Please to assure him of
my continued regard.
my continued regard.
Thomas Carlyle
152 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
XXII. --Carlyle to GOETHE.
CRAIGENPUTTOCK, DUMFRIES,
3</ November 1829.
DEAR AND HONOURED SIR--I must no longer
postpone acknowledging these welcome mess-
ages from Weimar: your Letter, which reached
us early in September; and the Packet therein
announced, which duly followed it, about four
weeks ago. Both, with all their much-valued
contents, arrived in perfect safety and entire-
ness; giving curious proof of the complete
arrangements for transport in these times,
whereby the most delicate article can penetrate
through unknown nations, tumultuous cities,
and over wild seas, from the heart of the Con-
tinent, even into these deserts; and what is
stranger still, how a voice of affection from
the mind we honour most in this age can con-
vey itself into minds that lie, in every sense, so
far divided from it. Six years ago, I should
have reckoned the possibility of a Letter, of a
Present from Goethe to me, little less wondrous
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? 1829 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 153
and dreamlike than from Shakespeare or
Homer. Yet so it is: the man to whom I
owe more than to any other--namely, some
measure of spiritual Light and Freedom--is no
longer a mere "airy tongue" to me, but a
Living Man, with feelings which, in many
kindest ways, reply and correspond to my own!
Let me pray only that it may long continue;
and if the Scholar cannot meet with his
Teacher, face to face, in this world, may some
higher perennial meeting, amid inconceivable
environments, be appointed them in another!
But, descending from these lofty possibilities,
accept my best gratitude for your friendly feel-
ings, so often and gracefully manifested towards
me, which, in this prose Earth, were precious,
coming even from the commonest man. To
you, our best return is to profit more and more
by the good you have done us, to appropriate
and practise more and more that high wisdom
which we, with the whole world, have to learn
from you.
My wife bids me say that she intends to read
your entire Works this winter; so that, any
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? 154 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
evening, when the candles are lit, you can fancy
a fair Friend assiduously studying you "far over
the sea;" one little light and living point, amid
the boundless Solitude and Night. She finished
the Wahlverwandtschaften very lately, with
high admiration, and a sorrow for poor Ottilie,
which, she admits, expressed itself in "streams
of tears. " Shallow censurers of the morality
of the work, who are not altogether wanting
here, she withstands with true female zeal.
To your own living Ottilie, she requests me,
however, to present her best thanks for that
beautiful gift: it hangs in our drawing-room,
admired by all for its workmanship, and to us
far more precious for the hand and the house-
hold of which it is an hourly memorial. The
fair Artist, as I understand, is ere long to be
thanked more specially, and in due form, by
the receiver herself.
With my own share of the packet I feel not
less contented. Especially glad was I to find my
old favourite the Wanderjahre so considerably
enlarged: the new portions of the Book it was
my very first business to read, and I can already
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? 1829 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 155
discover no little matter for reflection in that
wonderful Makarie, and the many other exten-
sions, and new tendencies which that most
beautiful of all fragments has hereby acquired.
The Briefwechsel1 I have also read; and must
soon read again; purposing to make it the
handle for an essay on Schiller in the Foreign
Review. I particularly admired the honour-
able relation that displays itself between Schiller
and his Friend; the frankness in mutual giving
and receiving; the noble effort on both sides:
a reverence for foreign excellence is finely
united with a modest self-dependence in
Schiller, whose simple, high, earnest nature
again comes into clear light in this Correspond-
ence. The Proof-sheets of the Translation from
my poor Life of Schiller affected me with
various feelings; among which, regret at the
essential triviality of the Original was nowise
wanting. I wrote the little book honestly
enough, yet under too much constraint: it has
not the free flow of a book, but the cold,
buckram character of a College-exercise. The
1 Correspondence between Goethe and Schiller.
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? 1$6 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
Translation, with two or three very unimportant
mistakes of meaning, seems excellently done;
far better than such a work deserved.
The Farbenlehre, which you are so good as
offer me, I have never seen and shall thankfully
accept and study, having long had a curiosity
after it. Natural Philosophy, Optics among
the other branches, was for many years my
favourite, or rather my exclusive pursuit; a cir-
cumstance which I must reckon of no little
import, for good and evil, in my intellectual life.
The mechanical style in which all these things
are treated here, and in France, where my only
teachers were, had already begun to sicken me;
when other far more pressing investigations of
a humane interest altogether detached me from
Mathematics, whether pure or applied. 1 I still
1 Carlyle, in 1866, wrote:--"Perhaps it was mainly the
accident that poor Leslie" (John Leslie, Professor of Mathe-
matics in Edinburgh University), "alone of my Professors, had
some genius in his business, and awoke a certain enthusiasm
in me. For several years, from 1813 onwards (perhaps seven
in all), ' Geometry' shone before me as undoubtedly the noblest
of all sciences; and I prosecuted it (or mathematics generally)
in all my best hours and moods,--though far more pregnant
inquiries were rising in me, and gradually engrossing me, heart
as well as head. So that, about 1820 or '21, I had entirely
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? 1829 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 157
remember that it was the desire to read
Werner s Mineralogical Doctrines in the origi-
nal, that first set me on studying German;
where truly I found a mine, far different from
any of the Freyberg ones! Nevertheless my
love of Natural Science still subsists, or might
easily be resuscitated; and various hints, which
I have now and then had, of your method in
such inquiries give me hope of great satisfac-
tion in studying it. The Farbenlehre, which I
think is very imperfectly known, or rather alto-
gether misknown, in England, will be a highly
acceptable present.
This Letter is full of mere business details,
and yet the most essential of these is still to
come. A little packet, chiefly for your Ottilie,
is getting ready,1 and will be sent off one of
thrown mathematics aside; and, except in one or two brief
spurts, lasting perhaps a couple of days, and more or less of a
morbid nature, have never in the least regarded it farther. "
1 It contained, among other things, a Scotch 'bonnet' made
by Mrs. Carlyle, and accompanied by the following friendly
but unmusical quatrain:
Scotland prides her in the "Bonnet Blue"
That it brooks no stain in Love or War:
Be it, on Ottilie's head, a token true
Of my Scottish love to kind Weimar!
