At worst
I will not wait, lest you grow impatient again
and get short.
I will not wait, lest you grow impatient again
and get short.
Thomas Carlyle
48
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
Carlyle chronicles, directed Carlyle's gaze
toward what Johnson thought the fairest
prospect ever spread before a Scotchman.
Emerson had observed that "he was already
turning his eyes towards London with a
scholar's appreciation," and at last, on the
25th of February, 1834, Carlyle wrote to his
brother John: "We learned incidentally last
week that Grace, our servant, though 'with-
out fault to us,' and whom we, with all her
inertness, were nothing but purposing to
keep, had resolved on 'going home next sum-
mer. ' The cup that had long been filling ran
over with the smallest of drops. After medi-
tating on it for a few minutes, we said to one
another: 'Why not bolt out of all these sooty
despicabilities, of Kerrags and lying draggle-
tails of byre-women, and peat-moss and iso-
lation and exasperation and confusion, and
go at once to London? ' Gedacht, gethan!
Two days after we had a letter on the road
to Mrs. Austin, to look out among the
'houses to let' for us, and an advertisement
to Mac Diarmid to try for the letting of our
own. " Cattle, poultry, and various superflui-
ties, were sold. Carlyle went on ahead, and
was guided by the airy steps of Leigh Hunt,
then a dweller in Upper Cheyne Row, Chel-
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? IN LONDON
49
sea, to the house Number 5, Great Cheyne
Row, which the new tenants soon made inter-
esting to much of what was best in London
(to much, also, Mrs. Oliphant has taken pains
to say, of what was not the best), and event-
ually to the English-speaking world. The
house was not taken until Mrs. Carlyle had
inspected and approved it. A few days after
the 10th of June, the date of their installa-
tion, Carlyle wrote to his mother: "We he
safe at a bend of the river, away from all the
great roads; have air and quiet hardly infe-
rior to Craigenputtock, an outlook from the
back windows into mere leafy regions, with
here and there a red high-peaked old roof
looking through; and see nothing of London,
except by day the summits of St. Paul's Ca-
thedral and Westminster Abbey, and by night
the gleam of the great Babylon affronting
the peaceful skies. The house itself is prob-
ably the best we have ever lived in, a right
old, strong, roomy brick-house, built near
one hundred and fifty years ago, and likely
to see three races of these modern fashiona-
bles fall before it comes down. " It all sounds
like a sunny backwater, but in truth the Car-
lyles had taken a very bold plunge into the
world-sea. Their reserve of money could have
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? so
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
been, at the utmost, no more than three hun-
dred pounds; and the only personal sign of
the times for them was the fact that the
writer of Sartor -- now coming out in chap-
ters-- was thought a literary maniac, and
that Fraser feared the ruin of his magazine.
The household gods, however, once tem-
pled in Cheyne Row, were never carried back
across the Border; nor, in fact, were they,
in the half-century of life that remained to
Carlyle, removed to any other spot. Here he
caught the last glimpse of Edward Irving,
the friend of his youth; here he welcomed
Sterling, "a new young figure," the closest
friend of his middle life; and hither came to
him Froude and Ruskin, his latest followers.
At first, in the chosen habitation, it was
"desperate hope " and " bitter thrift. " The
readers of Fraser's Magazine received Sartor
each month with renewed disgust. "Sartor,"
said the publisher, "excites universal disap-
probation. " While this passionate history of
a soul, with its motive so strangely drawn
from the Holy Bible and the great, unholy
Dean, was waiting to touch the slow spirit of
the British reading public, Carlyle -- taking
counsel of his necessities, his ambition, and
his inspirations -- applied himself to the his-
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? THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 51
tory of the French Revolution. The first
volume -- as all the world knows -- was lent
in manuscript to Mill, who lent it to Mrs.
Taylor, his "veevid" and "iridescent" Ege-
ria, whose servant kindled fires with it. Car-
lyle had not been offered, as he thought he
should have been, the editorship of the new
London and Westminster Review; and Mill,
for fear of his father, did not dare even to
give him work to do for it. Carlyle himself
had refused to sell his independence to the
Times. There was thus nothing for it but to
rewrite the burnt volume, of which he had
kept no notes. With such vigor did he drive
his mind and his pen that the lost chapters
were restored by September 22, 1835. Mill
had told him of the loss on the 6th of the
preceding March. Mrs. Carlyle wrote to her
sister-in-law, Mrs. Aitken, in August: "I do
not think that the second version is, on the
whole, inferior to the first; it is a little less
vivacious, perhaps, but better thought and
put together. One chapter more brings him
to the end of his second 'first volume,' and
then we shall sing a Te Deum and get drunk;
for which, by the way, we have unusual facil-
ities at present, a friend (Mr. Wilson) having
yesterday sent us a present of a hamper (some
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? 52
LETTERS OF CABLYLE
six or seven pounds' worth) of the finest old
Madeira wine. "
Better yet than wine was an American edi-
tion of Sartor, godfathered by Emerson, to
the number of five hundred copies. This was
in April, 1836, and another edition was soon
demanded. Carlyle amused himself by quot-
ing the book, in his essay on Mirabeau, as the
work of a New England writer.
