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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13583-0.txt b/13583-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..53ebced --- /dev/null +++ b/13583-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9562 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13583 *** + +THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THOMAS CARLYLE AND RALPH WALDO EMERSON + +1834-1872 + +VOLUME I. + + +"To my friend I write a letter, and from him I receive a letter. +It is a spiritual gift, worthy of him to give, and of me to +receive."--Emerson + +"What the writer did actually mean, the thing he then thought of, +the thing he then was."--Carlyle + + + +EDITORIAL NOTE + +The trust of editing the following Correspondence, committed to +me several years since by the writers, has been of easy +fulfilment. The whole Correspondence, so far as it is known to +exist, is here printed, with the exception of a few notes of +introduction, and one or two essentially duplicate letters. I +cannot but hope that some of the letters now missing may +hereafter come to light. + +In printing, a dash has been substituted here and there for a +proper name, and some passages, mostly relating to details of +business transactions, have been omitted. These omissions are +distinctly designated. The punctuation and orthography of the +original letters have been in the main exactly followed. I have +thought best to print much concerning dealings with publishers, +as illustrative of the material conditions of literature during +the middle of the century, as well as of the relations of the +two friends. The notes in the two volumes are mine. + +My best thanks and those of the readers of this Correspondence +are due to Mr. Moncure D. Conway, for his energetic and +successful effort to recover some of Emerson's early letters +which had fallen into strange hands. + --Charles Eliot Norton + +Cambridge, Massachusetts +January 29, 1883 + +--------- + + +NOTE TO REVISED EDITION + +The hope that some of the letters missing from it when this +correspondence was first published might come to light, has been +fulfilled by the recovery of thirteen letters of Carlyle, and of +four of Emerson. Besides these, the rough drafts of one or two +of Emerson's letters, of which the copies sent have gone astray, +have been found. Comparatively few gaps in the Correspondence +remain to be filled. + +The letters and drafts of letters now first printed are those +numbered as follows:-- + +Vol. I. + XXXVI. Carlyle + XLI. Emerson + XLII. Carlyle + XLVI. " + XLVII. " + LXVIII. " + +Vol. II. + C. Emerson + CIV. Carlyle + CV. " + CVI. " + CVII. " + CVIII. " + CIX. " + CXII. " + CXVI. " + CXLIX. Emerson + CLII. " + CLXV. " + CLXXXVI. " + +Emerson's letter of 1 May, 1859 (CLXIV.), of which only fragments +were printed in the former edition, is now printed complete, and +the extract from his Diary accompanying it appears in the form in +which it seems to have been sent to Carlyle. + + --C.E.N. + +December 31, 1884 + +----------- + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. + +Introduction. Emerson's early recognition of Carlyle's genius. +--His visit at Craigenputtock, in 1833.--Extracts concerning it +from letter of Carlyle, from letter of Emerson, and from English +Traits. + +I. Emerson. Boston, 14 May, 1834. First acquaintance with +Carlyle's writings.--Visit to Craigenputtock.--_Sartor Resartus,_ +its contents, its diction.--Gift of Webster's _Speeches_ and +Sampson Reed's _Growth of the Mind._ + +II. Carlyle. Chelsea, 12 August, 1834. Significance of +Emerson's gift and visit.--Sampson Reed.--Webster.-- +Teufelsdrockh, its sorry reception.--Removal to London.--Article +on the Diamond Necklace.--Preparation for book on the French +Revolution.--Death of Coleridge. + +III. Emerson. Concord, 20 November, 1834. Death of his brother +Edward.--Consolation in Carlyle's friendship.--Pleasure in +receiving stitched copy of Teufelsdrockh.--Goethe.-- +Swedenborgianism.--Of himself.--Hope of Carlyle's coming to +America.--Gift of various publications. + +IV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 February, 1835. Acknowledgments and +inquiries.--Sympathy for death of Edward Emerson.--Unitarianism. +--Emerson's position and pursuits.--Goethe.-Volume of French +Revolution finished.--Condition of literature.--Lecturing in +America.--Mrs. Austin. + +V. Emerson. Concord, 12 March, 1835. Appreciation of Sartor. +--Dr. Channing.--Prospect of Carlyle's visit to America.--His +own approaching marriage.--Plan of a journal of Philosophy in +Boston.--Encouragement of Carlyle. + +VI. Emerson. Concord, 30 April, 1835. Apathy of English public +toward Carlyle.--Hope of his visit to America.--Lectures and +lecturers in Boston.--Estimate of receipts and expenses.--Esteem +of Carlyle in America. + +VII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 May, 1835. Emerson's marriage. +--Astonishing reception of Teufelsdrockh in New England. +--Boston Transcendentalism.--Destruction of manuscript of +first volume of _French Revolution._--Result of a year's +life in London.--Wordsworth.--Southey. + +VIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 27 June, 1835. Visit to America +questionable.--John Carlyle.--Tired out with rewriting _French +Revolution._--A London rout.--O'Connell.--Longfellow.--Emerson +and Unitarianism. + +IX. Emerson. Concord, 7 October, 1835. Mrs. Child.--Public +addresses.--Marriage.--Destruction of manuscript of _French +Revolution._--Notice of _Sartor_ in _North American Review._ +--Politics.--Charles Emerson. + +X. Emerson. Concord, 8 April, 1836. Concern at Carlyle's +silence.--American reprint of _Sartor._--Carlyle's projected +visit.--Lecturing in New England. + +XI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 April, 1836. Weariness over _French +Revolution._--Visit to Scotland.--Charm of London.--Letter from +James Freeman Clarke.--Article on _Sartor_ in _North American +Review._--Quatrain from Voss. + +XII. Emerson. Concord, 17 September,1836. Death of Charles +Emerson.--Solicitude concerning Carlyle.--Urgency to him to come +to Concord.--Sends _Nature_ to him.--Reflections. + +XIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 5 November, 1836. Charles Emerson's +death.--Concord.--His own condition.--_French Revolution_ almost +ended.--Character of the book.--Weariness.--London and its +people.--Plans for rest.--John Sterling.--Articles on Mirabeau +and the _Diamond Necklace._--Mill's _London_ Review.--Thanks for +American Teufelsdrockh.--Mrs. Carlyle.--Might and Right, Canst +and Shalt.--Books about Goethe. + +XIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 February, 1837. Teufelsdrockh in +America and England.--_Nature._--Miss Martineau on Emerson. +--Mammon.--Completion of _French Revolution._--Scheme of +Lecturing in London.--America fading into the background. + +XV. Emerson. Concord, 31 March, 1837. Receipt of the Mirabeau +and Diamond Necklace.--Their substance and style.--Proof-sheet of +_French Revolution._--Society in America.--Renewed invitation. +--Mrs. Carlyle.--His son Waldo.--Bronson Alcott.--Second edition +of _Sartor._ + +XVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 1 June, 1837. Lectures on German +Literature.--Copy of _French Revolution_ sent.--Review of himself +in _Christian Examiner._--George Ripley.--Miss Martineau and her +book on America.--Plans. + +XVII. Emerson. Concord, 13 September, 1837. _The French +Revolution._--Sale of Carlyle's books.--Lectures. + +XVIII. Emerson. Concord, 2 November, 1837. Introduction given +to Charles Sumner.--Reprint of _French Revolution._--Lectures. + +XIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 December, 1837. Visit to Scotland. +--Mrs. Carlyle's ill-health.--His own need of rest.--John +Sterling; his regard for Emerson.--Emerson's Oration on the +American Scholar.--Proposed collection of his own Miscellanies. + +XX. Emerson. Concord, 9 February, 1838. Lectures on Human +Culture.--Carlyle's praise of his Oration.--John Sterling. +--Reprint of _French Revolution._--Profits from it.--American +selection and edition of Carlyle's _Miscellanies._ + +XXI. Emerson. Boston, 12 March, 1838. Sale of _French +Revolution._--Arrangements concerning American edition of +_Miscellanies._ + +XXII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 16 March, 1838. Prospect of cash from +Yankee-land.--Poverty.--American and English reprints of +_Miscellanies._--Sterling's _Crystals from a Cavern._--Miss +Martineau on Emerson.--Lectures.--Plans. + +XXIII. Emerson. Concord, 10 May, 1838. American edition of +_Miscellanies._--Invitation to Concord.--His means and mode of +life.--Sterling.--Miss Martineau.--Carlyle's poverty. + +XXIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 15 June, 1838. American _French +Revolution._--London edition of Teufelsdrockh.--Miscellanies. +--Lectures, their money result.--Plans.--Emerson's Oration. +--Mrs. Child's _Philothea._ + +XXV. Emerson. Boston, 30 July, 1838. Encloses bill for L50. +--_Miscellanies_ published. + +XXVI. Emerson. Concord, 6 August, 1838. Publication of +_Miscellanies._--Two more volumes proposed.--Orations at +Theological School, Cambridge, and at Dartmouth College.--Carlyle +desired in America. + +XXVII. Carlyle. Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, 25 September, 1838. +Visit to his Mother.--Remittance from Emerson of L50.-- +_Miscellanies_ again.--Another Course of Lectures.--Sterling.-- +Miss Martineau. + +XXVIII. Emerson. Concord, 17 October, 1838. Business.--Outcry +against address to Divinity College.--Injury to Carlyle's repute +in America from association with him.--Article in _Quarterly_ on +German Religious Writers.--Sterling. + +XXIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 7 November, 1838. Emerson's letters.-- +Dyspepsia.--Use of money from America.--Arrangements concerning +publication of _Miscellanies._--Emerson's Orations.--Tempest in a +washbowl concerning Divinity School Address.--John Carlyle-- +Postscript by Mrs. Carlyle. + +XXX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 15 November, 1838. Arrangements +concerning Miscellanies.--Employments, outlooks.--Concord not +forgotten, but Emerson to come first to England.--John Carlyle. +--Miss Martineau and her books. + +XXXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 December, 1838. Arrival of American +reprint of _Miscellanies._--English and American bookselling.-- +Proposed second edition of _French Revolution._--Reading Horace +Walpole.--Sumner.--Dartmouth Oration.--Sterling.--Dwight's +German Translations. + +XXXII. Emerson. Concord, 13 January, 1839. Business.-- +Remittance of L100.--Lectures on Human Life.--Dr. Carlyle. + +XXXIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 February, 1839. Acknowledgment of +remittance.--Arrangements for new edition of _French +Revolution._--London.--Wish for quiet.--Ill-health.--Suggestion +of writing on Cromwell.--Mr. Joseph Coolidge.--Divinity School +Address.--Mrs. Carlyle.--Gladstone cites from Emerson in his +Church and State. + +XXXIV. Emerson. Concord, 15 March, 1839. Account of sales.-- +Second series of _Miscellanies._--Ill wind raised by Address +blown over.--Lectures.--Birth of daughter.--_The Onyx Ring._ +--Alcott. + +XXXV. Emerson. Concord, 19 March, 1839. Need of copy to fill +out second series of _Miscellanies._--John S. Dwight. + +XXXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 April, 1839. Solicitude on account +of Emerson's silence.--Gift to Mrs. Emerson.--Book business. +--New edition of _French Revolution._--New lectures.--Better +circumstances, better health.--Arthur Buller urges a visit to +America.--Milnes.--Emerson's growing popularity. + +XXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 17 April, 1839. Nothing in manuscript +fit for _Miscellanies._--Essay on Varnhagen.--Translation of +Goethe's _Mahrchen._--Cruthers and Jonson.--Dwight's book. +--Lectures.--Discontent among working people. + +XXXVIII. Emerson. Boston, 20 April, 1839. Proposals of +publishers concerning _French Revolution._--Introduction of +Miss Sedgwick. + +XXXIX. Emerson. Concord, 25 April, 1839. Account.--Sales +of books. + +XL. Emerson. Concord, 28 April, 1839. Proposals of publishers +and accounts. + +XLI. Emerson. Concord, 15 May, 1839. Arrangements with +publishers.--Matter for completion of fourth volume of +_Miscellanies._--Stearns Wheelers faithful labor.--Arthur +Buller's good witnessing.--Plans for Carlyle's visit to America. +--Milnes.--Copy of _Nature_ for him. + +XLII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 May, 1839. Lectures happily over.-- +Sansculottism.--Horse must be had.--Extempore speaking an art.-- +Must lecture in America or write a book.--Wordsworth.--Sterling. +--Messages. + +XLIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 24 June, 1839. Delay in arrival of +_Miscellanies._--Custom-house rapacities.--Accounts..--No longer +poor.--Emerson's work.--Miss Sedgwick.--Daniel Webster.--Proposed +visit to Scotland.--Sinking of the Vengeur. + +XLIV. Emerson. Concord, 4 July, 1839. Proof-sheet of new +edition of _French Revolution_ received.--Gift to Mrs. Emerson of +engraving of Guido's Aurora.--Publishers' accounts.--Sterling.-- +Occupations.--Margaret Fuller. + +XLV. Emerson. Concord, 8 August, 1839. _Miscellanies_ sent. +--Daniel Webster.--Alcott.--Thoreau. + +XLVI. Carlyle. Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, 4 September, 1839. +Rusticating.--Arrival of _Miscellanies._--Errata.--Reprint of +_Wilhelm Meister._--Estimate of the book.--Copies of _French +Revolution_ sent.--Eager expectation of Emerson's book.-- +Sterling.--Plans. + +XLVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 December, 1839. Long silence.--Stay +in Scotland.--Chartism.--Reprint of _Miscellanies._--Stearns +Wheeler.--_Wilhelm Meister._--Boston steamers.--Speculations +about Hegira into New England.--Visitor from America who had +never seen Emerson.--Miss Martineau.--Silence and speech.-- +Sterling.--Southey.--No longer desperately poor. + +XLVIII. Emerson. Concord, 12 December, 1839. Copies of _French +Revolution_ arrived.--Lectures on the Present Age.--Letter from +Sterling, his paper on Carlyle.--Friends. + +XLIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 6 January, 1840. _Chartism._-- +Sterling.--Monckton Milnes, paper by him on Emerson. + +L. Carlyle. Chelsea, 17 January, 1840. Export and import of +books.--New editions.--Books sent to Emerson.--Cromwell as a +subject for writing.--No appetite for lecturing.--Madame Necker +on Emerson. + +LI. Emerson. New York, 18 March, 1840. New York.--Loss of faith +on entering cities.--Margaret Fuller to edit a journal.--Lectures +on the Present Age.--His children.--Renewed invitation. + +LII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 1 April, 1840. Count D'Orsay, his +portrait of Carlyle.--Wages for books, due to Emerson.--Milnes's +review.--Heraud.--Landor.--Lectures in prospect on Heroes and +Hero-worship. + +LIII. Emerson. Concord, 21 April, 1840. Introduction of Mr. +Grinnell.--Chartism.--Reprint of it.--At work on a book.-- +Booksellers' accounts.--_The Dial._--Alcott. + +LIV. Emerson. Concord, 30 June, 1840. _Wilhelm Meister_ +received.--Landor.--Letter to Milnes.--Lithograph of Concord. +--_The Dial,_ No. 1. + +LV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 July, 1840. Bibliopoliana.--Lectures +about Great Men.--Lecturing in America.--Milnes and his _Poems._ +--Controversial volume from Ripley. + +LVI. Emerson. Concord, 30 August, 1840. Booksellers' accounts. +--Faith cold concerning Carlyle's coming to America.-- +Transcendentalism and _The Dial._--Social problems.--Character of +his writing.--Charles Sumner. + +LVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 26 September, 1840. Not to go to +America for the present.--_Heroes and Hero-Worship._--Journey on +horseback.--Reading on Cromwell.--_Dial_ No. 1.--Puseyism.--Dr. +Sewell on Carlyle.--Landor.--Sterling. + +LVIII. Emerson. Concord, 30 October, 1840. Booksellers' +accounts.--Projects of social reform.--Studies unproductive. +--Hopes to print a book of essays. + +LIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 9 December, 1840. Booksellers' +carelessness and accounts.--Puseyism.--Dial No. 2.--Goethe. +--Miss Martineau's _Hour and Man._--Working in Cromwellism. + +LX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 21 February, 1841. To Mrs. Emerson.-- +London transmuted by her alchemy.--Hope of seeing Concord. +--Miss Martineau.--Toussaint l'Ouverture.--Sheets of _Heroes +and Hero-worship_ sent to Emerson. + +LXI. Emerson. Concord, 28 February, 1841. Accounts.--Essays +soon to appear.--Lecture on Reform. + +LXII. Emerson. Boston, 30 April, 1841. Remittance of L100.-- +Accounts.--Piratical reprint of _Heroes and Hero-worship._-- +_Dial_ No. 4. + +LXIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 May, 1841. Visit to Milnes.--To his +Mother.--Emerson's _Essays._--His own condition. + +LXIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 21 May, 1841. Acknowledgment of +remittance of L100.--Unauthorized American reprint of _Heroes and +Hero-worship._--Improvement in circumstances.--Desire for +solitude.--Article on Emerson in _Fraser's Magazine._ + +LXV. Emerson. Concord, 30 May, 1841. Accounts.--Book by Jones +Very.--_Heroes and Hero-worship._--Thoreau. + +LXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 25 June, 1841. Proposed stay at Annan. +--Motives for it.--London reprint of Emerson's Essays.--Rio. + +LXVII. Emerson. Concord, 31 July, 1841. London reprint of +_Essays._--Carlyle in his own land.--Writing an oration. + +LXVIII. Carlyle. Newby, Annan, Scotland, 18 August, 1841. +Speedy receipt of letter.--Stay in Scotland.--Seclusion and +sadness.--Reprint of Emerson's _Essays._--Shipwreck. + +LXIX. Emerson. Concord, 30 October, 1841. Pleasure in English +reprint of _Essays._--Lectures on the Times.--Opportunities of +the Lecture-room.--Accounts. + +LXX. Emerson. Concord, 14 November, 1841. Remittance of L40.-- +His banker.--Gambardella.--Preparation for lectures on the Times. + +LXXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 19 November, 1841. Gambardella.-- +Lawrence's portrait.--Emerson's Essays in England.--Address at +Waterville College.--_The Dial._--Emerson's criticism on Landor. + +LXXII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 6 December, 1841. Acknowledgment of +remittance of L40.--American funds.--Landor.--Emerson's Lectures. + +LXXIII. Emerson. New York, 28 February, 1842. Remittance of +L48.--American investments.--Death of his son.--Alcott going +to England. + +LXXIV. Carlyle. Templand, 28 March, 1842. Sympathy, with +Emerson.--Death of Mrs. Carlyle's mother.--At Templand to settle +affairs.--Life there.--A book on Cromwell begun. + +LXXV. Emerson. Concord, 31 March, 1842. Bereavement.--Alcott +going to England.--Editorship of _Dial._--Mr. Henry Lee.-- +Lectures in New York. + +--------------------- + + + +CORRESPONDENCE OF CARLYLE AND EMERSON + +At the beginning of his "English Traits," Mr. Emerson, writing of +his visit to England in 1833, when he was thirty years old, says +that it was mainly the attraction of three or four writers, of +whom Carlyle was one, that had led him to Europe. Carlyle's name +was not then generally known, and it illustrates Emerson's mental +attitude that he should have thus early recognized his genius, +and felt sympathy with it. + +The decade from 1820 to 1830 was a period of unusual dulness in +English thought and imagination. All the great literary +reputations belonged to the beginning of the century, Byron, +Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, had said their say. +The intellectual life of the new generation had not yet found +expression. But toward the end of this time a series of +articles, mostly on German literature, appearing in the Edinburgh +and in the Foreign Quarterly Review, an essay on Burns, another +on Voltaire, still more a paper entitled "Characteristics," +displayed the hand of a master, and a spirit in full sympathy +with the hitherto unexpressed tendencies and aspirations of its +time, and capable of giving them expression. Here was a writer +whose convictions were based upon principles, and whose words +stood for realities. His power was slowly acknowledged. As yet +Carlyle had received hardly a token of recognition from his +contemporaries. + +He was living solitary, poor, independent, in "desperate hope," +at Craigenputtock. On August 24,1833, he makes entry in his +Journal as follows: "I am left here the solitariest, stranded, +most helpless creature that I have been for many years..... +Nobody asks me to work at articles. The thing I want to write is +quite other than an article... In _all_ times there is a word +which spoken to men; to the actual generation of men, would +thrill their inmost soul. But the way to find that word? The +way to speak it when found?" The next entry in his Journal shows +that Carlyle had found the word. It is the name "Ralph Waldo +Emerson," the record of Emerson's unexpected visit. "I shall +never forget the visitor," wrote Mrs. Carlyle, long afterwards, +"who years ago, in the Desert, descended on us, out of the clouds +as it were, and made one day there look like enchantment for us, +and left me weeping that it was only one day." + +At the time of this memorable visit Emerson was morally not less +solitary than Carlyle; he was still less known; his name had +been unheard by his host in the desert. But his voice was soon +to become also the voice of a leader. With temperaments sharply +contrasted, with traditions, inheritances, and circumstances +radically different, with views of life and of the universe +widely at variance, the souls of these two young men were yet in +sympathy, for their characters were based upon the same +foundation of principle. In their independence and their +sincerity they were alike; they were united in their faith in +spiritual truth, and their reverence for it. Their modes of +thought of expression were not merely dissimilar, but divergent, +and yet, though parted by an ever widening cleft of difference, +they knew, as Carlyle said, that beneath it "the rock-strata, +miles deep, united again, and their two souls were at one" + +Two days after Emerson's visit Carlyle wrote to his mother:-- + +"Three little happinesses have befallen us: first, a piano-tuner, +procured for five shillings and sixpence, has been here, +entirely reforming the piano, so that I can hear a little music +now, which does me no little good. Secondly, Major Irving, of +Gribton, who used at this season of the year to live and shoot at +Craigenvey, came in one day to us, and after some clatter offered +us a rent of five pounds for the right to shoot here, and even +tabled the cash that moment, and would not pocket it again. +Money easilier won never sat in my pocket; money for delivering +us from a great nuisance, for now I will tell every gunner +applicant, 'I cannot, sir; it is let.' Our third happiness was +the arrival of a certain young unknown friend, named Emerson, +from Boston, in the United States, who turned aside so far from +his British, French, and Italian travels to see me here! He had +an introduction from Mill, and a Frenchman (Baron d'Eichthal's +nephew) whom John knew at Rome. Of course we could do no other +than welcome him; the rather as he seemed to be one of the most +lovable creatures in himself we had ever looked on. He stayed +till next day with us, and talked and heard talk to his heart's +content, and left us all really sad to part with him. Jane says +it is the first journey since Noah's Deluge undertaken to +Craigenputtock for such a purpose. In any case, we had a +cheerful day from it, and ought to be thankful." + +On the next Sunday, a week after his visit, Emerson wrote the +following account of it to his friend, Mr. Alexander Ireland. + +"I found him one of the most simple and frank of men, and became +acquainted with him at once. We walked over several miles of +hills, and talked upon all the great questions that interest us +most. The comfort of meeting a man is that he speaks sincerely; +that he feels himself to be so rich, that he is above the +meanness of pretending to knowledge which he has not, and Carlyle +does not pretend to have solved the great problems, but rather to +be an observer of their solution as it goes forward in the world. +I asked him at what religious development the concluding passage +in his piece in the Edinburgh Review upon German literature +(say five years ago), and some passages in the piece called +'Characteristics,' pointed. He replied that he was not competent +to state even to himself,--he waited rather to see. My own +feeling was that I had met with men of far less power who had got +greater insight into religious truth. He is, as you might guess +from his papers, the most catholic of philosophers; he forgives +and loves everybody, and wishes each to struggle on in his own +place and arrive at his own ends. But his respect for eminent +men, or rather his scale of eminence, is about the reverse of the +popular scale. Scott, Mackintosh, Jeffrey, Gibbon,--even Bacon, +--are no heroes of his; stranger yet, he hardly admires Socrates, +the glory of the Greek world; but Burns, and Samuel Johnson, and +Mirabeau, he said interested him, and I suppose whoever else has +given himself with all his heart to a leading instinct, and has +not calculated too much. But I cannot think of sketching even +his opinions, or repeating his conversations here. I will +cheerfully do it when you visit me here in America. He talks +finely, seems to love the broad Scotch, and I loved him very much +at once. I am afraid he finds his entire solitude tedious, but I +could not help congratulating him upon his treasure in his wife, +and I hope he will not leave the moors; 't is so much better for +a man of letters to nurse himself in seclusion than to be filed +down to the common level by the compliances and imitations of +city society." * + +------------- +* _Ralph Waldo Emerson. Recollections of his Visits to England_ +By Alexander Ireland. London, 1882, p. 58. +------------ + +Twenty-three years later, in his "English Traits," Emerson once +more describes his visit, and tells of his impressions of +Carlyle. + +"From Edinburgh I went to the Highlands. On my return I came +from Glasgow to Dumfries, and being intent on delivering a letter +which I had brought from Rome, inquired for Craigenputtock. It +was a farm in Nithsdale, in the parish of Dunscore, sixteen miles +distant. No public coach passed near it, so I took a private +carriage from the inn. I found the house amid desolate heathery +hills, where the lonely scholar nourished his mighty heart. +Carlyle was a man from his youth, an author who did not need to +hide from his readers, and as absolute a man of the world, +unknown and exiled on that hill-farm, as if holding on his own +terms what is best in London. He was tall and gaunt, with a +cliff-like brow, self-possessed and holding his extraordinary +powers of conversation in easy command; clinging to his northern +accent with evident relish; full of lively anecdote, and with a +streaming humor which floated everything he looked upon. His +talk, playfully exalting the most familiar objects, put the +companion at once into an acquaintance with his Lars and Lemurs, +and it was very pleasant to learn what was predestined to be a +pretty mythology. Few were the objects and lonely the man, 'not +a person to speak to within sixteen miles, except the minister of +Dunscore'; so that books inevitably made his topics. + +"He had names of his own for all the matters familiar to his +discourse. Blackwood's was the 'sand magazine'; Fraser's nearer +approach to possibility of life was the 'mud magazine'; a piece +of road near by that marked some failed enterprise was 'the grave +of the last sixpence.' When too much praise of any genius +annoyed him, he professed hugely to admire the talent shown by +his pig. He had spent much time and contrivance in confining the +poor beast to one enclosure in his Pen; but pig, by great +strokes of judgment, had found out how to let a board down, and +had foiled him. For all that, he still thought man the most +plastic little fellow in the planet, and he liked Nero's death, +_Qualis artifex pereo!_ better than most history. He worships a +man that will manifest any truth to him. At one time he had +inquired and read a good deal about America. Landor's principle +was mere rebellion, and _that,_ he feared, was the American +principle. The best thing he knew of that country was, that in +it a man can have meat for his labor. He had read in Stewart's +book, that when he inquired in a New York hotel for the Boots, he +had been shown across the street, and had found Mungo in his own +house dining on roast turkey. + +"We talked of books. Plato he does not read, and he disparaged +Socrates; and, when pressed, persisted in making Mirabeau a +hero. Gibbon he called the splendid bridge from the old world to +the new. His own reading had been multifarious. Tristram Shandy +was one of his first books after Robinson Crusoe and Robertson's +America, an early favorite. Rousseau's Confessions had +discovered to him that he was not a dunce; and it was now ten +years since he had learned German, by the advice of a man who +told him he would find in that language what he wanted. + +"He took despairing or satirical views of literature at this +moment; recounted the incredible sums paid in one year by the +great booksellers for puffing. Hence it comes that no newspaper +is trusted now, no books are bought, and the booksellers are on +the eve of bankruptcy. + +"He still returned to English pauperism, the crowded country, the +selfish abdication by public men of all that public persons +should perform. 'Government should direct poor men what to do. +Poor Irish folk come wandering over these moors; my dame makes +it a rule to give to every son of Adam bread to eat, and supplies +his wants to the next house. But here are thousands of acres +which might give them all meat, and nobody to bid these poor +Irish go to the moor and till it. They burned the stacks, and so +found a way to force the rich people to attend to them.' + +"We went out to walk over long hills, and looked at Criffel, then +without his cap, and down into Wordsworth's country. There we +sat down and talked of the immortality of the soul. It was not +Carlyle's fault that we talked on that topic, for he has the +natural disinclination of every nimble spirit to bruise itself +against walls, and did not like to place himself where no step +can be taken. But he was honest and true, and cognizant of the +subtile links that bind ages together, and saw how every event +affects all the future. 'Christ died on the tree that built +Dunscore kirk yonder: that brought you and me together. Time +has only a relative existence.' + +"He was already turning his eyes towards London with a scholar's +appreciation. London is the heart of the world, he said, +wonderful only from the mass of human beings. He liked the huge +machine. Each keeps its own round. The baker's boy brings +muffins to the window at a fixed hour every day, and that is all +the Londoner knows or wishes to know on the subject. But it +turned out good men. He named certain individuals, especially +one man of letters, his friend, the best mind he knew, whom +London had well served." + +Such is the record of the beginnings of the friendship between +Carlyle and Emerson. What place this friendship held in the +lives of both, the following Correspondence shows. + +--------- + + +I. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, Massachusetts, 14 May, 1884 + +My Dear Sir,--There are some purposes we delay long to execute +simply because we have them more at heart than others, and such +an one has been for many weeks, I may say months, my design of +writing you an epistle. + +Some chance wind of Fame blew your name to me, perhaps two years +ago, as the author of papers which I had already distinguished +(as indeed it was very easy to do) from the mass of English +periodical criticism as by far the most original and profound +essays of the day,--the works of a man of Faith as well as +Intellect, sportive as well as learned, and who, belonging to the +despairing and deriding class of philosophers, was not ashamed to +hope and to speak sincerely. Like somebody in _Wilhelm Meister_, +I said: This person has come under obligations to me and to all +whom he has enlightened. He knows not how deeply I should grieve +at his fall, if, in that exposed England where genius always +hears the Devil's whisper, "All these kingdoms will I give thee," +his virtue also should be an initial growth put off with age. +When therefore I found myself in Europe, I went to your house +only to say, "Faint not,--the word you utter is heard, though in +the ends of the earth and by humblest men; it works, prevails." +Drawn by strong regard to one of my teachers I went to see his +person, and as he might say his environment at Craigenputtock. +Yet it was to fulfil my duty, finish my mission, not with much +hope of gratifying him,--in the spirit of "If I love you, what is +that to you?" Well, it happened to me that I was delighted with +my visit, justified to myself in my respect, and many a time upon +the sea in my homeward voyage I remembered with joy the favored +condition of my lonely philosopher, his happiest wedlock, his +fortunate temper, his steadfast simplicity, his all means of +happiness;--not that I had the remotest hope that he should so +far depart from his theories as to expect happiness. On my +arrival at home I rehearsed to several attentive ears what I had +seen and heard, and they with joy received it. + +In Liverpool I wrote to Mr. Fraser to send me Magazine, and I +have now received four numbers of the _Sartor Resartus,_ for +whose light thanks evermore. I am glad that one living scholar +is self-centred, and will be true to himself though none ever +were before; who, as Montaigne says, "puts his ear close by +himself, and holds his breath and listens." And none can be +offended with the self-subsistency of one so catholic and jocund. +And 't is good to have a new eye inspect our mouldy social forms, +our politics, and schools, and religion. I say _our,_ for it +cannot have escaped you that a lecture upon these topics written +for England may be read to America. Evermore thanks for the +brave stand you have made for Spiritualism in these writings. +But has literature any parallel to the oddity of the vehicle +chosen to convey this treasure? I delight in the contents; the +form, which my defective apprehension for a joke makes me not +appreciate, I leave to your merry discretion. And yet did ever +wise and philanthropic author use so defying a diction? As if +society were not sufficiently shy of truth without providing it +beforehand with an objection to the form. Can it be that this +humor proceeds from a despair of finding a contemporary audience, +and so the Prophet feels at liberty to utter his message in droll +sounds. Did you not tell me, Mr. Thomas Carlyle, sitting upon +one of your broad hills, that it was Jesus Christ built Dunscore +Kirk yonder? If you love such sequences, then admit, as you +will, that no poet is sent into the world before his time; that +all the departed thinkers and actors have paved your way; that +(at least when you surrender yourself) nations and ages do guide +your pen, yes, and common goose-quills as well as your diamond +graver. Believe then that harp and ear are formed by one +revolution of the wheel; that men are waiting to hear your +epical song; and so be pleased to skip those excursive involved +glees, and give us the simple air, without the volley of +variations. At least in some of your prefaces you should give us +the theory of your rhetoric. I comprehend not why you should +lavish in that spendthrift style of yours celestial truths. +Bacon and Plato have something too solid to say than that they +can afford to be humorists. You are dispensing that which is +rarest, namely, the simplest truths,--truths which lie next to +consciousness, and which only the Platos and Goethes perceive. I +look for the hour with impatience when the vehicle will be worthy +of the spirit,--when the word will be as simple, and so as +resistless, as the thought,--and, in short, when your words +will be one with things. I have no hope that you will find +suddenly a large audience. Says not the sarcasm, "Truth hath +the plague in his house"? Yet all men are _potentially_ (as +Mr. Coleridge would say) your audience, and if you will not +in very Mephistophelism repel and defy them, shall be actually;* +and whatever the great or the small may say about the charm of +diabolism, a true and majestic genius can afford to despise it. + +------------ +* This year, 1882, seventy thousand copies of a sixpenny edition +of _Sartor Resartus_ have been sold. +------------- + +I venture to amuse you with this homiletic criticism because it +is the sense of uncritical truth seekers, to whom you are no more +than Hecuba, whose instincts assure them that there is Wisdom in +this grotesque Teutonic apocalyptic strain of yours, but that 't +is hence hindered in its effect. And though with all my heart I +would stand well with my Poet, yet if I offend I shall quietly +retreat into my Universal relations, wherefrom I affectionately +espy you as a man, myself as another. + +And yet before I come to the end of my letter I may repent of my +temerity and unsay my charge. For are not all our circlets of +will as so many little eddies rounded in by the great Circle of +Necessity, and _could_ the Truth-speaker, perhaps now the best +Thinker of the Saxon race, have written otherwise? And must +not we say that Drunkenness is a virtue rather than that Cato +has erred? + +I wish I could gratify you with any pleasing news of the +regeneration, education, prospects, of man in this continent. +But your philanthropy is so patient, so far-sighted, that present +evils give you less solicitude. In the last six years government +in the United States has been fast becoming a job, like great +charities. A most unfit person in the Presidency has been doing +the worst things; and the worse he grew, the more popular. Now +things seem to mend. Webster, a good man and as strong as if he +were a sinner, begins to find himself the centre of a great and +enlarging party and his eloquence incarnated and enacted by them; +yet men dare not hope that the majority shall be suddenly +unseated. I send herewith a volume of Webster's that you may see +his speech on Foot's Resolutions, a speech which the Americans +have never done praising. I have great doubts whether the book +reaches you, as I know not my agents. I shall put with it the +little book of my Swedenborgian druggist,* of whom I told you. +And if, which is hardly to be hoped, any good book should be +thrown out of our vortex of trade and politics, I shall not fail +to give it the same direction. + +-------------- +* _Observations on the Growth of the Mind,_ by Sampson Reed, +first published in 1825. A fifth edition of this thoughtful +little treatise was published in 1865. Mr. Reed was a graduate +of Harvard College in 1818; he died in 1880, at the age +of eighty. +--------------- + +I need not tell you, my dear sir, what pleasure a letter from you +would give me when you have a few moments to spare to so remote a +friend. If any word in my letter should provoke you to a reply, +I shall rejoice in my sauciness. I am spending the summer in the +country, but my address is Boston, care of Barnard, Adams, & Co. +Care of O. Rich, London. Please do make my affectionate respects +to Mrs. Carlyle, whose kindness I shall always gratefully +remember. I depend upon her intercession to insure your writing +to me. May God grant you both his best blessing. + +Your friend, + R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +II. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Great Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London +12 August, 1834 + +My Dear Sir,--Some two weeks ago I received your kind gift from +Fraser. To say that it was welcome would be saying little: is +it not as a voice of affectionate remembrance, coming from beyond +the Ocean waters, first decisively announcing for me that a whole +New Continent _exists,_--that I too have part and lot there! +"Not till we can think that here and there one is thinking of us, +one is loving us, does this waste Earth become a peopled Garden." +Among the figures I can recollect as visiting our Nithsdale +hermitage,--all like _Apparitions_ now, bringing with them airs +from Heaven or else blasts from the other region,--there is +perhaps not one of a more undoubtedly supernal character than +yourself: so pure and still, with intents so charitable; and +then vanishing too so soon into the azure Inane, as an Apparition +should! Never has your Address in my Notebook met my eye but +with a friendly influence. Judge if I am glad to know that +there, in Infinite Space, you still hold by me. + +I have read in both your books at leisure times, and now nearly +finished the smaller one. He is a faithful thinker, that +Swedenborgian Druggist of yours, with really deep ideas, who +makes me too pause and think, were it only to consider what +manner of man he must be, and what manner of thing, after all, +Swedenborgianism must be. "Through the smallest window look +well, and you can look out into the Infinite." Webster also I +can recognize a sufficient, effectual man, whom one must wish +well to, and prophesy well of. The sound of him is nowise +poetic-rhythmic; it is clear, one-toned, you might say metallic, +yet distinct, significant, not without melody. In his face, +above all, I discern that "indignation" which, if it do not make +"verses," makes _useful_ way in the world. The higher such a man +rises, the better pleased I shall be. And so here, looking +over the water, let me repeat once more what I believe is +already dimly the sentiment of all Englishmen, Cisoceanic and +Transoceanic, that we and you are not two countries, and cannot +for the life of us be; but only two _parishes_ of one country, +with such wholesome parish hospitalities, and dirty temporary +parish feuds, as we see; both of which brave parishes _Vivant! +vivant!_ And among the glories of _both_ be Yankee-doodle-doo, +and the Felling of the Western Forest, proudly remembered; and +for the rest, by way of parish constable, let each cheerfully +take such George Washington or George Guelph as it can get, and +bless Heaven! I am weary of hearing it said, "We love the +Americans," "We wish well," &c., &c. What in God's name should +we do else? + +You thank me for _Teufelsdrockh;_ how much more ought I to thank +you for your hearty, genuine, though extravagant acknowledgment +of it! Blessed is the voice that amid dispiritment, stupidity, +and contradiction proclaims to us, _Euge!_ Nothing ever was more +ungenial than the soil this poor Teufelsdrockhish seed-corn has +been thrown on here; none cries, Good speed to it; the sorriest +nettle or hemlock seed, one would think, had been more welcome. +For indeed our British periodical critics, and especially +the public of _Fraser's_ Magazine (which I believe I have now +done with), exceed all speech; require not even contempt, +only oblivion. Poor Teufelsdrockh!--Creature of mischance, +miscalculation, and thousand-fold obstruction! Here nevertheless +he is, as you see; has struggled across the Stygian marshes, and +now, as a stitched pamphlet "for Friends," cannot be _burnt_ or +lost before his time. I send you one copy for your own behoof; +three others you yourself can perhaps find fit readers for: as +you spoke in the plural number, I thought there might be three; +more would rather surprise me. From the British side of the +water I have met simply one intelligent response,--clear, true, +though almost enthusiastic as your own. My British Friend too is +utterly a stranger, whose very name I know not, who did not +print, but only write, and to an unknown third party.* Shall I +say then, "In the mouth of two witnesses"? In any case, God be +thanked, I am done with it; can wash my hands of it, and send it +forth; sure that the Devil will get his full share of it, +and not a whit more, clutch as he may. But as for you, my +Transoceanic brothers, read this earnestly, for it _was_ +earnestly meant and written, and contains no _voluntary_ +falsehood of mine. For the rest, if you dislike it, say that I +wrote it four years ago, and could not now so write it, and on +the whole (as Fritz the Only said) "will do better another time." +With regard to style and so forth, what you call your "saucy" +objections are not only most intelligible to me, but welcome and +instructive. You say well that I take up that attitude because I +have no known public, am alone under the heavens, speaking into +friendly or unfriendly space; add only, that I will not defend +such attitude, that I call it questionable, tentative, and only +the best that I, in these mad times, could conveniently hit upon. +For you are to know, my view is that now at last we have lived to +see all manner of Poetics and Rhetorics and Sermonics, and one +may say generally all manner of _Pulpits_ for addressing mankind +from, as good as broken and abolished: alas, yes! if you have +any earnest meaning which demands to be not only listened to, but +_believed_ and _done,_ you cannot (at least I cannot) utter it +_there,_ but the sound sticks in my throat, as when a solemnity +were _felt_ to have become a mummery; and so one leaves the +pasteboard coulisses, and three unities, and Blair's Lectures, +quite behind; and feels only that there is _nothing sacred,_ +then, but the _Speech of Man_ to believing Men! This, come what +will, was, is, and forever must be _sacred;_ and will one day, +doubtless, anew environ itself with fit modes; with solemnities +that are _not_ mummeries. Meanwhile, however, is it not +pitiable? For though Teufelsdrockh exclaims, "Pulpit! canst thou +not make a pulpit by simply _inverting the nearest tub?_" yet, +alas! he does not sufficiently reflect that it is still only a +tub, that the most inspired utterance will come from _it,_ +inconceivable, misconceivable, to the million; questionable (not +of _ascertained_ significance) even to the few. Pity us +therefore; and with your just shake of the head join a +sympathetic, even a hopeful smile. Since I saw you I have been +trying, am still trying, other methods, and shall surely get +nearer the truth, as I honestly strive for it. Meanwhile, I know +no method of much consequence, except that of _believing,_ of +being _sincere:_ from Homer and the Bible down to the poorest +Burns's Song, I find no other Art that promises to be perennial. + +--------- +* In his Diary, July 26, 1834, Carlyle writes--"In the midst of +innumerable discouragements, all men indifferent or finding fault, +let me mention two small circumstances that are comfortable. +The first is a letter from some nameless Irishman in Cork +to another here, (Fraser read it to me without names,) actually +containing a _true_ and one of the friendliest possible recognitions +of me. One mortal, then, says I am _not_ utterly wrong. +Blessings on him for it! The second is a letter I got today +from Emerson, of Boston in America; sincere, not baseless, +of most exaggerated estimation. Precious is man to man." +Fifteen years later, in his _Reminiscences of My Irish +Journey,_ he enters, under date of July 16, 1849: "Near eleven +o'clock [at night] announces himself 'Father O'Shea'! (who I +thought had been _dead_); to my astonishment enter a little +gray-haired, intelligent-and-bred-looking man, with much +gesticulation, boundless loyal welcome, red with dinner and some +wine, engages that we are to meet tomorrow,--and again with +explosions of welcomes goes his way. This Father O'Shea, some +fifteen years ago, had been, with Emerson of America, one of the +_two_ sons of Adam who encouraged poor bookseller Fraser, and +didn't discourage him, to go on with Teufelsdrockh. I had often +remembered him since; had not long before _re_-inquired his +name, but understood somehow that he was dead--and now." +--------------- + +But now quitting theoretics, let me explain what you long to +know, how it is that I date from London. Yes, my friend, it is +even so: Craigenputtock now stands solitary in the wilderness, +with none but an old woman and foolish grouse-destroyers in it; +and we for the last ten weeks, after a fierce universal +disruption, are here with our household gods. Censure not; I +came to London for the best of all reasons,--to seek bread and +work. So it literally stands; and so do I literally stand with +the hugest, gloomiest Future before me, which in all sane moments +I good-humoredly defy. A strange element this, and I as good as +an Alien in it. I care not for Radicalism, for Toryism, for +Church, Tithes, or the "Confusion" of useful Knowledge. Much +as I can speak and hear, I am alone, alone. My brave Father, +now victorious from his toil, was wont to pray in evening +worship: "Might we say, We are not alone, for God is with us!" +Amen! Amen! + +I brought a manuscript with me of another curious sort, entitled +_The Diamond Necklace._ Perhaps it will be printed soon as an +Article, or even as a separate Booklet,--a _queer_ production, +which you shall see. Finally, I am busy, constantly studying +with my whole might for a Book on the French Revolution. It is +part of my creed that the Only Poetry is History, could we tell +it right. This truth (if it prove one) I have not yet got to the +limitations of; and shall in no way except by _trying_ it in +practice. The story of the Necklace was the first attempt at +an experiment. + +My sheet is nearly done; and I have still to complain of you for +telling me nothing of yourself except that you are in the +country. Believe that I want to know much and all. My wife too +remembers you with unmixed friendliness; bids me send you her +kindest wishes. Understand too that your old bed stands in a new +room here, and the old welcome at the door. Surely we shall see +you in London one day. Or who knows but Mahomet may go to the +mountain? It occasionally rises like a mad prophetic dream in +me, that I might end in the Western Woods! + +From Germany I get letters, messages, and even visits; but now +no tidings, no influences, of moment. Goethe's Posthumous Works +are all published; and Radicalism (poor hungry, yet inevitable +Radicalism!) is the order of the day. The like, and even more, +from France. Gustave d'Eichthal (did you hear?) has gone over to +Greece, and become some kind of Manager under King Otho.* + +----------- +* Gustave d'Eichthal, whose acquaintance Emerson had made at +Rome, and who had given him an introduction to Carlyle, was one +of a family of rich Jewish bankers at Paris. He was an ardent +follower of Saint-Simon, and an associate of Enfantin. After the +dispersion of the Saint-Simonians in 1832, he traveled much, and +continued to devote himself to the improvement of society. +---------- + +Continue to love me, you and my other friends; and as packets +sail so swiftly, let me know it frequently. All good be +with you! + +Most faithfully, + T. Carlyle + +Coleridge, as you doubtless hear, is gone. How great a Possibility, +how small a realized Result! They are delivering Orations about +him, and emitting other kinds of froth, _ut mos est._ What hurt +can it do? + + + + +III. Emerson to Carlyle * + +Concord, Mass., 20 November, 1834 + +My Dear Sir,--Your letter, which I received last week, made a +bright light in a solitary and saddened place. I had quite +recently received the news of the death of a brother** in the +island of Porto Rico, whose loss to me will be a lifelong sorrow. +As he passes out of sight, come to me visible as well as +spiritual tokens of a fraternal friendliness which, by its own +law, transcends the tedious barriers of custom and nation; and +opens its way to the heart. This is a true consolation, and I +thanked my jealous [Greek] for the godsend so significantly +timed. It, for the moment, realizes the hope to which I have +clung with both hands, through each disappointment, that I might +converse with a man whose ear of faith was not stopped, and whose +argument I could not predict. May I use the word, "I thank my +God whenever I call you to remembrance." + +---------- +* This letter was printed in the _Athenaeum,_ London, June 24, +1882. It, as well as three others which appeared in the same +journal, is now reprinted, through the courtesy of its editor, +from the original. + +** Edward Bliss Emerson, his next younger brother, "brother of +the brief but blazing star," of whom Emerson wrote _In Memoriam:_-- + + "There is no record left on earth, + Save in tablets of the heart, + Of the rich, inherent worth, + Of the grace that on him shone, + Of eloquent lips, of joyful wit; + He could not frame a word unfit, + An act unworthy to be done. + + On his young promise Beauty smiled, + Drew his free homage unbeguiled, + And prosperous Age held out his hand, + And richly his large future planned, + And troops of friends enjoyed the tide,-- + All, all was given, and only health denied." +---------- + +I receive with great pleasure the wonderful Professor now that +first the decent limbs of Osiris are collected.* We greet him +well to Cape Cod and Boston Bay. The rigid laws of matter +prohibit that the soul imprisoned within the strait edges of +these types should add one syllable thereto, or we had adjured +the Sage by every name of veneration to take possession by so +much as a Salve! of his Western World, but he remained inexorable +for any new communications. + +------------- +* The four copies of _Sartor_ which Carlyle had sent were a +"stitched pamphlet," with a title-page bearing the words: "Sartor +Resartus: in Three Books. Reprinted for Friends, from Fraser's +Magazine. London, 1834." +------------- + +I feel like congratulating you upon the cold welcome which you +say Teufelsdrockh* has met. As it is not earthly happy, it is +marked of a high sacred sort. I like it a great deal better than +ever, and before it was all published I had eaten nearly all my +words of objection. But do not think it shall lack a present +popularity. That it should not be known seems possible, for if a +memoir of Laplace had been thrown into that muck-heap of Fraser's +Magazine, who would be the wiser? But this has too much wit and +imagination not to strike a class who would not care for it as a +faithful mirror of this very Hour. But you know the proverb, "To +be fortunate, be not too wise." The great men of the day are on +a plane so low as to be thoroughly intelligible to the vulgar. +Nevertheless, as God maketh the world forevermore, whatever the +devils may seem to do, so the thoughts of the best minds always +become the last opinion of Society. Truth is ever born in a +manger, but is compensated by living till it has all souls for +its kingdom. Far, far better seems to me the unpopularity of +this Philosophical Poem (shall I call it?) than the adulation +that followed your eminent friend Goethe. With him I am becoming +better acquainted, but mine must be a qualified admiration. It +is a singular piece of good-nature in you to apotheosize him. I +cannot but regard it as his misfortune, with conspicuous bad +influence on his genius, that velvet life he led. What +incongruity for genius, whose fit ornaments and reliefs are +poverty and hatred, to repose fifty years on chairs of state and +what pity that his Duke did not cut off his head to save him from +the mean end (forgive) of retiring from the municipal incense "to +arrange tastefully his gifts and medals"! Then the Puritan in me +accepts no apology for bad morals in such as he. We can tolerate +vice in a splendid nature whilst that nature is battling with the +brute majority in defence of some human principle. The sympathy +his manhood and his misfortunes call out adopts even his faults; +but genius pampered, acknowledged, crowned, can only retain our +sympathy by turning the same force once expended against outward +enemies now against inward, and carrying forward and planting the +standard of Oromasdes so many leagues farther on into the envious +Dark. Failing this, it loses its nature and becomes talent, +according to the definition,--mere skill in attaining vulgar +ends. A certain wonderful friend of mine said that "a false +priest is the falsest of false things." But what makes the +priest? A cassock? O Diogenes! Or the power (and thence the +call) to teach man's duties as they flow from the Superhuman? Is +not he who perceives and proclaims the Superhumanities, he who +has once intelligently pronounced the words "Self-Renouncement," +"Invisible Leader," "Heavenly Powers of Sorrow," and so on, +forever the liege of the same? + +------------ +* Emerson uniformly spells this name "Teufelsdroch." +------------ + +Then to write luxuriously is not the same thing as to live so, +but a new and worse offence. It implies an intellectual defect +also, the not perceiving that the present corrupt condition of +human nature (which condition this harlot muse helps to +perpetuate) is a temporary or superficial state. The good word +lasts forever: the impure word can only buoy itself in the gross +gas that now envelops us, and will sink altogether to ground as +that works itself clear in the everlasting effort of God. + +May I not call it temporary? for when I ascend into the pure +region of truth (or under my undermost garment, as Epictetus and +Teufelsdrockh would say), I see that to abide inviolate, although +all men fall away from it; yea, though the whole generation of +Adam should be healed as a sore off the face of the creation. +So, my friend, live Socrates and Milton, those starch Puritans, +for evermore! Strange is it to me that you should not sympathize +(yet so you said) with Socrates, so ironical, so true, and who +"tramped in the mire with wooden shoes whenever they would force +him into the clouds." I seem to see him offering the hand to you +across the ages which some time you will grasp. + +I am glad you like Sampson Reed, and that he has inspired some +curiosity respecting his Church. Swedenborgianism, if you should +be fortunate in your first meetings, has many points of +attraction for you: for instance, this article, "The poetry of +the Old Church is the reality of the New," which is to be +literally understood, for they esteem, in common with all the +Trismegisti, the Natural World as strictly the symbol or exponent +of the Spiritual, and part for part; the animals to be the +incarnations of certain affections; and scarce a popular +expression esteemed figurative, but they affirm to be the +simplest statement of fact. Then is their whole theory of social +relations--both in and out of the body--most philosophical, and, +though at variance with the popular theology, self-evident. It +is only when they come to their descriptive theism, if I may say +so, and then to their drollest heaven, and to some autocratic not +moral decrees of God, that the mythus loses me. In general, too, +they receive the fable instead of the moral of their Aesop. They +are to me, however, deeply interesting, as a sect which I think +must contribute more than all other sects to the new faith which +must arise out of all. + +You express a desire to know something of myself. Account me "a +drop in the ocean seeking another drop," or God-ward, striving to +keep so true a sphericity as to receive the due ray from every +point of the concave heaven. Since my return home, I have been +left very much at leisure. It were long to tell all my +speculations on my profession and my doings thereon; but, +possessing my liberty, I am determined to keep it, at the risk of +uselessness (which risk God can very well abide), until such +duties offer themselves as I can with integrity discharge. One +thing I believe,--that Utterance is place enough: and should I +attain through any inward revelation to a more clear perception +of my assigned task, I shall embrace it with joy and praise. I +shall not esteem it a low place, for instance, if I could +strengthen your hands by true expressions of the hope and +pleasure which your writings communicate to me and to some of my +countrymen. Yet the best poem of the Poet is his own mind, and +more even than in any of the works I rejoice in the promise of +the workman. Now I am only reading and musing, and when I have +any news to tell of myself, you shall hear them. + +Now as to the welcome hint that you might come to America, it +shall be to me a joyful hope. Come and found a new Academy that +shall be church and school and Parnassus, as a true Poet's house +should be. I dare not say that wit has better chance here than +in England of winning world-wages, but it can always live, and it +can scarce find competition. Indeed, indeed, you shall have the +continent to yourself were it only as Crusoe was king. If you +cared to read literary lectures, our people have vast curiosity, +and the apparatus is very easy to set agoing. Such 'pulpit' as +you pleased to erect would at least find no hindrance in the +building. A friend of mine and of yours remarked, when I +expressed the wish that you would come here, "that people were +not here, as in England, sacramented to organized schools of +opinion, but were a far more convertible audience." If at all +you can think of coming here, I would send you any and all +particulars of information with cheerfulest speed. + +I have written a very long letter, yet have said nothing of much +that I would say upon chapters of the _Sartor._ I must keep +that, and the thoughts I had upon 'poetry in history',' for +another letter, or (might it be!) for a dialogue face to face. + +Let me not fail of _The Diamond Necklace._ I found three greedy +receivers of Teufelsdrockh, who also radiate its light. For the +sake of your knowing what manner of men you move, I send you two +pieces writ by one of them, Frederic Henry Hedge, the article on +Swedenborg and that on Phrenology. And as you like Sampson Reed, +here are one or two more of his papers. Do read them. And since +you study French history do not fail to look at our Yankee +portrait of Lafayette. Present my best remembrances to Mrs. +Carlyle, whom that stern and blessed solitude has armed and +sublimed out of all reach of the littleness and unreason of +London. If I thought we could win her to the American shore, I +would send her the story of those godly women, the contemporaries +of John Knox's daughter, who came out hither to enjoy the worship +of God amidst wild men and wild beasts. + +Your friend and servant, + R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +IV. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London +3 February, 1835 + +My Dear Sir,--I owe you a speedy answer as well as a grateful +one; for, in spite of the swift ships of the Americans, our +communings pass too slowly. Your letter, written in November, +did not reach me till a few days ago; your Books or Papers have +not yet come,--though the ever-punctual Rich, I can hope, will +now soon get them for me. He showed me his _way-bill_ or +invoice, and the consignment of these friendly effects "to +another gentleman," and undertook with an air of great fidelity +to bring all to a right bearing. On the whole, as the Atlantic +is so broad and deep, ought we not rather to esteem it a +beneficent miracle that messages can arrive at all; that a +little slip of paper will skim over all these weltering floods, +and other inextricable confusions, and come at last, in the hand +of the Twopenny Postman, safe to your lurking-place, like green +leaf in the bill of Noah's Dove? Let us be grateful for mercies; +let us use them while they are granted us. Time was when "they +that feared the Lord spake _often_ one to another." A friendly +thought is the purest gift that man can afford to man. "Speech" +also, they say, "is cheerfuler than light itself." + +The date of your letter gives me unhappily no idea but that of +Space and Time. As you know my whereabout, will you throw a +little light on your own? I can imagine Boston, and have often +seen the musket volleys on Bunker Hill; but in this new spot +there is nothing for me save sky and earth, the chance of +retirement, peace, and winter seclusion. Alas! I can too well +fancy one other thing: the bereavement you allude to, the sorrow +that will so long be painful before it can become merely sad and +sacred. Brothers, especially in these days, are much to us: had +one no brother, one could hardly understand what it was to have a +Friend; they are the Friends whom Nature chose for us; Society +and Fortune, as things now go, are scarcely compatible with +Friendship, and contrive to get along, miserably enough, without +it. Yet sorrow not above measure for him that is gone. He is, +in very deed and truth, with God,--_where_ you and I both are. +What a thin film it is that divides the Living from the Dead! In +still nights, as Jean Paul says, "the limbs of my Buried Ones +touched cold on my soul, and drove away its blots, as dead hands +heal eruptions of the skin." Let us turn back into Life. + +That you sit there bethinking yourself, and have yet taken no +course of activity, and can without inward or outward hurt so +sit, is on the whole rather pleasing news to me. It is a great +truth which you say, that Providence can well afford to have one +sit: another great truth which you feel without saying it is +that a course wherein clear faith cannot go with you may be worse +than none; if clear faith go never so slightly against it, then +it is certainly worse than none. To speak with perhaps ill-bred +candor, I like as well to fancy you _not_ preaching to Unitarians +a Gospel after their heart. I will say farther, that you are the +only man I ever met with of that persuasion whom I could +unobstructedly like. The others that I have seen were all a kind +of halfway-house characters, who, I thought, should, if they had +not wanted courage, have ended in unbelief; in "faint possible +Theism," which I like considerably worse than Atheism. Such, I +could not but feel, deserve the fate they find here; the bat +fate: to be killed among the rats as a bird, among the birds as +a rat.... Nay, who knows but it is doubts of the like kind in +your own mind that keep you for a time inactive even now? For +the rest, that you have liberty to choose by your own will +merely, is a great blessing: too rare for those that could use +it so well; nay, often it is difficult to use. But till _ill +health_ of body or of mind warns you that the moving, not the +sitting, position is essential, _sit_ still, contented in +conscience; understanding well that no man, that God only knows +_what_ we are working, and will show it one day; that such and +such a one, who filled the whole Earth with his hammering and +troweling, and would not let men pass for his rubbish, turns out +to have built of mere coagulated froth, and vanishes with his +edifice, traceless, silently, or amid hootings illimitable; +while again that other still man, by the word of his mouth, by +the very look of his face, was scattering influences, as _seeds_ +are scattered, "to be found flourishing as a banyan grove after a +thousand years." I beg your pardon for all this preaching, if it +be superfluous impute it to no miserable motive. + +Your objections to Goethe are very natural, and even bring you +nearer me: nevertheless, I am by no means sure that it were not +your wisdom, at this moment, to set about learning the German +Language, with a view towards studying _him_ mainly! I do not +assert this; but the truth of it would not surprise me. Believe +me, it is impossible you can be more a Puritan than I; nay, I +often feel as if I were far too much so: but John Knox himself, +could he have seen the peaceable impregnable _fidelity_ of that +man's mind, and how to him also Duty was _infinite,_--Knox would +have passed on, wondering not reproaching. But I will tell you +in a word why I like Goethe: his is the only _healthy_ mind, +of any extent, that I have discovered in Europe for long +generations; it was he that first convincingly proclaimed to me +(convincingly, for I saw it _done_): Behold, even in this +scandalous Sceptico-Epicurean generation, when all is gone but +hunger and cant, it is still possible that Man be a Man! For +which last Evangel, the confirmation and rehabilitation of all +other Evangels whatsoever, how can I be too grateful? On the +whole, I suspect you yet know only Goethe the Heathen (Ethnic); +but you will know Goethe the Christian by and by, and like that +one far better. Rich showed me a Compilation* in green cloth +boards that you had beckoned across the water: pray read the +fourth volume of that, and let a man of your clearness of feeling +say whether that was a Parasite or a Prophet.--And then as to +"misery" and the other dark ground on which you love to see +genius paint itself,--alas! consider whether misery is not _ill +health_ too; also whether good fortune is not worse to bear than +bad; and on the whole whether the glorious serene summer is not +greater than the wildest hurricane,--as Light, the Naturalists +say, is stronger a thousand times than Lightning. And so I +appeal to Philip sober;--and indeed have hardly said as much +about Goethe since I saw you, for nothing reigns here but +twilight delusion (falser for the time than midnight darkness) on +that subject, and I feel that the most suffer nothing thereby, +having properly nothing or little to do with such a matter but +with you, who are not "seeking recipes for happiness," but +something far higher, it is not so, and _therefore_ I have spoken +and appealed; and hope the new curiosity, if I have awakened +any, will do you no mischief. + +------------ +* Obviously Carlyle's _Specimens of German Romance,_ of which the +fourth volume was devoted to Goethe. +------------ + +But now as to myself; for you will grumble at a sheet of +speculation sent so far: I am here still, as Rob Roy was on +Glasgow Bridge, _biding tryste;_ busy extremely, with work that +will not profit me at all in some senses; suffering rather in +health and nerves; and still with nothing like dawn on any +quarter of my horizon. _The Diamond Necklace_ has not been +printed, but will be, were this _French Revolution_ out; which +latter, however, drags itself along in a way that would fill your +benevolent heart with pity. I am for three small volumes now, +and have one done. It is the dreadfulest labor (with these +nerves, this liver) I ever undertook; all is so inaccurate, +superficial, vague, in the numberless books I consult; and +without accuracy at least, what other good is possible? Add to +this that I have no hope about the thing, except only that I +_shall be done with it:_ I can reasonably expect nothing from +any considerable class here, but at _best_ to be scolded and +reproached; perhaps to be left standing "on my own basis," +without note or comment of any kind, save from the Bookseller, +who will lose his printing. The hope I have however is sure: if +life is lent me, I shall be _done with_ the business; I will +write this "History of Sansculottism," the notablest phenomenon I +meet with since the time of the Crusades or earlier; after which +my part is played. As for the future, I heed it little when so +busy; but it often seems to me as if one thing were becoming +indisputable: that I must seek another craft than literature for +these years that may remain to me. Surely, I often say, if ever +man had a finger-of-Providence shown him, thou hast it; literature +will neither yield thee bread, nor a stomach to digest bread with: +quit it in God's name, shouldst thou take spade and mattock instead. +The truth is, I believe literature to be as good as dead and gone +in all parts of Europe at this moment, and nothing but hungry +Revolt and Radicalism appointed us for perhaps three generations; +I do not see how a man can honestly live by writing in another +dialect than that, in England at least; so that if you determine +on not living dishonestly, it will behove you to look several +things full in the face, and ascertain what is what with some +distinctness. I suffer also terribly from the solitary existence +I have all along had; it is becoming a kind of passion with me, +to feel myself among my brothers. And then, How? Alas! I +care not a doit for Radicalism, nay I feel it to be a wretched +necessity, unfit for me; Conservatism being not unfit only +but false for me: yet these two are the grand Categories +under which all English spiritual activity that so much as +thinks remuneration possible must range itself. I look +around accordingly on a most wonderful vortex of things; and +pray to God only, that as my day, is so my strength may be. +What will come out of it is wholly uncertain: for I have +possibilities too; the possibilities of London are far from +exhausted yet: I have a brave brother, who invites me to +come and be quiet with him in Rome; a brave friend (known to +you) who opens the door of a new Western world,--and so we will +stand considering and consulting, at least till the Book be over. +Are all these things interesting to you? I know they are. + +As for America and Lecturing, it is a thing I do sometimes turn +over, but never yet with any seriousness. What your friend says +of the people being more persuadable, so far, as having no +Tithe-controversy, &c., &c. will go, I can most readily understand +it. But apart from that, I should rather fancy America mainly a +new Commercial England, with a fuller pantry,--little more or little +less. The same unquenchable, almost frightfully unresting spirit +of endeavor, directed (woe is me!) to the making of money, or +money's worth; namely, food finer and finer, and gigmanic +renown higher and higher: nay, must not your gigmanity be a +_purse_-gigmanity, some half-shade worse than a purse-and-pedigree +one? Or perhaps it is not a whit worse; only rougher, more +substantial; on the whole better? At all events ours is fast +becoming identical with it; for the pedigree ingredient is as +near as may be gone: _Gagnez de l'argent, et ne vous faites pas +pendre,_ this is very nearly the whole Law, first Table and +second. So that you see, when I set foot on American land, it +will be on no Utopia; but on a _conditional_ piece of ground +where some things are to be expected and other things not. I may +say, on the other hand, that Lecturing (or I would rather it were +_speaking_) is a thing I have always had some hankering after: +it seems to me I could really _swim_ in that element, were I once +thrown into it; that in fact it would develop several things in +me which struggle violently for development. The great want I +have towards such an enterprise is one you may guess at: want of +a _rubric,_ of a title to name my speech by. Could any one but +appoint me Lecturing Professor of Teufelsdrockh's science,-- +"Things in general"! To discourse of Poets and Poetry in the +Hazlitt style, or talk stuff about the Spirit of the Age, were +most unedifying: one knows not what to call himself. However, +there is no doubt that were the child born it _might_ be +christened; wherefore I will really request you to take the +business into your consideration, and give me in the most +rigorous sober manner you can some scheme of it. How many +Discourses; what Towns; the probable Expenses, the probable net +Income, the Time, &c., &c.: all that you can suppose a man +wholly ignorant might want to know about it. America I should +like well enough to visit, much as I should another part of my +native country: it is, as you see, distinctly possible that such +a thing might be; we will keep it hanging, to solace ourselves +with it, till the time decide. + +Have I involved you in double postage by this loquacity? or What +is your American rule? I did not intend it when I began; but +today my confusion of head is very great and words must be +multiplied with only a given quantity of meaning. + +My wife, who is just gone out to spend the day with a certain +"celebrated Mrs. Austin," (called also the "celebrated Translatress +of Puckler-Muskau,") charged me very specially to send you +her love, her good wishes and thanks: I assure you there +is no hypocrisy in that. She votes often for taking the +Transatlantic scheme into contemplation; declares farther that +my Book and Books must and will indisputably prosper (at some +future era), and takes the world beside me--as a good wife and +daughter of John Knox should. Speaking of "celebrated" persons +here, let me mention that I have learned by stern experience, as +children do with fire, to keep in general quite out of the way of +celebrated persons, more especially celebrated women. This Mrs. +Austin, who is half ruined by celebrity (of a kind), is the only +woman I have seen not wholly ruined by it. Men, strong men, I +have seen die of it, or go mad by it. _Good_ fortune is far +worse than bad! + +Will you write with all despatch, my dear sir; fancy me a +fellow-wayfarer, who cordially bids you God-speed, and would +fain keep in sight of you, within sound of you. + +Yours with great sincerity, + T. Carlyle + + + + +V. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 12 March, 1838 + +My Dear Sir,--I am glad of the opportunity of Mr. Barnard's* +visit to say health and peace be with you. I esteem it the best +sign that has shone in my little section of space for many days, +that some thirty or more intelligent persons understand and +highly appreciate the _Sartor._ Dr. Channing sent to me for it +the other day, and I have since heard that he had read it with +great interest. As soon as I go into town I shall see him and +measure his love. I know his genius does not and cannot engage +your attention much. He possesses the mysterious endowment of +natural eloquence, whose effect, however intense, is limited, of +course, to personal communication. I can see myself that his +writings, without his voice, may be meagre and feeble. But +please love his catholicism, that at his age can relish the +_Sartor,_ born and inveterated as he is in old books. Moreover, +he lay awake all night, he told my friend last week, because he +had learned in the evening that some young men proposed to issue +a journal, to be called _The Transcendentalist,_ as the organ of +a spiritual philosophy. So much for our gossip of today. + +--------- +* Mr. Henry Barnard, of Hartford, Connecticut, to whom Emerson +had given a note of introduction to Carlyle. +--------- + +But my errand is yet to tell. Some friends here are very +desirous that Mr. Fraser should send out to a bookseller here +fifty or a hundred copies of the _Sartor._ So many we want very +much; they would be sold at once. If we knew that two or three +hundred would be taken up, we should reprint it now. But we +think it better to satisfy the known inquirers for the book +first, and when they have extended the demand for it, then to +reproduce it, a naturalized Yankee. The lovers of Teufelsdrockh +here are sufficiently enthusiastic. I am an icicle to them. +They think England must be blind and deaf if the Professor makes +no more impression there than yet appears. I, with the most +affectionate wishes for Thomas Carlyle's fame, am mainly bent on +securing the medicinal virtues of his book for my young +neighbors. The good people think he overpraises Goethe. There I +give him up to their wrath. But I bid them mark his unsleeping +moral sentiment; that every other moralist occasionally nods, +becomes complaisant and traditional; but this man is without +interval on the side of equity and humanity! I am grieved for +you, O wise friend, that you cannot put in your own contemptuous +disclaimer of such puritanical pleas as are set up for you; but +each creature and Levite must do after his kind. + +Yet do not imagine that I will hurt you in this unseen domain of +yours by any Boswellism. Every suffrage you get here is fairly +your own. Nobody is coaxed to admire you, and you have won +friends whom I should be proud to show you, and honorable women +not a few. And cannot you renew and confirm your suggestion +touching your appearance in this continent? Ah, if I could give +your intimation the binding force of an oracular word!--in a few +months, please God, at most, I shall have wife, house, and home +wherewith and wherein to return your former hospitality. And if +I could draw my prophet and his prophetess to brighten and +immortalize my lodge, and make it the window through which for a +summer you should look out on a field which Columbus and Berkeley +and Lafayette did not scorn to sow, my sun should shine clearer +and life would promise something better than peace. There is a +part of ethics, or in Schleiermacher's distribution it might be +physics, which possesses all attraction for me; to wit, the +compensations of the Universe, the equality and the coexistence +of action and reaction, that all prayers are granted, that every +debt is paid. And the skill with which the great All maketh +clean work as it goes along, leaves no rag, consumes its smoke,-- +will I hope make a chapter in your thesis. + +I intimated above that we aspire to have a work on the First +Philosophy in Boston. I hope, or wish rather. Those that are +forward in it debate upon the name. I doubt not in the least its +reception if the material that should fill it existed. Through +the thickest understanding will the reason throw itself instantly +into relation with the truth that is its object, whenever that +appears. But how seldom is the pure loadstone produced! Faith +and love are apt to be spasmodic in the best minds: Men live on +the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which yet they never +enter, and with their hand on the door-latch they die outside. +Always excepting my wonderful Professor, who among the living has +thrown any memorable truths into circulation? So live and +rejoice and work, my friend, and God you aid, for the profit of +many more than your mortal eyes shall see. Especially seek with +recruited and never-tired vision to bring back yet higher and +truer report from your Mount of Communion of the Spirit that +dwells there and creates all. Have you received a letter from me +with a pamphlet sent in December? Fail not, I beg of you, to +remember me to Mrs. Carlyle. + +Can you not have some _Sartors_ sent? Hilliard, Gray, & Co. are +the best publishers in Boston. Or Mr. Rich has connections with +Burdett in Boston. + +Yours with respect and affection, + R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +VI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 April, 1835 + +My Dear Sir,--I received your letter of the 3d of February on the +20th instant, and am sorry that hitherto we have not been able to +command a more mercantile promptitude in the transmission of +these light sheets. If desire of a letter before it arrived, or +gladness when it came, could speed its journey, I should have it +the day it was written. But, being come, it makes me sad and +glad by turns. I admire at the alleged state of your English +reading public without comprehending it, and with a hoping +scepticism touching the facts. I hear my Prophet deplore, as his +predecessors did, the deaf ear and the gross heart of his people, +and threaten to shut his lips; but, happily, this he cannot do, +any more than could they. The word of the Lord _will_ be spoken. +But I shall not much grieve that the English people and you are +not of the same mind if that apathy or antipathy can by any means +be the occasion of your visiting America. The hope of this is so +pleasant to me, that I have thought of little else for the week +past, and having conferred with some friends on the matter, I +shall try, in obedience to your request, to give you a statement +of our capabilities, without indulging my penchant for the +favorable side. Your picture of America is faithful enough: yet +Boston contains some genuine taste for literature, and a good +deal of traditional reverence for it. For a few years past, we +have had, every winter, several courses of lectures, scientific, +political, miscellaneous, and even some purely literary, which +were well attended. Some lectures on Shakespeare were crowded; +and even I found much indulgence in reading, last winter, some +Biographical Lectures, which were meant for theories or portraits +of Luther, Michelangelo, Milton, George Fox, Burke. These +courses are really given under the auspices of Societies, as +"Natural History Society," "Mechanics' Institutes," "Diffusion of +Useful Knowledge," &c., &c., and the fee to the lecturer is +inconsiderable, usually $20 for each lecture. But in a few +instances individuals have undertaken courses of lectures, and +have been well paid. Dr. Spurzheim* received probably $3,000 in +the few months that he lived here. Mr. Silliman, a Professor of +Yale College, has lately received something more than that for a +course of fifteen or sixteen lectures on Geology. Private +projects of this sort are, however, always attended with a degree +of uncertainty. The favor of my townsmen is often sudden and +spasmodic, and Mr. Silliman, who has had more success than ever +any before him, might not find a handful of hearers another +winter. But it is the opinion of many friends whose judgment I +value, that a person of so many claims upon the ear and +imagination of our fashionable populace as the "author of the +_Life of Schiller,_" "the reviewer of _Burns's Life,_" the live +"contributor to the _Edinburgh_ and _Foreign_ Reviews," nay, the +"worshipful Teufelsdrockh," the "personal friend of Goethe," +would, for at least one season, batter down opposition, and +command all ears on whatever topic pleased him, and that, quite +independently of the merit of his lectures, merely for so many +names' sake. + +----------- +* The memory of Dr. Spurzheim has faded, but his name is still +known to men of science on both sides of the Atlantic as that of +the most ardent and accomplished advocate of the doctrine of +Phrenology. He came to the United States in 1832 to advance the +cause he had at heart, but he had been only a short time in the +country when he died at Boston of a fever. +------------- + +But the subject, you say, does not yet define itself. Whilst it +is "gathering to a god," we who wait will only say, that we know +enough here of Goethe and Schiller to have some interest in +German literature. A respectable German here, Dr. Follen, has +given lectures to a good class upon Schiller. I am quite sure +that Goethe's name would now stimulate the curiosity of scores of +persons. On English literature, a much larger class would have +some preparedness. But whatever topics you might choose, I need +not say you must leave under them scope for your narrative and +pictorial powers; yes, and space to let out all the length of +all the reins of your eloquence of moral sentiment. What "Lay +Sermons" might you not preach! or methinks "Lectures on Europe" +were a sea big enough for you to swim in. The only condition our +adolescent ear insists upon is, that the English as it is spoken +by the unlearned shall be the bridge between our teacher and +our tympanum. + +_Income and Expenses._--All our lectures are usually delivered in +the same hall, built for the purpose. It will hold 1,200 +persons; 900 are thought a large assembly. The expenses of +rent, lights, doorkeeper, &c. for this hall, would be $12 each +lecture. The price of $3 is the least that might be demanded for +a single ticket of admission to the course,--perhaps $4; $5 for +a ticket admitting a gentleman and lady. So let us suppose we +have 900 persons paying $3 each, or $2,700. If it should happen, +as did in Prof. Silliman's case, that many more than 900 tickets +were sold, it would be easy to give the course in the day and in +the evening, an expedient sometimes practised to divide an +audience, and because it is a great convenience to many to choose +their time. If the lectures succeed in Boston, their success is +insured at Salem, a town thirteen miles off, with a population of +15,000. They might, perhaps, be repeated at Cambridge, three +miles from Boston, and probably at Philadelphia, thirty-six +hours distant. + +At New York anything literary has hitherto had no favor. The +lectures might be fifteen or sixteen in number, of about an hour +each. They might be delivered, one or two in each week. And if +they met with sudden success, it would be easy to carry on the +course simultaneously at Salem, and Cambridge, and in the city. +They must be delivered in the winter. + +Another plan suggested in addition to this. A gentleman here is +giving a course of lectures on English literature to a private +class of ladies, at $10 to each subscriber. There is no doubt, +were you so disposed, you might turn to account any writings in +the bottom of your portfolio, by reading lectures to such a +class, or, still better, by speaking. + +_Expense of Living._--You may travel in this country for $4 to +$4.50 a day. You may board in Boston in a "gigmanic" style for +$8 per week, including all domestic expenses. Eight dollars per +week is the board paid by the permanent residents at the Tremont +House,--probably the best hotel in North America. There, and at +the best hotels in New York, the lodger for a few days pays at +the rate of $1.50 per day. Twice eight dollars would provide a +gentleman and lady with board, chamber, and private parlor, at a +fashionable boardinghouse. In the country, of course, the +expenses are two thirds less. These are rates of expense where +economy is not studied. I think the Liverpool and New York +packets demand $150 of the passenger, and their accommodations +are perfect. (N.B.--I set down all sums in dollars. You may +commonly reckon a pound sterling worth $4.80.) "The man is +certain of success," say those I talk with, "for one winter, but +not afterwards." That supposes no extraordinary merit in the +lectures, and only regards you in your leonine aspect. However, +it was suggested that, if Mr. C. would undertake a Journal of +which we have talked much, but which we have never yet produced, +he would do us great service, and we feel some confidence that it +could be made to secure him a support. It is that project which +I mentioned to you in a letter by Mr. Barnard,--a book to be +called _The Transcendentalist,_ or _The Spiritual Inquirer,_ or +the like, and of which F.H. Hedge* was to be editor. Those +who are most interested in it designed to make gratuitous +contributions to its pages, until its success could be assured. +Hedge is just leaving our neighborhood to be settled as a +minister two hundred and fifty miles off, in Maine, and entreats +that you will edit the journal. He will write, and I please +myself with thinking I shall be able to write under such +auspices. Then you might (though I know not the laws respecting +literary property) collect some of your own writings and reprint +them here. I think the _Sartor_ would now be sure of a sale. +Your _Life of Schiller,_ and _Wilhelm Meister,_ have been long +reprinted here. At worst, if you wholly disliked us, and +preferred Old England to New, you can judge of the suggestion of +a knowing man, that you might see Niagara, get a new stock of +health, and pay all your expenses by printing in England a book +of travels in America. + +---------- +*Now the Rev. Dr. Hedge, late Professor of German and of +Ecclesiastical History in Harvard College. +------------ + +I wish you to know that we do not depend for your _eclat_ on your +being already known to rich men here. You are not. Nothing has +ever been published here designating you by name. But Dr. +Channing reads and respects you. That is a fact of importance to +our project. Several clergymen, Messrs. Frothingham, Ripley, +Francis, all of them scholars and Spiritualists, (some of them, +unluckily, called Unitarian,) love you dearly, and will work +heartily in your behalf. Mr. Frothing ham, a worthy and +accomplished man, more like Erasmus than Luther, said to me on +parting, the other day, "You cannot express in terms too +extravagant my desire that he should come." George Ripley, +having heard, through your letter to me, that nobody in England +had responded to the _Sartor,_ had secretly written you a most +reverential letter, which, by dint of coaxing, be read to me, +though he said there was but one step from the sublime to the +ridiculous. I prayed him, though I thought the letter did him no +justice, save to his heart, to send you it or another; and he +says he will. He is a very able young man, even if his letter +should not show it.* He said he could, and would, bring many +persons to hear you, and you should be sure of his utmost aid. +Dr. Bradford, a medical man, is of good courage. Mr. Loring,** a +lawyer, said,"--Invite Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle to spend a couple of +months at my house," (I assured him I was too selfish for that,) +"and if our people," he said, "cannot find out his worth, I will +subscribe, with, others, to make him whole of any expense he +shall incur in coming." Hedge promised more than he ought. +There are several persons beside, known to me, who feel a warm +interest in this thing. Mr. Furness, a popular and excellent +minister in Philadelphia, at whose house Harriet Martineau was +spending a few days, I learned the other day "was feeding Miss +Martineau with the _Sartor._" And here some of the best women I +know are warm friends of yours, and are much of Mrs. Carlyle's +opinion when she says, Your books shall prosper. + +----------- +* Emerson's estimate of Mr. Ripley was justified as the years +went on. His _Life,_ by Mr. Octavius Frothingham,--like his +father, "a worthy and accomplished, man," but more like Luther +than Erasmus,--forms one of the most attractive volumes of the +series of _Lives of American Men of Letters._ + +** The late Ellis Gray Loring, a man of high character, well +esteemed in his profession, and widely respected. +---------- + +On the other hand, I make no doubt you shall be sure of some +opposition. Andrews Norton, one of our best heads, once a +theological professor, and a destroying critic, lives upon a rich +estate at Cambridge, and frigidly excludes the Diderot paper from +a _Select Journal_ edited by him, with the remark, "Another paper +of the Teufelsdrockh School." The University perhaps, and much +that is conservative in literature and religion, I apprehend, +will give you its cordial opposition, and what eccentricity can +be collected from the Obituary Notice on Goethe, or from the +_Sartor,_ shall be mustered to demolish you. Nor yet do I feel +quite certain of this. If we get a good tide with us, we shall +sweep away the whole inertia, which is the whole force of these +gentlemen, except Norton. That you do not like the Unitarians +will never hurt you at all, if possibly you do like the +Calvinists. If you have any friendly relations to your native +Church, fail not to bring a letter from a Scottish Calvinist to a +Calvinist here, and your fortune is made. But that were too good +to happen. + +Since things are so, can you not, my dear sir, finish your new +work and cross the great water in September or October, and try +the experiment of a winter in America? I cannot but think that +if we do not make out a case strong enough to make you build your +house, at least you should pitch your tent among us. The country +is, as you say, worth visiting, and to give much pleasure to a +few persons will be some inducement to you. I am afraid to +press this matter. To me, as you can divine, it would be an +unspeakable comfort; and the more, that I hope before that time +so far to settle my own affairs as to have a wife and a house to +receive you. Tell Mrs. Carlyle, with my affectionate regards, +that some friends whom she does not yet know do hope with me to +have her company for the next winter at our house, and shall not +cease to hope it until you come. + +I have many things to say upon the topics of your letter, but my +letter is already so immeasurably long, it must stop. Long as it +is, I regret I have not more facts. Dr. Channing is in New York, +or I think, despite your negligence of him, I should have visited +him on account of his interest in you. Could you see him you +would like him. I shall write you immediately on learning +anything new bearing on this business. I intended to have +despatched this letter a day or two sooner, that it might go by +the packet of the 1st of May from New York. Now it will go by +that of the 8th, and ought to reach you in thirty days. Send me +your thoughts upon it as soon as you can. I _jalouse_ of that +new book. I fear its success may mar my project. + +Yours affectionately, + R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +VII. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London +13 May, 1835 + +Thanks, my kind friend, for the news you again send me. Good +news, good new friends; nothing that is not good comes to me +across these waters. As if the "Golden West" seen by Poets were +no longer a mere optical phenomenon, but growing a reality, and +coining itself into solid blessings! To me it seems very +strange; as indeed generally this whole Existence here below +more and more does. + +We have seen your Barnard: a most modest, intelligent, compact, +hopeful-looking man, who will not revisit you without conquests +from his expedition hither. We expect to see much more of +him; to instruct him, to learn of him: especially about that +real-imaginary locality of "Concord," where a kindly-speaking +voice lives incarnated, there is much to learn. + +That you will take to yourself a wife is the cheerfulest tidings +you could send us. It is in no wise meet for man to be alone; +and indeed the beneficent Heavens, in creating Eve, did +mercifully guard against that. May it prove blessed, this new +arrangement! I delight to prophesy for you peaceful days in it; +peaceful, not idle; filled rather with that best activity which +is the stillest. To the future, or perhaps at this hour actual +Mrs. Emerson, will you offer true wishes from two British +Friends; who have not seen her with their eyes, but whose +thoughts need not be strangers to the Home she will make for you. +Nay, you add the most chivalrous summons: which who knows but +one day we may actually stir ourselves to obey! It may hover for +the present among the gentlest of our day-dreams; mild-lustrous; +an impossible possibility. May all go well with you, my worthy +Countryman, Kinsman, and brother Man! + +This so astonishing reception of Teufelsdrockh in your +New England circle seems to me not only astonishing, but +questionable; not, however, to be quarreled with. I may say: +If the New. England cup is dangerously sweet, there are here in +Old England whole antiseptic floods of good _hop_-decoction; +therein let it mingle; work wholesomely towards what clear +benefit it can. Your young ones too, as all exaggeration is +transient, and exaggerated love almost itself a blessing, will +get through it without damage. As for Fraser, however, the idea +of a new Edition is frightful to him; or rather ludicrous, +unimaginable. Of him no man has inquired for a _Sartor:_ +in his whole wonderful world of Tory Pamphleteers, Conservative +Younger-brothers, Regent-Street Loungers, Crockford Gamblers, Irish +Jesuits, drunken Reporters, and miscellaneous unclean persons +(whom nitre and much soap will not wash clean), not a soul has +expressed the smallest wish that way. He shrieks at the idea. +Accordingly I realized these four copies from [him,] all he will +surrender; and can do no more. Take them with my blessing. I +beg you will present one to the honorablest of those "honorable +women"; say to her that her (unknown) image as she reads +shall be to me a bright faultless vision, textured out of +mere sunbeams; to be loved and worshiped; the best of all +Transatlantic women! Do at any rate, in a more business like +style, offer my respectful regards to Dr. Channing, whom +certainly I could not count on for a reader, or other than a +grieved condemnatory one; for I reckoned tolerance had its +limits. His own faithful, long-continued striving towards what +is Best, I knew and honored; that he will let me go my own way +thitherward, with a God-speed from him, is surely a new honor to +us both. + +Finally, on behalf of the British world (which is not all +contained in Fraser's shop) I should tell you that various +persons, some of them in a dialect not to be doubted of, have +privately expressed their recognition of this poor Rhapsody, +the best the poor Clothes-Professor could produce in the +circumstances; nay, I have Scottish Presbyterian Elders who +read, and thank. So true is what you say about the aptitude of +all natural hearts for receiving what is from the heart spoken to +them. As face answereth to face! Brother, if thou wish me to +believe, do thou thyself believe first: this is as true as that +of the _flere_ and _dolendum;_ perhaps truer. Wherefore, +putting all things together, cannot I feel that I have washed my +hands of this business in a quite tolerable manner? Let a man be +thankful; and on the whole go along, while he has strength left +to go. + +This Boston _Transcendentalist,_ whatever the fate or merit of it +prove to be, is surely an interesting symptom. There must be +things not dreamt of, over in that Transoceanic Parish! I shall +cordially wish well to this thing; and hail it as the sure +forerunner of things better. The Visible becomes the Bestial +when it rests not on the Invisible. Innumerable tumults of +Metaphysic must be struggled through (whole generations perishing +by the way), and at last Transcendentalism evolve itself (if I +construe aright), as the _Euthanasia_ of Metaphysic altogether. +May it be sure, may it be speedy! Thou shalt open thy _eyes,_ O +Son of Adam; thou shalt _look,_ and not forever jargon about +_laws_ of Optics and the making of spectacles! For myself, I +rejoice very much that I seem to be flinging aside innumerable +sets of spectacles (could I but _lay_ them aside,--with +gentleness!) and hope one day actually to see a thing or two. +Man _lives_ by Belief (as it was well written of old); by logic +he can only at best long to live. Oh, I am dreadfully, afflicted +with Logic here, and wish often (in my haste) that I had the +besom of destruction to lay to it for a little! + +"Why? and WHEREFORE? God wot, simply THEREFORE! Ask not WHY; +'t is SITH thou hast to care for." + +Since I wrote last to you, (which seems some three months ago,) +there has a great mischance befallen me: the saddest, I think, +of the kind called Accidents I ever had to front. By dint of +continual endeavor for many weary weeks, I had got the first +volume of that miserable _French Revolution_ rather handsomely +finished: from amid infinite contradictions I felt as if my head +were fairly above water, and I could go on writing my poor Book, +defying the Devil and the World, with a certain degree of +assurance, and even of joy. A Friend borrowed this volume of +Manuscript,--a kind Friend but a careless one,--to write notes on +it, which he was well qualified to do. One evening about two +months ago he came in on us, "distraction (literally) in his +aspect"; the Manuscript, left carelessly out, had been torn up +as waste paper, and all but three or four tatters was clean gone! +I could not complain, or the poor man seemed as if he would have +shot himself: we had to gather ourselves together, and show a +smooth front to it; which happily, though difficult, was not +impossible to do. I began again at the beginning; to such a +wretched paralyzing torpedo of a task as my hand never found to +do: at which I have worn myself these two months to the hue of +saffron, to the humor of incipient desperation; and now, four +days ago, perceiving well that I was like a man swimming in an +element that grew ever rarer, till at last it became vacuum +(think of that!) I with a new effort of self-denial sealed up +all the paper fragments, and said to myself: In this mood thou +makest no way, writest _nothing_ that requires not to be erased +again; lay it by for one complete week! And so it lies, under +lock and key. I have digested the whole misery; I say, if thou +canst _never_ write this thing, why then never do write it: +God's Universe will go along _better_--without it. My Belief +in a special Providence grows yearly stronger, unsubduable, +impregnable: however, you see all the mad increase of entanglement +I have got to strive with, and will pity me in it. Bodily +exhaustion (and "Diana in the shape of bile")* I will at least +try to exclude from the controversy. By God's blessing, perhaps +the Book shall yet be written; but I find it will not do, +by sheer direct force; only by gentler side-methods. I have +much else to write too: I feel often as if with one year of +health and peace I could write something considerable;--the image +of which sails dim and great through my head. Which year of +health and peace, God, if He see meet, will give me yet; or +withhold from me, as shall be for the best. + +--------- +* This allusion to Diana as an obstruction was a favorite one +with Carlyle. "Sir Hudibras, according to Butler, was about to do +a dreadful homicide,--an all-important catastrophe,--and had +drawn his pistol with that full intent, and would decidedly have +done it, had not, says Butler, 'Diana in the shape of rust' +imperatively intervened. A miracle she has occasionally wrought +upon me in other shapes." So wrote Carlyle in a letter in 1874. +--------- + +I have dwelt and swum now for about a year in this World-Maelstrom +of London; with much pain, which however has given me many +thoughts, more than a counterbalance for that. Hitherto there +is no outlook, but confusion, darkness, innumerable things +against which a man must "set his face like a flint." Madness +rules the world, as it has generally done: one cannot, +unhappily, without loss, say to it, Rule then; and yet must say +it.--However, in two months more I expect my good Brother from +Italy (a brave fellow, who is a great comfort to me); we are +then for Scotland to gather a little health, to consider +ourselves a little. I must have this Book done before anything +else will prosper with me. + +Your American Pamphlets got to hand only a few days ago; worthy +old Rich had them not originally; seemed since to have been +oblivious, out of Town, perhaps unwell. I called one day, and +unearthed them. Those papers you marked I have read. Genuine +endeavor; which may the Heavens forward!--In this poor Country +all is swallowed up in the barren Chaos of Politics: Ministries +tumbled out, Ministries tumbled in; all things (a fearful +substratum of "Ignorance and Hunger" weltering and heaving under +them) apparently in rapid progress towards--the melting-pot. +There will be news from England by and by: many things have +reached their term; Destiny "with lame foot" has overtaken them, +and there will be a reckoning. O blessed are you where, +what jargoning soever there be at Washington, the poor man +(_un_governed can govern himself) shoulders his age, and walks +into the Western Woods, sure of a nourishing Earth and an +overarching Sky! It is verily the Door of Hope to distracted +Europe; which otherwise I should see crumbling down into +blackness of darkness.--That too shall be for good. + +I wish I had anything to send you besides these four poor +Pamphlets; but I fear there is nothing going. Our Ex-Chancellor +has been promulgating triticalities (significant as novelties, +when _he_ with his wig and lordhood utters them) against the +Aristocracy; whereat the upper circles are terribly scandalized. +In Literature, except a promised or obtained (but to me still +unknown) volume of Wordsworth, nothing nameworthy doing.--Did I +tell you that I _saw_ Wordsworth this winter? Twice, at +considerable length; with almost no disappointment. He is a +_natural_ man (which means whole immensities here and now); +flows like a natural well yielding mere wholesomeness,--though, +as it would not but seem to me, in _small_ quantity, and +astonishingly _diluted._ Franker utterance of mere garrulities +and even platitudes I never heard from any man; at least never, +whom I could _honor_ for uttering them. I am thankful for +Wordsworth; as in great darkness and perpetual _sky-rockets_ and +_coruscations,_ one were for the smallest clear-burning farthing +candle. Southey also I saw; a far _cleverer_ man in speech, yet +a considerably smaller man. Shovel-hatted; the shovel-hat is +_grown_ to him: one must take him as he is. + +The second leaf is done; I must not venture on another. God +bless you, my worthy Friend; you and her who is to be yours! My +Wife bids me send heartiest wishes and regards from her too +across the Sea. Perhaps we shall all meet one another some day, +--if not Here, then Yonder! + +Faithfully always, + T. Carlyle + + + + +VIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 27 June, 1835 + +My Dear Friend,--Your very kind Letter has been in my hand these +four weeks,--the subject of much meditation, which has not yet +cleared itself into anything like a definite practical issue. +Indeed, the conditions of the case are still not wholly before +me: for if the American side of it, thanks to your perspicuous +minuteness, is now tolerably plain, the European side continues +dubious, too dim for a decision. So much in my own position here +is vague, not to be measured; then there is a Brother, coming +home to me from Italy, almost daily expected now; whose ulterior +resolutions cannot but be influential on mine; for we are +Brothers in the old good sense, and have one heart and one +interest and object, and even one purse; and Jack is a _good +man,_ for whom I daily thank Heaven, as for one of its principal +mercies. He is Traveling Physician to the Countess of Clare, +well entreated by her and hers; but, I think, weary of that +inane element of "the English Abroad," and as good as determined +to have done with it; to seek _work_ (he sees not well how), if +possible, with wages; but even almost _without,_ or with the +lowest endurable, if need be. Work and wages: the two prime +necessities of man! It is pity they should ever be disjoined; +yet of the two, if one _must,_ in this mad Earth, be dispensed +with, it is really wise to say at all hazards, Be it the wages +then. This Brother (if the Heavens have been kind to me) must be +in Paris one of these days; then here speedily; and "the House +must resolve itself into a Committee"--of ways and means. Add to +all this, that I myself have been and am one of the stupidest of +living men; in one of my vacant, interlunar conditions, unfit +for deciding on anything: were I to give you my actual _view_ of +this case, it were a view such as Satan had from the pavilion of +the Anarch old. Alas! it is all too like Chaos: confusion of +dense and rare: I also know what it is to drop _plumb,_ +fluttering my pennons vain,--for a series of weeks. + +One point only is clear: that you, my Friend, are very friendly +to me; that New England is as much my country and home as Old +England. Very singular and very pleasant it is to me to feel as +if I had a _house of my own_ in that far country: so many +leagues and geographical degrees of wild-weltering "unfruitful +brine"; and then the hospitable hearth and the smiles of +brethren awaiting one there! What with railways, steamships, +printing presses, it has surely become a most _monstrous_ +"tissue," this life of ours; if evil and confusion in the one +Hemisphere, then good and order in the other, a man knows not +how: and so it rustles forth, immeasurable, from "that roaring +Loom of Time,"--miraculous ever as of old! To Ralph Waldo +Emerson, however, and those that love me as he, be thanks always, +and a sure place in the sanctuary of the mind. Long shall we +remember that Autumn Sunday that landed him (out of Infinite +Space) on the Craigenputtock wilderness, not to leave us as he +found us. My Wife says, whatever I decide on, I cannot thank you +too heartily;--which really is very sound doctrine. I write to +tell you so much; and that you shall hear from me again when +there is more to tell. + +It does seem next to certain to me that I could preach a very +considerable quantity of things from that Boston Pulpit, such as +it is,--were I once fairly started. If so, what an unspeakable +relief were it too! Of the whole mountain of miseries one +grumbles at in this life, the central and parent one, as I often +say, is that you cannot utter yourself. The poor soul sits +struggling, impatient, longing vehemently out towards all corners +of the Universe, and cannot get its hest delivered, not even so +far as the voice might do it. Imprisoned, enchanted, like the +Arabian Prince with half his body marble: it is really bad work. +Then comes bodily sickness; to act and react, and double the +imbroglio. Till at last, I suppose, one does rise, like Eliphaz +the Temanite; states that his inner man is bursting (as if +filled with carbonic acid and new wine), that by the favor of +Heaven he will speak a word or two. Would it were come so far,-- +if it be ever to come! + +On the whole I think the odds are that I shall some time or other +get over to you; but that for this winter I ought not to go. My +London expedition is not decided hitherto; I have begun various +relations and arrangements, which it were questionable to cut +short so soon. That beggarly Book, were there nothing else, +hampers me every way. To fling it once for all into the fire +were perhaps the best; yet I grudge to do that. To finish it, +on the other hand, is denied me for the present, or even so much +as to work at it. What am I to do? When my Brother arrives, we +go all back to Scotland for some weeks: there, in seclusion, +with such calmness as I can find or create, the plan for the +winter must be settled. You shall hear from me then; let us +hope something more reasonable than I can write at present. For +about a month I have gone to and fro utterly _idle:_ understand +that, and I need explain no more. The wearied machine refused to +be urged any farther; after long spasmodic struggling comes +collapse. The burning of that wretched Manuscript has really +been a sore business for me. Nevertheless that too shall clear +itself, and prove a _favor_ of the Upper Powers: _tomorrow_ to +fresh fields and pastures new! This monstrous London has taught +me several things during the past year; for if its Wisdom be of +the most uninstructive ever heard of by that name of wisdom, its +Folly abounds with lessons,--which one ought to learn. I feel +(with my burnt manuscript) as if defeated in this campaign; +defeated, yet not altogether disgraced. As the great Fritz said, +when the battle had gone against him, "Another time we will +do better." + +As to Literature, Politics, and the whole multiplex aspect of +existence here, expect me not to say one word. We are a singular +people, in a singular condition. Not many nights ago, in one of +those phenomenal assemblages named routs, whither we had gone to +see the countenance of O'Connell and Company (the Tail was a +Peacock's tail, with blonde muslin women and heroic Parliamentary +men), one of the company, a "distinguished female" (as we call +them), informed my Wife "O'Connell was the master-spirit of this +age." If so, then for what we have received let us be thankful, +--and enjoy it _without_ criticism.--It often painfully seems to +me as if much were coming fast to a crisis here; as if the +crown-wheel had given way, and the whole horologe were rushing +rapidly down, down, to its end! Wreckage is swift; rebuilding +is slow and distant. Happily another than we has charge of it. + +My new American Friends have come and gone. Barnard went off +northward some fortnight ago, furnished with such guidance and +furtherance as I could give him. Professor Longfellow went about +the same time; to Sweden, then to Berlin and Germany: we saw +him twice or thrice, and his ladies, with great pleasure; as one +sees worthy souls from a far country, who cannot abide with you, +who throw you a kind greeting as they pass. I inquired +considerably about Concord, and a certain man there; one of the +fair pilgrims told me several comfortable things. By the bye, +how very good you are, in regard to this of Unitarianism! I +declare, I am ashamed of my intolerance:--and yet you have ceased +to be a Teacher of theirs, have you not? I mean to address you +this time by the secular title of Esquire; as if I liked you +better so. But truly, in black clothes or in white, by this +style or by that, the man himself can never be other than welcome +to me. You will further allow me to fancy that you are now +wedded; and offer our united congratulations and kindest good +wishes to that new fair Friend of ours, whom one day we shall +surely know more of,--if the Fates smile. + +My sheet is ending, and I must not burden you with double postage +for such stuff as this. By dint of some inquiry I have learnt +the law of the American Letter-carrying; and I now mention it +for our mutual benefit. There are from New York to London three +packets monthly (on the 1st, on the 10th, on the 20th); the +masters of these carry Letters gratis for all men; and put the +same into the Post-Office; there are some pence charged on the +score of "Ship-letter" there, and after that, the regular postage +of the country, if the Letter has to go farther. I put this, +for example, into a place called North and South American +Coffee-house in the City here, and pay twopence for it, and it +flies. Doubtless there is some similar receiving-house with its +"leather bag" somewhere in New York, and fixed days (probably the +same as our days) for emptying, or rather for tying and despatching, +said leather bag: if you deal with the London Packets (so long as +I am here) in preference to the Liverpool ones, it will all be +well. As for the next Letter, (if you write as I hope you may +before hearing from me again,) pray direct it, "Care of John +Mill, Esq., India House, London"; and he will forward it +directly, should I even be still absent in the North.--Now will +you write? and pray write something about yourself. We both love +you here, and send you all good prayers. _Vale faveque!_ + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + +IX. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, 7 October, 1835 + +My Dear Friend,--Please God I will never again sit six weeks of +this short human life over a letter of yours without answering it. + +----------- +* The original of this letter is missing; what is printed here +is from the rough draft. +----------- + +I received in August your letter of June, and just then hearing +that a lady, a little lady with a mighty heart, Mrs. Child,* whom +I scarcely know but do much respect, was about to visit England +(invited thither for work's sake by the African or Abolition +Society) and that she begged an introduction to you, I used +the occasion to say the godsend was come, and that I would +acknowledge it as soon as three then impending tasks were ended. +I have now learned that Mrs. Child was detained for weeks in New +York and did not sail. Only last night I received your letter +written in May, with the four copies of the _Sartor,_ which by a +strange oversight have been lying weeks, probably months, in the +Custom-House. On such provocation I can sit still no longer. + +------------ +* The excellent Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, whose romance of +_Philothea_ was published in this year, 1835. + + "If her heart at high floods swamps her brain now and then, + 'T is but richer for that when the tide ebbs agen." + +says Lowell, in his _Fable for Critics._ +----------- + +The three tasks were, a literary address; a historical discourse +on the two-hundredth anniversary of our little town of Concord* +(my first adventure in print, which I shall send you); the +third, my marriage, now happily consummated. All three, from the +least to the greatest, trod so fast upon each other's heel as to +leave me, who am a slow and awkward workman, no interstice big +enough for a letter that should hope to convey any information. +Again I waited that the Discourse might go in his new jacket to +show how busy I had been, but the creeping country press has not +dressed it yet. Now congratulate me, my friend, as indeed you +have already done, that I live with my wife in my own house, +waiting on the good future. The house is not large, but +convenient and very elastic. The more hearts (specially great +hearts) it holds, the better it looks and feels. I have not had +so much leisure yet but that the fact of having ample space to +spread my books and blotted paper is still gratifying. So know +now that your rooms in America wait for you, and that my wife is +making ready a closet for Mrs. Carlyle. + +---------- +* "A Historical Discourse, delivered before the Citizens of +Concord, 12th September, 1835, on the Second Centennial +Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town. By Ralph Waldo +Emerson. Published by Request. Concord: G.F. Bemis, Printer. +1835." 