or eleven, if he has no com-
pany. An immense talker, and altogether as ex-
traordinary in that as in his writing; I think, even
more so; you will never discover his real vigor and
range, or how much more he might do than he has
ever done, without seeing him. My few hours' dis-
course with him, long ago, in Scotland, gave me not
enough knowledge of him ; and I have now at last
been taken by surprise by him. "
" C. and his wife live on beautiful terms. Their
ways are very engaging, and, in her bookcase, all
his books are inscribed to her, as they came from
year to year, each with some significant lines. "
" I had a good talk with C. last night. He says
over and over, for months, for years, the same
thing. Yet his guiding genius is his moral sense,
his perception of the sole importance of truth
and justice; and he, too, says that there is prop-
erly no religion in England. He is quite con-
temptuous about 'Kunst,' also, in Germans, or
English, or Americans ; 1 and has a huge respect for
1 See English Tra/its, Ch. XVI. ; and I/ij'e of Sterling, Part II.
Ch. VII. "Among the windy gospels addressed to our poor cen-
tury there are few louder than this of Art. "
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? Extracts from Emerson's Diary. 179
the Duke of Wellington, as the only Englishman,
or the only one in the Aristocracy, who will have
nothing to do with any manner of lie. "
The following sentences are of later date than
the preceding:-- -
"Carlyle had all the kleinstddtlich traits of an
islander and a Scotsman, and reprimanded with
severity the rebellious instincts of the native of a
vast continent which made light of the British
Islands. "
" Carlyle has a hairy strength which makes his
literary vocation a mere chance, and what seems
very contemptible to him. I could think only of
an enormous trip-hammer with an ' Eolian attach-
ment. ' "
" In Carlyle as in Byron, one is more struck with
the rhetoric than with the matter. He has manly
superiority rather than intellectuality, and so makes
good hard hits all the time. There is more charac-
ter than intellect in every sentence, herein strongly
resembling Samuel Johnson. "
" England makes what a step from Dr. Johnson
to Carlyle! what wealth of thought and science,
. e
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? 1 80 Emerson to Carlyle.
what expansion of views and profounder resources
does the genius and performance of this last imply!
If she can make another step as large, what
new ages open! "
GXXVII.
EMERSON TO CARLYLE.
Mas. MAsSEY's, MANCHESTER, 2 FENNY PLACE, FENNY S12,
November 5, 1847.
AH! my dear friend, all these days have gone,
and you have had no word from me, when the shut-
tles fly so swiftly in your English loom, and in so
few hours we may have tidings of the best that live.
At last, and only this day for the first day, I am
stablished in my own lodgings on English ground,
and have a fair parlor and chamber, into both of
which the sun and moon shine, into which friendly
people have already entered.
Hitherto I have been the victim of trifles,--
which is the fate and the chief objection to travel-
ling. Days are absorbed in precious nothings. But
now that I am in some sort a citizen, of Manches-
ter, and also of Liverpool (for there also I am to
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? Emerson to Carlyle. I81
"vs--- 1? '_1_" P:'=""'_'~'"'. *'~'--*-~"">>--' ,--7v_-,,_,_ -. _. w. . _w. . F_. _-. - - _ ,--. ,,. . . . , _ _,,
enter on lodgings to-morrow, at 56 Stafford Street,
Islington), perhaps the social heart of this English
world will include me also in its strong and health-
ful circulations. I get the best letters from home
by the last steamers, and was much occupied in Liv-
erpool yesterday in seeing Dr. Nichol _of Glasgow,
who was to sail in the " Acadia," and in giving him
credentials to some Americans. I find here a very
kind reception from your friends, as they emphati-
cally are,--Ireland, Espinasse, Miss J ewsbury, Dr.
Hodgson, and a circle expanding on all sides out-
ward,---and Mrs. Paulet at Liverpool. I am learn-
ing there also to know friendly faces, and a certain
Roscoe Club has complimented me with its privi-
leges. The oddest part of my new position is my
alarming penny correspondence, which, what with
welcomes, invitations to lecture, proffers of hospi-
tality, suggestions from good Swedenborgists and
others for my better guidance touching the titles
of my discourses, &c. , &c. , all requiring answers,
threaten to eat up a day like a cherry. In this fog
and miscellany, and until the heavenly sun shall
give me one beam,will not you, friend and joy of so
many years, send me a quiet. 1ine or two now and
then to say that you still smoke your pipe in peace,
side by side with wife and brother also well and
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? 1 8,2 Carlyle to Emerson. '
smoking, or able to smoke? Now that Ihave in
some measure calmed down the astonishment and
consternation of seeing your dreams change into
realities, I mean, at my next approximation or peri-
helion, to behold you with the most serene and
sceptical calmness.
So give my thanks and true affectionate remem-
brance to Jane Carlyle, and my regards also to Dr.
Carlyle, whose precise address please also to send
me.
Ever your loving
R. W. E.
The address at the top of this note is the best for
the present, as I mean to make this my centre.
CXXVIII.
CARLYLE TO EMERSON.
CHELSEA, 13 November, 1847.
DEAR EMERSON, -- Your Book-parcels were faith:
fully sent off, directly after your departure: in
regard to one of them I had a pleasant visit from
the proprietor in person,--the young Swedenbor-
gian Doctor, whom to my surprise I found quite
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? Carlyle to Emerson. 183
an agreeable, accomplished secular young gentle-
man, much given to " progress of the species," &c. ,
&c. ; from whom I suppose you have yourself heard.
The wandering umbrella, still short of an owner,
hangs upon its peg here, without definite_ outlook.
Of yourself there have come news, by your own
Letter, and by various excerpts from Manchester
Newspapers. Gliick zu. /--
This Morning I received the Enclosed, and send
it off to you without farther response. Mudie, if I
mistake not, is some small Bookseller in the Rus-
sell-Square region; pray answer him, if you think
him worthy of answer. A dim suspicion haunts
me that perhaps he was the Republisher (or Pirate)
of your first set of Essays: but probably he regards
this as a mere office of untutored friendship on
his part. Or possibly I do the poor man wrong by
misremembrance ? Chapman could tell.
I am sunk deep here, in efiete Manuscripts, in
abstruse meditations, in confusions old and new;
sinking, as I may describe myself, through stratum
after stratum of the Inane,--down to one knows
not what depth! I unfortunately belong to the
Opposition Party in many points, and am in a
minority of one. To keep silence, therefore, is
among the principal duties at present.
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? I84 Carlyle to Emerson.
We had a call from Bancroft, the other evening.
A tough Yankee man; of many worthy qualities
more tough than musical; among which it grati-
fied me to find a certain small under-current of
genial humor, or as it were hidden laughter, not
noticed heretofore.
My Wife and all the rest of us are well; and do
all salute you with our true wishes, and the hope to
have you here again before long. Do not bother
yourself with other than voluntary writing to me,
while there is so much otherwise that you are
obliged to write. If on any point you want advice,
information, or other help that lies within the lim-
its of my strength, command me, now and always.
And so Good be with you; and a happy meeting
to us soon again.
Yours ever truly, '
T. CARLYLE.
CXXIX.
CARLYLE TO EMERSON.
CHELSEA, 30 November, 1847.
DEAR EMERSON,---Here is a word for you from
'Miss Fuller; I send you the Cover also, though I
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? Carlyle to Emerson.