"The Doctor," mentioned in the letter to
follow, was Carlyle's brother John, who,
thanks to Jeffrey, had been for some years
traveling physician to Lady Clare. "Anne
Cook" was an Annan dale servant whom Car-
lyle brought with him on his return from
Scotsbrig, in October, 1835. Mrs. Carlyle
wrote of Anne Cook, "She amuses me every
hour of the day with her perfect incompre-
hension of everything like ceremony;" and
several of her homespun sayings became pro-
verbs in Cheyne Row. "Short," as Carlyle
uses it in writing to his sister, has apparently
the meaning often attached to it in New
England, -- " short of temper. " The whole
sentence bears a quizzing reference to the
year before, when, on the 4th of June, Car-
lyle had written: "Alick, writing to me yes-
terday, mentions among other things that you
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? THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 53
are shorted (as he phrases it) because I have
not written. . . . Do not you shorten, my
dear little Bairn, but lengthen, and know that
if you take anything amiss, it is for mere
want of seeing how it really was; that of all
delusions Satan could tempt you with, that
of wanting my brotherly affection, now and
always while we inhabit the Earth together,
is the most delusive. " And on the 23d of
December: "Do not shorten, but lengthen. " The "second volume" is, of course, the
second volume of The French Revolution.
Of both first and second Carlyle had written
more vehemently to Emerson, a few weeks
before: "I got the fatal First Volume fin-
ished (in the miserablest way, after great
efforts) in October last; my head was all in
a whirl; I fled to Scotland and my Mother
for a month of rest. Rest is nowhere for the
Son of Adam; all looked so 'spectral' to me
in my old-familiar Birthland; Hades itself
could not have seemed stranger; Annandale
also was part of the kingdom of Time. Since
November I have worked again as I could;
a second volume got wrapped up and sealed
out of my sight within the last three days.
There is but a Third now: one pull more,
and then! It seems to me, I will fly into
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? 64
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
some obscurest cranny of the world, and lie
silent there for a twelvemonth. The mind is
weary, the body is very sick; a little black
speck dances to and fro in the left eye (part
of the retina protesting against the liver, and
striking work). I cannot help it; it must
flutter and dance there, like a signal of dis-
tress, unanswered till I be done. My familiar
friends tell me farther that the Book is all
wrong, style, cramp, &c. , &c. My friends, I
answer, you are very right; but this also,
Heaven be my witness, I cannot help. -- In
such sort do I live here; all this I had to
write you, if I wrote at all. "
The contrast between such a passage and
the whole letter to his sister is but one of a
multitude of instances that show the change
in Carlyle's spirit whenever he sat down to
write to his home people.
h. cablyle to mrs. hanning, manchester.
5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London,
16th May, 1836.
My dear Jenny, -- Your letter has been here several weeks, a very welcome messen-
ger to us, and I did not think at the time I
should have been so long in answering it.
But I have been drawn hither and thither by
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? TO MBS. HANNING
55
many things, of late; besides, I judged that
Robert and you were happy enough of your-
selves for the present, and did not much need
any foreign aid or interruption. I need not
assure you, my dear little Jenny, of the inter-
est I took in the great enterprise you had
embarked on; of my wishes and prayers
that it might prove for the good of both.
On the whole, I can say that, to my judg-
ment, it looks all very fair and well. You
know I have all along regarded Hanning as
an uncommonly brisk, glegg little fellow since
the first time I saw him (hardly longer than
my leg, then), and prophesied handsome
things of him in the world. It is very rare
and very fortunate when two parties that have
affected each other from childhood upwards
get together in indissoluble partnership at
last. May it prove well for you, as I think
it will. You must take the good and the
ill in faithful mutual help, and, whoever or
whatever fail you, never fail one another. I
have no doubt Robert will shift his way with
all dexterity and prudence thro' that Cotton
Babylon, looking sharp about him; knowing
always, too, that " honesty is the best policy"
for all manner of men. Do thou faithfully
second him, my bairn: that will be the best
of lots for thee.
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? 56
LETTERS OF CAMLYLE
I think it possible that now and then, es-
pecially when you are left alone, the look of
so many foreign things may seem dispiriting
to you, and the huge smoke and stour of that
tumultuous Manchester (which is not unlike
the uglier parts of London) produce quite
other than a pleasant impression. But take
courage, my woman, "you will use, you will
use," and get hefted to the place, as all crea-
tures do. There are many good people in
that vast weaving - shop, many good things
among the innumerable bad. Keep snug
within your own doors, keep your own hearth
snug; by and by you will see what is worth
venturing out for. Have nothing to do with
the foolish, with the vain and ill-conducted.
Attach yourself to the well-living and sensi-
ble, to every one from whom you find there
is real benefit derivable. Thus, by degrees a
desirable little circle will form itself around
you; you will feel that Manchester is a home,
as all places under the heavenly sun here may
become for one.
In a newspaper you would notice that the
Doctor was come. Till this day, almost, there
was little else to be said about him than that
he was here and well. He has been specu-
lating and enquiring as to what he should do,
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? TO MRS. HANNING
67
and now has determined that London practice
will not do for the present; that he should
go back with his Lady and try again to get
practice there. He is gone out this moment
to make a bargain to that effect. They are
to set out for Rome again on the first of Sep-
tember; from that till the first of March the
Doctor is Lady Clare's doctor, but lives in his
own lodging at Rome; after that he is free to
do whatsoever he will: to stay there, if they
seem inviting; to return home, if otherwise.
I believe, myself, that he has decided wisely.