8vo, pp. 52.--A discourse worthy of the author and of the +town. It is reprinted in the eleventh volume of Emerson's Works, +Boston, 1883. +----------- + +I could cry at the disaster that has befallen you in the loss of +the book. My brother Charles says the only thing the friend +could do on such an occasion was to shoot himself, and wishes to +know if he have done so. Such mischance might well quicken one's +curiosity to know what Oversight there is of us, and I greet you +well upon your faith and the resolution issuing out of it. You +have certainly found a right manly consolation, and can afford to +faint and rest a month or two on the laurels of such endeavor. I +trust ere this you have re-collected the entire creation out of +the secret cells where, under the smiles of every Muse, it first +took life. Believe, when you are weary, that you who stimulate +and rejoice virtuous young men do not write a line in vain. And +whatever betide us in the inexorable future, what is better than +to have awaked in many men the sweet sense of beauty, and to +double the courage of virtue. So do not, as you will not, let +the imps from all the fens of weariness and apathy have a minute +too much. To die of feeding the fires of others were sweet, +since it were not death but multiplication. And yet I hold to a +more orthodox immortality too. + +This morning in happiest time I have a letter from George Ripley, +who tells me you have written him, and that you say pretty +confidently you will come next summer. _Io paean!_ He tells me +also that Alexander Everett (brother of Edward) has sent you the +friendly notice that has just appeared in the _North American +Review,_ with a letter.* All which I hope you have received. I +am delighted, for this man represents a clique to which I am a +stranger, and which I supposed might not love you. It must be +you shall succeed when Saul prophesies. Indeed, I have heard +that you may hear the _Sartor_ preached from some of our best +pulpits and lecture-rooms. Don't think I speak of myself, for I +cherish carefully a salutary horror at the German style, and hold +off my admiration as long as ever I can. But all my importance +is quite at an end. For now that Doctors of Divinity and the +solemn Review itself have broke silence to praise you, I have +quite lost my plume as your harbinger. + +----------- +* Mr. A.H. Everett's paper on _Sartor Resartus_ was published in +the _North American Review_ for October, 1835. +----------- + +I read with interest what you say of the political omens in +England. I could wish our country a better comprehension of its +felicity. But government has come to be a trade, and is managed +solely on commercial principles. A man plunges into politics to +make his fortune, and only cares that the world should last his +day. We have had in different parts of the country mobs and +moblike legislation, and even moblike judicature, which have +betrayed an almost godless state of society; so that I begin to +think even here it behoves every man to quit his dependency on +society as much as he can, as he would learn to go without +crutches that will be soon plucked away from him, and settle with +himself the principles he can stand upon, happen what may. There +is reading, and public lecturing too, in this country, that I +could recommend as medicine to any gentleman who finds the love +of life too strong in him. + +If virtue and friendship have not yet become fables, do believe +we keep your face for the living type. I was very glad to hear +of the brother you describe, for I have one too, and know what it +is to have presence in two places. Charles Chauncy Emerson is a +lawyer now settled in this town, and, as I believe, no better +Lord Hamlet was ever. He is our Doctor on all questions of +taste, manners, or action. And one of the pure pleasures I +promise myself in the months to come is to make you two gentlemen +know each other. + + + + +X. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, Mass., 8 April, 1856 + +My Dear Friend,--I am concerned at not hearing from you. I have +written you two letters, one in October, one in November, I +believe, since I had any tidings of you.* Your last letter is +dated 27 June, 1835. I have counted all the chances of delay and +miscarriage, and still am anxious lest you are ill, or have +forgotten us. I have looked at the advertising sheet of the +booksellers, but it promised nothing of the _History._ I thought +I had made the happiest truce with sorrow in having the promise +of your coming,--I was to take possession of a new kingdom of +virtue and friendship. Let not the new wine mourn. Speak to me +out of the wide silence. Many friends inquire of me concerning +you, and you must write some word immediately on receipt of +this sheet. + +------------ +* One in August by Mrs. Child, apparently not delivered, and one, +the preceding, in October. +----------- + +With it goes an American reprint of the _Sartor._ Five hundred +copies only make the edition, at one dollar a copy. About one +hundred and fifty copies are subscribed for. How it will be +received I know not. I am not very sanguine, for I often hear +and read somewhat concerning its repulsive style. Certainly, I +tell them, it is very odd. Yet I read a chapter lately with +great pleasure. I send you also, with Dr. Channing's regards and +good wishes, a copy of his little work, lately published, on our +great local question of Slavery. + +You must have written me since July. I have reckoned upon +your projected visit the ensuing summer or autumn, and have +conjectured the starlike influences of a new spiritual element. +Especially Lectures. My own experiments for one or two winters, +and the readiness with which you embrace the work, have led me to +think much and to expect much from this mode of addressing men. +In New England the Lyceum, as we call it, is already a great +institution. Beside the more elaborate courses of lectures in +the cities, every country town has its weekly evening meeting, +called a Lyceum, and every professional man in the place is +called upon, in the course of the winter, to entertain his +fellow-citizens with a discourse on whatever topic. The topics +are miscellaneous as heart can wish. But in Boston, Lowell, +Salem, courses are given by individuals. I see not why this is +not the most flexible of all organs of opinion, from its +popularity and from its newness permitting you to say what you +think, without any shackles of prescription. The pulpit in our +age certainly gives forth an obstructed and uncertain sound, and +the faith of those in it, if men of genius, may differ so much +from that of those under it, as to embarrass the conscience of +the speaker, because so much is attributed to him from the fact +of standing there. In the Lyceum nothing is presupposed. The +orator is only responsible for what his lips articulate. Then +what scope it allows! You may handle every member and relation +of humanity. What could Homer, Socrates, or St. Paul say that +cannot be said here? The audience is of all classes, and its +character will be determined always by the name of the lecturer. +Why may you not give the reins to your wit, your pathos, your +philosophy, and become that good despot which the virtuous +orator is? + +Another thing. I am persuaded that, if a man speak well, he +shall find this a well-rewarded work in New England. I have +written this year ten lectures; I had written as many last year. +And for reading both these and those at places whither I was +invited, I have received this last winter about three hundred and +fifty dollars. Had I, in lieu of receiving a lecturer's fee, +myself advertised that I would deliver these in certain places, +these receipts would have been greatly increased. I insert all +this because my prayers for you in this country are quite of a +commercial spirit. If you lose no dollar by us, I shall joyfully +trust your genius and virtue for your satisfaction on all +other points. + +I cannot remember that there are any other mouthpieces that are +specially vital at this time except Criticism and Parliamentary +Debate. I think this of ours would possess in the hands of a +great genius great advantages over both. But what avail any +commendations of the form, until I know that the man is alive and +well? If you love them that love you, write me straightway of +your welfare. My wife desires to add to mine her friendliest +greetings to Mrs. Carlyle and to yourself. + +Yours affectionately, + R. Waldo Emerson + +I ought to say that Le-Baron Russell, a worthy young man +who studies Engineering, did cause the republication of +Teufelsdrockh.* I trust you shall yet see a better American +review of it than the _North American._ + +------------ +* This first edition of _Sartor_ as an independent volume was +published by James Munroe and Company, Boston. Emerson, at Mr. +(now Dr.) Russell's request, wrote a Preface for the book. He +told Dr. Russell that his brother Charles was not pleased +with the Preface, thinking it "too commonplace, too much like +all prefaces." +----------- + + + + +XI. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London +29 April, 1836 + +My Dear Emerson,--Barnard is returning across the water, and must +not go back without a flying salutation for you. These many +weeks I have had your letter by me; these many weeks I have felt +always that it deserved and demanded a grateful answer; and, +alas! also that I could give it none. It is impossible for you +to figure what mood I am in. One sole thought, That Book! that +weary Book! occupies me continually: wreck and confusion of all +kinds go tumbling and falling around me, within me; but to wreck +and growth, to confusion and order, to the world at large, I turn +a deaf ear; and have life only for this one thing,--which also +in general I feel to be one of the pitifulest that ever man went +about possessed with. Have compassion for me! It is really very +miserable: but it will end. Some months more, and it is +_ended;_ and I am done with _French Revolution,_ and with +Revolution and Revolt in general; and look once more with +free eyes over this Earth, where are other things than mean +internecine work of that kind: things fitter for me, under the +bright Sun, on this green Mother's-bosom (though the Devil does +dwell in it)! For the present, really, it is like a Nessus' +shirt, burning you into madness, this wretched Enterprise; nay, +it is also like a kind of Panoply, rendering you invulnerable, +insensible, to all _other_ mischiefs. + +I got the fatal First Volume finished (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 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 distress, 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. + +For the rest I cannot say that this huge blind monster of a City +is without some sort of charm for me. It leaves one alone, to go +his own road unmolested. Deep in your soul you take up your +protest against it, defy it, and even despise it; but need not +divide yourself from it for that. Worthy individuals are glad to +hear your thought, if it have any sincerity; they do not +exasperate themselves or you about it; they have not even time +for such a thing. Nay, in stupidity itself on a scale of this +magnitude, there is an impressiveness, almost a sublimity; one +thinks how, in the words of Schiller, "the very Gods fight +against it in vain"; how it lies on its unfathomable foundations +there, inert yet peptic; nay, eupeptic; and is a _Fact_ in the +world, let theory object as it will. Brown-stout, in quantities +that would float a seventy-four, goes down the throats of men; +and the roaring flood of life pours on;--over which Philosophy +and Theory are but a poor shriek of remonstrance, which oftenest +were wiser, perhaps, to hold its peace. I grow daily to honor +Facts more and more, and Theory less and less. A Fact, it seems +to me, is a great thing: a Sentence printed if not by God, then +at least by the Devil;--neither Jeremy Bentham nor Lytton Bulwer +had a hand in _that._ + +There are two or three of the best souls here I have known for +long: I feel less alone with them; and yet one is alone,--a +stranger and a pilgrim. These friends expect mainly that the +Church of England is not dead but asleep; that the leather +coaches, with their gilt panels, can be peopled again with a +living Aristocracy, instead of the simulacra of such. I must +altogether hold my peace to this, as I do to much. Coleridge is +the Father of all these. _Ay de mi!_ + +But to look across the "divine salt-sea." A letter reached me, +some two months ago, from Mobile, Alabama; the writer, a kind +friend of mine, signs himself James Freeman Clarke.* I have +mislaid, not lost his Letter; and do not at present know his +permanent address (for he seemed to be only on a visit at +Mobile); but you, doubtless, do know it. Will you therefore +take or even find an opportunity to tell this good Friend that it +is not the wreckage of the Liverpool ship he wrote by, nor +insensibility on my part, that prevents his hearing direct from +me; that I see him, and love him in this Letter; and hope we +shall meet one day under the Sun, shall live under it, at any +rate, with many a kind thought towards one another. + +---------- +* Now the Rev. Dr. Clarke, of Boston. +---------- + +The _North American Review_ you spoke of never came (I mean that +copy of it with the Note in it); but another copy became rather +public here, to the amusement of some. I read the article +myself: surely this Reviewer, who does not want in [sense]* +otherwise, is an original: either a _thrice_-plied quiz +(_Sartor's_ "Editor" a twice-plied one); or else opening on you +a grandeur of still Dulness, rarely to be met with on earth. + +------------- +* The words supplied here were lost under the seal of the letter. +------------- + +My friend! I must end here. Forgive me till I get done with +this Book. Can you have the generosity to write, _without_ an +answer? Well, if you can_not,_ I will answer. Do not forget me. +My love and my Wife's to your good Lady, to your Brother, and all +friends. Tell me what you do; what your world does. As for my +world, take this (which I rendered from the German Voss, a tough +old-Teutonic fellow) for the best I can say of it:-- + + "As journeys this Earth, her eye on a Sun, through the +heavenly spaces, + And, radiant in azure, or Sunless, swallowed in tempests, + Falters not, alters not; journeying equal, sunlit or +stormgirt + So thou, Son of Earth, who hast Force, + Goal, and Time, go still onwards." + +Adieu, my dear friend! Believe me ever Yours, + Thomas Carlyle + + + + +XII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, Massachusetts, 17 September, 1836 + +My Dear Friend,--I hope you do not measure my love by the +tardiness of my messages. I have few pleasures like that of +receiving your kind and eloquent letters. I should be most +impatient of the long interval between one and another, but that +they savor always of Eternity, and promise me a friendship and +friendly inspiration not reckoned or ended by days or years. +Your last letter, dated in April, found me a mourner, as did your +first. I have lost out of this world my brother Charles,* of +whom I have spoken to you,--the friend and companion of many +years, the inmate of my house, a man of a beautiful genius, born +to speak well, and whose conversation for these last years has +treated every grave question of humanity, and has been my daily +bread. I have put so much dependence on his gifts that we made +but one man together; for I needed never to do what he could do +by noble nature much better than I. He was to have been married +in this month, and at the time of his sickness and sudden +death I was adding apartments to my house for his permanent +accommodation. I wish that you could have known him. At +twenty-seven years the best life is only preparation. He built +his foundation so large that it needed the full age of man to make +evident the plan and proportions of his character. He postponed +always a particular to a final and absolute success, so that his +life was a silent appeal to the great and generous. But some +time I shall see you and speak of him. + +--------- +* Charles Chauncy Emerson,--died May 9, 1836,--whose memory still +survives fresh and beautiful in the hearts of the few who remain +who knew him in life. A few papers of his published in the +_Dial_ show to others what he was and what he might have become. +----------- + +We want but two or three friends, but these we cannot do without, +and they serve us in every thought we think. I find now I must +hold faster the remaining jewels of my social belt. And of you I +think much and anxiously since Mrs. Channing, amidst her delight +at what she calls the happiest hour of her absence, in her +acquaintance with you and your family, expresses much uneasiness +respecting your untempered devotion to study. I am the more +disturbed by her fears, because your letters avow a self-devotion +to your work, and I know there is no gentle dulness in your +temperament to counteract the mischief. I fear Nature has not +inlaid fat earth enough into your texture to keep the ethereal +blade from whetting it through. I write to implore you to be +careful of your health. You are the property of all whom you +rejoice in art and soul, and you must not deal with your body as +your own. O my friend, if you would come here and let me nurse +you and pasture you in my nook of this long continent, I will +thank God and you therefor morning and evening, and doubt not to +give you, in a quarter of a year, sound eyes, round cheeks, and +joyful spirits. My wife has been lately an invalid, but she +loves you thoroughly, and hardly stores a barrel of flour or lays +her new carpet without some hopeful reference to Mrs. Carlyle. +And in good earnest, why cannot you come here forthwith, and +deliver in lectures to the solid men of Boston the _History of +the French Revolution_ before it is published,--or at least +whilst it is publishing in England, and before it is published +here. There is no doubt of the perfect success of such a course +now that the _five hundred copies of the Sartor are all sold,_ +and read with great delight by many persons. + +This I suggest if you too must feel the vulgar necessity of +_doing;_ but if you will be governed by your friend, you shall +come into the meadows, and rest and talk with your friend in my +country pasture. If you will come here like a noble brother, you +shall have your solid day undisturbed, except at the hours of +eating and walking; and as I will abstain from you myself, +so I will defend you from others. I entreat Mrs. Carlyle, +with my affectionate remembrances, to second me in this +proposition, and not suffer the wayward man to think that in +these space-destroying days a prayer from Boston, Massachusetts, +is any less worthy of serious and prompt granting than one +from Edinburgh or Oxford. + +I send you a little book I have just now published, as +an entering wedge, I hope, for something more worthy and +significant.* This is only a naming of topics on which I would +gladly speak and gladlier hear. I am mortified to learn the ill +fate of my former packet containing the _Sartor_ and Dr. +Channing's work. My mercantile friend is vexed, for he says +accurate orders were given to send it as a packet, not as a +letter. I shall endeavor before despatching this sheet to obtain +another copy of our American edition. + +----------- +* This was _Nature,_ the first clear manifesto of Emerson's +genius. +----------- + +I wish I could come to you instead of sending this sheet of +paper. I think I should persuade you to get into a ship this +Autumn, quit all study for a time, and follow the setting sun. I +have many, many things to learn of you. How melancholy to think +how much we need confession!...* Yet the great truths are always +at hand, and all the tragedy of individual life is separated how +thinly from that universal nature which obliterates all ranks, +all evils, all individualities. How little of you is in your +_will!_ Above your will how intimately are you related to all of +us! In God we meet. Therein we _are,_ thence we descend upon +Time and these infinitesimal facts of Christendom, and Trade, and +England Old and New. Wake the soul now drunk with a sleep, and +we overleap at a bound the obstructions, the griefs, the +mistakes, of years, and the air we breathe is so vital that the +Past serves to contribute nothing to the result. + +----------- +** Some words appear to be lost here. +----------- + +I read Goethe, and now lately the posthumous volumes, with a +great interest. A friend of mine who studies his life with care +would gladly know what records there are of his first ten years +after his settlement at Weimar, and what Books there are in +Germany about him beside what Mrs. Austin has collected and +Heine. Can you tell me? + +Write me of your health, or else come. + +Yours ever, + R.W. Emerson. + +P.S.--I learn that an acquaintance is going to England, so send +the packet by him. + + + + +XIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 5 November, 1836 + +My Dear Friend,--You are very good to write to me in my silence, +in the mood you must be in. My silence you may well judge is not +forgetfulness; it is a forced silence; which this kind Letter +enforces into words. I write the day after your letter comes, +lest the morrow bring forth something new to hinder me. + +What a bereavement, my Friend, is this that has overtaken you! +Such a Brother, with such a Life opening around him, like a +blooming garden where he was to labor and gather, all vanished +suddenly like frostwork, and hidden from your eye! It is a loss, +a sore loss; which God had appointed you. I do not tell you not +to mourn: I mourn with you, and could wish all mourners the +spirit you have in this sorrow. Oh, I know it well! Often +enough in this noisy Inanity of a vision where _we_ still linger, +I say to myself, Perhaps thy Buried Ones are not far from thee, +are with thee; they are in Eternity, which is a Now and HERE! +And yet Nature will have her right; Memory would feel desecrated +if she could forget. Many times in the crowded din of the +Living, some sight, some feature of a face, will recall to you +the Loved Face; and in these turmoiling streets you see the +little silent Churchyard, the green grave that lies there so +silent, inexpressibly _wae._ O, perhaps we _shall_ all meet +YONDER, and the tears be wiped from all eyes! One thing is no +Perhaps: surely we _shall_ all meet, if it be the will of the +Maker of us. If it be not His will,--then is it not better so? +Silence,--since in these days we have no speech! Eye hath not +seen, nor ear heard, in any day. + +You inquire so earnestly about my welfare; hold open still the +hospitable door for me. Truly Concord, which I have sought out +on the Map, seems worthy of its name: no dissonance comes to me +from that side; but grief itself has acquired a harmony: in joy +or grief a voice says to me, Behold there is one that loves thee; +in thy loneliness, in thy darkness, see how a hospitable candle +shines from far over seas, how a friendly heart watches! It is +very good, and precious for me. + +As for my health, be under no apprehension. I am always sick; I +am sicker and worse in body and mind, a little, for the present; +but it has no deep significance: it is _weariness_ merely; and +now, by the bounty of Heaven, I am as it were within sight +of land. In two months more, this unblessed Book will be +_finished;_ at Newyearday we begin printing: before the end of +March, the thing is out; and I am a free man! Few happinesses I +have ever known will equal that, as it seems to me. And yet I +ought not to call the poor Book unblessed: no, it has girdled me +round like a panoply these two years; kept me invulnerable, +indifferent, to innumerable things. The poorest man in London +has perhaps been one of the freest: the roaring press of gigs +and gigmen, with their gold blazonry and fierce gig-wheels, have +little incommoded him; they going their way, he going his.--As +for the results of the Book, I can rationally promise myself, on +the economical, pecuniary, or otherwise worldly side, simply +_zero._ It is a Book contradicting all rules of Formalism, that +have not a Reality within them, which so few have;--testifying, +the more quietly the worse, internecine war with Quacks high and +low. My good Brother, who was with me out of Italy in summer, +declared himself shocked, and almost terror-struck: "Jack," I +answered, "innumerable men give their lives cheerfully to defend +Falsehoods and Half-Falsehoods; why should not one writer give +his life cheerfully to say, in plain Scotch-English, in the +hearing of God and man, To me they seem false and half-false? At +all events, thou seest, I cannot help it. It is the nature of +the beast." So that, on the whole, I suppose there is no more +unpromotable, unappointable man now living in England than I. +Literature also, the miscellaneous place of refuge, seems done +here, unless you will take the Devil's wages for it; which one +does not incline to do. A _disjectum membrum;_ cut off from +relations with men? Verily so; and now forty years of age; and +extremely dyspeptical: a hopeless-looking man. Yet full of what +I call desperate-hope! One does verily stand on the Earth, a +Star-dome encompassing one; seemingly accoutred and enlisted and +sent to battle, with rations good, indifferent, or bad,--what can +one do but in the name of Odin, Tuisco, Hertha, Horsa, and +all Saxon and Hebrew Gods, fight it out?--This surely is very +idle talk. + +As to the Book, I do say seriously that it is a wild, savage, +ruleless, very bad Book; which even you will not be able to +like; much less any other man. Yet it contains strange things; +sincerities drawn out of the heart of a man very strangely +situated; reverent of nothing but what is reverable in all ages +and places: so we will print it, and be done with it;--and try a +new turn next time. What I am to do, were the thing done, you +see therefore, is most uncertain. How gladly would I run to +Concord! And if I were there, be sure the do-nothing arrangement +is the only conceivable one for me. That my sick existence +subside again, this is the first condition; that quiet vision be +restored me. It is frightful what an impatience I have got for +many kinds of fellow-creatures. Their jargon really hurts me +like the shrieking of inarticulate creatures that ought to +articulate. There is no resource but to say: Brother, thou +surely art not hateful; thou art lovable, at lowest pitiable;-- +alas! in my case, thou art dreadfully wearisome, unedifying: go +thy ways, with my blessing. There are hardly three people among +these two millions, whom I care much to exchange words with, in +the humor I have. Nevertheless, at bottom, it is not my purpose +to quit London finally till I have as it were _seen it out._ In +the very hugeness of the monstrous City, contradiction cancelling +contradiction, one finds a sort of composure for one's self that +is not to be met with elsewhere perhaps in the world: people +tolerate you, were it only that they have not time to trouble +themselves with you. Some individuals even love me here; there +are one or two whom I have even learned to love,--though, for the +present, cross circumstances have snatched them out of my orbit +again mostly. Wherefore, if you ask me, What I am to do?--the +answer is clear so far, "Rest myself awhile"; and all farther is +as dark as Chaos. Now for resting, taking that by itself, my +Brother, who has gone back to Rome with some thoughts of settling +as a Physician there, presses me to come thither, and rest in +Rome. On the other hand, a certain John Sterling (the best man I +have found in these regions) has been driven to Bordeaux lately +for his health; he will have it that I must come to him, and +walk through the South of France to Dauphine, Avignon, and over +the Alps next spring!* Thirdly, my Mother will have me return to +Annandale, and lie quiet in her little habitation;--which I +incline to think were the wisest course of all. And lastly from +over the Atlantic comes my good Emerson's voice. We will settle +nothing, except that all shall remain unsettled. _Die Zukunft +decket Schmerzen and Glucke._ + +------------ +* In his _Life of Sterling,_ Carlyle prints a letter from +Sterling to himself, dated Bordeaux, October 26, 1836, in which +Sterling urges him to come "in the first fine days of spring." +It must have reached him a few days before he wrote this letter +to Emerson. +--------- + +I ought to say, however, that about New-year's-day I will send +you an Article on _Mirabeau,_ which they have printed here (for a +thing called the _London Review_), and some kind of Note to +escort it. I think Pamphlets travel as Letters in New England, +provided you leave the ends of them open: if I be mistaken, pray +instruct Messrs. Barnard to _refuse_ the thing, for it has small +value. _The Diamond Necklace_ is to be printed also, in +_Fraser;_ inconceivable hawking that poor Paper has had; till +now Fraser takes it--for L50: not being able to get it for +nothing. The _Mirabeau_ was written at the passionate request of +John Mill; and likewise for needful lucre. I think it is the +first shilling of money I have earned by my craft these four +years: where the money I have lived on has come from while I sat +here scribbling gratis, amazes me to think; yet surely it has +come (for I am still here), and Heaven only to thank for it, +which is a great fact. As for Mill's _London Review_ (for he is +quasi-editor), I do not recommend it to you. Hide-bound +Radicalism; a to me well-nigh insupportable thing! Open it not: +a breath as of Sahara and the Infinite Sterile comes from every +page of it. A young Radical Baronet* has laid out L3,000 on +getting the world instructed in that manner: it is very curious +to see.--Alas! the bottom of the sheet! Take my hurried but +kindest thanks for the prospect of your second Teufelsdrockh: +the _first_ too is now in my possession; Brother John went to +the Post-Office, and worked it out for a ten shillings. It is +a beautiful little Book; and a Preface to it such as no kindest +friend could have improved. Thank my kind Editor** very heartily +from me. + +--------- +* Sir William Molesworth. In his _Autobiography_ Mill gives an +interesting account of the founding of this _Review,_ and his +quasi-editorial relations to it. "In the beginning," he says, +"it did not, as a whole, by any means represent my opinion." + +** Dr. Le-Baron Russell +--------- + +My wife was in Scotland in summer, driven thither by ill health; +she is stronger since her return, though not yet strong; she +sends over to Concord her kindest wishes. If I fly to the Alps +or the Ocean, her Mother and she must keep one another company, +we think, till there be better news of me. You are to thank Dr. +Channing also for his valued gift. I read the Discourse, and +other friends of his read it, with great estimation; but the +_end_ of that black question lies beyond my ken. I suppose, as +usual, Might and Right will have to make themselves synonymous in +some way. CANST and SHALT, if they are _very_ well understood, +mean the same thing under this Sun of ours. Adieu, my dear +Emerson. _Gehab' Dich wohl!_ Many affectionate regards to the +Lady Wife: it is far within the verge of Probabilities that I +shall see her face, and eat of her bread, one day. But she must +not get sick! It is a dreadful thing, sickness; really a thing +which I begin frequently to think _criminal_--at least in myself. +Nay, in myself it really is criminal; wherefore I determine to +be well one day. + +Good be with you and Yours. + T. Carlyle + +As to Goethe and your Friend: I know not anything out of +Goethe's own works (which have many notices in them) that treats +specially of those ten years. Doubtless your Friend knows +Jordens's _Lexicon_ (which dates all the writings, for one +thing), the _Conversations-Lexicon Supplement,_ and such like. +There is an essay by one Schubarth which has reputation; but it +is critical and ethical mainly. The Letters to Zelter, and the +Letters to Schiller, will do nothing for those years, but +are essential to see. Perhaps in some late number of the +_Zeitgenossen_ there may be something? Blackguard Heine is worth +very little; Mentzel is duller, decenter, not much wiser. A +very curious Book is Eckermann's _Conversations with Goethe,_ +just published. No room more!* + +----------- +* Concerning this letter Emerson wrote in his Diary: "January 7, +1837. Received day before yesterday a letter from Thomas +Carlyle, dated 5 November;--as ever, a cordial influence. Strong +he is, upright, noble, and sweet, and makes good how much of our +human nature. Quite in consonance with my delight in his +eloquent letters I read in Bacon this afternoon this sentence (of +Letters): 'And such as are written from wise men are of all the +words of men, in my judgment, the best; for they are more +natural than orations, public speeches, and more advised than +conferences or present speeches.'" +------------- + + + + +XIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London, 13 February, 1837 + +My Dear Emerson,--You had promise of a letter to be despatched +you about New-year's-day; which promise I was myself in a +condition to fulfil at the time set, but delayed it, owing to +delays of printers and certain "Articles" that were to go with +it. Six weeks have not yet entirely brought up these laggard +animals: however, I will delay no longer for them. Nay, it +seems the Articles, were they never so ready, cannot go with the +Letter; but must fare round by Liverpool or Portsmouth, in a +separate conveyance. We will leave them to the bounty of Time. + +Your little Book and the Copy of _Teufelsdrockh_ came safely; +soon after I had written. The _Teufelsdrockh_ I instantaneously +despatched to Hamburg, to a Scottish merchant there, to whom +there is an allusion in the Book; who used to be my _Speditor_ +(one of the politest extant though totally a stranger) in my +missions and packages to and from Weimar.* The other, former +Copy, more specially yours, had already been, as I think I told +you, delivered out of durance; and got itself placed in the +bookshelf, as _the_ Teufelsdrockh. George Ripley tells me you +are printing another edition; much good may it do you! There is +now also a kind of whisper and whimper rising _here_ about +printing one. I said to myself once, when Bookseller Fraser +shrieked so loud at a certain message you sent him: "Perhaps +after all they will print this poor rag of a thing into a Book, +after I am dead it may be,--if so seem good to them. _Either_ +way!" As it is, we leave the poor orphan to its destiny, all the +more cheerfully. Ripley says farther he has sent me a critique +of it by a better hand than the _North American:_ I expect it, +but have not got it Yet.** The _North American_ seems to say +that he too sent me one. It never came to hand, nor any hint of +it,--except I think once before through you. It was not at all +an unfriendly review; but had an opacity, of matter-of-fact in +it that filled one with amazement. Since the Irish Bishop who +said there were some things in _Gulliver_ on which he for one +would keep his belief _suspended,_ nothing equal to it, on that +side, has come athwart me. However, he _has_ made out that +Teufelsdrockh is, in all human probability, a fictitious +character; which is always something, for an Inquirer into +Truth.--Will you, finally, thank Friend Ripley in my name, till I +have time to write to him and thank him. + +----------- +* The allusion referred to is the following: "By the kindness of +a Scottish Hamburg merchant, whose name, known to the whole +mercantile world, he must not mention; but whose honorable +courtesy, now and before spontaneously manifested to him, a mere +literary stranger, he cannot soon forget,--the bulky Weissnichtwo +packet, with all its Custom-house seals, foreign hieroglyphs, and +miscellaneous tokens of travel, arrived here in perfect safety, +and free of cost."--_Sartor Resartus,_ Book I. ch. xi. + +** An article by the Rev. N.L. Frothingham in the _Christian +Examiner._ +---------- + +Your little azure-colored Nature gave me true satisfaction. I +read it, and then lent it about to all my acquaintance that had a +sense for such things; from whom a similar verdict always came +back. You say it is the first chapter of something greater. I +call it rather the Foundation and Ground-plan on which you may +build whatsoever of great and true has been given you to build. +It is the true Apocalypse, this when the "Open Secret" becomes +revealed to a man. I rejoice much in the glad serenity of soul +with which you look out on this wondrous Dwelling-place of yours +and mine--with an ear for the _Ewigen Melodien,_ which pipe in +the winds round us, and utter themselves forth in all sounds and +sights and things: not to be written down by gamut-machinery; +but which all right writing is a kind of attempt to write down. +You will see what the years will bring you. It is not one of +your smallest qualities in my mind, that you can wait so quietly +and let the years do their best. He that cannot keep himself +quiet is of a morbid nature; and the thing he yields us will be +like him in that, whatever else it be. + +Miss Martineau (for I have seen her since I wrote) tells me you +"are the only man in America" who has quietly set himself down on +a competency to follow his own path, and do the work his own will +prescribes for him. Pity that you were the only one! But be +one, nevertheless; be the first, and there will come a second +and a third. It is a poor country where all men are _sold_ to +Mammon, and can make nothing but Railways and Bursts of +Parliamentary Eloquence! And yet your New England here too has +the upper hand of our Old England, of our Old Europe: we too are +sold to Mammon, soul, body, and spirit; but (mark that, I pray +you, with double pity) Mammon will not _pay_ us,--we, are "Two +Million three hundred thousand in Ireland that have not potatoes +enough"! I declare, in History I find nothing more tragical. I +find also that it will alter; that for me as one it has altered. +Me Mammon will _pay_ or not as he finds convenient; buy me he +will not.--In fine, I say, sit still at Concord, with such spirit +as you are of; under the blessed skyey influences, with an open +sense, with the great Book of Existence open round you: we shall +see whether you too get not something blessed to read us from it. + +The Paper is declining fast, and all is yet speculation. Along +with these two "Articles" (to be sent by Liverpool; there are +two of them, _Diamond Necklace_ and _Mirabeau_), you will very +probably get some stray Proofsheet--of the unutterable _French +Revolution!_ It is actually at Press; two Printers working at +separate Volumes of it,--though still too slow. In not many +weeks, my hands will be washed of it! You, I hope, can have +little conception of the feeling with which I wrote the last word +of it, one night in early January, when the clock was striking +ten, and our frugal Scotch supper coming in! I did not cry; nor +I did not pray but could have done both. No such _spell_ shall +get itself fixed on me for some while to come! A beggarly +Distortion; that will please no mortal, not even myself; of +which I know not whether the fire were not after all the due +place! And yet I ought not to say so: there is a great blessing +in a man's doing what he utterly can, in the case he is in. +Perhaps great quantities of dross are burnt out of me by this +calcination I have had; perhaps I shall be far quieter and +healthier of mind and body than I have ever been since boyhood. +The world, though no man had ever less empire in it, seems to me +a thing lying _under_ my feet; a mean imbroglio, which I never +more shall fear, or court, or disturb myself with: welcome and +welcome to go wholly _its own way;_ I wholly clear for going +mine. Through the summer months I am, somewhere or other, to +rest myself, in the deepest possible sleep. The residue is vague +as the wind,--unheeded as the wind. Some way it will turn out +that a poor, well-meaning Son of Adam has bread growing for him +too, better or worse: _any_ way,--or even _no_ way, if that be +it,--I shall be content. There is a scheme here among Friends +for my Lecturing in a thing they call Royal Institution; but it +will not do there, I think. The instant two or three are +gathered together under any terms, who want to learn something I +can teach them,--then we will, most readily, as Burns says, +"loose our tinkler jaw"; but not I think till then; were the +Institution even Imperial. + +America has faded considerably into the background of late: +indeed, to say truth, whenever I think of myself in America, it +is as in the Backwoods, with a rifle in my hand, God's sky over +my head, and this accursed Lazar-house of quacks and blockheads, +'and sin and misery (now near a head) lying all behind me +forevermore. A thing, you see, which is and can be at bottom but +a daydream! To rest through the summer: that is my only fixed +wisdom; a resolution taken; only the place where uncertain.-- +What a pity this poor sheet is done! I had innumerable things to +tell you about people whom I have seen, about books,--Miss +Harriet Martineau, Mrs. Butler, Southey, Influenza, Parliament, +Literature and the Life of Man,--the whole of which must lie over +till next time. Write to me; do not forget me. My Wife, who is +sitting by me, in very poor health (this long while), sends +"kindest remembrances," "compliments" she expressly does not +send. Good be with you always, my dear Friend! + + --T. Carlyle + +We send our felicitation to the Mother and little Boy; which +latter you had better tell us the name of. + + + + +XV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, Mass., 31 March, 1837 + +My Dear Friend,--Last night, I said I would write to you +forthwith. This morning I received your letter of February 13th, +and _with it_ the _Diamond Necklace,_ the _Mirabeau,_ and the +olive leaf of a proof-sheet. I write out the sum of my debt as +the best acknowledgment I can make. I had already received, +about New-Year's-Day, the preceding letter. It came in the midst +of my washbowl-storm of a course of Lectures on the Philosophy of +History. For all these gifts and pledges,--thanks. Over the +finished _History,_ joy and evergreen laurels. I embrace you +with all my heart. I solace myself with the noble nature God has +given you, and in you to me, and to all. I had read the _Diamond +Necklace_ three weeks ago at the Boston Athenaeum, and the +_Mirabeau_ I had just read when my copy came. But the proof-sheet +was virgin gold. The _Mirabeau_ I forebode is to establish your +kingdom in England. That is genuine thunder, which nobody that +wears ears can affect to mistake for the rumbling of cart-wheels. +I please myself with thinking that my Angelo has blocked +a Colossus which may stand in the public square to defy all +competitors. To be sure, that is its least merit,--that nobody +can do the like,--yet is it a gag to Cerberus. Its better merit +is that it inspires self-trust, by teaching the immense resources +that are in human nature; so I sent it to be read by a brave man +who is poor and decried. The doctrine is indeed true and grand +which you preach as by cannonade, that God made a man, and it +were as well to stand by and see what is in him, and, if he act +ever from his impulses, believe that he has his own checks, and, +however extravagant, will keep his orbit, and return from far; a +faith that draws confirmation from the sempiternal ignorance and +stationariness of society, and the sempiternal growth of all +the individuals. + +The _Diamond Necklace_ I read with joy, whilst I read with my own +eyes. When I read with English or New-English eyes, my joy is +marred by the roaring of the opposition. I doubt not the exact +story is there told as it fell out, and told for the first time; +but the eye of your readers, as you will easily guess, will be +bewildered by the multitude of brilliant-colored hieroglyphics +whereby the meaning is conveyed. And for the Gig,--the Gig,--it +is fairly worn out, and such a cloud-compeller must mock that +particular symbol no more. + +I thought as I read this piece that your strange genius was the +instant fruit of your London. It is the aroma of Babylon. Such +as the great metropolis, such is this style: so vast, enormous, +related to all the world, and so endless in details. I think you +see as pictures every street, church, parliament-house, barrack, +baker's shop, mutton-stall, forge, wharf, and ship, and whatever +stands, creeps, rolls, or swims thereabouts, and make all your +own. Hence your encyclopediacal allusion to all knowables, and +the virtues and vices of your panoramic pages. Well, it is your +own; and it is English; and every word stands for somewhat; +and it cheers and fortifies me. And what more can a man ask of +his writing fellow-man? Why, all things; inasmuch as a good +mind creates wants at every stroke. + +The proof-sheet rhymes well with _Mirabeau,_ and has abated my +fears from your own and your brother's account of the new book. +I greet it well. Auspicious Babe, be born! The first good of +the book is that it makes you free, and as I anxiously hope makes +your body sound. A possible good is that it will cause me to see +your face. But I seemed to read in _Mirabeau_ what you intimate +in your letter, that you will not come westward. Old England is +to find you out, and then the New will have no charm. For me it +will be the worst; for you, not. A man, a few men, cannot be to +you (with your ministering eyes) that which you should travel far +to find. Moreover, I observe that America looks, to those who +come hither, as unromantic and unexciting as the Dutch canals. I +see plainly that our Society, for the most part, is as bigoted to +the _respectabilities_ of religion and education as yours; that +there is no more appetite for a revelation here than elsewhere; +and the educated class are, of course, less fair-minded than +others. Yet, in the moments when my eyes are open, I see that +here are rich materials for the philosopher and poet, and, what +is more to your purpose as an artist, that we have had in these +parts no one philosopher or poet to put a sickle to the prairie +wheat. I have really never believed that you would do us that +crowning grace of coming hither, yet if God should be kinder to +us than our belief, I meant and mean to hold you fast in my +little meadows on the Musketaquid (now Concord) River, and show +you (as in this country we can anywhere) an America in miniature +in the April or November town meeting. Therein should you +conveniently study and master the whole of our hemispherical +politics reduced to a nutshell, and have a new version of +Oxenstiern's little wit; and yet be consoled by seeing that here +the farmers patient as their bulls of head-boards--provided for +them in relation to distant national objects, by kind editors of +newspapers--do yet their will, and a good will, in their own +parish. If a wise man would pass by New York, and be content to +sit still in this village a few months, he should get a thorough +native knowledge which no foreigner has yet acquired. So I leave +you with God, and if any oracle in the great Delphos should say +"Go," why fly to us instantly. Come and spend a year with me, +and see if I cannot respect your retirements. + +I must love you for your interest in me and my way of life, and +the more that we only look for good-nature in the creative class. +They pay the tag of grandeur, and, attracted irresistibly to +make, their living is usually weak and hapless. But you are so +companionable--God has made you Man as well as Poet--that I +lament the three thousand miles of mountainous water. Burns +might have added a better verse to his poem, importing that one +might write Iliads or Hamlets, and yet come short of Truth by +infinity, as every written word must; but "the man's the gowd +for a' that." And I heartily thank the Lady for her good-will. +Please God she may be already well. We all grieve to know of her +ill health. People who have seen her never stop with _Mr._ +Carlyle, but count him thrice blest in her. My wife believes in +nothing for her but the American voyage. I shall never cease to +expect you both until you come. + +My boy is five months old, he is called Waldo,--a lovely wonder +that made the Universe look friendlier to me. + +My Wife, one of your best lovers, sends her affectionate regards +to Mrs. Carlyle, and says that she takes exception in your +letters only to that sentence that she would go to Scotland if +you came here. My Wife beseeches her to come and possess her +new-dressed chamber. Do not cease to write whenever you can +spare me an hour. A man named Bronson Alcott is great, and one +of the jewels we have to show you. Good bye. + + --R.W. Emerson + +The second edition of _Sartor_ is out and sells well. I +learned the other day that twenty-five copies of it were ordered +for England. It was very amiable of you, that word about it +in _Mirabeau._* + +---------- +* This refers to Carlyle's introducing, in his paper on +_Mirabeau,_ a citation from _Sartor,_ with the words, "We quote +from a New England Book." +---------- + + + + +XVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London, 1 June, 1857 + +My Dear Friend,--A word must go to Concord in answer to your last +kind word. It reached me, that word of yours, on the morning of +a most unspeakable day; the day when I, half dead with fret, +agitation, and exasperation, was to address extempore an audience +of London quality people on the subject of German Literature! +The heart's wish of me was that I might be left in deepest +oblivion, wrapped in blankets and silence, not speaking, not +spoken to, for a twelvemonth to come. My Printers had only let +me go, out of their Treadmill, the day before. However, all that +is over now; and I am still here alive to write to you, and hope +for better days. + +Almost a month ago there went a copy of a Book called _French +Revolution,_ with your address on it, over to Red-Lion Square, +and thence, as old Rich declared, himself now _emeritus,_ back to +one Kennet (I think) near Covent Garden; who professes to +correspond with Hilliard and Company, Boston, and undertook the +service. The Book is not gone yet, I understand; but Kennet +engages that it shall leave Liverpool infallibly on the 5th of +June. I wish you a happy reading of it, therefore: it is the +only copy of my sending that has crossed the water. Ill printed +(there are many errors, one or two gross ones), ill written, ill +thought! But in fine it _is_ off my hands: that is a fact worth +all others. As to its reception here or elsewhere, I anticipate +nothing or little. Gabble, gabble, the astonishment of the dull +public brain is likely to be considerable, and its ejaculations +unedifying. We will let it go its way. Beat this thing, I say +always, under thy dull hoofs, O dull Public! trample it and +tumble it into all sinks and kennels; if thou canst kill it, +kill it in God's name: if thou canst not kill it, why then thou +wilt not. + +By the by, speaking of dull Publics, I ought to say that I have +seen a review of myself in the _Christian Examiner_ (I think that +is it) of Boston; the author of which, if you know him, I desire +you to thank on my part. For if a dull million is good, then +withal a seeing unit or two is also good. This man images back a +beautiful idealized Clothes-Philosopher, very satisfactory to +look upon; in whose beatified features I did verily detect more +similitude to what I myself meant to be, than in any or all the +other criticisms I have yet seen written of me. That a man see +himself reflected from the soul of his brother-man in this +brotherly improved way: there surely is one of the most +legitimate joys of existence. Friend Ripley took the trouble to +send me this Review, in which I detected an Article of his own; +there came also some Discourses of his much to be approved of; a +Newspaper passage-of-fence with a Philistine of yours; and a set +of Essays on Progress-of-the-species and such like by a man whom +I grieved to see confusing himself with that. Progress of the +species is a thing I can get no good of at all. These Books, +which Miss Martineau has borrowed from me, did not arrive till +three weeks ago or less. I pray you to thank Ripley for them +very kindly; which at present I still have not time to do. He +seems to me a good man, with good aims; with considerable +natural health of mind, wherein all goodness is likely to grow +better, all clearness to grow clearer. Miss Martineau laments +that he does not fling himself, or not with the due impetuosity, +into the Black Controversy; a thing lamentable in the extreme, +when one considers what a world this is, and how perfect it would +be could Mungo once get his stupid case rectified, and eat his +squash as a stupid _Apprentice_ instead of stupid _Slave!_ + +Miss Martineau's Book on America is out, here and with you. I +have read it for the good Authoress's sake, whom I love much. +She is one of the strangest phenomena to me. A genuine little +Poetess, buckramed, swathed like a mummy into Socinian and +Political-Economy formulas; and yet verily alive in the inside +of that! "God has given a Prophet to every People in its own +speech," say the Arabs. Even the English Unitarians were one day +to have their Poet, and the best that could be said for them too +was to be said. I admire this good lady's integrity, sincerity; +her quick, sharp discernment to the depth it goes: her love +also is great; nay, in fact it is too great: the host of +illustrious obscure mortals whom she produces on you, of +Preachers, Pamphleteers, Antislavers, Able Editors, and other +Atlases bearing (unknown to us) the world on their shoulder, is +absolutely more than enough. What they say to her Book here I do +not well know. I fancy the general reception will be good, and +even brilliant. I saw Mrs. Butler* last night, "in an ocean of +blonde and broadcloth," one of those oceans common at present. +Ach Gott! They are not of Persons, these soirdes, but of +Cloth Figures. + +---------- +* Mrs Fanny Kemble Butler. +---------- + +I mean to retreat into Scotland very soon, to repose myself as I +intended. My Wife continues here with her Mother; here at least +till the weather grow too hot, or a journey to join me seem +otherwise advisable for her. She is gathering strength, but +continues still weak enough. I rest myself "on the sunny side of +hedges" in native Annandale, one of the obscurest regions; no +man shall speak to me, I will speak to no man; but have +dialogues yonder with the old dumb crags, of the most +unfathomable sort. Once rested, I think of returning to London +for another season. Several things are beginning which I ought +to see end before taking up my staff again. In this enormous +Chaos the very multitude of conflicting perversions produces +something more like a _calm_ than you can elsewhere meet with. +Men let you alone, which is an immense thing: they do it even +because they have no time to meddle with you. London, or else +the Backwoods of America, or Craigenputtock! We shall see. + +I still beg the comfort of hearing from you. I am sick of soul +and body, but not incurable; the loving word of a Waldo Emerson +is as balm to me, medicinal now more than ever. My Wife +earnestly joins me in love to the Concord Household. May a +blessing be in it, on one and all! I do nowise give up the idea +of sojourning there one time yet. On the contrary, it seems +almost certain that I shall. Good be with you. + +Yours always, + T. Carlyle* + +----------- +* Emerson wrote in his Diary, July 27, 1837: "A letter today +from Carlyle rejoiced me. Pleasant would life be with such +companions. But if you cannot have them on good mutual terms you +cannot have them. If not the Deity but our wilfulness hews and +shapes the new relations, their sweetness escapes, as +strawberries lose their flavor by cultivation." +---------- + + + + +XVII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 13 September, 1837 + +My Dear Friend,--Such a gift as the _French Revolution_ demanded +a speedier acknowledgment. But you mountaineers that can scale +Andes before breakfast for an airing have no measures for the +performance of lowlanders and valetudinarians. I am ashamed to +think, and will not tell, what little things have kept me silent. + +The _French Revolution_ did not reach me until three weeks ago, +having had at least two long pauses by the way, as I find, since +landing. Between many visits received, and some literary +haranguing done, I have read two volumes and half the third and I +think you a very good giant; disporting yourself with an +original and vast ambition of fun: pleasure and peace not being +strong enough for you, you choose to suck pain also, and teach +fever and famine to dance and sing. I think you have written a +wonderful book, which will last a very long time. I see that you +have created a history, which the world will own to be such. You +have recognized the existence of other persons than officers, and +of other relations than civism. You have broken away from all +books, and written a mind. It is a brave experiment, and the +success is great. We have men in your story and not names +merely; always men, though I may doubt sometimes whether I have +the historic men. We have great facts--and selected facts--truly +set down. We have always the co-presence of Humanity along with +the imperfect damaged individuals. The soul's right of wonder is +still left to us; and we have righteous praise and doom awarded, +assuredly without cant. Yes, comfort yourself on that +particular, O ungodliest divine man! thou cantest never. Finally +we have not--a dull word. Never was there a style so rapid as +yours,--which no reader can outrun; and so it is for the most +intelligent. I suppose nothing will astonish more than the +audacious wit and cheerfulness which no tragedy and no magnitude +of events can overpower or daunt. Henry VIII loved a Man, and I +see with joy my bard always equal to the crisis he represents. +And so I thank you for your labor, and feel that your +contemporaries ought to say, All hail, Brother! live forever: +not only in the great Soul which thou largely inhalest, but also +as a named, person in this thy definite deed. + +I will tell you more of the book when I have once got it at focal +distance,--if that can ever be, and muster my objections when I +am sure of their ground. I insist, of course, that it might be +more simple, less Gothically efflorescent. You will say no rules +for the illumination of windows can apply to the Aurora borealis. +However, I find refreshment when every now and then a special +fact slips into the narrative couched in sharp and businesslike +terms. This character-drawing in the book is certainly +admirable; the lines are ploughed furrows; but there was cake +and ale before, though thou be virtuous. Clarendon surely drew +sharp outlines for me in Falkland, Hampden, and the rest, without +defiance or sky-vaulting. I wish I could talk with you face to +face for one day, and know what your uttermost frankness would +say concerning the book. I feel assured of its good reception in +this country. I learned last Saturday that in all eleven hundred +and sixty-six copies of _Sartor_ have been sold. I have told the +publisher of that book that he must not print the _History_ until +some space has been given to people to import British copies. I +have ordered Hilliard, Gray, & Co. to import twenty copies as an +experiment. At the present very high rate of exchange, which +makes a shilling worth thirty cents, they think, with freight and +duties, the book would be too costly here for sale, but we +confide in a speedy fall of Exchange; then my books shall come. +I am ashamed that you should educate our young men, and that we +should pirate your books. One day we will have a better law, or +perhaps you will make our law yours. + +I had your letter long before your book. Very good work you have +done in your lifetime, and very generously you adorn and cheer +this pilgrimage of mine by your love. I find my highest prayer +granted in calling a just and wise man my friend. Your profuse +benefaction of genius in so few years makes me feel very poor and +useless. I see that I must go on trust to you and to all the +brave for some longer time, hoping yet to prove one day my truth +and love. There are in this country so few scholars, that the +services of each studious person are needed to do what he can +for the circulation of thoughts, to the end of making some +counterweight to the money force, and to give such food as he may +to the nigh starving youth. So I religiously read lectures every +winter, and at other times whenever summoned. Last year, "the +Philosophy of History," twelve lectures; and now I meditate a +course on what I call "Ethics." I peddle out all the wit I can +gather from Time or from Nature, and am pained at heart to see +how thankfully that little is received. + +Write to me, good friend, tell me if you went to Scotland,--what +you do, and will do,--tell me that your wife is strong and well +again as when I saw her at Craigenputtock. I desire to be +affectionately remembered to her. Tell me when you will come +hither. I called together a little club a week ago, who spent a +day with me,--counting fifteen souls,--each one of whom warmly +loves you. So if the _French Revolution_ does not convert the +"dull public" of your native Nineveh, I see not but you must +shake their dust from your shoes and cross the Atlantic to a New +England. Yours in love and honor. + + --R. Waldo Emerson + +May I trouble you with a commission when you are in the City? +You mention being at the shop of Rich in Red-Lion Square. Will +you say to him that he sent me some books two or three years ago +without any account of prices annexed? I wrote him once myself, +once through S. Burdett, bookseller, and since through C.P. +Curtis, Esq., who professes to be his attorney in Boston,--three +times,--to ask for this account. No answer has ever come. I +wish he would send me the account, that I may settle it. If he +persist in his self-denying contumacy, I think you may +immortalize him as a bookseller of the gods. + +I shall send you an Oration presently, delivered before a +literary society here, which is now being printed.* Gladly I +hear of the Carlylet--so they say--in the new Westminster. + +--------- +* This was Emerson's famous Oration before the Phi Beta Kappa +Society, at Cambridge, August 31, 1837, on "The American +Scholar." In his admirable essay on Thoreau,--an essay which +might serve as introduction and comment to the letters of Carlyle +and Emerson during these years,--Lowell speaks of the impression +made by this remarkable discourse. It "was an event without any +former parallel in our literary annals, a scene to be always +treasured in the memory for its picturesqueness and its +inspiration. What crowded and breathless aisles, what windows +clustering with eager heads, what enthusiasm of approval, what +grim silence of foregone dissent! It was our Yankee version of a +lecture by Abelard, our Harvard parallel to the last public +appearances of Schelling."--_My Study Windows,_ p. 197 +--------- + + + + +XVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 2 November, 1837 + +My Dear Friend,--Mr. Charles Sumner, a lawyer of high standing +for his age, and editor or one editor of a journal called _The +Jurist,_ and withal a lover of your writings, tells me he is +going to Paris and thence to London, and sets out in a few days. +I cannot, of course, resist his request for a letter to you, nor +let pass the occasion of a greeting. Health, Joy, and Peace be +with you! I hope you sit still yet, and do not hastily meditate +new labors. Phidias need not be always tinkering. Sit still +like an Egyptian. Somebody told me the other day that your +friends here might have made a sum for the author by publishing +_Sartor_ themselves, instead of leaving it with a bookseller. +Instantly I wondered why I had never such a thought before, and +went straight to Boston, and have made a bargain with a +bookseller to print the _French Revolution._ It is to be printed +in two volumes of the size of our American _Sartor,_ one thousand +copies, the estimate making the cost of the book say (in dollars +and cents) $1.18 a copy, and the price $2.50. The bookseller +contracts with me to sell the book at a commission of twenty +percent on that selling price, allowing me however to take at +cost as many copies as I can find subscribers for. There is yet, +I believe, no other copy in the country than mine: so I gave him +the first volume, and the printing is begun. I shall take +care that your friends here shall know my contract with the +bookseller, and so shall give me their names. Then, if so good a +book can have a tolerable sale, (almost contrary to the nature of +a good book, I know,) I shall sustain with great glee the new +relation of being your banker and attorney. They have had the +wit in the London _Examiner,_ I find, to praise at last; and I +mean that our public shall have the entire benefit of that page. +The _Westminster_ they can read themselves. The printers think +they can get the book out by Christmas. So it must be long +before I can tell you what cheer. Meantime do you tell me, I +entreat you, what speed it has had at home. The best, I hope, +with the wise and good withal. + +I have nothing to tell you and no thoughts. I have promised a +course of Lectures for December, and am far from knowing what I +am to say; but the way to make sure of fighting into the new +continent is to burn your ships. The "tender ears," as George +Fox said, of young men are always an effectual call to me +ignorant to speak. I find myself so much more and freer on the +platform of the lecture-room than in the pulpit, that I shall not +much more use the last; and do now only in a little country +chapel at the request of simple men to whom I sustain no other +relation than that of preacher. But I preach in the Lecture-Room +and then it tells, for there is no prescription. You may laugh, +weep, reason, sing, sneer, or pray, according to your genius. It +is the new pulpit, and very much in vogue with my northern +countrymen. This winter, in Boston, we shall have more than +ever: two or three every night of the week. When will you come +and redeem your pledge? The day before yesterday my little boy +was a year old,--no, the day before that,--and I cannot tell you +what delight and what study I find in this little bud of God, +which I heartily desire you also should see. Good, wise, kind +friend, I shall see you one day. Let me hear, when you can +write, that Mrs. Carlyle is well again. + + --R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +XIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 8 December, 1837 + +My Dear Emerson,--How long it is since you last heard of me I do +not very accurately know; but it is too long. A very long, +ugly, inert, and unproductive chapter of my own history seems to +have passed since then. Whenever I delay writing, be sure +matters go not well with me; and do you in that case write to +me, were it again and over again,--unweariable in pity. + +I did go to Scotland, for almost three months; leaving my Wife +here with her Mother. The poor Wife had fallen so weak that she +gave me real terror in the spring-time, and made the Doctor look +very grave indeed: she continued too weak for traveling: I was +worn out as I had never in my life been. So, on the longest day +of June, I got back to my Mother's cottage; threw myself down, I +may say, into what we may call the "frightfulest _magnetic +sleep,_" and lay there avoiding the intercourse of men. Most +wearisome had their gabble become; almost unearthly. But indeed +all was unearthly in that humor. The gushing of my native +brooks, the _sough_ of the old solitary woods, the great roar of +old native Solway (billowing fresh out of your Atlantic, drawn by +the Moon): all this was a kind of unearthly music to me; I +cannot tell you how unearthly. It did not bring me to rest; yet +_towards_ rest I do think at all events, the time had come when I +behoved to quit it again. I have been here since September +evidently another little "chapter" or paragraph, _not_ altogether +inert, is getting forward. But I must not speak of these things. +How can I speak of them on a miserable scrap of blue paper? +Looking into your kind-eyes with my eyes, I could speak: not +here. Pity me, my friend, my brother; yet hope well of me: if +I can (in all senses) _rightly hold my peace,_ I think much will +yet be well with me. SILENCE is the great thing I worship at +present; almost the sole tenant of my Pantheon. Let a man know +rightly how to hold his peace. I love to repeat to myself, +"Silence is of Eternity." Ah me, I think how I could rejoice to +quit these jarring discords and jargonings of Babel, and go far, +far away! I do believe, if I had the smallest competence of +money to get "food and warmth" with, I would shake the mud of +London from my feet, and go and bury myself in some green place, +and never print any syllable more. Perhaps it is better as +it is. + +But quitting this, we will actually speak (under favor of +"Silence") one very small thing; a pleasant piece of news. +There is a man here called John Sterling (_Reverend_ John of the +Church of England too), whom I love better than anybody I have +met with, since a certain sky-messenger alighted to me at +Craigenputtock, and vanished in the Blue again. This Sterling +has written; but what is far better, he has lived, he is alive. +Across several unsuitable wrappages, of Church-of-Englandism and +others, my heart loves the man. He is one, and the best, of a +small class extant here, who, nigh drowning in a black wreck of +Infidelity (lighted up by some glare of Radicalism only, now +growing _dim_ too) and about to perish, saved themselves into a +Coleridgian Shovel-hattedness, or determination to _preach,_ to +preach peace, were it only the spent _echo_ of a peace once +preached. He is still only about thirty; young; and I think +will shed the shovel-hat yet perhaps. Do you ever read +_Blackwood?_ This John Sterling is the "New Contributor" whom +Wilson makes such a rout about, in the November and prior month +"Crystals from a Cavern," &c., which it is well worth your while +to see. Well, and what then, cry you?--Why then, this John +Sterling has fallen overhead in love with a certain Waldo +Emerson; that is all. He saw the little Book _Nature_ lying +here; and, across a whole _silva silvarum_ of prejudices, +discerned what was in it; took it to his heart,--and indeed into +his pocket; and has carried it off to Madeira with him; whither +unhappily (though now with good hope and expectation) the Doctors +have ordered him. This is the small piece of pleasant news, that +two sky-messengers (such they were both of them to me) have met +and recognized each other; and by God's blessing there shall one +day be a trio of us: call you that nothing? + +And so now by a direct transition I am got to the _Oration._ My +friend! you know not what you have done for me there. It was +long decades of years that I had heard nothing but the infinite +jangling and jabbering, and inarticulate twittering and +screeching, and my soul had sunk down sorrowful, and said there +is no articulate speaking then any more, and thou art solitary +among stranger-creatures? and lo, out of the West comes a clear +utterance, clearly recognizable as a _man's_ voice, and I _have_ +a kinsman and brother: God be thanked for it! I could have +_wept_ to read that speech; the clear high melody of it went +tingling through my heart;--I said to my wife, "There, woman!" +She read; and returned, and charges me to return for answer, +"that there had been nothing met with like it since Schiller went +silent." My brave Emerson! And all this has been lying silent, +quite tranquil in him, these seven years, and the "vociferous +platitude" dinning his ears on all sides, and he quietly +answering no word; and a whole world of Thought has silently +built itself in these calm depths, and, the day being come, says +quite softly, as if it were a common thing, "Yes, I _am_ here +too." Miss Martineau tells me, "Some say it is inspired, some +say it is mad." Exactly so; no say could be suitabler. But for +you, my dear friend, I say and pray heartily: May God grant you +strength; for you have a _fearful_ work to do! Fearful I call +it; and yet it is great, and the greatest. O for God's sake +_keep yourself still quiet!_ Do not hasten to write; you cannot +be too slow about it. Give no ear to any man's praise or +censure; know that that is _not_ it: on the one side is as +Heaven if you have strength to keep silent, and climb unseen; +yet on the other side, yawning always at one's right-hand and +one's left, is the frightfulest Abyss and Pandemonium! See +Fenimore Cooper;--poor Cooper, he is _down in it;_ and had a +climbing faculty too. Be steady, be quiet, be in no haste; and +God speed you well! My space is done. + +And so adieu, for this time. You must write soon again. My copy +of the _Oration_ has never come: how is this? I could dispose +of a dozen well.--They say I am to lecture again in Spring, _Ay +de mi!_ The "Book" is babbled about sufficiently in several +dialects: Fraser wants to print my scattered Reviews and Articles; +a pregnant sign. Teufelsdrockh to precede. The man "screamed" once +at the name of it in a very musical manner. He shall not print a +line; unless he give me money for it, more or less. I have had +enough of printing for one while,--thrown into "magnetic sleep" +by it! Farewell my brother. + + --T. Carlyle + +O. Rich, it seems, is in Spain. His representative assured me, +some weeks since, that the Account was now sent. There is an +Article on Sir W. Scott: shocking; invitissima Minerva!* + +---------- +*Carlyle's article on Scott published in the _London and +Westminster Review,_ No. 12. Reprinted in his _Critical and +Miscellaneous Essays._ +---------- + +Miss Martineau charges me to send kind remembrances to you and +your Lady: her words were kinder than I have room for here.--Can +you not, in defect or delay of Letter, send me a Massachusetts +Newspaper? I think it costs little or almost nothing now; and I +shall know your hand. + + + + +XX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 9 February, 1838 + +My Dear Friend,--It is ten days now--ten cold days--that your +last letter has kept my heart warm, and I have not been able to +write before. I have just finished--Wednesday evening--a course +of lectures which I ambitiously baptized "Human Culture," and +read once a week to the curious in Boston. I could write nothing +else the while, for weariness of the week's stated scribbling. +Now I am free as a wood-bird, and can take up the pen without +fretting or fear. Your letter should, and nearly did, make me +jump for joy,--fine things about our poor speech at Cambridge,-- +fine things from CARLYLE. Scarcely could we maintain a decorous +gravity on the occasion. And then news of a friend, who is also +Carlyle's friend. What has life better to offer than such +tidings? You may suppose I went directly and got me _Blackwood,_ +and read the prose and the verse of John Sterling, and saw that +my man had a head and a heart, and spent an hour or two very +happily in spelling his biography out of his own hand;--a species +of palmistry in which I have a perfect reliance. I found many +incidents grave and gay and beautiful, and have determined to +love him very much. In this romancing of the gentle affections +we are children evermore. We forget the age of life, the +barriers so thin yet so adamantean of space and circumstance; +and I have had the rarest poems self-singing in my head of brave +men that work and conspire in a perfect intelligence across seas +and conditions--and meet at last. I heartily pray that the Sea +and its vineyards may cheer with warm medicinal breath a Voyager +so kind and noble. + +For the _Oration,_ I am so elated with your goodwill that I begin +to fear your heart has betrayed your head this time, and so the +praise is not good on Parnassus but only in friendship. I sent +it diffidently (I did send it through bookselling Munroe) to you, +and was not a little surprised by your generous commendations. +Yet here it interested young men a good deal for an academical +performance, and an edition of five hundred was disposed of in a +month. A new edition is now printing, and I will send you some +copies presently to give to anybody who you think will read. + +I have a little budget of news myself. I hope you had my letter +--sent by young Sumner--saying that we meant to print the _French +Revolution_ here for the Author's benefit. It was published on +the 25th of December. It is published at my risk, the +booksellers agreeing to let me have at cost all the copies I can +get subscriptions for. All the rest they are to sell and to have +twenty percent on the retail price for their commission. The +selling price of the book is $2.50; the cost of a copy, $1.26; +the bookseller's commission, 50 cts.; so that T.C. only gains 74 +cts. on each copy they sell. But we have two hundred +subscribers, and on each copy they buy you have $1.26, except in +cases where the distant residence of subscribers makes a cost of +freight. You ought to have three or four quarters of a dollar +more on each copy, but we put the lowest price on the book in +terror of the Philistines, and to secure its accessibleness to +the economical Public. We printed one thousand copies: of +these, five hundred are already sold, in six weeks; and Brown +the bookseller talks, as I think, much too modestly, of getting +rid of the whole edition in one year. I say six months. The +printing, &c. is to be paid and a settlement made in six months +from the day of publication; and I hope the settlement will be +the final one. And I confide in sending you seven hundred +dollars at least, as a certificate that you have so many readers +in the West. Yet, I own, I shake a little at the thought of the +bookseller's account. Whenever I have seen that species of +document, it was strange how the hopefulest ideal dwindled away +to a dwarfish actual. But you may be assured I shall on this +occasion summon to the bargain all the Yankee in my constitution, +and multiply and divide like a lion. + +The book has the best success with the best. Young men say it is +the only history they have ever read. The middle-aged and the +old shake their heads, and cannot make anything of it. In short, +it has the success of a book which, as people have not fashioned, +has to fashion the people. It will take some time to win all, +but it wins and will win. I sent a notice of it to the +_Christian Examiner,_ but the editor sent it all back to me +except the first and last paragraphs; those he printed. And the +editor of the _North American_ declined giving a place to a paper +from another friend of yours. But we shall see. I am glad you +are to print your _Miscellanies;_ but--forgive our Transatlantic +effrontery--we are beforehand of you, and we are already +selecting a couple of volumes from the same, and shall print them +on the same plan as the _History,_ and hope so to turn a penny +for our friend again. I surely should not do this thing without +consulting you as to the selection but that I had no choice. If +I waited, the bookseller would have done it himself, and carried +off the profit. I sent you (to Kennet) a copy of the _French +Revolution._ I regret exceedingly the printer's blunder about +the numbering the Books in the volumes, but he had warranted me +in a literal, punctual reprint of the copy without its leaving +his office, and I trusted him. I am told there are many errors. +I am going to see for myself. I have filled my paper, and not +yet said a word of how many things. You tell me how ill was Mrs. +C., and you do not tell me that she is well again. But I see +plainly that I must take speedily another sheet. I love +you always. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XXI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, 12 March, 1838 + +My Dear Friend,--Here in a bookseller's shop I have secured a +stool and corner to say a swift benison. Mr. Bancroft told me +that the presence of English Lord Gosford in town would give me a +safe conveyance of pamphlets to you, so I send some _Orations_ of +which you said so kind and cheering words. Give them to any one +who will read them. I have written names in three. You have, I +hope, got the letter sent nearly a month ago, giving account of +our reprint of the _French Revolution,_ and have received a copy +of the same. I learn from the bookseller today that six hundred +and fifty copies are sold, and the book continues to sell. So I +hope that our settlement at the end of six months will be final, +or nearly so. + +I had nearly closed my agreement the other day with a publisher +for the emission of _Carlyle's Miscellanies,_ when just in the +last hour comes word from E.G. Loring that he has an authentic +catalogue from the Bard himself. Now I have that, and could wish +Loring had communicated his plan to me at first, or that I had +bad wit enough to have undertaken this matter long ago and +conferred with you. I designed nothing for you or your friends; +but merely a lucrative book for our daily market that would have +yielded a pecuniary compensation to you, such as we are all bound +to make, and have bought our Socrates a cloak. Loring +contemplated something quite different,--a "Complete Works," +etc.,--and now clamors for the same thing, and I do not know but +I shall have to gratify him and others at the risk of injury to +this my vulgar hope of dollars,--that innate idea of the American +mind. This I shall settle in a few days. No copyright can be +secured here for an English book unless it contain original +matter: But my moments are going, and I can only promise to +write you quickly, at home and at leisure, for I have just been +reading the _History_ again with many, many thoughts, and I +revere, wonder at, and love you. + + --R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +XXII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 16 March, 1838 + +My Dear Emerson,--Your letter through Sumner was sent by him from +Paris about a month ago; the man himself has not yet made his +appearance, or been heard of in these parts: he shall be very +welcome to me, arrive when he will. The February letter came +yesterday, by direct conveyance from Dartmouth. I answer it +today rather than tomorrow; I may not for long have a day freer +than this. _Fronte capillata, post est occasio calva:_ true +either in Latin or English! + +You send me good news, as usual. You have been very brisk and +helpful in this business of the _Revolution_ Book, and I give you +many thanks and commendations. It will be a very brave day when +cash actually reaches me, no matter what the _number_ of the +coins, whether seven or seven hundred, out of Yankee-land; and +strange enough, what is not unlikely, if it be the _first_ cash I +realize for that piece of work,--Angle-land continuing still +_in_solvent to me! Well, it is a wide Motherland we have here, +or are getting to have, from Bass's Straits all round to Columbia +River, already almost circling the Globe: it must be hard with a +man if somewhere or other he find not some one or other to take +his part, and stand by him a little! Blessings on you, my +brother: nay, your work is already twice blessed.--I believe +after all, with the aid of my Scotch thrift, I shall not be +absolutely thrown into the streets here, or reduced to borrow, +and become the slave of somebody, for a morsel of bread. Thank +God, no! Nay, of late I begin entirely to despise that whole +matter, so as I never hitherto despised it: "Thou beggarliest +Spectre of Beggary that hast chased me ever since I was man, come +on then, in the Devil's name, let us see what is in thee! Will +the Soul of a man, with Eternity within a few years of it, quail +before _thee?_" Better, however, is my good pious Mother's +version of it: "They cannot take God's Providence from thee; +thou hast never wanted yet."* + +---------- +* In his Diary, May 9, 1838, Emerson wrote: "A letter this +morning from T. Carlyle. How should he be so poor? It is the +most creditable poverty I know of." +---------- + +But to go on with business; and the republication of books in +that Transoceanic England, New and improved Edition of England. +In January last, if I recollect right, Miss Martineau, in the +name of a certain Mr. Loring, applied to me for a correct List of +all my fugitive Papers; the said Mr. Loring meaning to publish +them for my behoof. This List she, though not without +solicitation, for I had small hope in it, did at last obtain, and +send, coupled with a request from me that you should be consulted +in the matter. Now it appears you had of yourself previously +determined on something of the same sort, and probably are far on +with the printing of your Two select volumes. I confess myself +greatly better pleased with it on that footing than on another. +Who Mr. Loring may be I know not, with any certainty, at first +hand; but who Waldo Emerson is I do know; and more than one god +from the machine is not necessary. I pray you, thank Mr. Loring +for his goodness towards me (his intents are evidently charitable +and not wicked); but consider yourself as in nowise bound at all +by that blotted Paper he has, but do the best you can for me, +consulting with him or not taking any counsel just as you see to +be fittest on the spot. And so Heaven prosper you, both in your +"aroused Yankee" state, and in all others;--and let us for the +present consider that we have enough about Books and Guineas. I +must add, however, that Fraser and I have yet made no bargain. + We found, on computing, that there would be five good +volumes, including _Teufelsdrockh._ For an edition of Seven +hundred and Fifty I demanded L50 a volume, and Fraser refused: +the poor man then fell dangerously ill, and there could not be a +word farther said on the subject; till very lately, when it +again became possible, but has not yet been put in practice. All +the world cries out, Why _do you_ publish with Fraser? "Because +my soul is sick of Booksellers, and of trade, and deception, and +'need and greed' altogether; and this poor Fraser, not worse +than the rest of them, has in some sort grown less hideous to me +by custom." I fancy, however, either Fraser will publish these +things before long; or some Samaritan here will take me to some +bolder brother of the trade that will. Great Samuel Johnson +assisted at the beginning of Bibliopoly; small Thomas Carlyle +assists at the ending of it: both are sorrowful seasons for a +man. For the rest, people here continue to receive that +_Revolution_ very much as you say they do _there:_ I am right +well quit of it; and the elderly gentlemen on both sides of the +water may take comfort, they will not soon have to suffer the +like again. But really England is wonderfully changed within +these ten years; the old gentlemen all shrunk into nooks, some +of them even voting with the young.--The American ill-printed Two +and-a-half-dollars Copy shall, for Emerson's sake, be welcomest +to me of all. Kennet will send it when it comes. + +The _Oration_ did arrive, with my name on it, one snowy night in +January. It is off to Madeira; probably there now. I can +dispose of a score of copies to good advantage. Friend Sterling +has done the best of all his things in the current _Blackwood,_-- +"Crystals from a Cavern,"--which see. He writes kind things of +you from Madeira, in expectation of the Speech. I will gratify +him with your message; he is to be here in May; better, we +hope, and in the way towards safety. Miss Martineau has given +you a luminous section in her new Book about America; you are +one of the American "Originals,"--the good Harriet! + +And now I have but one thing to add and to repeat: Be quiet, be +quiet! The fire that is in one's own stomach is enough, without +foreign bellows to blow it ever and anon. My whole heart +shudders at the thrice-wretched self-combustion into which I see +all manner of poor paper-lanterns go up, the wind of "popularity" +puffing at them, and nothing left erelong but ashes and sooty +wreck. It is sad, most sad. I shun all such persons and +circles, as much as possible; and pray the gods to make me a +brick layer's hodbearer rather. O the "cabriolets, neatflies," +and blue twaddlers of both sexes therein, that drive many a poor +Mrs. Rigmarole to the Devil!*--As for me, I continue doing as +nearly nothing as I can manage. I decline all invitations of +society that are declinable: a London rout is one of the maddest +things under the moon; a London dinner makes me sicker for a +week, and I say often, It is better to be even dull than to be +witty, better to be silent than to speak. + +-------- +* This sentence is a variation on one at the beginning of the +article on Scott. +-------- + +Curious: your Course of Lectures "on Human Culture" seems to be +on the very subject I am to discourse upon here in May coming; +but I am to call it "on the History of Literature," and _speak_ +it, not write it. While you read this, I shall be in the +agonies! Ah me! often when I think of the matter, how my one +sole wish is to be left to hold my tongue, and by what bayonets +of Necessity clapt to my back I am driven into that Lecture-room, +and in what mood, and ordered to speak or die, I feel as if my +only utterance should be a flood of tears and blubbering! But +that, clearly, will not do. Then again I think it is perhaps +better so; who knows? At all events, we will try what is in +this Lecturing in London. If something, well; if nothing, why +also well. But I do want to get out of these coils for a tune. +My Brother is to be home again in May; if he go back to Italy, +if our Lecturing proved productive, why might we not all set off +thitherward for the winter coming? There is a dream to that +effect. It would suit my wife, too: she was alarmingly weak +this time twelvemonth; and I can only yet tell you that she is +stronger, not strong: she has not ventured out except at midday, +and rarely then, since Autumn last; she sits here patiently +waiting Summer, and charges me to send you her love.--America +also always lies in the background: I do believe, if I live +long, I shall get to Concord one day. Your wife must love me. +If the little Boy be a well-behaved fellow, he shall ride on my +back yet: if not, tell him I will have nothing to do with him, +the riotous little imp that he is. And so God bless you always, +my dear friend! Your affectionate, + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +XXIII. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, 10 May, 1838 + +My Dear Friend,--Yesterday I had your letter of March. It +quickens my purpose (always all but ripe) to write to you. If it +had come earlier I should have been confirmed in my original +purpose of publishing _Select Miscellanies of T.C._ As it is, we +are far on in the printing of the first two volumes (to make 900 +pages) of the papers as they stand in your list. And now I find +we shall only get as far as the seventeenth or eighteenth +article. I regret it, because this book will not embrace those +papers I chiefly desire to provide people with, and it may be +some time, in these years of bankruptcy and famine, before we +shall think it prudent to publish two volumes more. But Loring +is a good man, and thinks that many desire to see the sources of +Nile. I, for my part, fancy that to meet the taste of the +readers we should publish _from the last_ backwards, beginning +with the paper on Scott, which has had the best reception ever +known. Carlyleism is becoming so fashionable that the most +austere Seniors are glad to qualify their reprobation by +applauding this review. I have agreed with the bookseller +publishing the _Miscellanies_ that he is to guarantee to you one +dollar on every copy he sells; and you are to have the total +profit on every copy subscribed for. The retail price [is] to be +$2.50. The cost of the work is not yet precisely ascertained. +The work will probably appear in six or seven weeks. We print +one thousand copies. So whenever it is sold you shall have one +thousand dollars. + +---------- +* Printed in the _Athenaeum,_ July 8, 1882. +---------- + +The _French Revolution_ continues to find friends and purchasers. +It has gone to New Orleans, to Nashville, to Vicksburg. I have +not been in Boston lately, but have determined that nearly or +quite eight hundred copies should be gone. On the 1st of July I +shall make up accounts with the booksellers, and I hope to make +you the most favorable returns. I shall use the advice of +Barnard, Adams, & Co. in regard to remittances. + +When you publish your next book I think you must send it out to +me in sheets, and let us print it here contemporaneously with the +English edition. The _eclat_ of so new a book would help the +sale very much. + +But a better device would be, that you should embark in the +"Victoria" steamer, and come in a fortnight to New York, and in +twenty-four hours more to Concord. Your study arm-chair, +fireplace, and bed, long vacant, auguring expect you. Then you +shall revise your proofs and dictate wit and learning to the New +World. Think of it in good earnest. In aid of your friendliest +purpose, I will set down some of the facts. I occupy, or +_improve,_ as we Yankees say, two acres only of God's earth; on +which is my house, my kitchen-garden, my orchard of thirty young +trees, my empty barn. My house is now a very good one for +comfort, and abounding in room. Besides my house, I have, I +believe, $22,000, whose income in ordinary years is six percent. +I have no other tithe or glebe except the income of my winter +lectures, which was last winter $800. Well, with this income, +here at home, I am a rich man. I stay at home and go +abroad at my own instance. I have food, warmth, leisure, books, +friends. Go away from home, I am rich no longer. I never have a +dollar to spend on a fancy. As no wise man, I suppose, ever was +rich in the sense of _freedom to spend,_ because of the +inundation of claims, so neither am I, who am not wise. But at +home, I am rich,--rich enough for ten brothers. My wife Lidian +is an incarnation of Christianity,--I call her Asia,--and keeps +my philosophy from Antinomianism; my mother, whitest, mildest, +most conservative of ladies, whose only exception to her +universal preference for old things is her son; my boy, a piece +of love and sunshine, well worth my watching from morning to +night;--these, and three domestic women, who cook and sew and run +for us, make all my household. Here I sit and read and write, +with very little system, and, as far as regards composition, with +the most fragmentary result: paragraphs incompressible, each +sentence an infinitely repellent particle. + +In summer, with the aid of a neighbor, I manage my garden; and a +week ago I set out on the west side of my house forty young pine +trees to protect me or my son from the wind of January. The +ornament of the place is the occasional presence of some ten or +twelve persons, good and wise, who visit us in the course of the +year.--But my story is too long already. God grant that you will +come and bring that blessed wife, whose protracted illness we +heartily grieve to learn, and whom a voyage and my wife's and my +mother's nursing would in less than a twelvemonth restore to +blooming health. My wife sends to her this message: "Come, and +I will be to you a sister." What have you to do with Italy? +Your genius tendeth to the New, to the West. Come and live with +me a year, and if you do not like New England well enough to +stay, one of these years (when the _History_ has passed its ten +editions, and been translated into as many languages) I will come +and dwell with you. + +I gladly hear what you say of Sterling. I am foolish enough to +be delighted with being an object of kindness to a man I have +never seen, and who has not seen me. I have not yet got the +_Blackwood_ for March, which I long to see, but the other three +papers I have read with great satisfaction. They lie here on my +table. But he must get well. + +As to Miss Martineau, I know not well what to say. Meaning to do +me a signal kindness (and a kindness quite out of all measure of +justice) she does me a great annoyance,--to take away from me my +privacy and thrust me before my time (if ever there be a time) +into the arena of the gladiators to be stared at. I was ashamed +to read, and am ashamed to remember. Yet, as you see her, I +would not be wanting in gratitude to a gifted and generous lady +who so liberally transfigures our demerits. So you shall tell +her, if you please, that I read all her book with pleasure but +that part, and if ever I shall travel West or South, I think she +has furnished me with the eyes. Farewell, dear wise man. I +think your poverty honorable above the common brightness of that +thorn-crown of the great. It earns you the love of men and the +praise of a thousand years. Yet I hope the angelical Beldame, +all-helping, all-hated, has given you her last lessons, and, +finding you so striding a proficient, will dismiss you to a +hundred editions and the adoration of the booksellers. + + --R.W. Emerson + +I have never heard from Rich, who, you wrote, had sent his +account to me. Let him direct to me at Concord. + +A young engineer in Cambridge, by name McKean,* volunteers his +services in correcting the proofs of the _Miscellanies,_--and he +has your errata,--for the love of the reading. Shall we have +anthracite coal or wood in your chamber? My old mother is glad +you are coming. + +----------- +* The late Mr. Henry S. McKean, a son of Professor McKean, and a +graduate of Harvard College in 1828. +----------- + + + + +XXIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 15 June, 1838 + +My Dear Emerson,--Our correspondence has fallen into a raveled +state; which would doubtless clear itself could I afford to wait +for your next Letter, probably tumbling over the Atlantic brine +about this very moment: but I cannot afford to wait; I must +write straightway. Your answer to this will bring matters round +again. I have had two irregular Notes of your writing, or +perhaps three; two dated March, one by Mr. Bancroft's Parcel,-- +bringing Twelve _Orations_ withal; then some ten days later, +just in this very time, another Note by Mr. Sumner, whom I have +not yet succeeded in seeing, though I have attempted it, and hope +soon to do it. The Letter he forwarded me from Paris was +acknowledged already, I think. And now if the Atlantic will but +float me in safe that other promised Letter! + +I got your American _French Revolution_ a good while ago. It +seems to me a very pretty Book indeed, wonderfully so for the +money; neither does it seem what we can call _incorrectly_ +printed so far as I have seen; compared with the last _Sartor_ +it is correctness itself. Many thanks to you, my Friend, and +much good may it do us all! Should there be any more reprinting, +I will request you to rectify at least the three following +errors, copied out of the English text indeed; nay, mark them in +your own New-English copy, whether there be reprinting or not: +Vol. I. p. 81, last paragraph, _for_ September _read_ August; +Vol. II. p. 344, first line, _for_ book of prayer _read_ look of +prayer; p. 357, _for_ blank _read_ black (2d paragraph, "all +black "). And so _basta._ And let us be well content about this +F.R. on both sides of the water, yours as well as mine. + +"Too many cooks"! the Proverb says: it is pity if this new +apparition of a Mr. Loring should spoil the broth. But I +calculate you will adjust it well and smoothly between you, some +way or other. How you shall adjust it, or have adjusted it, is +what I am practically anxious now to learn. For you are to +understand that our English Edition has come to depend partly on +yours. After long higgling with the foolish Fraser, I have +quitted him, quite quietly, and given "Saunders and Ottley, +Conduit Street," the privilege of printing a small edition of +_Teufelsdrockh_ (Five Hundred copies), with a prospect of the +"Miscellaneous Writings" soon following. Saunders and Ottley are +at least more reputable persons, they are useful to me also in +the business of Lecturing. _Teufelsdrockh_ is at Press, to be +out very soon; I will send you a correct copy, the only +one in America I fancy. The enterprise here too is on the +"half-profits" plan, which I compute generally to mean equal +partition of the oyster-shells and a net result of zero. But the +thing will be economically useful to me otherwise; as a +publication of the "Miscellaneous" also would be; which latter, +however, I confess myself extremely unwilling to undertake the +trouble of for _nothing._ To me they are grown or fast growing +_obsolete,_ these Miscellanies, for most part; if money lie not +in them, what does lie for me? Now it strikes me you will infallibly +edit these things, at least as well as I, and are doing it at any +rate; your printing too would seem to be cheaper than ours: I +said to Saunders and Ottley, Why not have two hundred or three +hundred of this American Edition struck off with "London: +Saunders and Ottley, Conduit Street," on the title-page, and sent +over hither in sheets at what price they have cost my friends +yonder? Saunders of course threw cold water on this project, but +was obliged to admit that there would be some profit in it, and +that for me it would be far easier. The grand profit for me is +that people would understand better what I mean, and come better +about me if I lectured again, which seems the only way of getting +any wages at all for me here at present. Pray meditate my +project, if it be not already too late, hear what your Booksellers +say about it, and understand that I will not in any case set to +printing till I hear from you in answer to this. + +How my sheet is filling with dull talk about mere economics! I +must still add that the _Lecturing_ I talked of, last time, is +verily over now; and well over. The superfine people listened +to the rough utterance with patience, with favor, increasing to +the last. I sent you a Newspaper once, to indicate that it was +in progress. I know not yet what the money result is; but I +suppose it will enable us to exist here thriftily another year; +not without hope of at worst doing the like again when the time +comes. It is a great novelty in my lot; felt as a very +considerable blessing; and really it has arrived, if it have +arrived, in _due_ time, for I had begun to get quite impatient of +the other method. Poverty and Youth may do; Poverty and Age go +badly together.--For the rest, I feel fretted to fiddle-strings; +my head and heart all heated, sick,--ah me! The question as ever +is: Rest. But then where? My Brother invites us to come to +Rome for the winter; my poor sick Wife might perhaps profit by +it; as for me, Natty Leatherstocking's lodge in the Western +Wood, I think, were welcomer still. I have a great mind, too, to +run off and see my Mother, by the new railways. What we shall +do, whether not stay quietly here, must remain uncertain for a +week or two. Write you always hither, till you hear otherwise. + +The _Orations_ were right welcome; my _Madeira_ one, returned +thence with Sterling, was circulating over the West of England. +Sterling and Harriet stretched out the right hand with wreathed +smiles. I have read, a second or third time. Robert Southey has +got a copy, for his own behoof and that of _Lake_land: if he +keep his word as to _me,_ he may do as much for you, or more. +Copies are at Cambridge; among the Oxonians too; I have with +stingy discretion distributed all my copies but two. Old Rogers, +a grim old Dilettante, full of sardonic sense, was heard saying, +"It is German Poetry given out in American Prose." Friend +Emerson ought to be content;--and has now above all things, as I +said, to _be in no haste._ Slow fire does make sweet malt: how +true, how true! Also his next work ought to be a _concrete_ +thing; not _theory_ any longer, but _deed._ Let him "live it," +as he says; that is the way to come to "painting of it." +Geometry and the art of Design being once well over, take the +brush, and _andar con Dios!_ + +Mrs. Child has sent me a Book, _Philothea,_ and a most +magnanimous epistle. I have answered as I could. The Book is +beautiful, but of a _hectic_ beauty; to me not pleasant, even +fatal looking. Such things grow not in the ground, on Mother +Earth's honest bosom, but in hothouses,--Sentimental-Calvinist +fire traceable underneath! Bancroft also is of the hothouse +partly: I have a Note to send him by Sumner; do you thank him +meanwhile, and say nothing about _hothouses!_ But, on the whole, +men ought in New England, too to "swallow their formulas";* +there is no freedom till then: yet hitherto I find only one man +there who seems fairly on the way towards that, or arrived at +that. Good speed to _him._ I had to send my Wife's love: she +is not dangerously ill; but always feeble, and has to _struggle_ +to keep erect; the summer always improves her, and this summer +too. Adieu, dear Friend; may Good always be with you and yours. + + --T. Carlyle + +----------- +* This was the saying of the old Marquis de Mirabeau concerning +his son, _Il a hume toutes les formules,_ and is used as a text +by Carlyle in his article on Mirabeau. "Of inexpressible +advantage is it that a man have 'an eye instead of a pair of +spectacles merely'; that, seeing through the formulas of things +and even 'making away' with many a formula, he see into the thing +itself, and so know it and be master of it!" +---------- + + + + +XXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, 30 July, 1838 + +My Dear Sir,--I am in town today to get what money the booksellers +will relinquish from their faithful gripe, and have succeeded now +in obtaining a first instalment, however small. I enclose to you +a bill of exchange for fifty pounds sterling, which costs here +exactly $242.22, the rate of exchange being nine percent. I +shall not today trouble you with any account, for my letter +must be quickly ready to go by the steam-packet. An exact +account has been rendered to me, which, though its present +balance in our favor is less than I expected, yet, as far as I +understand it, agrees well with all that has been promised: at +least the balance in our favor when the edition is sold, which +the booksellers assure me will assuredly be done within a year +from the publication, must be seven hundred and sixty dollars, +and what more Heaven and the subscribers may grant. I shall +follow this letter and bill by a duplicate of the bill in the +next packet. + +The _Miscellanies_ is published in two volumes, a copy of which +goes to you immediately. Munroe tells me that two hundred and +fifty copies of it are already sold. Writing in a bookshop, my +dear friend, I have no power to say aught than that I am heartily +and always, + +Yours, + R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +XXVI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 6 August, 1838 + +My Dear Friend,--The swift ships are slow when they carry our +letters. Your letter dated the 15th of June arrived here last +Friday, the 3d of August. That day I was in Boston, and I have +only now got the information necessary to answer it. You have +probably already learned from my letter sent by the "Royal +William" (enclosing a bill of exchange for L50), that our first +two volumes of the _Miscellanies_ are published. I have sent you +a copy. The edition consists of one thousand copies. Of these +five hundred are bound, five hundred remain in sheets. The +title-pages, of course, are all printed alike; but the +publishers assure me that new title-pages can be struck off at a +trifling expense, with the imprint of Saunders and Ottley. The +cost of a copy in sheets or "folded" (if that means somewhat +more?) is eighty-nine cents; and bound is $1.15. The retail +price is $2.50 a copy; and the author's profit, $1; and the +bookseller's, 35 cents per copy; according to my understanding +of the written contract. + +Here I believe you have all the material facts. I think there is +no doubt that the book will sell very well here. But if, for the +reasons you suggest, you wish any part of it, you can have it as +soon as ships can bring your will. + +When you see your copy, you will perceive that we have printed +half the matter. I should presently begin to print the +remainder, inclusive of the Article on Lockhart's Scott, in two +more volumes; but now I think I shall wait until I hear from +you. Of those books we will print a larger edition, say twelve +hundred and fifty or fifteen hundred, if you want a part of it in +London. For I feel confident now that our public here is one +thousand strong. Write me therefore _by the steam packet_ +your wishes. + +I am sure you will like our edition. It has been most carefully +corrected by two young gentlemen who successively volunteered +their services, (the second when the first was called away,) and +who, residing in Cambridge, where the book was printed, could +easilier oversee it. They are Henry S. McBean, an engineer, and +Charles Stearns Wheeler, a Divinity student,--working both for +love of you. To one other gentleman I have brought you in debt, +--Rev. Convers Francis* (brother of Mrs. Child), who supplied from +his library all the numbers of the _Foreign Review_ from which we +printed the work. We could not have done without his books, and +he is a noble-hearted man, who rejoices in you. I have sent to +all three copies of the work as from you, and I shall be glad if +you will remember to sanction this expressly in your next letter. + +---------- +* This worthy man and lover of good books was, from 1842 till his +death in 1863, Professor in the Divinity School of Harvard +University. +---------- + +Thanks for the letter: thanks for your friendliest seeking of +friends for the poor _Oration._ Poor little pamphlet, to have +gone so far and so high! I am ashamed. I shall however send you +a couple more of the thin gentry presently, maugre all your hopes +and cautions. I have written and read a kind of sermon to the +Senior Class of our Cambridge Theological School a fortnight ago; +and an address to the Literary Societies of Dartmouth College;* +for though I hate American pleniloquence, I cannot easily say No +to young men who bid me speak also. And both these are now in +press. The first I hear is very offensive. I will now try to +hold my tongue until next winter. But I am asked continually +when you will come to Boston. Your lectures are boldly and +joyfully expected by brave young men. So do not forget us: and +if ever the scale-beam trembles, I beseech you, let the love of +me decide for America. I will not dare to tease you on a matter +of so many relations, and so important, and especially as I have +written out, I believe, my requests in a letter sent two or three +months ago,--but I must see you somewhere, somehow, may it please +God! I grieve to hear no better news of your wife. I hoped she +was sound and strong ere this, and can only hope still. My wife +and I send her our hearty love. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + +----------- +* The Address at the Cambridge Divinity School was delivered on +the 15th of July, and that at Dartmouth College on the 24th of +the same month. The title of the latter was "Literary Ethics." +Both are reprinted in Emerson's _Miscellanies._ These remarkable +discourses excited deep interest and wide attention. They +established Emerson's position as the leader of what was known as +the Transcendental movement. They were the expressions of his +inmost convictions and his matured thought. The Address at the +Divinity School gave rise to a storm of controversy which did not +disturb the serenity of its author. "It was," said Theodore +Parker, "the noblest, the most inspiring strain I ever listened +to." To others it seemed "neither good divinity nor good sense." +The Address at Dartmouth College set forth the high ideals of +intellectual life with an eloquence made irresistible by the +character of the speaker. From this time Emerson's influence +upon thought in America was acknowledged. +---------- + + + + +XXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, (Annandale, Scotland) +25 September, 1838 + +My Dear Emerson,--There cannot any right answer be written you +here and now; yet I must write such answer as I can. You said, +"by steamship"; and it strikes me with a kind of remorse, on +this my first day of leisure and composure, that I have delayed +so long. For you must know, this is my Mother's house,--a place +to me unutterable as Hades and the Land of Spectres were; +likewise that my Brother is just home from Italy, and on the wing +thitherward or somewhither swiftly again; in a word, that all is +confusion and flutter with me here,--fit only for _silence!_ My +Wife sent me off hitherward, very sickly and unhappy, out of the +London dust, several weeks ago; I lingered in Fifeshire, I was +in Edinburgh, in Roxburghshire; have some calls to Cumberland, +which I believe I must refuse; and prepare to creep homeward +again, refreshed in health, but with a head and heart all +seething and tumbling (as the wont is, in such cases), and averse +to pens beyond all earthly implements. But my Brother is off +for Dumfries this morning; you before all others deserve an +hour of my solitude. I will abide by business; one must write +about that. + +Your Bill and duplicate of a Bill for L50, with the two Letters +that accompanied them, you are to know then, did duly arrive at +Chelsea; and the larger Letter (of the 6th of August) was +forwarded to me hither some two weeks ago. I had also, long +before that, one of the friendliest of Letters from you, with a +clear and most inviting description of the Concord Household, its +inmates and appurtenances; and the announcement, evidently +authentic, that an apartment and heart's welcome was ready there +for my Wife and me; that we were to come quickly, and stay for a +twelvemonth. Surely no man has such friends as I. We ought to +say, May the Heavens give us thankful hearts! For, in truth, +there are blessings which do, like sun-gleams in wild weather, +make this rough life beautiful with rainbows here and there. +Indicating, I suppose, that there is a Sun, and general Heart of +Goodness, behind all that;--for which, as I say again, let us be +thankful evermore. + +My Wife says she received your American Bill of so many pounds +sterling for the Revolution Book, with a "pathetic feeling" which +brought "tears" to her eyes. From beyond the waters there is a +hand held out; beyond the waters too live brothers. I would +only the Book were an Epic, a _Dante,_ or undying thing, that New +England might boast in after times of this feat of hers; and put +stupid, poundless, and penniless Old England to the blush about +it! But after all, that is no matter; the feebler the well- +meant Book is, the more "pathetic" is the whole transaction: and +so we will go on, fuller than ever of "desperate hope" (if you +know what that is), with a feeling one would not give and could +not get for several money-bags; and say or think, Long live true +friends and Emersons, and (in Scotch phrase) "May ne'er waur be +amang us!"--I will buy something permanent, I think, out of this +L50, and call it either _Ebenezer_ or _Yankee-doodle-doo._ May +good be repaid you manifold, my kind Brother! may good be ever +with you, my kind Friends all! + +But now as to this edition of the _Miscellanies_ (poor things), I +really think my Wife is wisest, who says I ought to leave you +altogether to your own resources with it, America having an art +of making money out of my Books which England is unfortunately +altogether without. Besides, till I once see the Two Volumes now +under way, and can let a Bookseller see them, there could no +bargain be made on the subject. We will let it rest there, +therefore. Go on with your second Two Volumes, as if there were +no England extant, according to your own good judgment. When I +get to London, I will consult some of the blockheads with the +Book in my hand: if we do want Two Hundred copies, you can give +us them with a trifling loss. It is possible they may make some +better proposal about an Edition here: that depends on the fate +of _Sartor_ here, at present trying itself; which I have not in +the least ascertained. For the present, thank as is meet all +friends in your world that have interested themselves for me. +Alas! I have nothing to give them but thanks. Henry McKean, +Charles Wheeler, Convers Francis; these Names shall, if it +please Heaven, become Persons for me, one day. Well!--But I will +say nothing more. That too is of the things on which all Words +are poor to Silence. Good to the Good and Kind! + +A Letter from me must have crossed that _descriptive_ Concord +one, on the Ocean, I think. Our correspondence is now standing +on its feet. I will write to you again, whether I hear from you +or not, so soon as my hand finds its cunning again in London,--so +soon as I can see there what is to be done or said. All goes +decidedly better, I think. My Wife was and is much healthier +than last year, than in any late year. I myself get visibly +quieter my preternatural _Meditations in Hades,_ apropos of this +Annandale of mine, are calm compared with those of last year. By +another Course of Lectures I have a fair prospect of living for +another season; nay, people call it a "new profession" I have +devised for myself, and say I may live by it as many years as I +like. This too is partly the fruit of my poor Book; one should +not say that it was worth nothing to me even in money. Last year +I fancied my Audience mainly the readers of it; drawn round me, +in spite of many things, by force of it. Let us be content. I +have Jesuits, Swedenborgians, old Quakeresses, _omne cum Proteus,_ +--God help me, no man ever had so confused a public!