CRAIGENI'l'TTOCK, \$th DcCCInicr 1829.
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? I58 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
these days: it is also to contain the Sketches
of our house and neighbourhood, such as you
required; and will come most probably by the
Messrs. Parish of Hamburg, whose courtesy
and punctuality in such matters I have often
admired. I might mention also that Herr
Herbig, Bookseller in Leipzig, is Agent for the
Publishers of the Foreign Review (Messrs.
Black, Young and Young, 2 Tavistock Street,
Covent Garden, London), through whom books
would reach me, by quick steam conveyance,
at all seasons of the year; yet, in truth, I know
not whether with equal security, or how your
communication with Leipzig may stand.
In regard to my employments and manner
of existence, literary and economic, I must not
speak here. I am still but an Essayist, and long-
ing more than ever to be a Writer in a far better
sense. Meanwhile I do what I may; and can-
not complain of wanting audience, stolid as
many of my little critics are and must be. I
have written on Voltaire, on Novalis, and was
this day correcting proof-sheets of a paper on
Jean Paul, for the Foreign Review. I have some
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? 1829 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 159
thoughts of writing a separate book on Luther,
but whether this winter or not, is undecided.
I delayed, three weeks, writing this Letter,
till a proposal (from some London booksellers)
of my composing what they call a History of
German Literature, were either finally agreed
upon, or finally abandoned: but as yet neither
of the two has happened. In the event of my
engaging with such a work, I mean to consult
with Dr. Eckermann for help; to whom, for his
friendly Letter, I beg that my thanks and best
regards may be offered.
All else I reserve till the Packet go. We
shall think of you daily, and ever with Love.
May all good be with you!
I remain, your grateful Friend,
THOMAS CARLYLE.
XXIII. --Carlyle to GOETHE.
CRAIGENPUTTOCK, DUMFRIES,
2 id December 1829.
RESPECTED SIR--The Packet, which I some
time ago announced, at length sets out; with
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? 160 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
true wishes on our part that it may find you
happy and busy, and bring kind remembrances
of Friends that love you. The Sketches of our
House and its environment are moderately
correct, and may serve the flattering purpose
you meant them for; as it is not the beauty of
the Amulet, but its mere character as Amulet,
that gives it worth. You will like the little
pictures no worse, when I inform you that they
are from the pencil of Mr. Moir, the Translator
of Wallenstein, who paid us a visit in Autumn,
and promises to see us again in Spring. In
return for his workmanship, I presented him
with the last of those four medals; to which
indeed, on other accounts, as a true admirer of
your works he had a good right. He passed
through Weimar, last Summer; but unluckily
at a time when you were absent: however,
he purposes to return ere long, and make
new sketches from the Rhine scenery; and
hopes, next time, to have better fortune in
Weimar.
The portfolio is of my wife's manufacture,
who sends you among other love-tokens a lock
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? 1829 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 161
of her hair; concerning which I am to say that,
except to her Husband she never did the like to
any man. She begs, however, and hopes, that
you will send her, in return, a lock of your hair;
which she will keep among her most precious
possessions, and only leave, as a rich legacy, to
the worthiest that comes after her. For a
heart that honestly loves you, I too hope that
you will do so much.
The Cowpers Poems you are to accept from
me as a New-year's gift, the value of which
must lie chiefly in the intention of the giver.
Cowper was the last of our Poets of the Old
School; a man of pure genius, but limited and
ineffectual; as indeed his bodily health was too
feeble had there been no other deficiency. He
is still a great favourite, especially with the
religious classes; and bids fair to survive many
a louder competitor for immortality. As his
merit, such as it is, appears to be genuine, it
will to your eye readily disclose itself.
I have read the Briefwechsel a second time
with no little satisfaction, and even to-day am
sending off an Essay on Schiller, grounded on
M
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? 162 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
that Work, for the Foreign Review} It will
gratify you to learn that a knowledge and
appreciation of Foreign, especially of German,
Literature, is spreading with increased rapidity
over all the domain of the English tongue; so
that almost at the Antipodes, in New Holland
itself, the wise of your country are by this time
preaching their wisdom. I have heard lately
that even in Oxford and Cambridge, our two
English Universities, which have all along been
regarded as the strongholds of Insular pride
and prejudice, there is a strange stir in this
matter. Your Niebuhr has found an able trans-
lator in Cambridge;2 and in Oxford two or
three Germans already find employment as
teachers ot their language; the new light con-
tained in which may well dazzle certain eyes.
Of the benefits that must in the end result from
1 This Essay appeared in Eraser's Magazine, No. XIV.
(See Carlyle's Miscellanies, iii. 87. )
2 Two able translators, Hare and Thirlwall, of Trinity
College, both personally known to Carlyle in after years. It
will be remembered that Archdeacon Hare was, without in-
tending it, the cause of Carlyle's writing the Life of Sterling.
The translation of Niebuhr's History of Rome, by Hare and
Thirlwall, was published in 1828.
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? 1829 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 163
all this no man can be doubtful: let nations,
like individuals, but know one another and
mutual hatred will give place to mutual help-
fulness; and instead of natural enemies, as
neighbouring countries are sometimes called,
we shall all be natural friends.
That Historical View of German Literature,
which I mentioned in my last letter, is now
almost decided on; and I hope in the course
of next year to offer you a copy of some
treatise on that subject. My knowledge, I feel
too well, is limited enough; but from a British
writer, and by British readers, less will be ex-
pected. Besides, it is the more recent, and
comparatively a brief period that will chiefly
interest us.
Were this "Historical View" once off my
hands, I still purpose to try something infinitely
greater! Alas, alas! the huge formless Chaos
is here, but no creative voice to say, "Let
there be Light," and make it into a world.