Till September, then, we have him amongst
us. He talks of being "off in a week or
two" for Scotland; he charged me to say
that he would see Manchester, and you, either
as he went or as he returned. It is not much
out of the way, if one go by Carlisle (or
rather, I suppose, it is directly in the way),
or even if one go by Liverpool, but I rather
think he will make for Newcastle this time;
to which place we have a steamboat direct.
This is a good season for steamboats, and a
bad one for coaches; for with latter, indeed,
what good season is there? Nothing in
the world is frightfuller to me of the travel-
ling rout, than a coach on a long journey.
It is easier by half to walk it with peas (at
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? 58
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
least boiled peas) in your shoes, were not the
time so much shorter. The Doctor looks very
well and sonsy; he seems in good health and
well to live; the only change is that his head
is getting a shade of grey (quite ahead of
mine, though I am six years older), which
does not mis-seem him, but looks very well.
We had a long speculation about going to
Scotland, too, but I doubt we must renounce
it. This summer I have finished my second
volume, but there is still the third to do, and
I must have such a tussle with it! All sum-
mer I will struggle and wrestle, but then
about the time of the gathering in of sheaves
I too shall be gathering in. Jane has gone
out to "buy a cotton gown," for the weather
is, at last, beautiful and warm. Before going
she bade me send you both her best wishes
and regards, prayers for a happy pilgrimage
together. She has been but poorly for a
good while (indeed, all the world is sick with
these east winds and perpetual changes), but
will probably be better now.
Jack and I, too, have both had our colds.
Then Anne Cook fell sick, almost danger-
ously sick for the time; but Jack was there
and gave abundant medical help; so the poor
creature is on her feet again, and a great
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? TO MRS. HANNING
59
trouble of confusion is rolled out of doors
thereby.
I am writing to our Mother this day. I
have heard nothing from that quarter since
the letter that informed me the poor little
child was dead. Jean wrote part of it her-
self, and seemed in a very composed state,
keeping her natural sorrow courageously
down. Our Mother, I believe, continues there
till Jean be ill again, and we hope happily
well. Whether there be a frank procurable
to-day I know not, but I will try.
At worst
I will not wait, lest you grow impatient again
and get short. If you knew what a fizz I am
kept in with one thing and another! Write
to me when you have time to fill a sheet, --
news, descriptions of how you get on, what
you suffer and enjoy, what you do: these are
the best. I will answer. Send an old news-
paper from time to time, with two strokes on
it, if you are well. Promise, however, to
write instantly if you are ill. Then shall we
know to keep ourselves in peace.
Farewell, dear little Sister. Give our love
to our new Brother. Tell him to walk wisely
and be a credit to your choice. God be with
you both.
T. Caelyle.
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? 60
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
In Carlyle's Journal for June 1 occur these
words: --
"An eternity of life were not endurable to
any mortal. To me the thought of it were
madness even for one day. Oh! I am far
astray, wandering, lost, 'dyeing the thirsty
desert with my blood in every footprint. '
Perhaps God and His providence will be bet-
ter to me than I hope. Peace, peace! words
are idler than idle.
"I have seen Wordsworth again. I have
seen Landor, Americans, Frenchman-Cavaig-
nac the Republican. Be no word written of
them. Bubble bubble, toil and trouble. I
find emptiness and chagrin, look for nothing
else, and on the whole can reverence no ex-
isting man, and shall do well to pity all,
myself first, -- or rather, last. To work,
therefore. That will still me a little, if aught
will. "
Presently the household purse became so
shrunken that the Revolution had to be
dropped for two weeks, while Carlyle wrote
the article on Mirabeau. This -- printed
first in Mill's Review, and afterward in the
Miscellanies -- brought in about fifty pounds.
Mrs. Carlyle, meanwhile, became so ill that
it was arranged for her to go home to her
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? TO MBS. HANNING
61
mother. The voyage part of the plan, -- by steamer from Liverpool to Annan, -- which
had been merely for economy, was not carried
out. Mrs. Carlyle's Liverpool uncle, John
Welsh, paid her fare in the coach to Dum-
fries, and gave her a handsome shawl as a
present for her birthday, the 14th of July.
ID. CARLYLE TO MRS. HANNING, MANCHESTER.
Chelsea, 8th July, Friday, 1836.
Dear Jenny, -- I write you a few words
in the greatest haste, with a worthy Mr. Gib-
son even talking to me all the while; but I
must write, for there is not a post to lose,
and I think the news will not be unwelcome
to you.
Jane is getting ill again in this fiercely hot
weather, and I have persuaded her to go home
for a month to her mother. She is going
by Manchester, and you. Off some time to-
morrow (Saturday), and will be in your town,
we calculate, on Sunday, and hopes to sleep
in your house that night. This is the news.
Now we know not as yet by what coach she
will come, or at what hour and what Inn she
will arrive, but this Mr. Gibson, who has un-
dertaken to go out and search over the city
for the suitablest vehicle, and to engage a
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? 62
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
seat in that for her, will take this letter in his
pocket. He, having engaged the seat, -will
mark the name of it on the outside (where
see). I judge farther that this letter will
reach you on Saturday evening or next morn-
ing soon, so that there will be time. The
rest you will know how to do without telling.