--I +salute you, my dear Friend, and your hospitable circle. May +blessings be on your kind household, on your kind hearts! + + --T. Carlyle + +A copy of the English _Teufelsdrockh_ has lain with your name on +it these two months in Chelsea; waiting an opportunity. It is +worth nothing to you: a dingy, ill-managed edition; but correct +or nearly correct as to printing; it is right that such should +be in your hands in case of need. The New England Pamphlets will +be greedily expected. More than one inquires of me, Has that +Emerson of yours written nothing else? And I have lent them the +little Book _Nature,_ till it is nearly thumbed to pieces. +Sterling is gone to Italy for the winter since I left town; +swift as a flash! I cannot teach him the great art of _sitting +still;_ his fine qualities are really like to waste for want +of that. + +I read your paragraph to Miss Martineau; she received it, as she +was bound, with a good grace. But I doubt, I doubt, O Ralph +Waldo Emerson, thou hast not been sufficiently ecstatic about +her,--thou graceless exception, confirmatory of a rule! In truth +there _are_ bores, of the first and of all lower magnitudes. +Patience and shuffle the cards. + + + + + +XXVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 17 October, 1838 + +My Dear Friend,--I am quite uneasy that I do not hear from you. +On the 21st of July I wrote to you and enclosed a remittance of +L50 by a Bill of Exchange on Baring Brothers, drawn by Chandler, +Howard, & Co., which was sent in the steamer "Royal William." On +the 2d of August I received your letter of inquiry respecting our +edition of the _Miscellanies,_ and wrote a few days later in +reply, that we could send you out two or three hundred copies of +our first two volumes, in sheets, at eighty-nine cents per copy +of two volumes, and the small additional price of the new title- +page. I said also that I would wait until I heard from you +before commencing the printing of the last two volumes of the +_Miscellanies,_ and, if you desired it, would print any number of +copies with a title-page for London. This letter went in a +steamer--he "Great Western" probably--about the 10th or 12th of +August. (Perhaps I misremember the names [of the steamers], and +the first should be last.) I have heard nothing from you since. +I trust my letters have not miscarried. (A third was sent also +by another channel inclosing a duplicate of the Bill of +Exchange.) With more fervency, I trust that all goes well in the +house of my friend,--and I suppose that you are absent on some +salutary errand of repairs and recreation. _Use, I pray you, +your earliest_ hour in certifying me of the facts. + +One word more in regard to business. I believe I expressed some +surprise, in the July letter, that the booksellers should have no +greater balance for us at this settlement. I have since studied +the account better, and see that we shall not be disappointed in +the year of obtaining at least the sum first promised,--seven +hundred and sixty dollars; but the whole expense of the edition +is paid out of the copies first sold, and our profits depend on +the last sales. The edition is almost gone, and you shall have +an account at the end of the year. + +In a letter within a twelvemonth I have urged you to pay us a +visit in America, and in Concord. I have believed that you would +come one day, and do believe it. But if, on your part, you have +been generous and affectionate enough to your friends here--or +curious enough concerning our society--to wish to come, I think +you must postpone, for the present, the satisfaction of your +friendship and your curiosity. At this moment I would not have +you here, on any account. The publication of my _Address to the +Divinity College_ (copies of which I sent you) has been the +occasion of an outcry in all our leading local newspapers against +my "infidelity," "pantheism," and "atheism." The writers warn +all and sundry against me, and against whatever is supposed +to be related to my connection of opinion, &c.; against +Transcendentalism, Goethe, and _Carlyle._ I am heartily sorry to +see this last aspect of the storm in our washbowl. For, as +Carlyle is nowise guilty, and has unpopularities of his own, I do +not wish to embroil him in my parish differences. You were +getting to be a great favorite with us all here, and are daily a +greater with the American public, but just now, _in Boston,_ +where I am known as your editor, I fear you lose by the +association. Now it is indispensable to your right influence +here, that you should never come before our people as one of a +clique, but as a detached, that is, universally associated +man; so I am happy, as I could not have thought, that you +have not yielded yourself to my entreaties. Let us wait a +little until this foolish clamor be overblown. My position +is fortunately such as to put me quite out of the reach of any +real inconvenience from the panic-strikers or the panic-struck; +and, indeed, so far as this uneasiness is a necessary result of +mere inaction of mind, it seems very clear to me that, if I live, +my neighbors must look for a great many more shocks, and perhaps +harder to bear. + +The article on German Religious Writers in the last _Foreign +Quarterly Review_ suits our meridian as well as yours; as is +plainly signified by the circumstance that our newspapers copy +into their columns the opening tirade and _no more._ Who wrote +that paper? And who wrote the paper on Montaigne in the +_Westminster?_ I read with great satisfaction the Poems and +Thoughts of Archaeus in _Blackwood._ "The Sexton's Daughter" is +a beautiful poem: and I recognize in them all _the_ Soul, with +joy and love. Tell me of the author's health and welfare; or, +will not he love me so much as to write me a letter with his own +hand? And tell me of yourself, what task of love and wisdom the +Muses impose; and what happiness the good God sends to you and +yours. I hope your wife has not forgotten me. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + +The _Miscellanies,_ Vols. I. and II., are a popular book. About +five hundred copies have been sold. The second article on Jean +Paul works with might on the inner man of young men. I hate to +write you letters on business and facts like this. There are so +few Friends that I think some time I shall meet you nearer, for +I love you more than is fit to say. W.H. Channing has written +a critique on you, which I suppose he has sent you, in the +_Boston Review._ + + + + + +XXIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London +7 November, 1838 + + +My Dear Friend,--It is all right; all your Letters with their +inclosures have arrived in due succession: the last, inquiring +after the fate of the others, came this morning. I was in +Scotland, as you partly conjecture; I wrote to you already +(though not without blamable delay), from my Mother's house in +Annandale, a confused scrawl, which I hope has already got to +hand, and quieted your kind anxieties. I am as well as usual in +health, my Wife better than usual; nothing is amiss, except my +negligence and indolence, which has put you to this superfluous +solicitude on my account. However, I have an additional Letter +by it; you must pardon me, you must not grudge me that +undeserved pleasure, the reward of evil-doing. I may well say, +you are a blessing to me on this Earth; no Letter comes from you +with other than good tidings,--or can come while you live there +to love me. + +The Bill was thrust duly into Baring's brass slit "for +acceptance," on my return hither some three weeks ago; and will, +no doubt, were the days of grace run, come out in the shape of +Fifty Pounds Sterling; a very curious product indeed. Do you +know what I think of doing with it? _Dyspepsia,_ my constant +attendant in London, is incapable of help in my case by any +medicine or appliance except one only, Riding on horseback. With +a good horse to whirl me over the world for two hours daily, I +used to keep myself supportably well. Here, the maintenance of a +Horse far transcends my means; yet it seems hard I should not +for a little while be in a kind of approximate health in this +Babylon where I have my bread to seek it is like swimming with a +millstone round your neck,--ah me! In brief, I am about half +resolved to buy myself a sharp little nag with Twenty of these +Transatlantic Pounds, and ride him till the other Thirty be +eaten: I will call the creature "Yankee," and kind thoughts of +those far away shall be with me every time I mount him. Will not +that do? My Wife says it is the best plan I have had for years, +and strongly urges it on. My kind friends! + +As to those copies of the Carlyle Miscellanies, I unfortunately +still can say nothing, except what was said in the former +(Scotch) letter, that you must proceed in the business with an +eye to America and not to us. My Booksellers, Saunders and +Ottley, have no money for me, no definite offer in money to make +for those Two Hundred copies, of which you seem likely to make +money if we simply leave them alone. I have asked these +Booksellers, I have asked Fraser too: What will you _give me in +ready money_ for Two Hundred and Fifty copies of that work, sell +it afterwards as you can? They answer always, We must see it +first. Now the copy long ago sent me has never come to hand; I +have asked for it of Kennet, but without success; I have nothing +for it but to wait the winds and chances. Meanwhile Saunders and +Ottley want forsooth a _Sketches of German Literature_ in three +volumes: then a _Miscellanies_ in three volumes: that is their +plan of publishing an English edition; and the outlook they hold +out for me is certain trouble in this matter, and recompense +entirely uncertain. I think on the whole it is extremely likely +I shall apply to you for Two Hundred and Fifty copies (that is +their favorite number) of these four volumes, (nay, if it be of +any moment, you can bind me down to it _now,_ and take it for +sure,) but I cannot yet send you the title-page; no bookseller +purchasing till "we see it first." But after all, will it suit +America to print an _unequal_ number of your two pairs of +volumes? Do not the two together make one work? On the whole, +consider that I shall in all likelihood want Two Hundred and +Fifty copies, and consider it certain if that will serve the +enterprise: we must leave it here today. I will stir in it +now, however, and take no rest till in one way or other you do +get a title-page from me, or some definite deliverance on the +matter. O Athenians, what a trouble I _give,_ having _got_ +your applauses! + +Kennet the Bookseller gave me yesterday (on my way to "the City" +with that Brother of mine, the Italian Doctor who is here at +present and a great lover of yours) ten copies of your Dartmouth +Oration: we read it over dinner in a chop-house in Bucklersbury, +amid the clatter of some fifty stand of knives and forks; and a +second time more leisurely at Chelsea here. A right brave +Speech; announcing, in its own way, with emphasis of full +conviction, to all whom it may concern, that great forgotten +truth, _Man is still man._ May it awaken a pulsation under the +ribs of Death! I believe the time is come for such a Gospel. +They must speak it out who have it,--with what audience there may +be. I have given away two copies this morning; I will take care +of the rest. Go on, and speed.--And now where is the heterodox +Divinity one, which awakens such "tempest in a washbowl," brings +Goethe, Transcendentalism, and Carlyle into question, and on the +whole evinces "what [difference] New England also makes between +_Pan_-theism and _Pot_-theism"? I long to see that; I expect to +congratulate you on that too. Meanwhile we will let the washbowl +storm itself out; and Emerson at Concord shall recognize it for +a washbowl storming, and hold on his way. As to my share in it, +grieve not for half an instant. Pantheism, Pottheism, Mydoxy, +Thydoxy, are nothing at all to me; a weariness the whole jargon, +which I avoid speaking of, decline listening to: _Live,_ for +God's sake, with what Faith thou couldst get; leave off +_speaking_ about Faith! Thou knowest it not. Be _silent,_ do +not speak.--As to you, my friend, you are even to go on, giving +still harder shocks if need be; and should I come into censure +by means of you, there or here, think that I am proud of my +company; that, as the boy Hazlitt said after hearing Coleridge, +"I will go with that man"; or, as our wild Burns has it, + + "Wi' sic as he, where'er he be, + May I be saved or damned!" + +Oime! what a foolish goose of a world this is! If it were not +[for] here and there an articulate-speaking man, one would be +all-too lonely. + +This is nothing at all like the letter I meant to write you; but +I will write again, I trust, in few days, and the first paragraph +shall, if possible, hold all the business. I have much to tell +you, which perhaps is as well not written. O that I did see you +face to face! But the time shall come, if Heaven will. Why not +you come over, since I cannot? There is a room here, there is +welcome here, and two friends always. It must be done one way or +the other. I will take, care of your messages to Sterling. He +is in Florence; he was the Author of _Montaigne._* The _Foreign +Quarterly_ Reviewer of _Strauss_ I take to be one Blackie, an +Advocate in Edinburgh, a frothy, semi-confused disciple of mine +and other men's; I guess this, but I have not read the Article: +the man Blackie is from Aberdeen, has been roaming over Europe, +and carries more sail than ballast. Brother John, spoken of +above, is knocking at the door even now; he is for Italy again, +we expect, in few days, on a better appointment: know that you +have a third friend in him under this roof,--a man who quarrels +with me all day in a small way, and loves me with the whole soul +of him. My Wife demanded to have "room for one line." What she +is to write I know not, except it be what she has said, holding +up the pamphlet, "Is it not a noble thing? None of them all but +he," &c., &c. I will write again without delay when the stray +volumes arrive; before that if they linger. Commend me to all +the kind household of Concord: Wife, Mother, and Son. + +Ever yours, + T. Carlyle + +--------- +* See _ante,_ p. 184. Sterling's essay on Montaigne was his +first contribution, in 1837, to the _London and Westminster +Review._ It is reprinted in "Essays and Tales, by John Sterling, +collected and edited, with a Memoir of his Life, by Julius +Charles Hare," London, 1848, Vol. I. p. 129. +---------- + +_"Forgotten you?"_ O, no indeed! If there were nothing else to +remember you by, I should never forget the Visitor, who years ago +in the Desert descended on us, out of the clouds as it were, and +made one day there look like enchantment for us, and left me +weeping that it was only _one_ day. When I think of America, it +is of you,--neither Harriet Martineau nor any one else succeeds +in giving me a more extended idea of it. When I wish to see +America it is still you, and those that are yours. I read all +that you write with an interest which I feel in no other writing +but my Husband's,--or it were nearer the truth to say there is no +other writing of living men but yours and his that I _can_ read. +God Bless you and Weib and Kind. Surely I shall some day see you +all. + +Your affectionate + Jane Carlyle + + + + +XXX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 15 November, 1835 + +Dear Emerson,--Hardly above a week ago, I wrote you in immediate +answer to some friendly inquiries produced by negligence of mine: +the Letter is probably tumbling on the salt waves at this hour, +in the belly of the "Great Western"; or perhaps it may be still +on firm land waiting, in which case this will go along with it. +I had written before out of Scotland a Letter of mere +acknowledgment and postponement; you must have received that +before now, I imagine. Our small piece of business is now become +articulate, and I will despatch it in a paragraph. Pity my +stupidity that I did not put the thing on this footing long ago! +It never struck me till the other day that though no copy of our +_Miscellanies_ would turn up for inspection here, and no +Bookseller would bargain for a thing unseen, I myself might +bargain, and leave their hesitations resting on their own +basis. In fine, I have rejected all their schemes of printing +_Miscellaneous Works_ here, printing _Sketches of German +Literature,_ or printing anything whatever on the "half-profits +system," which is like toilsomely scattering seed into the sea: +and I settled yesterday with Fraser to give him the American +sheets, and let them sell _themselves,_ on clear principles, or +remain unsold if they like. I find it infinitely the best plan, +and to all appearance the profitablest as to money that could +have been devised for me. + +What you have to do therefore is to get Two Hundred and Fifty +copies (_in sheets_) of the whole Four Volumes, so soon as the +second two are printed, and have them, with the proper title- +page, sent off hither to Fraser's address; the sooner the +better. The American title-page, instead of "Boston," &c. at the +bottom, will require to bear, in three lines "London: / James +Fraser, 215 Regent Street, / 1839." Fraser is anxious that you +should not spell him with a z; your man can look on the Magazine +and beware. I suppose also you should print _labels_ for the +backs of the four volumes, to be used by the _half_-binder; they +do the books in that way here now: but if it occasion any +difficulty, never mind this; it was not spoken of to Fraser, and +is my own conjecture merely; the thing can be managed in various +other ways. Two Hundred and Fifty copies, then, of the entire +book: there is nothing else to be attended to that you do not +understand as well as I. Fraser will announce it in his +Magazine: the eager, select public will wait. Probably, there +is no chance before the middle of March or so? Do not hurry +yourselves, or at all change your rate for _us:_ but so soon as +the work is ready in the course of Nature, the earliest +conveyance to the Port of London will bring a little cargo which +one will welcome with a strange feeling! I declare myself +delighted with the plan; an altogether romantic kind of plan, of +romance and reality: fancy me riding on _Yankee_ withal, at the +time, and considering what a curious world this is, that bakes +bread for one beyond the great Ocean-stream, and how a poor man +is not left after all to be trodden into the gutters, though the +fight went sore against him, and he saw no backing anywhere. +_Allah akbar!_ God is great; no saying truer than that.--And so +now, by the blessing of Heaven, we will talk no more of business +this day. + +My employments, my outlooks, condition, and history here, were a +long chapter; on which I could like so well to talk with you +face to face; but as for writing of them, it is a mere mockery. +In these four years, so full of pain and toil, I seem to have +lived four decades. By degrees, the creature gets accustomed to +its element; the salamander learns to live in fire, and be +of the same temperature with it. Ah me! I feel as if grown +old innumerable things are become weary, flat, stale, and +unprofitable. And yet perhaps I am not old, only wearied, and +there is a stroke or two of work in me yet. For the rest, the +fret and agitation of this Babylon wears me down: it is the most +unspeakable life; of sunbeams and miry clay; a contradiction +which no head can reconcile. Pain and poverty are not wholesome; +but praise and flattery along with them are poison: God deliver +us from that; it carries madness in the very breath of it! On +the whole, I say to myself, what thing is there so good as +_rest?_ A sad case it is and a frequent one in my circle, to be +entirely cherubic, _all_ face and wings. "Mes enfans," said a +French gentleman to the cherubs in the Picture, "Mes enfans, +asseyez-vous?"--"Monseigneur," answer they, "il n'y a pas de +quoi!" I rejoice rather in my laziness; proving that I _can_ +sit.--But, after all, ought I not to be thankful? I positively +can, in some sort, exist here for the while; a thing I had been +for many years ambitious of to no purpose. I shall have to +lecture again in spring, Heaven knows on what; it will be a +wretched fever for me; but once through it there will be board +wages for another year. The wild Ishmael can hunt in _this_ +desert too, it would seem. I say, I will be thankful; and wait +quietly what farther is to come, or whether anything farther. +But indeed, to speak candidly, I do feel sometimes as if another +Book were growing in me,--though I almost tremble to think of it. +Not for this winter, O no! I will write an Article merely, or +some such thing, and read trash if better be not. This, I do +believe, is my horoscope for the next season: an Article on +something about New-Year's-day (the Westminster Editor, a good- +natured, admiring swan-goose from the North Country, will not let +me rest); then Lectures; then--what? I am for some practical +subject too; none of your pictures in the air, or _aesthetisches +Zeug_ (as Mullner's wife called it, Mullner of the _Midnight +Blade_): nay, I cannot get up the steam on any such best; it is +extremely irksome as well as fruitless at present. In the next +_Westminster Review,_ therefore, if you see a small scrub of a +paper signed "S.P." on one Varnhagen a German, say that it is by +"Simon Pure," or by "Scissars and Paste," or even by "Soaped +Pig"--whom no man shall _catch!_ Truly it is a secret which you +must not mention: I was driven to it by the Swan-goose above +mentioned, not Mill but another. Let this suffice for my +winter's history: may the summer be more productive. + +As for Concord and New England, alas! my Friend, I should but +deface your Idyllion with an ugly contradiction, did I come in +such mood as mine is. I am older in years than you; but in +humor I am older by centuries. What a hope is in that ever young +heart, cheerful, healthful as the morning! And as for me, you +have no conception what a crabbed, sulky piece of sorrow and +dyspepsia I am grown; and growing, if I do not draw bridle. Let +me gather heart a little! I have not forgotten Concord or the +West; no, it lies always beautiful in the blue of the horizon, +afar off and yet attainable; it is a great possession to me; +should it even never be attained. But I have got to consider +lately that it is you who are coming hither first. That is the +right way, is it not? New England is becoming more than ever +part of Old England; why, you are nearer to us now than +Yorkshire was a hundred years ago; this is literally a fact: +you can come _without_ making your will. It is one of my +calculations that all Englishmen from all zones and hemispheres +will, for a good while yet, resort occasionally to the Mother- +Babel, and see a thing or two there. Come if you dare; I said +there was a room, house-room and heart-room, constantly waiting +you here, and you shall see blockheads by the million. +_Pickwick_ himself shall be visible; innocent young Dickens +reserved for a questionable fate. The great Wordsworth shall +talk till you yourself pronounce him to be a bore. Southey's +complexion is still healthy mahogany-brown, with a fleece of +white hair, and eyes that seem running at full gallop. Leigh +Hunt, "man of genius in the shape of a Cockney," is my near +neighbor, full of quips and cranks, with good humor and no common +sense. Old Rogers with his pale head, white, bare, and cold as +snow, will work on you with those large blue eyes, cruel, +sorrowful, and that sardonic shelf-chin:--This is the Man, O +Rogers, that wrote the German Poetry in American Prose; consider +him well!--But whither am I running? My sheet is done! My +Brother John returns again almost immediately to Italy. He has +got appointed Traveling Doctor to a certain Duke of Buccleuch, +the chief of our Scotch Dukes: an excellent position for him as +far as externals go. His departure will leave me lonelier; but +I must reckon it for the best: especially I must begin working. +Harriet Martineau is coming hither this evening; with beautiful +enthusiasm for the Blacks and others. She is writing a Novel. +The first American book proved generally rather wearisome, the +second not so; we have since been taught (not I) "How to +observe." Suppose you and I promulgate a treatise next, "How to +see"? The old plan was, to have a pair of _eyes _first of all, +and then to open them: and endeavor with your whole strength to +_look._ The good Harriet! But "God," as the Arabs say, "has +given to every people a Prophet (or Poet) in its own speech": +and behold now Unitarian mechanical Formalism was to have its +Poetess too; and stragglings of genius were to spring up even +through that like grass through a Macadam highway!--Adieu, my +Friend, I wait still for your heterodox Speech; and love +you always. + + --T. Carlyle + +An English _Sartor_ goes off to you this day; through Kennet, to +C.C. Little and J. Brown of Boston; the likeliest conveyance. +It is correctly printed, and that is all. Its fate here (the +fate of the publication, I mean) remains unknown; "unknown +and unimportant." + + + + +XXXI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 2 December, 1838 + +My Dear Emerson,--Almost the very day after my last Letter went +off, the long-expected two volumes of _Miscellanies_ arrived. +The heterodox pamphlet has never yet come to hand. I am now to +write you again about that _Miscellany_ concern the fourth +letter, I do believe; but it is confirmatory of the foregoing +three, and will be the last, we may hope. + +Fraser is charmed with the look of your two volumes; declares +them unsurpassable by art of his; and wishes (what is the main +part of this message) that you would send his cargo in the +_bound_ state, bound and lettered as these are, with the sole +difference that the leaves be _not_ cut, or shaved on the sides, +our English fashion being to have them _rough._ He is impatient +that the Book were here; desires further that it be sent to the +Port of London rather than another Port, and that it be packed in +_boxes_ "to keep the covers of the volumes safe,"--all which I +doubt not the Packers and the Shippers of New England have +dexterity enough to manage for the best, without desire of his. +If you have printed off nothing yet, I will desire for my own +behoof that Two hundred and _Sixty_ be the number sent; I find I +shall need some ten to give away: if your first sheet is printed +off, let the number stand as it was. It would be an improvement +if you could print our title-pages on paper a little stronger; +that would stand ink, I mean: the fly leaves in the same, if you +have such paper convenient; if not, not. Farther as to the +matter of the title-page, it seems to me your Printer might +give a bolder and a broader type to the words "Critical and +Miscellaneous," and add after "Essays" with a colon (:), the +line "Collected and Republished," with a colon also; then the +"By," &c. "In Four Volumes, Vol. I.," &c. I mean that we want, +in general, a little more ink and decisiveness: show your man +the title-page of the English _French Revolution,_ or look at it +your self, and you will know. R.W.E.'s "Advertisement," friendly +and good, as all his dealings are to me ward, will of course be +suppressed in the English copies. I see not that with propriety +I can say anything by way of substitute: silence and the New +England _imprint_ will tell the story as eloquently as there +is need. + +For the rest you must tell Mr. Loring, and all men who had a hand +in it along with you, that I am altogether right well pleased +with this edition, and find it far beyond my expectation. To my +two young Friends, Henry S. McKean (be so good as write these +names more indisputably for me) and Charles Stearns Wheeler, in +particular, I will beg you to express emphatically my gratitude; +they have stood by me with right faithfulness, and made the +correctest printing; a _great_ service had I known that there +were such eyes and heads acting in behalf of me there, I would +have scraped out the Editorial blotches too (notes of admiration, +dashes, "We think"s, &c., &c., common in Jeffrey's time in the +_Edinburgh Review_) and London misprints; which are almost the +only deformities that remain now. It is _extremely_ correct +printing wherever I have looked, and many things are silently +amended; it is the most fundamental service of all. I have not +the other _Articles_ by me at present; I think they are of +themselves a little more correct; at all events there are +nothing but _misprints_ to deal with;--the Editors, by this time, +had got bound up to let me alone. In the _Life of Scott,_ fourth +page of it (p. 296 of our edition), there is a sentence to be +deleted. "It will tell us, say they, little new and nothing +pleasing to know": out with this, for it is nonsense, and was +marked for erasure in the manuscript, I dare say. I know with +certainty no more at present. + +Fraser is to sell the Four Volumes at Two Guineas here. On +studying accurately your program of the American mercantile +method, I stood amazed to contrast it with our English one. The +Bookseller here admits that he could, by diligent bargaining, get +up such a book for something like the same cost or a _little_ +more; but the "laws of the trade" deduct from the very front of +the selling price--how much think you--_forty percent_ and odd, +when your man has only _fifteen;_ for the mere act of vending! +To cover all, they charge that enormous price. (A man, while I +stood consulting with Fraser, came in and asked for Carlyle's +_Revolution;_ they showed it him, he asked the price; and +exclaimed, "Guinea and a half! I can get it from America for +nine shillings!" and indignantly went his way; not without +reason.) There are "laws of the trade" which ought to be +_repealed;_ which I will take the liberty of contravening to all +lengths by all opportunities--if I had but the power! But if +this joint-stock American plan prosper, it will answer rarely. +Fraser's first _French Revolution,_ for instance, will be done, +he calculates, about New-Year's-day; and a second edition +wanted; mine to do with what I like. If you in America +wanted more also--? I leave you to think of this.--And now +enough, enough! + +My Brother went from us last Tuesday; ought to be in Paris +yesterday. I am yet writing nothing; feel forsaken, sad, sick, +--not unhappy. In general Death seems beautiful to me; sweet and +great. But Life also is beautiful, is great and divine, were it +never to be joyful any more. I read Books, my wife sewing by me, +with the light of a sinumbra, in a little apartment made snug +against the winter; and am happiest when all men leave me alone, +or nearly all,--though many men love me rather, ungrateful that I +am. My present book is _Horace Walpole;_ I get endless stuff +out of it; epic, tragic, lyrical, didactic: all inarticulate +indeed. An old blind Schoolmaster in Annan used to ask with +endless anxiety when a new scholar was offered him, "But are ye +sure _he's not a Dunce?_" It is really the one thing needful in +a man; for indeed (if we will candidly understand it) all else +is presupposed in that. Horace Walpole is no dunce, not a fibre +of him is duncish. + +Your Friend Sumner was here yesterday, a good while, for the +first time: an ingenious, cultivated, courteous man; a little +sensitive or so, and with no other fault that I discerned. He +borrowed my copy of your Dartmouth business, and bound himself +over to return with it soon. Some approve of that here, some +condemn: my Wife and another lady call it better even than the +former, I not so good. And now the Heterodox, the Heterodox, +where is that? Adieu, my dear Friend. Commend me to the Concord +Household; to the little Boy, to his Grandmother, and Mother, +and Father; we must all meet some day,--or _some no-day_ then +(as it shall please God)! My Wife heartily greets you all. + +Ever yours, + T. Carlyle + +I sent your book, message, and address to Sterling; he is in +Florence or Rome. Read the article _Simonides_ by him in the +_London and Westminster_--brilliant prose, translations--wooden? +His signature is L (Pounds Sterling!).--_Now_ you are to write +_soon?_ I always forgot to tell you, there came long since two +packages evidently in your hand, marked "One printed sheet," and +"one Newspaper," for which the Postman demanded about Fifteen +shillings: _rejected._ After considerable correspondence the +Newspaper was again offered me at _ten pence;_ the _sheet_ +unattainable altogether: "No," even at tenpence. The fact is, +it was wrong wrapped, that Newspaper. Leave it open at the ends, +and try me again, once; I think it will come almost gratis. +Steam and Iron are making all the Planet into one Village.--A Mr. +Dwight wrote to me about the dedicating of some German +translations: _Yes._ What are they or he?*--Your _Sartor_ is +off through Kennet. Could you send me two copies of the American +_Life of Schiller,_ if the thing is fit for making a present of, +and easy to be got? If not, do not mind it at all.--Addio! + +------------- +* Mr. John S. Dwight, whose volume of _Select Minor Poems from +the German of Goethe and Schiller,_ published in 1839, was +dedicated to Carlyle. It was the third volume of _Specimens of +Foreign Standard Literature, edited by George Ripley. Beside Mr. +Dwight's own excellent versions, it contained translations by Mr. +Bancroft, Dr. Hedge, Dr. Frothingham, and others. For many years +Mr. Dwight rendered a notable public service as the editor of +_Dwight's Journal of Music,_--a publication which did more than +any other to raise and to maintain high the standard of musical +taste and culture in America. +--------- + + + + +XXXII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 13 January, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--I am not now in any Condition to write a letter, +having neither the facts from the booksellers which you would +know touching our future plans, nor yet a satisfactory account +balanced and settled of our past dealings; and lastly, no time +to write what I would say,--as my poor lectures are in full +course, and absorb all my wits; but as the "Royal William" will +not wait, and as I have a hundred pounds to send on account of +the sales of the _French Revolution,_ I must steal a few minutes +to send my salutation. I have received all your four good +letters: and you are a good and generous man to write so many. +Two came on the 2d and 3d of January, and the last on the 9th. +If the bookselling Munroe had answered me yesterday, as he ought, +I should be able to satisfy you as to the time when to expect our +cargo of _Miscellanies._ The third and fourth volumes are now +printing: 't is a fortnight since we began. You shall have two +hundred and fifty copies,--I am not quite sure you can have +more,--bound, and _entitled,_ and directed as you desire, at +least according to the best ability of our printer as far as the +typography is concerned, and we will speed the work as fast as we +can; but as we have but a single copy of _Fraser's Magazine_--we +do not get on rapidly. The _French Revolution_ was all sold more +than a month since. We should be glad of more copies, but the +bookseller thinks not of enough copies to justify a new edition +yet. I should not be surprised, however, to see that some bold +brother of the trade had undertaken it. Now, what does your +question point at in reference to your new edition, asking "if we +want more"? Could you send us out a part of your edition at +American prices, and at the same time to your advantage? I wish +I knew the precise answer to this question, then perhaps I could +keep all pirates out of our bay. + +I shall convey in two days your message to Stearns Wheeler, who +is now busy in correcting the new volumes. He is now Greek Tutor +in Harvard College.*--Kindest thanks to Jane Carlyle for her +generous remembrances, which I will study to deserve. Has the +heterodoxy arrived in Chelsea, and quite destroyed us even in the +charity of our friend? I am sorry to have worried you so often +about the summer letter. Now am I your debtor four times. The +parish commotion, too, has long ago subsided here, and my course +of Lectures on "Human Life" finds a full attendance. I wait for +the coming of the _Westminster,_ which has not quite yet +arrived here, though I have seen the London advertisement. It +sounds prosperously in my ear what you say of Dr. Carlyle's +appointments. I was once very near the man in Rome, but did not +see him. I will atone as soon as I can for this truncated +epistle. You must answer it immediately, so far as to +acknowledge the receipt of the enclosed bill of exchange, and +soon I will send you the long promised _account_ of the _French +Revolution,_ and also such moral account of the same as is +over due. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + +--------- +* This promising young scholar edited with English notes the +first American edition of Herodotus. He went to Europe to pursue +his studies, and died, greatly regretted, at Rome, of a fever, +in 1848. +--------- + + + + +XXXIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 8 February, 1859 + +My Dear Friend,--Your welcome little Letter, with the astonishing +inclosure, arrived safe four days ago; right welcome, as all +your Letters are, and bringing as these usually do the best news +I get here. The miraculous draught of Paper I have just sent to +a sure hand in Liverpool, there to lie till in due time it have +ripened into a crop of a hundred gold sovereigns! On this +subject, which gives room for so many thoughts, there is little +that can be said, that were not an impertinence more or less. +The matter grows serious to me, enjoins me to be silent and +reflect. I will say, at any rate, there never came money into my +hands I was so proud of; the promise of a blessing looks from +the face of it; nay, it _will_ be _twice_ blessed. So I will +ejaculate, with the Arabs, _Allah akbar!_ and walk silent by the +shore of the many-sounding Babel-tumult, meditating on much. +Thanks to the mysterious all-bounteous Guide of men, and to you +my true Brother, far over the sea!--For the rest, I showed Fraser +this Nehemiah document, and said I hoped he would blush very +deep;--which indeed the poor creature did, till I was absolutely +sorry for him. + +But now first as to this question, What I mean? You must know +poor Fraser, a punctual but most pusillanimous mortal, has been +talking louder and louder lately of a "second edition" here; +whereupon, as labor-wages are not higher here than with you, and +printing-work, if well bargained for, ought to be about the same +price, it struck me that, as in the case of the _Miscellanies,_ +so here inversely the supply of both the New and the Old England +might be profitably combined. Whether aught can come of this, +now that it is got close upon us, I yet know not. Fraser has +only seventy-five copies left; but when these will be done his +prophecy comprehends not,--"surely within the year"! For the +present I have set him to ascertain, and will otherwise ascertain +for myself, what the exact cost of _stereotyping_ the Book were, +in the same letter and style as yours; it is not so much more +than printing, they tell me: I should then have done with it +forever and a day. You on your side, and we on ours, might have +as many copies as were wanted for all time coming. This is, in +these very days, under inquisition; but there are many points to +be settled before the issue. + +I have not yet succeeded in finding a Bookseller of any fitness, +but am waiting for one always. And even had I found such a one, +I mean an energetic seller that would sell on other terms than +forty percent for his trouble, it were still a question whether +one ought to venture on such a speculation: "quitting the old +highways," as I say, "in indignation at the excessive tolls, with +hope that you will arrive cheaper in the steeple-chase way!" It +is clear, however, that said highways are of the corduroy sort, +said tolls an anomaly that must be remedied soon; and also that +in all England there is no Book in a likelier case to adventure +it with than this same,--which did not sell at all for two +months, as I hear, which all Booksellers got terrified for, and +which has crept along mainly by its own gravitation ever since. +We will consider well, we shall see. You can understand that +such a thing, for your market too, is in agitation; if any +pirate step in before us in the meanwhile, we cannot help it. + +Thanks again for your swift attention to the _Miscellanies;_ +poor Fraser is in great haste to see them; hoping for his forty- +per-cent division of the spoil. If you have not yet got to the +very end with your printing, I will add a few errata; if they +come too late, never mind; they are of small moment.... + +This foggy Babylon tumbles along as it was wont; and, as for my +particular case, uses me not worse, but better, than of old. +Nay, there are many in it that have a real friendliness for me. +For example, the other night, a massive portmanteau of Books, +sent according to my written list, from the Cambridge University +Library, from certain friends there whom I have never seen; a +gratifying arrival. For we have no Library here, from which we +can borrow books home; and are only in these weeks striving to +get one:* think of that! The worst is the sore tear and wear of +this huge roaring Niagara of things on such a poor excitable set +of nerves as mine. The velocity of all things, of the very word +you hear on the streets, is at railway rate: joy itself is +unenjoyable, to be avoided like pain; there is no wish one has +so pressing as for quiet. Ah me! I often swear I will be buried +at least in free breezy Scotland, out of this insane hubbub, +where Fate tethers me in life! If Fate always tether me;--but if +ever the smallest competence of worldly means be mine, I will fly +this whirlpool as I would the Lake of _Malebolge,_ and only visit +it now and then! Yet perhaps it is the proper place after all, +seeing all places are improper: who knows? Meanwhile I lead a +most dyspeptic, solitary, self-shrouded life: consuming, if +possible in silence, my considerable daily allotment of pain; +glad when any strength is left in me for working, which is the +only use I can see in myself,--too rare a case of late. The +ground of my existence is black as Death; too black, when all +void too but at times there paint themselves on it pictures of +gold and rainbow and lightning; all the brighter for the black +ground, I suppose. Withal I am very much of a fool.--Some people +will have me write on _Cromwell,_ which I have been talking +about. I do read on that and English subjects, finding that I +know nothing and that nobody knows anything of that: but whether +anything will come of it remains to be seen. Mill, the +_Westminster_ friend, is gone in bad health to the Continent, and +has left a rude Aberdeen Longear, a great admirer of mine too, +with whom I conjecture I cannot act at all: so good-bye to that. +The wisest of all, I do believe, were that I bought my nag +_Yankee_ and set to galloping about the elevated places here! A +certain Mr. Coolidge,** a Boston man of clear iron visage and +character, came down to me the other day with Sumner; he left +a newspaper fragment, containing "the Socinian Pope's denunciation +of Emerson." + +--------- +* The beginning of the London Library, a most useful institution, +from which books may be borrowed. It served Carlyle well in +later years, and for a long time he was President of it. + +** The late Mr. Joseph Coolidge. +--------- + +The thing denounced had not then arrived, though often asked for +at Kennet's; it did not arrive till yesterday, but had lain buried +in bales of I know not what. We have read it only once, and are +not yet at the bottom of it. Meanwhile, as I judge, the Socinian +"tempest in a washbowl" is all according to nature, and will be +profitable to you, not hurtful. A man is called to let his light +shine before men; but he ought to understand better and better +what medium it is through, what retinas it falls on: wherefore +look _there._ I find in this, as in the two other Speeches, that +noblest self-assertion, and believing originality, which is like +sacred fire, the _beginning_ of whatsoever is to flame and work; +and for young men especially one sees not what could be more +vivifying. Speak, therefore, while you feel called to do it; +and when you feel called. But for yourself, my friend, I +prophesy it will not do always: a faculty is in you for a _sort_ +of speech which is itself _action,_ an artistic sort. You _tell_ +us with piercing emphasis that man's soul is great; _show_ us a +great soul of a man, in some work symbolic of such: this is the +seal of such a message, and you will feel by and by that you are +called to this. I long to see some concrete Thing, some Event, +Man's Life, American Forest, or piece of Creation, which this +Emerson loves and wonders at, well _Emersonized,_ depictured by +Emerson, filled with the life of Emerson, and cast forth from him +then to live by itself. If these Orations balk me of this, how +profitable soever they be for others. I will not love them.--And +yet, what am I saying? How do I know what is good for _you,_ +what authentically makes your own heart glad to work in it? I +speak from _without,_ the friendliest voice must speak from +without; and a man's ultimate monition comes only from _within._ +Forgive me, and love me, and write soon. _A Dieu!_ + + --T. Carlyle + +My Wife, very proud of your salutation, sends a sick return of +greeting. After a winter of unusual strength, she took cold the +other day, and coughs again; though she will not call it serious +yet. One likes none of these things. She has a brisk heart and +a stout, but too weak a frame for this rough life of mine. I +will not get sad about it. + +One of the strangest things about these New England Orations is a +fact I have heard, but not yet seen, that a certain W. Gladstone, +an Oxford crack Scholar, Tory M.P., and devout Churchman of great +talent and hope, has contrived to insert a piece of you (_first_ +Oration it must be) in a work of his on _Church and State,_ which +makes some figure at present! I know him for a solid, serious, +silent-minded man; but how with his Coleridge Shovel-Hattism he +has contrived to relate himself to _you,_ there is the mystery. +True men of all creeds, it _would_ seem, are Brothers. + +To write soon! + + + + +XXXIV. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, 15 March, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--I will spare you my apologies for not writing, +they are so many. You have been very generous, I very promising +and dilatory. I desired to send you an Account of the sales of +the _History,_ thinking that the details might be more +intelligible to you than to me, and might give you some insight +into literary and social, as well as bibliopolical relations. +But many details of this account will not yet settle themselves +into sure facts, but do dance and mystify me as one green in +ledgers. Bookseller says nine hundred and ninety-one copies came +from Binder, nine remaining imperfect, and so not bound. But in +all my reckonings of the particulars of distribution I make +either more or less than nine hundred and ninety-one copies. And +some of my accounts are with private individuals at a distance, +and they have their uncertainties and misrememberings also. But +the facts will soon show themselves, and I count confidently on a +small balance against the world to your credit. + +---------- +* This letter appeared in the _Athenaeum,_ July 22, 1882. +---------- + +The _Miscellanies_ go forward too slowly, at about the rate of +seventy-two pages a week, as I understand. Of the _Fraser_ +articles and of some others we have but a single copy, (such are +the tough limits of some English immortalities and editorial +renowns,) but we expect the end of the printing in six weeks. +The first two volumes, with title-pages, are gone to the binder-- +two hundred and sixty copies--with strait directions; and I +presume will go to sea very soon. We shall send the last two +volumes by a later ship. You will pay nothing for the books +we send except freight. We shall deduct the cost of the +books from the credit side of your account here. We print +of the second series twelve hundred and fifty copies, with the +intention of printing a second edition of the first series of +five hundred, if we see fit hereafter to supply the place of the +emigrating portion of the first. You express some surprise at +the cheapness of our work. The publishers, I believe, generally +get more profits. They grumbled a little at the face of the +account on the 1st of January; so in the new contract for the +new volumes I have allowed them nine cents more on each copy sold +by them. So that you should receive ninety-one cents on a copy +instead of one dollar. When the two hundred and fifty copies of +our first two volumes are gone to you, I think they will have but +about one hundred copies more to sell. + +Your books are read. I hear, I think, more gratitude expressed +for the _Miscellanies_ than for the _History._ Young men at all +our colleges study them in closets, and the Copernican is +eradicating the Ptolemaic lore. I have frequent and cordial +testimonies to the good working of the leaven, and continual +inquiry whether the man will come hither. _Speriamo._ + +I was a fool to tell you once you must not come if I did tell you +so. I knew better at the time, and did steadily believe, as far +as I was concerned, that no polemical mud, however much was +thrown, could by any possibility stick to me; for I was purely +an observer; had not the smallest personal or _partial_ +interest; and merely spoke to the question as a historian; and +I knew whoever could see me must see that. But, at the moment, +the little pamphlet made much stir and excitement in the +newspapers; and the whole thousand copies were bought up. The +ill wind has blown over. I advertised, as usual, my winter +course of Lectures, and it prospered very well. Ten Lectures: +I. Doctrine of the Soul; II. Home; III. The School; IV. Love; +V. Genius; VI. The Protest; VII. Tragedy; VIII. Comedy; IX. +Duty; X. Demonology. I designed to add two more, but my lungs +played me false with unseasonable inflammation, so I discoursed +no more on "Human Life." Now I am well again.--But, as I said, +as I could not hurt myself, it was foolish to flatter myself that +I could mix your cause with mine and hurt you. Nothing is more +certain than that you shall have all our ears, whenever you wish +for them, and free from that partial position which I deprecated. +Yet I cannot regret my letter, which procured me so affectionate +and magnanimous a reply. + +Thanks, too, for your friendliest invitation. But I have a new +reason why I should not come to England,--a blessed babe, named +Ellen, almost three weeks old,--a little, fair, soft lump of +contented humanity, incessantly sleeping, and with an air of +incurious security that says she has come to stay, has come to be +loved, which has nothing mean, and quite piques me. + +Yet how gladly should I be near you for a time. The months and +years make me more desirous of an unlimited conversation with +you; and one day, I think, the God will grant it, after whatever +way is best. I am lately taken with _The Onyx Ring,_ which +seemed to me full of knowledge, and good, bold, true drawing. +Very saucy, was it not? in John Sterling to paint Collins; and +what intrepid iconoclasm in this new Alcibiades to break in among +your Lares and disfigure your sacred Hermes himself in +Walsingham.* To me, a profane man, it was good sport to see the +Olympic lover of Frederica, Lili, and so forth, lampooned. And +by Alcibiades too, over whom the wrath of Pericles must pause and +brood ere it falls. I delight in this Sterling, but now that I +know him better I shall no longer expect him to write to me. I +wish I could talk to you on the grave questions, graver than all +literature, which the trifles of each day open. Our doing seems +to be a gaudy screen or popinjay to divert the eye from our +nondoing. I wish, too, you could know my friends here. A man +named Bronson Alcott is a majestic soul, with whom conversation +is possible. He is capable of truth, and gives me the same glad +astonishment that he should exist which the world does. + +-------- +* Collins and Walsingham, two characters in _The Onyx Ring,_ are +partly drawn, not very felicitously, from Carlyle and Goethe. In +his _Life of Sterling,_ Carlyle says of the story: "A tale still +worth reading, in which, among the imaginary characters, various +friends of Sterling's are shadowed forth not always in the truest +manner." It is reprinted in the second volume of Sterling's +Essays and Tales, edited by Julius Hare. +--------- + +As I hear not yet of your reception of the bill of exchange, +which went by the "Royal William" in January, I enclose the +duplicate. And now all success to the Lectures of April or May! +A new Kingdom with new extravagances of power and splendor I +know. Unless you can keep your own secret better in _Rahel,_ +&c., you must not give it me to keep. The London _Sartor_ +arrived in my hands March 5th, dated the 15th of November, so +long is the way from Kennet to Little & Co. The book is welcome, +and awakens a sort of nepotism in me,--my brother's child. + + --R.W. Emerson + +I rejoice in the good accounts you give me of your household; in +your wife's health; in your brother's position. My wife wishes +to be affectionately remembered to you and yours. And the lady +must continue to love her _old_ Transatlantic friend. + + + + +XXXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 19 March, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--Only last Saturday I despatched a letter to you +containing a duplicate of the bill of exchange sent in January, +and all the facts I knew of our books; and now comes to me a +note from Wheeler, at Cambridge, saying that the printers, on +reckoning up their amount of copy, find that nowise can they make +450 pages per volume, as they have promised, for these two last +of the _Miscellanies._ They end the third volume with page 390, +and they have not but 350 or less pages for the fourth. They +ask, What shall be done? Nothing is known to me but to give them +_Rahel,_ though I grudge it, for I vastly prefer to end with +_Scott._ _Rahel,_ I fancy, cost you no night and no morning, +but was writ in that gentle after-dinner hour so friendly to good +digestion. Stearns Wheeler dreams that it is possible to draw at +this eleventh hour some possible manuscript out of the unedited +treasures of Teufelsdrockh's cabinets. If the manuscripts were +ready, all fairly copied out by foreseeing scribes in your +sanctuary at Chelsea, the good goblin of steam would--with the +least waiting, perhaps a few days--bring the packet to our types +in time. I have little hope, almost none, from a sally so +desperate on possible portfolios; but neither will I be wanting +to my sanguine co-editor, your good friend. So I told him I +would give you as instant notice as Mr. Rogers at the Merchants' +Exchange Bar can contrive, and tell you plainly that we shall +proceed to print _Rahel_ when we come so far on; and with that +paper end; unless we shall receive some contrary word from you. +And if we can obtain any manuscript from you before we have +actually bound our book, we will cancel our last sheets and +insert it. And so may the friendly Heaven grant a speedy passage +to my letter and to yours! I fear the possibility of our success +is still further reduced by the season of the year, as the +Lectures must shortly be on foot. Well, the best speed to them +also. When I think of you as speaking and not writing them, I +remember Luther's words, "He that can speak well, the same is +a man." + +I hope you liked John Dwight's translations of Goethe, and his +notes. He is a good, susceptible, yearning soul, not so apt to +create as to receive with the freest allowance, but I like his +books very much. + +Do think to say in a letter whether you received _from me_ a copy +of our edition of your _French Revolution._ I ordered a copy +sent to you,--probably wrote your name in it,--but it does not +appear in the bookseller's account. Farewell. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XXXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 13 April, 1839 + +My Dear Emerson,--Has anything gone wrong with you? How is it +that you do not write to me? These three or four weeks, I know +not whether _duly_ or not so long, I have been in daily hope of +some sign from you; but none comes; not even a Newspaper,--open +at the ends. The German Translator, Mr. Dwight, mentioned, at +the end of a Letter I had not long ago, that you had given a +brilliant course of Lectures at Boston, but had been obliged to +_intermit it on account of illness._ Bad news indeed, that +latter clause; at the same time, it was thrown in so cursorily I +would not let myself be much alarmed; and since that, various +New England friends have assured me here that there was nothing +of great moment in it, that the business was all well over now, +and you safe at Concord again. Yet how is it that I do not +hear? I will tell you my guess is that those Boston Carlylean +_Miscellanies_ are to blame. The Printer is slack and lazy as +Printers are; and you do not wish to write till you can send +some news of him? I will hope and believe that only this is it, +till I hear worse. + +I sent you a Dumfries Newspaper the other week, for a sign of my +existence and anxiety. A certain Mr. Ellis of Boston is this day +packing up a very small memorial of me to your Wife; a poor +Print rolled about a bit of wood: let her receive it graciously +in defect of better. It comes under your address. Nay, properly +it is my Wife's memorial to your Wife. It is to be hung up in +the Concord drawing-room. The two Households, divided by wide +seas, are to understand always that they are united nevertheless. + +My special cause for writing this day rather than another is the +old story, book business. You have brought that upon yourself, +my friend; and must do the best you can with it. After all, why +should not Letters be on business too? Many a kind thought, +uniting man with man, in gratitude and helpfulness, is founded on +business. The speaker at Dartmouth College seems to think it +ought to be so. Nor do I dissent.--But the case is this, Fraser +and I are just about bargaining for a second edition of the +_Revolution._ He will print fifteen hundred for the English +market, in a somewhat closer style, and sell them here at twenty- +four shillings a copy. His first edition is all gone but some +handful; and the man is in haste, and has taken into a mood of +hope,--for he is weak and aguish, alternating from hot to cold; +otherwise, I find, a very accurate creature, and deals in his +unjust trade as justly as any other will. He has settled with +me; his half-profits amount to some L130, which by charging me +for every presentation copy he cuts down to somewhere about L110; +_not_ the lion's share in the gross produce, yet a great share +compared with an expectancy no higher than _zero!_ We continue +on the same system for this second adventure; I cannot go +hawking about in search of new terms; I might go farther and +fare worse. And now comes your part of the affair; in which I +would fain have had your counsel; but must ask your help, +proceeding with my own light alone. After Fraser's fifteen +hundred are printed off, the types remain standing, and I for my +own behoof throw off five hundred more, designed for your market. +Whether five hundred are too many or too few, I can only guess; +if too many, we can retain them here and turn them to account; +if too few, there is no remedy. At all events, costing me only +the paper and press-work, there is surely no Pirate in the Union +that can _undersell_ us! Nay, it seems they have a drawback on +our taxed paper, sufficient or nearly so to land the cargo at +Boston without more charge. You see, therefore, how it is. Can +you find me a Bookseller, as for yourself; he and you can fix +what price the ware will carry when you see it. Meanwhile I must +have his Title-page; I must have his directions (if any be +needed); nay, for that matter, you might write a Preface if you +liked,--though I see not what you have to say, and recommend +silence rather! The book is to be in three volumes duodecimo, +and we will take care it be fit to show its face in your market. +A few errors of the press; and one correction (about the sinking +of the _Vengeur,_ which I find lately to be an indisputable +falsehood); these are all the changes. We are to have done +printing, Fraser predicts, "in two months";--say two and a half! +I suppose you decipher the matter out of this plastering and +smearing; and will do what is needful in it. "Great inquiry" is +made for the _Miscellanies,_ Fraser says; though he suspects it +may perhaps be but one or two men inquiring _often,_--the dog! + +I am again upon the threshold of extempore lecturing: on "the +Revolutions of Modern Europe"; Protestantism, 2 lectures; +Puritanism, 2; French Revolution, 2. I almost regret that I had +undertaken the thing this year at all, for I am no longer driven +by Poverty as heretofore. Nay, I am richer than I have been for +ten years; and have a kind of prospect, for the first time this +great while, of being allowed to subsist in this world for the +future: a great blessing, perhaps the greatest, when it comes as +a novelty! However, I thought it right to keep this Lecture +business open, come what might. I care less about it than I did; +it is not agony and wretched trembling to the marrow of the bone, +as it was the last two times. I believe, in spite of all my +perpetual indigestions and nervous woes, I am actually getting +into better health; the weary heart of me is quieter; I wait in +silence for the new chapter,--feeling truly that we are at the +end of one period here. I count it _two_ in my autobiography: +we shall see what the _third_ is; [if] third there be. But I am +in small haste for a third. How true is that of the old +Prophets, "The _word of the Lord_ came unto" such and such a one! +When it does not come, both Prophet and Prosaist ought to be +thankful (after a sort), and rigorously hold their tongue.--Lord +Durham's people have come over with golden reports of the +Americans, and their brotherly feelings. One Arthur Buller +preaches to me, with emphasis, on a quite personal topic till one +explodes in laughter to hear him, the good soul: That I, namely, +am the most esteemed, &c., and ought to go over and Lecture in +all great towns of the Union, and make, &c., &c.! I really do +begin to think of it in this interregnum that I am in. But then +my Lectures must be written; but then I must become a _hawker, +--ach Gott!_ + +The people are beginning to quote you here: _tant pis pour eux!_ +I have found you in two Cambridge books. A certain Mr. Richard +M. Milnes, M.P., a beautiful little Tory dilettante poet and +politician whom I love much, applied to me for _Nature_ (the +others he has) that he might write upon it. Somebody has +stolen _Nature_ from me, or many have thumbed it to pieces; I +could not find a copy. Send me one, the first chance you have. +And see Miss Martineau in the last _Westminster Review:_--these +things you are old enough to stand? They are even of benefit? +Emerson is not without a select public, the root of a select +public on this side of the water too.--Popular Sumner is off to +Italy, the most popular of men,--inoffensive, like a worn +sixpence that has no physiognomy left. We preferred Coolidge to +him in this circle; a square-cut iron man, yet with clear +symptoms of a heart in him. Your people will come more and more +to their maternal Babylon, will they not, by the steamers?-- +Adieu, my dear friend. My Wife joins me in all good prayers for +you and yours. + + --Thomas Carlyle + + + + +XXXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 17 April, 1839 + +Dear Friend,--Some four days ago I wrote you a long Letter, +rather expressive of anxiety about you; it will probably come to +hand along with this. I had heard vaguely that you were unwell, +and wondered why you did not write. Happily, that point is as +good as settled now, even by your silence about it. I have, half +an hour ago, received your Concord Letter of the 19th of March. +The Letter you speak of there as "written last Saturday" has not +yet made its appearance, but may be looked for now shortly: as +there is no mention here of any mischance, except the shortcoming +of Printers' copy, I infer that all else is in a tolerably +correct state; I wait patiently for the "last Saturday" tidings, +and will answer as to the matters of copy, in good heart, without +loss of a moment. + +There is nothing of the manuscript sort in Teufelsdrockh's +repositories that would suit you well; nothing at all in a +completed state, except a long rigmarole dissertation (in a +crabbed sardonic vein) about the early history of the Teutonic +Kindred, wriggling itself along not in the best style through +Proverb lore, and I know not what, till it end (if my memory +serve) in a kind of Essay on the _Minnesingers._ It was written +almost ten years ago, and never contented me well. It formed +part of a lucklessly projected _History of German Literature,_ +subsequent portions of which, the _Nibelungen_ and _Reinecke +Fox,_ you have already printed. The unfortunate "_Cabinet +Library_ Editor," or whatever his title was, broke down; and I +let him off,--without paying me; and this alone remains of the +misventure; a thing not fit for you, nor indeed at bottom for +anybody, though I have never burnt it yet. My other Manuscripts +are scratchings and scrawlings;--children's _infant_ souls +weeping because they never could be born, but were left there +whimpering _in limine primo!_ + +On this side, therefore, is no help. Nevertheless, it seems to +me, otherwise there is. _Varnhagen_ may be printed I think +without offence, since there is need of it: if that will make up +your fourth volume to a due size, why not? It is the last faint +murmur one gives in Periodical Literature, and may indicate the +approach of silence and slumber. I know no errors of the Press +in _Varnhagen:_ there is one thing about Jean Paul F. Richter's +_want_ of humor in his _speech,_ which somehow I could like to +have the opportunity of uttering a word on, though _what_ word I +see not very well. My notion is partly that V. overstates the +thing, taking a Berlin _propos de salon_ for a scientifically +accurate record; and partly farther that the defect (if any) was +_creditable_ to Jean Paul, indicating that he talked from the +abundance of the heart, not burning himself off in miserable +perpetual sputter like a Town-wit, but speaking what he had to +say, were it dull, were it not dull,--for his own satisfaction +first of all! If you in a line or two could express at the right +point something of that sort, it were well; yet on the whole, if +not, then is almost no matter. Let the whole stand then as the +commencement of slumber and stertorous breathing! + +Varnhagen himself will not bring up your fourth volume to the +right size; hardly beyond 380 pages, I should think; yet what +more can be done? Do you remember Fraser's Magazine for October, +1832, and a Translation there, with Notes, of a thing called +Goethe's Mahrchen? It is by me; I regard it as a most +remarkable piece, well worthy of perusal, especially by all +readers of mine. The printing of your third volume will of +course be finished before this letter arrive; nevertheless I +have a plan: that you (as might be done, I suppose, by +cancelling and reprinting the concluding leaf or leaves) append +the said Translated Tale, in a smaller type, to that volume. It +is 21 or 22 pages of _Fraser,_ and will perhaps bring yours up to +the mark. Nay, indeed there are two other little Translations +from Goethe which I reckon good, though of far less interest than +the _Mahrchen;_ I think they are in the Frasers almost +immediately preceding; one of them is called _Fragment from +Goethe_ (if I remember); in his _Works,_ it is _Novelle;_ it +treats of a visit by some princely household to a strange +Mountain ruin or castle, and the catastrophe is the escape of a +show-lion from its booth in the neighboring Market-Town. I have +not the thing here,--alas, sinner that I am, it now strikes me +that the "two other things" are this one thing, which my +treacherous memory is making into two! This however you will +find in the Number immediately, or not far from immediately, +preceding that of the _Mahrchen;_ along with which, in the same +type with which, it would give us letter-press enough. It ought +to stand _before_ the _Mahrchen:_ read it, and say whether it is +worthy or not worthy. Will this _Appendix_ do, then? I should +really rather like the _Mahrchen_ to be printed, and had thoughts +of putting [it] at the end of the English _Sartor._ The other I +care not for, intrinsically, but think it very beautiful in its +kind.--Some rubbish of my own, in small quantity, exists here and +there in _Fraser;_ one story, entitled _Cruthers and Jonson,_* +was written sixteen years ago, and printed somewhere early +(probably the second year) in that rubbish heap, with several +gross errors of the press (mares for maces was one!): it is the +first thing I wrote, or among the very first;--otherwise a thing +to be kept rather secret, except from the like of you! This or +any other of the "original" immaturities I will _not_ recommend +as an Appendix; I hope the _Mahrchen,_ or the _Novelle_ and +_Mahrchen,_ will suffice. But on the whole, to thee, O Friend, +and thy judgment and decision, without appeal, I leave it +altogether. Say Yes, say No; do what seemeth good to thee.--Nay +now, writing with the speed of light, another consideration +strikes me: Why should Volume Third be interfered with if it is +finished? Why will not this _Appendix_ do, these _Appendixes,_ +to hang to the skirts of Volume Four as well? Perhaps better! +the _Mahrchen_ in any case closing the rear. I leave it all to +Emerson and Stearns Wheeler, my more than kind Editors: E. knows +it better than I; be his decision irrevocable. + +----------- +* "Cruthers and Jonson; or, The Outskirts of Life. A True +Story." _Fraser's Magazine,_ January, 1831. +------------ + +This letter is far too long, but I had not time to make it +shorter.--I got your _French Revolution,_ and have seen no other: +my name is on it in your hand. I received Dwight's Book, liked +it, and have answered him: a good youth, of the kind you +describe; no Englishman, to my knowledge, has yet uttered as +much sense about Goethe and German things. I go this day to +settle with Fraser about printers and a second edition of the +_Revolution_ Book,--as specified in the other Letter: five +hundred copies for America, which are to cost he computes about +2/7, and _your_ Bookseller will bind them, and defy Piracy. My +Lectures come on, this day two weeks: O Heaven! I cannot +"speak"; I can only gasp and writhe and stutter, a spectacle to +gods and fashionables,--being forced to it by want of money. In +five weeks I shall be free, and then--! Shall it be Switzerland, +shall it be Scotland, nay, shall it be America and Concord? + +Ever your affectionate + T. Carlyle + +All love from both of us to the Mother and Boy. My Wife is +better than usual; rejoices in the promise of summer now +at last visible after a spring like Greenland. Scarcity, +discontent, fast ripening towards desperation, extends far +and wide among our working people. God help them! In man as +yet is small help. There will be work yet, before that account +is liquidated; a generation or two of work! Miss Martineau is +gone to Switzerland, after emitting _Deerwood_ [sic], a Novel.* +How do you like it? people ask. To which there are serious answers +returnable, but few so good as none. Ah me! Lady Bulwer too has +written a Novel, in satire of her Husband. I saw the Husband not +long since; one of the wretchedest Phantasms, it seemed to me, I +had yet fallen in with,--many, many, as they are here. + +The L100 Sterling Bill came, in due time, in perfect order; and +will be payable one of these days. I forget dates; but had well +calculated that before the 19th of March this piece of news and +my gratitude for it had reached you. + +-------- +* _Deerbrook_ +-------- + + + + +XXXVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, 20 April, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--Learning here in town that letters may go today +to the "Great Western," I seize the hour to communicate a +bookseller's message. I told Brown, of C.C. Little & Co., that +you think of stereotyping the _History._ He says that he can +make it profitable to himself and to you to use your plates here +in this manner (which he desires may be kept secret here, and I +suppose with you also). You are to get your plates made and +proved, then you are to send them out here to him, having first +insured them in London, and he is to pay you a price for every +copy he prints from them. As soon as he has printed a supply for +our market,--and we want, he says, five hundred copies now,--he +will send them back to you. I told him I thought he had better +fix the price per copy to be paid by him, and I would send it to +you as his offer. He is willing to do so, but not today. It was +only this morning I informed him of your plan. I think in a +fortnight I shall need to write again,--probably to introduce to +you my countrywoman, Miss Sedgwick, the writer of affectionate +New England tales and the like, who is about to go to Europe for +a year or more. I will then get somewhat definite from Brown as +to rates and prices. Brown thought you might better send the +plates here first, as we are in immediate want of copies; and +afterwards print with them in London. He is quite sure that it +would be more profitable to print them in this manner than to +try to import and sell here the books after being manufactured +in London. + +On the 30th of April we shall ship at New York the first two +volumes of the _Miscellanies,_ two hundred and sixty copies. In +four weeks, the second two volumes will be finished, unless we +wait for something to be added by yourself, agreeably to a +suggestion of Wheeler's and mine. Two copies of _Schiller's +Life_ will go in the same box. We send them to the port of +London. When these are gone, only one hundred copies remain +unsold of the first two volumes (_Miscellanies_). + +Brown said it was important that the plates should be proved +correct at London by striking off impressions before they were +sent hither. This is the whole of my present message. I shall +have somewhat presently to reply to your last letter, received +three weeks since. And may health and peace dwell with you +and yours! + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XXXIX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 25 April, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--Behold my account! A very simple thing, is it +not! A very mouse, after such months, almost years, of promise! +Despise it not, however; for such is my extreme dulness at +figures and statements that this nothing has been a fear to me, a +long time, how to extract it from the bookseller's promiscuous +account with me, and from obscure records of my own. You see +that it promises yet to pay you between $60 and $70 more, if +Mr. Fuller (a gentleman of Providence, who procured many +_subscribers_ for us there) and Mr. Owen (who owes us also +for copies subscribed for) will pay us our demand. They have +both been lately reminded of their delinquency. Herrick and +Noyes, you will see credited for eight copies, $18. They are +booksellers who supplied eight subscribers, and charged us $2 for +their trouble and some alleged damage to a copy. One copy you +will see is sold to Ann Pomeroy for $3. This lady bought the +copy of me, and preferred sending me $3 to sending $2.50 for so +good a book. You will notice one or two other variations in the +prices, in each of which I aimed to use a friend's discretion. +Add lastly, that you must revise all my figures, as I am a +hopeless blunderer, and quite lately made a brilliant mistake in +regard to the amount of 9 multiplied by 12. + +Have I asked you whether you received from me a copy of the +_History?_ I designated a copy to go, and the bookseller's boy +thinks he sent one, but there is none charged in their account. +The account of the _Miscellanies_ does not prosper quite +so well.... + +Thanks for your too friendly and generous expectations from my +wit. Alas! my friend, I can do no such gay thing as you say. I +do not belong to the poets, but only to a low department of +literature, the reporters; suburban men. But in God we are all +great, all rich, each entitled to say, All is mine. I hope the +advancing season has restored health to your wife, and, if +benedictions will help her, tell her we send them on every west +wind. My wife and babes are well. + + --R.W.E. + + + + +XL. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 28 April, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--I received last night C.C. Little & Co.'s +proposition in reference to the stereotyping the _History._ +Their offer is based on my statement that you proposed to print +the book in two volumes similar to ours. They say, "We should be +willing to pay three hundred dollars for the use of plates for +striking off five hundred copies of the two volumes, with the +farther agreement that, if we wished to strike off another five +hundred in nine months after the publication of the first five +hundred, we should have the liberty to do so, paying the same +again; that is, another three hundred dollars for the privilege +of printing another five hundred copies;--the plates to be +furnished us ready for use and free of expense." They add, +"Should Mr. Carlyle send the plates to this country, he should be +particular to ship them to _this port direct._" I am no judge of +the liberality of this offer, as I know nothing of the expense of +the plates. The men, Little and Brown, are fair in their +dealings, and the most respectable book-selling firm in Boston. +When you have considered the matter, I hope you will send me as +early an answer as you can. For as we have no protection from +pirates we must use speed. + +I ought to have added to my account and statement sent by Miss +Sedgwick one explanation. You will find in the account a credit +of $13.75, agreed on with Little & Co., as compensation for lost +subscribers. We had a little book, kept in the bookshop, into +which were transferred the names of subscribers from all lists +which were returned from various places. These names amounted to +two hundred, more or less. When we came to settle the account, +this book could not be found. They expressed much regret, and +made much vain searching. Their account with me recorded only +one hundred and thirty-four copies delivered to subscribers. +Thus, a large number, say sixty-six, had been sold by them to our +subscribers, and our half-dollar on each copy put in their pocket +as commission, expressly contrary to treaty! With some ado, I +mustered fifty-five names of subscribers known to me as such, not +recorded on their books as having received copies, and demanded +$27.50. They replied that they also had claims; that they had +sent the books to distant subscribers in various States, and had +charged no freight (with one or two exceptions, when the books +went alone); that other booksellers had, no doubt, in many +cases, sold the copies to subscribers for which I claimed the +half-dollar; and lastly, which is indeed the moving reason, that +they had sent twenty copies up the Mississippi to a bookseller +(in Vicksburg, I think), who had made them no return. On these +grounds they proposed that they should pay half my demand, and so +compromise. They said, however, that, if I insisted, they would +pay the whole. I was so glad to close the affair with mutual +goodwill that I said with the unjust steward, write $13.75. So +are we all pleased at your expense. [Greek] I think I will not +give you any more historiettes,--they take too much room; but as +I write this time only on business, you are welcome to this from +your friend, + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XLI. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, 15 May, 1839. + +My Dear Friend,--Last Saturday, 11th instant, I had your two +letters of 13th and 17th April. Before now, you must have one or +two notes of mine touching the stereotype plates: a proposition +superseded by your new plan. I have also despatched one or two +sheets lately containing accounts. Now for the new matter. I +was in Boston yesterday, and saw Brown, the bookseller. He +accedes gladly, to the project of five hundred American copies of +the _History._ He says, that the duty is the same on books in +sheets and books in boards; and desires, therefore, that the +books may come out _bound._ You bind yours in cloth? Put up his +in the same style as those for your market, only a little more +strongly than is the custom with London books, as it will only +cost a little more. He would be glad also to have his name added +in the titlepage (London: Published by J. Fraser; and Boston: +by C.C. Little and James Brown, 112 Washington St.), or is not +this the right way? He only said he should like to have his name +added. He threatens to charge me 20 percent commission. If, as +he computes from your hint of 2/7, the work costs you, say, 70 +cents per copy, unbound; he reckons it at a dollar, when bound; +then 75 cents duty in Boston, $1.75. He thinks we cannot set a +higher price on it than $3.50, _because_ we sold our former +edition for $2.50. On that price, his commissions would be 70 +cents; and $1.05 per copy will to you. If when we see the book, +we venture to put a higher price on it, your remainder shall be +more. I confess, when I set this forth on paper, it looks as bad +as your English trade,--this barefaced 20 percent; but their +plea is, We guarantee the sales; we advertise; we pay you when +it is sold, though we give our customers six months' credit. I +have made no final bargain with the man, and perhaps before the +books arrive I shall be better advised, and may get better terms +from him. Meantime, give me the best advice you can; and +despatch the books with all speed, and if you send six hundred, I +think, we will sell them. + +------------ +* In the first edition of this Correspondence a portion of this +letter was printed from a rough draft, such as Emerson was +accustomed to make of his letters to Carlyle. I owe the original +to the kindness of the editor of the _Athenaeum,_ in the pages +of which it was printed. +----------- + +I went to the _Athenaeum,_ and procured the _Frasers'_ and will +print the _Novelle_ and the _Mahrchen_ at the end of the Fourth +Volume, which has been loitering under one workman for a week or +two past, awaiting this arrival. Now we will finish at once. +_Cruthers and Jonson_ I read gladly. It is indispensable to such +as would see the fountains of Nile: but I incline to what seems +your opinion, that it will be better in the final edition of your +Works than in this present First Collection of them. I believe I +could find more matter now of yours if we should be pinched +again. The Cat-Raphael? and _Mirabeau_ and _Macaulay?_ Stearns +Wheeler is very faithful in his loving labor,--has taken a world +of pains with the sweetest smile. We are very fortunate in +having him to friend.--For the _Miscellanies_ once more, the two +boxes containing two hundred and sixty copies of the first series +went to sea in the "St. James," Captain Sebor, addressed to Mr. +Fraser. (I hope rightly addressed; yet I saw a memorandum at +Munroe's in which he was named _John_ Fraser.) + +Arthur Buller has my hearty thanks for his good and true +witnessing. And now that our old advice is indorsed by John Bull +himself, you will believe and come. Nothing can be better. As +soon as the lectures are over, let the trunks be packed. Only my +wife and my blessed sister dear--Elizabeth Hoar, betrothed in +better times to my brother Charles,--my wife and this lovely nun +do say that Mrs. Carlyle must come hither also; that it will +make her strong, and lengthen her days on the earth, and cheer +theirs also. Come, and make a home with me; and let us make a +truth that is better than dreams. From this farm-house of mine +you shall sally forth as God shall invite you, and "lecture in +the great cities." You shall do it by proclamation of your own, +or by the mediation of a committee, which will readily be found. +Wife, mother, and sister shall nurse thy wife meantime, and you +shall bring your republican laurels home so fast that she shall +not sigh for the Old England. Eyes here do sparkle at the very +thought. And my little placid Musketaquid River looked gayer +today in the sun. In very sooth and love, my friend, I shall +look for you in August. If aught that we know not must forbid +your wife at present, you will still come. In October, you shall +lecture in Boston; in November, in New York; in December, in +Philadelphia; in January, in Washington. I can show you three +or four great natures, as yet unsung by Harriet Martineau or Anna +Jameson, that content the heart and provoke the mind. And for +yourself, you shall be as cynical and headstrong and fantastical +as you can be. + +I rejoice in what you say of better health and better prospects. +I was glad to hear of Milnes, whose _Poems_ already lay on my +table when your letter came. Since the little _Nature_ book is +not quite dead, I have sent you a few copies, and wish you would +offer one to Mr. Milnes with my respects. I hope before a great +while I may have somewhat better to send him. I am ashamed that +my little books should be "quoted" as you say. + +My affectionate salutations to Mrs. Carlyle, who is to sanction +and enforce all I have written on the migration. In the prospect +of your coming I feel it to be foolish to write. I have very +much to say to you. But now only Good Bye. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XLII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 29 May, 1839 + +My Dear Emerson,--Your Letter, dated Boston, 20th April, has been +here for some two weeks. Miss Sedgwick, whom it taught us to +expect in "about a fortnight," has yet given no note of herself, +but shall be right welcome whenever she appears. Miss +Martineau's absence (she is in Switzerland this summer) will +probably be a loss to the fair Pilgrim;--which of course the rest +of us ought to exert ourselves to make good.... My Lectures are +happily over ten days ago; with "success" enough, as it is +called; the only _valuable_ part of which is some L200, gained +with great pain, but also with great brevity:--economical respite +for another solar year! The people were boundlessly tolerant; +my agitation beforehand was less this year, my remorse afterwards +proportionally greater. There was but one moderately good +Lecture, the last,--on Sausculottism, to an audience mostly Tory, +and rustling with the beautifulest quality silks! Two things I +find: first that _I ought to have had a horse;_ I had only +three incidental rides or gallops, hired rides; my horse +_Yankee_ is never yet purchased, but it shall be, for I cannot +live, except in great pain, without a horse. It was sweet beyond +measure to escape out of the dustwhirlpool here, and _fly,_ in +solitude, through the ocean of verdure and splendor, as far as +Harrow and back again; and one's nerves were _clear_ next day, +and words lying in one like water in a well. But the _second_ +thing I found was, that extempore speaking, especially in the way +of Lecture, is an _art_ or craft, and requires an apprenticeship, +which I have never served. Repeatedly it has come into my head +that I should go to America, this very Fall, and belecture you +from North to South till I learn it! Such a thing does lie in +the bottom-scenes, should hard come to hard; and looks pleasant +enough.--On the whole, I say sometimes, I must either begin a +Book, or do it. Books are the lasting thing; Lectures are like +corn ground into flour; there are loaves for today, but no wheat +harvests for next year. Rudiments of a new Book (thank Heaven!) +do sometimes disclose themselves in me. _Festina lente._ It +ought to be better than the _French Revolution;_ I mean better +written. The greater part of that Book, as I read proof-sheets +of it in these weeks, does nothing but _disgust_ me. And yet it +was, as nearly as was good, the utmost that lay in me. I should +not like to be nearer killed with any other Book!--Books too are +a triviality. Life alone is great; with its infinite spaces, +its everlasting times, with its Death, with its Heaven and its +Hell. Ah me! + +Wordsworth is here at present; a garrulous, rather watery, not +wearisome old man. There is a freshness as of brooks and +mountain breezes in him; one says of him: Thou art not great, +but thou art genuine; well speed _thou._ Sterling is home from +Italy, recovered in health, indeed very well could he but _sit +still._ He is for Clifton, near Bristol, for the next three +months. I hear him speak of some sonnet or other he means to +address to you: as for me he knows well that I call his +verses timber toned, without true melody either in thought, +phrase or sound. The good John! Did you ever see such a vacant +turnip-lantern as that Walsingham Goethe? Iconoclast Collins +strikes his wooden shoe through him, and passes on, saying almost +nothing.--My space is done! I greet the little _maidkin,_ and +bid her welcome to this unutterable world. Commend her, poor +little thing, to her little Brother, to her Mother and Father;-- +Nature, I suppose, has sent her strong letters of recommendation, +without our help, to them all. Where I shall be in six weeks is +not very certain; likeliest in Scotland, whither our whole +household, servant and all, is pressingly invited, where they +have provided horses and gigs. Letters sent hither will still +find me, or lie waiting for me, safe: but perhaps the +_speediest_ address will be "Care of Fraser, 215 Regent Street." +My Brother wants me to the Tyrol and Vienna; but I think I shall +not go. Adieu, dear friend. It is a great treasure to me that I +have you in this world. My Wife salutes you all.-- + +Yours ever and ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +XLIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 24 June, 1833 + +Dear Friend,--Two Letters from you were brought hither by Miss +Sedgwick last week. The series of post Letters is a little +embroiled in my head; but I have a conviction that all hitherto +due have arrived; that up to the date of my last despatch (a +_Proof-sheet_ and a Letter), which ought to be getting into your +hands in these very days, our correspondence is clear. That +Letter and Proof-sheet, two separate pieces, were sent to +Liverpool some three weeks ago, to be despatched by the first +conveyance thence; as I say, they are probably in Boston about +this time. The Proof-sheet was one of the forty-seven such which +the new _French Revolution_ is to consist of: with this, as with +a correct sample, you were to act upon some Boston Bookseller, +and make a bargain for me,--or at least report that none was to +be made. A bad bargain will content me now, my hopes are not at +all high. + +For the present, I am to announce on the part of Bookseller +Fraser that the First Portion of our celebrated _Miscellanies_ +have been hovering about on these coasts for several weeks, have +lain safe "in the River" for some two weeks, and ought at last to +be safe in Fraser's shop today or else to morrow. I will ask +there, and verify, before this Letter go. The reason of these +"two weeks in the river" is that the packages were addressed +"_John_ Fraser, London," and the people had tried all the Frasers +in London before they attempted the right individual, James, of +215 Regent Street. Of course, the like mistake in the second +case will be avoided. A Letter, put ashore at Falmouth, and +properly addressed, but without any _signature,_ had first of all +announced that the thing was at the door, and so with this "John +Fraser," it has been knocking ever since, finding difficult +admission. In the present instance, such delay has done no ill, +for Fraser will not sell till the Second Portion come; and with +this the mistake will be avoided. What has shocked poor James +much more is a circumstance which your Boston Booksellers have no +power to avoid: the "enormousness" of the charges in our Port +here! He sends me the account of them last Saturday, with eyes-- +such as drew Priam's curtains: L31 and odd silver, whereof L28 +as duty on Books at L5 per cwt. is charged by the rapacious +Custom-house alone! What help, O James? I answer: we cannot +bombard the British Custom-house, and sack it, and explode it; +we must yield, and pay it the money; thankful for what is still +left.--On the whole, one has to learn by trying. This notable +finance-expedient, of printing in the one country what is to be +sold in the other, did not take Vandalic custom-houses into view, +which nevertheless do seem to exist. We must persist in it for +the present reciprocal pair of times, having started in it for +these: but on future occasions always, we can ask the past; and +_see_ whether it be not better to let each side of the water +stand on its own basis. + +As for your "accounts," my Friend, I find them clear as day, +verifiable to the uttermost farthing. You are a good man to +conquer your horror of arithmetic; and, like hydrophobic Peter +of Russia making himself a sailor, become an Accountant for my +sake. But now will you forgive me if I never do verify this same +account, or look at it more in this world except as a memento of +affection, its arithmetical ciphers so many hierograms, really +_sacred_ to me! A reflection I cannot but make is that at bottom +this money was all yours; not a penny of it belonged to me by +any law except that of helpful Friendship. I feel as if I could +not examine it without a kind of crime. For the rest, you may +rejoice to think that, thanks to you and the Books, and to Heaven +over all, I am for the present no longer poor; but have a +reasonable prospect of existing, which, as I calculate, is +literally the most that money can do for a man. Not for these +twelve years, never since I had a house to maintain with money, +have I had as much money in my possession as even now. _Allah +kerim!_ We will hope all that is good on that side. And +herewith enough of _it._ + +You tell me you are but "a reporter": I like you for thinking +so. And you will never know that it is _not true,_ till you have +tried. Meanwhile, far be it from me to urge you to a trial +before your time come. Ah, it will come, and soon enough; much +better, perhaps, if it never came!--A man has "_such_ a baptism +to be baptized withal," no easy baptism; and is "straitened till +it be accomplished." As for me I honor peace before all things; +the silence of a great soul is to me greater than anything it +will ever say, it ever can say. Be tranquil, my friend; utter +no word till you cannot help it;--and think yourself a +"reporter," till you find (not with any great joy) that you are +not altogether that! + +We have not yet seen Miss Sedgwick: your Letters with her card +were sent hither by post we went up next day, but she was out; +no meeting could be arranged earlier than tomorrow evening, when +we look for her here. Her reception, I have no doubt, will be +abundantly flattering in this England. American Notabilities +are daily becoming notabler among us; the ties of the two +Parishes, Mother and Daughter, getting closer and closer knit. +Indissoluble ties:--I reckon that this huge smoky Wen may, for +some centuries yet, be the best Mycale for our Saxon _Panionium,_ +a yearly meeting-place of "All the Saxons," from beyond the +Atlantic, from the Antipodes, or wherever the restless wanderers +dwell and toil. After centuries, if Boston, if New York, have +become the most convenient _"All-Saxondom,"_ we will right +cheerfully go thither to hold such festival, and leave the Wen.-- +Not many days ago I saw at breakfast the notabest of all your +Notabilities, Daniel Webster. He is a magnificent specimen; you +might say to all the world, This is your Yankee Englishman, such +Limbs _we_ make in Yankeeland! As a Logic-fencer, Advocate, or +Parliamentary Hercules, one would incline to back him at first +sight against all the extant world. The tanned complexion, that +amorphous crag-like face; the dull black eyes under their +precipice of brows, like dull anthracite furnaces, needing only +to be _blown;_ the mastiff-mouth, accurately closed:--I have not +traced as much of _silent Berserkir-rage,_ that I remember of, in +any other man. "I guess I should not like to be your nigger!"-- +Webster is not loquacious, but he is pertinent, conclusive; a +dignified, perfectly bred man, though not English in breeding: a +man worthy of the best reception from us; and meeting such, I +understand. He did not speak much with me that morning, but +seemed not at all to dislike me: I meditate whether it is fit or +not fit that I should seek out his residence, and leave _my_ card +too, before I go? Probably not; for the man is political, +seemingly altogether; has been at the Queen's levee, &c., &c.: +it is simply as a mastiff-mouthed _man_ that he is interesting to +me, and not otherwise at all. + +In about seven days hence we go to Scotland till the July heats +be over. That is our resolution after all. Our address there, +probably till the end of August, is "Templand, Thornhill, +Dumfries, N. B.,"--the residence of my Mother-in-law, within a +day's drive of my Mother's. Any Letter of yours sent by the old +constant address (Cheyne Row, Chelsea) will still find me there; +but the other, for that time, will be a day or two shorter. We +all go, servant and all. I am bent on writing _something;_ but +have no faith that I shall be able. I _must_ try. There is a +thing of mine in _Fraser_ for July, of no account, about the +"sinking of the _Vengeur_" as you will see. The _French +Revolution_ printing is not to stop; two thirds of it are done; +at this present rate, it ought to finish, and the whole be ready, +within three weeks hence. A Letter will be here from you about +that time, I think: I will print no title-page for the Five +Hundred till it do come. "Published by _Fraser and_ Little" +would, I suppose, be unobjectionable, though Fraser is the most +nervous of creatures: but why put _him_ in at all, since these +Five hundred copies are wholly Little's and yours? Adieu, my +Friend. Our blessings are with you and your house. My wife +grows better with the hot weather; I, always worse. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +I say not a word about America or Lecturing at present; because +I mean to consider it intently in Scotland, and there to decide. +My Brother is to be at Ischl (not far from Salzburg) during +Summer: he was anxious to have me there, and I to have gone; +but--but--Adieu. + +_Fraser's Shop._ Books not yet come, but known to be safe, and +expected soon. Nay, the dexterous Fraser has argued away L15 of +the duty, he says! All is right therefore. N.B. he says you are +to send the second Portion _in sheets,_ the weight will be less. +This if it be still time.--_Basta._ + + --T.C. + + + + +XLIV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 4 July, 1839 + +I hear tonight, O excellent man! that, unless I send a letter to +Boston tomorrow with the peep of day, it will miss the Liverpool +steamer, which sails earlier than I dreamed of. O foolish +Steamer! I am not ready to write. The facts are not yet ripe, +though on the turn of the blush. Couldst not wait a little? +Hurry is for slaves;--and Aristotle, if I rightly remember only +that little from my college lesson, affirmed that the high-minded +man never walked fast. O foolish Steamer! wait but a week, and +we will style thee Megalopsyche, and hang thee by the Argo in the +stars. Meantime I will not deny the dear and admirable man the +fragments of intelligence I have. Be it known unto you then, +Thomas Carlyle, that I received yesterday morning your letter by +the "Liverpool" with great contentment of heart and mind, in all +respects, saving that the American Hegira, so often predicted on +your side and prayed on ours, is treated with a most unbecoming +levity and oblivion; and, moreover, that you do not seem to have +received all the letters I seem to have sent. With the letter +came the proof-sheet safe, and shall be presently exhibited to +Little and Brown. You must have already the result of our first +colloquy on that matter. I can now bring the thing nearer to +certainty. But you must print their names as before advised on +the title-page. + +Nearly four weeks ago Ellis sent me the noble Italian print for +my wife.* She is in Boston at this time, and I believe will be +glad that I have written without her aid or word this time, for +she was so deeply pleased with the gift that she said she never +could write to you. It came timely to me at least. It is a +right morning thought, full of health and flowing genius, and I +rejoice in it. It is fitly framed and tomorrow is to be hung in +the parlor. + +-------- +* Morghen's engraving of Guido's Aurora. +-------- + +Our Munroe's press, you must believe, was of Aristotle's category +of the high-minded and slow. Chiding would do no good. They +still said, "We have but one copy, and so but one hand at work"! +At last, on the 1st of July, the book appeared in the market, but +does not come from the binder fast enough to supply the instant +demand; and therefore your two hundred and sixty copies cannot +part from New York until the 20th of July. They will be on board +the London packet which sails on that day. The publisher has his +instructions to bind the volumes to match the old ones. Our year +since the publication of the Vols. I. and II. is just complete, +and I have set the man on the account, but doubt if I get it +before twelve or fourteen days. All the edition is gone except +forty copies, he told me; and asked me if I would not begin to +print a small edition of this First Series, five hundred, as we +have five hundred of the new Series too many, with that view. +But I am now so old a fox that I suspend majestically my answer +until I have his account. For on the 21st of July I am to pay +$462 for the paper of this new book: and by and by the printer's +bill,--whose amount I do not yet know; and it is better to be +"slow and high-minded" a little more, since we have been so much, +and not go deeper into these men's debt until we have tasted +somewhat of their credit. We are to get, as you know, by +contract, near a thousand dollars from these first two volumes; +yet a month ago I was forced to borrow two hundred dollars for +you on interest, such advances had the account required. But the +coming account will enlighten us all. + +I am very happy in the "success" of the London lectures. I have +no word to add tonight, only that Sterling is not timber-toned, +that I love his poetry, that I admire his prose with reservations +here and there. What he knows he writes manly and well. Now and +then he puts in a pasteboard man; but all our readers here take +_Blackwood_ for his sake, and lately seek him in vain. I am +getting on with some studies of mine prosperously for me, have +got three essays nearly done, and who knows but in the autumn I +shall have a book? Meantime my little boy and maid, my mother +and wife, are well, and the two ladies send to you and yours +affectionate regards,--they would fain say urgent invitations. +My mother sends tonight, my wife always. + +I shall send you presently a copy of a translation published here +of Eckermann, by Margaret Fuller, a friend of mine and of yours, +for the sake of its preface mainly. She is a most accomplished +lady, and her culture belongs rather to Europe than to America. +Good bye. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XLV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 8 August, 1839 + +Dear Friend,--This day came the letter dated 24 June, with "steam +packet" written by you on the outside, but no paddles wheeled it +through the sea. It is forty-five days old, and too old to do +its errand even had it come twenty days sooner--so far as printer +and bookbinder are concerned. I am truly grieved for the +mischance of the _John_ Fraser, and will duly lecture the sinning +bookseller. I noticed the misnomer in a letter of his New York +correspondent, and, I believe, mentioned to you in a letter my +fear of such a mischance. I am more sorry for the costliness +of this adventure to you, though in a gracious note to me you +cut down the fine one half. The new books, tardily printed, +were tardily bound and tardily put to sea on the packet ship +"Ontario," which left New York for London on the 1st of August. +At least this was the promise of Munroe & Co. I stood over the +boxes in which they were packing them in the latter days of July. +I hope they have not gone to John again, but you must keep an eye +to both names.... + +I cannot tell you how glad I am that you have seen my brave +Senator, and seen him as I see him. All my days I have wished +that he should go to England, and never more than when I listened +two or three times to debates in the House of Commons. We send +out usually mean persons as public agents, mere partisans, for +whom I can only hope that no man with eyes will meet them; and +now those thirsty eyes, those portrait-eating, portrait-painting +eyes of thine, those fatal perceptions, have fallen full on the +great forehead which I followed about all my young days, from +court-house to senate-chamber, from caucus to street. He has his +own sins no doubt, is no saint, is a prodigal. He has drunk this +rum of Party too so long, that his strong head is soaked, +sometimes even like the soft sponges, but the "man's a man for a' +that." Better, he is a great boy,--as wilful, as nonchalant and +good-humored. But you must hear him speak, not a show speech +which he never does well, but _with cause_ he can strike a stroke +like a smith. I owe to him a hundred fine hours and two or three +moments of Eloquence. His voice in a great house is admirable. +I am sorry if you decided not to visit him. He loves a _man,_ +too. I do not know him, but my brother Edward read law with him, +and loved him, and afterwards in sick and unfortunate days +received the steadiest kindness from him. + +Well, I am glad you are to think in earnest in Scotland of our +Cisatlantic claims. We shall have more rights over the wise and +brave, I believe before many years or months. We shall have more +men and a better cause than has yet moved on our stagnant waters. +I think our Church, so called, must presently vanish. There is a +universal timidity, conformity, and rage; and on the other hand +the most resolute realism in the young. The man Alcott bides his +time. I have a young poet in this village named Thoreau, who +writes the truest verses. I pine to show you my treasures; and +tell your wife, we have women who deserve to know her. + + --R.W. Emerson + +The Yankees read and study the new volumes of _Miscellanies_ even +more than the old. The "Sam Johnson" and "Scott" are great +favorites. Stearns Wheeler corrected proofs affectionately to +the last. Truth and Health be with you alway! + + + + +XLVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, 4 September, 1839 + +Dear Emerson,--A cheerful and right welcome Letter of yours, +dated 4th July, reached me here, duly forwarded, some three +weeks ago; I delayed answering till there could some definite +statement, as to bales of literature shipped or landed, or other +matter of business forwarded a stage, be made. I am here, with +my Wife, rusticating again, these two months; amid diluvian +rains, Chartism, Teetotalism, deficient harvest, and general +complaint and confusion; which not being able to mend, all that +I can do is to heed them as little as possible. "What care I for +the house? I am only a lodger." On the whole, I have sat under +the wing of Saint Swithin; uncheery, sluggish, murky, as the +wettest of his Days;--hoping always, nevertheless, that blue sky, +figurative and real, does exist, and will demonstrate itself by +and by. I have been the stupidest and laziest of men. I could +not write even to you, till some palpable call told me I must. + +Yesternight, however, there arrives a despatch from Fraser, +apprising me that the American _Miscellanies,_ second cargo, are +announced from Portsmouth, and "will probably be in the River +tomorrow"; where accordingly they in all likelihood now are, a +fair landing and good welcome to them! Fraser "knows not whether +they are bound or not"; but will soon know. The first cargo, of +which I have a specimen here, contented him extremely; only +there was one fatality, the cloth of the binding was multiplex, +party-colored, some sets done in green, others in red, blue, +perhaps skyblue! Now if the second cargo were not multiplex, +party-colored, nay multiplex, _in exact concordance with the +first,_ as seemed almost impossible--?--Alas, in that case, one +could not well predict the issue!--Seriously, it is a most +handsome Book you have made; and I have nothing to return but +thanks and again thanks. By the bye, if you do print a small +second edition of the First Portion, I might have had a small set +of errata ready: but _where are they?_ The Book only came into +my hand here a few days ago; and I have been whipt from post +to pillar without will of my own, without energy to form a +will! The only glaring error I recollect at this moment is one +somewhere in the second article on _Jean Paul:_ "Osion" (I +think, or some such thing) instead of "Orson": it is not an +original American error, but copied from the English; if the +Printer get his eye upon it, let him rectify; if not, not, I +_deserve_ to have it stand against me there. Fraser's joy, +should the Books prove either unbound or multiplex in the right +way, will be great and unalloyed; he calculates on selling all +the copies very soon. He has begun reprinting Goethe's _Wilhelm +Meister_ too, the _Apprenticeship_ and _Travels_ under one; and +hopes to remunerate himself for that by and by: whether there +will then remain any small peculium for me is but uncertain; +meanwhile I correct the press, nothing doubting. One of these I +call my best Translation, the other my worst; I have read that +latter, the _Apprenticeship,_ again in these weeks; not without +surprise, disappointment, nay, aversion here and there, yet on +the whole with ever new esteem. I find I can pardon _all_ things +in a man except purblindness, falseness of vision,--for, indeed, +does not that presuppose every other kind of falseness? + +But let me hasten to say that the _French Revolution,_ five +hundred strong for the New England market, is also, as Fraser +advises, "to go to sea in three days." It is bound in red cloth, +gilt; a pretty book, James says; which he will sell for +twenty-five shillings here;--nay, the London brotherhood have +"subscribed" for one hundred and eighty at once, which he +considers great work. I directed him to consign to Little and +Brown in Boston, the _property_ of the thing _yours,_ with such +phraseology and formalities as they use in those cases. I paid +him for it yesterday (to save discount) L95; that is the whole +cost to me, twenty or thirty pounds more than was once calculated +on. Do the best with it you can, my friend; and never mind the +result. If the thing fail, as is likely enough, we will simply +quit that transport trade, and my experience must be _paid for._ +The Title-page was "Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown," +then in a second line and smaller type, "London James Fraser"; +to which arrangement James made not the slightest objection, or +indeed rather seemed to like it.--So much for trade matters: is +it not _enough?_ I declare I blush sometimes, and wonder where +the good Emerson gets all his patience. We shall be through the +affair one day, and find something better to speak about than +dollars and pounds. And yet, as you will say, why not even of +dollars? Ah, there are leaden-worded [bills] of exchange I +have seen which have had an almost sacred character to me! +_Pauca verba._ + +Doubt not your new utterances are eagerly waited for here; above +all things the "Book" is what I want to see. You might have told +me what it was about. We shall see by and by. A man that has +discerned somewhat, and knows it for himself, let him speak it +out, and thank Heaven. I pray that they do not confuse you by +praises; their blame will do no harm at all. Praise is sweet to +all men; and yet alas, alas, if the light of one's own heart go +out, bedimmed with poor vapors and sickly false glitterings and +flashings, what profit is it! Happier in darkness, in all manner +of mere outward darkness, misfortune and neglect, "so that _thou +canst endure,_"--which however one cannot to all lengths. God +speed you, my Brother! I hope all good things of you; and +wonder whether like Phoebus Apollo you are destined to be a youth +forever.--Sterling will be right glad to hear your praises; not +unmerited, for he is a man among millions that John of mine, +though his perpetual mobility wears me out at times. Did he ever +write to you? His latest speculation was that he should and +would; but I fancy it is among the clouds again. I hear from +him the other day, out of Welsh villages where he passed his +boyhood, &c., all in a flow of "lyrical recognition," hope, +faith, and sanguine unrest; I have even some thoughts of +returning by Bristol (in a week or so, that must be), and seeing +him. The dog has been reviewing me, he says, and it is coming +out in the next _Westminster!_ He hates terribly my doctrine of +_"Silence."_ As to America and lecturing, I cannot in this +torpid condition venture to say one word. Really it is not +impossible; and yet lecturing is a thing I shall never grow to +like; still less lionizing, Martineau-ing: _Ach Gott!_ My Wife +sends a thousand regards; _she_ will never get across the ocean, +you must come to her; she was almost _dead_ crossing from +Liverpool hither, and declares she will never go to sea for any +purpose whatsoever again. Never till next time! My good old +Mother is here, my Brother John (home with his Duke from Italy); +all send blessings and affection to you and yours. Adieu till I +get to London. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + +XLVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 8 December, 1839 + +My Dear Emerson,--What a time since we have written to one +another! was it you that defalcated? Alas, I fear it was myself; +I have had a feeling these nine or ten weeks that you were +expecting to hear from me; that I absolutely could not write. +Your kind gift of Fuller's _Eckermann_* was handed in to our +Hackney coach, in Regent Street, as we wended homewards from the +railway and Scotland, on perhaps the 8th of September last; a +welcome memorial of distant friends and doings: nay, perhaps +there was a Letter two weeks prior to that:--I am a great sinner! +But the truth is, I could not write; and now I can and do it! + +---------- +* "Conversations with Goethe. Translated from the German of +Eckermann. By S.M. Fuller." Boston, 1839. This was the fourth +volume in the series of "Specimens of Foreign Standard +Literature," edited by George Ripley. The book has a +characteristic Preface by Miss Fuller, in which she speaks of +Carlyle as "the only competent English critic" of Goethe. +---------- + +Our sojourn in Scotland was stagnant, sad; but tranquil, _well +let alone,_--an indispensable blessing to a poor creature fretted +to fiddle-strings, as I grow to be in this Babylon, take it as I +will. We had eight weeks of desolate rain; with about eight +days bright as diamonds intercalated in that black monotony of +bad weather. The old Hills are the same; the old Streams go +gushing along as in past years, in past ages; but he that looks +on them is no longer the same: and the old Friends, where are +they? I walk silent through my old haunts in that country; sunk +usually in inexpressible reflections, in an immeasurable chaos of +musings and mopings that cannot be reflected or articulated. The +only work I had on hand was one that would not prosper with me: +an Article for the _Quarterly Review_ on the state of the Working +Classes here. The thoughts were familiar to me, old, many years +old; but the utterance of them, in what spoken dialect to utter +them! The _Quarterly Review_ was not an eligible vehicle, and +yet the eligiblest; of Whigs, abandoned to Dilettantism and +withered sceptical conventionality, there was no hope at all; +the _London-and-Westminster_ Radicals, wedded to their Benthamee +Formulas, and tremulous at their own shadows, expressly rejected +my proposal many months ago: Tories alone remained; Tories I +often think have more stuff in them, in spite of their blindness, +than any other class we have;--Walter Scott's _sympathy_ with his +fellow creatures, what is it compared with Sydney Smith's, with a +Poor Law Commissioner's! Well: this thing would not prosper +with me in Scotland at all; nor here at all, where nevertheless +I had to persist writing; writing and burning, and cursing my +destiny, and then again writing. Finally the thing came out, as +an Essay on _Chartism;_ was shown to Lockhart, according to +agreement; was praised by him, but was also found unsuitable by +him; suitable to _explode_ a whole fleet of Quarterlies into +sky-rockets in these times! And now Fraser publishes it himself, +with some additions, as a little Volume; and it will go forth in +a week or two on its own footing; and England will see what she +has to say to it, whether something or nothing; and one man, as +usual, is right glad that he has nothing more to do with it. +This is the reason why I could not write. I mean to send you the +Proof-sheets of this thing, to do with as you see cause; there +will be but some five or six, I think. It is probable my New +England brothers may approve some portions of it; may be curious +to see it reprinted; you ought to say Yes or No in regard to +that. I think I will send all the sheets together; or at +farthest, at two times. + +Fraser, when we returned hither, had already received his +_Miscellanies;_ had about despatched his five hundred _French +Revolutions,_ insured and so, forth, consigned, I suppose, to +your protection and the proper booksellers; probably they have +got over from New York into your neighborhood before now. Much +good may they do you! The _Miscellanies,_ with their variegated +binding, proved to be in perfect order; and are now all sold; +with much regret from poor James that we had not a thousand more +of them! This thousand he now sets about providing by his own +industry, poor man; I am revising the American copy in these +days; the printer is to proceed forthwith. I admire the good +Stearns Wheeler as I proceed; I write to him my thanks by this +post, and send him by Kennet a copy of Goethe's _Meister,_ for +symbol of acknowledgment. Another copy goes off for you, to the +care of Little and Company. Fraser has got it out two weeks ago; +a respectable enough book, now that the version is corrected +somewhat. Tell me whether you dislike it less; what you do +think of it? By the by, have you not learned to read German now? +I rather think you have. It is three months spent well, if ever +months were, for a thinking Englishman of this age.--I hope +Kennet will use more despatch than he sometimes does. Thank +Heaven for these Boston Steamers they project! May the Nereids +and Poseidon favor them! They will bring us a thousand miles +nearer, at one step; by and by we shall be of one parish +after all. + +During Autumn I speculated often about a Hegira into New England +this very year: but alas! my horror of _Lecturing_ continues +great; and what else is there for me to do there? These several +years I have had no wish so pressing as to hold my peace. I +begin again to feel some use in articulate speech; perhaps I +shall one day have something that I want to utter even in your +side of the water. We shall see. Patience, and shuffle the +cards.--I saw no more of Webster; did not even learn well where +he was, till lately I noticed in the Newspapers that he had gone +home again. A certain Mr. Brown (I think) brought me a letter +from you, not long since; I forwarded him to Cambridge and +Scotland: a modest inoffensive man. He said he had never +personally met with Emerson. My Wife recalled to him the story +of the Scotch Traveler on the top of Vesuvius: "Never saw so +beautiful a scene in the world!"