Some time ago we spent three weeks in
Edinburgh; warmly welcomed by old friends;
and looking not without interest on the current
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? 164 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
of many-coloured life, which here we may be
said rather to listen to than to see. I found the
Literary men of that city still active in their
vocation; and to me undeservedly kind and
courteous: nevertheless, the general tone of
their speculation was such as to make me
revisit my solitude, when the time came, with
little regret. The whole bent of British
endeavour, both intellectual and practical, at
this time, is towards Utility; a creed which with
you has happily had its day, but with us is now
first rising into its full maturity. Great contro-
versies and misunderstandings on this matter,
are to be expected among us at no distant
period.
For the present, you are to figure your two
Scottish Friends as embosom'd amid snow and
"thick-ribbed ice;" yet secured against grim
winter by the glow of bright fires; and often
near you in imagination; nay, often thinking
the very thoughts which were once yours,--for
a little red volume is seldom absent from our
parlour. By and by, we still trust to hear that
all is well with you: the arrival of a Weimar
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? 1830 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 165
letter ever makes a day of jubilee here. May
all good be with you and yours!
I remain, always your affectionate Friend and Servant, ^ ~
THOMAS CARLYLE.
Were it convenient, we would beg some
similar Sketch of your Mansion at Weimar;1
concerning which I regularly question every
Traveller, yet with too little effect.
To Dr. Eckermann I still owe a letter;
which I mean ere long to pay, with increased
advantage to myself.
Please to assure him of
my continued regard.
XXIV. --Carlyle to ECKERMANN.
CRAIGENPUTTOCK, DUMFRIES,
20th March 1830.
MY DEAR SIR--I have long owed myself the
pleasure of writing to you, and might be a little
puzzled to say why it had been so long. Per-
haps my chief reason was that a certain nego-
tiation was in progress, touching some literary
1 Goethe sent an engraving of his house to Carlyle. See
infra, Appendix II. , p. 326.
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? 166 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 1830
work to be undertaken by me, on which I
wished to communicate with you; and so have
waited, impatiently enough, till in the slow
course of bibliopolic arrangements, I saw what
turn matters were to take. The business, I
believe, is now finally adjusted; indeed, in a
state of actual advance; so that on this, as on
all other topics, I can now address you without
embarrassment.
It is pity that Weimar lay so distant from
Scotland; with seas, and wide regions, to us
all waste and unpeopled, intervening. No spot
on this Globe is for me so significant at present;
as indeed it is but for their association with
human Worth and Effort that one City is nobler
than another, that all cities are not mere
stones and mortar. I can understand the long
journeys which Lovers of Wisdom were wont
to undertake in old days to see with their own
eyes some Teacher of Wisdom : all sights in
the Earth are poor and meaningless compared
with this. We still speculate here on a journey
to Weimar, and a winter's residence there; but
the way is long, the issue after all but a luxury;
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? 1830 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 167
then foolish little matters still detain us here:
thus, though the spirit is willing, the flesh is
weak. One still looks for a luckier time; and
many a pretty waking dream, though at last it
prove but a phantasm, will for years be worth
entertaining.
We long much to hear news of you: how
your venerable Poet wears his green old age;
how his and your labours are prospering.
Scarcely any German traveller finds his way
hither; so that, except public notices, we are
left mostly to hope and guess. Often I look
into Stieler's picture, and think the mild deep
eyes ought to answer me. But they are only
ink on paper, and do not.
About the 1st of last December we de-
spatched a little box for Weimar, containing
pencil-sketches of our House and environment,
Books, and other trifles, among which, I believe,
was something from my wife for Madame: but
unluckily the frost set in directly after, the
Elbe became unnavigable; and the Edinburgh
shippers gave little hope of the Packet leaving
them till Spring. It was directed, as usual, to
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? 168 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 1830
the care of Messrs. Parish in Hamburg. Pray
notify this to Seiner Excellenz unless happily it
be already in his hands. Of our deep unabated
regard and love, I trust he needs no assurance.
I requested the Editor of the Foreign Review
to forward you some of my lucubrations, which
you said you had not seen; nevertheless I am
afraid he has neglected it; neither, I can warn
you, is the loss very great. I was shocked to
learn that poor Mu? liner was dead: the very
post that brought me his version of my Play-
wrights in his Mitternacht-Blatt, conveyed also
those other tidings that the poor Jester was
now "quite chapfallen. " Alas, poor Yorick!
And why did / add another grain to his last
load of suffering, already too heavy for him1! --
Since then I have not cast one other glance
at your Tartarus; but looked only at the
Elysium, which is far more profitable.
Of our English Literature at this moment,
the two chief features seem to be our increased
1 In his article on German Playwrights {Foreign Review,
No. VI. , 1829, see Miscellanies, vol. ii. ), Carlyle had spoken with
some severity of Mu? liner's Plays and of his Midnight Paper.
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? 1830 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 169
and increasing attention to the Literature of
neighbouring nations; and the universal effort
to render all sorts of knowledge popular, to
accommodate our speculations, both in price
and structure, to the largest possible number of
readers. In regard to that first peculiarity, you
already know of our two Foreign Reviews, both
of which affect to be prospering; and now
further we have a Foreign Literary Gazette?
published weekly in London, and which, though
it is a mere steam-engine concern, managed by
an utter Dummkopf, solely for lucre, appears to
meet with sale, so great is the curiosity, so
boundless is the ignorance of men: dem
Narrenkb'nig gehort die Welt, at least all the
temporalities thereof. Our zeal for popularising,
again, is to be seen on every side of us. To
say nothing of our Societies for the Diffusion of
useful Knowledge, with their sixpenny treatises,
really very meritorious, we have, I know not
how many Miscellanies, Family Libraries,
Cabinet Cyclopedias, and so forth; and these
not managed by any literary Gibeonites, but
1 Edited by Mr. William Jerdan.
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? 170 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 1830
sometimes by the best men we have: Sir
Walter Scott, for instance, is publishing a
History of Scotland by one of these vehicles;
Thomas Moore is to write a History of Ireland
for the same work. The other day, I may add,
there came a letter to me from a quite new
Brotherhood of that sort; earnestly requesting
a "Life of Goethe. " Knowing my corre-
spondent l as a man of some weight and respect-
ability in Literature, I have just answered him
that the making of Goethe known to England
was a task which any Englishman might be
proud of; but that, as for his Biography, the
only rational plan, as matters stood, was to
take what he had himself seen fit to impart on
the subject; and by proper commentary and
adaptation, above all, by a suitable version,
and not perversion, of what was to be trans-
lated, enable an Englishman to read it with
the eye of a German. If anything come of this
proposal, and what, you shall by and by hear.