I think Robert, if he be not altered from what
he was, will succeed in meeting the tired way-
farer as she steps out, which will be a great
comfort to her. She calculates on being at
full liberty to sit silent with you, or to sit
talking, to lie down on the bed, to do what-
soever she likes best to do, and to be in all
senses at home as in her own home. There
are few houses in England that could do as
much for her. I think she would like best
to be -- " well let alone. "
Next day, or when once right rested, Rob-
ert will conduct her to the Liverpool Railway,
and give her his " Luck by the road;" after
which she has but a little whirl, a little sail,
-- by the force of steam both ways, -- and is
at Templand or Annan. She will tell you all
our news and get all yours, so I need not add
another word. Did you get a frank that I
sent you some months ago? Did you ever
send even a newspaper since? Jane has half
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? MBS. CABLYLE TO MBS. EANNING 63
a thought that she may find the Doctor and
our mother with you. All good wishes to
your Goodman.
Yours, my dear Jenny, affectionately,
T. Carlyle.
IV. TO MRS. HANNING, MANCHESTER, FROM HER
MOTHER, IN SCOTSBRIG.
November 3, 1836.
Dear Jenny, -- I have long had a mind
to write you, but have put off, as you see, till
now, and though I have nothing worth while
to say but to tell you of my welfare, which I
know you are still glad to hear. I have been
very well since you left me, though I have
taken no medicine of any kind. You will
be ready to say, "What have you been doing
all this time? " I have been very throng in
my own way. I have spun a little web of
droget and done many odd things.
We have got another fine little boy here
last Monday morning. Isabella is doing well.
They have had a long and sore fight with
the harvest. It is nearly finished. It is a
good crop, and upon the whole no great dam-
age is done. We had a bitter snow and frost
last week; it is gone again, however, but the
weather is still coarse, with good days among.
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? 64
LETTERS OF CABLYLE
I had a long letter from London about the
time I got yours with the socks, which are
very comfortable indeed. I have them on at
this moment, and my feet are as warm as
pie. Many thanks to the giver. The iron is
likewise an excellent one, a perfect conceit.
Many, many thanks.
I was sorry to hear of your lassie turning
out so badly. She had too much confidence.
One should trust them no farther than they
see. Old James of the hill is just come up
for some beasts of Alick's. He talks of tak-
ing them over the water to sell them soon.
So you will perhaps have a visit of him soon.
You must not be long in writing to me, my
good bairn, and tell me how you are coming
on. Are you anything healthy now? I
intend visiting you, if I be well. Afterward
it will be the next year before I think of
coming. They were all well at London when
I got their letter. John was at Geneva. I
long to hear from him, and to know where
he is now. I am expecting word daily. The
rest are all well, for aught I know; but Jamie
is at Annan to-day, and he will hear of them
all, as Alick was at Dumfries yesterday.
Your folk are all well. I saw William Han-
ning last week at the market with John. He
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? MRS. CARLYLE TO MRS. HANNING 65
told me he had sent away a letter that day, I
think, to you. I forgot to tell you how Tom
is getting on with his book. He intends
going to press about New Year's Day. It
will be a fine time for him. May we all go
on in the strength of God, the Lord, making
mention of His righteousness, even of His
only, trusting in Him for all we need for
time and for eternity. I had done, but have
just got a letter from the good Doctor, wrote
about a fortnight since. If he is well, he is
near Rome by this time.
Write, for I can write none. Send me a
long letter. No more.
From your own mother,
M. A. Carltlb.
They are all well at Annan and Dumfries.
Friday. I believe Alick goes off for Liv-
erpool to-day. Send me word when to come
over, and write soon.
By the end of October, 1836, Carlyle was
already wondering what he should do after
finishing The French Revolution, and wrote
to his brother John: "Here, with only liter-
ature for shelter, there is, I think, no contin-
uance. Better to take a stick in your hand,
and roam the earth Teuf elsdrockhish; you will
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? 66
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
get at least a stomach to eat bread, -- even
that denied me here. " On the evening of the
12th of January, 1837, the book was fin-
ished which raised Carlyle from obscurity --
so far as the public was concerned -- to
an undisputed place among great writers.
Though popularity did not come for many a
year, fame attended him from this point on-
ward. The French Revolution was not pub-
lished, however, until June; and in the interim
Carlyle's circumstances looked little more pro-
mising than before. A week after he had
finished the last sentence, and handed the
manuscript to his wife with a since famous
and often-quoted speech, he found time and
spirits to send prescriptions of cheerfulness to
Mrs. Hanning. The " two strokes" of a pen
on a newspaper signified to the Carlyle who
received the paper that all was well with the
Carlyle who sent it.
v. carlyle to mrs. hanning, manchester.
5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London,
19th Jan'y, 1837.
My dear Jenny, -- It is a long time since
I heard directly of you at any length, or since
you heard of me. To-day, tho' I have not the
best disposition or leisure, I will send you a
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? TO MRS. HANNING
67
line: there are no franks going, but the post
is always going, and you will think a shilling
might be worse spent.
We are very sorry, and not without our
anxieties, at the short notice Robert sent us
on the Newspaper; however, the next week
brought confirmation on the favourable side,
and I persuade myself to hope that all is get-
ting round again to the right state. Your
health is evidently not strong; but you are
growing in years, and have naturally a sound
constitution; you must learn to take care and
precautions, especially in the life you are now
entered upon, in that huge den of reek and
Cotton-fuz, where one cannot go on as in the
free atmosphere of the Country.