--"Nor I," replied a stranger +standing there, "except once; on the top of Dunmiot, in the +Ochil Hills in Scotland."--"Good Heavens! That is a part of my +Estate, and I was never there! I will go thither." Yes, do!--We +have seen no other Transoceanic that I remember. We expect your +_Book_ soon! We know the subject of your Winter Lectures too; +at least Miss Martineau thinks she does, and makes us think so. +Heaven speed the work! Heaven send my good Emerson a clear +utterance, in all right ways, of the nobleness that dwells in +him! He knows what silence means; let him know speech also, in +its season the two are like canvas and pigment, like darkness and +light-image painted thereon; the one is essential to the other, +not possible without the other. + +Poor Miss Martineau is in Newcastle-on-Tyne this winter; sick, +painfully not dangerously; with a surgical brother-in-law. Her +meagre didacticalities afflict me no more; but also her blithe +friendly presence cheers me no more. We wish she were back. +This silence, I calculate, forced silence, will do her much good. +If I were a Legislator, I would order every man, once a week or +so, to lock his lips together, and utter no vocable at all +for four-and-twenty hours: it would do him an immense benefit, +poor fellow. Such racket, and cackle of mere hearsay and +sincere-cant, grows at last entirely deafening, enough to drive +one mad, --like the voice of mere infinite rookeries answering +your voice! Silence, silence! Sterling sent you a Letter from +Clifton, which I set under way here, having added the address. +He is not well again, the good Sterling; talks of Madeira this +season again: but I hope otherwise. You of course read his +sublime "article"? I tell him it was--a thing untellable! + +Mr. Southey has fallen, it seems, into a mournful condition: +oblivion, mute hebetation, loss of all faculty. He suffered +greatly, nursing his former wife in her insanity, for years till +her relief by death; suffered, worked, and made no moan; the +brunt of the task over, he sank into collapse in the hands of a +new wife he had just wedded. What a lot for him; for her +especially! The most excitable but most methodic man I have ever +seen. [Greek] that is a word that awaits us all.--I have my +brother here at present; though talking of Lisbon with his +Buccleuchs. My Wife seems better than of late winters. I +actually had a Horse, nay actually have it, though it has gone to +the country till the mud abate again! It did me perceptible +good; I mean to try it farther. I am no longer so desperately +poor as I have been for twelve years back; sentence of +starvation or beggary seems revoked at last, a blessedness +really very considerable. Thanks, thanks! We send a thousand +regards to the two little ones, to the two mothers. _Valete +nostrum memores._ + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +XLVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 12 December, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--Not until the 29th of November did the five +hundred copies of the _French Revolution_ arrive in Boston. +Fraser unhappily sent them to New York, whence they came not +without long delays. They came in perfectly good order, not in +the pretty red you told us of, but in a sober green;--not so +handsome and salable a back, our booksellers said, as their own; +but in every other respect a good book. The duties at the New +York Custom House on these and a quantity of other books sent by +Fraser amounted to $400.36, whereof, I understand, the _French +Revolution_ pays for its share $243. No bill has been brought us +for freight, so we conclude that you have paid it. I confided +the book very much to the conscience and discretion of Little and +Brown, and after some ciphering they settle to sell it at $3.75 +per copy, wherefrom you are to get the cost of the book, and +(say) $1.10 per copy profit, and no more. The booksellers +eat the rest. The book is rather too dear for our market of +cheap manufactures, and therefore we are obliged to give the +booksellers a good percentage to get it off at all: for we stand +in daily danger of a cheap edition from some rival neighbor. I +hope to give you good news of its sale soon, although I have been +assured today that no book sells, the times are so bad. Brown +had disposed of fifty or sixty copies to the trade, and twelve at +retail. He doubted not to sell them all in six months.... + +Several persons have asked me to get some copies of the _German +Romance_ sent over here for sale. Last week a gentleman desired me +to say he wanted four copies, and today I have been charged to +procure another. I think, if you will send me by Little and Brown, +through Longman, six copies, we can find an immediate market. + +It gives me great joy to write to my friend once more, slow as +you may think me to use the privilege. For a good while I dared +believe you were coming hither, and why should I write?--and now +for weeks I have been absorbed in my foolish lectures, of which +only two are yet delivered and ended. There should be eight +more; subject, "The Present Age." Out of these follies I +remember you with glad heart. Lately I had Sterling's letter, +which, since I have read his article on you, I am determined to +answer speedily. I delighted in the spirit of that paper, loving +you so well and accusing you so conscientiously. What does he at +Clifton? If you communicate with him, tell him I thank him for +his letter, and hold him dear. I am very happy lately in adding +one or two new friends to my little circle, and you may be sure +every friend of mine is a friend of yours. So when you come here +you shall not be lonely. A new person is always to me a great +event, and will not let me sleep.--I believe I was not wise to +volunteer myself to this fever fit of lecturing again. I ought +to have written instead in silence and serenity. Yet I work +better under this base necessity, and then I have a certain +delight (base also?) in speaking to a multitude. But my joy in +friends, those sacred people, is my consolation for the mishaps +of the adventure, and they for the most part come to me from this +_publication_ of myself.--After ten or twelve weeks I think I +shall address myself earnestly to writing, and give some form to +my formless scripture. + +I beg you will write to me and tell me what you do, and give me +good news of your wife and your brother. Can they not see the +necessity of your coming to look after your American interests? +My wife and mother love both you and them. A young man of New +York told me the other day he was about getting you an invitation +from an Association in that city to give them a course of +lectures on such terms as would at least make you whole in the +expenses of coming thither. We could easily do that in Boston. + + --R.W. Emerson + +What manner of person is Heraud? Do you read Landor, or know +him, O seeing man? Farewell! + + + + +XLIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 6 January, 1840 + +My Dear Emerson,--It is you, I surely think, that are in my debt +now;* nevertheless I must fling you another word: may it +cross one from you coming hither--as near the _Lizard Point_ as +it likes! + +--------- +* The preceding letter had not yet arrived. +--------- + +Some four sheets making a Pamphlet called _Chartism_ addressed to +you at Concord are, I suppose, snorting along through the waters +this morning, part of the Cargo of the "British Queen." At least +I gave them to Mr. Brown (your unseen friend) about ten days ago, +who promised to dispose of them; the "British Queen," he said, +was the earliest chance. The Pamphlet itself (or rather booklet, +for Fraser has gilt it, &c., and asks five shillings for it as a +Book) is out since then; radicals and others yelping +considerably in a discordant manner about it; I have nothing +other to say to _you_ about it than what I said last time, that +the sheets were _yours_ to do with as you saw good,--to burn if +you reckoned that fittest. It is not entirely a Political +Pamphlet; nay, there are one or two things in it which my +American Friends specially may like: but the interests discussed +are altogether English, and cannot be considered as likely to +concern New-Englishmen very much. However, it will probably be +itself in your hand before this sheet, and you will have +determined what is fit. + +A copy of _Wilhelm Meister,_ two copies, one for Stearns Wheeler, +are probably in some of the "Line Ships" at this time too: good +voyage to them! The _French Revolutions_ were all shipped, +invoiced, &c.; they have, I will suppose, arrived safe, as we +shall hear by and by. What freightages, landings, and +embarkments! For only two days ago I sent you off, through +Kennet, another Book: John Sterling's _Poems,_ which he has +collected into a volume. Poor John has overworked himself again, +or the climate without fault on his side has proved too hard for +him: he sails for Madeira again next week! His Doctors tell me +there is no intrinsic danger; but they judge the measure safe as +one of precaution. It is very mortifying he had nestled himself +down at Clifton, thinking he might now hope to continue there; +and lo! he has to fly again.--Did you get his letter? The +address to him now will be, for three months to come, "_Edward_ +Sterling, Esq., South Place, Knightsbridge, London," his +Father's designation. + +Farther I must not omit to say that Richard Monckton Milnes +purposes, through the strength of Heaven, to _review_ you! In +the next Number of the _London and Westminster,_ the courageous +youth will do this feat, if they let him. Nay, he has already +done it, the Paper being actually written he employed me last +week in negotiating with the Editors about it; and their answer +was, "Send us the Paper, it promises very well." We shall see +whether it comes out or not; keeping silence till then. Milnes +is a _Tory_ Member of Parliament; think of that! For the rest, +he describes his religion in these terms: "I profess to be a +Crypto-Catholic." Conceive the man! A most bland-smiling, semi- +quizzical, affectionate, high-bred, Italianized little man, who +has long olive-blond hair, a dimple, next to no chin, and flings +his arm round your neck when he addresses you in public society! +Let us hear now what he will say, of the American _Vates._* + +--------- +* The end of this letter has been cut off. +--------- + + + + +L. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 17 January, 1840 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Letter of the 12th of December, greatly, to +my satisfaction, has arrived; the struggling Steamship, in spite +of all hurricanes, has brought it safe across the waters to me. +I find it good to write you a word in return straightway; though +I think there are already two, or perhaps even three, messages of +mine to you flying about unacknowledged somewhere under the moon; +nay, the last of them perhaps may go by the same packet as this, +--having been forwarded, as this will be, to _Liverpool,_ after +the "British Queen" sailed from London. + +Your account of the _French Revolution_ packages, and prognosis +of what Little and Brown will do with them, is altogether as it +should be. I apprised Fraser instantly of his invoiceless Books, +&c.; he answers, that order has been taken in that long since, +"instructions" sent, and, I conclude, arrangements for _bills_ +least of all forgotten. I mentioned what share of the duty was +his; and that your men meant to draw on him for it. That is all +right. As to the _French Revolution,_ I agree with your +Booksellers altogether about it; the American Edition actually +pleases myself better for looking at; nor do I know that +this new English one has much superiority for use: it is +despicably printed, I fear, so far as false spellings and other +slovenlinesses can go. Fraser "finds the people like it"; +_credat Judaeus;_--as for me, I have told him I will _not print +any more_ with that man, but with some other man. Curious +enough, the price Little and Brown have fixed upon was the price +I remember guessing at beforehand, and the result they propose to +realize for me corresponds closely with my prophecy too. Thanks, +a thousand thanks, for all the trouble you never grudge to take. +We shall get ourselves handsomely out of this export and import +speculation; and know, taught at a rather _cheap_ rate, not to +embark in the like again. + +There went off a _Wilhelm Meister_ for you, and a letter to +announce it, several weeks ago; that was message first. Your +traveling neighbor, Brown, took charge of a Pamphlet named +_Chartism,_ to be put into the "British Queen's" Letter-bag +(where I hope, and doubt not, he did put it, though I have seen +nothing of him since); that and a letter in reference to it was +message second. Thirdly, I sent off a volume of _Poems_ by +Sterling, likewise announced in that letter. And now this that I +actually write is the fourth (it turns out to be) and last of all +the messages. Let us take Arithmetic along with us in all +things.--Of _Chartism_ I have nothing farther to say, except that +Fraser is striking off another One Thousand copies to be called +Second Edition; and that the people accuse me, not of being +an incendiary and speculative Sansculotte threatening to +become practical, but of being a Tory,--thank Heaven. The +_Miscellanies_ are at press; at _two_ presses; to be out, as +Hope asseverates, in March: five volumes, without _Chartism;_ +with Hoffmann and Tieck from German Romance, stuck in somewhere +as Appendix; with some other trifles stuck in elsewhere, chiefly +as Appendix; and no essential change from the Boston Edition. +Fraser, "overwhelmed with business," does not yet send me his net +result of those Two Hundred and Fifty Copies sold off some +time ago; so soon as he does, you shall hear of it for your +satisfaction.--As to _German Romance,_ tell my friends that it +has been out of print these ten years; procurable, of late not +without difficulty, only in the Old-Bookshops. The comfort is +that the best part of it stands in the new _Wilhelm Meister:_ +Fraser and I had some thought of adding Tieck's and Richter's +parts, had they suited for a volume; the rest may without +detriment to anybody perish. + +Such press-correctings and arrangings waste my time here, not in +the agreeablest way. I begin, though in as sulky a state of +health as ever, to look again towards some new kind of work. I +have often thought of Cromwell and Puritans; but do not see how +the subject can be presented still alive. A subject dead is not +worth presenting. Meanwhile I read rubbish of Books; Eichhorn, +Grimm, &c.; very considerable rubbish; one grain in the cart +load worth pocketing. It is pity I have no appetite for +lecturing! Many applications have been made to me here;--none +more touching to me than one, the day before yesterday, by a +fine, innocent-looking Scotch lad, in the name of himself and +certain other Booksellers' shopmen eastward in the City! I +cannot get them out of my head. Poor fellows! they have nobody +to say an honest word to them, in this articulate-speaking world, +and they apply to _me._--For you, good friend, I account you +luckier; I do verily: lecture there what innumerable things you +have got to say on "The Present Age";--yet withal do not forget +to _write_ either, for that is the lasting plan after all. I +have a curious Note, sent me for inspection the other day; it is +addressed to a Scotch Mr. Erskine (famed among the saints here) +by a Madame Necker, Madame de Stael's kinswoman, to whom he, the +said Mr. Erskine, had lent your first Pamphlet at Geneva. She +regards you with a certain love, yet a _shuddering_ love. She +says, "Cela sent l'Americain qui apres avoir abattu les forets a +coup de hache, croit qu'on doit de meme conquerir le monde +intellectuel"! What R.M. Milnes will say of you we hope also to +see.--I know both Heraud and Landor; but alas, what room is +here! Another sheet with less of "Arithmetic" in it will soon be +allowed me. Adieu, dear friend. + +Yours, ever and ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +LI. Emerson to Carlyle* + +New York, 18 March, 1840 + +My Dear Friend,--I have just seen the steamer "British Queen" +enter the harbor from sea, and here lies the "Great Western," to +sail tomorrow. I will not resist hints so broad upon my long +procrastinations. You shall have at least a tardy acknowledgment +that I received in January your letter of December, which I +should have answered at once had it not found me absorbed in +writing foolish lectures which were then in high tide. I had +written you, a little earlier, tidings of the receipt of your +_French Revolution._ Your letter was very welcome, as all +your letters are. I have since seen tidings of the _Essay on +Chartism_ in an English periodical, but have not yet got my +proof-sheets. They are probably still rolling somewhere outside +of this port, for all our packetships have had the longest +passages: only one has come in for many a week. We will be as +patient as we can. + +-------- +* This letter appeared in the _Athenaeum,_ for July 22, 1882 +-------- + +I am here on a visit to my brother, who is a lawyer in this city, +and lives at Staten Island, at a distance of half an hour's sail. +The city has such immense natural advantages and such +capabilities of boundless growth, and such varied and ever +increasing accommodations and appliances for eye and ear, for +memory and wit, for locomotion and lavation, and all manner of +delectation, that I see that the poor fellows that live here do +get some compensation for the sale of their souls. And how they +multiply! They estimate the population today at 350,000, and +forty years ago, it is said, there were but 20,000. But I always +seem to suffer some loss of faith on entering cities. They are +great conspiracies; the parties are all maskers, who have taken +mutual oaths of silence not to betray each other's secret and +each to keep the other's madness in countenance. You can scarce +drive any craft here that does not seem a subornation of the +treason. I believe in the spade and an acre of good ground. +Whoso cuts a straight path to his own bread, by the help of God +in the sun and rain and sprouting of the grain, seems to me an +_universal_ workman. He solves the problem of life, not for one, +but for all men of sound body. I wish I may one day send you +word, or, better, show you the fact, that I live by my hands +without loss of memory or of hope. And yet I am of such a puny +constitution, as far as concerns bodily labor, that perhaps I +never shall. We will see. + +Did I tell you that we hope shortly to send you some American +verses and prose of good intent? My vivacious friend Margaret +Fuller is to edit a journal whose first number she promises for +the 1st of July next, which I think will be written with a good +will if written at all. I saw some poetical fragments which +charmed me,--if only the writer consents to give them to +the public. + +I believe I have yet little to tell you of myself. I ended in +the middle of February my ten lectures on the Present Age. They +are attended by four hundred and fifty to five hundred people, +and the young people are so attentive; and out of the hall ask +me so many questions, that I assume all the airs of Age and +Sapience. I am very happy in the sympathy and society of from +six to a dozen persons, who teach me to hope and expect +everything from my countrymen. We shall have many Richmonds in +the field presently. I turn my face homeward to-morrow, and this +summer I mean to resume my endeavor to make some presentable book +of Essays out of my mountain of manuscript, were it only for the +sake of clearance. I left my wife, and boy, and girl,--the +softest, gracefulest little maiden alive, creeping like a turtle +with head erect all about the house,--well at home a week ago. +The boy has two deep blue wells for eyes, into which I gladly +peer when I am tired. Ellen, they say, has no such depth of orb, +but I believe I love her better than ever I did the boy. I +brought my mother with me here to spend the summer with William +Emerson and his wife and ruddy boy of four years. All these +persons love and honour you in proportion to their knowledge +and years. + +My letter will find you, I suppose, meditating new lectures for +your London disciples. May love and truth inspire them! I can +see easily that my predictions are coming to pass, and that. +having waited until your Fame wag in the floodtide, we shall not +now see you at all on western shores. Our saintly Dr. T---, I am +told, had a letter within a year from Lord Byron's daughter, +_informing_ the good man of the appearance of a certain wonderful +genius in London named Thomas Carlyle, and all his astonishing +workings on her own and her friends' brains, and him the very +monster whom the Doctor had been honoring with his best dread and +consternation these five years. But do come in one of Mr. +Cunard's ships as soon as the booksellers have made you rich. If +they fail to do so, come and read lectures which the Yankees will +pay for. Give my love and hope and perpetual remembrance to your +wife, and my wife's also, who bears her in her kindest heart, and +who resolves every now and then to write to her, that she may +thank her for the beautiful Guido. + +You told me to send you no more accounts. But I certainly shall, +as our financial relations are grown more complex, and I wish at +least to relieve myself of this unwonted burden of booksellers' +accounts and long delays, by sharing them. I have had one of +their estimates by me a year, waiting to send. Farewell. + + --R.W.E. + + + + +LII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 1 April, 1840 + +My Dear Emerson,--A Letter has been due to you from me, if not by +palpable law of reciprocity, yet by other law and right, for some +week or two. I meant to write, so soon as Fraser and I had got a +settlement effected. The traveling Sumner being about to return +into your neighborhood, I gladly accept his offer to take a +message to you. I wish I had anything beyond a dull Letter to +send! But unless, as my Wife suggests, I go and get you a +D'Orsay _Portrait_ of myself, I see not what there is! Do you +read German or not? I now and then fall in with a curious German +volume, not perhaps so easily accessible in the Western world. +Tell me. Or do you ever mean to learn it? I decidedly wish you +would.--As to the D'Orsay Portrait, it is a real curiosity: +Count D'Orsay the emperor of European Dandies portraying the +Prophet of spiritual Sansculottism! He came rolling down hither +one day, many months ago, in his sun-chariot, to the bedazzlement +of all bystanders; found me in dusty gray-plaid dressing-gown, +grim as the spirit of Presbyterianism (my Wife said), and +contrived to get along well enough with me. I found him a man +worth talking to, once and away; a man of decided natural gifts; +every utterance of his containing in it a wild caricature +_likeness_ of some object or other; a dashing man, who might, +some twenty years sooner born, have become one of Bonaparte's +Marshals, and _is,_ alas,--Count D'Orsay! The Portrait he dashed +off in some twenty minutes (I was dining there, to meet Landor); +we have not chanced to meet together since, and I refuse to +undergo any more eight-o'clock dinners for such an object.--Now +if I do not send you the Portrait, after all? + +Fraser's account of the _Miscellanies_ stood legibly extended +over large spaces of paper, and was in several senses amazing to +look upon. I trouble _you_ only with the result. Two Hundred +and forty-eight copies (for there were some one or two +"imperfect"): all these he had sold, at two guineas each; and +sold swiftly, for I recollect in December, or perhaps November, +he told me he was "holding back," not to run entirely out. Well, +of the L500 and odd so realized for these Books, the portion that +belonged to me was L239,--the L261 had been the expense of +handing the ware to Emerson over the counter, and drawing in +the coin for it! "Rules of the Trade";--it is a Trade, one would +surmise, in which the Devil has a large interest. However,--not +to spend an instant polluting one's eyesight with that side of +it,--let me feel joyfully, with thanks to Heaven and America, +that I do receive such a sum in the shape of wages, by decidedly +the noblest method in which wages could come to a man. Without +Friendship, without Ralph Waldo Emerson, there had been no +sixpence of that money here. Thanks, and again thanks. This +earth is not an unmingled ball of Mud, after all. Sunbeams +visit it;--mud _and_ sunbeams are the stuff it has from of old +consisted of.--I hasten away from the Ledger, with the mere good- +news that James is altogether content with the "progress" of all +these Books, including even the well-abused _Chartism_ Book. We +are just on the point of finishing our English reprint of the +_Miscellanies;_ of which I hope to send you a copy before long. + +And now why do not _you_ write to me? Your Lectures must be done +long ago. Or are you perhaps writing a Book? I shall be right +glad to hear of that; and withal to hear that you do not hurry +yourself, but strive with deliberate energy to produce what in +you is best. Certainly, I think, a right Book does lie in the +man! It is to be remembered also always that the true value is +determined by what we _do not_ write! There is nothing truer +than that now all but forgotten truth; it is eternally true. He +whom it concerns can consider it.--You have doubtless seen +Milnes's review of you. I know not that you will find it to +strike direct upon the secret of _Emerson,_ to hit the nail on +the head, anywhere at all; I rather think not. But it is +gently, not unlovingly done;--and lays the first plank of a kind +of pulpit for you here and throughout all Saxondom: a thing +rather to be thankful for. It on the whole surpassed my +expectations. Milnes tells me he is sending you a copy and a +Note, by Sumner. He is really a pretty little robin-redbreast of +a man. + +You asked me about Landor and Heraud. Before my paper entirely +vanish, let me put down a word about them. Heraud is a +loquacious scribacious little man, of middle age, of parboiled +greasy aspect, whom Leigh Hunt describes as "wavering in the most +astonishing manner between being Something and Nothing." To me +he is chiefly remarkable as being still--with his entirely +enormous vanity and very small stock of faculty--out of Bedlam. +He picked up a notion or two from Coleridge many years ago; and +has ever since been rattling them in his head, like peas in an +empty bladder, and calling on the world to "List the Music of the +spheres." He escapes _assassination,_ as I calculate, chiefly by +being the cheerfulest best-natured little creature extant.--You +cannot kill him he laughs so softly, even when he is like killing +you. John Mill said, "I forgive him freely for interpreting the +Universe, now when I find he cannot pronounce the _h's!_" Really +this is no caricature; you have not seen the match of Heraud in +your days. I mentioned to him once that Novalis had said, "The +highest problem of Authorship is the writing of a Bible."-- +"That is precisely what I am doing!" answered the aspiring, +unaspirating.*--Of Landor I have not got much benefit either. We +met first, some four years ago, on Cheyne Walk here: a tall, +broad, burly man, with gray hair, and large, fierce-rolling eyes; +of the most restless, impetuous vivacity, not to be held in by +the most perfect breeding,--expressing itself in high-colored +superlatives, indeed in reckless exaggeration, now and then in a +dry sharp laugh not of sport but of mockery; a wild man, whom no +extent of culture had been able to tame! His intellectual +faculty seemed to me to be weak in proportion to his violence of +temper: the judgment he gives about anything is more apt to be +wrong than right,--as the inward whirlwind shows him this side or +the other of the object; and _sides_ of an object are all that +he sees. He is not an original man; in most cases one but sighs +over the spectacle of common place torn to rags. I find him +painful as a writer; like a soul ever promising to take wing +into the Aether, yet never doing it, ever splashing webfooted in +the terrene mud, and only splashing the worse the more he +strives! Two new tragedies of his that I read lately are the +fatalest stuff I have seen for long: not an ingot; ah no, a +distracted coil of wire-drawings salable in no market. Poor +Landor has left his Wife (who is said to be a fool) in Italy, +with his children, who would not quit her; but it seems he has +honestly surrendered all his money to her, except a bare annuity +for furnished lodgings; and now lives at Bath, a solitary +sexagenarian, in that manner. He visits London in May; but says +always it would kill him soon: alas, I can well believe that! +They say he has a kind heart; nor does it seem unlikely: a +perfectly honest heart, free and fearless, dwelling amid such +hallucinations, excitations, tempestuous confusions, I can see he +has. Enough of him! Me he likes well enough, more thanks to +him; but two hours of such speech as his leave me giddy and +undone. I have seen some other Lions, and Lion's-_providers;_ +but consider them a worthless species.--When will you write, +then? Consider my frightful outlook with a Course of Lectures to +give "On Heroes and Hero-worship,"--from Odin to Robert Burns! +My Wife salutes you all. Good be in the Concord Household! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + +-------- +* There is an account of Heraud by an admirer in the _Dial_ for +October, 1842, p. 241. It contrasts curiously and instructively +with Carlyle's sketch. +-------- + + + + +LIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 21 April, 1840 + +My Dear Friend,--Three weeks ago I received a letter from you +following another in the week before, which I should have +immediately acknowledged but that I was promised a private +opportunity for the 25th of April, by which time I promised +myself to send you sheets of accounts. I had also written you +from New York about the middle of March. But now I suppose Mr. +Grinnell--a hospitable, humane, modest gentleman in Providence, +R.I., a merchant, much beloved by all his townspeople, and, +though no scholar, yet very fond of silently listening to such-- +is packing his trunk to go to England. He offered to carry any +letters for me, and as at his house during my visit to Providence +I was eagerly catechised by all comers concerning Thomas Carlyle, +I thought it behoved me to offer him for his brethren, sisters, +and companions' sake, the joy of seeing the living face of that +wonderful man. Let him see thy face and pass on his way. I who +cannot see it, nor hear the voice that comes forth of it, must +even betake me to this paper to repay the best I can the love of +the Scottish man, and in the hope to deserve more. + +Your letter announces _Wilhelm Meister,_ Sterling's _Poems,_ and +_Chartism._ I am very rich, or am to be. But Kennet is no +Mercury. _Wilhelm_ and _Sterling_ have not yet made their +appearance, though diligently inquired after by Stearns Wheeler +and me. Little and Brown now correspond with Longman, not with +Kennet. But they will come soon, perhaps are already arrived. + +_Chartism_ arrived at Concord by mail not until one of the last +days of March, though dated by you, I think, the 21st of +December. I returned home on the 3d of April, and found it +waiting. All that is therein said is well and strongly said, and +as the words are barbed and feathered the memory of men cannot +choose but carry them whithersoever men go. And yet I thought +the book itself instructed me to look for more. We seemed to +have a right to an answer less concise to a question so grave and +humane, and put with energy and eloquence. I mean that whatever +probabilities or possibilities of solution occurred should have +been opened to us in some detail. But now it stands as a +preliminary word, and you will one day, when the fact itself is +riper; write the Second Lesson; or those whom you have +influenced will. I read the book twice hastily through, and sent +it directly to press, fearing to be forestalled, for the London +book was in Boston already. Little and Brown are to print it. +Their estimate is:-- + + Printing page for page with copy ....... $63.35 + Paper .....................................44.00 + Binding .................................. 90.00 + Total .................................... $197.35 + +Costing say twenty cents per copy for one thousand copies bound. +The book to sell for fifty cents: the Bookseller's commission +twenty percent on the Retail price. The author's profit fifteen +cents per copy. They intend, if a cheap edition is published,-- +no unlikely event,--to stitch the book as pamphlet, and sell it +at thirty-eight cents. I expect it from the press in a few days. +I shall not on this sheet break into the other accounts, as I am +expecting hourly from Munroe's clerk an entire account of +R.W.E. with T.C., of which I have furnished him with all the +facts I had, and he is to write it out in the manner of his +craft. I did not give it to him until I had made some unsuccessful +experiments myself. + +I am here at work now for a fortnight to spin some single cord +out of my thousand and one strands of every color and texture +that lie raveled around me in old snarls. We need to be +possessed with a mountainous conviction of the value of our +advice to our contemporaries, if we will take such pains to find +what that is. But no, it is the pleasure of the spinning that +betrays poor spinners into the loss of so much good time. I +shall work with the more diligence on this book to-be of mine, +that you inform me again and again that my penny tracts are still +extant; nay, that, beside friendly men, learned and poetic men +read and even review them. I am like Scholasticus of the Greek +Primer, who was ashamed to bring out so small a dead child before +such grand people. Pygmalion shall try if he cannot fashion a +better, certainly a bigger.--I am sad to hear that Sterling sails +again for his health. I am ungrateful not to have written to +him, as his letter was very welcome to me. I will not promise +again until I do it. I received a note last week forwarded by +Mr. Hume from New York, and instantly replied to greet the good +messenger to our Babylonian city, and sent him letters to a few +friends of mine there. But my brother writes me that he had left +New York for Washington when he went to seek him at his lodgings. +I hope he will come northward presently, and let us see his face. + +_22 April._--Last evening came true the promised account drawn up +by Munroe's clerk, Chapman. I have studied it with more zeal +than success. An account seems an ingenious way of burying +facts: it asks wit equal to his who hid them to find them. I am +far as yet from being master of this statement, yet, as I have +promised it so long, I will send it now, and study a copy of it +at my leisure. It is intended to begin where the last account I +sent you, viz. of _French Revolution,_ ended, with a balance of +$9.53 in your favor.... I send you also a paper which Munroe drew +up a long time ago by way of satisfying me that, so far as the +first and second volumes [of the _Miscellanies_] were concerned, +the result had accorded with the promise that you should have +$1,000 profit from the edition. We prosper marvelously on paper, +but the realized benefit loiters. Will you now set some friend +of yours in Fraser's shop at work on this paper, and see if this +statement is true and transparent. I trust the Munroe firm,-- +chiefly Nichols, the clerical partner,--and yet it is a duty to +understand one's own affair. When I ask, at each six months' +reckoning, why we should always be in debt to them, they still +remind me of new and newer printing, and promise correspondent +profits at last. By sending you this account I make it entirely +an affair between you and them. You will have all the facts +which any of us know. I am only concerned as having advanced the +sums which are charged in the account for the payment of paper +and printing, and which promise to liquidate themselves soon, for +Munroe declares he shall have $550 to pay me in a few days. For +the benefit of all parties bid your clerk sift them. One word +more and I have done with this matter, which shall not be weary +if it comes to good,--the account of the London five hundred +_French Revolution_ is not yet six months old, and so does not +come in. Neither does that of the second edition of the first +and second volumes of the _Miscellanies,_ for the same reason. +They will come in due time. I have very good hope that my friend +Margaret Fuller's Journal--after many false baptisms now saying +it will be called _The Dial,_ and which is to appear in July-- +will give you a better knowledge of our young people than any you +have had. I will see that it goes to you when the sun first +shines on its face. You asked me if I read German, and I forget +if I have answered. I have contrived to read almost every volume +of Goethe, and I have fifty-five, but I have read nothing else: +but I have not now looked even into Goethe for a long time. +There is no great need that I should discourse to you on books, +least of all on _his_ books; but in a lecture on Literature, in +my course last winter, I blurted all my nonsense on that subject, +and who knows but Margaret Fuller may be glad to print it and +send it to you? I know not. + +A Bronson Alcott, who is a great man if he cannot write well, has +come to Concord with his wife and three children and taken a +cottage and an acre of ground to get his living by the help of +God and his own spade. I see that some of the Education people +in England have a school called "Alcott House" after my friend. +At home here he is despised and rejected of men as much as was +ever Pestalozzi. But the creature thinks and talks, and I am +glad and proud of my neighbor. He is interested more than need +is in the Editor Heraud. So do not fail to tell me of him. Of +Landor I would gladly know your knowledge. And now I think I +will release your eyes. + +Yours always, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +LIV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 June, 1840 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Since I wrote a couple of letters to you,--I +know not exactly when, but in near succession many weeks ago,-- +there has come to me _Wilhelm Meister_ in three volumes, goodly +to see, good to read,--indeed quite irresistible;--for though I +thought I knew it all, I began at the beginning and read to the +end of the _Apprenticeship,_ and no doubt shall despatch the +_Travels,_ on the earliest holiday. My conclusions and +inferences therefrom I will spare you now, since I appended them +to a piece I had been copying fairly for Margaret Fuller's +_Dial,_--"Thoughts on Modern Literature," and which is the +substance of a lecture in my last winter's course. But I learn +that my paper is crowded out of the first Number, and is not to +appear until October. I will not reckon the accidents that +threaten the ghost of an article through three months of pre- +existence! Meantime, I rest your glad debtor for the good book. +With it came Sterling's _Poems,_ which, in the interim, I have +acknowledged in a letter to him. Sumner has since brought me a +gay letter from yourself, concerning, in part, Landor and Heraud; +in which as I know justice is not done to the one I suppose it is +not done to the other. But Heraud I give up freely to your +tender mercies: I have no wish to save him. Landor can be shorn +of all that is false and foolish, and yet leave a great deal for +me to admire. Many years ago I have read a hundred fine +memorable things in the _Imaginary Conversations,_ though I know +well the faults of that book, and the _Pericles_ and _Aspasia_ +within two years has given me delight. I was introduced to the +man Landor when I was in Florence, and he was very kind to me in +answering a multitude of questions. His speech, I remember, was +below his writing. I love the rich variety of his mind, his +proud taste, his penetrating glances, and the poetic loftiness of +his sentiment, which rises now and then to the meridian, though +with the flight, I own, rather of a rocket than an orb, and +terminated sometimes by a sudden tumble. I suspect you of very +short and dashing reading in his books; and yet I should think +you would like him,--both of you such glorious haters of cant. +Forgive me, I have put you two together twenty times in my +thought as the only writers who have the old briskness and +vivacity. But you must leave me to my bad taste and my perverse +and whimsical combinations. + +I have written to Mr. Milnes who sent me by Sumner a copy of his +article with a note. I addressed my letter to him at "London,"-- +no more. Will it ever reach him? I told him that if I should +print more he would find me worse than ever with my rash, +unwhipped generalization. For my journals, which I dot here at +home day by day, are full of disjointed dreams, audacities, +unsystematic irresponsible lampoons of systems, and all manner of +rambling reveries, the poor drupes and berries I find in my +basket after endless and aimless rambles in woods and pastures. +I ask constantly of all men whether life may not be poetic as +well as stupid? + +I shall try and persuade Mr. Calvert, who has sent to me for a +letter to you, to find room in his trunk for a poor lithograph +portrait of our Concord "Battle-field," so called, and village, +that you may see the faint effigy of the fields and houses in +which we walk and love you. The view includes my Grandfather's +house (under the trees near the Monument), in which I lived for a +time until I married and bought my present house, which is not in +the scope of this drawing. I will roll up two of them, and, as +Sterling seems to be more nomadic than you, I beg you will send +him also this particle of foreign parts. + +With this, or presently after it, I shall send a copy of the +_Dial._ It is not yet much; indeed, though no copy has come to +me, I know it is far short of what it should be, for they have +suffered puffs and dulness to creep in for the sake of the +complement of pages; but it is better than anything we had; and +I have some poetry communicated to me for the next number which I +wish Sterling and Milnes to see. In this number what say you to +the _Elegy_ written by a youth who grew up in this town and lives +near me,--Henry Thoreau? A criticism on Persius is his also. +From the papers of my brother Charles, I gave them the fragments +on Homer, Shakespeare, Burke: and my brother Edward wrote the +little _Farewell,_ when last he left his home. The Address of +the Editors to the Readers is all the prose that is mine, and +whether they have printed a few verses for me I do not know. I +am daily expecting an account for you from Little and Brown. +They promised it at this time. It will speedily follow this +sheet, if it do not accompany it. But I am determined, if I +can, to send one letter which is not on business. Send me +some word of the Lectures. I have yet seen only the initial +notices. Surely you will send me some time the D'Orsay portrait. +Sumner thinks Mrs. Carlyle was very well when he saw her last, +which makes me glad.--I wish you both to love me, as I am +affectionately Yours, + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +LV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 2 July, 1840 + +My Dear Emerson,--Surely I am a sinful man to neglect so long +making any acknowledgment of the benevolent and beneficent +Arithmetic you sent me! It is many weeks, perhaps it is months, +since the worthy citizen--your Host as I understood you in some +of your Northern States--stept in here, one mild evening, with +his mild honest face and manners; presented me your Bookseller +Accounts; talked for half an hour, and then went his way into +France. Much has come and gone since then; Letters of yours, +beautiful Disciples of yours:--I pray you forgive me! I have +been lecturing; I have been sick; I have been beaten about in +all ways. Nay, at bottom, it was only three days ago that I got +the _Bibliopoliana_ back from Fraser; to whom, as you +recommended, I, totally inadequate like yourself to understand +such things, had straightway handed them for examination. I +always put off writing till Fraser should have spoken. I did not +urge him, or he would have spoken any day: there is my sin. + +Fraser declares the Accounts to be made out in the most beautiful +manner; intelligible to any human capacity; correct so far as +he sees, and promising to yield by and by a beautiful return of +money. A precious crop, which we must not cut in the blade; +mere time will ripen it into yellow nutritive ears yet. So he +thinks. The only point on which I heard him make any criticism +was on what he called, if I remember, "the number of Copies +_delivered,_"--that is to say, delivered by the Printer and +Binder as actually available for sale. The edition being of a +Thousand, there have only 984 come bodily forth; 16 are "waste." +Our Printers, it appears, are in the habit of _adding_ one for +every fifty beforehand, whereby the _waste_ is usually made good, +and more; so that in One Thousand there will usually be some +dozen called "Author's copies" over and above. Fraser supposes +your Printers have a different custom. That is all. The rest is +apparently every-way _right;_ is to be received with faith; +with faith, charity, and even hope,--and packed into the bottom +of one's drawer, never to be looked at more except on the +outside, as a memorial of one of the best and helpfulest of men! +In that capacity it shall lie there. + +My Lectures were in May, about _Great Men._ The misery of it was +hardly equal to that of former years, yet still was very hateful. +I had got to a certain feeling of superiority over my audience; +as if I had something to tell them, and would tell it them. At +times I felt as if I could, in the end, learn to speak. The +beautiful people listened with boundless tolerance, eager +attention. I meant to tell them, among other things, that man +was still alive, Nature not dead or like to die; that all true +men continued true to this hour,--Odin himself true, and the +Grand Lama of Thibet himself not wholly a lie. The Lecture on +Mahomet ("the Hero as Prophet") astonished my worthy friends +beyond measure. It seems then this Mahomet was not a quack? Not +a bit of him! That he is a better Christian, with his "bastard +Christianity," than the most of us shovel-hatted? I guess than +almost any of you!--Not so much as Oliver Cromwell ("the Hero as +King") would I allow to have been a Quack. All quacks I asserted +to be and to have been Nothing, _chaff_ that would not grow: my +poor Mahomet "was _wheat_ with barn sweepings"; Nature had +tolerantly hidden the barn sweepings; and as to the _wheat,_ +behold she had said Yes to it, and it was growing!--On the whole, +I fear I did little but confuse my esteemed audience: I was +amazed, after all their reading of me, to be understood so ill;-- +gratified nevertheless to see how the rudest _speech_ of a man's +heart goes into men's hearts, and is the welcomest thing there. +Withal I regretted that I had not six months of preaching, +whereby to learn to preach, and explain things fully! In the +fire of the moment I had all but decided on setting out for +America this autumn, and preaching far and wide like a very lion +there. Quit your paper formulas, my brethren,--equivalent to old +wooden idols, _un_divine as they: in the name of God, understand +that you are alive, and that God is alive! Did the Upholsterer +make this Universe? Were you created by the Tailor? I tell you, +and conjure you to believe me literally, No, a thousand times No! +Thus did I mean to preach, on "Heroes, Hero-worship, and the +Heroic"; in America too. Alas! the fire of determination died +away again: all that I did resolve upon was to write these +Lectures down, and in some way promulgate them farther. Two of +them accordingly are actually written; the Third to be begun on +Monday: it is my chief work here, ever since the end of May. +Whether I go to preach them a second time extempore in America +rests once more with the Destinies. It is a shame to talk so +much about a thing, and have it still hang _in nubibus:_ but I +was, and perhaps am, really nearer doing it than I had ever +before been. A month or two now, I suppose, will bring us back +to the old nonentity again. Is there, at bottom, in the world or +out of it, anything one would like so well, with one's whole +heart _well,_ as PEACE? Is lecturing and noise the way to get at +that? Popular lecturer! Popular writer! If they would +undertake in Chancery, or Heaven's Chancery, to make a wise man +Mahomet Second and Greater, "Mahomet of Saxondom," not reviewed +only, but worshiped for twelve centuries by all Bulldom, Yankee- +doodle-doodom, Felondom New Zealand, under the Tropics and in +part of Flanders,--would he not rather answer: Thank you; but +in a few years I shall be dead, twelve Centuries will have become +Eternity; part of Flanders Immensity: we will sit still here if +you please, and consider what quieter thing we can do! Enough +of this. + +Richard Milnes had a Letter from you, one morning lately, when I +met him at old Rogers's. He is brisk as ever; his kindly +_Dilettantism_ looking sometimes as if it would grow a sort of +Earnest by and by. He has a new volume of Poems out: I advised +him to try Prose; he admitted that Poetry would not be generally +read again in these ages,--but pleaded, "It was so convenient for +veiling commonplace!" The honest little heart!--We did not know +what to make of the bright Miss --- here; she fell in love with +my wife;--the _contrary,_ I doubt, with me: my hard realism +jarred upon her beautiful rose-pink dreams. Is not all that very +morbid,--unworthy the children of Odin, not to speak of Luther, +Knox, and the other Brave? I can do nothing with vapors, but +wish them _condensed._ Kennet had a copy of the English +_Miscellanies_ for you a good many weeks ago: indeed, it was +just a day or two _before_ your advice to try Green henceforth. +Has the _Meister_ ever arrived? I received a Controversial +Volume from Mr. Ripley: pray thank him very kindly. Somebody +borrowed the Book from me; I have not yet read it. I did read a +Pamphlet which seems now to have been made part of it. Norton* +surely is a chimera; but what has the whole business they are +jarring about become? As healthy _worshiping_ Paganism is to +Seneca and Company, so is healthy worshiping Christianity to--I +had rather not work the sum!--Send me some swift news of +yourself, dear Emerson. We salute you and yours, in all +heartiness of brotherhood. + +Yours ever and always-- + T. Carlyle + +--------- +* Professor Andrews Norton. The controversy was that occasioned +by Professor Norton's Discourse on "The Latest Form of +Infidelity." +--------- + + + + +LVI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 August, 1840 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I fear, nay I know, that when I wrote last to +you, about the 1st of July, I promised to follow my sheet +immediately with a bookseller's account. The bookseller did +presently after render his account, but on its face appeared the +fact--which with many and by me unanswerable reasons they +supported--that the balance thereon credited to you was not +payable until the 1st of October. The account is footed "Net +sales of _French Revolution_ to 1 July, 1840, due October 1, +$249.77." Let us hope then that we shall get, not only a new +page of statement, but also some small payment in money a month +hence. Having no better story to tell, I told nothing. + +But I will not let the second of the Cunard boats leave Boston +without a word to you. Since I wrote by Calvert came your letter +describing your lectures and their success: very welcome news, +for a good London newspaper, which I consulted, promised reports, +but gave none. I have heard so oft of your projected trip to +America, that my ear would now be dull, and my faith cold, but +that I wish it so much. My friend, your audience still waits for +you here willing and eager, and greatly larger no doubt than it +would have been when the matter was first debated. + +Our community begin to stand in some terror of Transcendentalism, +and the _Dial,_ poor little thing, whose first number contains +scarce anything considerable or even visible, is just now honored +by attacks from almost every newspaper and magazine; which at +least betrays the irritability and the instincts of the good +public. But they would hardly be able to fasten on so huge a man +as you are any party badge. We must all hear you for ourselves. +But beside my own hunger to see and know you, and to hear you +speak at ease and at large under my own roof, I have a growing +desire to present you to three or four friends, and them to you. +Almost all my life has been passed alone. Within three or four +years I have been drawing nearer to a few men and women whose +love gives me in these days more happiness than I can write of. +How gladly I would bring your Jovial light upon this friendly +constellation, and make you too know my distant riches! We have +our own problems to solve also, and a good deal of movement and +tendency emerging into sight every day in church and state, in +social modes and in letters. I sometimes fancy our cipher is +larger and easier to read than that of your English society. + +You will naturally ask me if I try my hand at the history of all +this,--I who have leisure, and write. No, not in the near and +practical way in which they seem to invite. I incline to write +philosophy, poetry, possibility,--anything but history. And yet +this phantom of the next age limns himself sometimes so large and +plain that every feature is apprehensible, and challenges a +painter. I can brag little of my diligence or achievement this +summer. I dot evermore in my endless journal, a line on every +knowable in nature; but the arrangement loiters long, and I get +a brick kiln instead of a house.--Consider, however, that all +summer I see a good deal of company,--so near as my fields are to +the city. But next winter I think to omit lectures, and write +more faithfully. Hope for me that I shall get a book ready to +send you by New-Year's-day. + +Sumner came to see me the other day. I was glad to learn all the +little that he knew of you and yours. I do not wonder you set so +lightly by my talkative countryman. He has brought nothing home +but names, dates, and prefaces. At Cambridge last week I saw +Brown for the first time. I had little opportunity to learn what +he knew. Mr. Hume has never yet shown his face here. He sent me +his Poems from New York, and then went South, and I know no more +of him. + +My Mother and Wife send you kind regards and best wishes,--to you +and all your house. Tell your wife that I hate to hear that she +cannot sail the seas. Perhaps now she is stronger she will be a +better sailor. For the sake of America will she not try the trip +to Leith again? It is only twelve days from Liverpool to Boston. +Love, truth, and power abide with you always! + + --R.W.E. + + + + +LVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 26 September, 1840 + +My Dear Emerson,--Two Letters of yours are here, the latest of +them for above a week: I am a great sinner not to have answered +sooner. My way of life has been a thing of petty confusions, +uncertainties; I did not till a short while ago see any definite +highway, through the multitude of byelanes that opened out on me, +even for the next few months. Partly I was busy; partly too, as +my wont is, I was half asleep:--perhaps you do not know the +_combination_ of these two predicables in one and the same +unfortunate human subject! Seeing my course now for a little, I +must speak. + +According to your prognosis, it becomes at length manifest that I +do _not_ go to America for the present. Alas, no! It was but a +dream of the fancy; projected, like the French shoemaker's fairy +shoes, "in a moment of enthusiasm." The nervous flutter of May +Lecturing has subsided into stagnancy; into the feeling that, of +all things in the world, public speaking is the hatefulest for +me; that I ought devoutly to thank Heaven there is no absolute +compulsion laid on me at present to speak! My notion in general +was but an absurd one: I fancied I might go across the sea, open +my lips wide; go raging and lecturing over the Union like a very +lion (too like a frothy mountebank) for several months;--till I +had gained, say a thousand pounds; therewith to retire to some +small, quiet cottage by the shore of the sea, at least three +hundred miles from this, and sit silent there for ten years to +come, or forever and a day perhaps! That was my poor little day +dream;--incapable of being realized. It appears, I have to stay +here, in this brick Babylon; tugging at my chains, which will +not break for me: the less I tug, the better. Ah me! On the +whole, I have written down my last course of lectures, and shall +probably print them; and you, with the aid of proof-sheets, may +again print them; that will be the easiest way of lecturing to +America! It is truly very weak to speak about that matter so +often and long, that matter of coming to you; and never to come. +_Frey ist das Herz,_ as Goethe says, _doch ist der Fuss +gebunden._ After innumerable projects, and invitations towards +all the four winds, for this summer, I have ended about a week +ago by--simply going nowhither, not even to see my dear aged +Mother, but sitting still here under the Autumn sky such as I +have it; in these vacant streets I am lonelier than elsewhere, +have more chance for composure than elsewhere! With Sterne's +starling I repeat to myself, "I can't get out."--Well, hang it, +stay in then; and let people alone of it! + +I have parted with my horse; after an experiment of seven or +eight months, most assiduously prosecuted, I came to the +conclusion that, though it did me some good, there was not +_enough_ of good to warrant such equestrianism: so I plunged +out, into green England, in the end of July, for a whole week of +riding, an _explosion_ of riding, therewith to end the business, +and send off my poor quadruped for sale. I rode over Surrey,-- +with a leather valise behind me and a mackintosh before; very +singular to see: over Sussex, down to Pevensey where the Norman +Bastard landed; I saw Julius Hare (whose _Guesses at Truth_ you +perhaps know), saw Saint Dunstan's stithy and hammer, at +Mayfield, and the very tongs with which he took the Devil by the +nose;--finally I got home again, a right wearied man; sent my +horse off to be sold, as I say; and finished the writing of my +Lectures on Heroes. This is all the rustication I have had, or +am like to have. I am now over head and ears in _Cromwellian_ +Books; studying, for perhaps the fourth time in my life, to see +if it be possible to get any credible face-to-face acquaintance +with our English Puritan period; or whether it must be left +forever a mere hearsay and echo to one. Books equal in dulness +were at no epoch of the world penned by unassisted man. +Nevertheless, courage! I have got, within the last twelve +months, actually, as it were, to _see_ that this Cromwell was one +of the greatest souls ever born of the English kin; a great +amorphous semi-articulate _Baresark;_ very interesting to me. I +grope in the dark vacuity of Baxters, Neales; thankful for here +a glimpse and there a glimpse. This is to be my reading for +some time. + +The _Dial_ No. 1 came duly: of course I read it with interest; +it is an utterance of what is purest, youngest in your land; +pure, ethereal, as the voices of the Morning! And yet--you +know me--for me it is _too_ ethereal, speculative, theoretic: +all theory becomes more and more confessedly inadequate, untrue, +unsatisfactory, almost a kind of mockery to me! I will have all +things condense themselves, take shape and body, if they are to +have my sympathy. I have a _body_ myself; in the brown leaf, +sport of the Autumn winds, I find what mocks all prophesyings, +even Hebrew ones,--Royal Societies, and Scientific Associations +eating venison at Glasgow, not once reckoned in! Nevertheless go +on with this, my Brothers. The world has many most strange +utterances of a prophetic nature in it at the present time; and +this surely is worth listening to among the rest. Do you know +English Puseyism? Good Heavens! in the whole circle of History +is there the parallel of that,--a true worship rising at this +hour of the day for Bands and the Shovel-hat? Distraction +surely, incipience of the "final deliration" enters upon the poor +old English Formulism that has called itself for some two +centuries a Church. No likelier symptom of its being soon about +to leave the world has come to light in my time. As if King +Macready should quit Covent-Garden, go down to St. Stephen's, and +insist on saying, _Le roi le veut!_--I read last night the +wonderfulest article to that effect, in the shape of a criticism +on myself, in the _Quarterly Review._ It seems to be by one +Sewell, an Oxford doctor of note, one of the chief men among the +Pusey-and-Newman Corporation. A good man, and with good notions, +whom I have noted for some years back. He finds me a very worthy +fellow; "true, most true,"--except where I part from Puseyism, +and reckon the shovel-hat to be an old bit of felt; then I am +false, most false. As the Turks say, _Allah akbar!_ + +I forget altogether what I said of Landor; but I hope I did not +put him in the Heraud category: a cockney windbag is one thing; +a scholar and bred man, though incontinent, explosive, half-true, +is another. He has not been in town, this year; Milnes +describes him as _eating_ greatly at Bath, and perhaps even +cooking! Milnes did get your Letter: I told you? Sterling has +the Concord landscape; mine is to go upon the wall here, and +remind me of many things. Sterling is busy writing; he is to +make Falmouth do, this winter, and try to dispense with Italy. +He cannot away with my doctrine of _Silence;_ the good John. My +Wife has been better than usual all summer; she begins to shiver +again as winter draws nigh. Adieu, dear Emerson. Good be with +you and yours. I must be far gone when I cease to love you. +"The stars are above us, the graves are under us." Adieu. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +LVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 October, 1840 + +My Dear Friend,--My hope is that you may live until this creeping +bookseller's balance shall incline at last to your side. My rude +ciphering, based on the last account of this kind which I sent +you in April from J. Munroe & Co., had convinced me that I was to +be in debt to you at this time L40 or more; so that I actually +bought L40 the day before the "Caledonia" sailed to send you; +but on giving my new accounts to J.M. & Co., to bring the +statement up to this time, they astonished me with the above +written result. I professed absolute incredulity, but Nichols* +labored to show me the rise and progress of all my blunders. +Please to send the account with the last to your Fraser, and have +it sifted. That I paid, a few weeks since, $481.34, and again, +$28.12, for printing and paper respectively, is true.--C.C. +Little & Co. acknowledge the sale of 82 more copies of the London +Edition _French Revolution_ since the 187 copies of July 1; but +these they do not get paid for until January 1, and we it seems +must wait as long. We will see if the New-Year's-day will bring +us more pence. + +--------- +* Partner in the firm of J. Munroe & Co. +--------- + +I received by the "Acadia" a letter from you, which I acknowledge +now, lest I should not answer it more at large on another sheet, +which I think to do. If you do not despair of American +booksellers send the new proofs of the Lectures when they are in +type to me by John Green, 121 Newgate Street (I believe), to the +care of J. Munroe & Co. He sends a box to Munroe by every +steamer. I sent a _Dial,_ No. 2, for you, to Green. Kennet, I +hear, has failed. I hope he did not give his creditors my +_Miscellanies,_ which you told me were there. I shall be glad if +you will draw Cromwell, though if I should choose it would be +Carlyle. You will not feel that you have done your work until +those devouring eyes and that portraying hand have achieved +England in the Nineteenth Century. Perhaps you cannot do it +until you have made your American visit. I assure you the view +of Britain is excellent from New England. + +We are all a little wild here with numberless projects of social +reform. Not a reading man but has a draft of a new Community in +his waistcoat pocket. I am gently mad myself, and am resolved to +live cleanly. George Ripley is talking up a colony of +agriculturists and scholars, with whom he threatens to take the +field and the book.* One man renounces the use of animal food; +and another of coin; and another of domestic hired service; and +another of the State; and on the whole we have a commendable +share of reason and hope. + +----------- +* Preliminary to the experiment of Brook Farm, in 1841. +----------- + +I am ashamed to tell you, though it seems most due, anything of +my own studies, they seem so desultory, idle, and unproductive. +I still hope to print a book of essays this winter, but it cannot +be very large. I write myself into letters, the last few months, +to three or four dear and beautiful persons, my country-men and +women here. I lit my candle at both ends, but will now be colder +and scholastic. I mean to write no lectures this winter. I hear +gladly of your wife's better health; and a letter of Jane +Tuckerman's, which I saw, gave the happiest tidings of her. We +do not despair of seeing her yet in Concord, since it is now but +twelve and a half days to you. + +I had a letter from Sterling, which I will answer. In all love +and good hope for you and yours, your affectionate + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +LIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 9 December, 1840 + +Dear Emerson,--My answer on this occasion has been delayed above +two weeks by a rigorous, searching investigation into the +procedure of the hapless Book-conveyer, Kennet, in reference to +that copy of the _Miscellanies._ I was deceived by hopes of a +conclusive response from day to day; not till yesterday did any +come. My first step, taken long ago, was to address a new copy +of the Book, not to you, luckless man, but to _Lydia_ Emerson, +the fortunate wife; this copy Green now has lying by him, +waiting for the January Steamer (we sail only once a month in +this season); before the New Year has got out of infancy the +Lady will be graciously pleased to make a few inches of room on +her bookshelves for this celebrated performance. And now as to +Kennet, take the brief outcome of some dozen visitations, +judicial interrogatories, searches of documents, and other +piercing work on the part of methodic Fraser, attended with +demurrers, pleadings, false denials, false affirmings, on the +part of innocent chaotic Kennet: namely, that the said Kennet, +so urged, did in the end of the last week, fish up from his +repositories your very identical Book directed to Munroe's care, +duly booked and engaged for, in May last, but left to repose +itself in the Covent-Garden crypts ever since without disturbance +from gods or men! Fraser has brought back the Book, and you have +lost it;--and the Library of my native village in Scotland is to +get it; and not Kennet any more in this world, but Green ever +henceforth is to be our Book Carrier. There is a history. +Green, it seems, addresses also to Munroe; but the thing, I +suppose, will now shift for itself without watching. + +As to the bibliopolic Accounts, my Friend! we will trust them, +with a faith known only in the purer ages of Roman Catholicism,-- +when Papacy had indeed become a Dubiety, but was not yet a +Quackery and Falsehood, was a thing _as_ true as it could manage +to be! That really may be the fact of this too. In any case +what signifies it much? Money were still useful; but it is not +now so indispensable. Booksellers by their knavery or their +fidelity cannot kill us or cure us. Of the truth of Waldo +Emerson's heart to me, there is, God be thanked for it, no doubt +at all. + +My Hero-Lectures lie still in Manuscript. Fraser offers no +amount of cash adequate to be an outward motive; and inwardly +there is as yet none altogether clear, though I rather feel of +late as if it were clearing. To fly in the teeth of English +Puseyism, and risk such shrill welcome as I am pretty sure of, is +questionable: yet at bottom why not? Dost thou not as entirely +reject this new Distraction of a Puseyism as man can reject a +thing,--and couldst utterly abjure it, and even abhor it,--were +the shadow of a cobweb ever likely to become momentous, the +cobweb itself being _beheaded,_ with axe and block on Tower Hill, +two centuries ago? I think it were as well to _tell_ Puseyism +that it has something of good, but also much of bad and even +worst. We shall see. If I print the thing, we shall surely take +in America again; either by stereotype or in some other way. +Fear not that!--Do you attend at all to this new _Laudism_ of +ours? It spreads far and wide among our Clergy in these days; a +most notable symptom, very cheering to me many ways; whether or +not one of the fatalest our poor Church of England has ever +exhibited, and betokening swifter ruin to it than any other, I do +not inquire. Thank God, men do discover at last that there is +still a God present in their affairs, and must be, or their +affairs are of the Devil, naught, and worthy of being sent to the +Devil! This once given, I find that all is given; daily +History, in Kingdom and in Parish, is an _experimentum crucis_ to +show what is the Devil's and what not. But on the whole are we +not the _formalest_ people ever created under this Sun? Cased +and overgrown with Formulas, like very lobsters with their +shells, from birth upwards; so that in the man we see only his +breeches, and believe and swear that wherever a pair of old +breeches are there is a man! I declare I could both laugh and +cry. These poor good men, merciful, zealous, with many +sympathies and thoughts, there do they vehemently appeal to me, +_Et tu, Brute?_ Brother, wilt thou too insist on the breeches +being old,--not ply a needle among us here?--To the naked +Caliban, gigantic, for whom such breeches would not be a glove, +who is stalking and groping there in search of new breeches and +accoutrements, sure to get them, and to tread into nonentity +whoever hinders him in the search,--they are blind as if they had +no eyes. Sartorial men; ninth-parts of a man:--enough of them. + +The second Number of the _Dial_ has also arrived some days ago. +I like it decidedly better than the first; in fact, it is right +well worth being put on paper, and sent circulating;--I find +only, as before that it is still too much of a soul for +circulating as it should. I wish you could in future contrive to +mark at the end of each Article who writes it, or give me some +general key for knowing. I recognize Emerson readily; the rest +are of [Greek] for most part. But it is all good and very good +as a _soul;_ wants only a body, which want means a great deal! +Your Paper on Literature is incomparably the worthiest thing +hitherto; a thing I read with delight. Speak out, my brave +Emerson; there are many good men that listen! Even what you +say of Goethe gratifies me; it is one of the few things yet +spoken of him from personal insight, the sole kind of things that +should be spoken! You call him _actual,_ not _ideal;_ there is +truth in that too; and yet at bottom is not the whole truth +rather this: The actual well-seen _is_ the ideal? The _actual,_ +what really is and exists: the past, the present, the future no +less, do all lie there! Ah yes! one day you will find that this +sunny-looking, courtly Goethe held veiled in him a Prophetic +sorrow deep as Dante's,--all the nobler to me and to you, that he +_could_ so hold it. I believe this; no man can _see_ as he +sees, that has not suffered and striven as man seldom did.-- +Apropos of _this,_ Have you got Miss Martineau's _Hour and Man?_ +How curious it were to have the real History of the Negro +Toussaint, and his _black_ Sansculottism in Saint Domingo,--the +most atrocious form Sansculottism could or can assume! This of a +"black Wilberforce-Washington," as Sterling calls it, is +decidedly something. Adieu, dear Emerson: time presses, paper +is done. Commend me to your good wife, your good Mother, and +love me as well as you can. Peace and health under clear winter +skies be with you all. + + --T. Carlyle + +My Wife rebukes me sharply that I have "forgot her love." She is +much better this winter than of old. + +Having mentioned Sterling I should say that he is at Torquay +(Devonshire) for the winter, meditating new publication of Poems. +I work still in Cromwellism; all but desperate of any feasible +issue worth naming. I "enjoy bad health" too, considerably! + + + + +LX. Carlyle to Mrs. Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 21 February, 1841 + +Dear Mrs. Emerson,--Your Husband's Letter shall have answer when +some moment of leisure is granted me; he will wait till then, +and must. But the beautiful utterance which you send over to me; +melodious as the voice of flutes, of Aeolian Harps borne on the +rude winds so _far,_--this must have answer, some word or +growl of answer, be there leisure or none! The "Acadia," it +seems, is to return from Liverpool the day after tomorrow. I +shove my paper-whirlpools aside for a little, and grumble in +pleased response. + +You are an enthusiast; make Arabian Nights out of dull foggy +London Days; with your beautiful female imagination, shape +burnished copper Castles out of London Fog! It is very beautiful +of you;--nay, it is not foolish either, it is wise. I have a +guess what of truth there may be in that; and you the fair +Alchemist, are you not all the richer and better that you know +the _essential_ gold, and will not have it called pewter or +spelter, though in the shops it is only such? I honor such +Alchemy, and love it; and have myself done something in that +kind. Long may the talent abide with you; long may I abide to +have it exercised on me! Except the Annandale Farm where my good +Mother still lives, there is no House in all this world which I +should be gladder to see than the one at Concord. It seems to +stand as only over the hill, in the next Parish to me, familiar +from boyhood. Alas! and wide-waste Atlantics roll between; and +I cannot walk over of an evening!--I never give up the hope of +getting thither some time. Were I a little richer, were I +a little healthier; were I this and that--!--One has no +Fortunatus' "Time-annihilating" or even "Space-annihilating Hat": +it were a thing worth having in this world. + +My Wife unites with me in all kindest acknowledgments: she is +getting stronger these last two years; but is still such a +_sailor_ as the Island hardly parallels: had she the _Space- +annihilating Hat,_ she too were soon with you. +Your message shall reach Miss Martineau; my Dame will send it in +her first Letter. The good Harriet is not well; but keeps a +very courageous heart. She lives by the shore of the beautiful +blue Northumbrian Sea; a "many-sounding" solitude which I often +envy her. She writes unweariedly, has many friends visiting her. +You saw her _Toussaint l'Ouverture:_ how she has made such a +beautiful "black Washington," or "Washington-Christ-Macready," as +I have heard some call it, of a rough-handed, hard-headed, semi- +articulate gabbling Negro; and of the horriblest phasis that +"Sansculottism" _can_ exhibit, of a Black Sansculottism, a +musical Opera or Oratorio in pink stockings! It is very +beautiful. Beautiful as a child's heart,--and in so shrewd a +head as that. She is now writing express Children's-Tales, which +I calculate I shall find more perfect. + +Some ten days ago there went from me to Liverpool, perhaps there +will arrive at Concord by this very "Acadia," a bundle of Printed +Sheets directed to your Husband: pray apprise the man of that. +They are sheets of a Volume called _Lectures on Heroes;_ the +Concord Hero gets them without direction or advice of any kind. +I have got some four sheets more ready for him here; shall +perhaps send them too, along with this. Some four again more +will complete the thing. I know not what he will make of it;-- +perhaps wry faces at it? + +Adieu, dear Mrs. Emerson. We salute you from this house. May +all good which the Heavens grant to a kind heart, and the good +which they never _refuse_ to one such, abide with you always. I +commend myself to your and Emerson's good Mother, to the +mischievous Boys and--all the Household. Peace and fair Spring- +weather be there! + +Yours with great regard, + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 28 February, 1841 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Behold Mr. George Nichols's new digest and +exegesis of his October accounts. The letter seems to me the +most intelligible of the two papers, but I have long been that +man's victim, semi-annually, and never dare to make head against +his figures. You are a brave man, and out of the ring of his +enchantments, and withal have magicians of your own who can give +spell for spell, and read his incantations backward. I entreat +you to set them on the work, and convict his figures if you +can. He has really taken pains, and is quite proud of his +establishment of his accounts. In a month it will be April, and +be will have a new one to fender. Little and Brown also in April +promise a payment on _French Revolution,_--and I suppose +something is due from _Chartism._ We will hope that a Bill of +Exchange will yet cross from us to you, before our booksellers +fail. + +I hoped before this to have reached my last proofsheet, but shall +have two or three more yet. In a fortnight or three weeks my +little raft will be afloat.* Expect nothing more of my powers of +construction,--no shipbuilding, no clipper, smack, nor skiff +even, only boards and logs tied together. I read to some +Mechanics' Apprentices a long lecture on Reform, one evening, a +little while ago. They asked me to print it, but Margaret Fuller +asked it also, and I preferred the _Dial,_ which shall have the +dubious sermon, and I will send it to you in that.--You see the +bookseller reverendizes me notwithstanding your laudable +perseverance to adorn me with profane titles, on the one hand, +and the growing habit of the majority of my correspondents to +clip my name of all titles on the other. I desire that you and +your wife will keep your kindness for + + --R. W. Emerson + +---------- +* The first series of _Essays._ +---------- + + + + +LXII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, 30 April, 1841 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Above you have a bill of exchange for one +hundred pounds sterling drawn by T.W. Ward & Co. on the Messrs. +Barings, payable at sight. Let us hope it is but the first of a +long series. I have vainly endeavored to get your account to be +rendered by Munroe & Co. to the date of the 1st of April. It was +conditionally promised for the day of the last steamer (15 +April). It is not ready for that which sails tomorrow and +carries this. Little & Co. acknowledge a debt of $607.90 due to +you 1st of April, and just now paid me; and regret that their +sales have been so slow, which they attribute to the dulness of +all trade among us for the last two years. You shall have the +particulars of their account from Munroe's statement of the +account between you and me. Munroe & Co. have a long apology for +not rendering their own account; their book keeper left them at +a critical moment, they were without one six weeks, &c.;--but +they add, if we could give you it, to what use, since we should +be utterly unable to make you any payment at this time? To what +use, surely? I am too much used to similar statements from +our booksellers and others in the last few years to be much +surprised; nor do I doubt their readiness or their power to pay +all their debts at last; but a great deal of mutual concession +and accommodation has been the familiar resort of our tradesmen +now for a good while, a vice which they are all fain to lay at +the doors of the Government, whilst it belongs in the first +instance, no doubt, to the rashness of the individual traders. +These men I believe to be prudent, honest, and solvent, and that +we shall get all our debt from them at last. They are not +reckoned as rich as Little and Brown. By the next steamer they +think they can promise to have their account ready. I am sorry +to find that we have been driven from the market by the New +York Pirates in the affair of the Six Lectures.* The book was +received from London and for sale in New York and Boston before +my last sheets arrived by the "Columbia." Appleton in New York +braved us and printed it, and furthermore told us that he intends +to print in future everything of yours that shall be printed in +London,--complaining in rude terms of the monopoly your +publishers here exercise, and the small commissions they allow to +the trade, &c., &c. Munroe showed me the letter, which certainly +was not an amiable one. In this distress, then, I beg you, when +you have more histories and lectures to print, to have the +manuscript copied by a scrivener before you print at home, and +send it out to me, and I will keep all Appletons and Corsairs +whatsoever out of the lists. Not only these men made a book (of +which, by the by, Munroe sends you by this steamer a copy, which +you will find at John Green's, Newgate Street), but the New York +newspapers print the book in chapters, and you circulate for six +cents per newspaper at the corners of all streets in New York and +Boston; gaining in fame what you lose in coin.--The book is a +good book, and goes to make men brave and happy. I bear glad +witness to its cheering and arming quality. + +--------- +* "Heroes and Hero-Worship." +--------- + +I have put into Munroe's box which goes to Green a _Dial_ No. 4 +also, which I could heartily wish were a better book. But +Margaret Fuller, who is a noble woman, is not in sufficiently +vigorous health to do this editing work as she would and should, +and there is no other who can and will. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +LXIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 8 May, 1841 + +My Dear Emerson,--Your last letter found me on the southern +border of Yorkshire, whither Richard Milnes had persuaded me with +him, for the time they call "Easter Holidays" here. I was to +shake off the remnants of an ugly _Influenza_ which still hung +about me; my little portmanteau, unexpectedly driven in again by +perverse accidents, had stood packed, its cowardly owner, the +worst of all travelers, standing dubious the while, for two weeks +or more; Milnes offering to take me as under his cloak, I went +with Milnes. The mild, cordial, though something dilettante +nature of the man distinguishes him for me among men, as men go. +For ten days I rode or sauntered among Yorkshire fields and +knolls; the sight of the young Spring, new to me these seven +years, was beautiful, or better than beauty. Solitude itself, +the great Silence of the Earth, was as balm to this weary, sick +heart of mine; not Dragons of Wantley (so they call Lord +Wharncliffe, the wooden Tory man), not babbling itinerant +Barrister people, fox-hunting Aristocracy, nor Yeomanry Captains +cultivating milk-white mustachios, nor the perpetual racket, and +"dinner at eight o'clock," could altogether countervail the fact +that green Earth was around one and unadulterated sky overhead, +and the voice of waters and birds,--not the foolish speech of +Cockneys at _all_ times!--On the last morning, as Richard and I +drove off towards the railway, your Letter came in, just in time; +and Richard, who loves you well, hearing from whom it was, asked +with such an air to see it that I could not refuse him. We +parted at the "station," flying each his several way on the wings +of Steam; and have not yet met again. I went over to Leeds, +staid two days with its steeple-chimneys and smoke-volcano still +in view; then hurried over to native Annandale, to see my aged +excellent Mother yet again in this world while she is spared to +me. My birth-land is always as the Cave of Trophonius to me; I +return from it with a haste to which the speed of Steam is slow, +--with no smile on my face; avoiding all speech with men! It is +not yet eight-and-forty hours since I got back; your Letter is +among the first I answer, even with a line; your new Book--But +we will not yet speak of that.... + +My Friend, I _thank_ you for this Volume of yours; not for the +copy alone which you send to me, but for writing and printing +such a Book. _Euge!_ say I, from afar. The voice of one crying +in the desert;--it is once more the voice of a _man._ Ah me! I +feel as if in the wide world there were still but this one voice +that responded intelligently to my own; as if the rest were all +hearsays, melodious or unmelodious echoes; as if this alone were +true and alive. My blessing on you, good Ralph Waldo! I read +the Book all yesterday; my Wife scarcely yet done with telling +me her news. It has rebuked me, it has aroused and comforted me. +Objections of all kinds I might make, how many objections to +superficies and detail, to a dialect of thought and speech as yet +imperfect enough, a hundred-fold too narrow for the Infinitude it +strives to speak: but what were all that? It is an Infinitude, +the real vision and belief of one, seen face to face: a "voice +of the heart of Nature" is here once more. This is the one fact +for me, which absorbs all others whatsoever. Persist, persist; +you have much to say and to do. These voices of yours which I +likened to unembodied souls, and censure sometimes for having no +body,--how can they have a body? They are light-rays darting +upwards in the East; they will yet make much and much to have a +body! You are a new era, my man, in your new huge country: God +give you strength, and speaking and silent faculty, to do such a +work as seems possible now for you! And if the Devil will be +pleased to set all the Popularities _against_ you and evermore +against you,--perhaps that is of all things the very kindest any +_Angel_ could do. + +Of myself I have nothing good to report. Years of sick idleness +and barrenness have grown wearisome to me. I do nothing. I +waver and hover, and painfully speculate even now as to health, +and where I shall spend the summer out of London! I am a very +poor fellow;--but hope to grow better by and by. Then this +_alluvies_ of foul lazy stuff that has long swum over me may +perhaps yield the better harvest. _Esperons!_--Hail to all of +you from both of us. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 21 May, 1841 + +My Dear Emerson,--About a week ago I wrote to you, after too long +a silence. Since that there has another Letter come, with a +Draft of L100 in it, and other comfortable items not pecuniary; +a line in acknowledgment of the money is again very clearly among +my duties. Yesterday, on my first expedition up to Town, I gave +the Paper to Fraser; who is to present the result to me in the +shape of cash tomorrow. Thanks, and again thanks. This L100, I +think, nearly clears off for me the outlay of the second _French +Revolution;_ an ill-printed, ill-conditioned publication, the +prime cost of which, once all lying saved from the Atlantic +whirlpools and hard and fast in my own hand, it was not perhaps +well done to venture thitherward again. To the new trouble of my +friends withal! We will now let the rest of the game play itself +out as it can; and my friends, and my one friend, must not take +more trouble than their own kind feelings towards me will reward. + +The Books, the _Dial_ No. 4, and Appleton's pirated _Lectures,_ +are still expected from Green. In a day or two he will send +them: if not, we will jog him into wakefulness, and remind him +of the _Parcels Delivery Company,_ which carries luggage of all +kinds, like mere letters, many times a day, over all corners of +our Babylon. In this, in the universal British _Penny Post,_ and +a thing or two of that sort, men begin to take advantage of their +crowded ever-whirling condition in these days, which brings such +enormous disadvantages along with it _un_sought for.-- +Bibliopolist Appleton does not seem to be a "Hero,"--except after +his own fashion. He is one of those of whom the Scotch say, +"Thou wouldst do little for God if the Devil were dead!" The +Devil is unhappily dead, in that international bibliopolic +province, and little hope of his reviving for some time; +whereupon this is what Squire Appleton does. My respects to him +even in the Bedouin department, I like to see a complete man, a +clear decisive Bedouin. + +For the rest, there is one man who ought to be apprised that I +can now stand robbery a little better; that I am no longer so +very poor as I once was. In Fraser himself there do now lie +vestiges of money! I feel it a great relief to see, for a year +or two at least, the despicable bugbear of Beggary driven out of +my sight; for _which_ small mercy, at any rate, be the Heavens +thanked. Fraser himself, for these two editions, One thousand +copies each, of the Lectures and _Sartor,_ pays me down on the +nail L150; consider that miracle! Of the other Books which he +is selling on a joint-stock basis, the poor man likewise promises +something, though as yet, ever since New-Year's-day, I cannot +learn what, owing to a grievous sickness of his,--for which +otherwise I cannot but be sorry, poor Fraser within the Cockney +limits being really a worthy, accurate, and rather friendly +creature. So you see me here provided with bread and water for a +season,--it is but for a season one needs either water or bread, +--and rejoice with me accordingly. It is the one useful, nay, I +will say the one _innoxious,_ result of all this trumpeting, +reviewing, and dinner-invitationing; from which I feel it +indispensable to withdraw myself more and more resolutely, and +altogether count it as a thing not there. Solitude is what I +long and pray for. In the babble of men my own soul goes all to +babble: like soil you were forever _screening,_ tumbling over +with shovels and riddles; in _which_ soil no fruit can grow! My +trust in Heaven is, I shall yet get away "to some cottage by the +sea-shore"; far enough from all the mad and mad making things +that dance round me here, which I shall then look on only as a +theatrical phantasmagory, with an eye only to the _meaning_ that +lies hidden in it. You, friend Emerson, are to be a Farmer, you +say, and dig Earth for your living? Well; I envy you that as +much as any other of your blessednesses. Meanwhile, I sit shrunk +together here in a small _dressing-closet,_ aloft in the back +part of the house, excluding all cackle and cockneys; and, +looking out over the similitude of a May grove (with little brick +in it, and only the minarets of Westminster and gilt cross of St. +Paul's visible in the distance, and the enormous roar of London +softened into an enormous hum), endeavor to await what will +betide. I am busy with Luther in one Marheinecke's very long- +winded Book. I think of innumerable things; steal out westward +at sunset among the Kensington lanes; would this _May_ weather +last, I might be as well here as in any attainable place. But +June comes; the rabid dogs get muzzles; all is brown-parched, +dusty, suffocating, desperate, and I shall have to run! Enough +of all that. On my paper there comes, or promises to come, +as yet simply nothing at all. Patience;--and yet who can +be patient? + +Had you the happiness to see yourself not long ago, in _Fraser's +Magazine,_ classed _nominatim_ by an emphatic earnest man, not +without a kind of splay-footed strength and sincerity,--among the +chief Heresiarchs of the--world? Perfectly right. Fraser was +very anxious to know what I thought of the Paper,--"by an +entirely unknown man in the country." I counseled "that there +was something in him, which he ought to improve by holding his +peace for the next five years." + +Adieu, dear Emerson; there is not a scrap more of Paper. All +copies of your _Essays_ are out at use; with what result we +shall perhaps see. As for me I love the Book and man, and their +noble rustic herohood and manhood:--one voice as of a living man +amid such jabberings of galvanized corpses: _Ach Gott!_ + +Yours evermore, + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 80 May, 1841 + +My Dear Friend,--In my letter written to you on the 1st of May +(enclosing a bill of exchange of L100 sterling, which, I hope, +arrived safely) I believe I promised to send you by the next +steamer an account for April. But the false tardy Munroe & Co. +did not send it to me until one day too late. Here it is, as +they render it, compiled from Little and Brown's statement and +their own. I have never yet heard whether you have received +their _Analysis_ or explanation of the last abstract they drew up +of the mutual claims between the great houses of T.C. and R.W.E., +and I am impatient to know whether you have caused it to be +examined, and whether it was satisfactory. This new one is based +on that, and if that was incorrect, this must be also. I am +daily looking for some letter from you, which is perhaps near at +hand. If you have not written, write me exactly and immediately +on this subject, I entreat you. You will see that in this sheet +I am charged with a debt to you of $184.29. I shall tomorrow +morning pay to Mr. James Brown (of Little and Brown), who should +be the bearer of this letter, $185.00, which sum he will pay +you in its equivalent of English coin. I give Mr. Brown an +introductory letter to you, and you must not let slip the +opportunity to make the man explain his own accounts, if any +darkness hang on them. In due time, perhaps, we can send you +Munroe, and Nichols also, and so all your factors shall render +direct account of themselves to you. I believe I shall also make +Brown the bearer of a little book written some time since by a +young friend of mine in a very peculiar frame of mind,--thought +by most persons to be mad,--and of the publication of which I +took the charge.* Mr. Very requested me to send you a copy.--I +had a letter from Sterling, lately, which rejoiced me in all but +the dark picture it gave of his health. I earnestly wish good +news of him. When you see him, show him these poems, and ask him +if they have not a grandeur. + +--------- +* _Essays and Poems,_ by Jones Very,--a little volume, the work +of an exquisite spirit. Some of the poems it contains are as if +written by a George Herbert who had studied Shakespeare, read +Wordsworth, and lived in America. +--------- + +When I wrote last, I believe all the sheets of the Six Lectures +had not come to me. They all arrived safely, although the last +package not until our American pirated copy was just out of press +in New York. My private reading was not less happy for this +robbery whereby the eager public were supplied. Odin was all new +to me; and Mahomet, for the most part; and it was all good to +read, abounding in truth and nobleness. Yet, as I read these +pages, I dream that your audience in London are less prepared to +hear, than is our New England one. I judge only from the tone. +I think I know many persons here who accept thoughts of this vein +so readily now, that, if you were speaking on this shore, you +would not feel that emphasis you use to be necessary. I have +been feeble and almost sick during all the spring, and have been +in Boston but once or twice, and know nothing of the reception +the book meets from the Catholic Carlylian Church. One reader +and friend of yours dwells now in my house, and, as I hope, for a +twelvemonth to come,--Henry Thoreau,--a poet whom you may one +day be proud of;--a noble, manly youth, full of melodies and +inventions. We work together day by day in my garden, and I grow +well and strong. My mother, my wife, my boy and girl, are all in +usual health, and according to their several ability salute you +and yours. Do not cease to tell me of the health of your wife +and of the learned and friendly physician. + +Yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +LXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 25 June, 1841 + +Dear Emerson,--Now that there begins again to be some program +possible of my future motions for some time, I hastily despatch +you some needful outline of the same. + +After infinite confused uncertainty, I learn yesternight that +there has been a kind of country-house got for us, at a place +called Annan, on the north shore of the Solway Frith, in my +native County of Dumfries. You passed through the little Burgh, +I suppose, in your way homeward from Craigenputtock: it stands +about midway, on the great road, between Dumfries and Carlisle. +It is the place where I got my schooling;--consider what a +_preter_natural significance such a scene has now got for me! It +is within eight miles of my aged Mother's dwelling-place; within +riding distance, in fact, of almost all the Kindred I have in the +world.--The house, which is built since my time, and was never +yet seen by me, is said to be a reasonable kind of house. We get +it for a small sum in proportion to its value (thanks to kind +accident); the three hundred miles of travel, very hateful to +me, will at least entirely obliterate all traces of _this_ Dust- +Babel; the place too being naturally almost ugly, as far as a +green leafy place in sight of sea and mountains can be so +nicknamed, the whole gang of picturesque Tourists, Cockney +friends of Nature, &c., &c., who penetrate now by steam, in +shoals every autumn, into the very centre of the Scotch Highlands, +will be safe over the horizon! In short, we are all bound +thitherward in few days; must cobble up some kind of gypsy +establishment; and bless Heaven for solitude, for the sight of +green fields, heathy moors; for a silent sky over one's head, +and air to breathe which does not consist of coal-smoke, finely +powdered flint, and other beautiful _etceteras_ of that kind +among others! God knows I have need enough to be left altogether +alone for some considerable while (_forever,_ as it at present +seems to me), to get my inner world, and my poor bodily nerves, +both all torn to pieces, set in order a little again! After much +vain reluctance therefore; disregarding many considerations,-- +disregarding _finance_ in the front of these,--I am off; and +calculate on staying till I am heartily _sated_ with country, +till at least the last gleam of summer weather has departed. My +way of life has all along hitherto been a resolute _staying at +home:_ I find now, however, that I must alter my habits, cost +what it may; that I cannot live all the year round in London, +under pain of dying or going rabid;--that I must, in fact, learn +to travel, as others do, and be hanged to me! Wherefore, in +brief, my Friend, our address for the next two or three months is +"Newington Lodge, Annan, Scotland,"--where a letter from Emerson +will be a right pleasant visitor! _Faustum sit._ + +My second piece of news, not less interesting I hope, is that +_Emerson's Essays,_ the Book so called, is to be reprinted here; +nay, I think, is even now at press,--in the hands of that +invaluable Printer, Robson, who did the _Miscellanies._ Fraser +undertakes it, "on _half-profits_";--T. Carlyle writing a +Preface,*--which accordingly he did (in rather sullen humor,--not +with you!) last night and the foregoing days. Robson will stand +by the text to the very utmost; and I also am to read the Proof +sheets. The edition is of Seven Hundred and Fifty; which Fraser +thinks he will sell. With what joy shall I then sack up the +small Ten Pounds Sterling perhaps of "Half-Profits," and remit +them to the man Emerson; saying: There, Man! Tit for tat, the +reciprocity _not_ all on one side!--I ought to say, moreover, +that this was a volunteer scheme of Fraser's; the risk is all +his, the origin of it was with him: I advised him to have it +reviewed, as being a really noteworthy Book; "Write you a +Preface," said he, "and I will reprint it";--to which, after due +delay and meditation; I consented. Let me add only, on this +subject, the story of a certain Rio,** a French Breton, with +long, distracted, black hair. He found your Book at Richard +Milnes's, a borrowed copy, and could not borrow it; whereupon he +appeals passionately to me; carries off my Wife's copy, this +distracted Rio; and is to "read it _four_ times" during this +current autumn, at Quimperle, in his native Celtdom! The man +withal is a _Catholic,_ eats fish on Friday;--a great lion here +when he visits us; one of the _naivest_ men in the world: +concerning whom nevertheless, among fashionables, there is a +controversy, "Whether he is an Angel, or partially a Windbag and +_Humbug?_" Such is the lot of loveliness in the World! A truer +man I never saw; how _wind_less, how windy, I will not compute +at present. Me he likes greatly (in spite of my unspeakable +contempt for his fish on Friday); likes,--but withal is apt +to bore. + +---------- +* The greater part of this interesting Preface is reprinted in +Mr. George Willis Cooke's excellent book on the _Life, Writings, +and Philosophy of Emerson,_ Boston, 1881, p. 109. + +** The author of a book once much admired, _De 'l'Art Chretien._ +In a later work entitled _Epilogue a l'Art Chretien,_ but +actually a sort of autobiography, written in the naivest spirit +of personal conceit and pious sentimentalism, M. Rio gives an +exceedingly entertaining account of his intercourse with Carlyle. +---------- + +Enough, dear Emerson; and more than enough for a day so hurried. +Our Island is all in a ferment electioneering: Tories to come +in;--perhaps not to come in; at all events not to stay long, +without altering their figure much! I sometimes ask myself +rather earnestly, What is the duty of a citizen? To be as I have +been hitherto, a pacific _Alien?_ That is the _easiest,_ with my +humor!--Our brave Dame here, just rallying for the _remove,_ +sends loving salutations. Good be with you all always. Adieu, +dear Emerson. + + --T. Carlyle + +Appleton's Book of _Hero-Worship_ has come; for which pray thank +Mr. Munroe for me: it is smart on the surface; but printed +altogether scandalously! + + + + +LXVII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 July, 1841 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Eight days ago--when I had gone to Nantasket +Beach, to sit by the sea and inhale its air and refresh this puny +body of mine--came to me your letter, all bounteous as all your +letters are, generous to a fault, generous to the shaming of me, +cold, fastidious, ebbing person that I am. Already in a former +letter you had said too much good of my poor little arid book,-- +which is as sand to my eyes,--and now in this you tell me it +shall be printed in London, and graced with a preface from the +man of men. I can only say that I heartily wish the book were +better, and I must try and deserve so much favor from the kind +gods by a bolder and truer living in the months to come; such as +may perchance one day relax and invigorate this cramp hand of +mine, and teach it to draw some grand and adequate strokes, which +other men may find their own account and not their good-nature in +repeating. Yet I think I shall never be killed by my ambition. +I behold my failures and shortcomings there in writing, wherein +it would give me much joy to thrive, with an equanimity which my +worst enemy might be glad to see. And yet it is not that I am +occupied with better things. One could well leave to others the +record, who was absorbed in the life. But I have done nothing. +I think the branch of the "tree of life" which headed to a bud in +me, curtailed me somehow of a drop or two of sap, and so dwarfed +all my florets and drupes. Yet as I tell you I am very easy in +my mind, and never dream of suicide. My whole philosophy--which +is very real--teaches acquiescence and optimism. Only when I see +how much work is to be done, what room for a poet--for any +spiritualist--in this great, intelligent, sensual, and avaricious +America, I lament my fumbling fingers and stammering tongue. I +have sometimes fancied I was to catch sympathetic activity from +contact with noble persons; that you would come and see me; +that I should form stricter habits of love and conversation with +some men and women here who are already dear to me,--and at some +rate get off the numb palsy, and feel the new blood sting and +tingle in my fingers' ends. Well, sure I am that the right word +will be spoken though I cut out my tongue. Thanks, too, to your +munificent Fraser for his liberal intention to divide the profits +of the _Essays._ I wish, for the encouragement of such a +bookseller, there were to be profits to divide. But I have no +faith in your public for their heed to a mere book like mine. +There are things I should like to say to them, in a lecture-room +or in a "steeple house," if I were there. Seven hundred and +fifty copies! Ah no! + +And so my dear brother has quitted the roaring city, and gone +back in peace to his own land,--not the man he left it, but +richer every way, chiefly in the sense of having done something +valiantly and well, which the land, and the lands, and all that +wide elastic English race in all their dispersion, will know and +thank him for. The holy gifts of nature and solitude be showered +upon you! Do you not believe that the fields and woods have +their proper virtue, and that there are good and great things +which will not be spoken in the city? I give you joy in your new +and rightful home, and the same greetings to Jane Carlyle! with +thanks and hopes and loves to you both. + + --R.W. Emerson + +As usual at this season of the year, I, incorrigible spouting +Yankee, am writing an oration to deliver to the boys in one of +our little country colleges, nine days hence.* You will say I do +not deserve the aid of any Muse. O but if you knew how natural +it is to me to run to these places! Besides, I always am lured +on by the hope of saying something which shall stick by the good +boys. I hope Brown did not fail to find you, with thirty-eight +sovereigns (I believe) which he should carry you. + +---------- +* "The Method of Nature. An Address to the Society of the +Adelphi, in Waterville College, Maine, August 11, 1841." +---------- + + + + +LXVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Newby, Annan, Scotland, 18 August, 1841 + +My Dear Emerson,--Two days ago your Letter, direct from +Liverpool, reached me here; only fifteen days after date on the +other side of the Ocean: one of the swiftest messengers that +have yet come from you. Steamers have been known to come, they +say, in nine days. By and by we shall visibly be, what I always +say we virtually are, members of neighboring Parishes; paying +continual visits to one another. What is to hinder huge London +from being to universal Saxondom what small Mycale was to the +Tribes of Greece,--a place to hold your [Greek] in? A meeting of +_All the English_ ought to be as good as one of All the Ionians; +--and as Homeric "equal ships" are to Bristol steamers, so, or +somewhat so, may New York and New Holland be to Ephesus and +Crete, with their distances, relations, and etceteras!--Few +things on this Earth look to me greater than the Future of that +Family of Men. + +It is some two months since I got into this region; my Wife +followed me with her maid and equipments some five weeks ago. +Newington Lodge, when I came to inspect it with eyes, proved to +be too rough an undertaking: upholsterers, expense and +confusion,--the Cynic snarled, "Give me a whole Tub rather! I +want nothing but shelter from the elements, and to be let alone +of all men." After a little groping, this little furnished +cottage, close by the beach of the Solway Frith, was got hold of: +here we have been, in absolute seclusion, for a month,--no +company but the corn-fields and the everlasting sands and brine; +mountains, and thousand-voiced memories on all hands, sending +their regards to one, from the distance. Daily (sometimes even +nightly!) I have swashed about in the sea; I have been perfectly +idle, at least inarticulate; I fancy I feel myself considerably +sounder of body and of mind. Deeply do I agree with you in the +great unfathomable meaning of a colloquy with the dumb Ocean, +with the dumb Earth, and their eloquence! A Legislator would +prescribe some weeks of that annually as a religious duty for all +mortals, if he could. A Legislator will prescribe it for +himself, since he can! You too have been at Nantasket; my +Friend, this great rough purple sea-flood that roars under my +little garret-window here, this too comes from Nantasket and +farther,--swung hitherward by the Moon and the Sun. + +It cannot be said that I feel "happy" here, which means joyful;-- +as far as possible from that. The Cave of Trophonius could not +be grimmer for one than this old Land of Graves. But it is a +sadness worth any hundred "happinesses." _N'en parlons plus._ +By the way, have you ever clearly remarked withal what a +despicable function "view-hunting" is. Analogous to +"philanthropy," "pleasures of virtue," &c., &c. I for my part, +in these singular circumstances, often find an honestly ugly +country the preferable one. Black eternal peat-bog, or these +waste-howling sands with mews and seagulls: you meet at least no +Cockney to exclaim, "How charming it is!" + +One of the last things I did in London was to pocket Bookseller +Brown's L38: a very honest-looking man, that Brown; whom I was +sorry I could not manage to welcome better. You asked in that +Letter about some other item of business,--Munroe's or Brown's +account to acknowledge?--something or other that I was to _do:_ +I only remember vaguely that it seemed to me I had as good as +done it. Your Letter is not here now, but at Chelsea. + +Three sheets of the _Essays_ lay waiting me at my Mother's, for +correction; needing as good as none. The type and shape is the +same as that of late _Lectures on Heroes._ Robson the Printer, +who is a very punctual intelligent man, a scholar withal, +undertook to be himself the corrector of the other sheets. I +hope you will find them "exactly conformable to the text, _minus_ +mere Typographical blunders and the more salient American +spellings (labor for labour, &c.)." The Book is perhaps just +getting itself subscribed in these very days. It should have +been out before now: but poor Fraser is in the country, +dangerously ill, which perhaps retards it a little; and the +season, at any rate, is at the very dullest. By the first +conveyance I will send a certain Lady two copies of it. Little +danger but the Edition will sell; Fraser knows his own Trade +well enough, and is as much a "desperado" as poor Attila +Schmelzle was! Poor James, I wish he were well again; but +really at times I am very anxious about him.--The Book will sell; +will be liked and disliked. Harriet Martineau, whom I saw in +passing hitherward, writes with her accustomed enthusiasm about +it. Richard Milnes too is very warm. John Sterling scolds and +kisses it (as the manner of the man is), and concludes by +inquiring, whether there is any procurable Likeness of Emerson? +Emerson himself can answer. There ought to be. + +--Good Heavens! Here came my Wife, all in tears, pointing out to +me a poor ship, just tumbled over on a sand-bank on the +Cumberland coast; men still said to be alive on it,--a Belfast +steamer doing all it can to get in contact with it! Moments are +precious (say the people on the beach), the flood runs ten miles +an hour. Thank God, the steamer's boat is out: "eleven men," +says a person with a glass, "are saved: it is an American +timber-ship, coming up without a Pilot." And now--in ten minutes +more--there lies the melancholy mass alone among the waters, +wreck-boats all hastening towards it, like birds of prey; the +poor Canadians all up and away towards Annan. What an end for my +Letter, which nevertheless must end! Adieu, dear Emerson. +Address to Chelsea next time. I can say no more. + +Yours ever, + T.C. + + + +LXIX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 October, 1841 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I was in Boston yesterday, and found at +Munroe's your promised packet of the two London Books. They are +very handsome,--that for my wife is beautiful,--and I am not so +old or so cold but that I can feel the hope and the pleasure that +lie in this gift. It seems I am to speak in England--great +England--fortified by the good word of one whose word is fame. +Well, it is a lasting joy to be indebted to the wise and +generous; and I am well contented that my little boat should +swim, whilst it can, beside your great galleys, nor will I allow +my discontent with the great faults of the book, which the rich +English dress cannot hide, to spoil my joy in this fine little +romance of friendship and hope. I am determined--so help me all +Muses--to send you something better another day. + +But no more printing for me at present. I have just decided to +go to Boston once more, with a course of lectures, which I will +perhaps baptize "On the Times," by way of making once again the +experiment whether I cannot, not only speak the truth, but speak +it truly, or in proportion. I fancy I need more than another to +speak, with such a formidable tendency to the lapidary style. I +build my house of boulders; somebody asked me "if I built of +medals." Besides, I am always haunted with brave dreams of what +might be accomplished in the lecture-room,--so free and so +unpretending a platform,--a Delos not yet made fast. I imagine +an eloquence of infinite variety,--rich as conversation can be, +with anecdote, joke, tragedy, epics and pindarics, argument and +confession. I should love myself wonderfully better if I could +arm myself to go, as you go, with the word in the heart and not +in a paper. + +When I was in Boston I saw the booksellers, the children of +Tantalus,--no, but they who trust in them are. This time, Little +and Brown render us their credit account to T.C. $366 (I think it +was), payable in three months from 1 October. They had sold all +the London _French Revolutions_ but fifteen copies. May we all +live until 1 January. J. Munroe & Co. acknowledge about $180 due +and now rightfully payable to T.C., but, unhappily, not yet paid. +By the help of brokers, I will send that sum more or less in some +English Currency, by the next steamship, which sails in about a +fortnight, and will address it, as you last bade me, to Chelsea. + +What news, my dear friend, from your study? what designs ripened +or executed? what thoughts? what hopes? you can say nothing of +yourself that will not greatly interest us all. Harriet +Martineau, whose sicknesses may it please God to heal! wrote me a +kind, cheerful letter, and the most agreeable notice of your +health and spirit on a visit at her house. My little boy is five +years old today, and almost old enough to send you his love. + +With kindest greetings to Jane Carlyle, I am her and your friend, + + --R.W.E. + + + + +LXX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 14 November, 1841 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Above, you have a bill of exchange for forty +pounds sterling, with which sum you must credit the Munroe +account. The bill, I must not fail to notice, is drawn by a +lover of yours who expresses great satisfaction in doing us this +courtesy; and courtesy I must think it when he gives me a bill +at sight, whilst of all other merchants I have got only one +payable at some remote day. ---- is a beautiful and noble youth, +of a most subtle and magnetic nature, made for an artist, a +painter, and in his art has made admirable sketches, but his +criticism, I fancy, was too keen for his poetry (shall I say?); +he sacrificed to Despair, and threw away his pencil. For the +present, he buys and sells. I wrote you some sort of letter a +fortnight ago, promising to send a paper like this. The hour +when this should be despatched finds me by chance very busy with +little affairs. I sent you by an Italian, Signor Gambardella,*-- +who took a letter to you with good intent to persuade you to sit +to him for your portrait,--a _Dial,_ and some copies of an +oration I printed lately. If you should have any opportunity to +send one of them to Harriet Martineau, my debts to her are great, +and I wish to acknowledge her abounding kindness by a letter, as +I must. I am now in the rage of preparation for my Lectures "On +the Times;" which begin in a fortnight. There shall be eight, +but I cannot yet accurately divide the topics. If it were +eighty, I could better. In fear lest this sheet should not +safely and timely reach its man, I must now write some duplicate. + +Farewell, dear friend. + R.W. Emerson + +-------- +* Spiridione Gambardella was born at Naples. He was a refugee +from Italy, having escaped, the story was, on board an American +man-of-war. He had been educated as a public singer, but he had +a facile genius, and turned readily to painting as a means of +livelihood. He painted some excellent portraits in Boston, +between 1835 and 1840, among them one of Dr. Channing, and one of +Dr. Follen; both of these were engraved. He had some success +for a time as a portrait-painter in London. +---------- + + + + +LXXI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 19 November, 1841 + +Dear Emerson,--Since that going down of the American Timber-ship +on one of the Banks of the Solway under my window, I do not +remember that you have heard a word of me. I only added that the +men were all saved, and the beach all in agitation, certain women +not far from hysterics;--and there ended. I did design to send +you some announcement of our return hither; but fear there is no +chance that I did it! About ten days ago the Signor Gambardella +arrived, with a Note and Books from you: and here now is your +Letter of October 30th; which, arriving at a moment when I have +a little leisure, draws forth an answer almost instantly. + +The Signor Gambardella, whom we are to see a second time tonight +or tomorrow, amuses and interests us not a little. His face is +the very image of the Classic God Pan's; with horns, and cloven +feet, we feel that he would make a perfect wood-god;--really, +some of Poussin's Satyrs are almost portraits of this brave +Gambardella. I will warrant him a right glowing mass of +Southern-Italian vitality,--full of laughter, wild insight, +caricature, and every sort of energy and joyous savagery: a most +profitable element to get introduced (in moderate quantity), I +should say, into the general current of your Puritan blood over +in New England there! Gambardella has behaved with magnanimity +in that matter of the Portrait: I have already sat, to men in +the like case, some four times, and Gambardella knows it is a +dreadful weariness; I directed him, accordingly, to my last +painter, one Laurence, a man of real parts, whom I wished +Gambardella to know,--and whom I wished to know Gambardella +withal, that he might tell me whether there was any probability +of a _good_ picture by him in case one did decide on encountering +the weariness. Well: Gambardella returns with a magnanimous +report that Laurence's picture far transcends any capability of +his; that whoever in America or elsewhere will have a likeness +of the said individual must apply to Laurence, not to +Gambardella,--which latter artist heroically throws down his +brush, and says, Be it far from me! The brave Gambardella! if I +can get him this night to dilate a little farther on his Visit to +the _Community of Shakers,_ and the things he saw and felt there, +it will be a most true benefit to me. Inextinguishable laughter +seemed to me to lie in Gambardella's vision of that Phenomenon,-- +the sight and the seer, but we broke out too loud all at once, +and he was afraid to continue.