But it is more than time that I should say
a word about my History oj German Litera-
1 Mr. G. R. Gleig, on behalf of Dr. Lardner.
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? 1830 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 171
ture (if such can be the name of it), the task
above alluded to, and which also is to form
part of a joint-stock enterprise, the first of a
whole series of Literary Histories, French,
Italian, Spanish, English Literature being all
to be depicted in that "Cabinet Library" of
theirs. I am to have four volumes, and have
thought a good deal about the plan I am to
follow. The first volume is to be antiquarian,
I think; to treat of the Nibelungonlied, the
Minnesingers, Mastersingers, and so forth, and
may perhaps end with Hans Sachs. The
second will probably contain Luther and the
Reformation Satirists, with Opitz and his
school; down as far as Thomasius, Gottsched,
and the Swiss. The last two volumes must
be devoted to your modern, indeed recent
Literature, which is of all others the most
important to us. I need not say how much
any counsel of yours would oblige me in
regard to this matter, many parts of which
are still very dark to me. In particular, can
you mention any reasonable Book in which
the "New School" is exhibited; what was
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? 172 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 1830
its history, fairly stated, what its doctrines;
what in short was the meaning lying at the
bottom of that boundless hubbub, which so
often perplexes the stranger even yet with its
echoes in your Literature? Is Gru? ber's talk
(in his Wieland) about the Xenienkrieg to be
depended on, or is it mostly babble; and is
there any other work that will throw light on
that singular period? The Briefwechsel, two
volumes of which I have, is doubtless the
most authentic of all documents: but still my
understanding of it is far from sufficient. A
few words from you might perhaps save me
much groping; neither will you grudge that
trouble for me. Might I ask you to mention
what you think in general the most remarkable
epochs, and circumstances (Momente] of Ger-
man Literature? Indeed nothing that you can
write on that subject will be otherwise than
welcome to me. But, alas! the sheet is done;
and I must so soon say Lebewohl! Pray do
not linger in writing; your news, too, will seem
highly important to us. Lastly, if it be not
troublesome: use the Roman handwriting;
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? 1830 GOETHE TO CARLYLE 173
the other is like a thick veil, requiring to be
torn off first.
With best wishes, ever faithfully yours,
TH. CARLYLE.
Your German Philister, your Adelungs,
Nicolais, etc. (of which sort we have plenty in
England even now), and what figure their
activity specially assumed, are also an object of
great curiosity with me. We call them "Utili-
tarians" here, and they are mostly political,
and " Radical," or republican.
My wife directs me to send her kind regards,
and continued hope of one day seeing you.
Pray employ me, if there is anything here in
which I can serve you.
XXV. -- GOETHE to CARLYLE.
April 1830. ]
Das werthe Schatzkastlein, nachdem es
durch den strengsten Winter vom Continent
lange abgehalten worden, ist endlich um die
Halfte Marz glu? cklich angelangt.
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? 174 GOETHE TO CARLYLE 1830
Um von seinem Gehalt zu sprechen, erwa? hne
zuerst der unscha? tzbaren Locke, die man wohl
mit dem theuren Haupte verbunden mo? chte
gesehen haben, die aber hier einzeln erblickt,
mich fast erschreckt ha? tte. Der Gegensatz
war zu auffallend; denn ich brauchte meinen
Scha? del nicht zu beru? hren, um zu wissen dass
daselbst nur Stoppeln sich hervorthun; es war
nicht no? thig vor den Spiegel zu treten, um zu
erfahren dass eine lange Zeitreihe ihnen ein
missfarbiges Ansehen gegeben. Die Un-
mo? glichkeit der verlangten Erwiederung fiel
mir aufs Herz, und no? thigte mich zu Gedanken
deren man sich zu entschlagen pflegt. Am
Ende aber blieb mir doch nichts u? brig als mich
an der Vorstellung zu begnu? gen: eine solche
Gabe sey dankbarlichst ohne Hoffnung irgend
einer genu? genden Gegengift anzunehmen. Sie
soll auch heilig in der ihrer wu? rdigen Brieftasche
aufbewahrt bleiben, und nur das Liebenswu? r-
digste ihr zugesellt werden.
Der Schottische elegante Turban hat, wie
ich versichern darf, zu manchem Vergnu? g-
lichen Gelegenheit gegeben. Seit vielen Jahren
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? 1830 GOETHE TO CARLYLE 175
werden wir von den Einwohnern der drey
Ko? nigreiche besucht, welche gern einige Zeit
lang bey uns verweilen und guter Gesellschaft
geniessen mo? gen. Hierunter befinden sich
zwar weniger Schotten, doch kann es nicht
fehlen dass nicht noch das Andenken an einen
solchen Landsmann sich in einem scho? nen
Herzen so lebendig finde, um die National-
Prachtmu? tze, die Distel mit eingeschlossen, als
einen wu? nschenswerthesten Schmuck anzusehen,
und die gu? tige Senderin ha? tte sich gewiss gefreut
das lieblichste Gesicht von der Welt darunter
hervorgucken zu sehen. Ottilie aber dankt zum
allerverbindlichsten, und wird, sobald unsre
Trauertage voru? ber sind, damit glorreich auf-
zutreten nicht ermangeln.
Lassen Sie mich nun eine na? chste Gegen-
sendung anku? ndigen, welche zum Juni als der
gu? nstigsten Jahreszeit sich wohl wird zusammen
gefunden haben. Sie erhalten:
1. Das Exemplar Ihres u? bersetzten Schil-
lers, geschmu? ckt mit den Bildern Ihrer la?