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
Carlyle chronicles, directed Carlyle's gaze
toward what Johnson thought the fairest
prospect ever spread before a Scotchman.
Emerson had observed that "he was already
turning his eyes towards London with a
scholar's appreciation," and at last, on the
25th of February, 1834, Carlyle wrote to his
brother John: "We learned incidentally last
week that Grace, our servant, though 'with-
out fault to us,' and whom we, with all her
inertness, were nothing but purposing to
keep, had resolved on 'going home next sum-
mer. ' The cup that had long been filling ran
over with the smallest of drops. After medi-
tating on it for a few minutes, we said to one
another: 'Why not bolt out of all these sooty
despicabilities, of Kerrags and lying draggle-
tails of byre-women, and peat-moss and iso-
lation and exasperation and confusion, and
go at once to London? ' Gedacht, gethan!
Two days after we had a letter on the road
to Mrs. Austin, to look out among the
'houses to let' for us, and an advertisement
to Mac Diarmid to try for the letting of our
own. " Cattle, poultry, and various superflui-
ties, were sold. Carlyle went on ahead, and
was guided by the airy steps of Leigh Hunt,
then a dweller in Upper Cheyne Row, Chel-
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? IN LONDON
49
sea, to the house Number 5, Great Cheyne
Row, which the new tenants soon made inter-
esting to much of what was best in London
(to much, also, Mrs. Oliphant has taken pains
to say, of what was not the best), and event-
ually to the English-speaking world. The
house was not taken until Mrs. Carlyle had
inspected and approved it. A few days after
the 10th of June, the date of their installa-
tion, Carlyle wrote to his mother: "We he
safe at a bend of the river, away from all the
great roads; have air and quiet hardly infe-
rior to Craigenputtock, an outlook from the
back windows into mere leafy regions, with
here and there a red high-peaked old roof
looking through; and see nothing of London,
except by day the summits of St. Paul's Ca-
thedral and Westminster Abbey, and by night
the gleam of the great Babylon affronting
the peaceful skies. The house itself is prob-
ably the best we have ever lived in, a right
old, strong, roomy brick-house, built near
one hundred and fifty years ago, and likely
to see three races of these modern fashiona-
bles fall before it comes down. " It all sounds
like a sunny backwater, but in truth the Car-
lyles had taken a very bold plunge into the
world-sea. Their reserve of money could have
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? so
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
been, at the utmost, no more than three hun-
dred pounds; and the only personal sign of
the times for them was the fact that the
writer of Sartor -- now coming out in chap-
ters-- was thought a literary maniac, and
that Fraser feared the ruin of his magazine.
The household gods, however, once tem-
pled in Cheyne Row, were never carried back
across the Border; nor, in fact, were they,
in the half-century of life that remained to
Carlyle, removed to any other spot. Here he
caught the last glimpse of Edward Irving,
the friend of his youth; here he welcomed
Sterling, "a new young figure," the closest
friend of his middle life; and hither came to
him Froude and Ruskin, his latest followers.
At first, in the chosen habitation, it was
"desperate hope " and " bitter thrift. " The
readers of Fraser's Magazine received Sartor
each month with renewed disgust. "Sartor,"
said the publisher, "excites universal disap-
probation. " While this passionate history of
a soul, with its motive so strangely drawn
from the Holy Bible and the great, unholy
Dean, was waiting to touch the slow spirit of
the British reading public, Carlyle -- taking
counsel of his necessities, his ambition, and
his inspirations -- applied himself to the his-
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? THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 51
tory of the French Revolution. The first
volume -- as all the world knows -- was lent
in manuscript to Mill, who lent it to Mrs.
Taylor, his "veevid" and "iridescent" Ege-
ria, whose servant kindled fires with it. Car-
lyle had not been offered, as he thought he
should have been, the editorship of the new
London and Westminster Review; and Mill,
for fear of his father, did not dare even to
give him work to do for it. Carlyle himself
had refused to sell his independence to the
Times. There was thus nothing for it but to
rewrite the burnt volume, of which he had
kept no notes. With such vigor did he drive
his mind and his pen that the lost chapters
were restored by September 22, 1835. Mill
had told him of the loss on the 6th of the
preceding March. Mrs. Carlyle wrote to her
sister-in-law, Mrs. Aitken, in August: "I do
not think that the second version is, on the
whole, inferior to the first; it is a little less
vivacious, perhaps, but better thought and
put together. One chapter more brings him
to the end of his second 'first volume,' and
then we shall sing a Te Deum and get drunk;
for which, by the way, we have unusual facil-
ities at present, a friend (Mr. Wilson) having
yesterday sent us a present of a hamper (some
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? 52
LETTERS OF CABLYLE
six or seven pounds' worth) of the finest old
Madeira wine. "
Better yet than wine was an American edi-
tion of Sartor, godfathered by Emerson, to
the number of five hundred copies. This was
in April, 1836, and another edition was soon
demanded. Carlyle amused himself by quot-
ing the book, in his essay on Mirabeau, as the
work of a New England writer.