--Alas! there is almost no laughter +going in the world at present. True laughter is as rare as any +other truth,--the sham of it frequent and detestable, like all +other shams. I know nothing wholesomer; but it is rarer even +than Christmas, which comes but once a year, and does always +come once. + +Your satisfactions and reflections at sight of your English Book +are such as I too am very thankful for. I understand them well. +May worse guest never visit the Drawing-room at Concord than that +bound Book. Tell the good Wife to rejoice in it: she has all +the pleasure;--to her poor Husband it will be increase of pain +withal: nay, let us call it increase of valiant labor and +endeavor; no evil for a man, if he be fit for it! A man must +learn to digest praise too, and not be poisoned with it: some of +it _is_ wholesome to the system under certain circumstances; the +most of it a healthy system will learn by and by to throw into +the slop-basin, harmlessly, without any _trial_ to digest it. A +thinker, I take it, in the long run finds that essentially he +must ever be and continue _alone;--alone:_ "silent, rest over +him the stars, and under him the graves"! The clatter of the +world, be it a friendly, be it a hostile world, shall not +intermeddle with him much. The Book of _Essays,_ however, does +decidedly "speak to England," in its way, in these months; and +even makes what one may call a kind of appropriate "sensation" +here. Reviews of it are many, in all notes of the gamut;--of +small value mostly; as you might see by the two Newspaper +specimens I sent you. (Did you get those two Newspapers?) The +worst enemy admits that there are piercing radiances of perverse +insight in it; the highest friends, some few, go to a very high +point indeed. Newspapers are busy with extracts;--much +complaining that it is "abstruse," neological, hard to get the +meaning of. All which is very proper. Still better,--though +poor Fraser, alas, is dead, (poor Fraser!), and no help could +come from industries of the Bookshop, and Books indeed it seems +were never selling worse than of late months,--I learn that the +"sale of the Essays goes very steadily forward," and will wind +itself handsomely up in due time, we may believe! So Emerson +henceforth has a real Public in Old England as well as New. And +finally, my Friend, do _not_ disturb yourself about turning +better, &c., &c.; write as it is given you, and not till it be +given you, and never mind it a whit. + +The new _Adelphi_ piece seems to me, as a piece of Composition, +the best _written_ of them all. People cry over it: "Whitherward? +What, What?" In fact, I do again desiderate some _concretion_ of +these beautiful _abstracta._ It seems to me they will never be +_right_ otherwise; that otherwise they are but as prophecies yet, +not fulfilments. + +The Dial too, it is all spirit-like, aeriform, aurora-borealis +like. Will no _Angel_ body himself out of that; no stalwart +Yankee _man,_ with color in the cheeks of him, and a coat on his +back! These things I _say:_ and yet, very true, you alone can +decide what practical meaning is in them. Write you always _as_ +it is given you,_ be it in the solid, in the aeriform, or +whatsoever way. There is no other rule given among men.--I have +sent the criticism on Landor* to an Editorial Friend of L.'s, by +whom I expect it will be put into the Newspapers here, for the +benefit of Walter Savage; he is not often so well praised among +us, and deserves a little good praise. + +-------- +* From the Dial for October, 1841. +-------- + +You propose again to send me Moneys,--surprising man! I am glad +also to hear that that beggarly misprinted _French Revolution_ is +nearly out among you. I only hope farther your Booksellers will +have an eye on that rascal Appleton, and not let _him_ reprint +and deface, if more copies of the Book turn out to be wanted. +Adieu, dear Emerson! Good speed to you at Boston, and in all +true things. I hope to write soon again. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXXII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 6 December, 1841 + +Dear Emerson,--Though I wrote to you very lately, and am in great +haste today, I must lose no time in announcing that the Letter +with the L40 draught came to hand some mornings ago; and now, +this same morning, a second Letter round by Dumfriesshire, which +had been sent as a duplicate, or substitute in case of accident, +for the former. It is all right, my friend ----'s paper has got +itself changed into forty gold sovereigns, and lies here waiting +use; thanks, many thanks! Sums of that kind come always upon me +like manna out of the sky; surely they, more emphatically than +any others, are the gift of Heaven. Let us receive, use, and be +thankful. I am not so poor now at all; Heaven be praised: +indeed, I do not know, now and then when I reflect on it, whether +being rich were not a considerably harder problem. With the +wealth of Rothschild what farther good thing could one get,--if +not perhaps some but to live in, under free skies, in the +country, with a horse to ride and have a little less pain on? +_Angulus ille ridet!_--I will add, for practical purposes in the +future, that it is in general of little or no moment whether an +American Bill be at sight or after a great many days; that the +paper can wait as conveniently here as the cash can,--if your New +England House and Baring of Old England will forbear bankruptcy +in the mean while. By the bye, will you tell me some time or +other in _what_ American funds it is that your funded money, you +once gave me note of, now lies? I too am creditor to America,-- +State of Illinois or some such State: one thousand dollars of +mine, which some years ago I had no use for, now lies there, +paying I suppose for canals, in a very obstructed condition! My +Brother here is continually telling me that I shall lose it all, +--which is not so bad; but lose it all by my own unreason,--which +is very bad. It struck me I would ask where Emerson's money +lies, and lay mine there too, let it live or perish as it likes! + +Your _Adelphi_ went straightway off to Miss Martineau with a +message. Richard Milnes has another; John Sterling is to have a +third,--had certain other parties seen it first. For the man +Emerson is become a person to be _seen_ in these times. I also +gave a _Morning-Chronicle_ Editor your brave eulogy on Landor, +with instructions that it were well worth publishing there, for +Landor's and others' sake. Landor deserves more praise than he +gets at present; the world too, what is far more, should hear of +him oftener than it does. A brave man after his kind,--though +considerably "flamed on from the Hell beneath." He speaks +notable things; and at lowest and worst has the faculty too of +holding his peace. + +The "Lectures on the Times" are even now in progress? Good speed +to the Speaker, to the Speech. Your Country is luckier than most +at this time; it has still real Preaching; the tongue of man is +not, whensoever it begins wagging, entirely sure to emit +babblement, twaddlement, sincere--cant, and other noises which +awaken the passionate wish for silence! That must alter +everywhere the human tongue is no wooden watchman's-rattle or +other _obsolete_ implement; it continues forever new and useful, +nay indispensable. + +As for me and my doings--_Ay de mi!_* + +------- +* The signature has been cut off. +------- + + + + +LXXIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +New York, 28 February, 1842 + +My Dear Friend,--I enclose a bill of exchange for forty-eight +pounds sterling, payable by Baring Brothers & Co. after sixty +days from the 25th of February. + +This Sum is part of a payment from Little and Brown on account of +sales of your London _French Revolution and of Chartism._ As +another part of their payment they asked me if they might not +draw on the estate of James Fraser for a balance due from his +house to them, and pay you so. I, perhaps unwisely, consented to +make the proffer to you, with the distinct stipulation, however, +that if it should not prove perfectly agreeable to you, and +exactly as available as another form of money, you should +instantly return it to me, and they shall pay me the amount, +$41.57, or L8 12s. 5d. in cash. My mercantile friend, Abel +Adams, did not admire my wisdom in accepting this bill of Little +and Brown; so I told them I should probably bring it back to +them, and if there is a shadow of inconvenience in it you will +send it back to me by the next steamer. For they have no claims +on us. I decide not to enclose the Little and Brown bill in this +sheet,--but to let it accompany this letter in the same packet. + +I grieve to hear that you have bought any of our wretched +Southern Stocks. In New England all Southern and Southwestern +debt is usually regarded as hopeless, unless the debtor is +personally known. Massachusetts stock is in the best credit of +any public stock. Ward told me that it would be safest for you +to keep your Illinois stock, although he could say nothing very +good of it. + +Our city banks in Boston are in better credit than the banks in +any other city here, yet one in which a large part of my own +property is invested has failed, for the two last half-years, to +pay any dividend, and I am a poor man until next April, when, I +hope, it will not fail me again. If you wish to invest money +here, my friend Abel Adams, who is the principal partner in one +of our best houses, Barnard, Adams, & Co., will know how to give +you the best assistance and action the case admits. + + +My dear friend, you should have had this letter and these +messages by the last steamer; but when it sailed, my son, a +perfect little boy of five years and three months, had ended his +earthly life.* You can never sympathize with me; you can never +know how much of me such a young child can take away. A few +weeks ago I accounted myself a very rich man, and now the poorest +of all. What would it avail to tell you anecdotes of a sweet and +wonderful boy, such as we solace and sadden ourselves with at +home every morning and evening? From a perfect health and as +happy a life and as happy influences as ever child enjoyed, he +was hurried out of my arms in three short days by Scarlatina.--We +have two babes yet,--one girl of three years, and one girl of +three months and a week, but a promise like that Boy's I shall +never see. How often I have pleased myself that one day I should +send to you this Morning Star of mine, and stay at home so gladly +behind such a representative. I dare not fathom the Invisible +and Untold to inquire what relations to my Departed ones I yet +sustain. Lidian, the poor Lidian, moans at home by day and by +night. You too will grieve for us, afar. I believe I have two +letters from you since I wrote last. I shall write again soon, +for Bronson Alcott will probably go to London in about a month, +and him I shall surely send to you, hoping to atone by his great +nature for many smaller one, that have craved to see you. Give +me early advice of receiving these Bills of Exchange. + +--------- +* The memory of this Boy, "born for the future, to the future +lost;" is enshrined in the heart of every lover of childhood and +of poetry by his father's impassioned _Threnody._ +----------- + +Tell Jane Carlyle our sorrowing story with much love, and with +all good hope for her health and happiness. Tell us when you +write, with as much particularity as you can, how it stands with +you, and all your household; with the Doctor, and the friends; +what you do, and propose to do, and whether you will yet come to +America, one good day? + +Yours with love, + R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +LXXIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Templand, Thornhill, Dumfries, Scotland +28 March, 1842 + +My Dear Friend,--This is heavy news that you send me; the +heaviest outward bereavement that can befall a man has overtaken +you. Your calm tone of deep, quiet sorrow, coming in on the rear +of poor trivial worldly businesses, all punctually despatched and +recorded too, as if the Higher and Highest had not been busy with +you, tells me a sad tale. What can we say in these cases? There +is nothing to be said,--nothing but what the wild son of Ishmael, +and every thinking heart, from of old have learned to say: God +is great! He is terrible and stern; but we know also He is +good. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." Your bright +little Boy, chief of your possessions here below, is rapt away +from you; but of very truth he is with God, even as we that yet +live are,--and surely in the way that was best for him, and for +you, and for all of us.--Poor Lidian Emerson, poor Mother! To +her I have no word. Such poignant unspeakable grief, I believe, +visits no creature as that of a Mother bereft of her child. The +poor sparrow in the bush affects one with pity, mourning for its +young; how much more the human soul of one's Friend! I cannot +bid her be of comfort; for there is as yet no comfort. May good +Influences watch over her, bring her some assuagement. As the +Hebrew David said, "We shall go to him, he will not return +to us." + +I also am here in a house rendered vacant and sacred by Death. A +sore calamity has fallen on us, or rather has fallen on my poor +Wife (for what am I but like a spectator in comparison?): she +has lost unexpectedly her good Mother, her sole surviving Parent, +and almost only relative of much value that was left to her. The +manner too was almost tragic. We had heard of illness here, but +only of commonplace illness, and had no alarm. The Doctor +himself, specially applied to, made answer as if there was no +danger: his poor Patient, in whose character the like of that +intimately lay, had rigorously charged him to do so: her poor +Daughter was far off, confined to her room by illness of her own; +why alarm her, make her wretched? The danger itself did seem +over; the Doctor accordingly obeyed. Our first intimation of +alarm was despatched on the very day which proved the final one. +My poor Wife, casting sickness behind her, got instantly ready, +set off by the first railway train: traveling all night, on the +morrow morning at her Uncle's door in Liverpool she is met by +tidings that all is already ended. She broke down there; she +is now home again at Chelsea, a cheery, amiable younger Jane +Welsh to nurse her: the tone of her Letters is still full of +disconsolateness. I had to proceed hither, and have to stay here +till this establishment can be abolished, and all the sad wrecks +of it in some seemly manner swept away. It is above three weeks +that I have been here; not till eight days ago could I so much +as manage to command solitude, to be left altogether alone. I +lead a strange life; full of sadness, of solemnity, not without +a kind of blessedness. I say it is right and fitting that one be +left entirely alone now and then, alone with one's own griefs and +sins, with the mysterious ancient Earth round one, the +everlasting Heaven over one, and what one can make of these. +Poor rustic businesses, subletting of Farms, disposal of houses, +household goods: these strangely intervene, like matter upon +spirit, every day;--wholesome this too perhaps. It is many years +since I have stood so in close contact face to face with the +reality of Earth, with its haggard ugliness, its divine beauty, +its depths of Death and of Life. Yesterday, one of, the stillest +Sundays, I sat long by the side of the swift river Nith; sauntered +among woods all vocal only with rooks and pairing birds.* The +hills are often white with snow-powder, black brief spring-tempests +rush fiercely down from them, and then again the sky looks forth +with a pale pure brightness,--like Eternity from behind Time. +The _Sky,_ when one thinks of it, is _always_ blue, pure changeless +azure; rains and tempests are only for the little dwellings where +men abide. Let us think of this too. Think of this, thou +sorrowing Mother! Thy Boy has escaped many showers. + +--------- +* "Templand has a very fine situation; old Walter's walk, at the +south end of the house, was one of the most picturesque and +pretty to be found in the world. Nith valley (river half a mile +off, winding through green holms, now in its border of clean +shingle, now lost in pleasant woods and rushes) lay patent to the +South. "Carlyle's Reminiscences," Vol. II. p. 137. +--------- + +In some three weeks I shall probably be back at Chelsea. Write +thitherward so soon as you have opportunity; I will write again +before long, even if I do not hear from you. The moneys, &c. are +all safe here as you describe: if Fraser's' Executors make any +demur, your Bookseller shall soon hear of it. + +I had begun to write some Book on Cromwell: I have often begun, +but know not how to set about it; the most unutterable of all +subjects I ever felt much meaning to lie in. There is risk yet +that, with the loss of still farther labor, I may have to abandon +it;--and then the great dumb Oliver may lie unspoken forever; +gathered to the mighty _Silent_ of the Earth; for, I think, +there will hardly ever live another man that will believe in him +and his Puritanism as I do. To _him_ small matter. + +Adieu, my good kind Friend, ever dear to me, dearer now in +sorrow. My Wife when she hears of your affliction will send a +true thought over to you also. The poor Lidian!--John Sterling +is driven off again, setting out I think this very day for +Gibraltar, Malta, and Naples. Farewell, and better days to us. + +Your affectionate + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 81 March, 1842 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I wrote you a letter from my brother's office +in New York nearly a month ago to tell you how hardly it had +fared with me here at home, that the eye of my home was plucked +out when that little innocent boy departed in his beauty and +perfection from my sight. Well, I have come back hither to my +work and my play, but he comes not back, and I must simply suffer +it. Doubtless the day will come which will resolve this, as +everything gets resolved, into light, but not yet. + +I write now to tell you of a piece of life. I wish you to know +that there is shortly coming to you a man by the name of Bronson +Alcott. If you have heard his name before, forget what you have +heard. Especially if you have ever read anything to which this +name was attached, be sure to forget that; and, inasmuch as in +you lies, permit this stranger when he arrives at your gate to +make a new and primary impression. I do not wish to bespeak any +courtesies or good or bad opinion concerning him. You may love +him, or hate him, or apathetically pass by him, as your genius +shall dictate; only I entreat this, that you do not let him go +quite out of your reach until you are sure you have seen him +and know for certain the nature of the man. And so I leave +contentedly my pilgrim to his fate. + +I should tell you that my friend Margaret Fuller, who has edited +our little _Dial_ with such dubious approbation on the part of +you and other men, has suddenly decided a few days ago that she +will edit it no more. The second volume was just closing; shall +it live for a third year? You should know that, if its interior +and spiritual life has been ill fed, its outward and bibliopolic +existence has been worse managed. Its publishers failed, its +short list of subscribers became shorter, and it has never paid +its laborious editor, who has been very generous of her time and +labor, the smallest remuneration. Unhappily, to me alone could +the question be put whether the little aspiring starveling should +be reprieved for another year. I had not the cruelty to kill it, +and so must answer with my own proper care and nursing for its +new life. Perhaps it is a great folly in me who have little +adroitness in turning off work to assume this sure vexation, but +the _Dial_ has certain charms to me as an opportunity, which I +grudge to destroy. Lately at New York I found it to be to a +certain class of men and women, though few, an object of +tenderness and religion. You cannot believe it? + +Mr. Lee,* who brings you this letter, is the son of one of the +best men in Massachusetts, a man whose name is a proverb among +merchants for his probity, for his sense and his information. +The son, who bears his father's name, is a favorite among all the +young people for his sense and spirit, and has lived always with +good people. + +--------- +* Mr. Henry Lee. +-------- + +I have read at New York six out of eight lectures on the Times +which I read this winter in Boston. I found a very intelligent +and friendly audience. The penny papers reported my lectures, +somewhat to my chagrin when I tried to read them; many persons +came and talked with me, and I felt when I came away that New +York is open to me henceforward whenever my Boston parish is not +large enough. This summer, I must try to set in order a few more +chapters from these rambling lectures, one on "The Poet" and one +on "Character" at least. And now will you not tell me what you +read and write? Is it Cromwell still? For I supposed from the +_Westminster_ piece that the laborer must be in that quarter. + +I send herewith a new _Dial,_ No. 8, and the last of this +dispensation. I hope you have received every number. They have +been sent in order. I have written no line in this Number. I +send a letter for Sterling, as I do not know whether his address +is still at Falmouth. Is he now a preacher? By the "Acadia" you +should have received a letter of exchange on the Barings, and +another on James Fraser's estate. + +With constant good hope for yourself and for your wife, I am +your friend, + + --R.W. Emerson + + +End of Vol. I. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle +and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol. I, +by Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13583 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8257091 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13583 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13583) diff --git a/old/13583.txt b/old/13583.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..17832bb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13583.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9949 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle +and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol. I, +by Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, + 1834-1872, Vol. I + +Author: Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson + +Release Date: October 3, 2004 [EBook #13583] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CARLYLE AND EMERSON, VOL. I *** + + + + + + + + + +THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THOMAS CARLYLE AND RALPH WALDO EMERSON + +1834-1872 + +VOLUME I. + + +"To my friend I write a letter, and from him I receive a letter. +It is a spiritual gift, worthy of him to give, and of me to +receive."--Emerson + +"What the writer did actually mean, the thing he then thought of, +the thing he then was."--Carlyle + + + +EDITORIAL NOTE + +The trust of editing the following Correspondence, committed to +me several years since by the writers, has been of easy +fulfilment. The whole Correspondence, so far as it is known to +exist, is here printed, with the exception of a few notes of +introduction, and one or two essentially duplicate letters. I +cannot but hope that some of the letters now missing may +hereafter come to light. + +In printing, a dash has been substituted here and there for a +proper name, and some passages, mostly relating to details of +business transactions, have been omitted. These omissions are +distinctly designated. The punctuation and orthography of the +original letters have been in the main exactly followed. I have +thought best to print much concerning dealings with publishers, +as illustrative of the material conditions of literature during +the middle of the century, as well as of the relations of the +two friends. The notes in the two volumes are mine. + +My best thanks and those of the readers of this Correspondence +are due to Mr. Moncure D. Conway, for his energetic and +successful effort to recover some of Emerson's early letters +which had fallen into strange hands. + --Charles Eliot Norton + +Cambridge, Massachusetts +January 29, 1883 + +--------- + + +NOTE TO REVISED EDITION + +The hope that some of the letters missing from it when this +correspondence was first published might come to light, has been +fulfilled by the recovery of thirteen letters of Carlyle, and of +four of Emerson. Besides these, the rough drafts of one or two +of Emerson's letters, of which the copies sent have gone astray, +have been found. Comparatively few gaps in the Correspondence +remain to be filled. + +The letters and drafts of letters now first printed are those +numbered as follows:-- + +Vol. I. + XXXVI. Carlyle + XLI. Emerson + XLII. Carlyle + XLVI. " + XLVII. " + LXVIII. " + +Vol. II. + C. Emerson + CIV. Carlyle + CV. " + CVI. " + CVII. " + CVIII. " + CIX. " + CXII. " + CXVI. " + CXLIX. Emerson + CLII. " + CLXV. " + CLXXXVI. " + +Emerson's letter of 1 May, 1859 (CLXIV.), of which only fragments +were printed in the former edition, is now printed complete, and +the extract from his Diary accompanying it appears in the form in +which it seems to have been sent to Carlyle. + + --C.E.N. + +December 31, 1884 + +----------- + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. + +Introduction. Emerson's early recognition of Carlyle's genius. +--His visit at Craigenputtock, in 1833.--Extracts concerning it +from letter of Carlyle, from letter of Emerson, and from English +Traits. + +I. Emerson. Boston, 14 May, 1834. First acquaintance with +Carlyle's writings.--Visit to Craigenputtock.--_Sartor Resartus,_ +its contents, its diction.--Gift of Webster's _Speeches_ and +Sampson Reed's _Growth of the Mind._ + +II. Carlyle. Chelsea, 12 August, 1834. Significance of +Emerson's gift and visit.--Sampson Reed.--Webster.-- +Teufelsdrockh, its sorry reception.--Removal to London.--Article +on the Diamond Necklace.--Preparation for book on the French +Revolution.--Death of Coleridge. + +III. Emerson. Concord, 20 November, 1834. Death of his brother +Edward.--Consolation in Carlyle's friendship.--Pleasure in +receiving stitched copy of Teufelsdrockh.--Goethe.-- +Swedenborgianism.--Of himself.--Hope of Carlyle's coming to +America.--Gift of various publications. + +IV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 February, 1835. Acknowledgments and +inquiries.--Sympathy for death of Edward Emerson.--Unitarianism. +--Emerson's position and pursuits.--Goethe.-Volume of French +Revolution finished.--Condition of literature.--Lecturing in +America.--Mrs. Austin. + +V. Emerson. Concord, 12 March, 1835. Appreciation of Sartor. +--Dr. Channing.--Prospect of Carlyle's visit to America.--His +own approaching marriage.--Plan of a journal of Philosophy in +Boston.--Encouragement of Carlyle. + +VI. Emerson. Concord, 30 April, 1835. Apathy of English public +toward Carlyle.--Hope of his visit to America.--Lectures and +lecturers in Boston.--Estimate of receipts and expenses.--Esteem +of Carlyle in America. + +VII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 May, 1835. Emerson's marriage. +--Astonishing reception of Teufelsdrockh in New England. +--Boston Transcendentalism.--Destruction of manuscript of +first volume of _French Revolution._--Result of a year's +life in London.--Wordsworth.--Southey. + +VIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 27 June, 1835. Visit to America +questionable.--John Carlyle.--Tired out with rewriting _French +Revolution._--A London rout.--O'Connell.--Longfellow.--Emerson +and Unitarianism. + +IX. Emerson. Concord, 7 October, 1835. Mrs. Child.--Public +addresses.--Marriage.--Destruction of manuscript of _French +Revolution._--Notice of _Sartor_ in _North American Review._ +--Politics.--Charles Emerson. + +X. Emerson. Concord, 8 April, 1836. Concern at Carlyle's +silence.--American reprint of _Sartor._--Carlyle's projected +visit.--Lecturing in New England. + +XI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 April, 1836. Weariness over _French +Revolution._--Visit to Scotland.--Charm of London.--Letter from +James Freeman Clarke.--Article on _Sartor_ in _North American +Review._--Quatrain from Voss. + +XII. Emerson. Concord, 17 September,1836. Death of Charles +Emerson.--Solicitude concerning Carlyle.--Urgency to him to come +to Concord.--Sends _Nature_ to him.--Reflections. + +XIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 5 November, 1836. Charles Emerson's +death.--Concord.--His own condition.--_French Revolution_ almost +ended.--Character of the book.--Weariness.--London and its +people.--Plans for rest.--John Sterling.--Articles on Mirabeau +and the _Diamond Necklace._--Mill's _London_ Review.--Thanks for +American Teufelsdrockh.--Mrs. Carlyle.--Might and Right, Canst +and Shalt.--Books about Goethe. + +XIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 February, 1837. Teufelsdrockh in +America and England.--_Nature._--Miss Martineau on Emerson. +--Mammon.--Completion of _French Revolution._--Scheme of +Lecturing in London.--America fading into the background. + +XV. Emerson. Concord, 31 March, 1837. Receipt of the Mirabeau +and Diamond Necklace.--Their substance and style.--Proof-sheet of +_French Revolution._--Society in America.--Renewed invitation. +--Mrs. Carlyle.--His son Waldo.--Bronson Alcott.--Second edition +of _Sartor._ + +XVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 1 June, 1837. Lectures on German +Literature.--Copy of _French Revolution_ sent.--Review of himself +in _Christian Examiner._--George Ripley.--Miss Martineau and her +book on America.--Plans. + +XVII. Emerson. Concord, 13 September, 1837. _The French +Revolution._--Sale of Carlyle's books.--Lectures. + +XVIII. Emerson. Concord, 2 November, 1837. Introduction given +to Charles Sumner.--Reprint of _French Revolution._--Lectures. + +XIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 December, 1837. Visit to Scotland. +--Mrs. Carlyle's ill-health.--His own need of rest.--John +Sterling; his regard for Emerson.--Emerson's Oration on the +American Scholar.--Proposed collection of his own Miscellanies. + +XX. Emerson. Concord, 9 February, 1838. Lectures on Human +Culture.--Carlyle's praise of his Oration.--John Sterling. +--Reprint of _French Revolution._--Profits from it.--American +selection and edition of Carlyle's _Miscellanies._ + +XXI. Emerson. Boston, 12 March, 1838. Sale of _French +Revolution._--Arrangements concerning American edition of +_Miscellanies._ + +XXII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 16 March, 1838. Prospect of cash from +Yankee-land.--Poverty.--American and English reprints of +_Miscellanies._--Sterling's _Crystals from a Cavern._--Miss +Martineau on Emerson.--Lectures.--Plans. + +XXIII. Emerson. Concord, 10 May, 1838. American edition of +_Miscellanies._--Invitation to Concord.--His means and mode of +life.--Sterling.--Miss Martineau.--Carlyle's poverty. + +XXIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 15 June, 1838. American _French +Revolution._--London edition of Teufelsdrockh.--Miscellanies. +--Lectures, their money result.--Plans.--Emerson's Oration. +--Mrs. Child's _Philothea._ + +XXV. Emerson. Boston, 30 July, 1838. Encloses bill for L50. +--_Miscellanies_ published. + +XXVI. Emerson. Concord, 6 August, 1838. Publication of +_Miscellanies._--Two more volumes proposed.--Orations at +Theological School, Cambridge, and at Dartmouth College.--Carlyle +desired in America. + +XXVII. Carlyle. Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, 25 September, 1838. +Visit to his Mother.--Remittance from Emerson of L50.-- +_Miscellanies_ again.--Another Course of Lectures.--Sterling.-- +Miss Martineau. + +XXVIII. Emerson. Concord, 17 October, 1838. Business.--Outcry +against address to Divinity College.--Injury to Carlyle's repute +in America from association with him.--Article in _Quarterly_ on +German Religious Writers.--Sterling. + +XXIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 7 November, 1838. Emerson's letters.-- +Dyspepsia.--Use of money from America.--Arrangements concerning +publication of _Miscellanies._--Emerson's Orations.--Tempest in a +washbowl concerning Divinity School Address.--John Carlyle-- +Postscript by Mrs. Carlyle. + +XXX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 15 November, 1838. Arrangements +concerning Miscellanies.--Employments, outlooks.--Concord not +forgotten, but Emerson to come first to England.--John Carlyle. +--Miss Martineau and her books. + +XXXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 December, 1838. Arrival of American +reprint of _Miscellanies._--English and American bookselling.-- +Proposed second edition of _French Revolution._--Reading Horace +Walpole.--Sumner.--Dartmouth Oration.--Sterling.--Dwight's +German Translations. + +XXXII. Emerson. Concord, 13 January, 1839. Business.-- +Remittance of L100.--Lectures on Human Life.--Dr. Carlyle. + +XXXIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 February, 1839. Acknowledgment of +remittance.--Arrangements for new edition of _French +Revolution._--London.--Wish for quiet.--Ill-health.--Suggestion +of writing on Cromwell.--Mr. Joseph Coolidge.--Divinity School +Address.--Mrs. Carlyle.--Gladstone cites from Emerson in his +Church and State. + +XXXIV. Emerson. Concord, 15 March, 1839. Account of sales.-- +Second series of _Miscellanies._--Ill wind raised by Address +blown over.--Lectures.--Birth of daughter.--_The Onyx Ring._ +--Alcott. + +XXXV. Emerson. Concord, 19 March, 1839. Need of copy to fill +out second series of _Miscellanies._--John S. Dwight. + +XXXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 April, 1839. Solicitude on account +of Emerson's silence.--Gift to Mrs. Emerson.--Book business. +--New edition of _French Revolution._--New lectures.--Better +circumstances, better health.--Arthur Buller urges a visit to +America.--Milnes.--Emerson's growing popularity. + +XXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 17 April, 1839. Nothing in manuscript +fit for _Miscellanies._--Essay on Varnhagen.--Translation of +Goethe's _Mahrchen._--Cruthers and Jonson.--Dwight's book. +--Lectures.--Discontent among working people. + +XXXVIII. Emerson. Boston, 20 April, 1839. Proposals of +publishers concerning _French Revolution._--Introduction of +Miss Sedgwick. + +XXXIX. Emerson. Concord, 25 April, 1839. Account.--Sales +of books. + +XL. Emerson. Concord, 28 April, 1839. Proposals of publishers +and accounts. + +XLI. Emerson. Concord, 15 May, 1839. Arrangements with +publishers.--Matter for completion of fourth volume of +_Miscellanies._--Stearns Wheelers faithful labor.--Arthur +Buller's good witnessing.--Plans for Carlyle's visit to America. +--Milnes.--Copy of _Nature_ for him. + +XLII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 May, 1839. Lectures happily over.-- +Sansculottism.--Horse must be had.--Extempore speaking an art.-- +Must lecture in America or write a book.--Wordsworth.--Sterling. +--Messages. + +XLIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 24 June, 1839. Delay in arrival of +_Miscellanies._--Custom-house rapacities.--Accounts..--No longer +poor.--Emerson's work.--Miss Sedgwick.--Daniel Webster.--Proposed +visit to Scotland.--Sinking of the Vengeur. + +XLIV. Emerson. Concord, 4 July, 1839. Proof-sheet of new +edition of _French Revolution_ received.--Gift to Mrs. Emerson of +engraving of Guido's Aurora.--Publishers' accounts.--Sterling.-- +Occupations.--Margaret Fuller. + +XLV. Emerson. Concord, 8 August, 1839. _Miscellanies_ sent. +--Daniel Webster.--Alcott.--Thoreau. + +XLVI. Carlyle. Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, 4 September, 1839. +Rusticating.--Arrival of _Miscellanies._--Errata.--Reprint of +_Wilhelm Meister._--Estimate of the book.--Copies of _French +Revolution_ sent.--Eager expectation of Emerson's book.-- +Sterling.--Plans. + +XLVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 December, 1839. Long silence.--Stay +in Scotland.--Chartism.--Reprint of _Miscellanies._--Stearns +Wheeler.--_Wilhelm Meister._--Boston steamers.--Speculations +about Hegira into New England.--Visitor from America who had +never seen Emerson.--Miss Martineau.--Silence and speech.-- +Sterling.--Southey.--No longer desperately poor. + +XLVIII. Emerson. Concord, 12 December, 1839. Copies of _French +Revolution_ arrived.--Lectures on the Present Age.--Letter from +Sterling, his paper on Carlyle.--Friends. + +XLIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 6 January, 1840. _Chartism._-- +Sterling.--Monckton Milnes, paper by him on Emerson. + +L. Carlyle. Chelsea, 17 January, 1840. Export and import of +books.--New editions.--Books sent to Emerson.--Cromwell as a +subject for writing.--No appetite for lecturing.--Madame Necker +on Emerson. + +LI. Emerson. New York, 18 March, 1840. New York.--Loss of faith +on entering cities.--Margaret Fuller to edit a journal.--Lectures +on the Present Age.--His children.--Renewed invitation. + +LII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 1 April, 1840. Count D'Orsay, his +portrait of Carlyle.--Wages for books, due to Emerson.--Milnes's +review.--Heraud.--Landor.--Lectures in prospect on Heroes and +Hero-worship. + +LIII. Emerson. Concord, 21 April, 1840. Introduction of Mr. +Grinnell.--Chartism.--Reprint of it.--At work on a book.-- +Booksellers' accounts.--_The Dial._--Alcott. + +LIV. Emerson. Concord, 30 June, 1840. _Wilhelm Meister_ +received.--Landor.--Letter to Milnes.--Lithograph of Concord. +--_The Dial,_ No. 1. + +LV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 July, 1840. Bibliopoliana.--Lectures +about Great Men.--Lecturing in America.--Milnes and his _Poems._ +--Controversial volume from Ripley. + +LVI. Emerson. Concord, 30 August, 1840. Booksellers' accounts. +--Faith cold concerning Carlyle's coming to America.-- +Transcendentalism and _The Dial._--Social problems.--Character of +his writing.--Charles Sumner. + +LVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 26 September, 1840. Not to go to +America for the present.--_Heroes and Hero-Worship._--Journey on +horseback.--Reading on Cromwell.--_Dial_ No. 1.--Puseyism.--Dr. +Sewell on Carlyle.--Landor.--Sterling. + +LVIII. Emerson. Concord, 30 October, 1840. Booksellers' +accounts.--Projects of social reform.--Studies unproductive. +--Hopes to print a book of essays. + +LIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 9 December, 1840. Booksellers' +carelessness and accounts.--Puseyism.--Dial No. 2.--Goethe. +--Miss Martineau's _Hour and Man._--Working in Cromwellism. + +LX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 21 February, 1841. To Mrs. Emerson.-- +London transmuted by her alchemy.--Hope of seeing Concord. +--Miss Martineau.--Toussaint l'Ouverture.--Sheets of _Heroes +and Hero-worship_ sent to Emerson. + +LXI. Emerson. Concord, 28 February, 1841. Accounts.--Essays +soon to appear.--Lecture on Reform. + +LXII. Emerson. Boston, 30 April, 1841. Remittance of L100.-- +Accounts.--Piratical reprint of _Heroes and Hero-worship._-- +_Dial_ No. 4. + +LXIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 May, 1841. Visit to Milnes.--To his +Mother.--Emerson's _Essays._--His own condition. + +LXIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 21 May, 1841. Acknowledgment of +remittance of L100.--Unauthorized American reprint of _Heroes and +Hero-worship._--Improvement in circumstances.--Desire for +solitude.--Article on Emerson in _Fraser's Magazine._ + +LXV. Emerson. Concord, 30 May, 1841. Accounts.--Book by Jones +Very.--_Heroes and Hero-worship._--Thoreau. + +LXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 25 June, 1841. Proposed stay at Annan. +--Motives for it.--London reprint of Emerson's Essays.--Rio. + +LXVII. Emerson. Concord, 31 July, 1841. London reprint of +_Essays._--Carlyle in his own land.--Writing an oration. + +LXVIII. Carlyle. Newby, Annan, Scotland, 18 August, 1841. +Speedy receipt of letter.--Stay in Scotland.--Seclusion and +sadness.--Reprint of Emerson's _Essays._--Shipwreck. + +LXIX. Emerson. Concord, 30 October, 1841. Pleasure in English +reprint of _Essays._--Lectures on the Times.--Opportunities of +the Lecture-room.--Accounts. + +LXX. Emerson. Concord, 14 November, 1841. Remittance of L40.-- +His banker.--Gambardella.--Preparation for lectures on the Times. + +LXXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 19 November, 1841. Gambardella.-- +Lawrence's portrait.--Emerson's Essays in England.--Address at +Waterville College.--_The Dial._--Emerson's criticism on Landor. + +LXXII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 6 December, 1841. Acknowledgment of +remittance of L40.--American funds.--Landor.--Emerson's Lectures. + +LXXIII. Emerson. New York, 28 February, 1842. Remittance of +L48.--American investments.--Death of his son.--Alcott going +to England. + +LXXIV. Carlyle. Templand, 28 March, 1842. Sympathy, with +Emerson.--Death of Mrs. Carlyle's mother.--At Templand to settle +affairs.--Life there.--A book on Cromwell begun. + +LXXV. Emerson. Concord, 31 March, 1842. Bereavement.--Alcott +going to England.--Editorship of _Dial._--Mr. Henry Lee.-- +Lectures in New York. + +--------------------- + + + +CORRESPONDENCE OF CARLYLE AND EMERSON + +At the beginning of his "English Traits," Mr. Emerson, writing of +his visit to England in 1833, when he was thirty years old, says +that it was mainly the attraction of three or four writers, of +whom Carlyle was one, that had led him to Europe. Carlyle's name +was not then generally known, and it illustrates Emerson's mental +attitude that he should have thus early recognized his genius, +and felt sympathy with it. + +The decade from 1820 to 1830 was a period of unusual dulness in +English thought and imagination. All the great literary +reputations belonged to the beginning of the century, Byron, +Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, had said their say. +The intellectual life of the new generation had not yet found +expression. But toward the end of this time a series of +articles, mostly on German literature, appearing in the Edinburgh +and in the Foreign Quarterly Review, an essay on Burns, another +on Voltaire, still more a paper entitled "Characteristics," +displayed the hand of a master, and a spirit in full sympathy +with the hitherto unexpressed tendencies and aspirations of its +time, and capable of giving them expression. Here was a writer +whose convictions were based upon principles, and whose words +stood for realities. His power was slowly acknowledged. As yet +Carlyle had received hardly a token of recognition from his +contemporaries. + +He was living solitary, poor, independent, in "desperate hope," +at Craigenputtock. On August 24,1833, he makes entry in his +Journal as follows: "I am left here the solitariest, stranded, +most helpless creature that I have been for many years..... +Nobody asks me to work at articles. The thing I want to write is +quite other than an article... In _all_ times there is a word +which spoken to men; to the actual generation of men, would +thrill their inmost soul. But the way to find that word? The +way to speak it when found?" The next entry in his Journal shows +that Carlyle had found the word. It is the name "Ralph Waldo +Emerson," the record of Emerson's unexpected visit. "I shall +never forget the visitor," wrote Mrs. Carlyle, long afterwards, +"who years ago, in the Desert, descended on us, out of the clouds +as it were, and made one day there look like enchantment for us, +and left me weeping that it was only one day." + +At the time of this memorable visit Emerson was morally not less +solitary than Carlyle; he was still less known; his name had +been unheard by his host in the desert. But his voice was soon +to become also the voice of a leader. With temperaments sharply +contrasted, with traditions, inheritances, and circumstances +radically different, with views of life and of the universe +widely at variance, the souls of these two young men were yet in +sympathy, for their characters were based upon the same +foundation of principle. In their independence and their +sincerity they were alike; they were united in their faith in +spiritual truth, and their reverence for it. Their modes of +thought of expression were not merely dissimilar, but divergent, +and yet, though parted by an ever widening cleft of difference, +they knew, as Carlyle said, that beneath it "the rock-strata, +miles deep, united again, and their two souls were at one" + +Two days after Emerson's visit Carlyle wrote to his mother:-- + +"Three little happinesses have befallen us: first, a piano-tuner, +procured for five shillings and sixpence, has been here, +entirely reforming the piano, so that I can hear a little music +now, which does me no little good. Secondly, Major Irving, of +Gribton, who used at this season of the year to live and shoot at +Craigenvey, came in one day to us, and after some clatter offered +us a rent of five pounds for the right to shoot here, and even +tabled the cash that moment, and would not pocket it again. +Money easilier won never sat in my pocket; money for delivering +us from a great nuisance, for now I will tell every gunner +applicant, 'I cannot, sir; it is let.' Our third happiness was +the arrival of a certain young unknown friend, named Emerson, +from Boston, in the United States, who turned aside so far from +his British, French, and Italian travels to see me here! He had +an introduction from Mill, and a Frenchman (Baron d'Eichthal's +nephew) whom John knew at Rome. Of course we could do no other +than welcome him; the rather as he seemed to be one of the most +lovable creatures in himself we had ever looked on. He stayed +till next day with us, and talked and heard talk to his heart's +content, and left us all really sad to part with him. Jane says +it is the first journey since Noah's Deluge undertaken to +Craigenputtock for such a purpose. In any case, we had a +cheerful day from it, and ought to be thankful." + +On the next Sunday, a week after his visit, Emerson wrote the +following account of it to his friend, Mr. Alexander Ireland. + +"I found him one of the most simple and frank of men, and became +acquainted with him at once. We walked over several miles of +hills, and talked upon all the great questions that interest us +most. The comfort of meeting a man is that he speaks sincerely; +that he feels himself to be so rich, that he is above the +meanness of pretending to knowledge which he has not, and Carlyle +does not pretend to have solved the great problems, but rather to +be an observer of their solution as it goes forward in the world. +I asked him at what religious development the concluding passage +in his piece in the Edinburgh Review upon German literature +(say five years ago), and some passages in the piece called +'Characteristics,' pointed. He replied that he was not competent +to state even to himself,--he waited rather to see. My own +feeling was that I had met with men of far less power who had got +greater insight into religious truth. He is, as you might guess +from his papers, the most catholic of philosophers; he forgives +and loves everybody, and wishes each to struggle on in his own +place and arrive at his own ends. But his respect for eminent +men, or rather his scale of eminence, is about the reverse of the +popular scale. Scott, Mackintosh, Jeffrey, Gibbon,--even Bacon, +--are no heroes of his; stranger yet, he hardly admires Socrates, +the glory of the Greek world; but Burns, and Samuel Johnson, and +Mirabeau, he said interested him, and I suppose whoever else has +given himself with all his heart to a leading instinct, and has +not calculated too much. But I cannot think of sketching even +his opinions, or repeating his conversations here. I will +cheerfully do it when you visit me here in America. He talks +finely, seems to love the broad Scotch, and I loved him very much +at once. I am afraid he finds his entire solitude tedious, but I +could not help congratulating him upon his treasure in his wife, +and I hope he will not leave the moors; 't is so much better for +a man of letters to nurse himself in seclusion than to be filed +down to the common level by the compliances and imitations of +city society." * + +------------- +* _Ralph Waldo Emerson. Recollections of his Visits to England_ +By Alexander Ireland. London, 1882, p. 58. +------------ + +Twenty-three years later, in his "English Traits," Emerson once +more describes his visit, and tells of his impressions of +Carlyle. + +"From Edinburgh I went to the Highlands. On my return I came +from Glasgow to Dumfries, and being intent on delivering a letter +which I had brought from Rome, inquired for Craigenputtock. It +was a farm in Nithsdale, in the parish of Dunscore, sixteen miles +distant. No public coach passed near it, so I took a private +carriage from the inn. I found the house amid desolate heathery +hills, where the lonely scholar nourished his mighty heart. +Carlyle was a man from his youth, an author who did not need to +hide from his readers, and as absolute a man of the world, +unknown and exiled on that hill-farm, as if holding on his own +terms what is best in London. He was tall and gaunt, with a +cliff-like brow, self-possessed and holding his extraordinary +powers of conversation in easy command; clinging to his northern +accent with evident relish; full of lively anecdote, and with a +streaming humor which floated everything he looked upon. His +talk, playfully exalting the most familiar objects, put the +companion at once into an acquaintance with his Lars and Lemurs, +and it was very pleasant to learn what was predestined to be a +pretty mythology. Few were the objects and lonely the man, 'not +a person to speak to within sixteen miles, except the minister of +Dunscore'; so that books inevitably made his topics. + +"He had names of his own for all the matters familiar to his +discourse. Blackwood's was the 'sand magazine'; Fraser's nearer +approach to possibility of life was the 'mud magazine'; a piece +of road near by that marked some failed enterprise was 'the grave +of the last sixpence.' When too much praise of any genius +annoyed him, he professed hugely to admire the talent shown by +his pig. He had spent much time and contrivance in confining the +poor beast to one enclosure in his Pen; but pig, by great +strokes of judgment, had found out how to let a board down, and +had foiled him. For all that, he still thought man the most +plastic little fellow in the planet, and he liked Nero's death, +_Qualis artifex pereo!_ better than most history. He worships a +man that will manifest any truth to him. At one time he had +inquired and read a good deal about America. Landor's principle +was mere rebellion, and _that,_ he feared, was the American +principle. The best thing he knew of that country was, that in +it a man can have meat for his labor. He had read in Stewart's +book, that when he inquired in a New York hotel for the Boots, he +had been shown across the street, and had found Mungo in his own +house dining on roast turkey. + +"We talked of books. Plato he does not read, and he disparaged +Socrates; and, when pressed, persisted in making Mirabeau a +hero. Gibbon he called the splendid bridge from the old world to +the new. His own reading had been multifarious. Tristram Shandy +was one of his first books after Robinson Crusoe and Robertson's +America, an early favorite. Rousseau's Confessions had +discovered to him that he was not a dunce; and it was now ten +years since he had learned German, by the advice of a man who +told him he would find in that language what he wanted. + +"He took despairing or satirical views of literature at this +moment; recounted the incredible sums paid in one year by the +great booksellers for puffing. Hence it comes that no newspaper +is trusted now, no books are bought, and the booksellers are on +the eve of bankruptcy. + +"He still returned to English pauperism, the crowded country, the +selfish abdication by public men of all that public persons +should perform. 'Government should direct poor men what to do. +Poor Irish folk come wandering over these moors; my dame makes +it a rule to give to every son of Adam bread to eat, and supplies +his wants to the next house. But here are thousands of acres +which might give them all meat, and nobody to bid these poor +Irish go to the moor and till it. They burned the stacks, and so +found a way to force the rich people to attend to them.' + +"We went out to walk over long hills, and looked at Criffel, then +without his cap, and down into Wordsworth's country. There we +sat down and talked of the immortality of the soul. It was not +Carlyle's fault that we talked on that topic, for he has the +natural disinclination of every nimble spirit to bruise itself +against walls, and did not like to place himself where no step +can be taken. But he was honest and true, and cognizant of the +subtile links that bind ages together, and saw how every event +affects all the future. 'Christ died on the tree that built +Dunscore kirk yonder: that brought you and me together. Time +has only a relative existence.' + +"He was already turning his eyes towards London with a scholar's +appreciation. London is the heart of the world, he said, +wonderful only from the mass of human beings. He liked the huge +machine. Each keeps its own round. The baker's boy brings +muffins to the window at a fixed hour every day, and that is all +the Londoner knows or wishes to know on the subject. But it +turned out good men. He named certain individuals, especially +one man of letters, his friend, the best mind he knew, whom +London had well served." + +Such is the record of the beginnings of the friendship between +Carlyle and Emerson. What place this friendship held in the +lives of both, the following Correspondence shows. + +--------- + + +I. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, Massachusetts, 14 May, 1884 + +My Dear Sir,--There are some purposes we delay long to execute +simply because we have them more at heart than others, and such +an one has been for many weeks, I may say months, my design of +writing you an epistle. + +Some chance wind of Fame blew your name to me, perhaps two years +ago, as the author of papers which I had already distinguished +(as indeed it was very easy to do) from the mass of English +periodical criticism as by far the most original and profound +essays of the day,--the works of a man of Faith as well as +Intellect, sportive as well as learned, and who, belonging to the +despairing and deriding class of philosophers, was not ashamed to +hope and to speak sincerely. Like somebody in _Wilhelm Meister_, +I said: This person has come under obligations to me and to all +whom he has enlightened. He knows not how deeply I should grieve +at his fall, if, in that exposed England where genius always +hears the Devil's whisper, "All these kingdoms will I give thee," +his virtue also should be an initial growth put off with age. +When therefore I found myself in Europe, I went to your house +only to say, "Faint not,--the word you utter is heard, though in +the ends of the earth and by humblest men; it works, prevails." +Drawn by strong regard to one of my teachers I went to see his +person, and as he might say his environment at Craigenputtock. +Yet it was to fulfil my duty, finish my mission, not with much +hope of gratifying him,--in the spirit of "If I love you, what is +that to you?" Well, it happened to me that I was delighted with +my visit, justified to myself in my respect, and many a time upon +the sea in my homeward voyage I remembered with joy the favored +condition of my lonely philosopher, his happiest wedlock, his +fortunate temper, his steadfast simplicity, his all means of +happiness;--not that I had the remotest hope that he should so +far depart from his theories as to expect happiness. On my +arrival at home I rehearsed to several attentive ears what I had +seen and heard, and they with joy received it. + +In Liverpool I wrote to Mr. Fraser to send me Magazine, and I +have now received four numbers of the _Sartor Resartus,_ for +whose light thanks evermore. I am glad that one living scholar +is self-centred, and will be true to himself though none ever +were before; who, as Montaigne says, "puts his ear close by +himself, and holds his breath and listens." And none can be +offended with the self-subsistency of one so catholic and jocund. +And 't is good to have a new eye inspect our mouldy social forms, +our politics, and schools, and religion. I say _our,_ for it +cannot have escaped you that a lecture upon these topics written +for England may be read to America. Evermore thanks for the +brave stand you have made for Spiritualism in these writings. +But has literature any parallel to the oddity of the vehicle +chosen to convey this treasure? I delight in the contents; the +form, which my defective apprehension for a joke makes me not +appreciate, I leave to your merry discretion. And yet did ever +wise and philanthropic author use so defying a diction? As if +society were not sufficiently shy of truth without providing it +beforehand with an objection to the form. Can it be that this +humor proceeds from a despair of finding a contemporary audience, +and so the Prophet feels at liberty to utter his message in droll +sounds. Did you not tell me, Mr. Thomas Carlyle, sitting upon +one of your broad hills, that it was Jesus Christ built Dunscore +Kirk yonder? If you love such sequences, then admit, as you +will, that no poet is sent into the world before his time; that +all the departed thinkers and actors have paved your way; that +(at least when you surrender yourself) nations and ages do guide +your pen, yes, and common goose-quills as well as your diamond +graver. Believe then that harp and ear are formed by one +revolution of the wheel; that men are waiting to hear your +epical song; and so be pleased to skip those excursive involved +glees, and give us the simple air, without the volley of +variations. At least in some of your prefaces you should give us +the theory of your rhetoric. I comprehend not why you should +lavish in that spendthrift style of yours celestial truths. +Bacon and Plato have something too solid to say than that they +can afford to be humorists. You are dispensing that which is +rarest, namely, the simplest truths,--truths which lie next to +consciousness, and which only the Platos and Goethes perceive. I +look for the hour with impatience when the vehicle will be worthy +of the spirit,--when the word will be as simple, and so as +resistless, as the thought,--and, in short, when your words +will be one with things. I have no hope that you will find +suddenly a large audience. Says not the sarcasm, "Truth hath +the plague in his house"? Yet all men are _potentially_ (as +Mr. Coleridge would say) your audience, and if you will not +in very Mephistophelism repel and defy them, shall be actually;* +and whatever the great or the small may say about the charm of +diabolism, a true and majestic genius can afford to despise it. + +------------ +* This year, 1882, seventy thousand copies of a sixpenny edition +of _Sartor Resartus_ have been sold. +------------- + +I venture to amuse you with this homiletic criticism because it +is the sense of uncritical truth seekers, to whom you are no more +than Hecuba, whose instincts assure them that there is Wisdom in +this grotesque Teutonic apocalyptic strain of yours, but that 't +is hence hindered in its effect. And though with all my heart I +would stand well with my Poet, yet if I offend I shall quietly +retreat into my Universal relations, wherefrom I affectionately +espy you as a man, myself as another. + +And yet before I come to the end of my letter I may repent of my +temerity and unsay my charge. For are not all our circlets of +will as so many little eddies rounded in by the great Circle of +Necessity, and _could_ the Truth-speaker, perhaps now the best +Thinker of the Saxon race, have written otherwise? And must +not we say that Drunkenness is a virtue rather than that Cato +has erred? + +I wish I could gratify you with any pleasing news of the +regeneration, education, prospects, of man in this continent. +But your philanthropy is so patient, so far-sighted, that present +evils give you less solicitude. In the last six years government +in the United States has been fast becoming a job, like great +charities. A most unfit person in the Presidency has been doing +the worst things; and the worse he grew, the more popular. Now +things seem to mend. Webster, a good man and as strong as if he +were a sinner, begins to find himself the centre of a great and +enlarging party and his eloquence incarnated and enacted by them; +yet men dare not hope that the majority shall be suddenly +unseated. I send herewith a volume of Webster's that you may see +his speech on Foot's Resolutions, a speech which the Americans +have never done praising. I have great doubts whether the book +reaches you, as I know not my agents. I shall put with it the +little book of my Swedenborgian druggist,* of whom I told you. +And if, which is hardly to be hoped, any good book should be +thrown out of our vortex of trade and politics, I shall not fail +to give it the same direction. + +-------------- +* _Observations on the Growth of the Mind,_ by Sampson Reed, +first published in 1825. A fifth edition of this thoughtful +little treatise was published in 1865. Mr. Reed was a graduate +of Harvard College in 1818; he died in 1880, at the age +of eighty. +--------------- + +I need not tell you, my dear sir, what pleasure a letter from you +would give me when you have a few moments to spare to so remote a +friend. If any word in my letter should provoke you to a reply, +I shall rejoice in my sauciness. I am spending the summer in the +country, but my address is Boston, care of Barnard, Adams, & Co. +Care of O. Rich, London. Please do make my affectionate respects +to Mrs. Carlyle, whose kindness I shall always gratefully +remember. I depend upon her intercession to insure your writing +to me. May God grant you both his best blessing. + +Your friend, + R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +II. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Great Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London +12 August, 1834 + +My Dear Sir,--Some two weeks ago I received your kind gift from +Fraser. To say that it was welcome would be saying little: is +it not as a voice of affectionate remembrance, coming from beyond +the Ocean waters, first decisively announcing for me that a whole +New Continent _exists,_--that I too have part and lot there! +"Not till we can think that here and there one is thinking of us, +one is loving us, does this waste Earth become a peopled Garden." +Among the figures I can recollect as visiting our Nithsdale +hermitage,--all like _Apparitions_ now, bringing with them airs +from Heaven or else blasts from the other region,--there is +perhaps not one of a more undoubtedly supernal character than +yourself: so pure and still, with intents so charitable; and +then vanishing too so soon into the azure Inane, as an Apparition +should! Never has your Address in my Notebook met my eye but +with a friendly influence. Judge if I am glad to know that +there, in Infinite Space, you still hold by me. + +I have read in both your books at leisure times, and now nearly +finished the smaller one. He is a faithful thinker, that +Swedenborgian Druggist of yours, with really deep ideas, who +makes me too pause and think, were it only to consider what +manner of man he must be, and what manner of thing, after all, +Swedenborgianism must be. "Through the smallest window look +well, and you can look out into the Infinite." Webster also I +can recognize a sufficient, effectual man, whom one must wish +well to, and prophesy well of. The sound of him is nowise +poetic-rhythmic; it is clear, one-toned, you might say metallic, +yet distinct, significant, not without melody. In his face, +above all, I discern that "indignation" which, if it do not make +"verses," makes _useful_ way in the world. The higher such a man +rises, the better pleased I shall be. And so here, looking +over the water, let me repeat once more what I believe is +already dimly the sentiment of all Englishmen, Cisoceanic and +Transoceanic, that we and you are not two countries, and cannot +for the life of us be; but only two _parishes_ of one country, +with such wholesome parish hospitalities, and dirty temporary +parish feuds, as we see; both of which brave parishes _Vivant! +vivant!_ And among the glories of _both_ be Yankee-doodle-doo, +and the Felling of the Western Forest, proudly remembered; and +for the rest, by way of parish constable, let each cheerfully +take such George Washington or George Guelph as it can get, and +bless Heaven! I am weary of hearing it said, "We love the +Americans," "We wish well," &c., &c. What in God's name should +we do else? + +You thank me for _Teufelsdrockh;_ how much more ought I to thank +you for your hearty, genuine, though extravagant acknowledgment +of it! Blessed is the voice that amid dispiritment, stupidity, +and contradiction proclaims to us, _Euge!_ Nothing ever was more +ungenial than the soil this poor Teufelsdrockhish seed-corn has +been thrown on here; none cries, Good speed to it; the sorriest +nettle or hemlock seed, one would think, had been more welcome. +For indeed our British periodical critics, and especially +the public of _Fraser's_ Magazine (which I believe I have now +done with), exceed all speech; require not even contempt, +only oblivion. Poor Teufelsdrockh!--Creature of mischance, +miscalculation, and thousand-fold obstruction! Here nevertheless +he is, as you see; has struggled across the Stygian marshes, and +now, as a stitched pamphlet "for Friends," cannot be _burnt_ or +lost before his time. I send you one copy for your own behoof; +three others you yourself can perhaps find fit readers for: as +you spoke in the plural number, I thought there might be three; +more would rather surprise me. From the British side of the +water I have met simply one intelligent response,--clear, true, +though almost enthusiastic as your own. My British Friend too is +utterly a stranger, whose very name I know not, who did not +print, but only write, and to an unknown third party.* Shall I +say then, "In the mouth of two witnesses"? In any case, God be +thanked, I am done with it; can wash my hands of it, and send it +forth; sure that the Devil will get his full share of it, +and not a whit more, clutch as he may. But as for you, my +Transoceanic brothers, read this earnestly, for it _was_ +earnestly meant and written, and contains no _voluntary_ +falsehood of mine. For the rest, if you dislike it, say that I +wrote it four years ago, and could not now so write it, and on +the whole (as Fritz the Only said) "will do better another time." +With regard to style and so forth, what you call your "saucy" +objections are not only most intelligible to me, but welcome and +instructive. You say well that I take up that attitude because I +have no known public, am alone under the heavens, speaking into +friendly or unfriendly space; add only, that I will not defend +such attitude, that I call it questionable, tentative, and only +the best that I, in these mad times, could conveniently hit upon. +For you are to know, my view is that now at last we have lived to +see all manner of Poetics and Rhetorics and Sermonics, and one +may say generally all manner of _Pulpits_ for addressing mankind +from, as good as broken and abolished: alas, yes! if you have +any earnest meaning which demands to be not only listened to, but +_believed_ and _done,_ you cannot (at least I cannot) utter it +_there,_ but the sound sticks in my throat, as when a solemnity +were _felt_ to have become a mummery; and so one leaves the +pasteboard coulisses, and three unities, and Blair's Lectures, +quite behind; and feels only that there is _nothing sacred,_ +then, but the _Speech of Man_ to believing Men! This, come what +will, was, is, and forever must be _sacred;_ and will one day, +doubtless, anew environ itself with fit modes; with solemnities +that are _not_ mummeries. Meanwhile, however, is it not +pitiable? For though Teufelsdrockh exclaims, "Pulpit! canst thou +not make a pulpit by simply _inverting the nearest tub?_" yet, +alas! he does not sufficiently reflect that it is still only a +tub, that the most inspired utterance will come from _it,_ +inconceivable, misconceivable, to the million; questionable (not +of _ascertained_ significance) even to the few. Pity us +therefore; and with your just shake of the head join a +sympathetic, even a hopeful smile. Since I saw you I have been +trying, am still trying, other methods, and shall surely get +nearer the truth, as I honestly strive for it. Meanwhile, I know +no method of much consequence, except that of _believing,_ of +being _sincere:_ from Homer and the Bible down to the poorest +Burns's Song, I find no other Art that promises to be perennial. + +--------- +* In his Diary, July 26, 1834, Carlyle writes--"In the midst of +innumerable discouragements, all men indifferent or finding fault, +let me mention two small circumstances that are comfortable. +The first is a letter from some nameless Irishman in Cork +to another here, (Fraser read it to me without names,) actually +containing a _true_ and one of the friendliest possible recognitions +of me. One mortal, then, says I am _not_ utterly wrong. +Blessings on him for it! The second is a letter I got today +from Emerson, of Boston in America; sincere, not baseless, +of most exaggerated estimation. Precious is man to man." +Fifteen years later, in his _Reminiscences of My Irish +Journey,_ he enters, under date of July 16, 1849: "Near eleven +o'clock [at night] announces himself 'Father O'Shea'! (who I +thought had been _dead_); to my astonishment enter a little +gray-haired, intelligent-and-bred-looking man, with much +gesticulation, boundless loyal welcome, red with dinner and some +wine, engages that we are to meet tomorrow,--and again with +explosions of welcomes goes his way. This Father O'Shea, some +fifteen years ago, had been, with Emerson of America, one of the +_two_ sons of Adam who encouraged poor bookseller Fraser, and +didn't discourage him, to go on with Teufelsdrockh. I had often +remembered him since; had not long before _re_-inquired his +name, but understood somehow that he was dead--and now." +--------------- + +But now quitting theoretics, let me explain what you long to +know, how it is that I date from London. Yes, my friend, it is +even so: Craigenputtock now stands solitary in the wilderness, +with none but an old woman and foolish grouse-destroyers in it; +and we for the last ten weeks, after a fierce universal +disruption, are here with our household gods. Censure not; I +came to London for the best of all reasons,--to seek bread and +work. So it literally stands; and so do I literally stand with +the hugest, gloomiest Future before me, which in all sane moments +I good-humoredly defy. A strange element this, and I as good as +an Alien in it. I care not for Radicalism, for Toryism, for +Church, Tithes, or the "Confusion" of useful Knowledge. Much +as I can speak and hear, I am alone, alone. My brave Father, +now victorious from his toil, was wont to pray in evening +worship: "Might we say, We are not alone, for God is with us!" +Amen! Amen! + +I brought a manuscript with me of another curious sort, entitled +_The Diamond Necklace._ Perhaps it will be printed soon as an +Article, or even as a separate Booklet,--a _queer_ production, +which you shall see. Finally, I am busy, constantly studying +with my whole might for a Book on the French Revolution. It is +part of my creed that the Only Poetry is History, could we tell +it right. This truth (if it prove one) I have not yet got to the +limitations of; and shall in no way except by _trying_ it in +practice. The story of the Necklace was the first attempt at +an experiment. + +My sheet is nearly done; and I have still to complain of you for +telling me nothing of yourself except that you are in the +country. Believe that I want to know much and all. My wife too +remembers you with unmixed friendliness; bids me send you her +kindest wishes. Understand too that your old bed stands in a new +room here, and the old welcome at the door. Surely we shall see +you in London one day. Or who knows but Mahomet may go to the +mountain? It occasionally rises like a mad prophetic dream in +me, that I might end in the Western Woods! + +From Germany I get letters, messages, and even visits; but now +no tidings, no influences, of moment. Goethe's Posthumous Works +are all published; and Radicalism (poor hungry, yet inevitable +Radicalism!) is the order of the day. The like, and even more, +from France. Gustave d'Eichthal (did you hear?) has gone over to +Greece, and become some kind of Manager under King Otho.* + +----------- +* Gustave d'Eichthal, whose acquaintance Emerson had made at +Rome, and who had given him an introduction to Carlyle, was one +of a family of rich Jewish bankers at Paris. He was an ardent +follower of Saint-Simon, and an associate of Enfantin. After the +dispersion of the Saint-Simonians in 1832, he traveled much, and +continued to devote himself to the improvement of society. +---------- + +Continue to love me, you and my other friends; and as packets +sail so swiftly, let me know it frequently. All good be +with you! + +Most faithfully, + T. Carlyle + +Coleridge, as you doubtless hear, is gone. How great a Possibility, +how small a realized Result! They are delivering Orations about +him, and emitting other kinds of froth, _ut mos est._ What hurt +can it do? + + + + +III. Emerson to Carlyle * + +Concord, Mass., 20 November, 1834 + +My Dear Sir,--Your letter, which I received last week, made a +bright light in a solitary and saddened place. I had quite +recently received the news of the death of a brother** in the +island of Porto Rico, whose loss to me will be a lifelong sorrow. +As he passes out of sight, come to me visible as well as +spiritual tokens of a fraternal friendliness which, by its own +law, transcends the tedious barriers of custom and nation; and +opens its way to the heart. This is a true consolation, and I +thanked my jealous [Greek] for the godsend so significantly +timed. It, for the moment, realizes the hope to which I have +clung with both hands, through each disappointment, that I might +converse with a man whose ear of faith was not stopped, and whose +argument I could not predict. May I use the word, "I thank my +God whenever I call you to remembrance." + +---------- +* This letter was printed in the _Athenaeum,_ London, June 24, +1882. It, as well as three others which appeared in the same +journal, is now reprinted, through the courtesy of its editor, +from the original. + +** Edward Bliss Emerson, his next younger brother, "brother of +the brief but blazing star," of whom Emerson wrote _In Memoriam:_-- + + "There is no record left on earth, + Save in tablets of the heart, + Of the rich, inherent worth, + Of the grace that on him shone, + Of eloquent lips, of joyful wit; + He could not frame a word unfit, + An act unworthy to be done. + + On his young promise Beauty smiled, + Drew his free homage unbeguiled, + And prosperous Age held out his hand, + And richly his large future planned, + And troops of friends enjoyed the tide,-- + All, all was given, and only health denied." +---------- + +I receive with great pleasure the wonderful Professor now that +first the decent limbs of Osiris are collected.* We greet him +well to Cape Cod and Boston Bay. The rigid laws of matter +prohibit that the soul imprisoned within the strait edges of +these types should add one syllable thereto, or we had adjured +the Sage by every name of veneration to take possession by so +much as a Salve! of his Western World, but he remained inexorable +for any new communications. + +------------- +* The four copies of _Sartor_ which Carlyle had sent were a +"stitched pamphlet," with a title-page bearing the words: "Sartor +Resartus: in Three Books. Reprinted for Friends, from Fraser's +Magazine. London, 1834." +------------- + +I feel like congratulating you upon the cold welcome which you +say Teufelsdrockh* has met. As it is not earthly happy, it is +marked of a high sacred sort. I like it a great deal better than +ever, and before it was all published I had eaten nearly all my +words of objection. But do not think it shall lack a present +popularity. That it should not be known seems possible, for if a +memoir of Laplace had been thrown into that muck-heap of Fraser's +Magazine, who would be the wiser? But this has too much wit and +imagination not to strike a class who would not care for it as a +faithful mirror of this very Hour. But you know the proverb, "To +be fortunate, be not too wise." The great men of the day are on +a plane so low as to be thoroughly intelligible to the vulgar. +Nevertheless, as God maketh the world forevermore, whatever the +devils may seem to do, so the thoughts of the best minds always +become the last opinion of Society. Truth is ever born in a +manger, but is compensated by living till it has all souls for +its kingdom. Far, far better seems to me the unpopularity of +this Philosophical Poem (shall I call it?) than the adulation +that followed your eminent friend Goethe. With him I am becoming +better acquainted, but mine must be a qualified admiration. It +is a singular piece of good-nature in you to apotheosize him. I +cannot but regard it as his misfortune, with conspicuous bad +influence on his genius, that velvet life he led. What +incongruity for genius, whose fit ornaments and reliefs are +poverty and hatred, to repose fifty years on chairs of state and +what pity that his Duke did not cut off his head to save him from +the mean end (forgive) of retiring from the municipal incense "to +arrange tastefully his gifts and medals"! Then the Puritan in me +accepts no apology for bad morals in such as he. We can tolerate +vice in a splendid nature whilst that nature is battling with the +brute majority in defence of some human principle. The sympathy +his manhood and his misfortunes call out adopts even his faults; +but genius pampered, acknowledged, crowned, can only retain our +sympathy by turning the same force once expended against outward +enemies now against inward, and carrying forward and planting the +standard of Oromasdes so many leagues farther on into the envious +Dark. Failing this, it loses its nature and becomes talent, +according to the definition,--mere skill in attaining vulgar +ends. A certain wonderful friend of mine said that "a false +priest is the falsest of false things." But what makes the +priest? A cassock? O Diogenes! Or the power (and thence the +call) to teach man's duties as they flow from the Superhuman? Is +not he who perceives and proclaims the Superhumanities, he who +has once intelligently pronounced the words "Self-Renouncement," +"Invisible Leader," "Heavenly Powers of Sorrow," and so on, +forever the liege of the same? + +------------ +* Emerson uniformly spells this name "Teufelsdroch." +------------ + +Then to write luxuriously is not the same thing as to live so, +but a new and worse offence. It implies an intellectual defect +also, the not perceiving that the present corrupt condition of +human nature (which condition this harlot muse helps to +perpetuate) is a temporary or superficial state. The good word +lasts forever: the impure word can only buoy itself in the gross +gas that now envelops us, and will sink altogether to ground as +that works itself clear in the everlasting effort of God. + +May I not call it temporary? for when I ascend into the pure +region of truth (or under my undermost garment, as Epictetus and +Teufelsdrockh would say), I see that to abide inviolate, although +all men fall away from it; yea, though the whole generation of +Adam should be healed as a sore off the face of the creation. +So, my friend, live Socrates and Milton, those starch Puritans, +for evermore! Strange is it to me that you should not sympathize +(yet so you said) with Socrates, so ironical, so true, and who +"tramped in the mire with wooden shoes whenever they would force +him into the clouds." I seem to see him offering the hand to you +across the ages which some time you will grasp. + +I am glad you like Sampson Reed, and that he has inspired some +curiosity respecting his Church. Swedenborgianism, if you should +be fortunate in your first meetings, has many points of +attraction for you: for instance, this article, "The poetry of +the Old Church is the reality of the New," which is to be +literally understood, for they esteem, in common with all the +Trismegisti, the Natural World as strictly the symbol or exponent +of the Spiritual, and part for part; the animals to be the +incarnations of certain affections; and scarce a popular +expression esteemed figurative, but they affirm to be the +simplest statement of fact. Then is their whole theory of social +relations--both in and out of the body--most philosophical, and, +though at variance with the popular theology, self-evident. It +is only when they come to their descriptive theism, if I may say +so, and then to their drollest heaven, and to some autocratic not +moral decrees of God, that the mythus loses me. In general, too, +they receive the fable instead of the moral of their Aesop. They +are to me, however, deeply interesting, as a sect which I think +must contribute more than all other sects to the new faith which +must arise out of all. + +You express a desire to know something of myself. Account me "a +drop in the ocean seeking another drop," or God-ward, striving to +keep so true a sphericity as to receive the due ray from every +point of the concave heaven. Since my return home, I have been +left very much at leisure. It were long to tell all my +speculations on my profession and my doings thereon; but, +possessing my liberty, I am determined to keep it, at the risk of +uselessness (which risk God can very well abide), until such +duties offer themselves as I can with integrity discharge. One +thing I believe,--that Utterance is place enough: and should I +attain through any inward revelation to a more clear perception +of my assigned task, I shall embrace it with joy and praise. I +shall not esteem it a low place, for instance, if I could +strengthen your hands by true expressions of the hope and +pleasure which your writings communicate to me and to some of my +countrymen. Yet the best poem of the Poet is his own mind, and +more even than in any of the works I rejoice in the promise of +the workman. Now I am only reading and musing, and when I have +any news to tell of myself, you shall hear them. + +Now as to the welcome hint that you might come to America, it +shall be to me a joyful hope. Come and found a new Academy that +shall be church and school and Parnassus, as a true Poet's house +should be. I dare not say that wit has better chance here than +in England of winning world-wages, but it can always live, and it +can scarce find competition. Indeed, indeed, you shall have the +continent to yourself were it only as Crusoe was king. If you +cared to read literary lectures, our people have vast curiosity, +and the apparatus is very easy to set agoing. Such 'pulpit' as +you pleased to erect would at least find no hindrance in the +building. A friend of mine and of yours remarked, when I +expressed the wish that you would come here, "that people were +not here, as in England, sacramented to organized schools of +opinion, but were a far more convertible audience." If at all +you can think of coming here, I would send you any and all +particulars of information with cheerfulest speed. + +I have written a very long letter, yet have said nothing of much +that I would say upon chapters of the _Sartor._ I must keep +that, and the thoughts I had upon 'poetry in history',' for +another letter, or (might it be!) for a dialogue face to face. + +Let me not fail of _The Diamond Necklace._ I found three greedy +receivers of Teufelsdrockh, who also radiate its light. For the +sake of your knowing what manner of men you move, I send you two +pieces writ by one of them, Frederic Henry Hedge, the article on +Swedenborg and that on Phrenology. And as you like Sampson Reed, +here are one or two more of his papers. Do read them. And since +you study French history do not fail to look at our Yankee +portrait of Lafayette. Present my best remembrances to Mrs. +Carlyle, whom that stern and blessed solitude has armed and +sublimed out of all reach of the littleness and unreason of +London. If I thought we could win her to the American shore, I +would send her the story of those godly women, the contemporaries +of John Knox's daughter, who came out hither to enjoy the worship +of God amidst wild men and wild beasts. + +Your friend and servant, + R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +IV. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London +3 February, 1835 + +My Dear Sir,--I owe you a speedy answer as well as a grateful +one; for, in spite of the swift ships of the Americans, our +communings pass too slowly. Your letter, written in November, +did not reach me till a few days ago; your Books or Papers have +not yet come,--though the ever-punctual Rich, I can hope, will +now soon get them for me. He showed me his _way-bill_ or +invoice, and the consignment of these friendly effects "to +another gentleman," and undertook with an air of great fidelity +to bring all to a right bearing. On the whole, as the Atlantic +is so broad and deep, ought we not rather to esteem it a +beneficent miracle that messages can arrive at all; that a +little slip of paper will skim over all these weltering floods, +and other inextricable confusions, and come at last, in the hand +of the Twopenny Postman, safe to your lurking-place, like green +leaf in the bill of Noah's Dove? Let us be grateful for mercies; +let us use them while they are granted us. Time was when "they +that feared the Lord spake _often_ one to another." A friendly +thought is the purest gift that man can afford to man. "Speech" +also, they say, "is cheerfuler than light itself." + +The date of your letter gives me unhappily no idea but that of +Space and Time. As you know my whereabout, will you throw a +little light on your own? I can imagine Boston, and have often +seen the musket volleys on Bunker Hill; but in this new spot +there is nothing for me save sky and earth, the chance of +retirement, peace, and winter seclusion. Alas! I can too well +fancy one other thing: the bereavement you allude to, the sorrow +that will so long be painful before it can become merely sad and +sacred. Brothers, especially in these days, are much to us: had +one no brother, one could hardly understand what it was to have a +Friend; they are the Friends whom Nature chose for us; Society +and Fortune, as things now go, are scarcely compatible with +Friendship, and contrive to get along, miserably enough, without +it. Yet sorrow not above measure for him that is gone. He is, +in very deed and truth, with God,--_where_ you and I both are. +What a thin film it is that divides the Living from the Dead! In +still nights, as Jean Paul says, "the limbs of my Buried Ones +touched cold on my soul, and drove away its blots, as dead hands +heal eruptions of the skin." Let us turn back into Life. + +That you sit there bethinking yourself, and have yet taken no +course of activity, and can without inward or outward hurt so +sit, is on the whole rather pleasing news to me. It is a great +truth which you say, that Providence can well afford to have one +sit: another great truth which you feel without saying it is +that a course wherein clear faith cannot go with you may be worse +than none; if clear faith go never so slightly against it, then +it is certainly worse than none. To speak with perhaps ill-bred +candor, I like as well to fancy you _not_ preaching to Unitarians +a Gospel after their heart. I will say farther, that you are the +only man I ever met with of that persuasion whom I could +unobstructedly like. The others that I have seen were all a kind +of halfway-house characters, who, I thought, should, if they had +not wanted courage, have ended in unbelief; in "faint possible +Theism," which I like considerably worse than Atheism. Such, I +could not but feel, deserve the fate they find here; the bat +fate: to be killed among the rats as a bird, among the birds as +a rat.... Nay, who knows but it is doubts of the like kind in +your own mind that keep you for a time inactive even now? For +the rest, that you have liberty to choose by your own will +merely, is a great blessing: too rare for those that could use +it so well; nay, often it is difficult to use. But till _ill +health_ of body or of mind warns you that the moving, not the +sitting, position is essential, _sit_ still, contented in +conscience; understanding well that no man, that God only knows +_what_ we are working, and will show it one day; that such and +such a one, who filled the whole Earth with his hammering and +troweling, and would not let men pass for his rubbish, turns out +to have built of mere coagulated froth, and vanishes with his +edifice, traceless, silently, or amid hootings illimitable; +while again that other still man, by the word of his mouth, by +the very look of his face, was scattering influences, as _seeds_ +are scattered, "to be found flourishing as a banyan grove after a +thousand years." I beg your pardon for all this preaching, if it +be superfluous impute it to no miserable motive. + +Your objections to Goethe are very natural, and even bring you +nearer me: nevertheless, I am by no means sure that it were not +your wisdom, at this moment, to set about learning the German +Language, with a view towards studying _him_ mainly! I do not +assert this; but the truth of it would not surprise me. Believe +me, it is impossible you can be more a Puritan than I; nay, I +often feel as if I were far too much so: but John Knox himself, +could he have seen the peaceable impregnable _fidelity_ of that +man's mind, and how to him also Duty was _infinite,_--Knox would +have passed on, wondering not reproaching. But I will tell you +in a word why I like Goethe: his is the only _healthy_ mind, +of any extent, that I have discovered in Europe for long +generations; it was he that first convincingly proclaimed to me +(convincingly, for I saw it _done_): Behold, even in this +scandalous Sceptico-Epicurean generation, when all is gone but +hunger and cant, it is still possible that Man be a Man! For +which last Evangel, the confirmation and rehabilitation of all +other Evangels whatsoever, how can I be too grateful? On the +whole, I suspect you yet know only Goethe the Heathen (Ethnic); +but you will know Goethe the Christian by and by, and like that +one far better. Rich showed me a Compilation* in green cloth +boards that you had beckoned across the water: pray read the +fourth volume of that, and let a man of your clearness of feeling +say whether that was a Parasite or a Prophet.--And then as to +"misery" and the other dark ground on which you love to see +genius paint itself,--alas! consider whether misery is not _ill +health_ too; also whether good fortune is not worse to bear than +bad; and on the whole whether the glorious serene summer is not +greater than the wildest hurricane,--as Light, the Naturalists +say, is stronger a thousand times than Lightning. And so I +appeal to Philip sober;--and indeed have hardly said as much +about Goethe since I saw you, for nothing reigns here but +twilight delusion (falser for the time than midnight darkness) on +that subject, and I feel that the most suffer nothing thereby, +having properly nothing or little to do with such a matter but +with you, who are not "seeking recipes for happiness," but +something far higher, it is not so, and _therefore_ I have spoken +and appealed; and hope the new curiosity, if I have awakened +any, will do you no mischief. + +------------ +* Obviously Carlyle's _Specimens of German Romance,_ of which the +fourth volume was devoted to Goethe. +------------ + +But now as to myself; for you will grumble at a sheet of +speculation sent so far: I am here still, as Rob Roy was on +Glasgow Bridge, _biding tryste;_ busy extremely, with work that +will not profit me at all in some senses; suffering rather in +health and nerves; and still with nothing like dawn on any +quarter of my horizon. _The Diamond Necklace_ has not been +printed, but will be, were this _French Revolution_ out; which +latter, however, drags itself along in a way that would fill your +benevolent heart with pity. I am for three small volumes now, +and have one done. It is the dreadfulest labor (with these +nerves, this liver) I ever undertook; all is so inaccurate, +superficial, vague, in the numberless books I consult; and +without accuracy at least, what other good is possible? Add to +this that I have no hope about the thing, except only that I +_shall be done with it:_ I can reasonably expect nothing from +any considerable class here, but at _best_ to be scolded and +reproached; perhaps to be left standing "on my own basis," +without note or comment of any kind, save from the Bookseller, +who will lose his printing. The hope I have however is sure: if +life is lent me, I shall be _done with_ the business; I will +write this "History of Sansculottism," the notablest phenomenon I +meet with since the time of the Crusades or earlier; after which +my part is played. As for the future, I heed it little when so +busy; but it often seems to me as if one thing were becoming +indisputable: that I must seek another craft than literature for +these years that may remain to me. Surely, I often say, if ever +man had a finger-of-Providence shown him, thou hast it; literature +will neither yield thee bread, nor a stomach to digest bread with: +quit it in God's name, shouldst thou take spade and mattock instead. +The truth is, I believe literature to be as good as dead and gone +in all parts of Europe at this moment, and nothing but hungry +Revolt and Radicalism appointed us for perhaps three generations; +I do not see how a man can honestly live by writing in another +dialect than that, in England at least; so that if you determine +on not living dishonestly, it will behove you to look several +things full in the face, and ascertain what is what with some +distinctness. I suffer also terribly from the solitary existence +I have all along had; it is becoming a kind of passion with me, +to feel myself among my brothers. And then, How? Alas! I +care not a doit for Radicalism, nay I feel it to be a wretched +necessity, unfit for me; Conservatism being not unfit only +but false for me: yet these two are the grand Categories +under which all English spiritual activity that so much as +thinks remuneration possible must range itself. I look +around accordingly on a most wonderful vortex of things; and +pray to God only, that as my day, is so my strength may be. +What will come out of it is wholly uncertain: for I have +possibilities too; the possibilities of London are far from +exhausted yet: I have a brave brother, who invites me to +come and be quiet with him in Rome; a brave friend (known to +you) who opens the door of a new Western world,--and so we will +stand considering and consulting, at least till the Book be over. +Are all these things interesting to you? I know they are. + +As for America and Lecturing, it is a thing I do sometimes turn +over, but never yet with any seriousness. What your friend says +of the people being more persuadable, so far, as having no +Tithe-controversy, &c., &c. will go, I can most readily understand +it. But apart from that, I should rather fancy America mainly a +new Commercial England, with a fuller pantry,--little more or little +less. The same unquenchable, almost frightfully unresting spirit +of endeavor, directed (woe is me!) to the making of money, or +money's worth; namely, food finer and finer, and gigmanic +renown higher and higher: nay, must not your gigmanity be a +_purse_-gigmanity, some half-shade worse than a purse-and-pedigree +one? Or perhaps it is not a whit worse; only rougher, more +substantial; on the whole better? At all events ours is fast +becoming identical with it; for the pedigree ingredient is as +near as may be gone: _Gagnez de l'argent, et ne vous faites pas +pendre,_ this is very nearly the whole Law, first Table and +second. So that you see, when I set foot on American land, it +will be on no Utopia; but on a _conditional_ piece of ground +where some things are to be expected and other things not. I may +say, on the other hand, that Lecturing (or I would rather it were +_speaking_) is a thing I have always had some hankering after: +it seems to me I could really _swim_ in that element, were I once +thrown into it; that in fact it would develop several things in +me which struggle violently for development. The great want I +have towards such an enterprise is one you may guess at: want of +a _rubric,_ of a title to name my speech by. Could any one but +appoint me Lecturing Professor of Teufelsdrockh's science,-- +"Things in general"! To discourse of Poets and Poetry in the +Hazlitt style, or talk stuff about the Spirit of the Age, were +most unedifying: one knows not what to call himself. However, +there is no doubt that were the child born it _might_ be +christened; wherefore I will really request you to take the +business into your consideration, and give me in the most +rigorous sober manner you can some scheme of it. How many +Discourses; what Towns; the probable Expenses, the probable net +Income, the Time, &c., &c.: all that you can suppose a man +wholly ignorant might want to know about it. America I should +like well enough to visit, much as I should another part of my +native country: it is, as you see, distinctly possible that such +a thing might be; we will keep it hanging, to solace ourselves +with it, till the time decide. + +Have I involved you in double postage by this loquacity? or What +is your American rule? I did not intend it when I began; but +today my confusion of head is very great and words must be +multiplied with only a given quantity of meaning. + +My wife, who is just gone out to spend the day with a certain +"celebrated Mrs. Austin," (called also the "celebrated Translatress +of Puckler-Muskau,") charged me very specially to send you +her love, her good wishes and thanks: I assure you there +is no hypocrisy in that. She votes often for taking the +Transatlantic scheme into contemplation; declares farther that +my Book and Books must and will indisputably prosper (at some +future era), and takes the world beside me--as a good wife and +daughter of John Knox should. Speaking of "celebrated" persons +here, let me mention that I have learned by stern experience, as +children do with fire, to keep in general quite out of the way of +celebrated persons, more especially celebrated women. This Mrs. +Austin, who is half ruined by celebrity (of a kind), is the only +woman I have seen not wholly ruined by it. Men, strong men, I +have seen die of it, or go mad by it. _Good_ fortune is far +worse than bad! + +Will you write with all despatch, my dear sir; fancy me a +fellow-wayfarer, who cordially bids you God-speed, and would +fain keep in sight of you, within sound of you. + +Yours with great sincerity, + T. Carlyle + + + + +V. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 12 March, 1838 + +My Dear Sir,--I am glad of the opportunity of Mr. Barnard's* +visit to say health and peace be with you. I esteem it the best +sign that has shone in my little section of space for many days, +that some thirty or more intelligent persons understand and +highly appreciate the _Sartor._ Dr. Channing sent to me for it +the other day, and I have since heard that he had read it with +great interest. As soon as I go into town I shall see him and +measure his love. I know his genius does not and cannot engage +your attention much. He possesses the mysterious endowment of +natural eloquence, whose effect, however intense, is limited, of +course, to personal communication. I can see myself that his +writings, without his voice, may be meagre and feeble. But +please love his catholicism, that at his age can relish the +_Sartor,_ born and inveterated as he is in old books. Moreover, +he lay awake all night, he told my friend last week, because he +had learned in the evening that some young men proposed to issue +a journal, to be called _The Transcendentalist,_ as the organ of +a spiritual philosophy. So much for our gossip of today. + +--------- +* Mr. Henry Barnard, of Hartford, Connecticut, to whom Emerson +had given a note of introduction to Carlyle. +--------- + +But my errand is yet to tell. Some friends here are very +desirous that Mr. Fraser should send out to a bookseller here +fifty or a hundred copies of the _Sartor._ So many we want very +much; they would be sold at once. If we knew that two or three +hundred would be taken up, we should reprint it now. But we +think it better to satisfy the known inquirers for the book +first, and when they have extended the demand for it, then to +reproduce it, a naturalized Yankee. The lovers of Teufelsdrockh +here are sufficiently enthusiastic. I am an icicle to them. +They think England must be blind and deaf if the Professor makes +no more impression there than yet appears. I, with the most +affectionate wishes for Thomas Carlyle's fame, am mainly bent on +securing the medicinal virtues of his book for my young +neighbors. The good people think he overpraises Goethe. There I +give him up to their wrath. But I bid them mark his unsleeping +moral sentiment; that every other moralist occasionally nods, +becomes complaisant and traditional; but this man is without +interval on the side of equity and humanity! I am grieved for +you, O wise friend, that you cannot put in your own contemptuous +disclaimer of such puritanical pleas as are set up for you; but +each creature and Levite must do after his kind. + +Yet do not imagine that I will hurt you in this unseen domain of +yours by any Boswellism. Every suffrage you get here is fairly +your own. Nobody is coaxed to admire you, and you have won +friends whom I should be proud to show you, and honorable women +not a few. And cannot you renew and confirm your suggestion +touching your appearance in this continent? Ah, if I could give +your intimation the binding force of an oracular word!--in a few +months, please God, at most, I shall have wife, house, and home +wherewith and wherein to return your former hospitality. And if +I could draw my prophet and his prophetess to brighten and +immortalize my lodge, and make it the window through which for a +summer you should look out on a field which Columbus and Berkeley +and Lafayette did not scorn to sow, my sun should shine clearer +and life would promise something better than peace. There is a +part of ethics, or in Schleiermacher's distribution it might be +physics, which possesses all attraction for me; to wit, the +compensations of the Universe, the equality and the coexistence +of action and reaction, that all prayers are granted, that every +debt is paid. And the skill with which the great All maketh +clean work as it goes along, leaves no rag, consumes its smoke,-- +will I hope make a chapter in your thesis. + +I intimated above that we aspire to have a work on the First +Philosophy in Boston. I hope, or wish rather. Those that are +forward in it debate upon the name. I doubt not in the least its +reception if the material that should fill it existed. Through +the thickest understanding will the reason throw itself instantly +into relation with the truth that is its object, whenever that +appears. But how seldom is the pure loadstone produced! Faith +and love are apt to be spasmodic in the best minds: Men live on +the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which yet they never +enter, and with their hand on the door-latch they die outside. +Always excepting my wonderful Professor, who among the living has +thrown any memorable truths into circulation? So live and +rejoice and work, my friend, and God you aid, for the profit of +many more than your mortal eyes shall see. Especially seek with +recruited and never-tired vision to bring back yet higher and +truer report from your Mount of Communion of the Spirit that +dwells there and creates all. Have you received a letter from me +with a pamphlet sent in December? Fail not, I beg of you, to +remember me to Mrs. Carlyle. + +Can you not have some _Sartors_ sent? Hilliard, Gray, & Co. are +the best publishers in Boston. Or Mr. Rich has connections with +Burdett in Boston. + +Yours with respect and affection, + R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +VI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 April, 1835 + +My Dear Sir,--I received your letter of the 3d of February on the +20th instant, and am sorry that hitherto we have not been able to +command a more mercantile promptitude in the transmission of +these light sheets. If desire of a letter before it arrived, or +gladness when it came, could speed its journey, I should have it +the day it was written. But, being come, it makes me sad and +glad by turns. I admire at the alleged state of your English +reading public without comprehending it, and with a hoping +scepticism touching the facts. I hear my Prophet deplore, as his +predecessors did, the deaf ear and the gross heart of his people, +and threaten to shut his lips; but, happily, this he cannot do, +any more than could they. The word of the Lord _will_ be spoken. +But I shall not much grieve that the English people and you are +not of the same mind if that apathy or antipathy can by any means +be the occasion of your visiting America. The hope of this is so +pleasant to me, that I have thought of little else for the week +past, and having conferred with some friends on the matter, I +shall try, in obedience to your request, to give you a statement +of our capabilities, without indulging my penchant for the +favorable side. Your picture of America is faithful enough: yet +Boston contains some genuine taste for literature, and a good +deal of traditional reverence for it. For a few years past, we +have had, every winter, several courses of lectures, scientific, +political, miscellaneous, and even some purely literary, which +were well attended. Some lectures on Shakespeare were crowded; +and even I found much indulgence in reading, last winter, some +Biographical Lectures, which were meant for theories or portraits +of Luther, Michelangelo, Milton, George Fox, Burke. These +courses are really given under the auspices of Societies, as +"Natural History Society," "Mechanics' Institutes," "Diffusion of +Useful Knowledge," &c., &c., and the fee to the lecturer is +inconsiderable, usually $20 for each lecture. But in a few +instances individuals have undertaken courses of lectures, and +have been well paid. Dr. Spurzheim* received probably $3,000 in +the few months that he lived here. Mr. Silliman, a Professor of +Yale College, has lately received something more than that for a +course of fifteen or sixteen lectures on Geology. Private +projects of this sort are, however, always attended with a degree +of uncertainty. The favor of my townsmen is often sudden and +spasmodic, and Mr. Silliman, who has had more success than ever +any before him, might not find a handful of hearers another +winter. But it is the opinion of many friends whose judgment I +value, that a person of so many claims upon the ear and +imagination of our fashionable populace as the "author of the +_Life of Schiller,_" "the reviewer of _Burns's Life,_" the live +"contributor to the _Edinburgh_ and _Foreign_ Reviews," nay, the +"worshipful Teufelsdrockh," the "personal friend of Goethe," +would, for at least one season, batter down opposition, and +command all ears on whatever topic pleased him, and that, quite +independently of the merit of his lectures, merely for so many +names' sake. + +----------- +* The memory of Dr. Spurzheim has faded, but his name is still +known to men of science on both sides of the Atlantic as that of +the most ardent and accomplished advocate of the doctrine of +Phrenology. He came to the United States in 1832 to advance the +cause he had at heart, but he had been only a short time in the +country when he died at Boston of a fever. +------------- + +But the subject, you say, does not yet define itself. Whilst it +is "gathering to a god," we who wait will only say, that we know +enough here of Goethe and Schiller to have some interest in +German literature. A respectable German here, Dr. Follen, has +given lectures to a good class upon Schiller. I am quite sure +that Goethe's name would now stimulate the curiosity of scores of +persons. On English literature, a much larger class would have +some preparedness. But whatever topics you might choose, I need +not say you must leave under them scope for your narrative and +pictorial powers; yes, and space to let out all the length of +all the reins of your eloquence of moral sentiment. What "Lay +Sermons" might you not preach! or methinks "Lectures on Europe" +were a sea big enough for you to swim in. The only condition our +adolescent ear insists upon is, that the English as it is spoken +by the unlearned shall be the bridge between our teacher and +our tympanum. + +_Income and Expenses._--All our lectures are usually delivered in +the same hall, built for the purpose. It will hold 1,200 +persons; 900 are thought a large assembly. The expenses of +rent, lights, doorkeeper, &c. for this hall, would be $12 each +lecture. The price of $3 is the least that might be demanded for +a single ticket of admission to the course,--perhaps $4; $5 for +a ticket admitting a gentleman and lady. So let us suppose we +have 900 persons paying $3 each, or $2,700. If it should happen, +as did in Prof. Silliman's case, that many more than 900 tickets +were sold, it would be easy to give the course in the day and in +the evening, an expedient sometimes practised to divide an +audience, and because it is a great convenience to many to choose +their time. If the lectures succeed in Boston, their success is +insured at Salem, a town thirteen miles off, with a population of +15,000. They might, perhaps, be repeated at Cambridge, three +miles from Boston, and probably at Philadelphia, thirty-six +hours distant. + +At New York anything literary has hitherto had no favor. The +lectures might be fifteen or sixteen in number, of about an hour +each. They might be delivered, one or two in each week. And if +they met with sudden success, it would be easy to carry on the +course simultaneously at Salem, and Cambridge, and in the city. +They must be delivered in the winter. + +Another plan suggested in addition to this. A gentleman here is +giving a course of lectures on English literature to a private +class of ladies, at $10 to each subscriber. There is no doubt, +were you so disposed, you might turn to account any writings in +the bottom of your portfolio, by reading lectures to such a +class, or, still better, by speaking. + +_Expense of Living._--You may travel in this country for $4 to +$4.50 a day. You may board in Boston in a "gigmanic" style for +$8 per week, including all domestic expenses. Eight dollars per +week is the board paid by the permanent residents at the Tremont +House,--probably the best hotel in North America. There, and at +the best hotels in New York, the lodger for a few days pays at +the rate of $1.50 per day. Twice eight dollars would provide a +gentleman and lady with board, chamber, and private parlor, at a +fashionable boardinghouse. In the country, of course, the +expenses are two thirds less. These are rates of expense where +economy is not studied. I think the Liverpool and New York +packets demand $150 of the passenger, and their accommodations +are perfect. (N.B.--I set down all sums in dollars. You may +commonly reckon a pound sterling worth $4.80.) "The man is +certain of success," say those I talk with, "for one winter, but +not afterwards." That supposes no extraordinary merit in the +lectures, and only regards you in your leonine aspect. However, +it was suggested that, if Mr. C. would undertake a Journal of +which we have talked much, but which we have never yet produced, +he would do us great service, and we feel some confidence that it +could be made to secure him a support. It is that project which +I mentioned to you in a letter by Mr. Barnard,--a book to be +called _The Transcendentalist,_ or _The Spiritual Inquirer,_ or +the like, and of which F.H. Hedge* was to be editor. Those +who are most interested in it designed to make gratuitous +contributions to its pages, until its success could be assured. +Hedge is just leaving our neighborhood to be settled as a +minister two hundred and fifty miles off, in Maine, and entreats +that you will edit the journal. He will write, and I please +myself with thinking I shall be able to write under such +auspices. Then you might (though I know not the laws respecting +literary property) collect some of your own writings and reprint +them here. I think the _Sartor_ would now be sure of a sale. +Your _Life of Schiller,_ and _Wilhelm Meister,_ have been long +reprinted here. At worst, if you wholly disliked us, and +preferred Old England to New, you can judge of the suggestion of +a knowing man, that you might see Niagara, get a new stock of +health, and pay all your expenses by printing in England a book +of travels in America. + +---------- +*Now the Rev. Dr. Hedge, late Professor of German and of +Ecclesiastical History in Harvard College. +------------ + +I wish you to know that we do not depend for your _eclat_ on your +being already known to rich men here. You are not. Nothing has +ever been published here designating you by name. But Dr. +Channing reads and respects you. That is a fact of importance to +our project. Several clergymen, Messrs. Frothingham, Ripley, +Francis, all of them scholars and Spiritualists, (some of them, +unluckily, called Unitarian,) love you dearly, and will work +heartily in your behalf. Mr. Frothing ham, a worthy and +accomplished man, more like Erasmus than Luther, said to me on +parting, the other day, "You cannot express in terms too +extravagant my desire that he should come." George Ripley, +having heard, through your letter to me, that nobody in England +had responded to the _Sartor,_ had secretly written you a most +reverential letter, which, by dint of coaxing, be read to me, +though he said there was but one step from the sublime to the +ridiculous. I prayed him, though I thought the letter did him no +justice, save to his heart, to send you it or another; and he +says he will. He is a very able young man, even if his letter +should not show it.* He said he could, and would, bring many +persons to hear you, and you should be sure of his utmost aid. +Dr. Bradford, a medical man, is of good courage. Mr. Loring,** a +lawyer, said,"--Invite Mr. and Mrs. Carlyle to spend a couple of +months at my house," (I assured him I was too selfish for that,) +"and if our people," he said, "cannot find out his worth, I will +subscribe, with, others, to make him whole of any expense he +shall incur in coming." Hedge promised more than he ought. +There are several persons beside, known to me, who feel a warm +interest in this thing. Mr. Furness, a popular and excellent +minister in Philadelphia, at whose house Harriet Martineau was +spending a few days, I learned the other day "was feeding Miss +Martineau with the _Sartor._" And here some of the best women I +know are warm friends of yours, and are much of Mrs. Carlyle's +opinion when she says, Your books shall prosper. + +----------- +* Emerson's estimate of Mr. Ripley was justified as the years +went on. His _Life,_ by Mr. Octavius Frothingham,--like his +father, "a worthy and accomplished, man," but more like Luther +than Erasmus,--forms one of the most attractive volumes of the +series of _Lives of American Men of Letters._ + +** The late Ellis Gray Loring, a man of high character, well +esteemed in his profession, and widely respected. +---------- + +On the other hand, I make no doubt you shall be sure of some +opposition. Andrews Norton, one of our best heads, once a +theological professor, and a destroying critic, lives upon a rich +estate at Cambridge, and frigidly excludes the Diderot paper from +a _Select Journal_ edited by him, with the remark, "Another paper +of the Teufelsdrockh School." The University perhaps, and much +that is conservative in literature and religion, I apprehend, +will give you its cordial opposition, and what eccentricity can +be collected from the Obituary Notice on Goethe, or from the +_Sartor,_ shall be mustered to demolish you. Nor yet do I feel +quite certain of this. If we get a good tide with us, we shall +sweep away the whole inertia, which is the whole force of these +gentlemen, except Norton. That you do not like the Unitarians +will never hurt you at all, if possibly you do like the +Calvinists. If you have any friendly relations to your native +Church, fail not to bring a letter from a Scottish Calvinist to a +Calvinist here, and your fortune is made. But that were too good +to happen. + +Since things are so, can you not, my dear sir, finish your new +work and cross the great water in September or October, and try +the experiment of a winter in America? I cannot but think that +if we do not make out a case strong enough to make you build your +house, at least you should pitch your tent among us. The country +is, as you say, worth visiting, and to give much pleasure to a +few persons will be some inducement to you. I am afraid to +press this matter. To me, as you can divine, it would be an +unspeakable comfort; and the more, that I hope before that time +so far to settle my own affairs as to have a wife and a house to +receive you. Tell Mrs. Carlyle, with my affectionate regards, +that some friends whom she does not yet know do hope with me to +have her company for the next winter at our house, and shall not +cease to hope it until you come. + +I have many things to say upon the topics of your letter, but my +letter is already so immeasurably long, it must stop. Long as it +is, I regret I have not more facts. Dr. Channing is in New York, +or I think, despite your negligence of him, I should have visited +him on account of his interest in you. Could you see him you +would like him. I shall write you immediately on learning +anything new bearing on this business. I intended to have +despatched this letter a day or two sooner, that it might go by +the packet of the 1st of May from New York. Now it will go by +that of the 8th, and ought to reach you in thirty days. Send me +your thoughts upon it as soon as you can. I _jalouse_ of that +new book. I fear its success may mar my project. + +Yours affectionately, + R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +VII. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London +13 May, 1835 + +Thanks, my kind friend, for the news you again send me. Good +news, good new friends; nothing that is not good comes to me +across these waters. As if the "Golden West" seen by Poets were +no longer a mere optical phenomenon, but growing a reality, and +coining itself into solid blessings! To me it seems very +strange; as indeed generally this whole Existence here below +more and more does. + +We have seen your Barnard: a most modest, intelligent, compact, +hopeful-looking man, who will not revisit you without conquests +from his expedition hither. We expect to see much more of +him; to instruct him, to learn of him: especially about that +real-imaginary locality of "Concord," where a kindly-speaking +voice lives incarnated, there is much to learn. + +That you will take to yourself a wife is the cheerfulest tidings +you could send us. It is in no wise meet for man to be alone; +and indeed the beneficent Heavens, in creating Eve, did +mercifully guard against that. May it prove blessed, this new +arrangement! I delight to prophesy for you peaceful days in it; +peaceful, not idle; filled rather with that best activity which +is the stillest. To the future, or perhaps at this hour actual +Mrs. Emerson, will you offer true wishes from two British +Friends; who have not seen her with their eyes, but whose +thoughts need not be strangers to the Home she will make for you. +Nay, you add the most chivalrous summons: which who knows but +one day we may actually stir ourselves to obey! It may hover for +the present among the gentlest of our day-dreams; mild-lustrous; +an impossible possibility. May all go well with you, my worthy +Countryman, Kinsman, and brother Man! + +This so astonishing reception of Teufelsdrockh in your +New England circle seems to me not only astonishing, but +questionable; not, however, to be quarreled with. I may say: +If the New. England cup is dangerously sweet, there are here in +Old England whole antiseptic floods of good _hop_-decoction; +therein let it mingle; work wholesomely towards what clear +benefit it can. Your young ones too, as all exaggeration is +transient, and exaggerated love almost itself a blessing, will +get through it without damage. As for Fraser, however, the idea +of a new Edition is frightful to him; or rather ludicrous, +unimaginable. Of him no man has inquired for a _Sartor:_ +in his whole wonderful world of Tory Pamphleteers, Conservative +Younger-brothers, Regent-Street Loungers, Crockford Gamblers, Irish +Jesuits, drunken Reporters, and miscellaneous unclean persons +(whom nitre and much soap will not wash clean), not a soul has +expressed the smallest wish that way. He shrieks at the idea. +Accordingly I realized these four copies from [him,] all he will +surrender; and can do no more. Take them with my blessing. I +beg you will present one to the honorablest of those "honorable +women"; say to her that her (unknown) image as she reads +shall be to me a bright faultless vision, textured out of +mere sunbeams; to be loved and worshiped; the best of all +Transatlantic women! Do at any rate, in a more business like +style, offer my respectful regards to Dr. Channing, whom +certainly I could not count on for a reader, or other than a +grieved condemnatory one; for I reckoned tolerance had its +limits. His own faithful, long-continued striving towards what +is Best, I knew and honored; that he will let me go my own way +thitherward, with a God-speed from him, is surely a new honor to +us both. + +Finally, on behalf of the British world (which is not all +contained in Fraser's shop) I should tell you that various +persons, some of them in a dialect not to be doubted of, have +privately expressed their recognition of this poor Rhapsody, +the best the poor Clothes-Professor could produce in the +circumstances; nay, I have Scottish Presbyterian Elders who +read, and thank. So true is what you say about the aptitude of +all natural hearts for receiving what is from the heart spoken to +them. As face answereth to face! Brother, if thou wish me to +believe, do thou thyself believe first: this is as true as that +of the _flere_ and _dolendum;_ perhaps truer. Wherefore, +putting all things together, cannot I feel that I have washed my +hands of this business in a quite tolerable manner? Let a man be +thankful; and on the whole go along, while he has strength left +to go. + +This Boston _Transcendentalist,_ whatever the fate or merit of it +prove to be, is surely an interesting symptom. There must be +things not dreamt of, over in that Transoceanic Parish! I shall +cordially wish well to this thing; and hail it as the sure +forerunner of things better. The Visible becomes the Bestial +when it rests not on the Invisible. Innumerable tumults of +Metaphysic must be struggled through (whole generations perishing +by the way), and at last Transcendentalism evolve itself (if I +construe aright), as the _Euthanasia_ of Metaphysic altogether. +May it be sure, may it be speedy! Thou shalt open thy _eyes,_ O +Son of Adam; thou shalt _look,_ and not forever jargon about +_laws_ of Optics and the making of spectacles! For myself, I +rejoice very much that I seem to be flinging aside innumerable +sets of spectacles (could I but _lay_ them aside,--with +gentleness!) and hope one day actually to see a thing or two. +Man _lives_ by Belief (as it was well written of old); by logic +he can only at best long to live. Oh, I am dreadfully, afflicted +with Logic here, and wish often (in my haste) that I had the +besom of destruction to lay to it for a little! + +"Why? and WHEREFORE? God wot, simply THEREFORE! Ask not WHY; +'t is SITH thou hast to care for." + +Since I wrote last to you, (which seems some three months ago,) +there has a great mischance befallen me: the saddest, I think, +of the kind called Accidents I ever had to front. By dint of +continual endeavor for many weary weeks, I had got the first +volume of that miserable _French Revolution_ rather handsomely +finished: from amid infinite contradictions I felt as if my head +were fairly above water, and I could go on writing my poor Book, +defying the Devil and the World, with a certain degree of +assurance, and even of joy. A Friend borrowed this volume of +Manuscript,--a kind Friend but a careless one,--to write notes on +it, which he was well qualified to do. One evening about two +months ago he came in on us, "distraction (literally) in his +aspect"; the Manuscript, left carelessly out, had been torn up +as waste paper, and all but three or four tatters was clean gone! +I could not complain, or the poor man seemed as if he would have +shot himself: we had to gather ourselves together, and show a +smooth front to it; which happily, though difficult, was not +impossible to do. I began again at the beginning; to such a +wretched paralyzing torpedo of a task as my hand never found to +do: at which I have worn myself these two months to the hue of +saffron, to the humor of incipient desperation; and now, four +days ago, perceiving well that I was like a man swimming in an +element that grew ever rarer, till at last it became vacuum +(think of that!) I with a new effort of self-denial sealed up +all the paper fragments, and said to myself: In this mood thou +makest no way, writest _nothing_ that requires not to be erased +again; lay it by for one complete week! And so it lies, under +lock and key. I have digested the whole misery; I say, if thou +canst _never_ write this thing, why then never do write it: +God's Universe will go along _better_--without it. My Belief +in a special Providence grows yearly stronger, unsubduable, +impregnable: however, you see all the mad increase of entanglement +I have got to strive with, and will pity me in it. Bodily +exhaustion (and "Diana in the shape of bile")* I will at least +try to exclude from the controversy. By God's blessing, perhaps +the Book shall yet be written; but I find it will not do, +by sheer direct force; only by gentler side-methods. I have +much else to write too: I feel often as if with one year of +health and peace I could write something considerable;--the image +of which sails dim and great through my head. Which year of +health and peace, God, if He see meet, will give me yet; or +withhold from me, as shall be for the best. + +--------- +* This allusion to Diana as an obstruction was a favorite one +with Carlyle. "Sir Hudibras, according to Butler, was about to do +a dreadful homicide,--an all-important catastrophe,--and had +drawn his pistol with that full intent, and would decidedly have +done it, had not, says Butler, 'Diana in the shape of rust' +imperatively intervened. A miracle she has occasionally wrought +upon me in other shapes." So wrote Carlyle in a letter in 1874. +--------- + +I have dwelt and swum now for about a year in this World-Maelstrom +of London; with much pain, which however has given me many +thoughts, more than a counterbalance for that. Hitherto there +is no outlook, but confusion, darkness, innumerable things +against which a man must "set his face like a flint." Madness +rules the world, as it has generally done: one cannot, +unhappily, without loss, say to it, Rule then; and yet must say +it.--However, in two months more I expect my good Brother from +Italy (a brave fellow, who is a great comfort to me); we are +then for Scotland to gather a little health, to consider +ourselves a little. I must have this Book done before anything +else will prosper with me. + +Your American Pamphlets got to hand only a few days ago; worthy +old Rich had them not originally; seemed since to have been +oblivious, out of Town, perhaps unwell. I called one day, and +unearthed them. Those papers you marked I have read. Genuine +endeavor; which may the Heavens forward!--In this poor Country +all is swallowed up in the barren Chaos of Politics: Ministries +tumbled out, Ministries tumbled in; all things (a fearful +substratum of "Ignorance and Hunger" weltering and heaving under +them) apparently in rapid progress towards--the melting-pot. +There will be news from England by and by: many things have +reached their term; Destiny "with lame foot" has overtaken them, +and there will be a reckoning. O blessed are you where, +what jargoning soever there be at Washington, the poor man +(_un_governed can govern himself) shoulders his age, and walks +into the Western Woods, sure of a nourishing Earth and an +overarching Sky! It is verily the Door of Hope to distracted +Europe; which otherwise I should see crumbling down into +blackness of darkness.--That too shall be for good. + +I wish I had anything to send you besides these four poor +Pamphlets; but I fear there is nothing going. Our Ex-Chancellor +has been promulgating triticalities (significant as novelties, +when _he_ with his wig and lordhood utters them) against the +Aristocracy; whereat the upper circles are terribly scandalized. +In Literature, except a promised or obtained (but to me still +unknown) volume of Wordsworth, nothing nameworthy doing.--Did I +tell you that I _saw_ Wordsworth this winter? Twice, at +considerable length; with almost no disappointment. He is a +_natural_ man (which means whole immensities here and now); +flows like a natural well yielding mere wholesomeness,--though, +as it would not but seem to me, in _small_ quantity, and +astonishingly _diluted._ Franker utterance of mere garrulities +and even platitudes I never heard from any man; at least never, +whom I could _honor_ for uttering them. I am thankful for +Wordsworth; as in great darkness and perpetual _sky-rockets_ and +_coruscations,_ one were for the smallest clear-burning farthing +candle. Southey also I saw; a far _cleverer_ man in speech, yet +a considerably smaller man. Shovel-hatted; the shovel-hat is +_grown_ to him: one must take him as he is. + +The second leaf is done; I must not venture on another. God +bless you, my worthy Friend; you and her who is to be yours! My +Wife bids me send heartiest wishes and regards from her too +across the Sea. Perhaps we shall all meet one another some day, +--if not Here, then Yonder! + +Faithfully always, + T. Carlyle + + + + +VIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 27 June, 1835 + +My Dear Friend,--Your very kind Letter has been in my hand these +four weeks,--the subject of much meditation, which has not yet +cleared itself into anything like a definite practical issue. +Indeed, the conditions of the case are still not wholly before +me: for if the American side of it, thanks to your perspicuous +minuteness, is now tolerably plain, the European side continues +dubious, too dim for a decision. So much in my own position here +is vague, not to be measured; then there is a Brother, coming +home to me from Italy, almost daily expected now; whose ulterior +resolutions cannot but be influential on mine; for we are +Brothers in the old good sense, and have one heart and one +interest and object, and even one purse; and Jack is a _good +man,_ for whom I daily thank Heaven, as for one of its principal +mercies. He is Traveling Physician to the Countess of Clare, +well entreated by her and hers; but, I think, weary of that +inane element of "the English Abroad," and as good as determined +to have done with it; to seek _work_ (he sees not well how), if +possible, with wages; but even almost _without,_ or with the +lowest endurable, if need be. Work and wages: the two prime +necessities of man! It is pity they should ever be disjoined; +yet of the two, if one _must,_ in this mad Earth, be dispensed +with, it is really wise to say at all hazards, Be it the wages +then. This Brother (if the Heavens have been kind to me) must be +in Paris one of these days; then here speedily; and "the House +must resolve itself into a Committee"--of ways and means. Add to +all this, that I myself have been and am one of the stupidest of +living men; in one of my vacant, interlunar conditions, unfit +for deciding on anything: were I to give you my actual _view_ of +this case, it were a view such as Satan had from the pavilion of +the Anarch old. Alas! it is all too like Chaos: confusion of +dense and rare: I also know what it is to drop _plumb,_ +fluttering my pennons vain,--for a series of weeks. + +One point only is clear: that you, my Friend, are very friendly +to me; that New England is as much my country and home as Old +England. Very singular and very pleasant it is to me to feel as +if I had a _house of my own_ in that far country: so many +leagues and geographical degrees of wild-weltering "unfruitful +brine"; and then the hospitable hearth and the smiles of +brethren awaiting one there! What with railways, steamships, +printing presses, it has surely become a most _monstrous_ +"tissue," this life of ours; if evil and confusion in the one +Hemisphere, then good and order in the other, a man knows not +how: and so it rustles forth, immeasurable, from "that roaring +Loom of Time,"--miraculous ever as of old! To Ralph Waldo +Emerson, however, and those that love me as he, be thanks always, +and a sure place in the sanctuary of the mind. Long shall we +remember that Autumn Sunday that landed him (out of Infinite +Space) on the Craigenputtock wilderness, not to leave us as he +found us. My Wife says, whatever I decide on, I cannot thank you +too heartily;--which really is very sound doctrine. I write to +tell you so much; and that you shall hear from me again when +there is more to tell. + +It does seem next to certain to me that I could preach a very +considerable quantity of things from that Boston Pulpit, such as +it is,--were I once fairly started. If so, what an unspeakable +relief were it too! Of the whole mountain of miseries one +grumbles at in this life, the central and parent one, as I often +say, is that you cannot utter yourself. The poor soul sits +struggling, impatient, longing vehemently out towards all corners +of the Universe, and cannot get its hest delivered, not even so +far as the voice might do it. Imprisoned, enchanted, like the +Arabian Prince with half his body marble: it is really bad work. +Then comes bodily sickness; to act and react, and double the +imbroglio. Till at last, I suppose, one does rise, like Eliphaz +the Temanite; states that his inner man is bursting (as if +filled with carbonic acid and new wine), that by the favor of +Heaven he will speak a word or two. Would it were come so far,-- +if it be ever to come! + +On the whole I think the odds are that I shall some time or other +get over to you; but that for this winter I ought not to go. My +London expedition is not decided hitherto; I have begun various +relations and arrangements, which it were questionable to cut +short so soon. That beggarly Book, were there nothing else, +hampers me every way. To fling it once for all into the fire +were perhaps the best; yet I grudge to do that. To finish it, +on the other hand, is denied me for the present, or even so much +as to work at it. What am I to do? When my Brother arrives, we +go all back to Scotland for some weeks: there, in seclusion, +with such calmness as I can find or create, the plan for the +winter must be settled. You shall hear from me then; let us +hope something more reasonable than I can write at present. For +about a month I have gone to and fro utterly _idle:_ understand +that, and I need explain no more. The wearied machine refused to +be urged any farther; after long spasmodic struggling comes +collapse. The burning of that wretched Manuscript has really +been a sore business for me. Nevertheless that too shall clear +itself, and prove a _favor_ of the Upper Powers: _tomorrow_ to +fresh fields and pastures new! This monstrous London has taught +me several things during the past year; for if its Wisdom be of +the most uninstructive ever heard of by that name of wisdom, its +Folly abounds with lessons,--which one ought to learn. I feel +(with my burnt manuscript) as if defeated in this campaign; +defeated, yet not altogether disgraced. As the great Fritz said, +when the battle had gone against him, "Another time we will +do better." + +As to Literature, Politics, and the whole multiplex aspect of +existence here, expect me not to say one word. We are a singular +people, in a singular condition. Not many nights ago, in one of +those phenomenal assemblages named routs, whither we had gone to +see the countenance of O'Connell and Company (the Tail was a +Peacock's tail, with blonde muslin women and heroic Parliamentary +men), one of the company, a "distinguished female" (as we call +them), informed my Wife "O'Connell was the master-spirit of this +age." If so, then for what we have received let us be thankful, +--and enjoy it _without_ criticism.--It often painfully seems to +me as if much were coming fast to a crisis here; as if the +crown-wheel had given way, and the whole horologe were rushing +rapidly down, down, to its end! Wreckage is swift; rebuilding +is slow and distant. Happily another than we has charge of it. + +My new American Friends have come and gone. Barnard went off +northward some fortnight ago, furnished with such guidance and +furtherance as I could give him. Professor Longfellow went about +the same time; to Sweden, then to Berlin and Germany: we saw +him twice or thrice, and his ladies, with great pleasure; as one +sees worthy souls from a far country, who cannot abide with you, +who throw you a kind greeting as they pass. I inquired +considerably about Concord, and a certain man there; one of the +fair pilgrims told me several comfortable things. By the bye, +how very good you are, in regard to this of Unitarianism! I +declare, I am ashamed of my intolerance:--and yet you have ceased +to be a Teacher of theirs, have you not? I mean to address you +this time by the secular title of Esquire; as if I liked you +better so. But truly, in black clothes or in white, by this +style or by that, the man himself can never be other than welcome +to me. You will further allow me to fancy that you are now +wedded; and offer our united congratulations and kindest good +wishes to that new fair Friend of ours, whom one day we shall +surely know more of,--if the Fates smile. + +My sheet is ending, and I must not burden you with double postage +for such stuff as this. By dint of some inquiry I have learnt +the law of the American Letter-carrying; and I now mention it +for our mutual benefit. There are from New York to London three +packets monthly (on the 1st, on the 10th, on the 20th); the +masters of these carry Letters gratis for all men; and put the +same into the Post-Office; there are some pence charged on the +score of "Ship-letter" there, and after that, the regular postage +of the country, if the Letter has to go farther. I put this, +for example, into a place called North and South American +Coffee-house in the City here, and pay twopence for it, and it +flies. Doubtless there is some similar receiving-house with its +"leather bag" somewhere in New York, and fixed days (probably the +same as our days) for emptying, or rather for tying and despatching, +said leather bag: if you deal with the London Packets (so long as +I am here) in preference to the Liverpool ones, it will all be +well. As for the next Letter, (if you write as I hope you may +before hearing from me again,) pray direct it, "Care of John +Mill, Esq., India House, London"; and he will forward it +directly, should I even be still absent in the North.--Now will +you write? and pray write something about yourself. We both love +you here, and send you all good prayers. _Vale faveque!_ + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + +IX. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, 7 October, 1835 + +My Dear Friend,--Please God I will never again sit six weeks of +this short human life over a letter of yours without answering it. + +----------- +* The original of this letter is missing; what is printed here +is from the rough draft. +----------- + +I received in August your letter of June, and just then hearing +that a lady, a little lady with a mighty heart, Mrs. Child,* whom +I scarcely know but do much respect, was about to visit England +(invited thither for work's sake by the African or Abolition +Society) and that she begged an introduction to you, I used +the occasion to say the godsend was come, and that I would +acknowledge it as soon as three then impending tasks were ended. +I have now learned that Mrs. Child was detained for weeks in New +York and did not sail. Only last night I received your letter +written in May, with the four copies of the _Sartor,_ which by a +strange oversight have been lying weeks, probably months, in the +Custom-House. On such provocation I can sit still no longer. + +------------ +* The excellent Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, whose romance of +_Philothea_ was published in this year, 1835. + + "If her heart at high floods swamps her brain now and then, + 'T is but richer for that when the tide ebbs agen." + +says Lowell, in his _Fable for Critics._ +----------- + +The three tasks were, a literary address; a historical discourse +on the two-hundredth anniversary of our little town of Concord* +(my first adventure in print, which I shall send you); the +third, my marriage, now happily consummated. All three, from the +least to the greatest, trod so fast upon each other's heel as to +leave me, who am a slow and awkward workman, no interstice big +enough for a letter that should hope to convey any information. +Again I waited that the Discourse might go in his new jacket to +show how busy I had been, but the creeping country press has not +dressed it yet. Now congratulate me, my friend, as indeed you +have already done, that I live with my wife in my own house, +waiting on the good future. The house is not large, but +convenient and very elastic. The more hearts (specially great +hearts) it holds, the better it looks and feels. I have not had +so much leisure yet but that the fact of having ample space to +spread my books and blotted paper is still gratifying. So know +now that your rooms in America wait for you, and that my wife is +making ready a closet for Mrs. Carlyle. + +---------- +* "A Historical Discourse, delivered before the Citizens of +Concord, 12th September, 1835, on the Second Centennial +Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town. By Ralph Waldo +Emerson. Published by Request. Concord: G.F. Bemis, Printer. +1835." 8vo, pp. 52.--A discourse worthy of the author and of the +town. It is reprinted in the eleventh volume of Emerson's Works, +Boston, 1883. +----------- + +I could cry at the disaster that has befallen you in the loss of +the book. My brother Charles says the only thing the friend +could do on such an occasion was to shoot himself, and wishes to +know if he have done so. Such mischance might well quicken one's +curiosity to know what Oversight there is of us, and I greet you +well upon your faith and the resolution issuing out of it. You +have certainly found a right manly consolation, and can afford to +faint and rest a month or two on the laurels of such endeavor. I +trust ere this you have re-collected the entire creation out of +the secret cells where, under the smiles of every Muse, it first +took life. Believe, when you are weary, that you who stimulate +and rejoice virtuous young men do not write a line in vain. And +whatever betide us in the inexorable future, what is better than +to have awaked in many men the sweet sense of beauty, and to +double the courage of virtue. So do not, as you will not, let +the imps from all the fens of weariness and apathy have a minute +too much. To die of feeding the fires of others were sweet, +since it were not death but multiplication. And yet I hold to a +more orthodox immortality too. + +This morning in happiest time I have a letter from George Ripley, +who tells me you have written him, and that you say pretty +confidently you will come next summer. _Io paean!_ He tells me +also that Alexander Everett (brother of Edward) has sent you the +friendly notice that has just appeared in the _North American +Review,_ with a letter.* All which I hope you have received. I +am delighted, for this man represents a clique to which I am a +stranger, and which I supposed might not love you. It must be +you shall succeed when Saul prophesies. Indeed, I have heard +that you may hear the _Sartor_ preached from some of our best +pulpits and lecture-rooms. Don't think I speak of myself, for I +cherish carefully a salutary horror at the German style, and hold +off my admiration as long as ever I can. But all my importance +is quite at an end. For now that Doctors of Divinity and the +solemn Review itself have broke silence to praise you, I have +quite lost my plume as your harbinger. + +----------- +* Mr. A.H. Everett's paper on _Sartor Resartus_ was published in +the _North American Review_ for October, 1835. +----------- + +I read with interest what you say of the political omens in +England. I could wish our country a better comprehension of its +felicity. But government has come to be a trade, and is managed +solely on commercial principles. A man plunges into politics to +make his fortune, and only cares that the world should last his +day. We have had in different parts of the country mobs and +moblike legislation, and even moblike judicature, which have +betrayed an almost godless state of society; so that I begin to +think even here it behoves every man to quit his dependency on +society as much as he can, as he would learn to go without +crutches that will be soon plucked away from him, and settle with +himself the principles he can stand upon, happen what may. There +is reading, and public lecturing too, in this country, that I +could recommend as medicine to any gentleman who finds the love +of life too strong in him. + +If virtue and friendship have not yet become fables, do believe +we keep your face for the living type. I was very glad to hear +of the brother you describe, for I have one too, and know what it +is to have presence in two places. Charles Chauncy Emerson is a +lawyer now settled in this town, and, as I believe, no better +Lord Hamlet was ever. He is our Doctor on all questions of +taste, manners, or action. And one of the pure pleasures I +promise myself in the months to come is to make you two gentlemen +know each other. + + + + +X. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, Mass., 8 April, 1856 + +My Dear Friend,--I am concerned at not hearing from you. I have +written you two letters, one in October, one in November, I +believe, since I had any tidings of you.* Your last letter is +dated 27 June, 1835. I have counted all the chances of delay and +miscarriage, and still am anxious lest you are ill, or have +forgotten us. I have looked at the advertising sheet of the +booksellers, but it promised nothing of the _History._ I thought +I had made the happiest truce with sorrow in having the promise +of your coming,--I was to take possession of a new kingdom of +virtue and friendship. Let not the new wine mourn. Speak to me +out of the wide silence. Many friends inquire of me concerning +you, and you must write some word immediately on receipt of +this sheet. + +------------ +* One in August by Mrs. Child, apparently not delivered, and one, +the preceding, in October. +----------- + +With it goes an American reprint of the _Sartor._ Five hundred +copies only make the edition, at one dollar a copy. About one +hundred and fifty copies are subscribed for. How it will be +received I know not. I am not very sanguine, for I often hear +and read somewhat concerning its repulsive style. Certainly, I +tell them, it is very odd. Yet I read a chapter lately with +great pleasure. I send you also, with Dr. Channing's regards and +good wishes, a copy of his little work, lately published, on our +great local question of Slavery. + +You must have written me since July. I have reckoned upon +your projected visit the ensuing summer or autumn, and have +conjectured the starlike influences of a new spiritual element. +Especially Lectures. My own experiments for one or two winters, +and the readiness with which you embrace the work, have led me to +think much and to expect much from this mode of addressing men. +In New England the Lyceum, as we call it, is already a great +institution. Beside the more elaborate courses of lectures in +the cities, every country town has its weekly evening meeting, +called a Lyceum, and every professional man in the place is +called upon, in the course of the winter, to entertain his +fellow-citizens with a discourse on whatever topic. The topics +are miscellaneous as heart can wish. But in Boston, Lowell, +Salem, courses are given by individuals. I see not why this is +not the most flexible of all organs of opinion, from its +popularity and from its newness permitting you to say what you +think, without any shackles of prescription. The pulpit in our +age certainly gives forth an obstructed and uncertain sound, and +the faith of those in it, if men of genius, may differ so much +from that of those under it, as to embarrass the conscience of +the speaker, because so much is attributed to him from the fact +of standing there. In the Lyceum nothing is presupposed. The +orator is only responsible for what his lips articulate. Then +what scope it allows! You may handle every member and relation +of humanity. What could Homer, Socrates, or St. Paul say that +cannot be said here? The audience is of all classes, and its +character will be determined always by the name of the lecturer. +Why may you not give the reins to your wit, your pathos, your +philosophy, and become that good despot which the virtuous +orator is? + +Another thing. I am persuaded that, if a man speak well, he +shall find this a well-rewarded work in New England. I have +written this year ten lectures; I had written as many last year. +And for reading both these and those at places whither I was +invited, I have received this last winter about three hundred and +fifty dollars. Had I, in lieu of receiving a lecturer's fee, +myself advertised that I would deliver these in certain places, +these receipts would have been greatly increased. I insert all +this because my prayers for you in this country are quite of a +commercial spirit. If you lose no dollar by us, I shall joyfully +trust your genius and virtue for your satisfaction on all +other points. + +I cannot remember that there are any other mouthpieces that are +specially vital at this time except Criticism and Parliamentary +Debate. I think this of ours would possess in the hands of a +great genius great advantages over both. But what avail any +commendations of the form, until I know that the man is alive and +well? If you love them that love you, write me straightway of +your welfare. My wife desires to add to mine her friendliest +greetings to Mrs. Carlyle and to yourself. + +Yours affectionately, + R. Waldo Emerson + +I ought to say that Le-Baron Russell, a worthy young man +who studies Engineering, did cause the republication of +Teufelsdrockh.* I trust you shall yet see a better American +review of it than the _North American._ + +------------ +* This first edition of _Sartor_ as an independent volume was +published by James Munroe and Company, Boston. Emerson, at Mr. +(now Dr.) Russell's request, wrote a Preface for the book. He +told Dr. Russell that his brother Charles was not pleased +with the Preface, thinking it "too commonplace, too much like +all prefaces." +----------- + + + + +XI. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London +29 April, 1836 + +My Dear Emerson,--Barnard is returning across the water, and must +not go back without a flying salutation for you. These many +weeks I have had your letter by me; these many weeks I have felt +always that it deserved and demanded a grateful answer; and, +alas! also that I could give it none. It is impossible for you +to figure what mood I am in. One sole thought, That Book! that +weary Book! occupies me continually: wreck and confusion of all +kinds go tumbling and falling around me, within me; but to wreck +and growth, to confusion and order, to the world at large, I turn +a deaf ear; and have life only for this one thing,--which also +in general I feel to be one of the pitifulest that ever man went +about possessed with. Have compassion for me! It is really very +miserable: but it will end. Some months more, and it is +_ended;_ and I am done with _French Revolution,_ and with +Revolution and Revolt in general; and look once more with +free eyes over this Earth, where are other things than mean +internecine work of that kind: things fitter for me, under the +bright Sun, on this green Mother's-bosom (though the Devil does +dwell in it)! For the present, really, it is like a Nessus' +shirt, burning you into madness, this wretched Enterprise; nay, +it is also like a kind of Panoply, rendering you invulnerable, +insensible, to all _other_ mischiefs. + +I got the fatal First Volume finished (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 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 distress, 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. + +For the rest I cannot say that this huge blind monster of a City +is without some sort of charm for me. It leaves one alone, to go +his own road unmolested. Deep in your soul you take up your +protest against it, defy it, and even despise it; but need not +divide yourself from it for that. Worthy individuals are glad to +hear your thought, if it have any sincerity; they do not +exasperate themselves or you about it; they have not even time +for such a thing. Nay, in stupidity itself on a scale of this +magnitude, there is an impressiveness, almost a sublimity; one +thinks how, in the words of Schiller, "the very Gods fight +against it in vain"; how it lies on its unfathomable foundations +there, inert yet peptic; nay, eupeptic; and is a _Fact_ in the +world, let theory object as it will. Brown-stout, in quantities +that would float a seventy-four, goes down the throats of men; +and the roaring flood of life pours on;--over which Philosophy +and Theory are but a poor shriek of remonstrance, which oftenest +were wiser, perhaps, to hold its peace. I grow daily to honor +Facts more and more, and Theory less and less. A Fact, it seems +to me, is a great thing: a Sentence printed if not by God, then +at least by the Devil;--neither Jeremy Bentham nor Lytton Bulwer +had a hand in _that._ + +There are two or three of the best souls here I have known for +long: I feel less alone with them; and yet one is alone,--a +stranger and a pilgrim. These friends expect mainly that the +Church of England is not dead but asleep; that the leather +coaches, with their gilt panels, can be peopled again with a +living Aristocracy, instead of the simulacra of such. I must +altogether hold my peace to this, as I do to much. Coleridge is +the Father of all these. _Ay de mi!_ + +But to look across the "divine salt-sea." A letter reached me, +some two months ago, from Mobile, Alabama; the writer, a kind +friend of mine, signs himself James Freeman Clarke.* I have +mislaid, not lost his Letter; and do not at present know his +permanent address (for he seemed to be only on a visit at +Mobile); but you, doubtless, do know it. Will you therefore +take or even find an opportunity to tell this good Friend that it +is not the wreckage of the Liverpool ship he wrote by, nor +insensibility on my part, that prevents his hearing direct from +me; that I see him, and love him in this Letter; and hope we +shall meet one day under the Sun, shall live under it, at any +rate, with many a kind thought towards one another. + +---------- +* Now the Rev. Dr. Clarke, of Boston. +---------- + +The _North American Review_ you spoke of never came (I mean that +copy of it with the Note in it); but another copy became rather +public here, to the amusement of some. I read the article +myself: surely this Reviewer, who does not want in [sense]* +otherwise, is an original: either a _thrice_-plied quiz +(_Sartor's_ "Editor" a twice-plied one); or else opening on you +a grandeur of still Dulness, rarely to be met with on earth. + +------------- +* The words supplied here were lost under the seal of the letter. +------------- + +My friend! I must end here. Forgive me till I get done with +this Book. Can you have the generosity to write, _without_ an +answer? Well, if you can_not,_ I will answer. Do not forget me. +My love and my Wife's to your good Lady, to your Brother, and all +friends. Tell me what you do; what your world does. As for my +world, take this (which I rendered from the German Voss, a tough +old-Teutonic fellow) for the best I can say of it:-- + + "As journeys this Earth, her eye on a Sun, through the +heavenly spaces, + And, radiant in azure, or Sunless, swallowed in tempests, + Falters not, alters not; journeying equal, sunlit or +stormgirt + So thou, Son of Earth, who hast Force, + Goal, and Time, go still onwards." + +Adieu, my dear friend! Believe me ever Yours, + Thomas Carlyle + + + + +XII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, Massachusetts, 17 September, 1836 + +My Dear Friend,--I hope you do not measure my love by the +tardiness of my messages. I have few pleasures like that of +receiving your kind and eloquent letters. I should be most +impatient of the long interval between one and another, but that +they savor always of Eternity, and promise me a friendship and +friendly inspiration not reckoned or ended by days or years. +Your last letter, dated in April, found me a mourner, as did your +first. I have lost out of this world my brother Charles,* of +whom I have spoken to you,--the friend and companion of many +years, the inmate of my house, a man of a beautiful genius, born +to speak well, and whose conversation for these last years has +treated every grave question of humanity, and has been my daily +bread. I have put so much dependence on his gifts that we made +but one man together; for I needed never to do what he could do +by noble nature much better than I. He was to have been married +in this month, and at the time of his sickness and sudden +death I was adding apartments to my house for his permanent +accommodation. I wish that you could have known him. At +twenty-seven years the best life is only preparation. He built +his foundation so large that it needed the full age of man to make +evident the plan and proportions of his character. He postponed +always a particular to a final and absolute success, so that his +life was a silent appeal to the great and generous. But some +time I shall see you and speak of him. + +--------- +* Charles Chauncy Emerson,--died May 9, 1836,--whose memory still +survives fresh and beautiful in the hearts of the few who remain +who knew him in life. A few papers of his published in the +_Dial_ show to others what he was and what he might have become. +----------- + +We want but two or three friends, but these we cannot do without, +and they serve us in every thought we think. I find now I must +hold faster the remaining jewels of my social belt. And of you I +think much and anxiously since Mrs. Channing, amidst her delight +at what she calls the happiest hour of her absence, in her +acquaintance with you and your family, expresses much uneasiness +respecting your untempered devotion to study. I am the more +disturbed by her fears, because your letters avow a self-devotion +to your work, and I know there is no gentle dulness in your +temperament to counteract the mischief. I fear Nature has not +inlaid fat earth enough into your texture to keep the ethereal +blade from whetting it through. I write to implore you to be +careful of your health. You are the property of all whom you +rejoice in art and soul, and you must not deal with your body as +your own. O my friend, if you would come here and let me nurse +you and pasture you in my nook of this long continent, I will +thank God and you therefor morning and evening, and doubt not to +give you, in a quarter of a year, sound eyes, round cheeks, and +joyful spirits. My wife has been lately an invalid, but she +loves you thoroughly, and hardly stores a barrel of flour or lays +her new carpet without some hopeful reference to Mrs. Carlyle. +And in good earnest, why cannot you come here forthwith, and +deliver in lectures to the solid men of Boston the _History of +the French Revolution_ before it is published,--or at least +whilst it is publishing in England, and before it is published +here. There is no doubt of the perfect success of such a course +now that the _five hundred copies of the Sartor are all sold,_ +and read with great delight by many persons. + +This I suggest if you too must feel the vulgar necessity of +_doing;_ but if you will be governed by your friend, you shall +come into the meadows, and rest and talk with your friend in my +country pasture. If you will come here like a noble brother, you +shall have your solid day undisturbed, except at the hours of +eating and walking; and as I will abstain from you myself, +so I will defend you from others. I entreat Mrs. Carlyle, +with my affectionate remembrances, to second me in this +proposition, and not suffer the wayward man to think that in +these space-destroying days a prayer from Boston, Massachusetts, +is any less worthy of serious and prompt granting than one +from Edinburgh or Oxford. + +I send you a little book I have just now published, as +an entering wedge, I hope, for something more worthy and +significant.* This is only a naming of topics on which I would +gladly speak and gladlier hear. I am mortified to learn the ill +fate of my former packet containing the _Sartor_ and Dr. +Channing's work. My mercantile friend is vexed, for he says +accurate orders were given to send it as a packet, not as a +letter. I shall endeavor before despatching this sheet to obtain +another copy of our American edition. + +----------- +* This was _Nature,_ the first clear manifesto of Emerson's +genius. +----------- + +I wish I could come to you instead of sending this sheet of +paper. I think I should persuade you to get into a ship this +Autumn, quit all study for a time, and follow the setting sun. I +have many, many things to learn of you. How melancholy to think +how much we need confession!...* Yet the great truths are always +at hand, and all the tragedy of individual life is separated how +thinly from that universal nature which obliterates all ranks, +all evils, all individualities. How little of you is in your +_will!_ Above your will how intimately are you related to all of +us! In God we meet. Therein we _are,_ thence we descend upon +Time and these infinitesimal facts of Christendom, and Trade, and +England Old and New. Wake the soul now drunk with a sleep, and +we overleap at a bound the obstructions, the griefs, the +mistakes, of years, and the air we breathe is so vital that the +Past serves to contribute nothing to the result. + +----------- +** Some words appear to be lost here. +----------- + +I read Goethe, and now lately the posthumous volumes, with a +great interest. A friend of mine who studies his life with care +would gladly know what records there are of his first ten years +after his settlement at Weimar, and what Books there are in +Germany about him beside what Mrs. Austin has collected and +Heine. Can you tell me? + +Write me of your health, or else come. + +Yours ever, + R.W. Emerson. + +P.S.--I learn that an acquaintance is going to England, so send +the packet by him. + + + + +XIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 5 November, 1836 + +My Dear Friend,--You are very good to write to me in my silence, +in the mood you must be in. My silence you may well judge is not +forgetfulness; it is a forced silence; which this kind Letter +enforces into words. I write the day after your letter comes, +lest the morrow bring forth something new to hinder me. + +What a bereavement, my Friend, is this that has overtaken you! +Such a Brother, with such a Life opening around him, like a +blooming garden where he was to labor and gather, all vanished +suddenly like frostwork, and hidden from your eye! It is a loss, +a sore loss; which God had appointed you. I do not tell you not +to mourn: I mourn with you, and could wish all mourners the +spirit you have in this sorrow. Oh, I know it well! Often +enough in this noisy Inanity of a vision where _we_ still linger, +I say to myself, Perhaps thy Buried Ones are not far from thee, +are with thee; they are in Eternity, which is a Now and HERE! +And yet Nature will have her right; Memory would feel desecrated +if she could forget. Many times in the crowded din of the +Living, some sight, some feature of a face, will recall to you +the Loved Face; and in these turmoiling streets you see the +little silent Churchyard, the green grave that lies there so +silent, inexpressibly _wae._ O, perhaps we _shall_ all meet +YONDER, and the tears be wiped from all eyes! One thing is no +Perhaps: surely we _shall_ all meet, if it be the will of the +Maker of us. If it be not His will,--then is it not better so? +Silence,--since in these days we have no speech! Eye hath not +seen, nor ear heard, in any day. + +You inquire so earnestly about my welfare; hold open still the +hospitable door for me. Truly Concord, which I have sought out +on the Map, seems worthy of its name: no dissonance comes to me +from that side; but grief itself has acquired a harmony: in joy +or grief a voice says to me, Behold there is one that loves thee; +in thy loneliness, in thy darkness, see how a hospitable candle +shines from far over seas, how a friendly heart watches! It is +very good, and precious for me. + +As for my health, be under no apprehension. I am always sick; I +am sicker and worse in body and mind, a little, for the present; +but it has no deep significance: it is _weariness_ merely; and +now, by the bounty of Heaven, I am as it were within sight +of land. In two months more, this unblessed Book will be +_finished;_ at Newyearday we begin printing: before the end of +March, the thing is out; and I am a free man! Few happinesses I +have ever known will equal that, as it seems to me. And yet I +ought not to call the poor Book unblessed: no, it has girdled me +round like a panoply these two years; kept me invulnerable, +indifferent, to innumerable things. The poorest man in London +has perhaps been one of the freest: the roaring press of gigs +and gigmen, with their gold blazonry and fierce gig-wheels, have +little incommoded him; they going their way, he going his.--As +for the results of the Book, I can rationally promise myself, on +the economical, pecuniary, or otherwise worldly side, simply +_zero._ It is a Book contradicting all rules of Formalism, that +have not a Reality within them, which so few have;--testifying, +the more quietly the worse, internecine war with Quacks high and +low. My good Brother, who was with me out of Italy in summer, +declared himself shocked, and almost terror-struck: "Jack," I +answered, "innumerable men give their lives cheerfully to defend +Falsehoods and Half-Falsehoods; why should not one writer give +his life cheerfully to say, in plain Scotch-English, in the +hearing of God and man, To me they seem false and half-false? At +all events, thou seest, I cannot help it. It is the nature of +the beast." So that, on the whole, I suppose there is no more +unpromotable, unappointable man now living in England than I. +Literature also, the miscellaneous place of refuge, seems done +here, unless you will take the Devil's wages for it; which one +does not incline to do. A _disjectum membrum;_ cut off from +relations with men? Verily so; and now forty years of age; and +extremely dyspeptical: a hopeless-looking man. Yet full of what +I call desperate-hope! One does verily stand on the Earth, a +Star-dome encompassing one; seemingly accoutred and enlisted and +sent to battle, with rations good, indifferent, or bad,--what can +one do but in the name of Odin, Tuisco, Hertha, Horsa, and +all Saxon and Hebrew Gods, fight it out?--This surely is very +idle talk. + +As to the Book, I do say seriously that it is a wild, savage, +ruleless, very bad Book; which even you will not be able to +like; much less any other man. Yet it contains strange things; +sincerities drawn out of the heart of a man very strangely +situated; reverent of nothing but what is reverable in all ages +and places: so we will print it, and be done with it;--and try a +new turn next time. What I am to do, were the thing done, you +see therefore, is most uncertain. How gladly would I run to +Concord! And if I were there, be sure the do-nothing arrangement +is the only conceivable one for me. That my sick existence +subside again, this is the first condition; that quiet vision be +restored me. It is frightful what an impatience I have got for +many kinds of fellow-creatures. Their jargon really hurts me +like the shrieking of inarticulate creatures that ought to +articulate. There is no resource but to say: Brother, thou +surely art not hateful; thou art lovable, at lowest pitiable;-- +alas! in my case, thou art dreadfully wearisome, unedifying: go +thy ways, with my blessing. There are hardly three people among +these two millions, whom I care much to exchange words with, in +the humor I have. Nevertheless, at bottom, it is not my purpose +to quit London finally till I have as it were _seen it out._ In +the very hugeness of the monstrous City, contradiction cancelling +contradiction, one finds a sort of composure for one's self that +is not to be met with elsewhere perhaps in the world: people +tolerate you, were it only that they have not time to trouble +themselves with you. Some individuals even love me here; there +are one or two whom I have even learned to love,--though, for the +present, cross circumstances have snatched them out of my orbit +again mostly. Wherefore, if you ask me, What I am to do?--the +answer is clear so far, "Rest myself awhile"; and all farther is +as dark as Chaos. Now for resting, taking that by itself, my +Brother, who has gone back to Rome with some thoughts of settling +as a Physician there, presses me to come thither, and rest in +Rome. On the other hand, a certain John Sterling (the best man I +have found in these regions) has been driven to Bordeaux lately +for his health; he will have it that I must come to him, and +walk through the South of France to Dauphine, Avignon, and over +the Alps next spring!* Thirdly, my Mother will have me return to +Annandale, and lie quiet in her little habitation;--which I +incline to think were the wisest course of all. And lastly from +over the Atlantic comes my good Emerson's voice. We will settle +nothing, except that all shall remain unsettled. _Die Zukunft +decket Schmerzen and Glucke._ + +------------ +* In his _Life of Sterling,_ Carlyle prints a letter from +Sterling to himself, dated Bordeaux, October 26, 1836, in which +Sterling urges him to come "in the first fine days of spring." +It must have reached him a few days before he wrote this letter +to Emerson. +--------- + +I ought to say, however, that about New-year's-day I will send +you an Article on _Mirabeau,_ which they have printed here (for a +thing called the _London Review_), and some kind of Note to +escort it. I think Pamphlets travel as Letters in New England, +provided you leave the ends of them open: if I be mistaken, pray +instruct Messrs. Barnard to _refuse_ the thing, for it has small +value. _The Diamond Necklace_ is to be printed also, in +_Fraser;_ inconceivable hawking that poor Paper has had; till +now Fraser takes it--for L50: not being able to get it for +nothing. The _Mirabeau_ was written at the passionate request of +John Mill; and likewise for needful lucre. I think it is the +first shilling of money I have earned by my craft these four +years: where the money I have lived on has come from while I sat +here scribbling gratis, amazes me to think; yet surely it has +come (for I am still here), and Heaven only to thank for it, +which is a great fact. As for Mill's _London Review_ (for he is +quasi-editor), I do not recommend it to you. Hide-bound +Radicalism; a to me well-nigh insupportable thing! Open it not: +a breath as of Sahara and the Infinite Sterile comes from every +page of it. A young Radical Baronet* has laid out L3,000 on +getting the world instructed in that manner: it is very curious +to see.--Alas! the bottom of the sheet! Take my hurried but +kindest thanks for the prospect of your second Teufelsdrockh: +the _first_ too is now in my possession; Brother John went to +the Post-Office, and worked it out for a ten shillings. It is +a beautiful little Book; and a Preface to it such as no kindest +friend could have improved. Thank my kind Editor** very heartily +from me. + +--------- +* Sir William Molesworth. In his _Autobiography_ Mill gives an +interesting account of the founding of this _Review,_ and his +quasi-editorial relations to it. "In the beginning," he says, +"it did not, as a whole, by any means represent my opinion." + +** Dr. Le-Baron Russell +--------- + +My wife was in Scotland in summer, driven thither by ill health; +she is stronger since her return, though not yet strong; she +sends over to Concord her kindest wishes. If I fly to the Alps +or the Ocean, her Mother and she must keep one another company, +we think, till there be better news of me. You are to thank Dr. +Channing also for his valued gift. I read the Discourse, and +other friends of his read it, with great estimation; but the +_end_ of that black question lies beyond my ken. I suppose, as +usual, Might and Right will have to make themselves synonymous in +some way. CANST and SHALT, if they are _very_ well understood, +mean the same thing under this Sun of ours. Adieu, my dear +Emerson. _Gehab' Dich wohl!_ Many affectionate regards to the +Lady Wife: it is far within the verge of Probabilities that I +shall see her face, and eat of her bread, one day. But she must +not get sick! It is a dreadful thing, sickness; really a thing +which I begin frequently to think _criminal_--at least in myself. +Nay, in myself it really is criminal; wherefore I determine to +be well one day. + +Good be with you and Yours. + T. Carlyle + +As to Goethe and your Friend: I know not anything out of +Goethe's own works (which have many notices in them) that treats +specially of those ten years. Doubtless your Friend knows +Jordens's _Lexicon_ (which dates all the writings, for one +thing), the _Conversations-Lexicon Supplement,_ and such like. +There is an essay by one Schubarth which has reputation; but it +is critical and ethical mainly. The Letters to Zelter, and the +Letters to Schiller, will do nothing for those years, but +are essential to see. Perhaps in some late number of the +_Zeitgenossen_ there may be something? Blackguard Heine is worth +very little; Mentzel is duller, decenter, not much wiser. A +very curious Book is Eckermann's _Conversations with Goethe,_ +just published. No room more!* + +----------- +* Concerning this letter Emerson wrote in his Diary: "January 7, +1837. Received day before yesterday a letter from Thomas +Carlyle, dated 5 November;--as ever, a cordial influence. Strong +he is, upright, noble, and sweet, and makes good how much of our +human nature. Quite in consonance with my delight in his +eloquent letters I read in Bacon this afternoon this sentence (of +Letters): 'And such as are written from wise men are of all the +words of men, in my judgment, the best; for they are more +natural than orations, public speeches, and more advised than +conferences or present speeches.'" +------------- + + + + +XIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London, 13 February, 1837 + +My Dear Emerson,--You had promise of a letter to be despatched +you about New-year's-day; which promise I was myself in a +condition to fulfil at the time set, but delayed it, owing to +delays of printers and certain "Articles" that were to go with +it. Six weeks have not yet entirely brought up these laggard +animals: however, I will delay no longer for them. Nay, it +seems the Articles, were they never so ready, cannot go with the +Letter; but must fare round by Liverpool or Portsmouth, in a +separate conveyance. We will leave them to the bounty of Time. + +Your little Book and the Copy of _Teufelsdrockh_ came safely; +soon after I had written. The _Teufelsdrockh_ I instantaneously +despatched to Hamburg, to a Scottish merchant there, to whom +there is an allusion in the Book; who used to be my _Speditor_ +(one of the politest extant though totally a stranger) in my +missions and packages to and from Weimar.* The other, former +Copy, more specially yours, had already been, as I think I told +you, delivered out of durance; and got itself placed in the +bookshelf, as _the_ Teufelsdrockh. George Ripley tells me you +are printing another edition; much good may it do you! There is +now also a kind of whisper and whimper rising _here_ about +printing one. I said to myself once, when Bookseller Fraser +shrieked so loud at a certain message you sent him: "Perhaps +after all they will print this poor rag of a thing into a Book, +after I am dead it may be,--if so seem good to them. _Either_ +way!" As it is, we leave the poor orphan to its destiny, all the +more cheerfully. Ripley says farther he has sent me a critique +of it by a better hand than the _North American:_ I expect it, +but have not got it Yet.** The _North American_ seems to say +that he too sent me one. It never came to hand, nor any hint of +it,--except I think once before through you. It was not at all +an unfriendly review; but had an opacity, of matter-of-fact in +it that filled one with amazement. Since the Irish Bishop who +said there were some things in _Gulliver_ on which he for one +would keep his belief _suspended,_ nothing equal to it, on that +side, has come athwart me. However, he _has_ made out that +Teufelsdrockh is, in all human probability, a fictitious +character; which is always something, for an Inquirer into +Truth.--Will you, finally, thank Friend Ripley in my name, till I +have time to write to him and thank him. + +----------- +* The allusion referred to is the following: "By the kindness of +a Scottish Hamburg merchant, whose name, known to the whole +mercantile world, he must not mention; but whose honorable +courtesy, now and before spontaneously manifested to him, a mere +literary stranger, he cannot soon forget,--the bulky Weissnichtwo +packet, with all its Custom-house seals, foreign hieroglyphs, and +miscellaneous tokens of travel, arrived here in perfect safety, +and free of cost."--_Sartor Resartus,_ Book I. ch. xi. + +** An article by the Rev. N.L. Frothingham in the _Christian +Examiner._ +---------- + +Your little azure-colored Nature gave me true satisfaction. I +read it, and then lent it about to all my acquaintance that had a +sense for such things; from whom a similar verdict always came +back. You say it is the first chapter of something greater. I +call it rather the Foundation and Ground-plan on which you may +build whatsoever of great and true has been given you to build. +It is the true Apocalypse, this when the "Open Secret" becomes +revealed to a man. I rejoice much in the glad serenity of soul +with which you look out on this wondrous Dwelling-place of yours +and mine--with an ear for the _Ewigen Melodien,_ which pipe in +the winds round us, and utter themselves forth in all sounds and +sights and things: not to be written down by gamut-machinery; +but which all right writing is a kind of attempt to write down. +You will see what the years will bring you. It is not one of +your smallest qualities in my mind, that you can wait so quietly +and let the years do their best. He that cannot keep himself +quiet is of a morbid nature; and the thing he yields us will be +like him in that, whatever else it be. + +Miss Martineau (for I have seen her since I wrote) tells me you +"are the only man in America" who has quietly set himself down on +a competency to follow his own path, and do the work his own will +prescribes for him. Pity that you were the only one! But be +one, nevertheless; be the first, and there will come a second +and a third. It is a poor country where all men are _sold_ to +Mammon, and can make nothing but Railways and Bursts of +Parliamentary Eloquence! And yet your New England here too has +the upper hand of our Old England, of our Old Europe: we too are +sold to Mammon, soul, body, and spirit; but (mark that, I pray +you, with double pity) Mammon will not _pay_ us,--we, are "Two +Million three hundred thousand in Ireland that have not potatoes +enough"! I declare, in History I find nothing more tragical. I +find also that it will alter; that for me as one it has altered. +Me Mammon will _pay_ or not as he finds convenient; buy me he +will not.--In fine, I say, sit still at Concord, with such spirit +as you are of; under the blessed skyey influences, with an open +sense, with the great Book of Existence open round you: we shall +see whether you too get not something blessed to read us from it. + +The Paper is declining fast, and all is yet speculation. Along +with these two "Articles" (to be sent by Liverpool; there are +two of them, _Diamond Necklace_ and _Mirabeau_), you will very +probably get some stray Proofsheet--of the unutterable _French +Revolution!_ It is actually at Press; two Printers working at +separate Volumes of it,--though still too slow. In not many +weeks, my hands will be washed of it! You, I hope, can have +little conception of the feeling with which I wrote the last word +of it, one night in early January, when the clock was striking +ten, and our frugal Scotch supper coming in! I did not cry; nor +I did not pray but could have done both. No such _spell_ shall +get itself fixed on me for some while to come! A beggarly +Distortion; that will please no mortal, not even myself; of +which I know not whether the fire were not after all the due +place! And yet I ought not to say so: there is a great blessing +in a man's doing what he utterly can, in the case he is in. +Perhaps great quantities of dross are burnt out of me by this +calcination I have had; perhaps I shall be far quieter and +healthier of mind and body than I have ever been since boyhood. +The world, though no man had ever less empire in it, seems to me +a thing lying _under_ my feet; a mean imbroglio, which I never +more shall fear, or court, or disturb myself with: welcome and +welcome to go wholly _its own way;_ I wholly clear for going +mine. Through the summer months I am, somewhere or other, to +rest myself, in the deepest possible sleep. The residue is vague +as the wind,--unheeded as the wind. Some way it will turn out +that a poor, well-meaning Son of Adam has bread growing for him +too, better or worse: _any_ way,--or even _no_ way, if that be +it,--I shall be content. There is a scheme here among Friends +for my Lecturing in a thing they call Royal Institution; but it +will not do there, I think. The instant two or three are +gathered together under any terms, who want to learn something I +can teach them,--then we will, most readily, as Burns says, +"loose our tinkler jaw"; but not I think till then; were the +Institution even Imperial. + +America has faded considerably into the background of late: +indeed, to say truth, whenever I think of myself in America, it +is as in the Backwoods, with a rifle in my hand, God's sky over +my head, and this accursed Lazar-house of quacks and blockheads, +'and sin and misery (now near a head) lying all behind me +forevermore. A thing, you see, which is and can be at bottom but +a daydream! To rest through the summer: that is my only fixed +wisdom; a resolution taken; only the place where uncertain.-- +What a pity this poor sheet is done! I had innumerable things to +tell you about people whom I have seen, about books,--Miss +Harriet Martineau, Mrs. Butler, Southey, Influenza, Parliament, +Literature and the Life of Man,--the whole of which must lie over +till next time. Write to me; do not forget me. My Wife, who is +sitting by me, in very poor health (this long while), sends +"kindest remembrances," "compliments" she expressly does not +send. Good be with you always, my dear Friend! + + --T. Carlyle + +We send our felicitation to the Mother and little Boy; which +latter you had better tell us the name of. + + + + +XV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, Mass., 31 March, 1837 + +My Dear Friend,--Last night, I said I would write to you +forthwith. This morning I received your letter of February 13th, +and _with it_ the _Diamond Necklace,_ the _Mirabeau,_ and the +olive leaf of a proof-sheet. I write out the sum of my debt as +the best acknowledgment I can make. I had already received, +about New-Year's-Day, the preceding letter. It came in the midst +of my washbowl-storm of a course of Lectures on the Philosophy of +History. For all these gifts and pledges,--thanks. Over the +finished _History,_ joy and evergreen laurels. I embrace you +with all my heart. I solace myself with the noble nature God has +given you, and in you to me, and to all. I had read the _Diamond +Necklace_ three weeks ago at the Boston Athenaeum, and the +_Mirabeau_ I had just read when my copy came. But the proof-sheet +was virgin gold. The _Mirabeau_ I forebode is to establish your +kingdom in England. That is genuine thunder, which nobody that +wears ears can affect to mistake for the rumbling of cart-wheels. +I please myself with thinking that my Angelo has blocked +a Colossus which may stand in the public square to defy all +competitors. To be sure, that is its least merit,--that nobody +can do the like,--yet is it a gag to Cerberus. Its better merit +is that it inspires self-trust, by teaching the immense resources +that are in human nature; so I sent it to be read by a brave man +who is poor and decried. The doctrine is indeed true and grand +which you preach as by cannonade, that God made a man, and it +were as well to stand by and see what is in him, and, if he act +ever from his impulses, believe that he has his own checks, and, +however extravagant, will keep his orbit, and return from far; a +faith that draws confirmation from the sempiternal ignorance and +stationariness of society, and the sempiternal growth of all +the individuals. + +The _Diamond Necklace_ I read with joy, whilst I read with my own +eyes. When I read with English or New-English eyes, my joy is +marred by the roaring of the opposition. I doubt not the exact +story is there told as it fell out, and told for the first time; +but the eye of your readers, as you will easily guess, will be +bewildered by the multitude of brilliant-colored hieroglyphics +whereby the meaning is conveyed. And for the Gig,--the Gig,--it +is fairly worn out, and such a cloud-compeller must mock that +particular symbol no more. + +I thought as I read this piece that your strange genius was the +instant fruit of your London. It is the aroma of Babylon. Such +as the great metropolis, such is this style: so vast, enormous, +related to all the world, and so endless in details. I think you +see as pictures every street, church, parliament-house, barrack, +baker's shop, mutton-stall, forge, wharf, and ship, and whatever +stands, creeps, rolls, or swims thereabouts, and make all your +own. Hence your encyclopediacal allusion to all knowables, and +the virtues and vices of your panoramic pages. Well, it is your +own; and it is English; and every word stands for somewhat; +and it cheers and fortifies me. And what more can a man ask of +his writing fellow-man? Why, all things; inasmuch as a good +mind creates wants at every stroke. + +The proof-sheet rhymes well with _Mirabeau,_ and has abated my +fears from your own and your brother's account of the new book. +I greet it well. Auspicious Babe, be born! The first good of +the book is that it makes you free, and as I anxiously hope makes +your body sound. A possible good is that it will cause me to see +your face. But I seemed to read in _Mirabeau_ what you intimate +in your letter, that you will not come westward. Old England is +to find you out, and then the New will have no charm. For me it +will be the worst; for you, not. A man, a few men, cannot be to +you (with your ministering eyes) that which you should travel far +to find. Moreover, I observe that America looks, to those who +come hither, as unromantic and unexciting as the Dutch canals. I +see plainly that our Society, for the most part, is as bigoted to +the _respectabilities_ of religion and education as yours; that +there is no more appetite for a revelation here than elsewhere; +and the educated class are, of course, less fair-minded than +others. Yet, in the moments when my eyes are open, I see that +here are rich materials for the philosopher and poet, and, what +is more to your purpose as an artist, that we have had in these +parts no one philosopher or poet to put a sickle to the prairie +wheat. I have really never believed that you would do us that +crowning grace of coming hither, yet if God should be kinder to +us than our belief, I meant and mean to hold you fast in my +little meadows on the Musketaquid (now Concord) River, and show +you (as in this country we can anywhere) an America in miniature +in the April or November town meeting. Therein should you +conveniently study and master the whole of our hemispherical +politics reduced to a nutshell, and have a new version of +Oxenstiern's little wit; and yet be consoled by seeing that here +the farmers patient as their bulls of head-boards--provided for +them in relation to distant national objects, by kind editors of +newspapers--do yet their will, and a good will, in their own +parish. If a wise man would pass by New York, and be content to +sit still in this village a few months, he should get a thorough +native knowledge which no foreigner has yet acquired. So I leave +you with God, and if any oracle in the great Delphos should say +"Go," why fly to us instantly. Come and spend a year with me, +and see if I cannot respect your retirements. + +I must love you for your interest in me and my way of life, and +the more that we only look for good-nature in the creative class. +They pay the tag of grandeur, and, attracted irresistibly to +make, their living is usually weak and hapless. But you are so +companionable--God has made you Man as well as Poet--that I +lament the three thousand miles of mountainous water. Burns +might have added a better verse to his poem, importing that one +might write Iliads or Hamlets, and yet come short of Truth by +infinity, as every written word must; but "the man's the gowd +for a' that." And I heartily thank the Lady for her good-will. +Please God she may be already well. We all grieve to know of her +ill health. People who have seen her never stop with _Mr._ +Carlyle, but count him thrice blest in her. My wife believes in +nothing for her but the American voyage. I shall never cease to +expect you both until you come. + +My boy is five months old, he is called Waldo,--a lovely wonder +that made the Universe look friendlier to me. + +My Wife, one of your best lovers, sends her affectionate regards +to Mrs. Carlyle, and says that she takes exception in your +letters only to that sentence that she would go to Scotland if +you came here. My Wife beseeches her to come and possess her +new-dressed chamber. Do not cease to write whenever you can +spare me an hour. A man named Bronson Alcott is great, and one +of the jewels we have to show you. Good bye. + + --R.W. Emerson + +The second edition of _Sartor_ is out and sells well. I +learned the other day that twenty-five copies of it were ordered +for England. It was very amiable of you, that word about it +in _Mirabeau._* + +---------- +* This refers to Carlyle's introducing, in his paper on +_Mirabeau,_ a citation from _Sartor,_ with the words, "We quote +from a New England Book." +---------- + + + + +XVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London, 1 June, 1857 + +My Dear Friend,--A word must go to Concord in answer to your last +kind word. It reached me, that word of yours, on the morning of +a most unspeakable day; the day when I, half dead with fret, +agitation, and exasperation, was to address extempore an audience +of London quality people on the subject of German Literature! +The heart's wish of me was that I might be left in deepest +oblivion, wrapped in blankets and silence, not speaking, not +spoken to, for a twelvemonth to come. My Printers had only let +me go, out of their Treadmill, the day before. However, all that +is over now; and I am still here alive to write to you, and hope +for better days. + +Almost a month ago there went a copy of a Book called _French +Revolution,_ with your address on it, over to Red-Lion Square, +and thence, as old Rich declared, himself now _emeritus,_ back to +one Kennet (I think) near Covent Garden; who professes to +correspond with Hilliard and Company, Boston, and undertook the +service. The Book is not gone yet, I understand; but Kennet +engages that it shall leave Liverpool infallibly on the 5th of +June. I wish you a happy reading of it, therefore: it is the +only copy of my sending that has crossed the water. Ill printed +(there are many errors, one or two gross ones), ill written, ill +thought! But in fine it _is_ off my hands: that is a fact worth +all others. As to its reception here or elsewhere, I anticipate +nothing or little. Gabble, gabble, the astonishment of the dull +public brain is likely to be considerable, and its ejaculations +unedifying. We will let it go its way. Beat this thing, I say +always, under thy dull hoofs, O dull Public! trample it and +tumble it into all sinks and kennels; if thou canst kill it, +kill it in God's name: if thou canst not kill it, why then thou +wilt not. + +By the by, speaking of dull Publics, I ought to say that I have +seen a review of myself in the _Christian Examiner_ (I think that +is it) of Boston; the author of which, if you know him, I desire +you to thank on my part. For if a dull million is good, then +withal a seeing unit or two is also good. This man images back a +beautiful idealized Clothes-Philosopher, very satisfactory to +look upon; in whose beatified features I did verily detect more +similitude to what I myself meant to be, than in any or all the +other criticisms I have yet seen written of me. That a man see +himself reflected from the soul of his brother-man in this +brotherly improved way: there surely is one of the most +legitimate joys of existence. Friend Ripley took the trouble to +send me this Review, in which I detected an Article of his own; +there came also some Discourses of his much to be approved of; a +Newspaper passage-of-fence with a Philistine of yours; and a set +of Essays on Progress-of-the-species and such like by a man whom +I grieved to see confusing himself with that. Progress of the +species is a thing I can get no good of at all. These Books, +which Miss Martineau has borrowed from me, did not arrive till +three weeks ago or less. I pray you to thank Ripley for them +very kindly; which at present I still have not time to do. He +seems to me a good man, with good aims; with considerable +natural health of mind, wherein all goodness is likely to grow +better, all clearness to grow clearer. Miss Martineau laments +that he does not fling himself, or not with the due impetuosity, +into the Black Controversy; a thing lamentable in the extreme, +when one considers what a world this is, and how perfect it would +be could Mungo once get his stupid case rectified, and eat his +squash as a stupid _Apprentice_ instead of stupid _Slave!_ + +Miss Martineau's Book on America is out, here and with you. I +have read it for the good Authoress's sake, whom I love much. +She is one of the strangest phenomena to me. A genuine little +Poetess, buckramed, swathed like a mummy into Socinian and +Political-Economy formulas; and yet verily alive in the inside +of that! "God has given a Prophet to every People in its own +speech," say the Arabs. Even the English Unitarians were one day +to have their Poet, and the best that could be said for them too +was to be said. I admire this good lady's integrity, sincerity; +her quick, sharp discernment to the depth it goes: her love +also is great; nay, in fact it is too great: the host of +illustrious obscure mortals whom she produces on you, of +Preachers, Pamphleteers, Antislavers, Able Editors, and other +Atlases bearing (unknown to us) the world on their shoulder, is +absolutely more than enough. What they say to her Book here I do +not well know. I fancy the general reception will be good, and +even brilliant. I saw Mrs. Butler* last night, "in an ocean of +blonde and broadcloth," one of those oceans common at present. +Ach Gott! They are not of Persons, these soirdes, but of +Cloth Figures. + +---------- +* Mrs Fanny Kemble Butler. +---------- + +I mean to retreat into Scotland very soon, to repose myself as I +intended. My Wife continues here with her Mother; here at least +till the weather grow too hot, or a journey to join me seem +otherwise advisable for her. She is gathering strength, but +continues still weak enough. I rest myself "on the sunny side of +hedges" in native Annandale, one of the obscurest regions; no +man shall speak to me, I will speak to no man; but have +dialogues yonder with the old dumb crags, of the most +unfathomable sort. Once rested, I think of returning to London +for another season. Several things are beginning which I ought +to see end before taking up my staff again. In this enormous +Chaos the very multitude of conflicting perversions produces +something more like a _calm_ than you can elsewhere meet with. +Men let you alone, which is an immense thing: they do it even +because they have no time to meddle with you. London, or else +the Backwoods of America, or Craigenputtock! We shall see. + +I still beg the comfort of hearing from you. I am sick of soul +and body, but not incurable; the loving word of a Waldo Emerson +is as balm to me, medicinal now more than ever. My Wife +earnestly joins me in love to the Concord Household. May a +blessing be in it, on one and all! I do nowise give up the idea +of sojourning there one time yet. On the contrary, it seems +almost certain that I shall. Good be with you. + +Yours always, + T. Carlyle* + +----------- +* Emerson wrote in his Diary, July 27, 1837: "A letter today +from Carlyle rejoiced me. Pleasant would life be with such +companions. But if you cannot have them on good mutual terms you +cannot have them. If not the Deity but our wilfulness hews and +shapes the new relations, their sweetness escapes, as +strawberries lose their flavor by cultivation." +---------- + + + + +XVII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 13 September, 1837 + +My Dear Friend,--Such a gift as the _French Revolution_ demanded +a speedier acknowledgment. But you mountaineers that can scale +Andes before breakfast for an airing have no measures for the +performance of lowlanders and valetudinarians. I am ashamed to +think, and will not tell, what little things have kept me silent. + +The _French Revolution_ did not reach me until three weeks ago, +having had at least two long pauses by the way, as I find, since +landing. Between many visits received, and some literary +haranguing done, I have read two volumes and half the third and I +think you a very good giant; disporting yourself with an +original and vast ambition of fun: pleasure and peace not being +strong enough for you, you choose to suck pain also, and teach +fever and famine to dance and sing. I think you have written a +wonderful book, which will last a very long time. I see that you +have created a history, which the world will own to be such. You +have recognized the existence of other persons than officers, and +of other relations than civism. You have broken away from all +books, and written a mind. It is a brave experiment, and the +success is great. We have men in your story and not names +merely; always men, though I may doubt sometimes whether I have +the historic men. We have great facts--and selected facts--truly +set down. We have always the co-presence of Humanity along with +the imperfect damaged individuals. The soul's right of wonder is +still left to us; and we have righteous praise and doom awarded, +assuredly without cant. Yes, comfort yourself on that +particular, O ungodliest divine man! thou cantest never. Finally +we have not--a dull word. Never was there a style so rapid as +yours,--which no reader can outrun; and so it is for the most +intelligent. I suppose nothing will astonish more than the +audacious wit and cheerfulness which no tragedy and no magnitude +of events can overpower or daunt. Henry VIII loved a Man, and I +see with joy my bard always equal to the crisis he represents. +And so I thank you for your labor, and feel that your +contemporaries ought to say, All hail, Brother! live forever: +not only in the great Soul which thou largely inhalest, but also +as a named, person in this thy definite deed. + +I will tell you more of the book when I have once got it at focal +distance,--if that can ever be, and muster my objections when I +am sure of their ground. I insist, of course, that it might be +more simple, less Gothically efflorescent. You will say no rules +for the illumination of windows can apply to the Aurora borealis. +However, I find refreshment when every now and then a special +fact slips into the narrative couched in sharp and businesslike +terms. This character-drawing in the book is certainly +admirable; the lines are ploughed furrows; but there was cake +and ale before, though thou be virtuous. Clarendon surely drew +sharp outlines for me in Falkland, Hampden, and the rest, without +defiance or sky-vaulting. I wish I could talk with you face to +face for one day, and know what your uttermost frankness would +say concerning the book. I feel assured of its good reception in +this country. I learned last Saturday that in all eleven hundred +and sixty-six copies of _Sartor_ have been sold. I have told the +publisher of that book that he must not print the _History_ until +some space has been given to people to import British copies. I +have ordered Hilliard, Gray, & Co. to import twenty copies as an +experiment. At the present very high rate of exchange, which +makes a shilling worth thirty cents, they think, with freight and +duties, the book would be too costly here for sale, but we +confide in a speedy fall of Exchange; then my books shall come. +I am ashamed that you should educate our young men, and that we +should pirate your books. One day we will have a better law, or +perhaps you will make our law yours. + +I had your letter long before your book. Very good work you have +done in your lifetime, and very generously you adorn and cheer +this pilgrimage of mine by your love. I find my highest prayer +granted in calling a just and wise man my friend. Your profuse +benefaction of genius in so few years makes me feel very poor and +useless. I see that I must go on trust to you and to all the +brave for some longer time, hoping yet to prove one day my truth +and love. There are in this country so few scholars, that the +services of each studious person are needed to do what he can +for the circulation of thoughts, to the end of making some +counterweight to the money force, and to give such food as he may +to the nigh starving youth. So I religiously read lectures every +winter, and at other times whenever summoned. Last year, "the +Philosophy of History," twelve lectures; and now I meditate a +course on what I call "Ethics." I peddle out all the wit I can +gather from Time or from Nature, and am pained at heart to see +how thankfully that little is received. + +Write to me, good friend, tell me if you went to Scotland,--what +you do, and will do,--tell me that your wife is strong and well +again as when I saw her at Craigenputtock. I desire to be +affectionately remembered to her. Tell me when you will come +hither. I called together a little club a week ago, who spent a +day with me,--counting fifteen souls,--each one of whom warmly +loves you. So if the _French Revolution_ does not convert the +"dull public" of your native Nineveh, I see not but you must +shake their dust from your shoes and cross the Atlantic to a New +England. Yours in love and honor. + + --R. Waldo Emerson + +May I trouble you with a commission when you are in the City? +You mention being at the shop of Rich in Red-Lion Square. Will +you say to him that he sent me some books two or three years ago +without any account of prices annexed? I wrote him once myself, +once through S. Burdett, bookseller, and since through C.P. +Curtis, Esq., who professes to be his attorney in Boston,--three +times,--to ask for this account. No answer has ever come. I +wish he would send me the account, that I may settle it. If he +persist in his self-denying contumacy, I think you may +immortalize him as a bookseller of the gods. + +I shall send you an Oration presently, delivered before a +literary society here, which is now being printed.* Gladly I +hear of the Carlylet--so they say--in the new Westminster. + +--------- +* This was Emerson's famous Oration before the Phi Beta Kappa +Society, at Cambridge, August 31, 1837, on "The American +Scholar." In his admirable essay on Thoreau,--an essay which +might serve as introduction and comment to the letters of Carlyle +and Emerson during these years,--Lowell speaks of the impression +made by this remarkable discourse. It "was an event without any +former parallel in our literary annals, a scene to be always +treasured in the memory for its picturesqueness and its +inspiration. What crowded and breathless aisles, what windows +clustering with eager heads, what enthusiasm of approval, what +grim silence of foregone dissent! It was our Yankee version of a +lecture by Abelard, our Harvard parallel to the last public +appearances of Schelling."--_My Study Windows,_ p. 197 +--------- + + + + +XVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 2 November, 1837 + +My Dear Friend,--Mr. Charles Sumner, a lawyer of high standing +for his age, and editor or one editor of a journal called _The +Jurist,_ and withal a lover of your writings, tells me he is +going to Paris and thence to London, and sets out in a few days. +I cannot, of course, resist his request for a letter to you, nor +let pass the occasion of a greeting. Health, Joy, and Peace be +with you! I hope you sit still yet, and do not hastily meditate +new labors. Phidias need not be always tinkering. Sit still +like an Egyptian. Somebody told me the other day that your +friends here might have made a sum for the author by publishing +_Sartor_ themselves, instead of leaving it with a bookseller. +Instantly I wondered why I had never such a thought before, and +went straight to Boston, and have made a bargain with a +bookseller to print the _French Revolution._ It is to be printed +in two volumes of the size of our American _Sartor,_ one thousand +copies, the estimate making the cost of the book say (in dollars +and cents) $1.18 a copy, and the price $2.50. The bookseller +contracts with me to sell the book at a commission of twenty +percent on that selling price, allowing me however to take at +cost as many copies as I can find subscribers for. There is yet, +I believe, no other copy in the country than mine: so I gave him +the first volume, and the printing is begun. I shall take +care that your friends here shall know my contract with the +bookseller, and so shall give me their names. Then, if so good a +book can have a tolerable sale, (almost contrary to the nature of +a good book, I know,) I shall sustain with great glee the new +relation of being your banker and attorney. They have had the +wit in the London _Examiner,_ I find, to praise at last; and I +mean that our public shall have the entire benefit of that page. +The _Westminster_ they can read themselves. The printers think +they can get the book out by Christmas. So it must be long +before I can tell you what cheer. Meantime do you tell me, I +entreat you, what speed it has had at home. The best, I hope, +with the wise and good withal. + +I have nothing to tell you and no thoughts. I have promised a +course of Lectures for December, and am far from knowing what I +am to say; but the way to make sure of fighting into the new +continent is to burn your ships. The "tender ears," as George +Fox said, of young men are always an effectual call to me +ignorant to speak. I find myself so much more and freer on the +platform of the lecture-room than in the pulpit, that I shall not +much more use the last; and do now only in a little country +chapel at the request of simple men to whom I sustain no other +relation than that of preacher. But I preach in the Lecture-Room +and then it tells, for there is no prescription. You may laugh, +weep, reason, sing, sneer, or pray, according to your genius. It +is the new pulpit, and very much in vogue with my northern +countrymen. This winter, in Boston, we shall have more than +ever: two or three every night of the week. When will you come +and redeem your pledge? The day before yesterday my little boy +was a year old,--no, the day before that,--and I cannot tell you +what delight and what study I find in this little bud of God, +which I heartily desire you also should see. Good, wise, kind +friend, I shall see you one day. Let me hear, when you can +write, that Mrs. Carlyle is well again. + + --R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +XIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 8 December, 1837 + +My Dear Emerson,--How long it is since you last heard of me I do +not very accurately know; but it is too long. A very long, +ugly, inert, and unproductive chapter of my own history seems to +have passed since then. Whenever I delay writing, be sure +matters go not well with me; and do you in that case write to +me, were it again and over again,--unweariable in pity. + +I did go to Scotland, for almost three months; leaving my Wife +here with her Mother. The poor Wife had fallen so weak that she +gave me real terror in the spring-time, and made the Doctor look +very grave indeed: she continued too weak for traveling: I was +worn out as I had never in my life been. So, on the longest day +of June, I got back to my Mother's cottage; threw myself down, I +may say, into what we may call the "frightfulest _magnetic +sleep,_" and lay there avoiding the intercourse of men. Most +wearisome had their gabble become; almost unearthly. But indeed +all was unearthly in that humor. The gushing of my native +brooks, the _sough_ of the old solitary woods, the great roar of +old native Solway (billowing fresh out of your Atlantic, drawn by +the Moon): all this was a kind of unearthly music to me; I +cannot tell you how unearthly. It did not bring me to rest; yet +_towards_ rest I do think at all events, the time had come when I +behoved to quit it again. I have been here since September +evidently another little "chapter" or paragraph, _not_ altogether +inert, is getting forward. But I must not speak of these things. +How can I speak of them on a miserable scrap of blue paper? +Looking into your kind-eyes with my eyes, I could speak: not +here. Pity me, my friend, my brother; yet hope well of me: if +I can (in all senses) _rightly hold my peace,_ I think much will +yet be well with me. SILENCE is the great thing I worship at +present; almost the sole tenant of my Pantheon. Let a man know +rightly how to hold his peace. I love to repeat to myself, +"Silence is of Eternity." Ah me, I think how I could rejoice to +quit these jarring discords and jargonings of Babel, and go far, +far away! I do believe, if I had the smallest competence of +money to get "food and warmth" with, I would shake the mud of +London from my feet, and go and bury myself in some green place, +and never print any syllable more. Perhaps it is better as +it is. + +But quitting this, we will actually speak (under favor of +"Silence") one very small thing; a pleasant piece of news. +There is a man here called John Sterling (_Reverend_ John of the +Church of England too), whom I love better than anybody I have +met with, since a certain sky-messenger alighted to me at +Craigenputtock, and vanished in the Blue again. This Sterling +has written; but what is far better, he has lived, he is alive. +Across several unsuitable wrappages, of Church-of-Englandism and +others, my heart loves the man. He is one, and the best, of a +small class extant here, who, nigh drowning in a black wreck of +Infidelity (lighted up by some glare of Radicalism only, now +growing _dim_ too) and about to perish, saved themselves into a +Coleridgian Shovel-hattedness, or determination to _preach,_ to +preach peace, were it only the spent _echo_ of a peace once +preached. He is still only about thirty; young; and I think +will shed the shovel-hat yet perhaps. Do you ever read +_Blackwood?_ This John Sterling is the "New Contributor" whom +Wilson makes such a rout about, in the November and prior month +"Crystals from a Cavern," &c., which it is well worth your while +to see. Well, and what then, cry you?--Why then, this John +Sterling has fallen overhead in love with a certain Waldo +Emerson; that is all. He saw the little Book _Nature_ lying +here; and, across a whole _silva silvarum_ of prejudices, +discerned what was in it; took it to his heart,--and indeed into +his pocket; and has carried it off to Madeira with him; whither +unhappily (though now with good hope and expectation) the Doctors +have ordered him. This is the small piece of pleasant news, that +two sky-messengers (such they were both of them to me) have met +and recognized each other; and by God's blessing there shall one +day be a trio of us: call you that nothing? + +And so now by a direct transition I am got to the _Oration._ My +friend! you know not what you have done for me there. It was +long decades of years that I had heard nothing but the infinite +jangling and jabbering, and inarticulate twittering and +screeching, and my soul had sunk down sorrowful, and said there +is no articulate speaking then any more, and thou art solitary +among stranger-creatures? and lo, out of the West comes a clear +utterance, clearly recognizable as a _man's_ voice, and I _have_ +a kinsman and brother: God be thanked for it! I could have +_wept_ to read that speech; the clear high melody of it went +tingling through my heart;--I said to my wife, "There, woman!" +She read; and returned, and charges me to return for answer, +"that there had been nothing met with like it since Schiller went +silent." My brave Emerson! And all this has been lying silent, +quite tranquil in him, these seven years, and the "vociferous +platitude" dinning his ears on all sides, and he quietly +answering no word; and a whole world of Thought has silently +built itself in these calm depths, and, the day being come, says +quite softly, as if it were a common thing, "Yes, I _am_ here +too." Miss Martineau tells me, "Some say it is inspired, some +say it is mad." Exactly so; no say could be suitabler. But for +you, my dear friend, I say and pray heartily: May God grant you +strength; for you have a _fearful_ work to do! Fearful I call +it; and yet it is great, and the greatest. O for God's sake +_keep yourself still quiet!_ Do not hasten to write; you cannot +be too slow about it. Give no ear to any man's praise or +censure; know that that is _not_ it: on the one side is as +Heaven if you have strength to keep silent, and climb unseen; +yet on the other side, yawning always at one's right-hand and +one's left, is the frightfulest Abyss and Pandemonium! See +Fenimore Cooper;--poor Cooper, he is _down in it;_ and had a +climbing faculty too. Be steady, be quiet, be in no haste; and +God speed you well! My space is done. + +And so adieu, for this time. You must write soon again. My copy +of the _Oration_ has never come: how is this? I could dispose +of a dozen well.--They say I am to lecture again in Spring, _Ay +de mi!_ The "Book" is babbled about sufficiently in several +dialects: Fraser wants to print my scattered Reviews and Articles; +a pregnant sign. Teufelsdrockh to precede. The man "screamed" once +at the name of it in a very musical manner. He shall not print a +line; unless he give me money for it, more or less. I have had +enough of printing for one while,--thrown into "magnetic sleep" +by it! Farewell my brother. + + --T. Carlyle + +O. Rich, it seems, is in Spain. His representative assured me, +some weeks since, that the Account was now sent. There is an +Article on Sir W. Scott: shocking; invitissima Minerva!* + +---------- +*Carlyle's article on Scott published in the _London and +Westminster Review,_ No. 12. Reprinted in his _Critical and +Miscellaneous Essays._ +---------- + +Miss Martineau charges me to send kind remembrances to you and +your Lady: her words were kinder than I have room for here.--Can +you not, in defect or delay of Letter, send me a Massachusetts +Newspaper? I think it costs little or almost nothing now; and I +shall know your hand. + + + + +XX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 9 February, 1838 + +My Dear Friend,--It is ten days now--ten cold days--that your +last letter has kept my heart warm, and I have not been able to +write before. I have just finished--Wednesday evening--a course +of lectures which I ambitiously baptized "Human Culture," and +read once a week to the curious in Boston. I could write nothing +else the while, for weariness of the week's stated scribbling. +Now I am free as a wood-bird, and can take up the pen without +fretting or fear. Your letter should, and nearly did, make me +jump for joy,--fine things about our poor speech at Cambridge,-- +fine things from CARLYLE. Scarcely could we maintain a decorous +gravity on the occasion. And then news of a friend, who is also +Carlyle's friend. What has life better to offer than such +tidings? You may suppose I went directly and got me _Blackwood,_ +and read the prose and the verse of John Sterling, and saw that +my man had a head and a heart, and spent an hour or two very +happily in spelling his biography out of his own hand;--a species +of palmistry in which I have a perfect reliance. I found many +incidents grave and gay and beautiful, and have determined to +love him very much. In this romancing of the gentle affections +we are children evermore. We forget the age of life, the +barriers so thin yet so adamantean of space and circumstance; +and I have had the rarest poems self-singing in my head of brave +men that work and conspire in a perfect intelligence across seas +and conditions--and meet at last. I heartily pray that the Sea +and its vineyards may cheer with warm medicinal breath a Voyager +so kind and noble. + +For the _Oration,_ I am so elated with your goodwill that I begin +to fear your heart has betrayed your head this time, and so the +praise is not good on Parnassus but only in friendship. I sent +it diffidently (I did send it through bookselling Munroe) to you, +and was not a little surprised by your generous commendations. +Yet here it interested young men a good deal for an academical +performance, and an edition of five hundred was disposed of in a +month. A new edition is now printing, and I will send you some +copies presently to give to anybody who you think will read. + +I have a little budget of news myself. I hope you had my letter +--sent by young Sumner--saying that we meant to print the _French +Revolution_ here for the Author's benefit. It was published on +the 25th of December. It is published at my risk, the +booksellers agreeing to let me have at cost all the copies I can +get subscriptions for. All the rest they are to sell and to have +twenty percent on the retail price for their commission. The +selling price of the book is $2.50; the cost of a copy, $1.26; +the bookseller's commission, 50 cts.; so that T.C. only gains 74 +cts. on each copy they sell. But we have two hundred +subscribers, and on each copy they buy you have $1.26, except in +cases where the distant residence of subscribers makes a cost of +freight. You ought to have three or four quarters of a dollar +more on each copy, but we put the lowest price on the book in +terror of the Philistines, and to secure its accessibleness to +the economical Public. We printed one thousand copies: of +these, five hundred are already sold, in six weeks; and Brown +the bookseller talks, as I think, much too modestly, of getting +rid of the whole edition in one year. I say six months. The +printing, &c. is to be paid and a settlement made in six months +from the day of publication; and I hope the settlement will be +the final one. And I confide in sending you seven hundred +dollars at least, as a certificate that you have so many readers +in the West. Yet, I own, I shake a little at the thought of the +bookseller's account. Whenever I have seen that species of +document, it was strange how the hopefulest ideal dwindled away +to a dwarfish actual. But you may be assured I shall on this +occasion summon to the bargain all the Yankee in my constitution, +and multiply and divide like a lion. + +The book has the best success with the best. Young men say it is +the only history they have ever read. The middle-aged and the +old shake their heads, and cannot make anything of it. In short, +it has the success of a book which, as people have not fashioned, +has to fashion the people. It will take some time to win all, +but it wins and will win. I sent a notice of it to the +_Christian Examiner,_ but the editor sent it all back to me +except the first and last paragraphs; those he printed. And the +editor of the _North American_ declined giving a place to a paper +from another friend of yours. But we shall see. I am glad you +are to print your _Miscellanies;_ but--forgive our Transatlantic +effrontery--we are beforehand of you, and we are already +selecting a couple of volumes from the same, and shall print them +on the same plan as the _History,_ and hope so to turn a penny +for our friend again. I surely should not do this thing without +consulting you as to the selection but that I had no choice. If +I waited, the bookseller would have done it himself, and carried +off the profit. I sent you (to Kennet) a copy of the _French +Revolution._ I regret exceedingly the printer's blunder about +the numbering the Books in the volumes, but he had warranted me +in a literal, punctual reprint of the copy without its leaving +his office, and I trusted him. I am told there are many errors. +I am going to see for myself. I have filled my paper, and not +yet said a word of how many things. You tell me how ill was Mrs. +C., and you do not tell me that she is well again. But I see +plainly that I must take speedily another sheet. I love +you always. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XXI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, 12 March, 1838 + +My Dear Friend,--Here in a bookseller's shop I have secured a +stool and corner to say a swift benison. Mr. Bancroft told me +that the presence of English Lord Gosford in town would give me a +safe conveyance of pamphlets to you, so I send some _Orations_ of +which you said so kind and cheering words. Give them to any one +who will read them. I have written names in three. You have, I +hope, got the letter sent nearly a month ago, giving account of +our reprint of the _French Revolution,_ and have received a copy +of the same. I learn from the bookseller today that six hundred +and fifty copies are sold, and the book continues to sell. So I +hope that our settlement at the end of six months will be final, +or nearly so. + +I had nearly closed my agreement the other day with a publisher +for the emission of _Carlyle's Miscellanies,_ when just in the +last hour comes word from E.G. Loring that he has an authentic +catalogue from the Bard himself. Now I have that, and could wish +Loring had communicated his plan to me at first, or that I had +bad wit enough to have undertaken this matter long ago and +conferred with you. I designed nothing for you or your friends; +but merely a lucrative book for our daily market that would have +yielded a pecuniary compensation to you, such as we are all bound +to make, and have bought our Socrates a cloak. Loring +contemplated something quite different,--a "Complete Works," +etc.,--and now clamors for the same thing, and I do not know but +I shall have to gratify him and others at the risk of injury to +this my vulgar hope of dollars,--that innate idea of the American +mind. This I shall settle in a few days. No copyright can be +secured here for an English book unless it contain original +matter: But my moments are going, and I can only promise to +write you quickly, at home and at leisure, for I have just been +reading the _History_ again with many, many thoughts, and I +revere, wonder at, and love you. + + --R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +XXII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 16 March, 1838 + +My Dear Emerson,--Your letter through Sumner was sent by him from +Paris about a month ago; the man himself has not yet made his +appearance, or been heard of in these parts: he shall be very +welcome to me, arrive when he will. The February letter came +yesterday, by direct conveyance from Dartmouth. I answer it +today rather than tomorrow; I may not for long have a day freer +than this. _Fronte capillata, post est occasio calva:_ true +either in Latin or English! + +You send me good news, as usual. You have been very brisk and +helpful in this business of the _Revolution_ Book, and I give you +many thanks and commendations. It will be a very brave day when +cash actually reaches me, no matter what the _number_ of the +coins, whether seven or seven hundred, out of Yankee-land; and +strange enough, what is not unlikely, if it be the _first_ cash I +realize for that piece of work,--Angle-land continuing still +_in_solvent to me! Well, it is a wide Motherland we have here, +or are getting to have, from Bass's Straits all round to Columbia +River, already almost circling the Globe: it must be hard with a +man if somewhere or other he find not some one or other to take +his part, and stand by him a little! Blessings on you, my +brother: nay, your work is already twice blessed.--I believe +after all, with the aid of my Scotch thrift, I shall not be +absolutely thrown into the streets here, or reduced to borrow, +and become the slave of somebody, for a morsel of bread. Thank +God, no! Nay, of late I begin entirely to despise that whole +matter, so as I never hitherto despised it: "Thou beggarliest +Spectre of Beggary that hast chased me ever since I was man, come +on then, in the Devil's name, let us see what is in thee! Will +the Soul of a man, with Eternity within a few years of it, quail +before _thee?_" Better, however, is my good pious Mother's +version of it: "They cannot take God's Providence from thee; +thou hast never wanted yet."* + +---------- +* In his Diary, May 9, 1838, Emerson wrote: "A letter this +morning from T. Carlyle. How should he be so poor? It is the +most creditable poverty I know of." +---------- + +But to go on with business; and the republication of books in +that Transoceanic England, New and improved Edition of England. +In January last, if I recollect right, Miss Martineau, in the +name of a certain Mr. Loring, applied to me for a correct List of +all my fugitive Papers; the said Mr. Loring meaning to publish +them for my behoof. This List she, though not without +solicitation, for I had small hope in it, did at last obtain, and +send, coupled with a request from me that you should be consulted +in the matter. Now it appears you had of yourself previously +determined on something of the same sort, and probably are far on +with the printing of your Two select volumes. I confess myself +greatly better pleased with it on that footing than on another. +Who Mr. Loring may be I know not, with any certainty, at first +hand; but who Waldo Emerson is I do know; and more than one god +from the machine is not necessary. I pray you, thank Mr. Loring +for his goodness towards me (his intents are evidently charitable +and not wicked); but consider yourself as in nowise bound at all +by that blotted Paper he has, but do the best you can for me, +consulting with him or not taking any counsel just as you see to +be fittest on the spot. And so Heaven prosper you, both in your +"aroused Yankee" state, and in all others;--and let us for the +present consider that we have enough about Books and Guineas. I +must add, however, that Fraser and I have yet made no bargain. + We found, on computing, that there would be five good +volumes, including _Teufelsdrockh._ For an edition of Seven +hundred and Fifty I demanded L50 a volume, and Fraser refused: +the poor man then fell dangerously ill, and there could not be a +word farther said on the subject; till very lately, when it +again became possible, but has not yet been put in practice. All +the world cries out, Why _do you_ publish with Fraser? "Because +my soul is sick of Booksellers, and of trade, and deception, and +'need and greed' altogether; and this poor Fraser, not worse +than the rest of them, has in some sort grown less hideous to me +by custom." I fancy, however, either Fraser will publish these +things before long; or some Samaritan here will take me to some +bolder brother of the trade that will. Great Samuel Johnson +assisted at the beginning of Bibliopoly; small Thomas Carlyle +assists at the ending of it: both are sorrowful seasons for a +man. For the rest, people here continue to receive that +_Revolution_ very much as you say they do _there:_ I am right +well quit of it; and the elderly gentlemen on both sides of the +water may take comfort, they will not soon have to suffer the +like again. But really England is wonderfully changed within +these ten years; the old gentlemen all shrunk into nooks, some +of them even voting with the young.--The American ill-printed Two +and-a-half-dollars Copy shall, for Emerson's sake, be welcomest +to me of all. Kennet will send it when it comes. + +The _Oration_ did arrive, with my name on it, one snowy night in +January. It is off to Madeira; probably there now. I can +dispose of a score of copies to good advantage. Friend Sterling +has done the best of all his things in the current _Blackwood,_-- +"Crystals from a Cavern,"--which see. He writes kind things of +you from Madeira, in expectation of the Speech. I will gratify +him with your message; he is to be here in May; better, we +hope, and in the way towards safety. Miss Martineau has given +you a luminous section in her new Book about America; you are +one of the American "Originals,"--the good Harriet! + +And now I have but one thing to add and to repeat: Be quiet, be +quiet! The fire that is in one's own stomach is enough, without +foreign bellows to blow it ever and anon. My whole heart +shudders at the thrice-wretched self-combustion into which I see +all manner of poor paper-lanterns go up, the wind of "popularity" +puffing at them, and nothing left erelong but ashes and sooty +wreck. It is sad, most sad. I shun all such persons and +circles, as much as possible; and pray the gods to make me a +brick layer's hodbearer rather. O the "cabriolets, neatflies," +and blue twaddlers of both sexes therein, that drive many a poor +Mrs. Rigmarole to the Devil!*--As for me, I continue doing as +nearly nothing as I can manage. I decline all invitations of +society that are declinable: a London rout is one of the maddest +things under the moon; a London dinner makes me sicker for a +week, and I say often, It is better to be even dull than to be +witty, better to be silent than to speak. + +-------- +* This sentence is a variation on one at the beginning of the +article on Scott. +-------- + +Curious: your Course of Lectures "on Human Culture" seems to be +on the very subject I am to discourse upon here in May coming; +but I am to call it "on the History of Literature," and _speak_ +it, not write it. While you read this, I shall be in the +agonies! Ah me! often when I think of the matter, how my one +sole wish is to be left to hold my tongue, and by what bayonets +of Necessity clapt to my back I am driven into that Lecture-room, +and in what mood, and ordered to speak or die, I feel as if my +only utterance should be a flood of tears and blubbering! But +that, clearly, will not do. Then again I think it is perhaps +better so; who knows? At all events, we will try what is in +this Lecturing in London. If something, well; if nothing, why +also well. But I do want to get out of these coils for a tune. +My Brother is to be home again in May; if he go back to Italy, +if our Lecturing proved productive, why might we not all set off +thitherward for the winter coming? There is a dream to that +effect. It would suit my wife, too: she was alarmingly weak +this time twelvemonth; and I can only yet tell you that she is +stronger, not strong: she has not ventured out except at midday, +and rarely then, since Autumn last; she sits here patiently +waiting Summer, and charges me to send you her love.--America +also always lies in the background: I do believe, if I live +long, I shall get to Concord one day. Your wife must love me. +If the little Boy be a well-behaved fellow, he shall ride on my +back yet: if not, tell him I will have nothing to do with him, +the riotous little imp that he is. And so God bless you always, +my dear friend! Your affectionate, + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +XXIII. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, 10 May, 1838 + +My Dear Friend,--Yesterday I had your letter of March. It +quickens my purpose (always all but ripe) to write to you. If it +had come earlier I should have been confirmed in my original +purpose of publishing _Select Miscellanies of T.C._ As it is, we +are far on in the printing of the first two volumes (to make 900 +pages) of the papers as they stand in your list. And now I find +we shall only get as far as the seventeenth or eighteenth +article. I regret it, because this book will not embrace those +papers I chiefly desire to provide people with, and it may be +some time, in these years of bankruptcy and famine, before we +shall think it prudent to publish two volumes more. But Loring +is a good man, and thinks that many desire to see the sources of +Nile. I, for my part, fancy that to meet the taste of the +readers we should publish _from the last_ backwards, beginning +with the paper on Scott, which has had the best reception ever +known. Carlyleism is becoming so fashionable that the most +austere Seniors are glad to qualify their reprobation by +applauding this review. I have agreed with the bookseller +publishing the _Miscellanies_ that he is to guarantee to you one +dollar on every copy he sells; and you are to have the total +profit on every copy subscribed for. The retail price [is] to be +$2.50. The cost of the work is not yet precisely ascertained. +The work will probably appear in six or seven weeks. We print +one thousand copies. So whenever it is sold you shall have one +thousand dollars. + +---------- +* Printed in the _Athenaeum,_ July 8, 1882. +---------- + +The _French Revolution_ continues to find friends and purchasers. +It has gone to New Orleans, to Nashville, to Vicksburg. I have +not been in Boston lately, but have determined that nearly or +quite eight hundred copies should be gone. On the 1st of July I +shall make up accounts with the booksellers, and I hope to make +you the most favorable returns. I shall use the advice of +Barnard, Adams, & Co. in regard to remittances. + +When you publish your next book I think you must send it out to +me in sheets, and let us print it here contemporaneously with the +English edition. The _eclat_ of so new a book would help the +sale very much. + +But a better device would be, that you should embark in the +"Victoria" steamer, and come in a fortnight to New York, and in +twenty-four hours more to Concord. Your study arm-chair, +fireplace, and bed, long vacant, auguring expect you. Then you +shall revise your proofs and dictate wit and learning to the New +World. Think of it in good earnest. In aid of your friendliest +purpose, I will set down some of the facts. I occupy, or +_improve,_ as we Yankees say, two acres only of God's earth; on +which is my house, my kitchen-garden, my orchard of thirty young +trees, my empty barn. My house is now a very good one for +comfort, and abounding in room. Besides my house, I have, I +believe, $22,000, whose income in ordinary years is six percent. +I have no other tithe or glebe except the income of my winter +lectures, which was last winter $800. Well, with this income, +here at home, I am a rich man. I stay at home and go +abroad at my own instance. I have food, warmth, leisure, books, +friends. Go away from home, I am rich no longer. I never have a +dollar to spend on a fancy. As no wise man, I suppose, ever was +rich in the sense of _freedom to spend,_ because of the +inundation of claims, so neither am I, who am not wise. But at +home, I am rich,--rich enough for ten brothers. My wife Lidian +is an incarnation of Christianity,--I call her Asia,--and keeps +my philosophy from Antinomianism; my mother, whitest, mildest, +most conservative of ladies, whose only exception to her +universal preference for old things is her son; my boy, a piece +of love and sunshine, well worth my watching from morning to +night;--these, and three domestic women, who cook and sew and run +for us, make all my household. Here I sit and read and write, +with very little system, and, as far as regards composition, with +the most fragmentary result: paragraphs incompressible, each +sentence an infinitely repellent particle. + +In summer, with the aid of a neighbor, I manage my garden; and a +week ago I set out on the west side of my house forty young pine +trees to protect me or my son from the wind of January. The +ornament of the place is the occasional presence of some ten or +twelve persons, good and wise, who visit us in the course of the +year.