XXII. --Carlyle to GOETHE.
CRAIGENPUTTOCK, DUMFRIES,
3</ November 1829.
DEAR AND HONOURED SIR--I must no longer
postpone acknowledging these welcome mess-
ages from Weimar: your Letter, which reached
us early in September; and the Packet therein
announced, which duly followed it, about four
weeks ago. Both, with all their much-valued
contents, arrived in perfect safety and entire-
ness; giving curious proof of the complete
arrangements for transport in these times,
whereby the most delicate article can penetrate
through unknown nations, tumultuous cities,
and over wild seas, from the heart of the Con-
tinent, even into these deserts; and what is
stranger still, how a voice of affection from
the mind we honour most in this age can con-
vey itself into minds that lie, in every sense, so
far divided from it. Six years ago, I should
have reckoned the possibility of a Letter, of a
Present from Goethe to me, little less wondrous
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? 1829 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 153
and dreamlike than from Shakespeare or
Homer. Yet so it is: the man to whom I
owe more than to any other--namely, some
measure of spiritual Light and Freedom--is no
longer a mere "airy tongue" to me, but a
Living Man, with feelings which, in many
kindest ways, reply and correspond to my own!
Let me pray only that it may long continue;
and if the Scholar cannot meet with his
Teacher, face to face, in this world, may some
higher perennial meeting, amid inconceivable
environments, be appointed them in another!
But, descending from these lofty possibilities,
accept my best gratitude for your friendly feel-
ings, so often and gracefully manifested towards
me, which, in this prose Earth, were precious,
coming even from the commonest man. To
you, our best return is to profit more and more
by the good you have done us, to appropriate
and practise more and more that high wisdom
which we, with the whole world, have to learn
from you.
My wife bids me say that she intends to read
your entire Works this winter; so that, any
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? 154 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
evening, when the candles are lit, you can fancy
a fair Friend assiduously studying you "far over
the sea;" one little light and living point, amid
the boundless Solitude and Night. She finished
the Wahlverwandtschaften very lately, with
high admiration, and a sorrow for poor Ottilie,
which, she admits, expressed itself in "streams
of tears. " Shallow censurers of the morality
of the work, who are not altogether wanting
here, she withstands with true female zeal.
To your own living Ottilie, she requests me,
however, to present her best thanks for that
beautiful gift: it hangs in our drawing-room,
admired by all for its workmanship, and to us
far more precious for the hand and the house-
hold of which it is an hourly memorial. The
fair Artist, as I understand, is ere long to be
thanked more specially, and in due form, by
the receiver herself.
With my own share of the packet I feel not
less contented. Especially glad was I to find my
old favourite the Wanderjahre so considerably
enlarged: the new portions of the Book it was
my very first business to read, and I can already
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? 1829 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 155
discover no little matter for reflection in that
wonderful Makarie, and the many other exten-
sions, and new tendencies which that most
beautiful of all fragments has hereby acquired.
The Briefwechsel1 I have also read; and must
soon read again; purposing to make it the
handle for an essay on Schiller in the Foreign
Review. I particularly admired the honour-
able relation that displays itself between Schiller
and his Friend; the frankness in mutual giving
and receiving; the noble effort on both sides:
a reverence for foreign excellence is finely
united with a modest self-dependence in
Schiller, whose simple, high, earnest nature
again comes into clear light in this Correspond-
ence. The Proof-sheets of the Translation from
my poor Life of Schiller affected me with
various feelings; among which, regret at the
essential triviality of the Original was nowise
wanting. I wrote the little book honestly
enough, yet under too much constraint: it has
not the free flow of a book, but the cold,
buckram character of a College-exercise. The
1 Correspondence between Goethe and Schiller.
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? 1$6 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
Translation, with two or three very unimportant
mistakes of meaning, seems excellently done;
far better than such a work deserved.
The Farbenlehre, which you are so good as
offer me, I have never seen and shall thankfully
accept and study, having long had a curiosity
after it. Natural Philosophy, Optics among
the other branches, was for many years my
favourite, or rather my exclusive pursuit; a cir-
cumstance which I must reckon of no little
import, for good and evil, in my intellectual life.
The mechanical style in which all these things
are treated here, and in France, where my only
teachers were, had already begun to sicken me;
when other far more pressing investigations of
a humane interest altogether detached me from
Mathematics, whether pure or applied. 1 I still
1 Carlyle, in 1866, wrote:--"Perhaps it was mainly the
accident that poor Leslie" (John Leslie, Professor of Mathe-
matics in Edinburgh University), "alone of my Professors, had
some genius in his business, and awoke a certain enthusiasm
in me. For several years, from 1813 onwards (perhaps seven
in all), ' Geometry' shone before me as undoubtedly the noblest
of all sciences; and I prosecuted it (or mathematics generally)
in all my best hours and moods,--though far more pregnant
inquiries were rising in me, and gradually engrossing me, heart
as well as head. So that, about 1820 or '21, I had entirely
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? 1829 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 157
remember that it was the desire to read
Werner s Mineralogical Doctrines in the origi-
nal, that first set me on studying German;
where truly I found a mine, far different from
any of the Freyberg ones! Nevertheless my
love of Natural Science still subsists, or might
easily be resuscitated; and various hints, which
I have now and then had, of your method in
such inquiries give me hope of great satisfac-
tion in studying it. The Farbenlehre, which I
think is very imperfectly known, or rather alto-
gether misknown, in England, will be a highly
acceptable present.
This Letter is full of mere business details,
and yet the most essential of these is still to
come. A little packet, chiefly for your Ottilie,
is getting ready,1 and will be sent off one of
thrown mathematics aside; and, except in one or two brief
spurts, lasting perhaps a couple of days, and more or less of a
morbid nature, have never in the least regarded it farther. "
1 It contained, among other things, a Scotch 'bonnet' made
by Mrs. Carlyle, and accompanied by the following friendly
but unmusical quatrain:
Scotland prides her in the "Bonnet Blue"
That it brooks no stain in Love or War:
Be it, on Ottilie's head, a token true
Of my Scottish love to kind Weimar!