"The Doctor," mentioned in the letter to
follow, was Carlyle's brother John, who,
thanks to Jeffrey, had been for some years
traveling physician to Lady Clare. "Anne
Cook" was an Annan dale servant whom Car-
lyle brought with him on his return from
Scotsbrig, in October, 1835. Mrs. Carlyle
wrote of Anne Cook, "She amuses me every
hour of the day with her perfect incompre-
hension of everything like ceremony;" and
several of her homespun sayings became pro-
verbs in Cheyne Row. "Short," as Carlyle
uses it in writing to his sister, has apparently
the meaning often attached to it in New
England, -- " short of temper. " The whole
sentence bears a quizzing reference to the
year before, when, on the 4th of June, Car-
lyle had written: "Alick, writing to me yes-
terday, mentions among other things that you
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? THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 53
are shorted (as he phrases it) because I have
not written. . . . Do not you shorten, my
dear little Bairn, but lengthen, and know that
if you take anything amiss, it is for mere
want of seeing how it really was; that of all
delusions Satan could tempt you with, that
of wanting my brotherly affection, now and
always while we inhabit the Earth together,
is the most delusive. " And on the 23d of
December: "Do not shorten, but lengthen. " The "second volume" is, of course, the
second volume of The French Revolution.
Of both first and second Carlyle had written
more vehemently to Emerson, a few weeks
before: "I got the fatal First Volume fin-
ished (in the miserablest way, after great
efforts) in October last; my head was all in
a whirl; I fled to Scotland and my Mother
for a month of rest. Rest is nowhere for the
Son of Adam; all looked so 'spectral' to me
in my old-familiar Birthland; Hades itself
could not have seemed stranger; Annandale
also was part of the kingdom of Time. Since
November I have worked again as I could;
a second volume got wrapped up and sealed
out of my sight within the last three days.
There is but a Third now: one pull more,
and then! It seems to me, I will fly into
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? 64
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
some obscurest cranny of the world, and lie
silent there for a twelvemonth. The mind is
weary, the body is very sick; a little black
speck dances to and fro in the left eye (part
of the retina protesting against the liver, and
striking work). I cannot help it; it must
flutter and dance there, like a signal of dis-
tress, unanswered till I be done. My familiar
friends tell me farther that the Book is all
wrong, style, cramp, &c. , &c. My friends, I
answer, you are very right; but this also,
Heaven be my witness, I cannot help. -- In
such sort do I live here; all this I had to
write you, if I wrote at all. "
The contrast between such a passage and
the whole letter to his sister is but one of a
multitude of instances that show the change
in Carlyle's spirit whenever he sat down to
write to his home people.
h. cablyle to mrs. hanning, manchester.
5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London,
16th May, 1836.
My dear Jenny, -- Your letter has been here several weeks, a very welcome messen-
ger to us, and I did not think at the time I
should have been so long in answering it.
But I have been drawn hither and thither by
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? TO MBS. HANNING
55
many things, of late; besides, I judged that
Robert and you were happy enough of your-
selves for the present, and did not much need
any foreign aid or interruption. I need not
assure you, my dear little Jenny, of the inter-
est I took in the great enterprise you had
embarked on; of my wishes and prayers
that it might prove for the good of both.
On the whole, I can say that, to my judg-
ment, it looks all very fair and well. You
know I have all along regarded Hanning as
an uncommonly brisk, glegg little fellow since
the first time I saw him (hardly longer than
my leg, then), and prophesied handsome
things of him in the world. It is very rare
and very fortunate when two parties that have
affected each other from childhood upwards
get together in indissoluble partnership at
last. May it prove well for you, as I think
it will. You must take the good and the
ill in faithful mutual help, and, whoever or
whatever fail you, never fail one another. I
have no doubt Robert will shift his way with
all dexterity and prudence thro' that Cotton
Babylon, looking sharp about him; knowing
always, too, that " honesty is the best policy"
for all manner of men. Do thou faithfully
second him, my bairn: that will be the best
of lots for thee.
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? 56
LETTERS OF CAMLYLE
I think it possible that now and then, es-
pecially when you are left alone, the look of
so many foreign things may seem dispiriting
to you, and the huge smoke and stour of that
tumultuous Manchester (which is not unlike
the uglier parts of London) produce quite
other than a pleasant impression. But take
courage, my woman, "you will use, you will
use," and get hefted to the place, as all crea-
tures do. There are many good people in
that vast weaving - shop, many good things
among the innumerable bad. Keep snug
within your own doors, keep your own hearth
snug; by and by you will see what is worth
venturing out for. Have nothing to do with
the foolish, with the vain and ill-conducted.
Attach yourself to the well-living and sensi-
ble, to every one from whom you find there
is real benefit derivable. Thus, by degrees a
desirable little circle will form itself around
you; you will feel that Manchester is a home,
as all places under the heavenly sun here may
become for one.
In a newspaper you would notice that the
Doctor was come. Till this day, almost, there
was little else to be said about him than that
he was here and well. He has been specu-
lating and enquiring as to what he should do,
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? TO MRS. HANNING
67
and now has determined that London practice
will not do for the present; that he should
go back with his Lady and try again to get
practice there. He is gone out this moment
to make a bargain to that effect. They are
to set out for Rome again on the first of Sep-
tember; from that till the first of March the
Doctor is Lady Clare's doctor, but lives in his
own lodging at Rome; after that he is free to
do whatsoever he will: to stay there, if they
seem inviting; to return home, if otherwise.
I believe, myself, that he has decided wisely.