CRAIGENI'l'TTOCK, \$th DcCCInicr 1829.
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? I58 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
these days: it is also to contain the Sketches
of our house and neighbourhood, such as you
required; and will come most probably by the
Messrs. Parish of Hamburg, whose courtesy
and punctuality in such matters I have often
admired. I might mention also that Herr
Herbig, Bookseller in Leipzig, is Agent for the
Publishers of the Foreign Review (Messrs.
Black, Young and Young, 2 Tavistock Street,
Covent Garden, London), through whom books
would reach me, by quick steam conveyance,
at all seasons of the year; yet, in truth, I know
not whether with equal security, or how your
communication with Leipzig may stand.
In regard to my employments and manner
of existence, literary and economic, I must not
speak here. I am still but an Essayist, and long-
ing more than ever to be a Writer in a far better
sense. Meanwhile I do what I may; and can-
not complain of wanting audience, stolid as
many of my little critics are and must be. I
have written on Voltaire, on Novalis, and was
this day correcting proof-sheets of a paper on
Jean Paul, for the Foreign Review. I have some
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? 1829 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 159
thoughts of writing a separate book on Luther,
but whether this winter or not, is undecided.
I delayed, three weeks, writing this Letter,
till a proposal (from some London booksellers)
of my composing what they call a History of
German Literature, were either finally agreed
upon, or finally abandoned: but as yet neither
of the two has happened. In the event of my
engaging with such a work, I mean to consult
with Dr. Eckermann for help; to whom, for his
friendly Letter, I beg that my thanks and best
regards may be offered.
All else I reserve till the Packet go. We
shall think of you daily, and ever with Love.
May all good be with you!
I remain, your grateful Friend,
THOMAS CARLYLE.
XXIII. --Carlyle to GOETHE.
CRAIGENPUTTOCK, DUMFRIES,
2 id December 1829.
RESPECTED SIR--The Packet, which I some
time ago announced, at length sets out; with
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? 160 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
true wishes on our part that it may find you
happy and busy, and bring kind remembrances
of Friends that love you. The Sketches of our
House and its environment are moderately
correct, and may serve the flattering purpose
you meant them for; as it is not the beauty of
the Amulet, but its mere character as Amulet,
that gives it worth. You will like the little
pictures no worse, when I inform you that they
are from the pencil of Mr. Moir, the Translator
of Wallenstein, who paid us a visit in Autumn,
and promises to see us again in Spring. In
return for his workmanship, I presented him
with the last of those four medals; to which
indeed, on other accounts, as a true admirer of
your works he had a good right. He passed
through Weimar, last Summer; but unluckily
at a time when you were absent: however,
he purposes to return ere long, and make
new sketches from the Rhine scenery; and
hopes, next time, to have better fortune in
Weimar.
The portfolio is of my wife's manufacture,
who sends you among other love-tokens a lock
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? 1829 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 161
of her hair; concerning which I am to say that,
except to her Husband she never did the like to
any man. She begs, however, and hopes, that
you will send her, in return, a lock of your hair;
which she will keep among her most precious
possessions, and only leave, as a rich legacy, to
the worthiest that comes after her. For a
heart that honestly loves you, I too hope that
you will do so much.
The Cowpers Poems you are to accept from
me as a New-year's gift, the value of which
must lie chiefly in the intention of the giver.
Cowper was the last of our Poets of the Old
School; a man of pure genius, but limited and
ineffectual; as indeed his bodily health was too
feeble had there been no other deficiency. He
is still a great favourite, especially with the
religious classes; and bids fair to survive many
a louder competitor for immortality. As his
merit, such as it is, appears to be genuine, it
will to your eye readily disclose itself.
I have read the Briefwechsel a second time
with no little satisfaction, and even to-day am
sending off an Essay on Schiller, grounded on
M
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? 162 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
that Work, for the Foreign Review} It will
gratify you to learn that a knowledge and
appreciation of Foreign, especially of German,
Literature, is spreading with increased rapidity
over all the domain of the English tongue; so
that almost at the Antipodes, in New Holland
itself, the wise of your country are by this time
preaching their wisdom. I have heard lately
that even in Oxford and Cambridge, our two
English Universities, which have all along been
regarded as the strongholds of Insular pride
and prejudice, there is a strange stir in this
matter. Your Niebuhr has found an able trans-
lator in Cambridge;2 and in Oxford two or
three Germans already find employment as
teachers ot their language; the new light con-
tained in which may well dazzle certain eyes.
Of the benefits that must in the end result from
1 This Essay appeared in Eraser's Magazine, No. XIV.
(See Carlyle's Miscellanies, iii. 87. )
2 Two able translators, Hare and Thirlwall, of Trinity
College, both personally known to Carlyle in after years. It
will be remembered that Archdeacon Hare was, without in-
tending it, the cause of Carlyle's writing the Life of Sterling.
The translation of Niebuhr's History of Rome, by Hare and
Thirlwall, was published in 1828.
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? 1829 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 163
all this no man can be doubtful: let nations,
like individuals, but know one another and
mutual hatred will give place to mutual help-
fulness; and instead of natural enemies, as
neighbouring countries are sometimes called,
we shall all be natural friends.
That Historical View of German Literature,
which I mentioned in my last letter, is now
almost decided on; and I hope in the course
of next year to offer you a copy of some
treatise on that subject. My knowledge, I feel
too well, is limited enough; but from a British
writer, and by British readers, less will be ex-
pected. Besides, it is the more recent, and
comparatively a brief period that will chiefly
interest us.
Were this "Historical View" once off my
hands, I still purpose to try something infinitely
greater! Alas, alas! the huge formless Chaos
is here, but no creative voice to say, "Let
there be Light," and make it into a world.