Till September, then, we have him amongst
us. He talks of being "off in a week or
two" for Scotland; he charged me to say
that he would see Manchester, and you, either
as he went or as he returned. It is not much
out of the way, if one go by Carlisle (or
rather, I suppose, it is directly in the way),
or even if one go by Liverpool, but I rather
think he will make for Newcastle this time;
to which place we have a steamboat direct.
This is a good season for steamboats, and a
bad one for coaches; for with latter, indeed,
what good season is there? Nothing in
the world is frightfuller to me of the travel-
ling rout, than a coach on a long journey.
It is easier by half to walk it with peas (at
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? 58
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
least boiled peas) in your shoes, were not the
time so much shorter. The Doctor looks very
well and sonsy; he seems in good health and
well to live; the only change is that his head
is getting a shade of grey (quite ahead of
mine, though I am six years older), which
does not mis-seem him, but looks very well.
We had a long speculation about going to
Scotland, too, but I doubt we must renounce
it. This summer I have finished my second
volume, but there is still the third to do, and
I must have such a tussle with it! All sum-
mer I will struggle and wrestle, but then
about the time of the gathering in of sheaves
I too shall be gathering in. Jane has gone
out to "buy a cotton gown," for the weather
is, at last, beautiful and warm. Before going
she bade me send you both her best wishes
and regards, prayers for a happy pilgrimage
together. She has been but poorly for a
good while (indeed, all the world is sick with
these east winds and perpetual changes), but
will probably be better now.
Jack and I, too, have both had our colds.
Then Anne Cook fell sick, almost danger-
ously sick for the time; but Jack was there
and gave abundant medical help; so the poor
creature is on her feet again, and a great
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? TO MRS. HANNING
59
trouble of confusion is rolled out of doors
thereby.
I am writing to our Mother this day. I
have heard nothing from that quarter since
the letter that informed me the poor little
child was dead. Jean wrote part of it her-
self, and seemed in a very composed state,
keeping her natural sorrow courageously
down. Our Mother, I believe, continues there
till Jean be ill again, and we hope happily
well. Whether there be a frank procurable
to-day I know not, but I will try.
At worst
I will not wait, lest you grow impatient again
and get short. If you knew what a fizz I am
kept in with one thing and another! Write
to me when you have time to fill a sheet, --
news, descriptions of how you get on, what
you suffer and enjoy, what you do: these are
the best. I will answer. Send an old news-
paper from time to time, with two strokes on
it, if you are well. Promise, however, to
write instantly if you are ill. Then shall we
know to keep ourselves in peace.
Farewell, dear little Sister. Give our love
to our new Brother. Tell him to walk wisely
and be a credit to your choice. God be with
you both.
T. Caelyle.
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? 60
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
In Carlyle's Journal for June 1 occur these
words: --
"An eternity of life were not endurable to
any mortal. To me the thought of it were
madness even for one day. Oh! I am far
astray, wandering, lost, 'dyeing the thirsty
desert with my blood in every footprint. '
Perhaps God and His providence will be bet-
ter to me than I hope. Peace, peace! words
are idler than idle.
"I have seen Wordsworth again. I have
seen Landor, Americans, Frenchman-Cavaig-
nac the Republican. Be no word written of
them. Bubble bubble, toil and trouble. I
find emptiness and chagrin, look for nothing
else, and on the whole can reverence no ex-
isting man, and shall do well to pity all,
myself first, -- or rather, last. To work,
therefore. That will still me a little, if aught
will. "
Presently the household purse became so
shrunken that the Revolution had to be
dropped for two weeks, while Carlyle wrote
the article on Mirabeau. This -- printed
first in Mill's Review, and afterward in the
Miscellanies -- brought in about fifty pounds.
Mrs. Carlyle, meanwhile, became so ill that
it was arranged for her to go home to her
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? TO MBS. HANNING
61
mother. The voyage part of the plan, -- by steamer from Liverpool to Annan, -- which
had been merely for economy, was not carried
out. Mrs. Carlyle's Liverpool uncle, John
Welsh, paid her fare in the coach to Dum-
fries, and gave her a handsome shawl as a
present for her birthday, the 14th of July.
ID. CARLYLE TO MRS. HANNING, MANCHESTER.
Chelsea, 8th July, Friday, 1836.
Dear Jenny, -- I write you a few words
in the greatest haste, with a worthy Mr. Gib-
son even talking to me all the while; but I
must write, for there is not a post to lose,
and I think the news will not be unwelcome
to you.
Jane is getting ill again in this fiercely hot
weather, and I have persuaded her to go home
for a month to her mother. She is going
by Manchester, and you. Off some time to-
morrow (Saturday), and will be in your town,
we calculate, on Sunday, and hopes to sleep
in your house that night. This is the news.
Now we know not as yet by what coach she
will come, or at what hour and what Inn she
will arrive, but this Mr. Gibson, who has un-
dertaken to go out and search over the city
for the suitablest vehicle, and to engage a
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? 62
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
seat in that for her, will take this letter in his
pocket. He, having engaged the seat, -will
mark the name of it on the outside (where
see). I judge farther that this letter will
reach you on Saturday evening or next morn-
ing soon, so that there will be time. The
rest you will know how to do without telling.