Some time ago we spent three weeks in
Edinburgh; warmly welcomed by old friends;
and looking not without interest on the current
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? 164 CARLYLE TO GOETHE 1829
of many-coloured life, which here we may be
said rather to listen to than to see. I found the
Literary men of that city still active in their
vocation; and to me undeservedly kind and
courteous: nevertheless, the general tone of
their speculation was such as to make me
revisit my solitude, when the time came, with
little regret. The whole bent of British
endeavour, both intellectual and practical, at
this time, is towards Utility; a creed which with
you has happily had its day, but with us is now
first rising into its full maturity. Great contro-
versies and misunderstandings on this matter,
are to be expected among us at no distant
period.
For the present, you are to figure your two
Scottish Friends as embosom'd amid snow and
"thick-ribbed ice;" yet secured against grim
winter by the glow of bright fires; and often
near you in imagination; nay, often thinking
the very thoughts which were once yours,--for
a little red volume is seldom absent from our
parlour. By and by, we still trust to hear that
all is well with you: the arrival of a Weimar
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? 1830 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 165
letter ever makes a day of jubilee here. May
all good be with you and yours!
I remain, always your affectionate Friend and Servant, ^ ~
THOMAS CARLYLE.
Were it convenient, we would beg some
similar Sketch of your Mansion at Weimar;1
concerning which I regularly question every
Traveller, yet with too little effect.
To Dr. Eckermann I still owe a letter;
which I mean ere long to pay, with increased
advantage to myself.
Please to assure him of
my continued regard.
XXIV. --Carlyle to ECKERMANN.
CRAIGENPUTTOCK, DUMFRIES,
20th March 1830.
MY DEAR SIR--I have long owed myself the
pleasure of writing to you, and might be a little
puzzled to say why it had been so long. Per-
haps my chief reason was that a certain nego-
tiation was in progress, touching some literary
1 Goethe sent an engraving of his house to Carlyle. See
infra, Appendix II. , p. 326.
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? 166 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 1830
work to be undertaken by me, on which I
wished to communicate with you; and so have
waited, impatiently enough, till in the slow
course of bibliopolic arrangements, I saw what
turn matters were to take. The business, I
believe, is now finally adjusted; indeed, in a
state of actual advance; so that on this, as on
all other topics, I can now address you without
embarrassment.
It is pity that Weimar lay so distant from
Scotland; with seas, and wide regions, to us
all waste and unpeopled, intervening. No spot
on this Globe is for me so significant at present;
as indeed it is but for their association with
human Worth and Effort that one City is nobler
than another, that all cities are not mere
stones and mortar. I can understand the long
journeys which Lovers of Wisdom were wont
to undertake in old days to see with their own
eyes some Teacher of Wisdom : all sights in
the Earth are poor and meaningless compared
with this. We still speculate here on a journey
to Weimar, and a winter's residence there; but
the way is long, the issue after all but a luxury;
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? 1830 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 167
then foolish little matters still detain us here:
thus, though the spirit is willing, the flesh is
weak. One still looks for a luckier time; and
many a pretty waking dream, though at last it
prove but a phantasm, will for years be worth
entertaining.
We long much to hear news of you: how
your venerable Poet wears his green old age;
how his and your labours are prospering.
Scarcely any German traveller finds his way
hither; so that, except public notices, we are
left mostly to hope and guess. Often I look
into Stieler's picture, and think the mild deep
eyes ought to answer me. But they are only
ink on paper, and do not.
About the 1st of last December we de-
spatched a little box for Weimar, containing
pencil-sketches of our House and environment,
Books, and other trifles, among which, I believe,
was something from my wife for Madame: but
unluckily the frost set in directly after, the
Elbe became unnavigable; and the Edinburgh
shippers gave little hope of the Packet leaving
them till Spring. It was directed, as usual, to
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? 168 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 1830
the care of Messrs. Parish in Hamburg. Pray
notify this to Seiner Excellenz unless happily it
be already in his hands. Of our deep unabated
regard and love, I trust he needs no assurance.
I requested the Editor of the Foreign Review
to forward you some of my lucubrations, which
you said you had not seen; nevertheless I am
afraid he has neglected it; neither, I can warn
you, is the loss very great. I was shocked to
learn that poor Mu? liner was dead: the very
post that brought me his version of my Play-
wrights in his Mitternacht-Blatt, conveyed also
those other tidings that the poor Jester was
now "quite chapfallen. " Alas, poor Yorick!
And why did / add another grain to his last
load of suffering, already too heavy for him1! --
Since then I have not cast one other glance
at your Tartarus; but looked only at the
Elysium, which is far more profitable.
Of our English Literature at this moment,
the two chief features seem to be our increased
1 In his article on German Playwrights {Foreign Review,
No. VI. , 1829, see Miscellanies, vol. ii. ), Carlyle had spoken with
some severity of Mu? liner's Plays and of his Midnight Paper.
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? 1830 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 169
and increasing attention to the Literature of
neighbouring nations; and the universal effort
to render all sorts of knowledge popular, to
accommodate our speculations, both in price
and structure, to the largest possible number of
readers. In regard to that first peculiarity, you
already know of our two Foreign Reviews, both
of which affect to be prospering; and now
further we have a Foreign Literary Gazette?
published weekly in London, and which, though
it is a mere steam-engine concern, managed by
an utter Dummkopf, solely for lucre, appears to
meet with sale, so great is the curiosity, so
boundless is the ignorance of men: dem
Narrenkb'nig gehort die Welt, at least all the
temporalities thereof. Our zeal for popularising,
again, is to be seen on every side of us. To
say nothing of our Societies for the Diffusion of
useful Knowledge, with their sixpenny treatises,
really very meritorious, we have, I know not
how many Miscellanies, Family Libraries,
Cabinet Cyclopedias, and so forth; and these
not managed by any literary Gibeonites, but
1 Edited by Mr. William Jerdan.
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? 170 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 1830
sometimes by the best men we have: Sir
Walter Scott, for instance, is publishing a
History of Scotland by one of these vehicles;
Thomas Moore is to write a History of Ireland
for the same work. The other day, I may add,
there came a letter to me from a quite new
Brotherhood of that sort; earnestly requesting
a "Life of Goethe. " Knowing my corre-
spondent l as a man of some weight and respect-
ability in Literature, I have just answered him
that the making of Goethe known to England
was a task which any Englishman might be
proud of; but that, as for his Biography, the
only rational plan, as matters stood, was to
take what he had himself seen fit to impart on
the subject; and by proper commentary and
adaptation, above all, by a suitable version,
and not perversion, of what was to be trans-
lated, enable an Englishman to read it with
the eye of a German. If anything come of this
proposal, and what, you shall by and by hear.
But it is more than time that I should say
a word about my History oj German Litera-
1 Mr. G. R. Gleig, on behalf of Dr. Lardner.
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? 1830 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 171
ture (if such can be the name of it), the task
above alluded to, and which also is to form
part of a joint-stock enterprise, the first of a
whole series of Literary Histories, French,
Italian, Spanish, English Literature being all
to be depicted in that "Cabinet Library" of
theirs. I am to have four volumes, and have
thought a good deal about the plan I am to
follow. The first volume is to be antiquarian,
I think; to treat of the Nibelungonlied, the
Minnesingers, Mastersingers, and so forth, and
may perhaps end with Hans Sachs. The
second will probably contain Luther and the
Reformation Satirists, with Opitz and his
school; down as far as Thomasius, Gottsched,
and the Swiss. The last two volumes must
be devoted to your modern, indeed recent
Literature, which is of all others the most
important to us. I need not say how much
any counsel of yours would oblige me in
regard to this matter, many parts of which
are still very dark to me. In particular, can
you mention any reasonable Book in which
the "New School" is exhibited; what was
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? 172 CARLYLE TO ECKERMANN 1830
its history, fairly stated, what its doctrines;
what in short was the meaning lying at the
bottom of that boundless hubbub, which so
often perplexes the stranger even yet with its
echoes in your Literature? Is Gru? ber's talk
(in his Wieland) about the Xenienkrieg to be
depended on, or is it mostly babble; and is
there any other work that will throw light on
that singular period? The Briefwechsel, two
volumes of which I have, is doubtless the
most authentic of all documents: but still my
understanding of it is far from sufficient. A
few words from you might perhaps save me
much groping; neither will you grudge that
trouble for me. Might I ask you to mention
what you think in general the most remarkable
epochs, and circumstances (Momente] of Ger-
man Literature? Indeed nothing that you can
write on that subject will be otherwise than
welcome to me. But, alas! the sheet is done;
and I must so soon say Lebewohl! Pray do
not linger in writing; your news, too, will seem
highly important to us. Lastly, if it be not
troublesome: use the Roman handwriting;
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? 1830 GOETHE TO CARLYLE 173
the other is like a thick veil, requiring to be
torn off first.
With best wishes, ever faithfully yours,
TH. CARLYLE.
Your German Philister, your Adelungs,
Nicolais, etc. (of which sort we have plenty in
England even now), and what figure their
activity specially assumed, are also an object of
great curiosity with me. We call them "Utili-
tarians" here, and they are mostly political,
and " Radical," or republican.
My wife directs me to send her kind regards,
and continued hope of one day seeing you.
Pray employ me, if there is anything here in
which I can serve you.
XXV. -- GOETHE to CARLYLE.
April 1830. ]
Das werthe Schatzkastlein, nachdem es
durch den strengsten Winter vom Continent
lange abgehalten worden, ist endlich um die
Halfte Marz glu? cklich angelangt.
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? 174 GOETHE TO CARLYLE 1830
Um von seinem Gehalt zu sprechen, erwa? hne
zuerst der unscha? tzbaren Locke, die man wohl
mit dem theuren Haupte verbunden mo? chte
gesehen haben, die aber hier einzeln erblickt,
mich fast erschreckt ha? tte. Der Gegensatz
war zu auffallend; denn ich brauchte meinen
Scha? del nicht zu beru? hren, um zu wissen dass
daselbst nur Stoppeln sich hervorthun; es war
nicht no? thig vor den Spiegel zu treten, um zu
erfahren dass eine lange Zeitreihe ihnen ein
missfarbiges Ansehen gegeben. Die Un-
mo? glichkeit der verlangten Erwiederung fiel
mir aufs Herz, und no? thigte mich zu Gedanken
deren man sich zu entschlagen pflegt. Am
Ende aber blieb mir doch nichts u? brig als mich
an der Vorstellung zu begnu? gen: eine solche
Gabe sey dankbarlichst ohne Hoffnung irgend
einer genu? genden Gegengift anzunehmen. Sie
soll auch heilig in der ihrer wu? rdigen Brieftasche
aufbewahrt bleiben, und nur das Liebenswu? r-
digste ihr zugesellt werden.
Der Schottische elegante Turban hat, wie
ich versichern darf, zu manchem Vergnu? g-
lichen Gelegenheit gegeben. Seit vielen Jahren
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? 1830 GOETHE TO CARLYLE 175
werden wir von den Einwohnern der drey
Ko? nigreiche besucht, welche gern einige Zeit
lang bey uns verweilen und guter Gesellschaft
geniessen mo? gen. Hierunter befinden sich
zwar weniger Schotten, doch kann es nicht
fehlen dass nicht noch das Andenken an einen
solchen Landsmann sich in einem scho? nen
Herzen so lebendig finde, um die National-
Prachtmu? tze, die Distel mit eingeschlossen, als
einen wu? nschenswerthesten Schmuck anzusehen,
und die gu? tige Senderin ha? tte sich gewiss gefreut
das lieblichste Gesicht von der Welt darunter
hervorgucken zu sehen. Ottilie aber dankt zum
allerverbindlichsten, und wird, sobald unsre
Trauertage voru? ber sind, damit glorreich auf-
zutreten nicht ermangeln.
Lassen Sie mich nun eine na? chste Gegen-
sendung anku? ndigen, welche zum Juni als der
gu? nstigsten Jahreszeit sich wohl wird zusammen
gefunden haben. Sie erhalten:
1. Das Exemplar Ihres u? bersetzten Schil-
lers, geschmu? ckt mit den Bildern Ihrer la?