I think Robert, if he be not altered from what
he was, will succeed in meeting the tired way-
farer as she steps out, which will be a great
comfort to her. She calculates on being at
full liberty to sit silent with you, or to sit
talking, to lie down on the bed, to do what-
soever she likes best to do, and to be in all
senses at home as in her own home. There
are few houses in England that could do as
much for her. I think she would like best
to be -- " well let alone. "
Next day, or when once right rested, Rob-
ert will conduct her to the Liverpool Railway,
and give her his " Luck by the road;" after
which she has but a little whirl, a little sail,
-- by the force of steam both ways, -- and is
at Templand or Annan. She will tell you all
our news and get all yours, so I need not add
another word. Did you get a frank that I
sent you some months ago? Did you ever
send even a newspaper since? Jane has half
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? MBS. CABLYLE TO MBS. EANNING 63
a thought that she may find the Doctor and
our mother with you. All good wishes to
your Goodman.
Yours, my dear Jenny, affectionately,
T. Carlyle.
IV. TO MRS. HANNING, MANCHESTER, FROM HER
MOTHER, IN SCOTSBRIG.
November 3, 1836.
Dear Jenny, -- I have long had a mind
to write you, but have put off, as you see, till
now, and though I have nothing worth while
to say but to tell you of my welfare, which I
know you are still glad to hear. I have been
very well since you left me, though I have
taken no medicine of any kind. You will
be ready to say, "What have you been doing
all this time? " I have been very throng in
my own way. I have spun a little web of
droget and done many odd things.
We have got another fine little boy here
last Monday morning. Isabella is doing well.
They have had a long and sore fight with
the harvest. It is nearly finished. It is a
good crop, and upon the whole no great dam-
age is done. We had a bitter snow and frost
last week; it is gone again, however, but the
weather is still coarse, with good days among.
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? 64
LETTERS OF CABLYLE
I had a long letter from London about the
time I got yours with the socks, which are
very comfortable indeed. I have them on at
this moment, and my feet are as warm as
pie. Many thanks to the giver. The iron is
likewise an excellent one, a perfect conceit.
Many, many thanks.
I was sorry to hear of your lassie turning
out so badly. She had too much confidence.
One should trust them no farther than they
see. Old James of the hill is just come up
for some beasts of Alick's. He talks of tak-
ing them over the water to sell them soon.
So you will perhaps have a visit of him soon.
You must not be long in writing to me, my
good bairn, and tell me how you are coming
on. Are you anything healthy now? I
intend visiting you, if I be well. Afterward
it will be the next year before I think of
coming. They were all well at London when
I got their letter. John was at Geneva. I
long to hear from him, and to know where
he is now. I am expecting word daily. The
rest are all well, for aught I know; but Jamie
is at Annan to-day, and he will hear of them
all, as Alick was at Dumfries yesterday.
Your folk are all well. I saw William Han-
ning last week at the market with John. He
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? MRS. CARLYLE TO MRS. HANNING 65
told me he had sent away a letter that day, I
think, to you. I forgot to tell you how Tom
is getting on with his book. He intends
going to press about New Year's Day. It
will be a fine time for him. May we all go
on in the strength of God, the Lord, making
mention of His righteousness, even of His
only, trusting in Him for all we need for
time and for eternity. I had done, but have
just got a letter from the good Doctor, wrote
about a fortnight since. If he is well, he is
near Rome by this time.
Write, for I can write none. Send me a
long letter. No more.
From your own mother,
M. A. Carltlb.
They are all well at Annan and Dumfries.
Friday. I believe Alick goes off for Liv-
erpool to-day. Send me word when to come
over, and write soon.
By the end of October, 1836, Carlyle was
already wondering what he should do after
finishing The French Revolution, and wrote
to his brother John: "Here, with only liter-
ature for shelter, there is, I think, no contin-
uance. Better to take a stick in your hand,
and roam the earth Teuf elsdrockhish; you will
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? 66
LETTERS OF CARLYLE
get at least a stomach to eat bread, -- even
that denied me here. " On the evening of the
12th of January, 1837, the book was fin-
ished which raised Carlyle from obscurity --
so far as the public was concerned -- to
an undisputed place among great writers.
Though popularity did not come for many a
year, fame attended him from this point on-
ward. The French Revolution was not pub-
lished, however, until June; and in the interim
Carlyle's circumstances looked little more pro-
mising than before. A week after he had
finished the last sentence, and handed the
manuscript to his wife with a since famous
and often-quoted speech, he found time and
spirits to send prescriptions of cheerfulness to
Mrs. Hanning. The " two strokes" of a pen
on a newspaper signified to the Carlyle who
received the paper that all was well with the
Carlyle who sent it.
v. carlyle to mrs. hanning, manchester.
5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London,
19th Jan'y, 1837.
My dear Jenny, -- It is a long time since
I heard directly of you at any length, or since
you heard of me. To-day, tho' I have not the
best disposition or leisure, I will send you a
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:17 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044090311788 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? TO MRS. HANNING
67
line: there are no franks going, but the post
is always going, and you will think a shilling
might be worse spent.
We are very sorry, and not without our
anxieties, at the short notice Robert sent us
on the Newspaper; however, the next week
brought confirmation on the favourable side,
and I persuade myself to hope that all is get-
ting round again to the right state. Your
health is evidently not strong; but you are
growing in years, and have naturally a sound
constitution; you must learn to take care and
precautions, especially in the life you are now
entered upon, in that huge den of reek and
Cotton-fuz, where one cannot go on as in the
free atmosphere of the Country.