--But my story is too long already. God grant that you will +come and bring that blessed wife, whose protracted illness we +heartily grieve to learn, and whom a voyage and my wife's and my +mother's nursing would in less than a twelvemonth restore to +blooming health. My wife sends to her this message: "Come, and +I will be to you a sister." What have you to do with Italy? +Your genius tendeth to the New, to the West. Come and live with +me a year, and if you do not like New England well enough to +stay, one of these years (when the _History_ has passed its ten +editions, and been translated into as many languages) I will come +and dwell with you. + +I gladly hear what you say of Sterling. I am foolish enough to +be delighted with being an object of kindness to a man I have +never seen, and who has not seen me. I have not yet got the +_Blackwood_ for March, which I long to see, but the other three +papers I have read with great satisfaction. They lie here on my +table. But he must get well. + +As to Miss Martineau, I know not well what to say. Meaning to do +me a signal kindness (and a kindness quite out of all measure of +justice) she does me a great annoyance,--to take away from me my +privacy and thrust me before my time (if ever there be a time) +into the arena of the gladiators to be stared at. I was ashamed +to read, and am ashamed to remember. Yet, as you see her, I +would not be wanting in gratitude to a gifted and generous lady +who so liberally transfigures our demerits. So you shall tell +her, if you please, that I read all her book with pleasure but +that part, and if ever I shall travel West or South, I think she +has furnished me with the eyes. Farewell, dear wise man. I +think your poverty honorable above the common brightness of that +thorn-crown of the great. It earns you the love of men and the +praise of a thousand years. Yet I hope the angelical Beldame, +all-helping, all-hated, has given you her last lessons, and, +finding you so striding a proficient, will dismiss you to a +hundred editions and the adoration of the booksellers. + + --R.W. Emerson + +I have never heard from Rich, who, you wrote, had sent his +account to me. Let him direct to me at Concord. + +A young engineer in Cambridge, by name McKean,* volunteers his +services in correcting the proofs of the _Miscellanies,_--and he +has your errata,--for the love of the reading. Shall we have +anthracite coal or wood in your chamber? My old mother is glad +you are coming. + +----------- +* The late Mr. Henry S. McKean, a son of Professor McKean, and a +graduate of Harvard College in 1828. +----------- + + + + +XXIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 15 June, 1838 + +My Dear Emerson,--Our correspondence has fallen into a raveled +state; which would doubtless clear itself could I afford to wait +for your next Letter, probably tumbling over the Atlantic brine +about this very moment: but I cannot afford to wait; I must +write straightway. Your answer to this will bring matters round +again. I have had two irregular Notes of your writing, or +perhaps three; two dated March, one by Mr. Bancroft's Parcel,-- +bringing Twelve _Orations_ withal; then some ten days later, +just in this very time, another Note by Mr. Sumner, whom I have +not yet succeeded in seeing, though I have attempted it, and hope +soon to do it. The Letter he forwarded me from Paris was +acknowledged already, I think. And now if the Atlantic will but +float me in safe that other promised Letter! + +I got your American _French Revolution_ a good while ago. It +seems to me a very pretty Book indeed, wonderfully so for the +money; neither does it seem what we can call _incorrectly_ +printed so far as I have seen; compared with the last _Sartor_ +it is correctness itself. Many thanks to you, my Friend, and +much good may it do us all! Should there be any more reprinting, +I will request you to rectify at least the three following +errors, copied out of the English text indeed; nay, mark them in +your own New-English copy, whether there be reprinting or not: +Vol. I. p. 81, last paragraph, _for_ September _read_ August; +Vol. II. p. 344, first line, _for_ book of prayer _read_ look of +prayer; p. 357, _for_ blank _read_ black (2d paragraph, "all +black "). And so _basta._ And let us be well content about this +F.R. on both sides of the water, yours as well as mine. + +"Too many cooks"! the Proverb says: it is pity if this new +apparition of a Mr. Loring should spoil the broth. But I +calculate you will adjust it well and smoothly between you, some +way or other. How you shall adjust it, or have adjusted it, is +what I am practically anxious now to learn. For you are to +understand that our English Edition has come to depend partly on +yours. After long higgling with the foolish Fraser, I have +quitted him, quite quietly, and given "Saunders and Ottley, +Conduit Street," the privilege of printing a small edition of +_Teufelsdrockh_ (Five Hundred copies), with a prospect of the +"Miscellaneous Writings" soon following. Saunders and Ottley are +at least more reputable persons, they are useful to me also in +the business of Lecturing. _Teufelsdrockh_ is at Press, to be +out very soon; I will send you a correct copy, the only +one in America I fancy. The enterprise here too is on the +"half-profits" plan, which I compute generally to mean equal +partition of the oyster-shells and a net result of zero. But the +thing will be economically useful to me otherwise; as a +publication of the "Miscellaneous" also would be; which latter, +however, I confess myself extremely unwilling to undertake the +trouble of for _nothing._ To me they are grown or fast growing +_obsolete,_ these Miscellanies, for most part; if money lie not +in them, what does lie for me? Now it strikes me you will infallibly +edit these things, at least as well as I, and are doing it at any +rate; your printing too would seem to be cheaper than ours: I +said to Saunders and Ottley, Why not have two hundred or three +hundred of this American Edition struck off with "London: +Saunders and Ottley, Conduit Street," on the title-page, and sent +over hither in sheets at what price they have cost my friends +yonder? Saunders of course threw cold water on this project, but +was obliged to admit that there would be some profit in it, and +that for me it would be far easier. The grand profit for me is +that people would understand better what I mean, and come better +about me if I lectured again, which seems the only way of getting +any wages at all for me here at present. Pray meditate my +project, if it be not already too late, hear what your Booksellers +say about it, and understand that I will not in any case set to +printing till I hear from you in answer to this. + +How my sheet is filling with dull talk about mere economics! I +must still add that the _Lecturing_ I talked of, last time, is +verily over now; and well over. The superfine people listened +to the rough utterance with patience, with favor, increasing to +the last. I sent you a Newspaper once, to indicate that it was +in progress. I know not yet what the money result is; but I +suppose it will enable us to exist here thriftily another year; +not without hope of at worst doing the like again when the time +comes. It is a great novelty in my lot; felt as a very +considerable blessing; and really it has arrived, if it have +arrived, in _due_ time, for I had begun to get quite impatient of +the other method. Poverty and Youth may do; Poverty and Age go +badly together.--For the rest, I feel fretted to fiddle-strings; +my head and heart all heated, sick,--ah me! The question as ever +is: Rest. But then where? My Brother invites us to come to +Rome for the winter; my poor sick Wife might perhaps profit by +it; as for me, Natty Leatherstocking's lodge in the Western +Wood, I think, were welcomer still. I have a great mind, too, to +run off and see my Mother, by the new railways. What we shall +do, whether not stay quietly here, must remain uncertain for a +week or two. Write you always hither, till you hear otherwise. + +The _Orations_ were right welcome; my _Madeira_ one, returned +thence with Sterling, was circulating over the West of England. +Sterling and Harriet stretched out the right hand with wreathed +smiles. I have read, a second or third time. Robert Southey has +got a copy, for his own behoof and that of _Lake_land: if he +keep his word as to _me,_ he may do as much for you, or more. +Copies are at Cambridge; among the Oxonians too; I have with +stingy discretion distributed all my copies but two. Old Rogers, +a grim old Dilettante, full of sardonic sense, was heard saying, +"It is German Poetry given out in American Prose." Friend +Emerson ought to be content;--and has now above all things, as I +said, to _be in no haste._ Slow fire does make sweet malt: how +true, how true! Also his next work ought to be a _concrete_ +thing; not _theory_ any longer, but _deed._ Let him "live it," +as he says; that is the way to come to "painting of it." +Geometry and the art of Design being once well over, take the +brush, and _andar con Dios!_ + +Mrs. Child has sent me a Book, _Philothea,_ and a most +magnanimous epistle. I have answered as I could. The Book is +beautiful, but of a _hectic_ beauty; to me not pleasant, even +fatal looking. Such things grow not in the ground, on Mother +Earth's honest bosom, but in hothouses,--Sentimental-Calvinist +fire traceable underneath! Bancroft also is of the hothouse +partly: I have a Note to send him by Sumner; do you thank him +meanwhile, and say nothing about _hothouses!_ But, on the whole, +men ought in New England, too to "swallow their formulas";* +there is no freedom till then: yet hitherto I find only one man +there who seems fairly on the way towards that, or arrived at +that. Good speed to _him._ I had to send my Wife's love: she +is not dangerously ill; but always feeble, and has to _struggle_ +to keep erect; the summer always improves her, and this summer +too. Adieu, dear Friend; may Good always be with you and yours. + + --T. Carlyle + +----------- +* This was the saying of the old Marquis de Mirabeau concerning +his son, _Il a hume toutes les formules,_ and is used as a text +by Carlyle in his article on Mirabeau. "Of inexpressible +advantage is it that a man have 'an eye instead of a pair of +spectacles merely'; that, seeing through the formulas of things +and even 'making away' with many a formula, he see into the thing +itself, and so know it and be master of it!" +---------- + + + + +XXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, 30 July, 1838 + +My Dear Sir,--I am in town today to get what money the booksellers +will relinquish from their faithful gripe, and have succeeded now +in obtaining a first instalment, however small. I enclose to you +a bill of exchange for fifty pounds sterling, which costs here +exactly $242.22, the rate of exchange being nine percent. I +shall not today trouble you with any account, for my letter +must be quickly ready to go by the steam-packet. An exact +account has been rendered to me, which, though its present +balance in our favor is less than I expected, yet, as far as I +understand it, agrees well with all that has been promised: at +least the balance in our favor when the edition is sold, which +the booksellers assure me will assuredly be done within a year +from the publication, must be seven hundred and sixty dollars, +and what more Heaven and the subscribers may grant. I shall +follow this letter and bill by a duplicate of the bill in the +next packet. + +The _Miscellanies_ is published in two volumes, a copy of which +goes to you immediately. Munroe tells me that two hundred and +fifty copies of it are already sold. Writing in a bookshop, my +dear friend, I have no power to say aught than that I am heartily +and always, + +Yours, + R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +XXVI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 6 August, 1838 + +My Dear Friend,--The swift ships are slow when they carry our +letters. Your letter dated the 15th of June arrived here last +Friday, the 3d of August. That day I was in Boston, and I have +only now got the information necessary to answer it. You have +probably already learned from my letter sent by the "Royal +William" (enclosing a bill of exchange for L50), that our first +two volumes of the _Miscellanies_ are published. I have sent you +a copy. The edition consists of one thousand copies. Of these +five hundred are bound, five hundred remain in sheets. The +title-pages, of course, are all printed alike; but the +publishers assure me that new title-pages can be struck off at a +trifling expense, with the imprint of Saunders and Ottley. The +cost of a copy in sheets or "folded" (if that means somewhat +more?) is eighty-nine cents; and bound is $1.15. The retail +price is $2.50 a copy; and the author's profit, $1; and the +bookseller's, 35 cents per copy; according to my understanding +of the written contract. + +Here I believe you have all the material facts. I think there is +no doubt that the book will sell very well here. But if, for the +reasons you suggest, you wish any part of it, you can have it as +soon as ships can bring your will. + +When you see your copy, you will perceive that we have printed +half the matter. I should presently begin to print the +remainder, inclusive of the Article on Lockhart's Scott, in two +more volumes; but now I think I shall wait until I hear from +you. Of those books we will print a larger edition, say twelve +hundred and fifty or fifteen hundred, if you want a part of it in +London. For I feel confident now that our public here is one +thousand strong. Write me therefore _by the steam packet_ +your wishes. + +I am sure you will like our edition. It has been most carefully +corrected by two young gentlemen who successively volunteered +their services, (the second when the first was called away,) and +who, residing in Cambridge, where the book was printed, could +easilier oversee it. They are Henry S. McBean, an engineer, and +Charles Stearns Wheeler, a Divinity student,--working both for +love of you. To one other gentleman I have brought you in debt, +--Rev. Convers Francis* (brother of Mrs. Child), who supplied from +his library all the numbers of the _Foreign Review_ from which we +printed the work. We could not have done without his books, and +he is a noble-hearted man, who rejoices in you. I have sent to +all three copies of the work as from you, and I shall be glad if +you will remember to sanction this expressly in your next letter. + +---------- +* This worthy man and lover of good books was, from 1842 till his +death in 1863, Professor in the Divinity School of Harvard +University. +---------- + +Thanks for the letter: thanks for your friendliest seeking of +friends for the poor _Oration._ Poor little pamphlet, to have +gone so far and so high! I am ashamed. I shall however send you +a couple more of the thin gentry presently, maugre all your hopes +and cautions. I have written and read a kind of sermon to the +Senior Class of our Cambridge Theological School a fortnight ago; +and an address to the Literary Societies of Dartmouth College;* +for though I hate American pleniloquence, I cannot easily say No +to young men who bid me speak also. And both these are now in +press. The first I hear is very offensive. I will now try to +hold my tongue until next winter. But I am asked continually +when you will come to Boston. Your lectures are boldly and +joyfully expected by brave young men. So do not forget us: and +if ever the scale-beam trembles, I beseech you, let the love of +me decide for America. I will not dare to tease you on a matter +of so many relations, and so important, and especially as I have +written out, I believe, my requests in a letter sent two or three +months ago,--but I must see you somewhere, somehow, may it please +God! I grieve to hear no better news of your wife. I hoped she +was sound and strong ere this, and can only hope still. My wife +and I send her our hearty love. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + +----------- +* The Address at the Cambridge Divinity School was delivered on +the 15th of July, and that at Dartmouth College on the 24th of +the same month. The title of the latter was "Literary Ethics." +Both are reprinted in Emerson's _Miscellanies._ These remarkable +discourses excited deep interest and wide attention. They +established Emerson's position as the leader of what was known as +the Transcendental movement. They were the expressions of his +inmost convictions and his matured thought. The Address at the +Divinity School gave rise to a storm of controversy which did not +disturb the serenity of its author. "It was," said Theodore +Parker, "the noblest, the most inspiring strain I ever listened +to." To others it seemed "neither good divinity nor good sense." +The Address at Dartmouth College set forth the high ideals of +intellectual life with an eloquence made irresistible by the +character of the speaker. From this time Emerson's influence +upon thought in America was acknowledged. +---------- + + + + +XXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, (Annandale, Scotland) +25 September, 1838 + +My Dear Emerson,--There cannot any right answer be written you +here and now; yet I must write such answer as I can. You said, +"by steamship"; and it strikes me with a kind of remorse, on +this my first day of leisure and composure, that I have delayed +so long. For you must know, this is my Mother's house,--a place +to me unutterable as Hades and the Land of Spectres were; +likewise that my Brother is just home from Italy, and on the wing +thitherward or somewhither swiftly again; in a word, that all is +confusion and flutter with me here,--fit only for _silence!_ My +Wife sent me off hitherward, very sickly and unhappy, out of the +London dust, several weeks ago; I lingered in Fifeshire, I was +in Edinburgh, in Roxburghshire; have some calls to Cumberland, +which I believe I must refuse; and prepare to creep homeward +again, refreshed in health, but with a head and heart all +seething and tumbling (as the wont is, in such cases), and averse +to pens beyond all earthly implements. But my Brother is off +for Dumfries this morning; you before all others deserve an +hour of my solitude. I will abide by business; one must write +about that. + +Your Bill and duplicate of a Bill for L50, with the two Letters +that accompanied them, you are to know then, did duly arrive at +Chelsea; and the larger Letter (of the 6th of August) was +forwarded to me hither some two weeks ago. I had also, long +before that, one of the friendliest of Letters from you, with a +clear and most inviting description of the Concord Household, its +inmates and appurtenances; and the announcement, evidently +authentic, that an apartment and heart's welcome was ready there +for my Wife and me; that we were to come quickly, and stay for a +twelvemonth. Surely no man has such friends as I. We ought to +say, May the Heavens give us thankful hearts! For, in truth, +there are blessings which do, like sun-gleams in wild weather, +make this rough life beautiful with rainbows here and there. +Indicating, I suppose, that there is a Sun, and general Heart of +Goodness, behind all that;--for which, as I say again, let us be +thankful evermore. + +My Wife says she received your American Bill of so many pounds +sterling for the Revolution Book, with a "pathetic feeling" which +brought "tears" to her eyes. From beyond the waters there is a +hand held out; beyond the waters too live brothers. I would +only the Book were an Epic, a _Dante,_ or undying thing, that New +England might boast in after times of this feat of hers; and put +stupid, poundless, and penniless Old England to the blush about +it! But after all, that is no matter; the feebler the well- +meant Book is, the more "pathetic" is the whole transaction: and +so we will go on, fuller than ever of "desperate hope" (if you +know what that is), with a feeling one would not give and could +not get for several money-bags; and say or think, Long live true +friends and Emersons, and (in Scotch phrase) "May ne'er waur be +amang us!"--I will buy something permanent, I think, out of this +L50, and call it either _Ebenezer_ or _Yankee-doodle-doo._ May +good be repaid you manifold, my kind Brother! may good be ever +with you, my kind Friends all! + +But now as to this edition of the _Miscellanies_ (poor things), I +really think my Wife is wisest, who says I ought to leave you +altogether to your own resources with it, America having an art +of making money out of my Books which England is unfortunately +altogether without. Besides, till I once see the Two Volumes now +under way, and can let a Bookseller see them, there could no +bargain be made on the subject. We will let it rest there, +therefore. Go on with your second Two Volumes, as if there were +no England extant, according to your own good judgment. When I +get to London, I will consult some of the blockheads with the +Book in my hand: if we do want Two Hundred copies, you can give +us them with a trifling loss. It is possible they may make some +better proposal about an Edition here: that depends on the fate +of _Sartor_ here, at present trying itself; which I have not in +the least ascertained. For the present, thank as is meet all +friends in your world that have interested themselves for me. +Alas! I have nothing to give them but thanks. Henry McKean, +Charles Wheeler, Convers Francis; these Names shall, if it +please Heaven, become Persons for me, one day. Well!--But I will +say nothing more. That too is of the things on which all Words +are poor to Silence. Good to the Good and Kind! + +A Letter from me must have crossed that _descriptive_ Concord +one, on the Ocean, I think. Our correspondence is now standing +on its feet. I will write to you again, whether I hear from you +or not, so soon as my hand finds its cunning again in London,--so +soon as I can see there what is to be done or said. All goes +decidedly better, I think. My Wife was and is much healthier +than last year, than in any late year. I myself get visibly +quieter my preternatural _Meditations in Hades,_ apropos of this +Annandale of mine, are calm compared with those of last year. By +another Course of Lectures I have a fair prospect of living for +another season; nay, people call it a "new profession" I have +devised for myself, and say I may live by it as many years as I +like. This too is partly the fruit of my poor Book; one should +not say that it was worth nothing to me even in money. Last year +I fancied my Audience mainly the readers of it; drawn round me, +in spite of many things, by force of it. Let us be content. I +have Jesuits, Swedenborgians, old Quakeresses, _omne cum Proteus,_ +--God help me, no man ever had so confused a public!--I +salute you, my dear Friend, and your hospitable circle. May +blessings be on your kind household, on your kind hearts! + + --T. Carlyle + +A copy of the English _Teufelsdrockh_ has lain with your name on +it these two months in Chelsea; waiting an opportunity. It is +worth nothing to you: a dingy, ill-managed edition; but correct +or nearly correct as to printing; it is right that such should +be in your hands in case of need. The New England Pamphlets will +be greedily expected. More than one inquires of me, Has that +Emerson of yours written nothing else? And I have lent them the +little Book _Nature,_ till it is nearly thumbed to pieces. +Sterling is gone to Italy for the winter since I left town; +swift as a flash! I cannot teach him the great art of _sitting +still;_ his fine qualities are really like to waste for want +of that. + +I read your paragraph to Miss Martineau; she received it, as she +was bound, with a good grace. But I doubt, I doubt, O Ralph +Waldo Emerson, thou hast not been sufficiently ecstatic about +her,--thou graceless exception, confirmatory of a rule! In truth +there _are_ bores, of the first and of all lower magnitudes. +Patience and shuffle the cards. + + + + + +XXVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 17 October, 1838 + +My Dear Friend,--I am quite uneasy that I do not hear from you. +On the 21st of July I wrote to you and enclosed a remittance of +L50 by a Bill of Exchange on Baring Brothers, drawn by Chandler, +Howard, & Co., which was sent in the steamer "Royal William." On +the 2d of August I received your letter of inquiry respecting our +edition of the _Miscellanies,_ and wrote a few days later in +reply, that we could send you out two or three hundred copies of +our first two volumes, in sheets, at eighty-nine cents per copy +of two volumes, and the small additional price of the new title- +page. I said also that I would wait until I heard from you +before commencing the printing of the last two volumes of the +_Miscellanies,_ and, if you desired it, would print any number of +copies with a title-page for London. This letter went in a +steamer--he "Great Western" probably--about the 10th or 12th of +August. (Perhaps I misremember the names [of the steamers], and +the first should be last.) I have heard nothing from you since. +I trust my letters have not miscarried. (A third was sent also +by another channel inclosing a duplicate of the Bill of +Exchange.) With more fervency, I trust that all goes well in the +house of my friend,--and I suppose that you are absent on some +salutary errand of repairs and recreation. _Use, I pray you, +your earliest_ hour in certifying me of the facts. + +One word more in regard to business. I believe I expressed some +surprise, in the July letter, that the booksellers should have no +greater balance for us at this settlement. I have since studied +the account better, and see that we shall not be disappointed in +the year of obtaining at least the sum first promised,--seven +hundred and sixty dollars; but the whole expense of the edition +is paid out of the copies first sold, and our profits depend on +the last sales. The edition is almost gone, and you shall have +an account at the end of the year. + +In a letter within a twelvemonth I have urged you to pay us a +visit in America, and in Concord. I have believed that you would +come one day, and do believe it. But if, on your part, you have +been generous and affectionate enough to your friends here--or +curious enough concerning our society--to wish to come, I think +you must postpone, for the present, the satisfaction of your +friendship and your curiosity. At this moment I would not have +you here, on any account. The publication of my _Address to the +Divinity College_ (copies of which I sent you) has been the +occasion of an outcry in all our leading local newspapers against +my "infidelity," "pantheism," and "atheism." The writers warn +all and sundry against me, and against whatever is supposed +to be related to my connection of opinion, &c.; against +Transcendentalism, Goethe, and _Carlyle._ I am heartily sorry to +see this last aspect of the storm in our washbowl. For, as +Carlyle is nowise guilty, and has unpopularities of his own, I do +not wish to embroil him in my parish differences. You were +getting to be a great favorite with us all here, and are daily a +greater with the American public, but just now, _in Boston,_ +where I am known as your editor, I fear you lose by the +association. Now it is indispensable to your right influence +here, that you should never come before our people as one of a +clique, but as a detached, that is, universally associated +man; so I am happy, as I could not have thought, that you +have not yielded yourself to my entreaties. Let us wait a +little until this foolish clamor be overblown. My position +is fortunately such as to put me quite out of the reach of any +real inconvenience from the panic-strikers or the panic-struck; +and, indeed, so far as this uneasiness is a necessary result of +mere inaction of mind, it seems very clear to me that, if I live, +my neighbors must look for a great many more shocks, and perhaps +harder to bear. + +The article on German Religious Writers in the last _Foreign +Quarterly Review_ suits our meridian as well as yours; as is +plainly signified by the circumstance that our newspapers copy +into their columns the opening tirade and _no more._ Who wrote +that paper? And who wrote the paper on Montaigne in the +_Westminster?_ I read with great satisfaction the Poems and +Thoughts of Archaeus in _Blackwood._ "The Sexton's Daughter" is +a beautiful poem: and I recognize in them all _the_ Soul, with +joy and love. Tell me of the author's health and welfare; or, +will not he love me so much as to write me a letter with his own +hand? And tell me of yourself, what task of love and wisdom the +Muses impose; and what happiness the good God sends to you and +yours. I hope your wife has not forgotten me. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + +The _Miscellanies,_ Vols. I. and II., are a popular book. About +five hundred copies have been sold. The second article on Jean +Paul works with might on the inner man of young men. I hate to +write you letters on business and facts like this. There are so +few Friends that I think some time I shall meet you nearer, for +I love you more than is fit to say. W.H. Channing has written +a critique on you, which I suppose he has sent you, in the +_Boston Review._ + + + + + +XXIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London +7 November, 1838 + + +My Dear Friend,--It is all right; all your Letters with their +inclosures have arrived in due succession: the last, inquiring +after the fate of the others, came this morning. I was in +Scotland, as you partly conjecture; I wrote to you already +(though not without blamable delay), from my Mother's house in +Annandale, a confused scrawl, which I hope has already got to +hand, and quieted your kind anxieties. I am as well as usual in +health, my Wife better than usual; nothing is amiss, except my +negligence and indolence, which has put you to this superfluous +solicitude on my account. However, I have an additional Letter +by it; you must pardon me, you must not grudge me that +undeserved pleasure, the reward of evil-doing. I may well say, +you are a blessing to me on this Earth; no Letter comes from you +with other than good tidings,--or can come while you live there +to love me. + +The Bill was thrust duly into Baring's brass slit "for +acceptance," on my return hither some three weeks ago; and will, +no doubt, were the days of grace run, come out in the shape of +Fifty Pounds Sterling; a very curious product indeed. Do you +know what I think of doing with it? _Dyspepsia,_ my constant +attendant in London, is incapable of help in my case by any +medicine or appliance except one only, Riding on horseback. With +a good horse to whirl me over the world for two hours daily, I +used to keep myself supportably well. Here, the maintenance of a +Horse far transcends my means; yet it seems hard I should not +for a little while be in a kind of approximate health in this +Babylon where I have my bread to seek it is like swimming with a +millstone round your neck,--ah me! In brief, I am about half +resolved to buy myself a sharp little nag with Twenty of these +Transatlantic Pounds, and ride him till the other Thirty be +eaten: I will call the creature "Yankee," and kind thoughts of +those far away shall be with me every time I mount him. Will not +that do? My Wife says it is the best plan I have had for years, +and strongly urges it on. My kind friends! + +As to those copies of the Carlyle Miscellanies, I unfortunately +still can say nothing, except what was said in the former +(Scotch) letter, that you must proceed in the business with an +eye to America and not to us. My Booksellers, Saunders and +Ottley, have no money for me, no definite offer in money to make +for those Two Hundred copies, of which you seem likely to make +money if we simply leave them alone. I have asked these +Booksellers, I have asked Fraser too: What will you _give me in +ready money_ for Two Hundred and Fifty copies of that work, sell +it afterwards as you can? They answer always, We must see it +first. Now the copy long ago sent me has never come to hand; I +have asked for it of Kennet, but without success; I have nothing +for it but to wait the winds and chances. Meanwhile Saunders and +Ottley want forsooth a _Sketches of German Literature_ in three +volumes: then a _Miscellanies_ in three volumes: that is their +plan of publishing an English edition; and the outlook they hold +out for me is certain trouble in this matter, and recompense +entirely uncertain. I think on the whole it is extremely likely +I shall apply to you for Two Hundred and Fifty copies (that is +their favorite number) of these four volumes, (nay, if it be of +any moment, you can bind me down to it _now,_ and take it for +sure,) but I cannot yet send you the title-page; no bookseller +purchasing till "we see it first." But after all, will it suit +America to print an _unequal_ number of your two pairs of +volumes? Do not the two together make one work? On the whole, +consider that I shall in all likelihood want Two Hundred and +Fifty copies, and consider it certain if that will serve the +enterprise: we must leave it here today. I will stir in it +now, however, and take no rest till in one way or other you do +get a title-page from me, or some definite deliverance on the +matter. O Athenians, what a trouble I _give,_ having _got_ +your applauses! + +Kennet the Bookseller gave me yesterday (on my way to "the City" +with that Brother of mine, the Italian Doctor who is here at +present and a great lover of yours) ten copies of your Dartmouth +Oration: we read it over dinner in a chop-house in Bucklersbury, +amid the clatter of some fifty stand of knives and forks; and a +second time more leisurely at Chelsea here. A right brave +Speech; announcing, in its own way, with emphasis of full +conviction, to all whom it may concern, that great forgotten +truth, _Man is still man._ May it awaken a pulsation under the +ribs of Death! I believe the time is come for such a Gospel. +They must speak it out who have it,--with what audience there may +be. I have given away two copies this morning; I will take care +of the rest. Go on, and speed.--And now where is the heterodox +Divinity one, which awakens such "tempest in a washbowl," brings +Goethe, Transcendentalism, and Carlyle into question, and on the +whole evinces "what [difference] New England also makes between +_Pan_-theism and _Pot_-theism"? I long to see that; I expect to +congratulate you on that too. Meanwhile we will let the washbowl +storm itself out; and Emerson at Concord shall recognize it for +a washbowl storming, and hold on his way. As to my share in it, +grieve not for half an instant. Pantheism, Pottheism, Mydoxy, +Thydoxy, are nothing at all to me; a weariness the whole jargon, +which I avoid speaking of, decline listening to: _Live,_ for +God's sake, with what Faith thou couldst get; leave off +_speaking_ about Faith! Thou knowest it not. Be _silent,_ do +not speak.--As to you, my friend, you are even to go on, giving +still harder shocks if need be; and should I come into censure +by means of you, there or here, think that I am proud of my +company; that, as the boy Hazlitt said after hearing Coleridge, +"I will go with that man"; or, as our wild Burns has it, + + "Wi' sic as he, where'er he be, + May I be saved or damned!" + +Oime! what a foolish goose of a world this is! If it were not +[for] here and there an articulate-speaking man, one would be +all-too lonely. + +This is nothing at all like the letter I meant to write you; but +I will write again, I trust, in few days, and the first paragraph +shall, if possible, hold all the business. I have much to tell +you, which perhaps is as well not written. O that I did see you +face to face! But the time shall come, if Heaven will. Why not +you come over, since I cannot? There is a room here, there is +welcome here, and two friends always. It must be done one way or +the other. I will take, care of your messages to Sterling. He +is in Florence; he was the Author of _Montaigne._* The _Foreign +Quarterly_ Reviewer of _Strauss_ I take to be one Blackie, an +Advocate in Edinburgh, a frothy, semi-confused disciple of mine +and other men's; I guess this, but I have not read the Article: +the man Blackie is from Aberdeen, has been roaming over Europe, +and carries more sail than ballast. Brother John, spoken of +above, is knocking at the door even now; he is for Italy again, +we expect, in few days, on a better appointment: know that you +have a third friend in him under this roof,--a man who quarrels +with me all day in a small way, and loves me with the whole soul +of him. My Wife demanded to have "room for one line." What she +is to write I know not, except it be what she has said, holding +up the pamphlet, "Is it not a noble thing? None of them all but +he," &c., &c. I will write again without delay when the stray +volumes arrive; before that if they linger. Commend me to all +the kind household of Concord: Wife, Mother, and Son. + +Ever yours, + T. Carlyle + +--------- +* See _ante,_ p. 184. Sterling's essay on Montaigne was his +first contribution, in 1837, to the _London and Westminster +Review._ It is reprinted in "Essays and Tales, by John Sterling, +collected and edited, with a Memoir of his Life, by Julius +Charles Hare," London, 1848, Vol. I. p. 129. +---------- + +_"Forgotten you?"_ O, no indeed! If there were nothing else to +remember you by, I should never forget the Visitor, who years ago +in the Desert descended on us, out of the clouds as it were, and +made one day there look like enchantment for us, and left me +weeping that it was only _one_ day. When I think of America, it +is of you,--neither Harriet Martineau nor any one else succeeds +in giving me a more extended idea of it. When I wish to see +America it is still you, and those that are yours. I read all +that you write with an interest which I feel in no other writing +but my Husband's,--or it were nearer the truth to say there is no +other writing of living men but yours and his that I _can_ read. +God Bless you and Weib and Kind. Surely I shall some day see you +all. + +Your affectionate + Jane Carlyle + + + + +XXX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 15 November, 1835 + +Dear Emerson,--Hardly above a week ago, I wrote you in immediate +answer to some friendly inquiries produced by negligence of mine: +the Letter is probably tumbling on the salt waves at this hour, +in the belly of the "Great Western"; or perhaps it may be still +on firm land waiting, in which case this will go along with it. +I had written before out of Scotland a Letter of mere +acknowledgment and postponement; you must have received that +before now, I imagine. Our small piece of business is now become +articulate, and I will despatch it in a paragraph. Pity my +stupidity that I did not put the thing on this footing long ago! +It never struck me till the other day that though no copy of our +_Miscellanies_ would turn up for inspection here, and no +Bookseller would bargain for a thing unseen, I myself might +bargain, and leave their hesitations resting on their own +basis. In fine, I have rejected all their schemes of printing +_Miscellaneous Works_ here, printing _Sketches of German +Literature,_ or printing anything whatever on the "half-profits +system," which is like toilsomely scattering seed into the sea: +and I settled yesterday with Fraser to give him the American +sheets, and let them sell _themselves,_ on clear principles, or +remain unsold if they like. I find it infinitely the best plan, +and to all appearance the profitablest as to money that could +have been devised for me. + +What you have to do therefore is to get Two Hundred and Fifty +copies (_in sheets_) of the whole Four Volumes, so soon as the +second two are printed, and have them, with the proper title- +page, sent off hither to Fraser's address; the sooner the +better. The American title-page, instead of "Boston," &c. at the +bottom, will require to bear, in three lines "London: / James +Fraser, 215 Regent Street, / 1839." Fraser is anxious that you +should not spell him with a z; your man can look on the Magazine +and beware. I suppose also you should print _labels_ for the +backs of the four volumes, to be used by the _half_-binder; they +do the books in that way here now: but if it occasion any +difficulty, never mind this; it was not spoken of to Fraser, and +is my own conjecture merely; the thing can be managed in various +other ways. Two Hundred and Fifty copies, then, of the entire +book: there is nothing else to be attended to that you do not +understand as well as I. Fraser will announce it in his +Magazine: the eager, select public will wait. Probably, there +is no chance before the middle of March or so? Do not hurry +yourselves, or at all change your rate for _us:_ but so soon as +the work is ready in the course of Nature, the earliest +conveyance to the Port of London will bring a little cargo which +one will welcome with a strange feeling! I declare myself +delighted with the plan; an altogether romantic kind of plan, of +romance and reality: fancy me riding on _Yankee_ withal, at the +time, and considering what a curious world this is, that bakes +bread for one beyond the great Ocean-stream, and how a poor man +is not left after all to be trodden into the gutters, though the +fight went sore against him, and he saw no backing anywhere. +_Allah akbar!_ God is great; no saying truer than that.--And so +now, by the blessing of Heaven, we will talk no more of business +this day. + +My employments, my outlooks, condition, and history here, were a +long chapter; on which I could like so well to talk with you +face to face; but as for writing of them, it is a mere mockery. +In these four years, so full of pain and toil, I seem to have +lived four decades. By degrees, the creature gets accustomed to +its element; the salamander learns to live in fire, and be +of the same temperature with it. Ah me! I feel as if grown +old innumerable things are become weary, flat, stale, and +unprofitable. And yet perhaps I am not old, only wearied, and +there is a stroke or two of work in me yet. For the rest, the +fret and agitation of this Babylon wears me down: it is the most +unspeakable life; of sunbeams and miry clay; a contradiction +which no head can reconcile. Pain and poverty are not wholesome; +but praise and flattery along with them are poison: God deliver +us from that; it carries madness in the very breath of it! On +the whole, I say to myself, what thing is there so good as +_rest?_ A sad case it is and a frequent one in my circle, to be +entirely cherubic, _all_ face and wings. "Mes enfans," said a +French gentleman to the cherubs in the Picture, "Mes enfans, +asseyez-vous?"--"Monseigneur," answer they, "il n'y a pas de +quoi!" I rejoice rather in my laziness; proving that I _can_ +sit.--But, after all, ought I not to be thankful? I positively +can, in some sort, exist here for the while; a thing I had been +for many years ambitious of to no purpose. I shall have to +lecture again in spring, Heaven knows on what; it will be a +wretched fever for me; but once through it there will be board +wages for another year. The wild Ishmael can hunt in _this_ +desert too, it would seem. I say, I will be thankful; and wait +quietly what farther is to come, or whether anything farther. +But indeed, to speak candidly, I do feel sometimes as if another +Book were growing in me,--though I almost tremble to think of it. +Not for this winter, O no! I will write an Article merely, or +some such thing, and read trash if better be not. This, I do +believe, is my horoscope for the next season: an Article on +something about New-Year's-day (the Westminster Editor, a good- +natured, admiring swan-goose from the North Country, will not let +me rest); then Lectures; then--what? I am for some practical +subject too; none of your pictures in the air, or _aesthetisches +Zeug_ (as Mullner's wife called it, Mullner of the _Midnight +Blade_): nay, I cannot get up the steam on any such best; it is +extremely irksome as well as fruitless at present. In the next +_Westminster Review,_ therefore, if you see a small scrub of a +paper signed "S.P." on one Varnhagen a German, say that it is by +"Simon Pure," or by "Scissars and Paste," or even by "Soaped +Pig"--whom no man shall _catch!_ Truly it is a secret which you +must not mention: I was driven to it by the Swan-goose above +mentioned, not Mill but another. Let this suffice for my +winter's history: may the summer be more productive. + +As for Concord and New England, alas! my Friend, I should but +deface your Idyllion with an ugly contradiction, did I come in +such mood as mine is. I am older in years than you; but in +humor I am older by centuries. What a hope is in that ever young +heart, cheerful, healthful as the morning! And as for me, you +have no conception what a crabbed, sulky piece of sorrow and +dyspepsia I am grown; and growing, if I do not draw bridle. Let +me gather heart a little! I have not forgotten Concord or the +West; no, it lies always beautiful in the blue of the horizon, +afar off and yet attainable; it is a great possession to me; +should it even never be attained. But I have got to consider +lately that it is you who are coming hither first. That is the +right way, is it not? New England is becoming more than ever +part of Old England; why, you are nearer to us now than +Yorkshire was a hundred years ago; this is literally a fact: +you can come _without_ making your will. It is one of my +calculations that all Englishmen from all zones and hemispheres +will, for a good while yet, resort occasionally to the Mother- +Babel, and see a thing or two there. Come if you dare; I said +there was a room, house-room and heart-room, constantly waiting +you here, and you shall see blockheads by the million. +_Pickwick_ himself shall be visible; innocent young Dickens +reserved for a questionable fate. The great Wordsworth shall +talk till you yourself pronounce him to be a bore. Southey's +complexion is still healthy mahogany-brown, with a fleece of +white hair, and eyes that seem running at full gallop. Leigh +Hunt, "man of genius in the shape of a Cockney," is my near +neighbor, full of quips and cranks, with good humor and no common +sense. Old Rogers with his pale head, white, bare, and cold as +snow, will work on you with those large blue eyes, cruel, +sorrowful, and that sardonic shelf-chin:--This is the Man, O +Rogers, that wrote the German Poetry in American Prose; consider +him well!--But whither am I running? My sheet is done! My +Brother John returns again almost immediately to Italy. He has +got appointed Traveling Doctor to a certain Duke of Buccleuch, +the chief of our Scotch Dukes: an excellent position for him as +far as externals go. His departure will leave me lonelier; but +I must reckon it for the best: especially I must begin working. +Harriet Martineau is coming hither this evening; with beautiful +enthusiasm for the Blacks and others. She is writing a Novel. +The first American book proved generally rather wearisome, the +second not so; we have since been taught (not I) "How to +observe." Suppose you and I promulgate a treatise next, "How to +see"? The old plan was, to have a pair of _eyes _first of all, +and then to open them: and endeavor with your whole strength to +_look._ The good Harriet! But "God," as the Arabs say, "has +given to every people a Prophet (or Poet) in its own speech": +and behold now Unitarian mechanical Formalism was to have its +Poetess too; and stragglings of genius were to spring up even +through that like grass through a Macadam highway!--Adieu, my +Friend, I wait still for your heterodox Speech; and love +you always. + + --T. Carlyle + +An English _Sartor_ goes off to you this day; through Kennet, to +C.C. Little and J. Brown of Boston; the likeliest conveyance. +It is correctly printed, and that is all. Its fate here (the +fate of the publication, I mean) remains unknown; "unknown +and unimportant." + + + + +XXXI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 2 December, 1838 + +My Dear Emerson,--Almost the very day after my last Letter went +off, the long-expected two volumes of _Miscellanies_ arrived. +The heterodox pamphlet has never yet come to hand. I am now to +write you again about that _Miscellany_ concern the fourth +letter, I do believe; but it is confirmatory of the foregoing +three, and will be the last, we may hope. + +Fraser is charmed with the look of your two volumes; declares +them unsurpassable by art of his; and wishes (what is the main +part of this message) that you would send his cargo in the +_bound_ state, bound and lettered as these are, with the sole +difference that the leaves be _not_ cut, or shaved on the sides, +our English fashion being to have them _rough._ He is impatient +that the Book were here; desires further that it be sent to the +Port of London rather than another Port, and that it be packed in +_boxes_ "to keep the covers of the volumes safe,"--all which I +doubt not the Packers and the Shippers of New England have +dexterity enough to manage for the best, without desire of his. +If you have printed off nothing yet, I will desire for my own +behoof that Two hundred and _Sixty_ be the number sent; I find I +shall need some ten to give away: if your first sheet is printed +off, let the number stand as it was. It would be an improvement +if you could print our title-pages on paper a little stronger; +that would stand ink, I mean: the fly leaves in the same, if you +have such paper convenient; if not, not. Farther as to the +matter of the title-page, it seems to me your Printer might +give a bolder and a broader type to the words "Critical and +Miscellaneous," and add after "Essays" with a colon (:), the +line "Collected and Republished," with a colon also; then the +"By," &c. "In Four Volumes, Vol. I.," &c. I mean that we want, +in general, a little more ink and decisiveness: show your man +the title-page of the English _French Revolution,_ or look at it +your self, and you will know. R.W.E.'s "Advertisement," friendly +and good, as all his dealings are to me ward, will of course be +suppressed in the English copies. I see not that with propriety +I can say anything by way of substitute: silence and the New +England _imprint_ will tell the story as eloquently as there +is need. + +For the rest you must tell Mr. Loring, and all men who had a hand +in it along with you, that I am altogether right well pleased +with this edition, and find it far beyond my expectation. To my +two young Friends, Henry S. McKean (be so good as write these +names more indisputably for me) and Charles Stearns Wheeler, in +particular, I will beg you to express emphatically my gratitude; +they have stood by me with right faithfulness, and made the +correctest printing; a _great_ service had I known that there +were such eyes and heads acting in behalf of me there, I would +have scraped out the Editorial blotches too (notes of admiration, +dashes, "We think"s, &c., &c., common in Jeffrey's time in the +_Edinburgh Review_) and London misprints; which are almost the +only deformities that remain now. It is _extremely_ correct +printing wherever I have looked, and many things are silently +amended; it is the most fundamental service of all. I have not +the other _Articles_ by me at present; I think they are of +themselves a little more correct; at all events there are +nothing but _misprints_ to deal with;--the Editors, by this time, +had got bound up to let me alone. In the _Life of Scott,_ fourth +page of it (p. 296 of our edition), there is a sentence to be +deleted. "It will tell us, say they, little new and nothing +pleasing to know": out with this, for it is nonsense, and was +marked for erasure in the manuscript, I dare say. I know with +certainty no more at present. + +Fraser is to sell the Four Volumes at Two Guineas here. On +studying accurately your program of the American mercantile +method, I stood amazed to contrast it with our English one. The +Bookseller here admits that he could, by diligent bargaining, get +up such a book for something like the same cost or a _little_ +more; but the "laws of the trade" deduct from the very front of +the selling price--how much think you--_forty percent_ and odd, +when your man has only _fifteen;_ for the mere act of vending! +To cover all, they charge that enormous price. (A man, while I +stood consulting with Fraser, came in and asked for Carlyle's +_Revolution;_ they showed it him, he asked the price; and +exclaimed, "Guinea and a half! I can get it from America for +nine shillings!" and indignantly went his way; not without +reason.) There are "laws of the trade" which ought to be +_repealed;_ which I will take the liberty of contravening to all +lengths by all opportunities--if I had but the power! But if +this joint-stock American plan prosper, it will answer rarely. +Fraser's first _French Revolution,_ for instance, will be done, +he calculates, about New-Year's-day; and a second edition +wanted; mine to do with what I like. If you in America +wanted more also--? I leave you to think of this.--And now +enough, enough! + +My Brother went from us last Tuesday; ought to be in Paris +yesterday. I am yet writing nothing; feel forsaken, sad, sick, +--not unhappy. In general Death seems beautiful to me; sweet and +great. But Life also is beautiful, is great and divine, were it +never to be joyful any more. I read Books, my wife sewing by me, +with the light of a sinumbra, in a little apartment made snug +against the winter; and am happiest when all men leave me alone, +or nearly all,--though many men love me rather, ungrateful that I +am. My present book is _Horace Walpole;_ I get endless stuff +out of it; epic, tragic, lyrical, didactic: all inarticulate +indeed. An old blind Schoolmaster in Annan used to ask with +endless anxiety when a new scholar was offered him, "But are ye +sure _he's not a Dunce?_" It is really the one thing needful in +a man; for indeed (if we will candidly understand it) all else +is presupposed in that. Horace Walpole is no dunce, not a fibre +of him is duncish. + +Your Friend Sumner was here yesterday, a good while, for the +first time: an ingenious, cultivated, courteous man; a little +sensitive or so, and with no other fault that I discerned. He +borrowed my copy of your Dartmouth business, and bound himself +over to return with it soon. Some approve of that here, some +condemn: my Wife and another lady call it better even than the +former, I not so good. And now the Heterodox, the Heterodox, +where is that? Adieu, my dear Friend. Commend me to the Concord +Household; to the little Boy, to his Grandmother, and Mother, +and Father; we must all meet some day,--or _some no-day_ then +(as it shall please God)! My Wife heartily greets you all. + +Ever yours, + T. Carlyle + +I sent your book, message, and address to Sterling; he is in +Florence or Rome. Read the article _Simonides_ by him in the +_London and Westminster_--brilliant prose, translations--wooden? +His signature is L (Pounds Sterling!).--_Now_ you are to write +_soon?_ I always forgot to tell you, there came long since two +packages evidently in your hand, marked "One printed sheet," and +"one Newspaper," for which the Postman demanded about Fifteen +shillings: _rejected._ After considerable correspondence the +Newspaper was again offered me at _ten pence;_ the _sheet_ +unattainable altogether: "No," even at tenpence. The fact is, +it was wrong wrapped, that Newspaper. Leave it open at the ends, +and try me again, once; I think it will come almost gratis. +Steam and Iron are making all the Planet into one Village.--A Mr. +Dwight wrote to me about the dedicating of some German +translations: _Yes._ What are they or he?*--Your _Sartor_ is +off through Kennet. Could you send me two copies of the American +_Life of Schiller,_ if the thing is fit for making a present of, +and easy to be got? If not, do not mind it at all.--Addio! + +------------- +* Mr. John S. Dwight, whose volume of _Select Minor Poems from +the German of Goethe and Schiller,_ published in 1839, was +dedicated to Carlyle. It was the third volume of _Specimens of +Foreign Standard Literature, edited by George Ripley. Beside Mr. +Dwight's own excellent versions, it contained translations by Mr. +Bancroft, Dr. Hedge, Dr. Frothingham, and others. For many years +Mr. Dwight rendered a notable public service as the editor of +_Dwight's Journal of Music,_--a publication which did more than +any other to raise and to maintain high the standard of musical +taste and culture in America. +--------- + + + + +XXXII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 13 January, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--I am not now in any Condition to write a letter, +having neither the facts from the booksellers which you would +know touching our future plans, nor yet a satisfactory account +balanced and settled of our past dealings; and lastly, no time +to write what I would say,--as my poor lectures are in full +course, and absorb all my wits; but as the "Royal William" will +not wait, and as I have a hundred pounds to send on account of +the sales of the _French Revolution,_ I must steal a few minutes +to send my salutation. I have received all your four good +letters: and you are a good and generous man to write so many. +Two came on the 2d and 3d of January, and the last on the 9th. +If the bookselling Munroe had answered me yesterday, as he ought, +I should be able to satisfy you as to the time when to expect our +cargo of _Miscellanies._ The third and fourth volumes are now +printing: 't is a fortnight since we began. You shall have two +hundred and fifty copies,--I am not quite sure you can have +more,--bound, and _entitled,_ and directed as you desire, at +least according to the best ability of our printer as far as the +typography is concerned, and we will speed the work as fast as we +can; but as we have but a single copy of _Fraser's Magazine_--we +do not get on rapidly. The _French Revolution_ was all sold more +than a month since. We should be glad of more copies, but the +bookseller thinks not of enough copies to justify a new edition +yet. I should not be surprised, however, to see that some bold +brother of the trade had undertaken it. Now, what does your +question point at in reference to your new edition, asking "if we +want more"? Could you send us out a part of your edition at +American prices, and at the same time to your advantage? I wish +I knew the precise answer to this question, then perhaps I could +keep all pirates out of our bay. + +I shall convey in two days your message to Stearns Wheeler, who +is now busy in correcting the new volumes. He is now Greek Tutor +in Harvard College.*--Kindest thanks to Jane Carlyle for her +generous remembrances, which I will study to deserve. Has the +heterodoxy arrived in Chelsea, and quite destroyed us even in the +charity of our friend? I am sorry to have worried you so often +about the summer letter. Now am I your debtor four times. The +parish commotion, too, has long ago subsided here, and my course +of Lectures on "Human Life" finds a full attendance. I wait for +the coming of the _Westminster,_ which has not quite yet +arrived here, though I have seen the London advertisement. It +sounds prosperously in my ear what you say of Dr. Carlyle's +appointments. I was once very near the man in Rome, but did not +see him. I will atone as soon as I can for this truncated +epistle. You must answer it immediately, so far as to +acknowledge the receipt of the enclosed bill of exchange, and +soon I will send you the long promised _account_ of the _French +Revolution,_ and also such moral account of the same as is +over due. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + +--------- +* This promising young scholar edited with English notes the +first American edition of Herodotus. He went to Europe to pursue +his studies, and died, greatly regretted, at Rome, of a fever, +in 1848. +--------- + + + + +XXXIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 8 February, 1859 + +My Dear Friend,--Your welcome little Letter, with the astonishing +inclosure, arrived safe four days ago; right welcome, as all +your Letters are, and bringing as these usually do the best news +I get here. The miraculous draught of Paper I have just sent to +a sure hand in Liverpool, there to lie till in due time it have +ripened into a crop of a hundred gold sovereigns! On this +subject, which gives room for so many thoughts, there is little +that can be said, that were not an impertinence more or less. +The matter grows serious to me, enjoins me to be silent and +reflect. I will say, at any rate, there never came money into my +hands I was so proud of; the promise of a blessing looks from +the face of it; nay, it _will_ be _twice_ blessed. So I will +ejaculate, with the Arabs, _Allah akbar!_ and walk silent by the +shore of the many-sounding Babel-tumult, meditating on much. +Thanks to the mysterious all-bounteous Guide of men, and to you +my true Brother, far over the sea!--For the rest, I showed Fraser +this Nehemiah document, and said I hoped he would blush very +deep;--which indeed the poor creature did, till I was absolutely +sorry for him. + +But now first as to this question, What I mean? You must know +poor Fraser, a punctual but most pusillanimous mortal, has been +talking louder and louder lately of a "second edition" here; +whereupon, as labor-wages are not higher here than with you, and +printing-work, if well bargained for, ought to be about the same +price, it struck me that, as in the case of the _Miscellanies,_ +so here inversely the supply of both the New and the Old England +might be profitably combined. Whether aught can come of this, +now that it is got close upon us, I yet know not. Fraser has +only seventy-five copies left; but when these will be done his +prophecy comprehends not,--"surely within the year"! For the +present I have set him to ascertain, and will otherwise ascertain +for myself, what the exact cost of _stereotyping_ the Book were, +in the same letter and style as yours; it is not so much more +than printing, they tell me: I should then have done with it +forever and a day. You on your side, and we on ours, might have +as many copies as were wanted for all time coming. This is, in +these very days, under inquisition; but there are many points to +be settled before the issue. + +I have not yet succeeded in finding a Bookseller of any fitness, +but am waiting for one always. And even had I found such a one, +I mean an energetic seller that would sell on other terms than +forty percent for his trouble, it were still a question whether +one ought to venture on such a speculation: "quitting the old +highways," as I say, "in indignation at the excessive tolls, with +hope that you will arrive cheaper in the steeple-chase way!" It +is clear, however, that said highways are of the corduroy sort, +said tolls an anomaly that must be remedied soon; and also that +in all England there is no Book in a likelier case to adventure +it with than this same,--which did not sell at all for two +months, as I hear, which all Booksellers got terrified for, and +which has crept along mainly by its own gravitation ever since. +We will consider well, we shall see. You can understand that +such a thing, for your market too, is in agitation; if any +pirate step in before us in the meanwhile, we cannot help it. + +Thanks again for your swift attention to the _Miscellanies;_ +poor Fraser is in great haste to see them; hoping for his forty- +per-cent division of the spoil. If you have not yet got to the +very end with your printing, I will add a few errata; if they +come too late, never mind; they are of small moment.... + +This foggy Babylon tumbles along as it was wont; and, as for my +particular case, uses me not worse, but better, than of old. +Nay, there are many in it that have a real friendliness for me. +For example, the other night, a massive portmanteau of Books, +sent according to my written list, from the Cambridge University +Library, from certain friends there whom I have never seen; a +gratifying arrival. For we have no Library here, from which we +can borrow books home; and are only in these weeks striving to +get one:* think of that! The worst is the sore tear and wear of +this huge roaring Niagara of things on such a poor excitable set +of nerves as mine. The velocity of all things, of the very word +you hear on the streets, is at railway rate: joy itself is +unenjoyable, to be avoided like pain; there is no wish one has +so pressing as for quiet. Ah me! I often swear I will be buried +at least in free breezy Scotland, out of this insane hubbub, +where Fate tethers me in life! If Fate always tether me;--but if +ever the smallest competence of worldly means be mine, I will fly +this whirlpool as I would the Lake of _Malebolge,_ and only visit +it now and then! Yet perhaps it is the proper place after all, +seeing all places are improper: who knows? Meanwhile I lead a +most dyspeptic, solitary, self-shrouded life: consuming, if +possible in silence, my considerable daily allotment of pain; +glad when any strength is left in me for working, which is the +only use I can see in myself,--too rare a case of late. The +ground of my existence is black as Death; too black, when all +void too but at times there paint themselves on it pictures of +gold and rainbow and lightning; all the brighter for the black +ground, I suppose. Withal I am very much of a fool.--Some people +will have me write on _Cromwell,_ which I have been talking +about. I do read on that and English subjects, finding that I +know nothing and that nobody knows anything of that: but whether +anything will come of it remains to be seen. Mill, the +_Westminster_ friend, is gone in bad health to the Continent, and +has left a rude Aberdeen Longear, a great admirer of mine too, +with whom I conjecture I cannot act at all: so good-bye to that. +The wisest of all, I do believe, were that I bought my nag +_Yankee_ and set to galloping about the elevated places here! A +certain Mr. Coolidge,** a Boston man of clear iron visage and +character, came down to me the other day with Sumner; he left +a newspaper fragment, containing "the Socinian Pope's denunciation +of Emerson." + +--------- +* The beginning of the London Library, a most useful institution, +from which books may be borrowed. It served Carlyle well in +later years, and for a long time he was President of it. + +** The late Mr. Joseph Coolidge. +--------- + +The thing denounced had not then arrived, though often asked for +at Kennet's; it did not arrive till yesterday, but had lain buried +in bales of I know not what. We have read it only once, and are +not yet at the bottom of it. Meanwhile, as I judge, the Socinian +"tempest in a washbowl" is all according to nature, and will be +profitable to you, not hurtful. A man is called to let his light +shine before men; but he ought to understand better and better +what medium it is through, what retinas it falls on: wherefore +look _there._ I find in this, as in the two other Speeches, that +noblest self-assertion, and believing originality, which is like +sacred fire, the _beginning_ of whatsoever is to flame and work; +and for young men especially one sees not what could be more +vivifying. Speak, therefore, while you feel called to do it; +and when you feel called. But for yourself, my friend, I +prophesy it will not do always: a faculty is in you for a _sort_ +of speech which is itself _action,_ an artistic sort. You _tell_ +us with piercing emphasis that man's soul is great; _show_ us a +great soul of a man, in some work symbolic of such: this is the +seal of such a message, and you will feel by and by that you are +called to this. I long to see some concrete Thing, some Event, +Man's Life, American Forest, or piece of Creation, which this +Emerson loves and wonders at, well _Emersonized,_ depictured by +Emerson, filled with the life of Emerson, and cast forth from him +then to live by itself. If these Orations balk me of this, how +profitable soever they be for others. I will not love them.--And +yet, what am I saying? How do I know what is good for _you,_ +what authentically makes your own heart glad to work in it? I +speak from _without,_ the friendliest voice must speak from +without; and a man's ultimate monition comes only from _within._ +Forgive me, and love me, and write soon. _A Dieu!_ + + --T. Carlyle + +My Wife, very proud of your salutation, sends a sick return of +greeting. After a winter of unusual strength, she took cold the +other day, and coughs again; though she will not call it serious +yet. One likes none of these things. She has a brisk heart and +a stout, but too weak a frame for this rough life of mine. I +will not get sad about it. + +One of the strangest things about these New England Orations is a +fact I have heard, but not yet seen, that a certain W. Gladstone, +an Oxford crack Scholar, Tory M.P., and devout Churchman of great +talent and hope, has contrived to insert a piece of you (_first_ +Oration it must be) in a work of his on _Church and State,_ which +makes some figure at present! I know him for a solid, serious, +silent-minded man; but how with his Coleridge Shovel-Hattism he +has contrived to relate himself to _you,_ there is the mystery. +True men of all creeds, it _would_ seem, are Brothers. + +To write soon! + + + + +XXXIV. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, 15 March, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--I will spare you my apologies for not writing, +they are so many. You have been very generous, I very promising +and dilatory. I desired to send you an Account of the sales of +the _History,_ thinking that the details might be more +intelligible to you than to me, and might give you some insight +into literary and social, as well as bibliopolical relations. +But many details of this account will not yet settle themselves +into sure facts, but do dance and mystify me as one green in +ledgers. Bookseller says nine hundred and ninety-one copies came +from Binder, nine remaining imperfect, and so not bound. But in +all my reckonings of the particulars of distribution I make +either more or less than nine hundred and ninety-one copies. And +some of my accounts are with private individuals at a distance, +and they have their uncertainties and misrememberings also. But +the facts will soon show themselves, and I count confidently on a +small balance against the world to your credit. + +---------- +* This letter appeared in the _Athenaeum,_ July 22, 1882. +---------- + +The _Miscellanies_ go forward too slowly, at about the rate of +seventy-two pages a week, as I understand. Of the _Fraser_ +articles and of some others we have but a single copy, (such are +the tough limits of some English immortalities and editorial +renowns,) but we expect the end of the printing in six weeks. +The first two volumes, with title-pages, are gone to the binder-- +two hundred and sixty copies--with strait directions; and I +presume will go to sea very soon. We shall send the last two +volumes by a later ship. You will pay nothing for the books +we send except freight. We shall deduct the cost of the +books from the credit side of your account here. We print +of the second series twelve hundred and fifty copies, with the +intention of printing a second edition of the first series of +five hundred, if we see fit hereafter to supply the place of the +emigrating portion of the first. You express some surprise at +the cheapness of our work. The publishers, I believe, generally +get more profits. They grumbled a little at the face of the +account on the 1st of January; so in the new contract for the +new volumes I have allowed them nine cents more on each copy sold +by them. So that you should receive ninety-one cents on a copy +instead of one dollar. When the two hundred and fifty copies of +our first two volumes are gone to you, I think they will have but +about one hundred copies more to sell. + +Your books are read. I hear, I think, more gratitude expressed +for the _Miscellanies_ than for the _History._ Young men at all +our colleges study them in closets, and the Copernican is +eradicating the Ptolemaic lore. I have frequent and cordial +testimonies to the good working of the leaven, and continual +inquiry whether the man will come hither. _Speriamo._ + +I was a fool to tell you once you must not come if I did tell you +so. I knew better at the time, and did steadily believe, as far +as I was concerned, that no polemical mud, however much was +thrown, could by any possibility stick to me; for I was purely +an observer; had not the smallest personal or _partial_ +interest; and merely spoke to the question as a historian; and +I knew whoever could see me must see that. But, at the moment, +the little pamphlet made much stir and excitement in the +newspapers; and the whole thousand copies were bought up. The +ill wind has blown over. I advertised, as usual, my winter +course of Lectures, and it prospered very well. Ten Lectures: +I. Doctrine of the Soul; II. Home; III. The School; IV. Love; +V. Genius; VI. The Protest; VII. Tragedy; VIII. Comedy; IX. +Duty; X. Demonology. I designed to add two more, but my lungs +played me false with unseasonable inflammation, so I discoursed +no more on "Human Life." Now I am well again.--But, as I said, +as I could not hurt myself, it was foolish to flatter myself that +I could mix your cause with mine and hurt you. Nothing is more +certain than that you shall have all our ears, whenever you wish +for them, and free from that partial position which I deprecated. +Yet I cannot regret my letter, which procured me so affectionate +and magnanimous a reply. + +Thanks, too, for your friendliest invitation. But I have a new +reason why I should not come to England,--a blessed babe, named +Ellen, almost three weeks old,--a little, fair, soft lump of +contented humanity, incessantly sleeping, and with an air of +incurious security that says she has come to stay, has come to be +loved, which has nothing mean, and quite piques me. + +Yet how gladly should I be near you for a time. The months and +years make me more desirous of an unlimited conversation with +you; and one day, I think, the God will grant it, after whatever +way is best. I am lately taken with _The Onyx Ring,_ which +seemed to me full of knowledge, and good, bold, true drawing. +Very saucy, was it not? in John Sterling to paint Collins; and +what intrepid iconoclasm in this new Alcibiades to break in among +your Lares and disfigure your sacred Hermes himself in +Walsingham.* To me, a profane man, it was good sport to see the +Olympic lover of Frederica, Lili, and so forth, lampooned. And +by Alcibiades too, over whom the wrath of Pericles must pause and +brood ere it falls. I delight in this Sterling, but now that I +know him better I shall no longer expect him to write to me. I +wish I could talk to you on the grave questions, graver than all +literature, which the trifles of each day open. Our doing seems +to be a gaudy screen or popinjay to divert the eye from our +nondoing. I wish, too, you could know my friends here. A man +named Bronson Alcott is a majestic soul, with whom conversation +is possible. He is capable of truth, and gives me the same glad +astonishment that he should exist which the world does. + +-------- +* Collins and Walsingham, two characters in _The Onyx Ring,_ are +partly drawn, not very felicitously, from Carlyle and Goethe. In +his _Life of Sterling,_ Carlyle says of the story: "A tale still +worth reading, in which, among the imaginary characters, various +friends of Sterling's are shadowed forth not always in the truest +manner." It is reprinted in the second volume of Sterling's +Essays and Tales, edited by Julius Hare. +--------- + +As I hear not yet of your reception of the bill of exchange, +which went by the "Royal William" in January, I enclose the +duplicate. And now all success to the Lectures of April or May! +A new Kingdom with new extravagances of power and splendor I +know. Unless you can keep your own secret better in _Rahel,_ +&c., you must not give it me to keep. The London _Sartor_ +arrived in my hands March 5th, dated the 15th of November, so +long is the way from Kennet to Little & Co. The book is welcome, +and awakens a sort of nepotism in me,--my brother's child. + + --R.W. Emerson + +I rejoice in the good accounts you give me of your household; in +your wife's health; in your brother's position. My wife wishes +to be affectionately remembered to you and yours. And the lady +must continue to love her _old_ Transatlantic friend. + + + + +XXXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 19 March, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--Only last Saturday I despatched a letter to you +containing a duplicate of the bill of exchange sent in January, +and all the facts I knew of our books; and now comes to me a +note from Wheeler, at Cambridge, saying that the printers, on +reckoning up their amount of copy, find that nowise can they make +450 pages per volume, as they have promised, for these two last +of the _Miscellanies._ They end the third volume with page 390, +and they have not but 350 or less pages for the fourth. They +ask, What shall be done? Nothing is known to me but to give them +_Rahel,_ though I grudge it, for I vastly prefer to end with +_Scott._ _Rahel,_ I fancy, cost you no night and no morning, +but was writ in that gentle after-dinner hour so friendly to good +digestion. Stearns Wheeler dreams that it is possible to draw at +this eleventh hour some possible manuscript out of the unedited +treasures of Teufelsdrockh's cabinets. If the manuscripts were +ready, all fairly copied out by foreseeing scribes in your +sanctuary at Chelsea, the good goblin of steam would--with the +least waiting, perhaps a few days--bring the packet to our types +in time. I have little hope, almost none, from a sally so +desperate on possible portfolios; but neither will I be wanting +to my sanguine co-editor, your good friend. So I told him I +would give you as instant notice as Mr. Rogers at the Merchants' +Exchange Bar can contrive, and tell you plainly that we shall +proceed to print _Rahel_ when we come so far on; and with that +paper end; unless we shall receive some contrary word from you. +And if we can obtain any manuscript from you before we have +actually bound our book, we will cancel our last sheets and +insert it. And so may the friendly Heaven grant a speedy passage +to my letter and to yours! I fear the possibility of our success +is still further reduced by the season of the year, as the +Lectures must shortly be on foot. Well, the best speed to them +also. When I think of you as speaking and not writing them, I +remember Luther's words, "He that can speak well, the same is +a man." + +I hope you liked John Dwight's translations of Goethe, and his +notes. He is a good, susceptible, yearning soul, not so apt to +create as to receive with the freest allowance, but I like his +books very much. + +Do think to say in a letter whether you received _from me_ a copy +of our edition of your _French Revolution._ I ordered a copy +sent to you,--probably wrote your name in it,--but it does not +appear in the bookseller's account. Farewell. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XXXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 13 April, 1839 + +My Dear Emerson,--Has anything gone wrong with you? How is it +that you do not write to me? These three or four weeks, I know +not whether _duly_ or not so long, I have been in daily hope of +some sign from you; but none comes; not even a Newspaper,--open +at the ends. The German Translator, Mr. Dwight, mentioned, at +the end of a Letter I had not long ago, that you had given a +brilliant course of Lectures at Boston, but had been obliged to +_intermit it on account of illness._ Bad news indeed, that +latter clause; at the same time, it was thrown in so cursorily I +would not let myself be much alarmed; and since that, various +New England friends have assured me here that there was nothing +of great moment in it, that the business was all well over now, +and you safe at Concord again. Yet how is it that I do not +hear? I will tell you my guess is that those Boston Carlylean +_Miscellanies_ are to blame. The Printer is slack and lazy as +Printers are; and you do not wish to write till you can send +some news of him? I will hope and believe that only this is it, +till I hear worse. + +I sent you a Dumfries Newspaper the other week, for a sign of my +existence and anxiety. A certain Mr. Ellis of Boston is this day +packing up a very small memorial of me to your Wife; a poor +Print rolled about a bit of wood: let her receive it graciously +in defect of better. It comes under your address. Nay, properly +it is my Wife's memorial to your Wife. It is to be hung up in +the Concord drawing-room. The two Households, divided by wide +seas, are to understand always that they are united nevertheless. + +My special cause for writing this day rather than another is the +old story, book business. You have brought that upon yourself, +my friend; and must do the best you can with it. After all, why +should not Letters be on business too? Many a kind thought, +uniting man with man, in gratitude and helpfulness, is founded on +business. The speaker at Dartmouth College seems to think it +ought to be so. Nor do I dissent.--But the case is this, Fraser +and I are just about bargaining for a second edition of the +_Revolution._ He will print fifteen hundred for the English +market, in a somewhat closer style, and sell them here at twenty- +four shillings a copy. His first edition is all gone but some +handful; and the man is in haste, and has taken into a mood of +hope,--for he is weak and aguish, alternating from hot to cold; +otherwise, I find, a very accurate creature, and deals in his +unjust trade as justly as any other will. He has settled with +me; his half-profits amount to some L130, which by charging me +for every presentation copy he cuts down to somewhere about L110; +_not_ the lion's share in the gross produce, yet a great share +compared with an expectancy no higher than _zero!_ We continue +on the same system for this second adventure; I cannot go +hawking about in search of new terms; I might go farther and +fare worse. And now comes your part of the affair; in which I +would fain have had your counsel; but must ask your help, +proceeding with my own light alone. After Fraser's fifteen +hundred are printed off, the types remain standing, and I for my +own behoof throw off five hundred more, designed for your market. +Whether five hundred are too many or too few, I can only guess; +if too many, we can retain them here and turn them to account; +if too few, there is no remedy. At all events, costing me only +the paper and press-work, there is surely no Pirate in the Union +that can _undersell_ us! Nay, it seems they have a drawback on +our taxed paper, sufficient or nearly so to land the cargo at +Boston without more charge. You see, therefore, how it is. Can +you find me a Bookseller, as for yourself; he and you can fix +what price the ware will carry when you see it. Meanwhile I must +have his Title-page; I must have his directions (if any be +needed); nay, for that matter, you might write a Preface if you +liked,--though I see not what you have to say, and recommend +silence rather! The book is to be in three volumes duodecimo, +and we will take care it be fit to show its face in your market. +A few errors of the press; and one correction (about the sinking +of the _Vengeur,_ which I find lately to be an indisputable +falsehood); these are all the changes. We are to have done +printing, Fraser predicts, "in two months";--say two and a half! +I suppose you decipher the matter out of this plastering and +smearing; and will do what is needful in it. "Great inquiry" is +made for the _Miscellanies,_ Fraser says; though he suspects it +may perhaps be but one or two men inquiring _often,_--the dog! + +I am again upon the threshold of extempore lecturing: on "the +Revolutions of Modern Europe"; Protestantism, 2 lectures; +Puritanism, 2; French Revolution, 2. I almost regret that I had +undertaken the thing this year at all, for I am no longer driven +by Poverty as heretofore. Nay, I am richer than I have been for +ten years; and have a kind of prospect, for the first time this +great while, of being allowed to subsist in this world for the +future: a great blessing, perhaps the greatest, when it comes as +a novelty! However, I thought it right to keep this Lecture +business open, come what might. I care less about it than I did; +it is not agony and wretched trembling to the marrow of the bone, +as it was the last two times. I believe, in spite of all my +perpetual indigestions and nervous woes, I am actually getting +into better health; the weary heart of me is quieter; I wait in +silence for the new chapter,--feeling truly that we are at the +end of one period here. I count it _two_ in my autobiography: +we shall see what the _third_ is; [if] third there be. But I am +in small haste for a third. How true is that of the old +Prophets, "The _word of the Lord_ came unto" such and such a one! +When it does not come, both Prophet and Prosaist ought to be +thankful (after a sort), and rigorously hold their tongue.--Lord +Durham's people have come over with golden reports of the +Americans, and their brotherly feelings. One Arthur Buller +preaches to me, with emphasis, on a quite personal topic till one +explodes in laughter to hear him, the good soul: That I, namely, +am the most esteemed, &c., and ought to go over and Lecture in +all great towns of the Union, and make, &c., &c.! I really do +begin to think of it in this interregnum that I am in. But then +my Lectures must be written; but then I must become a _hawker, +--ach Gott!_ + +The people are beginning to quote you here: _tant pis pour eux!_ +I have found you in two Cambridge books. A certain Mr. Richard +M. Milnes, M.P., a beautiful little Tory dilettante poet and +politician whom I love much, applied to me for _Nature_ (the +others he has) that he might write upon it. Somebody has +stolen _Nature_ from me, or many have thumbed it to pieces; I +could not find a copy. Send me one, the first chance you have. +And see Miss Martineau in the last _Westminster Review:_--these +things you are old enough to stand? They are even of benefit? +Emerson is not without a select public, the root of a select +public on this side of the water too.--Popular Sumner is off to +Italy, the most popular of men,--inoffensive, like a worn +sixpence that has no physiognomy left. We preferred Coolidge to +him in this circle; a square-cut iron man, yet with clear +symptoms of a heart in him. Your people will come more and more +to their maternal Babylon, will they not, by the steamers?-- +Adieu, my dear friend. My Wife joins me in all good prayers for +you and yours. + + --Thomas Carlyle + + + + +XXXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 17 April, 1839 + +Dear Friend,--Some four days ago I wrote you a long Letter, +rather expressive of anxiety about you; it will probably come to +hand along with this. I had heard vaguely that you were unwell, +and wondered why you did not write. Happily, that point is as +good as settled now, even by your silence about it. I have, half +an hour ago, received your Concord Letter of the 19th of March. +The Letter you speak of there as "written last Saturday" has not +yet made its appearance, but may be looked for now shortly: as +there is no mention here of any mischance, except the shortcoming +of Printers' copy, I infer that all else is in a tolerably +correct state; I wait patiently for the "last Saturday" tidings, +and will answer as to the matters of copy, in good heart, without +loss of a moment. + +There is nothing of the manuscript sort in Teufelsdrockh's +repositories that would suit you well; nothing at all in a +completed state, except a long rigmarole dissertation (in a +crabbed sardonic vein) about the early history of the Teutonic +Kindred, wriggling itself along not in the best style through +Proverb lore, and I know not what, till it end (if my memory +serve) in a kind of Essay on the _Minnesingers._ It was written +almost ten years ago, and never contented me well. It formed +part of a lucklessly projected _History of German Literature,_ +subsequent portions of which, the _Nibelungen_ and _Reinecke +Fox,_ you have already printed. The unfortunate "_Cabinet +Library_ Editor," or whatever his title was, broke down; and I +let him off,--without paying me; and this alone remains of the +misventure; a thing not fit for you, nor indeed at bottom for +anybody, though I have never burnt it yet. My other Manuscripts +are scratchings and scrawlings;--children's _infant_ souls +weeping because they never could be born, but were left there +whimpering _in limine primo!_ + +On this side, therefore, is no help. Nevertheless, it seems to +me, otherwise there is. _Varnhagen_ may be printed I think +without offence, since there is need of it: if that will make up +your fourth volume to a due size, why not? It is the last faint +murmur one gives in Periodical Literature, and may indicate the +approach of silence and slumber. I know no errors of the Press +in _Varnhagen:_ there is one thing about Jean Paul F. Richter's +_want_ of humor in his _speech,_ which somehow I could like to +have the opportunity of uttering a word on, though _what_ word I +see not very well. My notion is partly that V. overstates the +thing, taking a Berlin _propos de salon_ for a scientifically +accurate record; and partly farther that the defect (if any) was +_creditable_ to Jean Paul, indicating that he talked from the +abundance of the heart, not burning himself off in miserable +perpetual sputter like a Town-wit, but speaking what he had to +say, were it dull, were it not dull,--for his own satisfaction +first of all! If you in a line or two could express at the right +point something of that sort, it were well; yet on the whole, if +not, then is almost no matter. Let the whole stand then as the +commencement of slumber and stertorous breathing! + +Varnhagen himself will not bring up your fourth volume to the +right size; hardly beyond 380 pages, I should think; yet what +more can be done? Do you remember Fraser's Magazine for October, +1832, and a Translation there, with Notes, of a thing called +Goethe's Mahrchen? It is by me; I regard it as a most +remarkable piece, well worthy of perusal, especially by all +readers of mine. The printing of your third volume will of +course be finished before this letter arrive; nevertheless I +have a plan: that you (as might be done, I suppose, by +cancelling and reprinting the concluding leaf or leaves) append +the said Translated Tale, in a smaller type, to that volume. It +is 21 or 22 pages of _Fraser,_ and will perhaps bring yours up to +the mark. Nay, indeed there are two other little Translations +from Goethe which I reckon good, though of far less interest than +the _Mahrchen;_ I think they are in the Frasers almost +immediately preceding; one of them is called _Fragment from +Goethe_ (if I remember); in his _Works,_ it is _Novelle;_ it +treats of a visit by some princely household to a strange +Mountain ruin or castle, and the catastrophe is the escape of a +show-lion from its booth in the neighboring Market-Town. I have +not the thing here,--alas, sinner that I am, it now strikes me +that the "two other things" are this one thing, which my +treacherous memory is making into two! This however you will +find in the Number immediately, or not far from immediately, +preceding that of the _Mahrchen;_ along with which, in the same +type with which, it would give us letter-press enough. It ought +to stand _before_ the _Mahrchen:_ read it, and say whether it is +worthy or not worthy. Will this _Appendix_ do, then? I should +really rather like the _Mahrchen_ to be printed, and had thoughts +of putting [it] at the end of the English _Sartor._ The other I +care not for, intrinsically, but think it very beautiful in its +kind.--Some rubbish of my own, in small quantity, exists here and +there in _Fraser;_ one story, entitled _Cruthers and Jonson,_* +was written sixteen years ago, and printed somewhere early +(probably the second year) in that rubbish heap, with several +gross errors of the press (mares for maces was one!): it is the +first thing I wrote, or among the very first;--otherwise a thing +to be kept rather secret, except from the like of you! This or +any other of the "original" immaturities I will _not_ recommend +as an Appendix; I hope the _Mahrchen,_ or the _Novelle_ and +_Mahrchen,_ will suffice. But on the whole, to thee, O Friend, +and thy judgment and decision, without appeal, I leave it +altogether. Say Yes, say No; do what seemeth good to thee.--Nay +now, writing with the speed of light, another consideration +strikes me: Why should Volume Third be interfered with if it is +finished? Why will not this _Appendix_ do, these _Appendixes,_ +to hang to the skirts of Volume Four as well? Perhaps better! +the _Mahrchen_ in any case closing the rear. I leave it all to +Emerson and Stearns Wheeler, my more than kind Editors: E. knows +it better than I; be his decision irrevocable. + +----------- +* "Cruthers and Jonson; or, The Outskirts of Life. A True +Story." _Fraser's Magazine,_ January, 1831. +------------ + +This letter is far too long, but I had not time to make it +shorter.--I got your _French Revolution,_ and have seen no other: +my name is on it in your hand. I received Dwight's Book, liked +it, and have answered him: a good youth, of the kind you +describe; no Englishman, to my knowledge, has yet uttered as +much sense about Goethe and German things. I go this day to +settle with Fraser about printers and a second edition of the +_Revolution_ Book,--as specified in the other Letter: five +hundred copies for America, which are to cost he computes about +2/7, and _your_ Bookseller will bind them, and defy Piracy. My +Lectures come on, this day two weeks: O Heaven! I cannot +"speak"; I can only gasp and writhe and stutter, a spectacle to +gods and fashionables,--being forced to it by want of money. In +five weeks I shall be free, and then--! Shall it be Switzerland, +shall it be Scotland, nay, shall it be America and Concord? + +Ever your affectionate + T. Carlyle + +All love from both of us to the Mother and Boy. My Wife is +better than usual; rejoices in the promise of summer now +at last visible after a spring like Greenland. Scarcity, +discontent, fast ripening towards desperation, extends far +and wide among our working people. God help them! In man as +yet is small help. There will be work yet, before that account +is liquidated; a generation or two of work! Miss Martineau is +gone to Switzerland, after emitting _Deerwood_ [sic], a Novel.* +How do you like it? people ask. To which there are serious answers +returnable, but few so good as none. Ah me! Lady Bulwer too has +written a Novel, in satire of her Husband. I saw the Husband not +long since; one of the wretchedest Phantasms, it seemed to me, I +had yet fallen in with,--many, many, as they are here. + +The L100 Sterling Bill came, in due time, in perfect order; and +will be payable one of these days. I forget dates; but had well +calculated that before the 19th of March this piece of news and +my gratitude for it had reached you. + +-------- +* _Deerbrook_ +-------- + + + + +XXXVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, 20 April, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--Learning here in town that letters may go today +to the "Great Western," I seize the hour to communicate a +bookseller's message. I told Brown, of C.C. Little & Co., that +you think of stereotyping the _History._ He says that he can +make it profitable to himself and to you to use your plates here +in this manner (which he desires may be kept secret here, and I +suppose with you also). You are to get your plates made and +proved, then you are to send them out here to him, having first +insured them in London, and he is to pay you a price for every +copy he prints from them. As soon as he has printed a supply for +our market,--and we want, he says, five hundred copies now,--he +will send them back to you. I told him I thought he had better +fix the price per copy to be paid by him, and I would send it to +you as his offer. He is willing to do so, but not today. It was +only this morning I informed him of your plan. I think in a +fortnight I shall need to write again,--probably to introduce to +you my countrywoman, Miss Sedgwick, the writer of affectionate +New England tales and the like, who is about to go to Europe for +a year or more. I will then get somewhat definite from Brown as +to rates and prices. Brown thought you might better send the +plates here first, as we are in immediate want of copies; and +afterwards print with them in London. He is quite sure that it +would be more profitable to print them in this manner than to +try to import and sell here the books after being manufactured +in London. + +On the 30th of April we shall ship at New York the first two +volumes of the _Miscellanies,_ two hundred and sixty copies. In +four weeks, the second two volumes will be finished, unless we +wait for something to be added by yourself, agreeably to a +suggestion of Wheeler's and mine. Two copies of _Schiller's +Life_ will go in the same box. We send them to the port of +London. When these are gone, only one hundred copies remain +unsold of the first two volumes (_Miscellanies_). + +Brown said it was important that the plates should be proved +correct at London by striking off impressions before they were +sent hither. This is the whole of my present message. I shall +have somewhat presently to reply to your last letter, received +three weeks since. And may health and peace dwell with you +and yours! + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XXXIX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 25 April, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--Behold my account! A very simple thing, is it +not! A very mouse, after such months, almost years, of promise! +Despise it not, however; for such is my extreme dulness at +figures and statements that this nothing has been a fear to me, a +long time, how to extract it from the bookseller's promiscuous +account with me, and from obscure records of my own. You see +that it promises yet to pay you between $60 and $70 more, if +Mr. Fuller (a gentleman of Providence, who procured many +_subscribers_ for us there) and Mr. Owen (who owes us also +for copies subscribed for) will pay us our demand. They have +both been lately reminded of their delinquency. Herrick and +Noyes, you will see credited for eight copies, $18. They are +booksellers who supplied eight subscribers, and charged us $2 for +their trouble and some alleged damage to a copy. One copy you +will see is sold to Ann Pomeroy for $3. This lady bought the +copy of me, and preferred sending me $3 to sending $2.50 for so +good a book. You will notice one or two other variations in the +prices, in each of which I aimed to use a friend's discretion. +Add lastly, that you must revise all my figures, as I am a +hopeless blunderer, and quite lately made a brilliant mistake in +regard to the amount of 9 multiplied by 12. + +Have I asked you whether you received from me a copy of the +_History?_ I designated a copy to go, and the bookseller's boy +thinks he sent one, but there is none charged in their account. +The account of the _Miscellanies_ does not prosper quite +so well.... + +Thanks for your too friendly and generous expectations from my +wit. Alas! my friend, I can do no such gay thing as you say. I +do not belong to the poets, but only to a low department of +literature, the reporters; suburban men. But in God we are all +great, all rich, each entitled to say, All is mine. I hope the +advancing season has restored health to your wife, and, if +benedictions will help her, tell her we send them on every west +wind. My wife and babes are well. + + --R.W.E. + + + + +XL. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 28 April, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--I received last night C.C. Little & Co.'s +proposition in reference to the stereotyping the _History._ +Their offer is based on my statement that you proposed to print +the book in two volumes similar to ours. They say, "We should be +willing to pay three hundred dollars for the use of plates for +striking off five hundred copies of the two volumes, with the +farther agreement that, if we wished to strike off another five +hundred in nine months after the publication of the first five +hundred, we should have the liberty to do so, paying the same +again; that is, another three hundred dollars for the privilege +of printing another five hundred copies;--the plates to be +furnished us ready for use and free of expense." They add, +"Should Mr. Carlyle send the plates to this country, he should be +particular to ship them to _this port direct._" I am no judge of +the liberality of this offer, as I know nothing of the expense of +the plates. The men, Little and Brown, are fair in their +dealings, and the most respectable book-selling firm in Boston. +When you have considered the matter, I hope you will send me as +early an answer as you can. For as we have no protection from +pirates we must use speed. + +I ought to have added to my account and statement sent by Miss +Sedgwick one explanation. You will find in the account a credit +of $13.75, agreed on with Little & Co., as compensation for lost +subscribers. We had a little book, kept in the bookshop, into +which were transferred the names of subscribers from all lists +which were returned from various places. These names amounted to +two hundred, more or less. When we came to settle the account, +this book could not be found. They expressed much regret, and +made much vain searching. Their account with me recorded only +one hundred and thirty-four copies delivered to subscribers. +Thus, a large number, say sixty-six, had been sold by them to our +subscribers, and our half-dollar on each copy put in their pocket +as commission, expressly contrary to treaty! With some ado, I +mustered fifty-five names of subscribers known to me as such, not +recorded on their books as having received copies, and demanded +$27.50. They replied that they also had claims; that they had +sent the books to distant subscribers in various States, and had +charged no freight (with one or two exceptions, when the books +went alone); that other booksellers had, no doubt, in many +cases, sold the copies to subscribers for which I claimed the +half-dollar; and lastly, which is indeed the moving reason, that +they had sent twenty copies up the Mississippi to a bookseller +(in Vicksburg, I think), who had made them no return. On these +grounds they proposed that they should pay half my demand, and so +compromise. They said, however, that, if I insisted, they would +pay the whole. I was so glad to close the affair with mutual +goodwill that I said with the unjust steward, write $13.75. So +are we all pleased at your expense. [Greek] I think I will not +give you any more historiettes,--they take too much room; but as +I write this time only on business, you are welcome to this from +your friend, + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XLI. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, 15 May, 1839. + +My Dear Friend,--Last Saturday, 11th instant, I had your two +letters of 13th and 17th April. Before now, you must have one or +two notes of mine touching the stereotype plates: a proposition +superseded by your new plan. I have also despatched one or two +sheets lately containing accounts. Now for the new matter. I +was in Boston yesterday, and saw Brown, the bookseller. He +accedes gladly, to the project of five hundred American copies of +the _History._ He says, that the duty is the same on books in +sheets and books in boards; and desires, therefore, that the +books may come out _bound._ You bind yours in cloth? Put up his +in the same style as those for your market, only a little more +strongly than is the custom with London books, as it will only +cost a little more. He would be glad also to have his name added +in the titlepage (London: Published by J. Fraser; and Boston: +by C.C. Little and James Brown, 112 Washington St.), or is not +this the right way? He only said he should like to have his name +added. He threatens to charge me 20 percent commission. If, as +he computes from your hint of 2/7, the work costs you, say, 70 +cents per copy, unbound; he reckons it at a dollar, when bound; +then 75 cents duty in Boston, $1.75. He thinks we cannot set a +higher price on it than $3.50, _because_ we sold our former +edition for $2.50. On that price, his commissions would be 70 +cents; and $1.05 per copy will to you. If when we see the book, +we venture to put a higher price on it, your remainder shall be +more. I confess, when I set this forth on paper, it looks as bad +as your English trade,--this barefaced 20 percent; but their +plea is, We guarantee the sales; we advertise; we pay you when +it is sold, though we give our customers six months' credit. I +have made no final bargain with the man, and perhaps before the +books arrive I shall be better advised, and may get better terms +from him. Meantime, give me the best advice you can; and +despatch the books with all speed, and if you send six hundred, I +think, we will sell them. + +------------ +* In the first edition of this Correspondence a portion of this +letter was printed from a rough draft, such as Emerson was +accustomed to make of his letters to Carlyle. I owe the original +to the kindness of the editor of the _Athenaeum,_ in the pages +of which it was printed. +----------- + +I went to the _Athenaeum,_ and procured the _Frasers'_ and will +print the _Novelle_ and the _Mahrchen_ at the end of the Fourth +Volume, which has been loitering under one workman for a week or +two past, awaiting this arrival. Now we will finish at once. +_Cruthers and Jonson_ I read gladly. It is indispensable to such +as would see the fountains of Nile: but I incline to what seems +your opinion, that it will be better in the final edition of your +Works than in this present First Collection of them. I believe I +could find more matter now of yours if we should be pinched +again. The Cat-Raphael? and _Mirabeau_ and _Macaulay?_ Stearns +Wheeler is very faithful in his loving labor,--has taken a world +of pains with the sweetest smile. We are very fortunate in +having him to friend.--For the _Miscellanies_ once more, the two +boxes containing two hundred and sixty copies of the first series +went to sea in the "St. James," Captain Sebor, addressed to Mr. +Fraser. (I hope rightly addressed; yet I saw a memorandum at +Munroe's in which he was named _John_ Fraser.) + +Arthur Buller has my hearty thanks for his good and true +witnessing. And now that our old advice is indorsed by John Bull +himself, you will believe and come. Nothing can be better. As +soon as the lectures are over, let the trunks be packed. Only my +wife and my blessed sister dear--Elizabeth Hoar, betrothed in +better times to my brother Charles,--my wife and this lovely nun +do say that Mrs. Carlyle must come hither also; that it will +make her strong, and lengthen her days on the earth, and cheer +theirs also. Come, and make a home with me; and let us make a +truth that is better than dreams. From this farm-house of mine +you shall sally forth as God shall invite you, and "lecture in +the great cities." You shall do it by proclamation of your own, +or by the mediation of a committee, which will readily be found. +Wife, mother, and sister shall nurse thy wife meantime, and you +shall bring your republican laurels home so fast that she shall +not sigh for the Old England. Eyes here do sparkle at the very +thought. And my little placid Musketaquid River looked gayer +today in the sun. In very sooth and love, my friend, I shall +look for you in August. If aught that we know not must forbid +your wife at present, you will still come. In October, you shall +lecture in Boston; in November, in New York; in December, in +Philadelphia; in January, in Washington. I can show you three +or four great natures, as yet unsung by Harriet Martineau or Anna +Jameson, that content the heart and provoke the mind. And for +yourself, you shall be as cynical and headstrong and fantastical +as you can be. + +I rejoice in what you say of better health and better prospects. +I was glad to hear of Milnes, whose _Poems_ already lay on my +table when your letter came. Since the little _Nature_ book is +not quite dead, I have sent you a few copies, and wish you would +offer one to Mr. Milnes with my respects. I hope before a great +while I may have somewhat better to send him. I am ashamed that +my little books should be "quoted" as you say. + +My affectionate salutations to Mrs. Carlyle, who is to sanction +and enforce all I have written on the migration. In the prospect +of your coming I feel it to be foolish to write. I have very +much to say to you. But now only Good Bye. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XLII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 29 May, 1839 + +My Dear Emerson,--Your Letter, dated Boston, 20th April, has been +here for some two weeks. Miss Sedgwick, whom it taught us to +expect in "about a fortnight," has yet given no note of herself, +but shall be right welcome whenever she appears. Miss +Martineau's absence (she is in Switzerland this summer) will +probably be a loss to the fair Pilgrim;--which of course the rest +of us ought to exert ourselves to make good.... My Lectures are +happily over ten days ago; with "success" enough, as it is +called; the only _valuable_ part of which is some L200, gained +with great pain, but also with great brevity:--economical respite +for another solar year! The people were boundlessly tolerant; +my agitation beforehand was less this year, my remorse afterwards +proportionally greater. There was but one moderately good +Lecture, the last,--on Sausculottism, to an audience mostly Tory, +and rustling with the beautifulest quality silks! Two things I +find: first that _I ought to have had a horse;_ I had only +three incidental rides or gallops, hired rides; my horse +_Yankee_ is never yet purchased, but it shall be, for I cannot +live, except in great pain, without a horse. It was sweet beyond +measure to escape out of the dustwhirlpool here, and _fly,_ in +solitude, through the ocean of verdure and splendor, as far as +Harrow and back again; and one's nerves were _clear_ next day, +and words lying in one like water in a well. But the _second_ +thing I found was, that extempore speaking, especially in the way +of Lecture, is an _art_ or craft, and requires an apprenticeship, +which I have never served. Repeatedly it has come into my head +that I should go to America, this very Fall, and belecture you +from North to South till I learn it! Such a thing does lie in +the bottom-scenes, should hard come to hard; and looks pleasant +enough.--On the whole, I say sometimes, I must either begin a +Book, or do it. Books are the lasting thing; Lectures are like +corn ground into flour; there are loaves for today, but no wheat +harvests for next year. Rudiments of a new Book (thank Heaven!) +do sometimes disclose themselves in me. _Festina lente._ It +ought to be better than the _French Revolution;_ I mean better +written. The greater part of that Book, as I read proof-sheets +of it in these weeks, does nothing but _disgust_ me. And yet it +was, as nearly as was good, the utmost that lay in me. I should +not like to be nearer killed with any other Book!--Books too are +a triviality. Life alone is great; with its infinite spaces, +its everlasting times, with its Death, with its Heaven and its +Hell. Ah me! + +Wordsworth is here at present; a garrulous, rather watery, not +wearisome old man. There is a freshness as of brooks and +mountain breezes in him; one says of him: Thou art not great, +but thou art genuine; well speed _thou._ Sterling is home from +Italy, recovered in health, indeed very well could he but _sit +still._ He is for Clifton, near Bristol, for the next three +months. I hear him speak of some sonnet or other he means to +address to you: as for me he knows well that I call his +verses timber toned, without true melody either in thought, +phrase or sound. The good John! Did you ever see such a vacant +turnip-lantern as that Walsingham Goethe? Iconoclast Collins +strikes his wooden shoe through him, and passes on, saying almost +nothing.--My space is done! I greet the little _maidkin,_ and +bid her welcome to this unutterable world. Commend her, poor +little thing, to her little Brother, to her Mother and Father;-- +Nature, I suppose, has sent her strong letters of recommendation, +without our help, to them all. Where I shall be in six weeks is +not very certain; likeliest in Scotland, whither our whole +household, servant and all, is pressingly invited, where they +have provided horses and gigs. Letters sent hither will still +find me, or lie waiting for me, safe: but perhaps the +_speediest_ address will be "Care of Fraser, 215 Regent Street." +My Brother wants me to the Tyrol and Vienna; but I think I shall +not go. Adieu, dear friend. It is a great treasure to me that I +have you in this world. My Wife salutes you all.-- + +Yours ever and ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +XLIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 24 June, 1833 + +Dear Friend,--Two Letters from you were brought hither by Miss +Sedgwick last week. The series of post Letters is a little +embroiled in my head; but I have a conviction that all hitherto +due have arrived; that up to the date of my last despatch (a +_Proof-sheet_ and a Letter), which ought to be getting into your +hands in these very days, our correspondence is clear. That +Letter and Proof-sheet, two separate pieces, were sent to +Liverpool some three weeks ago, to be despatched by the first +conveyance thence; as I say, they are probably in Boston about +this time. The Proof-sheet was one of the forty-seven such which +the new _French Revolution_ is to consist of: with this, as with +a correct sample, you were to act upon some Boston Bookseller, +and make a bargain for me,--or at least report that none was to +be made. A bad bargain will content me now, my hopes are not at +all high. + +For the present, I am to announce on the part of Bookseller +Fraser that the First Portion of our celebrated _Miscellanies_ +have been hovering about on these coasts for several weeks, have +lain safe "in the River" for some two weeks, and ought at last to +be safe in Fraser's shop today or else to morrow. I will ask +there, and verify, before this Letter go. The reason of these +"two weeks in the river" is that the packages were addressed +"_John_ Fraser, London," and the people had tried all the Frasers +in London before they attempted the right individual, James, of +215 Regent Street. Of course, the like mistake in the second +case will be avoided. A Letter, put ashore at Falmouth, and +properly addressed, but without any _signature,_ had first of all +announced that the thing was at the door, and so with this "John +Fraser," it has been knocking ever since, finding difficult +admission. In the present instance, such delay has done no ill, +for Fraser will not sell till the Second Portion come; and with +this the mistake will be avoided. What has shocked poor James +much more is a circumstance which your Boston Booksellers have no +power to avoid: the "enormousness" of the charges in our Port +here! He sends me the account of them last Saturday, with eyes-- +such as drew Priam's curtains: L31 and odd silver, whereof L28 +as duty on Books at L5 per cwt. is charged by the rapacious +Custom-house alone! What help, O James? I answer: we cannot +bombard the British Custom-house, and sack it, and explode it; +we must yield, and pay it the money; thankful for what is still +left.--On the whole, one has to learn by trying. This notable +finance-expedient, of printing in the one country what is to be +sold in the other, did not take Vandalic custom-houses into view, +which nevertheless do seem to exist. We must persist in it for +the present reciprocal pair of times, having started in it for +these: but on future occasions always, we can ask the past; and +_see_ whether it be not better to let each side of the water +stand on its own basis. + +As for your "accounts," my Friend, I find them clear as day, +verifiable to the uttermost farthing. You are a good man to +conquer your horror of arithmetic; and, like hydrophobic Peter +of Russia making himself a sailor, become an Accountant for my +sake. But now will you forgive me if I never do verify this same +account, or look at it more in this world except as a memento of +affection, its arithmetical ciphers so many hierograms, really +_sacred_ to me! A reflection I cannot but make is that at bottom +this money was all yours; not a penny of it belonged to me by +any law except that of helpful Friendship. I feel as if I could +not examine it without a kind of crime. For the rest, you may +rejoice to think that, thanks to you and the Books, and to Heaven +over all, I am for the present no longer poor; but have a +reasonable prospect of existing, which, as I calculate, is +literally the most that money can do for a man. Not for these +twelve years, never since I had a house to maintain with money, +have I had as much money in my possession as even now. _Allah +kerim!_ We will hope all that is good on that side. And +herewith enough of _it._ + +You tell me you are but "a reporter": I like you for thinking +so. And you will never know that it is _not true,_ till you have +tried. Meanwhile, far be it from me to urge you to a trial +before your time come. Ah, it will come, and soon enough; much +better, perhaps, if it never came!--A man has "_such_ a baptism +to be baptized withal," no easy baptism; and is "straitened till +it be accomplished." As for me I honor peace before all things; +the silence of a great soul is to me greater than anything it +will ever say, it ever can say. Be tranquil, my friend; utter +no word till you cannot help it;--and think yourself a +"reporter," till you find (not with any great joy) that you are +not altogether that! + +We have not yet seen Miss Sedgwick: your Letters with her card +were sent hither by post we went up next day, but she was out; +no meeting could be arranged earlier than tomorrow evening, when +we look for her here. Her reception, I have no doubt, will be +abundantly flattering in this England. American Notabilities +are daily becoming notabler among us; the ties of the two +Parishes, Mother and Daughter, getting closer and closer knit. +Indissoluble ties:--I reckon that this huge smoky Wen may, for +some centuries yet, be the best Mycale for our Saxon _Panionium,_ +a yearly meeting-place of "All the Saxons," from beyond the +Atlantic, from the Antipodes, or wherever the restless wanderers +dwell and toil. After centuries, if Boston, if New York, have +become the most convenient _"All-Saxondom,"_ we will right +cheerfully go thither to hold such festival, and leave the Wen.-- +Not many days ago I saw at breakfast the notabest of all your +Notabilities, Daniel Webster. He is a magnificent specimen; you +might say to all the world, This is your Yankee Englishman, such +Limbs _we_ make in Yankeeland! As a Logic-fencer, Advocate, or +Parliamentary Hercules, one would incline to back him at first +sight against all the extant world. The tanned complexion, that +amorphous crag-like face; the dull black eyes under their +precipice of brows, like dull anthracite furnaces, needing only +to be _blown;_ the mastiff-mouth, accurately closed:--I have not +traced as much of _silent Berserkir-rage,_ that I remember of, in +any other man. "I guess I should not like to be your nigger!"-- +Webster is not loquacious, but he is pertinent, conclusive; a +dignified, perfectly bred man, though not English in breeding: a +man worthy of the best reception from us; and meeting such, I +understand. He did not speak much with me that morning, but +seemed not at all to dislike me: I meditate whether it is fit or +not fit that I should seek out his residence, and leave _my_ card +too, before I go? Probably not; for the man is political, +seemingly altogether; has been at the Queen's levee, &c., &c.: +it is simply as a mastiff-mouthed _man_ that he is interesting to +me, and not otherwise at all. + +In about seven days hence we go to Scotland till the July heats +be over. That is our resolution after all. Our address there, +probably till the end of August, is "Templand, Thornhill, +Dumfries, N. B.,"--the residence of my Mother-in-law, within a +day's drive of my Mother's. Any Letter of yours sent by the old +constant address (Cheyne Row, Chelsea) will still find me there; +but the other, for that time, will be a day or two shorter. We +all go, servant and all. I am bent on writing _something;_ but +have no faith that I shall be able. I _must_ try. There is a +thing of mine in _Fraser_ for July, of no account, about the +"sinking of the _Vengeur_" as you will see. The _French +Revolution_ printing is not to stop; two thirds of it are done; +at this present rate, it ought to finish, and the whole be ready, +within three weeks hence. A Letter will be here from you about +that time, I think: I will print no title-page for the Five +Hundred till it do come. "Published by _Fraser and_ Little" +would, I suppose, be unobjectionable, though Fraser is the most +nervous of creatures: but why put _him_ in at all, since these +Five hundred copies are wholly Little's and yours? Adieu, my +Friend. Our blessings are with you and your house. My wife +grows better with the hot weather; I, always worse. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +I say not a word about America or Lecturing at present; because +I mean to consider it intently in Scotland, and there to decide. +My Brother is to be at Ischl (not far from Salzburg) during +Summer: he was anxious to have me there, and I to have gone; +but--but--Adieu. + +_Fraser's Shop._ Books not yet come, but known to be safe, and +expected soon. Nay, the dexterous Fraser has argued away L15 of +the duty, he says! All is right therefore. N.B. he says you are +to send the second Portion _in sheets,_ the weight will be less. +This if it be still time.--_Basta._ + + --T.C. + + + + +XLIV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 4 July, 1839 + +I hear tonight, O excellent man! that, unless I send a letter to +Boston tomorrow with the peep of day, it will miss the Liverpool +steamer, which sails earlier than I dreamed of. O foolish +Steamer! I am not ready to write. The facts are not yet ripe, +though on the turn of the blush. Couldst not wait a little? +Hurry is for slaves;--and Aristotle, if I rightly remember only +that little from my college lesson, affirmed that the high-minded +man never walked fast. O foolish Steamer! wait but a week, and +we will style thee Megalopsyche, and hang thee by the Argo in the +stars. Meantime I will not deny the dear and admirable man the +fragments of intelligence I have. Be it known unto you then, +Thomas Carlyle, that I received yesterday morning your letter by +the "Liverpool" with great contentment of heart and mind, in all +respects, saving that the American Hegira, so often predicted on +your side and prayed on ours, is treated with a most unbecoming +levity and oblivion; and, moreover, that you do not seem to have +received all the letters I seem to have sent. With the letter +came the proof-sheet safe, and shall be presently exhibited to +Little and Brown. You must have already the result of our first +colloquy on that matter. I can now bring the thing nearer to +certainty. But you must print their names as before advised on +the title-page. + +Nearly four weeks ago Ellis sent me the noble Italian print for +my wife.* She is in Boston at this time, and I believe will be +glad that I have written without her aid or word this time, for +she was so deeply pleased with the gift that she said she never +could write to you. It came timely to me at least. It is a +right morning thought, full of health and flowing genius, and I +rejoice in it. It is fitly framed and tomorrow is to be hung in +the parlor. + +-------- +* Morghen's engraving of Guido's Aurora. +-------- + +Our Munroe's press, you must believe, was of Aristotle's category +of the high-minded and slow. Chiding would do no good. They +still said, "We have but one copy, and so but one hand at work"! +At last, on the 1st of July, the book appeared in the market, but +does not come from the binder fast enough to supply the instant +demand; and therefore your two hundred and sixty copies cannot +part from New York until the 20th of July. They will be on board +the London packet which sails on that day. The publisher has his +instructions to bind the volumes to match the old ones. Our year +since the publication of the Vols. I. and II. is just complete, +and I have set the man on the account, but doubt if I get it +before twelve or fourteen days. All the edition is gone except +forty copies, he told me; and asked me if I would not begin to +print a small edition of this First Series, five hundred, as we +have five hundred of the new Series too many, with that view. +But I am now so old a fox that I suspend majestically my answer +until I have his account. For on the 21st of July I am to pay +$462 for the paper of this new book: and by and by the printer's +bill,--whose amount I do not yet know; and it is better to be +"slow and high-minded" a little more, since we have been so much, +and not go deeper into these men's debt until we have tasted +somewhat of their credit. We are to get, as you know, by +contract, near a thousand dollars from these first two volumes; +yet a month ago I was forced to borrow two hundred dollars for +you on interest, such advances had the account required. But the +coming account will enlighten us all. + +I am very happy in the "success" of the London lectures. I have +no word to add tonight, only that Sterling is not timber-toned, +that I love his poetry, that I admire his prose with reservations +here and there. What he knows he writes manly and well. Now and +then he puts in a pasteboard man; but all our readers here take +_Blackwood_ for his sake, and lately seek him in vain. I am +getting on with some studies of mine prosperously for me, have +got three essays nearly done, and who knows but in the autumn I +shall have a book? Meantime my little boy and maid, my mother +and wife, are well, and the two ladies send to you and yours +affectionate regards,--they would fain say urgent invitations. +My mother sends tonight, my wife always. + +I shall send you presently a copy of a translation published here +of Eckermann, by Margaret Fuller, a friend of mine and of yours, +for the sake of its preface mainly. She is a most accomplished +lady, and her culture belongs rather to Europe than to America. +Good bye. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XLV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 8 August, 1839 + +Dear Friend,--This day came the letter dated 24 June, with "steam +packet" written by you on the outside, but no paddles wheeled it +through the sea. It is forty-five days old, and too old to do +its errand even had it come twenty days sooner--so far as printer +and bookbinder are concerned. I am truly grieved for the +mischance of the _John_ Fraser, and will duly lecture the sinning +bookseller. I noticed the misnomer in a letter of his New York +correspondent, and, I believe, mentioned to you in a letter my +fear of such a mischance. I am more sorry for the costliness +of this adventure to you, though in a gracious note to me you +cut down the fine one half. The new books, tardily printed, +were tardily bound and tardily put to sea on the packet ship +"Ontario," which left New York for London on the 1st of August. +At least this was the promise of Munroe & Co. I stood over the +boxes in which they were packing them in the latter days of July. +I hope they have not gone to John again, but you must keep an eye +to both names.... + +I cannot tell you how glad I am that you have seen my brave +Senator, and seen him as I see him. All my days I have wished +that he should go to England, and never more than when I listened +two or three times to debates in the House of Commons. We send +out usually mean persons as public agents, mere partisans, for +whom I can only hope that no man with eyes will meet them; and +now those thirsty eyes, those portrait-eating, portrait-painting +eyes of thine, those fatal perceptions, have fallen full on the +great forehead which I followed about all my young days, from +court-house to senate-chamber, from caucus to street. He has his +own sins no doubt, is no saint, is a prodigal. He has drunk this +rum of Party too so long, that his strong head is soaked, +sometimes even like the soft sponges, but the "man's a man for a' +that." Better, he is a great boy,--as wilful, as nonchalant and +good-humored. But you must hear him speak, not a show speech +which he never does well, but _with cause_ he can strike a stroke +like a smith. I owe to him a hundred fine hours and two or three +moments of Eloquence. His voice in a great house is admirable. +I am sorry if you decided not to visit him. He loves a _man,_ +too. I do not know him, but my brother Edward read law with him, +and loved him, and afterwards in sick and unfortunate days +received the steadiest kindness from him. + +Well, I am glad you are to think in earnest in Scotland of our +Cisatlantic claims. We shall have more rights over the wise and +brave, I believe before many years or months. We shall have more +men and a better cause than has yet moved on our stagnant waters. +I think our Church, so called, must presently vanish. There is a +universal timidity, conformity, and rage; and on the other hand +the most resolute realism in the young. The man Alcott bides his +time. I have a young poet in this village named Thoreau, who +writes the truest verses. I pine to show you my treasures; and +tell your wife, we have women who deserve to know her. + + --R.W. Emerson + +The Yankees read and study the new volumes of _Miscellanies_ even +more than the old. The "Sam Johnson" and "Scott" are great +favorites. Stearns Wheeler corrected proofs affectionately to +the last. Truth and Health be with you alway! + + + + +XLVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, 4 September, 1839 + +Dear Emerson,--A cheerful and right welcome Letter of yours, +dated 4th July, reached me here, duly forwarded, some three +weeks ago; I delayed answering till there could some definite +statement, as to bales of literature shipped or landed, or other +matter of business forwarded a stage, be made. I am here, with +my Wife, rusticating again, these two months; amid diluvian +rains, Chartism, Teetotalism, deficient harvest, and general +complaint and confusion; which not being able to mend, all that +I can do is to heed them as little as possible. "What care I for +the house? I am only a lodger." On the whole, I have sat under +the wing of Saint Swithin; uncheery, sluggish, murky, as the +wettest of his Days;--hoping always, nevertheless, that blue sky, +figurative and real, does exist, and will demonstrate itself by +and by. I have been the stupidest and laziest of men. I could +not write even to you, till some palpable call told me I must. + +Yesternight, however, there arrives a despatch from Fraser, +apprising me that the American _Miscellanies,_ second cargo, are +announced from Portsmouth, and "will probably be in the River +tomorrow"; where accordingly they in all likelihood now are, a +fair landing and good welcome to them! Fraser "knows not whether +they are bound or not"; but will soon know. The first cargo, of +which I have a specimen here, contented him extremely; only +there was one fatality, the cloth of the binding was multiplex, +party-colored, some sets done in green, others in red, blue, +perhaps skyblue! Now if the second cargo were not multiplex, +party-colored, nay multiplex, _in exact concordance with the +first,_ as seemed almost impossible--?--Alas, in that case, one +could not well predict the issue!--Seriously, it is a most +handsome Book you have made; and I have nothing to return but +thanks and again thanks. By the bye, if you do print a small +second edition of the First Portion, I might have had a small set +of errata ready: but _where are they?_ The Book only came into +my hand here a few days ago; and I have been whipt from post +to pillar without will of my own, without energy to form a +will! The only glaring error I recollect at this moment is one +somewhere in the second article on _Jean Paul:_ "Osion" (I +think, or some such thing) instead of "Orson": it is not an +original American error, but copied from the English; if the +Printer get his eye upon it, let him rectify; if not, not, I +_deserve_ to have it stand against me there. Fraser's joy, +should the Books prove either unbound or multiplex in the right +way, will be great and unalloyed; he calculates on selling all +the copies very soon. He has begun reprinting Goethe's _Wilhelm +Meister_ too, the _Apprenticeship_ and _Travels_ under one; and +hopes to remunerate himself for that by and by: whether there +will then remain any small peculium for me is but uncertain; +meanwhile I correct the press, nothing doubting. One of these I +call my best Translation, the other my worst; I have read that +latter, the _Apprenticeship,_ again in these weeks; not without +surprise, disappointment, nay, aversion here and there, yet on +the whole with ever new esteem. I find I can pardon _all_ things +in a man except purblindness, falseness of vision,--for, indeed, +does not that presuppose every other kind of falseness? + +But let me hasten to say that the _French Revolution,_ five +hundred strong for the New England market, is also, as Fraser +advises, "to go to sea in three days." It is bound in red cloth, +gilt; a pretty book, James says; which he will sell for +twenty-five shillings here;--nay, the London brotherhood have +"subscribed" for one hundred and eighty at once, which he +considers great work. I directed him to consign to Little and +Brown in Boston, the _property_ of the thing _yours,_ with such +phraseology and formalities as they use in those cases. I paid +him for it yesterday (to save discount) L95; that is the whole +cost to me, twenty or thirty pounds more than was once calculated +on. Do the best with it you can, my friend; and never mind the +result. If the thing fail, as is likely enough, we will simply +quit that transport trade, and my experience must be _paid for._ +The Title-page was "Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown," +then in a second line and smaller type, "London James Fraser"; +to which arrangement James made not the slightest objection, or +indeed rather seemed to like it.--So much for trade matters: is +it not _enough?_ I declare I blush sometimes, and wonder where +the good Emerson gets all his patience. We shall be through the +affair one day, and find something better to speak about than +dollars and pounds. And yet, as you will say, why not even of +dollars? Ah, there are leaden-worded [bills] of exchange I +have seen which have had an almost sacred character to me! +_Pauca verba._ + +Doubt not your new utterances are eagerly waited for here; above +all things the "Book" is what I want to see. You might have told +me what it was about. We shall see by and by. A man that has +discerned somewhat, and knows it for himself, let him speak it +out, and thank Heaven. I pray that they do not confuse you by +praises; their blame will do no harm at all. Praise is sweet to +all men; and yet alas, alas, if the light of one's own heart go +out, bedimmed with poor vapors and sickly false glitterings and +flashings, what profit is it! Happier in darkness, in all manner +of mere outward darkness, misfortune and neglect, "so that _thou +canst endure,_"--which however one cannot to all lengths. God +speed you, my Brother! I hope all good things of you; and +wonder whether like Phoebus Apollo you are destined to be a youth +forever.--Sterling will be right glad to hear your praises; not +unmerited, for he is a man among millions that John of mine, +though his perpetual mobility wears me out at times. Did he ever +write to you? His latest speculation was that he should and +would; but I fancy it is among the clouds again. I hear from +him the other day, out of Welsh villages where he passed his +boyhood, &c., all in a flow of "lyrical recognition," hope, +faith, and sanguine unrest; I have even some thoughts of +returning by Bristol (in a week or so, that must be), and seeing +him. The dog has been reviewing me, he says, and it is coming +out in the next _Westminster!_ He hates terribly my doctrine of +_"Silence."_ As to America and lecturing, I cannot in this +torpid condition venture to say one word. Really it is not +impossible; and yet lecturing is a thing I shall never grow to +like; still less lionizing, Martineau-ing: _Ach Gott!_ My Wife +sends a thousand regards; _she_ will never get across the ocean, +you must come to her; she was almost _dead_ crossing from +Liverpool hither, and declares she will never go to sea for any +purpose whatsoever again. Never till next time! My good old +Mother is here, my Brother John (home with his Duke from Italy); +all send blessings and affection to you and yours. Adieu till I +get to London. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + +XLVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 8 December, 1839 + +My Dear Emerson,--What a time since we have written to one +another! was it you that defalcated? Alas, I fear it was myself; +I have had a feeling these nine or ten weeks that you were +expecting to hear from me; that I absolutely could not write. +Your kind gift of Fuller's _Eckermann_* was handed in to our +Hackney coach, in Regent Street, as we wended homewards from the +railway and Scotland, on perhaps the 8th of September last; a +welcome memorial of distant friends and doings: nay, perhaps +there was a Letter two weeks prior to that:--I am a great sinner! +But the truth is, I could not write; and now I can and do it! + +---------- +* "Conversations with Goethe. Translated from the German of +Eckermann. By S.M. Fuller." Boston, 1839. This was the fourth +volume in the series of "Specimens of Foreign Standard +Literature," edited by George Ripley. The book has a +characteristic Preface by Miss Fuller, in which she speaks of +Carlyle as "the only competent English critic" of Goethe. +---------- + +Our sojourn in Scotland was stagnant, sad; but tranquil, _well +let alone,_--an indispensable blessing to a poor creature fretted +to fiddle-strings, as I grow to be in this Babylon, take it as I +will. We had eight weeks of desolate rain; with about eight +days bright as diamonds intercalated in that black monotony of +bad weather. The old Hills are the same; the old Streams go +gushing along as in past years, in past ages; but he that looks +on them is no longer the same: and the old Friends, where are +they? I walk silent through my old haunts in that country; sunk +usually in inexpressible reflections, in an immeasurable chaos of +musings and mopings that cannot be reflected or articulated. The +only work I had on hand was one that would not prosper with me: +an Article for the _Quarterly Review_ on the state of the Working +Classes here. The thoughts were familiar to me, old, many years +old; but the utterance of them, in what spoken dialect to utter +them! The _Quarterly Review_ was not an eligible vehicle, and +yet the eligiblest; of Whigs, abandoned to Dilettantism and +withered sceptical conventionality, there was no hope at all; +the _London-and-Westminster_ Radicals, wedded to their Benthamee +Formulas, and tremulous at their own shadows, expressly rejected +my proposal many months ago: Tories alone remained; Tories I +often think have more stuff in them, in spite of their blindness, +than any other class we have;--Walter Scott's _sympathy_ with his +fellow creatures, what is it compared with Sydney Smith's, with a +Poor Law Commissioner's! Well: this thing would not prosper +with me in Scotland at all; nor here at all, where nevertheless +I had to persist writing; writing and burning, and cursing my +destiny, and then again writing. Finally the thing came out, as +an Essay on _Chartism;_ was shown to Lockhart, according to +agreement; was praised by him, but was also found unsuitable by +him; suitable to _explode_ a whole fleet of Quarterlies into +sky-rockets in these times! And now Fraser publishes it himself, +with some additions, as a little Volume; and it will go forth in +a week or two on its own footing; and England will see what she +has to say to it, whether something or nothing; and one man, as +usual, is right glad that he has nothing more to do with it. +This is the reason why I could not write. I mean to send you the +Proof-sheets of this thing, to do with as you see cause; there +will be but some five or six, I think. It is probable my New +England brothers may approve some portions of it; may be curious +to see it reprinted; you ought to say Yes or No in regard to +that. I think I will send all the sheets together; or at +farthest, at two times. + +Fraser, when we returned hither, had already received his +_Miscellanies;_ had about despatched his five hundred _French +Revolutions,_ insured and so, forth, consigned, I suppose, to +your protection and the proper booksellers; probably they have +got over from New York into your neighborhood before now. Much +good may they do you! The _Miscellanies,_ with their variegated +binding, proved to be in perfect order; and are now all sold; +with much regret from poor James that we had not a thousand more +of them! This thousand he now sets about providing by his own +industry, poor man; I am revising the American copy in these +days; the printer is to proceed forthwith. I admire the good +Stearns Wheeler as I proceed; I write to him my thanks by this +post, and send him by Kennet a copy of Goethe's _Meister,_ for +symbol of acknowledgment. Another copy goes off for you, to the +care of Little and Company. Fraser has got it out two weeks ago; +a respectable enough book, now that the version is corrected +somewhat. Tell me whether you dislike it less; what you do +think of it? By the by, have you not learned to read German now? +I rather think you have. It is three months spent well, if ever +months were, for a thinking Englishman of this age.--I hope +Kennet will use more despatch than he sometimes does. Thank +Heaven for these Boston Steamers they project! May the Nereids +and Poseidon favor them! They will bring us a thousand miles +nearer, at one step; by and by we shall be of one parish +after all. + +During Autumn I speculated often about a Hegira into New England +this very year: but alas! my horror of _Lecturing_ continues +great; and what else is there for me to do there? These several +years I have had no wish so pressing as to hold my peace. I +begin again to feel some use in articulate speech; perhaps I +shall one day have something that I want to utter even in your +side of the water. We shall see. Patience, and shuffle the +cards.--I saw no more of Webster; did not even learn well where +he was, till lately I noticed in the Newspapers that he had gone +home again. A certain Mr. Brown (I think) brought me a letter +from you, not long since; I forwarded him to Cambridge and +Scotland: a modest inoffensive man. He said he had never +personally met with Emerson. My Wife recalled to him the story +of the Scotch Traveler on the top of Vesuvius: "Never saw so +beautiful a scene in the world!"--"Nor I," replied a stranger +standing there, "except once; on the top of Dunmiot, in the +Ochil Hills in Scotland."--"Good Heavens! That is a part of my +Estate, and I was never there! I will go thither." Yes, do!--We +have seen no other Transoceanic that I remember. We expect your +_Book_ soon! We know the subject of your Winter Lectures too; +at least Miss Martineau thinks she does, and makes us think so. +Heaven speed the work! Heaven send my good Emerson a clear +utterance, in all right ways, of the nobleness that dwells in +him! He knows what silence means; let him know speech also, in +its season the two are like canvas and pigment, like darkness and +light-image painted thereon; the one is essential to the other, +not possible without the other. + +Poor Miss Martineau is in Newcastle-on-Tyne this winter; sick, +painfully not dangerously; with a surgical brother-in-law. Her +meagre didacticalities afflict me no more; but also her blithe +friendly presence cheers me no more. We wish she were back. +This silence, I calculate, forced silence, will do her much good. +If I were a Legislator, I would order every man, once a week or +so, to lock his lips together, and utter no vocable at all +for four-and-twenty hours: it would do him an immense benefit, +poor fellow. Such racket, and cackle of mere hearsay and +sincere-cant, grows at last entirely deafening, enough to drive +one mad, --like the voice of mere infinite rookeries answering +your voice! Silence, silence! Sterling sent you a Letter from +Clifton, which I set under way here, having added the address. +He is not well again, the good Sterling; talks of Madeira this +season again: but I hope otherwise. You of course read his +sublime "article"? I tell him it was--a thing untellable! + +Mr. Southey has fallen, it seems, into a mournful condition: +oblivion, mute hebetation, loss of all faculty. He suffered +greatly, nursing his former wife in her insanity, for years till +her relief by death; suffered, worked, and made no moan; the +brunt of the task over, he sank into collapse in the hands of a +new wife he had just wedded. What a lot for him; for her +especially! The most excitable but most methodic man I have ever +seen. [Greek] that is a word that awaits us all.--I have my +brother here at present; though talking of Lisbon with his +Buccleuchs. My Wife seems better than of late winters. I +actually had a Horse, nay actually have it, though it has gone to +the country till the mud abate again! It did me perceptible +good; I mean to try it farther. I am no longer so desperately +poor as I have been for twelve years back; sentence of +starvation or beggary seems revoked at last, a blessedness +really very considerable. Thanks, thanks! We send a thousand +regards to the two little ones, to the two mothers. _Valete +nostrum memores._ + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +XLVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 12 December, 1839 + +My Dear Friend,--Not until the 29th of November did the five +hundred copies of the _French Revolution_ arrive in Boston. +Fraser unhappily sent them to New York, whence they came not +without long delays. They came in perfectly good order, not in +the pretty red you told us of, but in a sober green;--not so +handsome and salable a back, our booksellers said, as their own; +but in every other respect a good book. The duties at the New +York Custom House on these and a quantity of other books sent by +Fraser amounted to $400.36, whereof, I understand, the _French +Revolution_ pays for its share $243. No bill has been brought us +for freight, so we conclude that you have paid it. I confided +the book very much to the conscience and discretion of Little and +Brown, and after some ciphering they settle to sell it at $3.75 +per copy, wherefrom you are to get the cost of the book, and +(say) $1.10 per copy profit, and no more. The booksellers +eat the rest. The book is rather too dear for our market of +cheap manufactures, and therefore we are obliged to give the +booksellers a good percentage to get it off at all: for we stand +in daily danger of a cheap edition from some rival neighbor. I +hope to give you good news of its sale soon, although I have been +assured today that no book sells, the times are so bad. Brown +had disposed of fifty or sixty copies to the trade, and twelve at +retail. He doubted not to sell them all in six months.... + +Several persons have asked me to get some copies of the _German +Romance_ sent over here for sale. Last week a gentleman desired me +to say he wanted four copies, and today I have been charged to +procure another. I think, if you will send me by Little and Brown, +through Longman, six copies, we can find an immediate market. + +It gives me great joy to write to my friend once more, slow as +you may think me to use the privilege. For a good while I dared +believe you were coming hither, and why should I write?--and now +for weeks I have been absorbed in my foolish lectures, of which +only two are yet delivered and ended. There should be eight +more; subject, "The Present Age." Out of these follies I +remember you with glad heart. Lately I had Sterling's letter, +which, since I have read his article on you, I am determined to +answer speedily. I delighted in the spirit of that paper, loving +you so well and accusing you so conscientiously. What does he at +Clifton? If you communicate with him, tell him I thank him for +his letter, and hold him dear. I am very happy lately in adding +one or two new friends to my little circle, and you may be sure +every friend of mine is a friend of yours. So when you come here +you shall not be lonely. A new person is always to me a great +event, and will not let me sleep.--I believe I was not wise to +volunteer myself to this fever fit of lecturing again. I ought +to have written instead in silence and serenity. Yet I work +better under this base necessity, and then I have a certain +delight (base also?) in speaking to a multitude. But my joy in +friends, those sacred people, is my consolation for the mishaps +of the adventure, and they for the most part come to me from this +_publication_ of myself.--After ten or twelve weeks I think I +shall address myself earnestly to writing, and give some form to +my formless scripture. + +I beg you will write to me and tell me what you do, and give me +good news of your wife and your brother. Can they not see the +necessity of your coming to look after your American interests? +My wife and mother love both you and them. A young man of New +York told me the other day he was about getting you an invitation +from an Association in that city to give them a course of +lectures on such terms as would at least make you whole in the +expenses of coming thither. We could easily do that in Boston. + + --R.W. Emerson + +What manner of person is Heraud? Do you read Landor, or know +him, O seeing man? Farewell! + + + + +XLIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 6 January, 1840 + +My Dear Emerson,--It is you, I surely think, that are in my debt +now;* nevertheless I must fling you another word: may it +cross one from you coming hither--as near the _Lizard Point_ as +it likes! + +--------- +* The preceding letter had not yet arrived. +--------- + +Some four sheets making a Pamphlet called _Chartism_ addressed to +you at Concord are, I suppose, snorting along through the waters +this morning, part of the Cargo of the "British Queen." At least +I gave them to Mr. Brown (your unseen friend) about ten days ago, +who promised to dispose of them; the "British Queen," he said, +was the earliest chance. The Pamphlet itself (or rather booklet, +for Fraser has gilt it, &c., and asks five shillings for it as a +Book) is out since then; radicals and others yelping +considerably in a discordant manner about it; I have nothing +other to say to _you_ about it than what I said last time, that +the sheets were _yours_ to do with as you saw good,--to burn if +you reckoned that fittest. It is not entirely a Political +Pamphlet; nay, there are one or two things in it which my +American Friends specially may like: but the interests discussed +are altogether English, and cannot be considered as likely to +concern New-Englishmen very much. However, it will probably be +itself in your hand before this sheet, and you will have +determined what is fit. + +A copy of _Wilhelm Meister,_ two copies, one for Stearns Wheeler, +are probably in some of the "Line Ships" at this time too: good +voyage to them! The _French Revolutions_ were all shipped, +invoiced, &c.; they have, I will suppose, arrived safe, as we +shall hear by and by. What freightages, landings, and +embarkments! For only two days ago I sent you off, through +Kennet, another Book: John Sterling's _Poems,_ which he has +collected into a volume. Poor John has overworked himself again, +or the climate without fault on his side has proved too hard for +him: he sails for Madeira again next week! His Doctors tell me +there is no intrinsic danger; but they judge the measure safe as +one of precaution. It is very mortifying he had nestled himself +down at Clifton, thinking he might now hope to continue there; +and lo! he has to fly again.--Did you get his letter? The +address to him now will be, for three months to come, "_Edward_ +Sterling, Esq., South Place, Knightsbridge, London," his +Father's designation. + +Farther I must not omit to say that Richard Monckton Milnes +purposes, through the strength of Heaven, to _review_ you! In +the next Number of the _London and Westminster,_ the courageous +youth will do this feat, if they let him. Nay, he has already +done it, the Paper being actually written he employed me last +week in negotiating with the Editors about it; and their answer +was, "Send us the Paper, it promises very well." We shall see +whether it comes out or not; keeping silence till then. Milnes +is a _Tory_ Member of Parliament; think of that! For the rest, +he describes his religion in these terms: "I profess to be a +Crypto-Catholic." Conceive the man! A most bland-smiling, semi- +quizzical, affectionate, high-bred, Italianized little man, who +has long olive-blond hair, a dimple, next to no chin, and flings +his arm round your neck when he addresses you in public society! +Let us hear now what he will say, of the American _Vates._* + +--------- +* The end of this letter has been cut off. +--------- + + + + +L. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 17 January, 1840 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Letter of the 12th of December, greatly, to +my satisfaction, has arrived; the struggling Steamship, in spite +of all hurricanes, has brought it safe across the waters to me. +I find it good to write you a word in return straightway; though +I think there are already two, or perhaps even three, messages of +mine to you flying about unacknowledged somewhere under the moon; +nay, the last of them perhaps may go by the same packet as this, +--having been forwarded, as this will be, to _Liverpool,_ after +the "British Queen" sailed from London. + +Your account of the _French Revolution_ packages, and prognosis +of what Little and Brown will do with them, is altogether as it +should be. I apprised Fraser instantly of his invoiceless Books, +&c.; he answers, that order has been taken in that long since, +"instructions" sent, and, I conclude, arrangements for _bills_ +least of all forgotten. I mentioned what share of the duty was +his; and that your men meant to draw on him for it. That is all +right. As to the _French Revolution,_ I agree with your +Booksellers altogether about it; the American Edition actually +pleases myself better for looking at; nor do I know that +this new English one has much superiority for use: it is +despicably printed, I fear, so far as false spellings and other +slovenlinesses can go. Fraser "finds the people like it"; +_credat Judaeus;_--as for me, I have told him I will _not print +any more_ with that man, but with some other man. Curious +enough, the price Little and Brown have fixed upon was the price +I remember guessing at beforehand, and the result they propose to +realize for me corresponds closely with my prophecy too. Thanks, +a thousand thanks, for all the trouble you never grudge to take. +We shall get ourselves handsomely out of this export and import +speculation; and know, taught at a rather _cheap_ rate, not to +embark in the like again. + +There went off a _Wilhelm Meister_ for you, and a letter to +announce it, several weeks ago; that was message first. Your +traveling neighbor, Brown, took charge of a Pamphlet named +_Chartism,_ to be put into the "British Queen's" Letter-bag +(where I hope, and doubt not, he did put it, though I have seen +nothing of him since); that and a letter in reference to it was +message second. Thirdly, I sent off a volume of _Poems_ by +Sterling, likewise announced in that letter. And now this that I +actually write is the fourth (it turns out to be) and last of all +the messages. Let us take Arithmetic along with us in all +things.--Of _Chartism_ I have nothing farther to say, except that +Fraser is striking off another One Thousand copies to be called +Second Edition; and that the people accuse me, not of being +an incendiary and speculative Sansculotte threatening to +become practical, but of being a Tory,--thank Heaven. The +_Miscellanies_ are at press; at _two_ presses; to be out, as +Hope asseverates, in March: five volumes, without _Chartism;_ +with Hoffmann and Tieck from German Romance, stuck in somewhere +as Appendix; with some other trifles stuck in elsewhere, chiefly +as Appendix; and no essential change from the Boston Edition. +Fraser, "overwhelmed with business," does not yet send me his net +result of those Two Hundred and Fifty Copies sold off some +time ago; so soon as he does, you shall hear of it for your +satisfaction.--As to _German Romance,_ tell my friends that it +has been out of print these ten years; procurable, of late not +without difficulty, only in the Old-Bookshops. The comfort is +that the best part of it stands in the new _Wilhelm Meister:_ +Fraser and I had some thought of adding Tieck's and Richter's +parts, had they suited for a volume; the rest may without +detriment to anybody perish. + +Such press-correctings and arrangings waste my time here, not in +the agreeablest way. I begin, though in as sulky a state of +health as ever, to look again towards some new kind of work. I +have often thought of Cromwell and Puritans; but do not see how +the subject can be presented still alive. A subject dead is not +worth presenting. Meanwhile I read rubbish of Books; Eichhorn, +Grimm, &c.; very considerable rubbish; one grain in the cart +load worth pocketing. It is pity I have no appetite for +lecturing! Many applications have been made to me here;--none +more touching to me than one, the day before yesterday, by a +fine, innocent-looking Scotch lad, in the name of himself and +certain other Booksellers' shopmen eastward in the City! I +cannot get them out of my head. Poor fellows! they have nobody +to say an honest word to them, in this articulate-speaking world, +and they apply to _me._--For you, good friend, I account you +luckier; I do verily: lecture there what innumerable things you +have got to say on "The Present Age";--yet withal do not forget +to _write_ either, for that is the lasting plan after all. I +have a curious Note, sent me for inspection the other day; it is +addressed to a Scotch Mr. Erskine (famed among the saints here) +by a Madame Necker, Madame de Stael's kinswoman, to whom he, the +said Mr. Erskine, had lent your first Pamphlet at Geneva. She +regards you with a certain love, yet a _shuddering_ love. She +says, "Cela sent l'Americain qui apres avoir abattu les forets a +coup de hache, croit qu'on doit de meme conquerir le monde +intellectuel"! What R.M. Milnes will say of you we hope also to +see.--I know both Heraud and Landor; but alas, what room is +here! Another sheet with less of "Arithmetic" in it will soon be +allowed me. Adieu, dear friend. + +Yours, ever and ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +LI. Emerson to Carlyle* + +New York, 18 March, 1840 + +My Dear Friend,--I have just seen the steamer "British Queen" +enter the harbor from sea, and here lies the "Great Western," to +sail tomorrow. I will not resist hints so broad upon my long +procrastinations. You shall have at least a tardy acknowledgment +that I received in January your letter of December, which I +should have answered at once had it not found me absorbed in +writing foolish lectures which were then in high tide. I had +written you, a little earlier, tidings of the receipt of your +_French Revolution._ Your letter was very welcome, as all +your letters are. I have since seen tidings of the _Essay on +Chartism_ in an English periodical, but have not yet got my +proof-sheets. They are probably still rolling somewhere outside +of this port, for all our packetships have had the longest +passages: only one has come in for many a week. We will be as +patient as we can. + +-------- +* This letter appeared in the _Athenaeum,_ for July 22, 1882 +-------- + +I am here on a visit to my brother, who is a lawyer in this city, +and lives at Staten Island, at a distance of half an hour's sail. +The city has such immense natural advantages and such +capabilities of boundless growth, and such varied and ever +increasing accommodations and appliances for eye and ear, for +memory and wit, for locomotion and lavation, and all manner of +delectation, that I see that the poor fellows that live here do +get some compensation for the sale of their souls. And how they +multiply! They estimate the population today at 350,000, and +forty years ago, it is said, there were but 20,000. But I always +seem to suffer some loss of faith on entering cities. They are +great conspiracies; the parties are all maskers, who have taken +mutual oaths of silence not to betray each other's secret and +each to keep the other's madness in countenance. You can scarce +drive any craft here that does not seem a subornation of the +treason. I believe in the spade and an acre of good ground. +Whoso cuts a straight path to his own bread, by the help of God +in the sun and rain and sprouting of the grain, seems to me an +_universal_ workman. He solves the problem of life, not for one, +but for all men of sound body. I wish I may one day send you +word, or, better, show you the fact, that I live by my hands +without loss of memory or of hope. And yet I am of such a puny +constitution, as far as concerns bodily labor, that perhaps I +never shall. We will see. + +Did I tell you that we hope shortly to send you some American +verses and prose of good intent? My vivacious friend Margaret +Fuller is to edit a journal whose first number she promises for +the 1st of July next, which I think will be written with a good +will if written at all. I saw some poetical fragments which +charmed me,--if only the writer consents to give them to +the public. + +I believe I have yet little to tell you of myself. I ended in +the middle of February my ten lectures on the Present Age. They +are attended by four hundred and fifty to five hundred people, +and the young people are so attentive; and out of the hall ask +me so many questions, that I assume all the airs of Age and +Sapience. I am very happy in the sympathy and society of from +six to a dozen persons, who teach me to hope and expect +everything from my countrymen. We shall have many Richmonds in +the field presently. I turn my face homeward to-morrow, and this +summer I mean to resume my endeavor to make some presentable book +of Essays out of my mountain of manuscript, were it only for the +sake of clearance. I left my wife, and boy, and girl,--the +softest, gracefulest little maiden alive, creeping like a turtle +with head erect all about the house,--well at home a week ago. +The boy has two deep blue wells for eyes, into which I gladly +peer when I am tired. Ellen, they say, has no such depth of orb, +but I believe I love her better than ever I did the boy. I +brought my mother with me here to spend the summer with William +Emerson and his wife and ruddy boy of four years. All these +persons love and honour you in proportion to their knowledge +and years. + +My letter will find you, I suppose, meditating new lectures for +your London disciples. May love and truth inspire them! I can +see easily that my predictions are coming to pass, and that. +having waited until your Fame wag in the floodtide, we shall not +now see you at all on western shores. Our saintly Dr. T---, I am +told, had a letter within a year from Lord Byron's daughter, +_informing_ the good man of the appearance of a certain wonderful +genius in London named Thomas Carlyle, and all his astonishing +workings on her own and her friends' brains, and him the very +monster whom the Doctor had been honoring with his best dread and +consternation these five years. But do come in one of Mr. +Cunard's ships as soon as the booksellers have made you rich. If +they fail to do so, come and read lectures which the Yankees will +pay for. Give my love and hope and perpetual remembrance to your +wife, and my wife's also, who bears her in her kindest heart, and +who resolves every now and then to write to her, that she may +thank her for the beautiful Guido. + +You told me to send you no more accounts. But I certainly shall, +as our financial relations are grown more complex, and I wish at +least to relieve myself of this unwonted burden of booksellers' +accounts and long delays, by sharing them. I have had one of +their estimates by me a year, waiting to send. Farewell. + + --R.W.E. + + + + +LII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 1 April, 1840 + +My Dear Emerson,--A Letter has been due to you from me, if not by +palpable law of reciprocity, yet by other law and right, for some +week or two. I meant to write, so soon as Fraser and I had got a +settlement effected. The traveling Sumner being about to return +into your neighborhood, I gladly accept his offer to take a +message to you. I wish I had anything beyond a dull Letter to +send! But unless, as my Wife suggests, I go and get you a +D'Orsay _Portrait_ of myself, I see not what there is! Do you +read German or not? I now and then fall in with a curious German +volume, not perhaps so easily accessible in the Western world. +Tell me. Or do you ever mean to learn it? I decidedly wish you +would.--As to the D'Orsay Portrait, it is a real curiosity: +Count D'Orsay the emperor of European Dandies portraying the +Prophet of spiritual Sansculottism! He came rolling down hither +one day, many months ago, in his sun-chariot, to the bedazzlement +of all bystanders; found me in dusty gray-plaid dressing-gown, +grim as the spirit of Presbyterianism (my Wife said), and +contrived to get along well enough with me. I found him a man +worth talking to, once and away; a man of decided natural gifts; +every utterance of his containing in it a wild caricature +_likeness_ of some object or other; a dashing man, who might, +some twenty years sooner born, have become one of Bonaparte's +Marshals, and _is,_ alas,--Count D'Orsay! The Portrait he dashed +off in some twenty minutes (I was dining there, to meet Landor); +we have not chanced to meet together since, and I refuse to +undergo any more eight-o'clock dinners for such an object.--Now +if I do not send you the Portrait, after all? + +Fraser's account of the _Miscellanies_ stood legibly extended +over large spaces of paper, and was in several senses amazing to +look upon. I trouble _you_ only with the result. Two Hundred +and forty-eight copies (for there were some one or two +"imperfect"): all these he had sold, at two guineas each; and +sold swiftly, for I recollect in December, or perhaps November, +he told me he was "holding back," not to run entirely out. Well, +of the L500 and odd so realized for these Books, the portion that +belonged to me was L239,--the L261 had been the expense of +handing the ware to Emerson over the counter, and drawing in +the coin for it! "Rules of the Trade";--it is a Trade, one would +surmise, in which the Devil has a large interest. However,--not +to spend an instant polluting one's eyesight with that side of +it,--let me feel joyfully, with thanks to Heaven and America, +that I do receive such a sum in the shape of wages, by decidedly +the noblest method in which wages could come to a man. Without +Friendship, without Ralph Waldo Emerson, there had been no +sixpence of that money here. Thanks, and again thanks. This +earth is not an unmingled ball of Mud, after all. Sunbeams +visit it;--mud _and_ sunbeams are the stuff it has from of old +consisted of.--I hasten away from the Ledger, with the mere good- +news that James is altogether content with the "progress" of all +these Books, including even the well-abused _Chartism_ Book. We +are just on the point of finishing our English reprint of the +_Miscellanies;_ of which I hope to send you a copy before long. + +And now why do not _you_ write to me? Your Lectures must be done +long ago. Or are you perhaps writing a Book? I shall be right +glad to hear of that; and withal to hear that you do not hurry +yourself, but strive with deliberate energy to produce what in +you is best. Certainly, I think, a right Book does lie in the +man! It is to be remembered also always that the true value is +determined by what we _do not_ write! There is nothing truer +than that now all but forgotten truth; it is eternally true. He +whom it concerns can consider it.--You have doubtless seen +Milnes's review of you. I know not that you will find it to +strike direct upon the secret of _Emerson,_ to hit the nail on +the head, anywhere at all; I rather think not. But it is +gently, not unlovingly done;--and lays the first plank of a kind +of pulpit for you here and throughout all Saxondom: a thing +rather to be thankful for. It on the whole surpassed my +expectations. Milnes tells me he is sending you a copy and a +Note, by Sumner. He is really a pretty little robin-redbreast of +a man. + +You asked me about Landor and Heraud. Before my paper entirely +vanish, let me put down a word about them. Heraud is a +loquacious scribacious little man, of middle age, of parboiled +greasy aspect, whom Leigh Hunt describes as "wavering in the most +astonishing manner between being Something and Nothing." To me +he is chiefly remarkable as being still--with his entirely +enormous vanity and very small stock of faculty--out of Bedlam. +He picked up a notion or two from Coleridge many years ago; and +has ever since been rattling them in his head, like peas in an +empty bladder, and calling on the world to "List the Music of the +spheres." He escapes _assassination,_ as I calculate, chiefly by +being the cheerfulest best-natured little creature extant.--You +cannot kill him he laughs so softly, even when he is like killing +you. John Mill said, "I forgive him freely for interpreting the +Universe, now when I find he cannot pronounce the _h's!_" Really +this is no caricature; you have not seen the match of Heraud in +your days. I mentioned to him once that Novalis had said, "The +highest problem of Authorship is the writing of a Bible."-- +"That is precisely what I am doing!" answered the aspiring, +unaspirating.*--Of Landor I have not got much benefit either. We +met first, some four years ago, on Cheyne Walk here: a tall, +broad, burly man, with gray hair, and large, fierce-rolling eyes; +of the most restless, impetuous vivacity, not to be held in by +the most perfect breeding,--expressing itself in high-colored +superlatives, indeed in reckless exaggeration, now and then in a +dry sharp laugh not of sport but of mockery; a wild man, whom no +extent of culture had been able to tame! His intellectual +faculty seemed to me to be weak in proportion to his violence of +temper: the judgment he gives about anything is more apt to be +wrong than right,--as the inward whirlwind shows him this side or +the other of the object; and _sides_ of an object are all that +he sees. He is not an original man; in most cases one but sighs +over the spectacle of common place torn to rags. I find him +painful as a writer; like a soul ever promising to take wing +into the Aether, yet never doing it, ever splashing webfooted in +the terrene mud, and only splashing the worse the more he +strives! Two new tragedies of his that I read lately are the +fatalest stuff I have seen for long: not an ingot; ah no, a +distracted coil of wire-drawings salable in no market. Poor +Landor has left his Wife (who is said to be a fool) in Italy, +with his children, who would not quit her; but it seems he has +honestly surrendered all his money to her, except a bare annuity +for furnished lodgings; and now lives at Bath, a solitary +sexagenarian, in that manner. He visits London in May; but says +always it would kill him soon: alas, I can well believe that! +They say he has a kind heart; nor does it seem unlikely: a +perfectly honest heart, free and fearless, dwelling amid such +hallucinations, excitations, tempestuous confusions, I can see he +has. Enough of him! Me he likes well enough, more thanks to +him; but two hours of such speech as his leave me giddy and +undone. I have seen some other Lions, and Lion's-_providers;_ +but consider them a worthless species.--When will you write, +then? Consider my frightful outlook with a Course of Lectures to +give "On Heroes and Hero-worship,"--from Odin to Robert Burns! +My Wife salutes you all. Good be in the Concord Household! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + +-------- +* There is an account of Heraud by an admirer in the _Dial_ for +October, 1842, p. 241. It contrasts curiously and instructively +with Carlyle's sketch. +-------- + + + + +LIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 21 April, 1840 + +My Dear Friend,--Three weeks ago I received a letter from you +following another in the week before, which I should have +immediately acknowledged but that I was promised a private +opportunity for the 25th of April, by which time I promised +myself to send you sheets of accounts. I had also written you +from New York about the middle of March. But now I suppose Mr. +Grinnell--a hospitable, humane, modest gentleman in Providence, +R.I., a merchant, much beloved by all his townspeople, and, +though no scholar, yet very fond of silently listening to such-- +is packing his trunk to go to England. He offered to carry any +letters for me, and as at his house during my visit to Providence +I was eagerly catechised by all comers concerning Thomas Carlyle, +I thought it behoved me to offer him for his brethren, sisters, +and companions' sake, the joy of seeing the living face of that +wonderful man. Let him see thy face and pass on his way. I who +cannot see it, nor hear the voice that comes forth of it, must +even betake me to this paper to repay the best I can the love of +the Scottish man, and in the hope to deserve more. + +Your letter announces _Wilhelm Meister,_ Sterling's _Poems,_ and +_Chartism._ I am very rich, or am to be. But Kennet is no +Mercury. _Wilhelm_ and _Sterling_ have not yet made their +appearance, though diligently inquired after by Stearns Wheeler +and me. Little and Brown now correspond with Longman, not with +Kennet. But they will come soon, perhaps are already arrived. + +_Chartism_ arrived at Concord by mail not until one of the last +days of March, though dated by you, I think, the 21st of +December. I returned home on the 3d of April, and found it +waiting. All that is therein said is well and strongly said, and +as the words are barbed and feathered the memory of men cannot +choose but carry them whithersoever men go. And yet I thought +the book itself instructed me to look for more. We seemed to +have a right to an answer less concise to a question so grave and +humane, and put with energy and eloquence. I mean that whatever +probabilities or possibilities of solution occurred should have +been opened to us in some detail. But now it stands as a +preliminary word, and you will one day, when the fact itself is +riper; write the Second Lesson; or those whom you have +influenced will. I read the book twice hastily through, and sent +it directly to press, fearing to be forestalled, for the London +book was in Boston already. Little and Brown are to print it. +Their estimate is:-- + + Printing page for page with copy ....... $63.35 + Paper .....................................44.00 + Binding .................................. 90.00 + Total .................................... $197.35 + +Costing say twenty cents per copy for one thousand copies bound. +The book to sell for fifty cents: the Bookseller's commission +twenty percent on the Retail price. The author's profit fifteen +cents per copy. They intend, if a cheap edition is published,-- +no unlikely event,--to stitch the book as pamphlet, and sell it +at thirty-eight cents. I expect it from the press in a few days. +I shall not on this sheet break into the other accounts, as I am +expecting hourly from Munroe's clerk an entire account of +R.W.E. with T.C., of which I have furnished him with all the +facts I had, and he is to write it out in the manner of his +craft. I did not give it to him until I had made some unsuccessful +experiments myself. + +I am here at work now for a fortnight to spin some single cord +out of my thousand and one strands of every color and texture +that lie raveled around me in old snarls. We need to be +possessed with a mountainous conviction of the value of our +advice to our contemporaries, if we will take such pains to find +what that is. But no, it is the pleasure of the spinning that +betrays poor spinners into the loss of so much good time. I +shall work with the more diligence on this book to-be of mine, +that you inform me again and again that my penny tracts are still +extant; nay, that, beside friendly men, learned and poetic men +read and even review them. I am like Scholasticus of the Greek +Primer, who was ashamed to bring out so small a dead child before +such grand people. Pygmalion shall try if he cannot fashion a +better, certainly a bigger.--I am sad to hear that Sterling sails +again for his health. I am ungrateful not to have written to +him, as his letter was very welcome to me. I will not promise +again until I do it. I received a note last week forwarded by +Mr. Hume from New York, and instantly replied to greet the good +messenger to our Babylonian city, and sent him letters to a few +friends of mine there. But my brother writes me that he had left +New York for Washington when he went to seek him at his lodgings. +I hope he will come northward presently, and let us see his face. + +_22 April._--Last evening came true the promised account drawn up +by Munroe's clerk, Chapman. I have studied it with more zeal +than success. An account seems an ingenious way of burying +facts: it asks wit equal to his who hid them to find them. I am +far as yet from being master of this statement, yet, as I have +promised it so long, I will send it now, and study a copy of it +at my leisure. It is intended to begin where the last account I +sent you, viz. of _French Revolution,_ ended, with a balance of +$9.53 in your favor.... I send you also a paper which Munroe drew +up a long time ago by way of satisfying me that, so far as the +first and second volumes [of the _Miscellanies_] were concerned, +the result had accorded with the promise that you should have +$1,000 profit from the edition. We prosper marvelously on paper, +but the realized benefit loiters. Will you now set some friend +of yours in Fraser's shop at work on this paper, and see if this +statement is true and transparent. I trust the Munroe firm,-- +chiefly Nichols, the clerical partner,--and yet it is a duty to +understand one's own affair. When I ask, at each six months' +reckoning, why we should always be in debt to them, they still +remind me of new and newer printing, and promise correspondent +profits at last. By sending you this account I make it entirely +an affair between you and them. You will have all the facts +which any of us know. I am only concerned as having advanced the +sums which are charged in the account for the payment of paper +and printing, and which promise to liquidate themselves soon, for +Munroe declares he shall have $550 to pay me in a few days. For +the benefit of all parties bid your clerk sift them. One word +more and I have done with this matter, which shall not be weary +if it comes to good,--the account of the London five hundred +_French Revolution_ is not yet six months old, and so does not +come in. Neither does that of the second edition of the first +and second volumes of the _Miscellanies,_ for the same reason. +They will come in due time. I have very good hope that my friend +Margaret Fuller's Journal--after many false baptisms now saying +it will be called _The Dial,_ and which is to appear in July-- +will give you a better knowledge of our young people than any you +have had. I will see that it goes to you when the sun first +shines on its face. You asked me if I read German, and I forget +if I have answered. I have contrived to read almost every volume +of Goethe, and I have fifty-five, but I have read nothing else: +but I have not now looked even into Goethe for a long time. +There is no great need that I should discourse to you on books, +least of all on _his_ books; but in a lecture on Literature, in +my course last winter, I blurted all my nonsense on that subject, +and who knows but Margaret Fuller may be glad to print it and +send it to you? I know not. + +A Bronson Alcott, who is a great man if he cannot write well, has +come to Concord with his wife and three children and taken a +cottage and an acre of ground to get his living by the help of +God and his own spade. I see that some of the Education people +in England have a school called "Alcott House" after my friend. +At home here he is despised and rejected of men as much as was +ever Pestalozzi. But the creature thinks and talks, and I am +glad and proud of my neighbor. He is interested more than need +is in the Editor Heraud. So do not fail to tell me of him. Of +Landor I would gladly know your knowledge. And now I think I +will release your eyes. + +Yours always, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +LIV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 June, 1840 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Since I wrote a couple of letters to you,--I +know not exactly when, but in near succession many weeks ago,-- +there has come to me _Wilhelm Meister_ in three volumes, goodly +to see, good to read,--indeed quite irresistible;--for though I +thought I knew it all, I began at the beginning and read to the +end of the _Apprenticeship,_ and no doubt shall despatch the +_Travels,_ on the earliest holiday. My conclusions and +inferences therefrom I will spare you now, since I appended them +to a piece I had been copying fairly for Margaret Fuller's +_Dial,_--"Thoughts on Modern Literature," and which is the +substance of a lecture in my last winter's course. But I learn +that my paper is crowded out of the first Number, and is not to +appear until October. I will not reckon the accidents that +threaten the ghost of an article through three months of pre- +existence! Meantime, I rest your glad debtor for the good book. +With it came Sterling's _Poems,_ which, in the interim, I have +acknowledged in a letter to him. Sumner has since brought me a +gay letter from yourself, concerning, in part, Landor and Heraud; +in which as I know justice is not done to the one I suppose it is +not done to the other. But Heraud I give up freely to your +tender mercies: I have no wish to save him. Landor can be shorn +of all that is false and foolish, and yet leave a great deal for +me to admire. Many years ago I have read a hundred fine +memorable things in the _Imaginary Conversations,_ though I know +well the faults of that book, and the _Pericles_ and _Aspasia_ +within two years has given me delight. I was introduced to the +man Landor when I was in Florence, and he was very kind to me in +answering a multitude of questions. His speech, I remember, was +below his writing. I love the rich variety of his mind, his +proud taste, his penetrating glances, and the poetic loftiness of +his sentiment, which rises now and then to the meridian, though +with the flight, I own, rather of a rocket than an orb, and +terminated sometimes by a sudden tumble. I suspect you of very +short and dashing reading in his books; and yet I should think +you would like him,--both of you such glorious haters of cant. +Forgive me, I have put you two together twenty times in my +thought as the only writers who have the old briskness and +vivacity. But you must leave me to my bad taste and my perverse +and whimsical combinations. + +I have written to Mr. Milnes who sent me by Sumner a copy of his +article with a note. I addressed my letter to him at "London,"-- +no more. Will it ever reach him? I told him that if I should +print more he would find me worse than ever with my rash, +unwhipped generalization. For my journals, which I dot here at +home day by day, are full of disjointed dreams, audacities, +unsystematic irresponsible lampoons of systems, and all manner of +rambling reveries, the poor drupes and berries I find in my +basket after endless and aimless rambles in woods and pastures. +I ask constantly of all men whether life may not be poetic as +well as stupid? + +I shall try and persuade Mr. Calvert, who has sent to me for a +letter to you, to find room in his trunk for a poor lithograph +portrait of our Concord "Battle-field," so called, and village, +that you may see the faint effigy of the fields and houses in +which we walk and love you. The view includes my Grandfather's +house (under the trees near the Monument), in which I lived for a +time until I married and bought my present house, which is not in +the scope of this drawing. I will roll up two of them, and, as +Sterling seems to be more nomadic than you, I beg you will send +him also this particle of foreign parts. + +With this, or presently after it, I shall send a copy of the +_Dial._ It is not yet much; indeed, though no copy has come to +me, I know it is far short of what it should be, for they have +suffered puffs and dulness to creep in for the sake of the +complement of pages; but it is better than anything we had; and +I have some poetry communicated to me for the next number which I +wish Sterling and Milnes to see. In this number what say you to +the _Elegy_ written by a youth who grew up in this town and lives +near me,--Henry Thoreau? A criticism on Persius is his also. +From the papers of my brother Charles, I gave them the fragments +on Homer, Shakespeare, Burke: and my brother Edward wrote the +little _Farewell,_ when last he left his home. The Address of +the Editors to the Readers is all the prose that is mine, and +whether they have printed a few verses for me I do not know. I +am daily expecting an account for you from Little and Brown. +They promised it at this time. It will speedily follow this +sheet, if it do not accompany it. But I am determined, if I +can, to send one letter which is not on business. Send me +some word of the Lectures. I have yet seen only the initial +notices. Surely you will send me some time the D'Orsay portrait. +Sumner thinks Mrs. Carlyle was very well when he saw her last, +which makes me glad.--I wish you both to love me, as I am +affectionately Yours, + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +LV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 2 July, 1840 + +My Dear Emerson,--Surely I am a sinful man to neglect so long +making any acknowledgment of the benevolent and beneficent +Arithmetic you sent me! It is many weeks, perhaps it is months, +since the worthy citizen--your Host as I understood you in some +of your Northern States--stept in here, one mild evening, with +his mild honest face and manners; presented me your Bookseller +Accounts; talked for half an hour, and then went his way into +France. Much has come and gone since then; Letters of yours, +beautiful Disciples of yours:--I pray you forgive me! I have +been lecturing; I have been sick; I have been beaten about in +all ways. Nay, at bottom, it was only three days ago that I got +the _Bibliopoliana_ back from Fraser; to whom, as you +recommended, I, totally inadequate like yourself to understand +such things, had straightway handed them for examination. I +always put off writing till Fraser should have spoken. I did not +urge him, or he would have spoken any day: there is my sin. + +Fraser declares the Accounts to be made out in the most beautiful +manner; intelligible to any human capacity; correct so far as +he sees, and promising to yield by and by a beautiful return of +money. A precious crop, which we must not cut in the blade; +mere time will ripen it into yellow nutritive ears yet. So he +thinks. The only point on which I heard him make any criticism +was on what he called, if I remember, "the number of Copies +_delivered,_"--that is to say, delivered by the Printer and +Binder as actually available for sale. The edition being of a +Thousand, there have only 984 come bodily forth; 16 are "waste." +Our Printers, it appears, are in the habit of _adding_ one for +every fifty beforehand, whereby the _waste_ is usually made good, +and more; so that in One Thousand there will usually be some +dozen called "Author's copies" over and above. Fraser supposes +your Printers have a different custom. That is all. The rest is +apparently every-way _right;_ is to be received with faith; +with faith, charity, and even hope,--and packed into the bottom +of one's drawer, never to be looked at more except on the +outside, as a memorial of one of the best and helpfulest of men! +In that capacity it shall lie there. + +My Lectures were in May, about _Great Men._ The misery of it was +hardly equal to that of former years, yet still was very hateful. +I had got to a certain feeling of superiority over my audience; +as if I had something to tell them, and would tell it them. At +times I felt as if I could, in the end, learn to speak. The +beautiful people listened with boundless tolerance, eager +attention. I meant to tell them, among other things, that man +was still alive, Nature not dead or like to die; that all true +men continued true to this hour,--Odin himself true, and the +Grand Lama of Thibet himself not wholly a lie. The Lecture on +Mahomet ("the Hero as Prophet") astonished my worthy friends +beyond measure. It seems then this Mahomet was not a quack? Not +a bit of him! That he is a better Christian, with his "bastard +Christianity," than the most of us shovel-hatted? I guess than +almost any of you!--Not so much as Oliver Cromwell ("the Hero as +King") would I allow to have been a Quack. All quacks I asserted +to be and to have been Nothing, _chaff_ that would not grow: my +poor Mahomet "was _wheat_ with barn sweepings"; Nature had +tolerantly hidden the barn sweepings; and as to the _wheat,_ +behold she had said Yes to it, and it was growing!--On the whole, +I fear I did little but confuse my esteemed audience: I was +amazed, after all their reading of me, to be understood so ill;-- +gratified nevertheless to see how the rudest _speech_ of a man's +heart goes into men's hearts, and is the welcomest thing there. +Withal I regretted that I had not six months of preaching, +whereby to learn to preach, and explain things fully! In the +fire of the moment I had all but decided on setting out for +America this autumn, and preaching far and wide like a very lion +there. Quit your paper formulas, my brethren,--equivalent to old +wooden idols, _un_divine as they: in the name of God, understand +that you are alive, and that God is alive! Did the Upholsterer +make this Universe? Were you created by the Tailor? I tell you, +and conjure you to believe me literally, No, a thousand times No! +Thus did I mean to preach, on "Heroes, Hero-worship, and the +Heroic"; in America too. Alas! the fire of determination died +away again: all that I did resolve upon was to write these +Lectures down, and in some way promulgate them farther. Two of +them accordingly are actually written; the Third to be begun on +Monday: it is my chief work here, ever since the end of May. +Whether I go to preach them a second time extempore in America +rests once more with the Destinies. It is a shame to talk so +much about a thing, and have it still hang _in nubibus:_ but I +was, and perhaps am, really nearer doing it than I had ever +before been. A month or two now, I suppose, will bring us back +to the old nonentity again. Is there, at bottom, in the world or +out of it, anything one would like so well, with one's whole +heart _well,_ as PEACE? Is lecturing and noise the way to get at +that? Popular lecturer! Popular writer! If they would +undertake in Chancery, or Heaven's Chancery, to make a wise man +Mahomet Second and Greater, "Mahomet of Saxondom," not reviewed +only, but worshiped for twelve centuries by all Bulldom, Yankee- +doodle-doodom, Felondom New Zealand, under the Tropics and in +part of Flanders,--would he not rather answer: Thank you; but +in a few years I shall be dead, twelve Centuries will have become +Eternity; part of Flanders Immensity: we will sit still here if +you please, and consider what quieter thing we can do! Enough +of this. + +Richard Milnes had a Letter from you, one morning lately, when I +met him at old Rogers's. He is brisk as ever; his kindly +_Dilettantism_ looking sometimes as if it would grow a sort of +Earnest by and by. He has a new volume of Poems out: I advised +him to try Prose; he admitted that Poetry would not be generally +read again in these ages,--but pleaded, "It was so convenient for +veiling commonplace!" The honest little heart!--We did not know +what to make of the bright Miss --- here; she fell in love with +my wife;--the _contrary,_ I doubt, with me: my hard realism +jarred upon her beautiful rose-pink dreams. Is not all that very +morbid,--unworthy the children of Odin, not to speak of Luther, +Knox, and the other Brave? I can do nothing with vapors, but +wish them _condensed._ Kennet had a copy of the English +_Miscellanies_ for you a good many weeks ago: indeed, it was +just a day or two _before_ your advice to try Green henceforth. +Has the _Meister_ ever arrived? I received a Controversial +Volume from Mr. Ripley: pray thank him very kindly. Somebody +borrowed the Book from me; I have not yet read it. I did read a +Pamphlet which seems now to have been made part of it. Norton* +surely is a chimera; but what has the whole business they are +jarring about become? As healthy _worshiping_ Paganism is to +Seneca and Company, so is healthy worshiping Christianity to--I +had rather not work the sum!--Send me some swift news of +yourself, dear Emerson. We salute you and yours, in all +heartiness of brotherhood. + +Yours ever and always-- + T. Carlyle + +--------- +* Professor Andrews Norton. The controversy was that occasioned +by Professor Norton's Discourse on "The Latest Form of +Infidelity." +--------- + + + + +LVI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 August, 1840 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I fear, nay I know, that when I wrote last to +you, about the 1st of July, I promised to follow my sheet +immediately with a bookseller's account. The bookseller did +presently after render his account, but on its face appeared the +fact--which with many and by me unanswerable reasons they +supported--that the balance thereon credited to you was not +payable until the 1st of October. The account is footed "Net +sales of _French Revolution_ to 1 July, 1840, due October 1, +$249.77." Let us hope then that we shall get, not only a new +page of statement, but also some small payment in money a month +hence. Having no better story to tell, I told nothing. + +But I will not let the second of the Cunard boats leave Boston +without a word to you. Since I wrote by Calvert came your letter +describing your lectures and their success: very welcome news, +for a good London newspaper, which I consulted, promised reports, +but gave none. I have heard so oft of your projected trip to +America, that my ear would now be dull, and my faith cold, but +that I wish it so much. My friend, your audience still waits for +you here willing and eager, and greatly larger no doubt than it +would have been when the matter was first debated. + +Our community begin to stand in some terror of Transcendentalism, +and the _Dial,_ poor little thing, whose first number contains +scarce anything considerable or even visible, is just now honored +by attacks from almost every newspaper and magazine; which at +least betrays the irritability and the instincts of the good +public. But they would hardly be able to fasten on so huge a man +as you are any party badge. We must all hear you for ourselves. +But beside my own hunger to see and know you, and to hear you +speak at ease and at large under my own roof, I have a growing +desire to present you to three or four friends, and them to you. +Almost all my life has been passed alone. Within three or four +years I have been drawing nearer to a few men and women whose +love gives me in these days more happiness than I can write of. +How gladly I would bring your Jovial light upon this friendly +constellation, and make you too know my distant riches! We have +our own problems to solve also, and a good deal of movement and +tendency emerging into sight every day in church and state, in +social modes and in letters. I sometimes fancy our cipher is +larger and easier to read than that of your English society. + +You will naturally ask me if I try my hand at the history of all +this,--I who have leisure, and write. No, not in the near and +practical way in which they seem to invite. I incline to write +philosophy, poetry, possibility,--anything but history. And yet +this phantom of the next age limns himself sometimes so large and +plain that every feature is apprehensible, and challenges a +painter. I can brag little of my diligence or achievement this +summer. I dot evermore in my endless journal, a line on every +knowable in nature; but the arrangement loiters long, and I get +a brick kiln instead of a house.--Consider, however, that all +summer I see a good deal of company,--so near as my fields are to +the city. But next winter I think to omit lectures, and write +more faithfully. Hope for me that I shall get a book ready to +send you by New-Year's-day. + +Sumner came to see me the other day. I was glad to learn all the +little that he knew of you and yours. I do not wonder you set so +lightly by my talkative countryman. He has brought nothing home +but names, dates, and prefaces. At Cambridge last week I saw +Brown for the first time. I had little opportunity to learn what +he knew. Mr. Hume has never yet shown his face here. He sent me +his Poems from New York, and then went South, and I know no more +of him. + +My Mother and Wife send you kind regards and best wishes,--to you +and all your house. Tell your wife that I hate to hear that she +cannot sail the seas. Perhaps now she is stronger she will be a +better sailor. For the sake of America will she not try the trip +to Leith again? It is only twelve days from Liverpool to Boston. +Love, truth, and power abide with you always! + + --R.W.E. + + + + +LVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 26 September, 1840 + +My Dear Emerson,--Two Letters of yours are here, the latest of +them for above a week: I am a great sinner not to have answered +sooner. My way of life has been a thing of petty confusions, +uncertainties; I did not till a short while ago see any definite +highway, through the multitude of byelanes that opened out on me, +even for the next few months. Partly I was busy; partly too, as +my wont is, I was half asleep:--perhaps you do not know the +_combination_ of these two predicables in one and the same +unfortunate human subject! Seeing my course now for a little, I +must speak. + +According to your prognosis, it becomes at length manifest that I +do _not_ go to America for the present. Alas, no! It was but a +dream of the fancy; projected, like the French shoemaker's fairy +shoes, "in a moment of enthusiasm." The nervous flutter of May +Lecturing has subsided into stagnancy; into the feeling that, of +all things in the world, public speaking is the hatefulest for +me; that I ought devoutly to thank Heaven there is no absolute +compulsion laid on me at present to speak! My notion in general +was but an absurd one: I fancied I might go across the sea, open +my lips wide; go raging and lecturing over the Union like a very +lion (too like a frothy mountebank) for several months;--till I +had gained, say a thousand pounds; therewith to retire to some +small, quiet cottage by the shore of the sea, at least three +hundred miles from this, and sit silent there for ten years to +come, or forever and a day perhaps! That was my poor little day +dream;--incapable of being realized. It appears, I have to stay +here, in this brick Babylon; tugging at my chains, which will +not break for me: the less I tug, the better. Ah me! On the +whole, I have written down my last course of lectures, and shall +probably print them; and you, with the aid of proof-sheets, may +again print them; that will be the easiest way of lecturing to +America! It is truly very weak to speak about that matter so +often and long, that matter of coming to you; and never to come. +_Frey ist das Herz,_ as Goethe says, _doch ist der Fuss +gebunden._ After innumerable projects, and invitations towards +all the four winds, for this summer, I have ended about a week +ago by--simply going nowhither, not even to see my dear aged +Mother, but sitting still here under the Autumn sky such as I +have it; in these vacant streets I am lonelier than elsewhere, +have more chance for composure than elsewhere! With Sterne's +starling I repeat to myself, "I can't get out."--Well, hang it, +stay in then; and let people alone of it! + +I have parted with my horse; after an experiment of seven or +eight months, most assiduously prosecuted, I came to the +conclusion that, though it did me some good, there was not +_enough_ of good to warrant such equestrianism: so I plunged +out, into green England, in the end of July, for a whole week of +riding, an _explosion_ of riding, therewith to end the business, +and send off my poor quadruped for sale. I rode over Surrey,-- +with a leather valise behind me and a mackintosh before; very +singular to see: over Sussex, down to Pevensey where the Norman +Bastard landed; I saw Julius Hare (whose _Guesses at Truth_ you +perhaps know), saw Saint Dunstan's stithy and hammer, at +Mayfield, and the very tongs with which he took the Devil by the +nose;--finally I got home again, a right wearied man; sent my +horse off to be sold, as I say; and finished the writing of my +Lectures on Heroes. This is all the rustication I have had, or +am like to have. I am now over head and ears in _Cromwellian_ +Books; studying, for perhaps the fourth time in my life, to see +if it be possible to get any credible face-to-face acquaintance +with our English Puritan period; or whether it must be left +forever a mere hearsay and echo to one. Books equal in dulness +were at no epoch of the world penned by unassisted man. +Nevertheless, courage! I have got, within the last twelve +months, actually, as it were, to _see_ that this Cromwell was one +of the greatest souls ever born of the English kin; a great +amorphous semi-articulate _Baresark;_ very interesting to me. I +grope in the dark vacuity of Baxters, Neales; thankful for here +a glimpse and there a glimpse. This is to be my reading for +some time. + +The _Dial_ No. 1 came duly: of course I read it with interest; +it is an utterance of what is purest, youngest in your land; +pure, ethereal, as the voices of the Morning! And yet--you +know me--for me it is _too_ ethereal, speculative, theoretic: +all theory becomes more and more confessedly inadequate, untrue, +unsatisfactory, almost a kind of mockery to me! I will have all +things condense themselves, take shape and body, if they are to +have my sympathy. I have a _body_ myself; in the brown leaf, +sport of the Autumn winds, I find what mocks all prophesyings, +even Hebrew ones,--Royal Societies, and Scientific Associations +eating venison at Glasgow, not once reckoned in! Nevertheless go +on with this, my Brothers. The world has many most strange +utterances of a prophetic nature in it at the present time; and +this surely is worth listening to among the rest. Do you know +English Puseyism? Good Heavens! in the whole circle of History +is there the parallel of that,--a true worship rising at this +hour of the day for Bands and the Shovel-hat? Distraction +surely, incipience of the "final deliration" enters upon the poor +old English Formulism that has called itself for some two +centuries a Church. No likelier symptom of its being soon about +to leave the world has come to light in my time. As if King +Macready should quit Covent-Garden, go down to St. Stephen's, and +insist on saying, _Le roi le veut!_--I read last night the +wonderfulest article to that effect, in the shape of a criticism +on myself, in the _Quarterly Review._ It seems to be by one +Sewell, an Oxford doctor of note, one of the chief men among the +Pusey-and-Newman Corporation. A good man, and with good notions, +whom I have noted for some years back. He finds me a very worthy +fellow; "true, most true,"--except where I part from Puseyism, +and reckon the shovel-hat to be an old bit of felt; then I am +false, most false. As the Turks say, _Allah akbar!_ + +I forget altogether what I said of Landor; but I hope I did not +put him in the Heraud category: a cockney windbag is one thing; +a scholar and bred man, though incontinent, explosive, half-true, +is another. He has not been in town, this year; Milnes +describes him as _eating_ greatly at Bath, and perhaps even +cooking! Milnes did get your Letter: I told you? Sterling has +the Concord landscape; mine is to go upon the wall here, and +remind me of many things. Sterling is busy writing; he is to +make Falmouth do, this winter, and try to dispense with Italy. +He cannot away with my doctrine of _Silence;_ the good John. My +Wife has been better than usual all summer; she begins to shiver +again as winter draws nigh. Adieu, dear Emerson. Good be with +you and yours. I must be far gone when I cease to love you. +"The stars are above us, the graves are under us." Adieu. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +LVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 October, 1840 + +My Dear Friend,--My hope is that you may live until this creeping +bookseller's balance shall incline at last to your side. My rude +ciphering, based on the last account of this kind which I sent +you in April from J. Munroe & Co., had convinced me that I was to +be in debt to you at this time L40 or more; so that I actually +bought L40 the day before the "Caledonia" sailed to send you; +but on giving my new accounts to J.M. & Co., to bring the +statement up to this time, they astonished me with the above +written result. I professed absolute incredulity, but Nichols* +labored to show me the rise and progress of all my blunders. +Please to send the account with the last to your Fraser, and have +it sifted. That I paid, a few weeks since, $481.34, and again, +$28.12, for printing and paper respectively, is true.--C.C. +Little & Co. acknowledge the sale of 82 more copies of the London +Edition _French Revolution_ since the 187 copies of July 1; but +these they do not get paid for until January 1, and we it seems +must wait as long. We will see if the New-Year's-day will bring +us more pence. + +--------- +* Partner in the firm of J. Munroe & Co. +--------- + +I received by the "Acadia" a letter from you, which I acknowledge +now, lest I should not answer it more at large on another sheet, +which I think to do. If you do not despair of American +booksellers send the new proofs of the Lectures when they are in +type to me by John Green, 121 Newgate Street (I believe), to the +care of J. Munroe & Co. He sends a box to Munroe by every +steamer. I sent a _Dial,_ No. 2, for you, to Green. Kennet, I +hear, has failed. I hope he did not give his creditors my +_Miscellanies,_ which you told me were there. I shall be glad if +you will draw Cromwell, though if I should choose it would be +Carlyle. You will not feel that you have done your work until +those devouring eyes and that portraying hand have achieved +England in the Nineteenth Century. Perhaps you cannot do it +until you have made your American visit. I assure you the view +of Britain is excellent from New England. + +We are all a little wild here with numberless projects of social +reform. Not a reading man but has a draft of a new Community in +his waistcoat pocket. I am gently mad myself, and am resolved to +live cleanly. George Ripley is talking up a colony of +agriculturists and scholars, with whom he threatens to take the +field and the book.* One man renounces the use of animal food; +and another of coin; and another of domestic hired service; and +another of the State; and on the whole we have a commendable +share of reason and hope. + +----------- +* Preliminary to the experiment of Brook Farm, in 1841. +----------- + +I am ashamed to tell you, though it seems most due, anything of +my own studies, they seem so desultory, idle, and unproductive. +I still hope to print a book of essays this winter, but it cannot +be very large. I write myself into letters, the last few months, +to three or four dear and beautiful persons, my country-men and +women here. I lit my candle at both ends, but will now be colder +and scholastic. I mean to write no lectures this winter. I hear +gladly of your wife's better health; and a letter of Jane +Tuckerman's, which I saw, gave the happiest tidings of her. We +do not despair of seeing her yet in Concord, since it is now but +twelve and a half days to you. + +I had a letter from Sterling, which I will answer. In all love +and good hope for you and yours, your affectionate + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +LIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 9 December, 1840 + +Dear Emerson,--My answer on this occasion has been delayed above +two weeks by a rigorous, searching investigation into the +procedure of the hapless Book-conveyer, Kennet, in reference to +that copy of the _Miscellanies._ I was deceived by hopes of a +conclusive response from day to day; not till yesterday did any +come. My first step, taken long ago, was to address a new copy +of the Book, not to you, luckless man, but to _Lydia_ Emerson, +the fortunate wife; this copy Green now has lying by him, +waiting for the January Steamer (we sail only once a month in +this season); before the New Year has got out of infancy the +Lady will be graciously pleased to make a few inches of room on +her bookshelves for this celebrated performance. And now as to +Kennet, take the brief outcome of some dozen visitations, +judicial interrogatories, searches of documents, and other +piercing work on the part of methodic Fraser, attended with +demurrers, pleadings, false denials, false affirmings, on the +part of innocent chaotic Kennet: namely, that the said Kennet, +so urged, did in the end of the last week, fish up from his +repositories your very identical Book directed to Munroe's care, +duly booked and engaged for, in May last, but left to repose +itself in the Covent-Garden crypts ever since without disturbance +from gods or men! Fraser has brought back the Book, and you have +lost it;--and the Library of my native village in Scotland is to +get it; and not Kennet any more in this world, but Green ever +henceforth is to be our Book Carrier. There is a history. +Green, it seems, addresses also to Munroe; but the thing, I +suppose, will now shift for itself without watching. + +As to the bibliopolic Accounts, my Friend! we will trust them, +with a faith known only in the purer ages of Roman Catholicism,-- +when Papacy had indeed become a Dubiety, but was not yet a +Quackery and Falsehood, was a thing _as_ true as it could manage +to be! That really may be the fact of this too. In any case +what signifies it much? Money were still useful; but it is not +now so indispensable. Booksellers by their knavery or their +fidelity cannot kill us or cure us. Of the truth of Waldo +Emerson's heart to me, there is, God be thanked for it, no doubt +at all. + +My Hero-Lectures lie still in Manuscript. Fraser offers no +amount of cash adequate to be an outward motive; and inwardly +there is as yet none altogether clear, though I rather feel of +late as if it were clearing. To fly in the teeth of English +Puseyism, and risk such shrill welcome as I am pretty sure of, is +questionable: yet at bottom why not? Dost thou not as entirely +reject this new Distraction of a Puseyism as man can reject a +thing,--and couldst utterly abjure it, and even abhor it,--were +the shadow of a cobweb ever likely to become momentous, the +cobweb itself being _beheaded,_ with axe and block on Tower Hill, +two centuries ago? I think it were as well to _tell_ Puseyism +that it has something of good, but also much of bad and even +worst. We shall see. If I print the thing, we shall surely take +in America again; either by stereotype or in some other way. +Fear not that!--Do you attend at all to this new _Laudism_ of +ours? It spreads far and wide among our Clergy in these days; a +most notable symptom, very cheering to me many ways; whether or +not one of the fatalest our poor Church of England has ever +exhibited, and betokening swifter ruin to it than any other, I do +not inquire. Thank God, men do discover at last that there is +still a God present in their affairs, and must be, or their +affairs are of the Devil, naught, and worthy of being sent to the +Devil! This once given, I find that all is given; daily +History, in Kingdom and in Parish, is an _experimentum crucis_ to +show what is the Devil's and what not. But on the whole are we +not the _formalest_ people ever created under this Sun? Cased +and overgrown with Formulas, like very lobsters with their +shells, from birth upwards; so that in the man we see only his +breeches, and believe and swear that wherever a pair of old +breeches are there is a man! I declare I could both laugh and +cry. These poor good men, merciful, zealous, with many +sympathies and thoughts, there do they vehemently appeal to me, +_Et tu, Brute?_ Brother, wilt thou too insist on the breeches +being old,--not ply a needle among us here?--To the naked +Caliban, gigantic, for whom such breeches would not be a glove, +who is stalking and groping there in search of new breeches and +accoutrements, sure to get them, and to tread into nonentity +whoever hinders him in the search,--they are blind as if they had +no eyes. Sartorial men; ninth-parts of a man:--enough of them. + +The second Number of the _Dial_ has also arrived some days ago. +I like it decidedly better than the first; in fact, it is right +well worth being put on paper, and sent circulating;--I find +only, as before that it is still too much of a soul for +circulating as it should. I wish you could in future contrive to +mark at the end of each Article who writes it, or give me some +general key for knowing. I recognize Emerson readily; the rest +are of [Greek] for most part. But it is all good and very good +as a _soul;_ wants only a body, which want means a great deal! +Your Paper on Literature is incomparably the worthiest thing +hitherto; a thing I read with delight. Speak out, my brave +Emerson; there are many good men that listen! Even what you +say of Goethe gratifies me; it is one of the few things yet +spoken of him from personal insight, the sole kind of things that +should be spoken! You call him _actual,_ not _ideal;_ there is +truth in that too; and yet at bottom is not the whole truth +rather this: The actual well-seen _is_ the ideal? The _actual,_ +what really is and exists: the past, the present, the future no +less, do all lie there! Ah yes! one day you will find that this +sunny-looking, courtly Goethe held veiled in him a Prophetic +sorrow deep as Dante's,--all the nobler to me and to you, that he +_could_ so hold it. I believe this; no man can _see_ as he +sees, that has not suffered and striven as man seldom did.-- +Apropos of _this,_ Have you got Miss Martineau's _Hour and Man?_ +How curious it were to have the real History of the Negro +Toussaint, and his _black_ Sansculottism in Saint Domingo,--the +most atrocious form Sansculottism could or can assume! This of a +"black Wilberforce-Washington," as Sterling calls it, is +decidedly something. Adieu, dear Emerson: time presses, paper +is done. Commend me to your good wife, your good Mother, and +love me as well as you can. Peace and health under clear winter +skies be with you all. + + --T. Carlyle + +My Wife rebukes me sharply that I have "forgot her love." She is +much better this winter than of old. + +Having mentioned Sterling I should say that he is at Torquay +(Devonshire) for the winter, meditating new publication of Poems. +I work still in Cromwellism; all but desperate of any feasible +issue worth naming. I "enjoy bad health" too, considerably! + + + + +LX. Carlyle to Mrs. Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 21 February, 1841 + +Dear Mrs. Emerson,--Your Husband's Letter shall have answer when +some moment of leisure is granted me; he will wait till then, +and must. But the beautiful utterance which you send over to me; +melodious as the voice of flutes, of Aeolian Harps borne on the +rude winds so _far,_--this must have answer, some word or +growl of answer, be there leisure or none! The "Acadia," it +seems, is to return from Liverpool the day after tomorrow. I +shove my paper-whirlpools aside for a little, and grumble in +pleased response. + +You are an enthusiast; make Arabian Nights out of dull foggy +London Days; with your beautiful female imagination, shape +burnished copper Castles out of London Fog! It is very beautiful +of you;--nay, it is not foolish either, it is wise. I have a +guess what of truth there may be in that; and you the fair +Alchemist, are you not all the richer and better that you know +the _essential_ gold, and will not have it called pewter or +spelter, though in the shops it is only such? I honor such +Alchemy, and love it; and have myself done something in that +kind. Long may the talent abide with you; long may I abide to +have it exercised on me! Except the Annandale Farm where my good +Mother still lives, there is no House in all this world which I +should be gladder to see than the one at Concord. It seems to +stand as only over the hill, in the next Parish to me, familiar +from boyhood. Alas! and wide-waste Atlantics roll between; and +I cannot walk over of an evening!--I never give up the hope of +getting thither some time. Were I a little richer, were I +a little healthier; were I this and that--!--One has no +Fortunatus' "Time-annihilating" or even "Space-annihilating Hat": +it were a thing worth having in this world. + +My Wife unites with me in all kindest acknowledgments: she is +getting stronger these last two years; but is still such a +_sailor_ as the Island hardly parallels: had she the _Space- +annihilating Hat,_ she too were soon with you. +Your message shall reach Miss Martineau; my Dame will send it in +her first Letter. The good Harriet is not well; but keeps a +very courageous heart. She lives by the shore of the beautiful +blue Northumbrian Sea; a "many-sounding" solitude which I often +envy her. She writes unweariedly, has many friends visiting her. +You saw her _Toussaint l'Ouverture:_ how she has made such a +beautiful "black Washington," or "Washington-Christ-Macready," as +I have heard some call it, of a rough-handed, hard-headed, semi- +articulate gabbling Negro; and of the horriblest phasis that +"Sansculottism" _can_ exhibit, of a Black Sansculottism, a +musical Opera or Oratorio in pink stockings! It is very +beautiful. Beautiful as a child's heart,--and in so shrewd a +head as that. She is now writing express Children's-Tales, which +I calculate I shall find more perfect. + +Some ten days ago there went from me to Liverpool, perhaps there +will arrive at Concord by this very "Acadia," a bundle of Printed +Sheets directed to your Husband: pray apprise the man of that. +They are sheets of a Volume called _Lectures on Heroes;_ the +Concord Hero gets them without direction or advice of any kind. +I have got some four sheets more ready for him here; shall +perhaps send them too, along with this. Some four again more +will complete the thing. I know not what he will make of it;-- +perhaps wry faces at it? + +Adieu, dear Mrs. Emerson. We salute you from this house. May +all good which the Heavens grant to a kind heart, and the good +which they never _refuse_ to one such, abide with you always. I +commend myself to your and Emerson's good Mother, to the +mischievous Boys and--all the Household. Peace and fair Spring- +weather be there! + +Yours with great regard, + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 28 February, 1841 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Behold Mr. George Nichols's new digest and +exegesis of his October accounts. The letter seems to me the +most intelligible of the two papers, but I have long been that +man's victim, semi-annually, and never dare to make head against +his figures. You are a brave man, and out of the ring of his +enchantments, and withal have magicians of your own who can give +spell for spell, and read his incantations backward. I entreat +you to set them on the work, and convict his figures if you +can. He has really taken pains, and is quite proud of his +establishment of his accounts. In a month it will be April, and +be will have a new one to fender. Little and Brown also in April +promise a payment on _French Revolution,_--and I suppose +something is due from _Chartism._ We will hope that a Bill of +Exchange will yet cross from us to you, before our booksellers +fail. + +I hoped before this to have reached my last proofsheet, but shall +have two or three more yet. In a fortnight or three weeks my +little raft will be afloat.* Expect nothing more of my powers of +construction,--no shipbuilding, no clipper, smack, nor skiff +even, only boards and logs tied together. I read to some +Mechanics' Apprentices a long lecture on Reform, one evening, a +little while ago. They asked me to print it, but Margaret Fuller +asked it also, and I preferred the _Dial,_ which shall have the +dubious sermon, and I will send it to you in that.--You see the +bookseller reverendizes me notwithstanding your laudable +perseverance to adorn me with profane titles, on the one hand, +and the growing habit of the majority of my correspondents to +clip my name of all titles on the other. I desire that you and +your wife will keep your kindness for + + --R. W. Emerson + +---------- +* The first series of _Essays._ +---------- + + + + +LXII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, 30 April, 1841 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Above you have a bill of exchange for one +hundred pounds sterling drawn by T.W. Ward & Co. on the Messrs. +Barings, payable at sight. Let us hope it is but the first of a +long series. I have vainly endeavored to get your account to be +rendered by Munroe & Co. to the date of the 1st of April. It was +conditionally promised for the day of the last steamer (15 +April). It is not ready for that which sails tomorrow and +carries this. Little & Co. acknowledge a debt of $607.90 due to +you 1st of April, and just now paid me; and regret that their +sales have been so slow, which they attribute to the dulness of +all trade among us for the last two years. You shall have the +particulars of their account from Munroe's statement of the +account between you and me. Munroe & Co. have a long apology for +not rendering their own account; their book keeper left them at +a critical moment, they were without one six weeks, &c.;--but +they add, if we could give you it, to what use, since we should +be utterly unable to make you any payment at this time? To what +use, surely? I am too much used to similar statements from +our booksellers and others in the last few years to be much +surprised; nor do I doubt their readiness or their power to pay +all their debts at last; but a great deal of mutual concession +and accommodation has been the familiar resort of our tradesmen +now for a good while, a vice which they are all fain to lay at +the doors of the Government, whilst it belongs in the first +instance, no doubt, to the rashness of the individual traders. +These men I believe to be prudent, honest, and solvent, and that +we shall get all our debt from them at last. They are not +reckoned as rich as Little and Brown. By the next steamer they +think they can promise to have their account ready. I am sorry +to find that we have been driven from the market by the New +York Pirates in the affair of the Six Lectures.* The book was +received from London and for sale in New York and Boston before +my last sheets arrived by the "Columbia." Appleton in New York +braved us and printed it, and furthermore told us that he intends +to print in future everything of yours that shall be printed in +London,--complaining in rude terms of the monopoly your +publishers here exercise, and the small commissions they allow to +the trade, &c., &c. Munroe showed me the letter, which certainly +was not an amiable one. In this distress, then, I beg you, when +you have more histories and lectures to print, to have the +manuscript copied by a scrivener before you print at home, and +send it out to me, and I will keep all Appletons and Corsairs +whatsoever out of the lists. Not only these men made a book (of +which, by the by, Munroe sends you by this steamer a copy, which +you will find at John Green's, Newgate Street), but the New York +newspapers print the book in chapters, and you circulate for six +cents per newspaper at the corners of all streets in New York and +Boston; gaining in fame what you lose in coin.--The book is a +good book, and goes to make men brave and happy. I bear glad +witness to its cheering and arming quality. + +--------- +* "Heroes and Hero-Worship." +--------- + +I have put into Munroe's box which goes to Green a _Dial_ No. 4 +also, which I could heartily wish were a better book. But +Margaret Fuller, who is a noble woman, is not in sufficiently +vigorous health to do this editing work as she would and should, +and there is no other who can and will. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +LXIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 8 May, 1841 + +My Dear Emerson,--Your last letter found me on the southern +border of Yorkshire, whither Richard Milnes had persuaded me with +him, for the time they call "Easter Holidays" here. I was to +shake off the remnants of an ugly _Influenza_ which still hung +about me; my little portmanteau, unexpectedly driven in again by +perverse accidents, had stood packed, its cowardly owner, the +worst of all travelers, standing dubious the while, for two weeks +or more; Milnes offering to take me as under his cloak, I went +with Milnes. The mild, cordial, though something dilettante +nature of the man distinguishes him for me among men, as men go. +For ten days I rode or sauntered among Yorkshire fields and +knolls; the sight of the young Spring, new to me these seven +years, was beautiful, or better than beauty. Solitude itself, +the great Silence of the Earth, was as balm to this weary, sick +heart of mine; not Dragons of Wantley (so they call Lord +Wharncliffe, the wooden Tory man), not babbling itinerant +Barrister people, fox-hunting Aristocracy, nor Yeomanry Captains +cultivating milk-white mustachios, nor the perpetual racket, and +"dinner at eight o'clock," could altogether countervail the fact +that green Earth was around one and unadulterated sky overhead, +and the voice of waters and birds,--not the foolish speech of +Cockneys at _all_ times!--On the last morning, as Richard and I +drove off towards the railway, your Letter came in, just in time; +and Richard, who loves you well, hearing from whom it was, asked +with such an air to see it that I could not refuse him. We +parted at the "station," flying each his several way on the wings +of Steam; and have not yet met again. I went over to Leeds, +staid two days with its steeple-chimneys and smoke-volcano still +in view; then hurried over to native Annandale, to see my aged +excellent Mother yet again in this world while she is spared to +me. My birth-land is always as the Cave of Trophonius to me; I +return from it with a haste to which the speed of Steam is slow, +--with no smile on my face; avoiding all speech with men! It is +not yet eight-and-forty hours since I got back; your Letter is +among the first I answer, even with a line; your new Book--But +we will not yet speak of that.... + +My Friend, I _thank_ you for this Volume of yours; not for the +copy alone which you send to me, but for writing and printing +such a Book. _Euge!_ say I, from afar. The voice of one crying +in the desert;--it is once more the voice of a _man._ Ah me! I +feel as if in the wide world there were still but this one voice +that responded intelligently to my own; as if the rest were all +hearsays, melodious or unmelodious echoes; as if this alone were +true and alive. My blessing on you, good Ralph Waldo! I read +the Book all yesterday; my Wife scarcely yet done with telling +me her news. It has rebuked me, it has aroused and comforted me. +Objections of all kinds I might make, how many objections to +superficies and detail, to a dialect of thought and speech as yet +imperfect enough, a hundred-fold too narrow for the Infinitude it +strives to speak: but what were all that? It is an Infinitude, +the real vision and belief of one, seen face to face: a "voice +of the heart of Nature" is here once more. This is the one fact +for me, which absorbs all others whatsoever. Persist, persist; +you have much to say and to do. These voices of yours which I +likened to unembodied souls, and censure sometimes for having no +body,--how can they have a body? They are light-rays darting +upwards in the East; they will yet make much and much to have a +body! You are a new era, my man, in your new huge country: God +give you strength, and speaking and silent faculty, to do such a +work as seems possible now for you! And if the Devil will be +pleased to set all the Popularities _against_ you and evermore +against you,--perhaps that is of all things the very kindest any +_Angel_ could do. + +Of myself I have nothing good to report. Years of sick idleness +and barrenness have grown wearisome to me. I do nothing. I +waver and hover, and painfully speculate even now as to health, +and where I shall spend the summer out of London! I am a very +poor fellow;--but hope to grow better by and by. Then this +_alluvies_ of foul lazy stuff that has long swum over me may +perhaps yield the better harvest. _Esperons!_--Hail to all of +you from both of us. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 21 May, 1841 + +My Dear Emerson,--About a week ago I wrote to you, after too long +a silence. Since that there has another Letter come, with a +Draft of L100 in it, and other comfortable items not pecuniary; +a line in acknowledgment of the money is again very clearly among +my duties. Yesterday, on my first expedition up to Town, I gave +the Paper to Fraser; who is to present the result to me in the +shape of cash tomorrow. Thanks, and again thanks. This L100, I +think, nearly clears off for me the outlay of the second _French +Revolution;_ an ill-printed, ill-conditioned publication, the +prime cost of which, once all lying saved from the Atlantic +whirlpools and hard and fast in my own hand, it was not perhaps +well done to venture thitherward again. To the new trouble of my +friends withal! We will now let the rest of the game play itself +out as it can; and my friends, and my one friend, must not take +more trouble than their own kind feelings towards me will reward. + +The Books, the _Dial_ No. 4, and Appleton's pirated _Lectures,_ +are still expected from Green. In a day or two he will send +them: if not, we will jog him into wakefulness, and remind him +of the _Parcels Delivery Company,_ which carries luggage of all +kinds, like mere letters, many times a day, over all corners of +our Babylon. In this, in the universal British _Penny Post,_ and +a thing or two of that sort, men begin to take advantage of their +crowded ever-whirling condition in these days, which brings such +enormous disadvantages along with it _un_sought for.-- +Bibliopolist Appleton does not seem to be a "Hero,"--except after +his own fashion. He is one of those of whom the Scotch say, +"Thou wouldst do little for God if the Devil were dead!" The +Devil is unhappily dead, in that international bibliopolic +province, and little hope of his reviving for some time; +whereupon this is what Squire Appleton does. My respects to him +even in the Bedouin department, I like to see a complete man, a +clear decisive Bedouin. + +For the rest, there is one man who ought to be apprised that I +can now stand robbery a little better; that I am no longer so +very poor as I once was. In Fraser himself there do now lie +vestiges of money! I feel it a great relief to see, for a year +or two at least, the despicable bugbear of Beggary driven out of +my sight; for _which_ small mercy, at any rate, be the Heavens +thanked. Fraser himself, for these two editions, One thousand +copies each, of the Lectures and _Sartor,_ pays me down on the +nail L150; consider that miracle! Of the other Books which he +is selling on a joint-stock basis, the poor man likewise promises +something, though as yet, ever since New-Year's-day, I cannot +learn what, owing to a grievous sickness of his,--for which +otherwise I cannot but be sorry, poor Fraser within the Cockney +limits being really a worthy, accurate, and rather friendly +creature. So you see me here provided with bread and water for a +season,--it is but for a season one needs either water or bread, +--and rejoice with me accordingly. It is the one useful, nay, I +will say the one _innoxious,_ result of all this trumpeting, +reviewing, and dinner-invitationing; from which I feel it +indispensable to withdraw myself more and more resolutely, and +altogether count it as a thing not there. Solitude is what I +long and pray for. In the babble of men my own soul goes all to +babble: like soil you were forever _screening,_ tumbling over +with shovels and riddles; in _which_ soil no fruit can grow! My +trust in Heaven is, I shall yet get away "to some cottage by the +sea-shore"; far enough from all the mad and mad making things +that dance round me here, which I shall then look on only as a +theatrical phantasmagory, with an eye only to the _meaning_ that +lies hidden in it. You, friend Emerson, are to be a Farmer, you +say, and dig Earth for your living? Well; I envy you that as +much as any other of your blessednesses. Meanwhile, I sit shrunk +together here in a small _dressing-closet,_ aloft in the back +part of the house, excluding all cackle and cockneys; and, +looking out over the similitude of a May grove (with little brick +in it, and only the minarets of Westminster and gilt cross of St. +Paul's visible in the distance, and the enormous roar of London +softened into an enormous hum), endeavor to await what will +betide. I am busy with Luther in one Marheinecke's very long- +winded Book. I think of innumerable things; steal out westward +at sunset among the Kensington lanes; would this _May_ weather +last, I might be as well here as in any attainable place. But +June comes; the rabid dogs get muzzles; all is brown-parched, +dusty, suffocating, desperate, and I shall have to run! Enough +of all that. On my paper there comes, or promises to come, +as yet simply nothing at all. Patience;--and yet who can +be patient? + +Had you the happiness to see yourself not long ago, in _Fraser's +Magazine,_ classed _nominatim_ by an emphatic earnest man, not +without a kind of splay-footed strength and sincerity,--among the +chief Heresiarchs of the--world? Perfectly right. Fraser was +very anxious to know what I thought of the Paper,--"by an +entirely unknown man in the country." I counseled "that there +was something in him, which he ought to improve by holding his +peace for the next five years." + +Adieu, dear Emerson; there is not a scrap more of Paper. All +copies of your _Essays_ are out at use; with what result we +shall perhaps see. As for me I love the Book and man, and their +noble rustic herohood and manhood:--one voice as of a living man +amid such jabberings of galvanized corpses: _Ach Gott!_ + +Yours evermore, + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 80 May, 1841 + +My Dear Friend,--In my letter written to you on the 1st of May +(enclosing a bill of exchange of L100 sterling, which, I hope, +arrived safely) I believe I promised to send you by the next +steamer an account for April. But the false tardy Munroe & Co. +did not send it to me until one day too late. Here it is, as +they render it, compiled from Little and Brown's statement and +their own. I have never yet heard whether you have received +their _Analysis_ or explanation of the last abstract they drew up +of the mutual claims between the great houses of T.C. and R.W.E., +and I am impatient to know whether you have caused it to be +examined, and whether it was satisfactory. This new one is based +on that, and if that was incorrect, this must be also. I am +daily looking for some letter from you, which is perhaps near at +hand. If you have not written, write me exactly and immediately +on this subject, I entreat you. You will see that in this sheet +I am charged with a debt to you of $184.29. I shall tomorrow +morning pay to Mr. James Brown (of Little and Brown), who should +be the bearer of this letter, $185.00, which sum he will pay +you in its equivalent of English coin. I give Mr. Brown an +introductory letter to you, and you must not let slip the +opportunity to make the man explain his own accounts, if any +darkness hang on them. In due time, perhaps, we can send you +Munroe, and Nichols also, and so all your factors shall render +direct account of themselves to you. I believe I shall also make +Brown the bearer of a little book written some time since by a +young friend of mine in a very peculiar frame of mind,--thought +by most persons to be mad,--and of the publication of which I +took the charge.* Mr. Very requested me to send you a copy.--I +had a letter from Sterling, lately, which rejoiced me in all but +the dark picture it gave of his health. I earnestly wish good +news of him. When you see him, show him these poems, and ask him +if they have not a grandeur. + +--------- +* _Essays and Poems,_ by Jones Very,--a little volume, the work +of an exquisite spirit. Some of the poems it contains are as if +written by a George Herbert who had studied Shakespeare, read +Wordsworth, and lived in America. +--------- + +When I wrote last, I believe all the sheets of the Six Lectures +had not come to me. They all arrived safely, although the last +package not until our American pirated copy was just out of press +in New York. My private reading was not less happy for this +robbery whereby the eager public were supplied. Odin was all new +to me; and Mahomet, for the most part; and it was all good to +read, abounding in truth and nobleness. Yet, as I read these +pages, I dream that your audience in London are less prepared to +hear, than is our New England one. I judge only from the tone. +I think I know many persons here who accept thoughts of this vein +so readily now, that, if you were speaking on this shore, you +would not feel that emphasis you use to be necessary. I have +been feeble and almost sick during all the spring, and have been +in Boston but once or twice, and know nothing of the reception +the book meets from the Catholic Carlylian Church. One reader +and friend of yours dwells now in my house, and, as I hope, for a +twelvemonth to come,--Henry Thoreau,--a poet whom you may one +day be proud of;--a noble, manly youth, full of melodies and +inventions. We work together day by day in my garden, and I grow +well and strong. My mother, my wife, my boy and girl, are all in +usual health, and according to their several ability salute you +and yours. Do not cease to tell me of the health of your wife +and of the learned and friendly physician. + +Yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +LXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 25 June, 1841 + +Dear Emerson,--Now that there begins again to be some program +possible of my future motions for some time, I hastily despatch +you some needful outline of the same. + +After infinite confused uncertainty, I learn yesternight that +there has been a kind of country-house got for us, at a place +called Annan, on the north shore of the Solway Frith, in my +native County of Dumfries. You passed through the little Burgh, +I suppose, in your way homeward from Craigenputtock: it stands +about midway, on the great road, between Dumfries and Carlisle. +It is the place where I got my schooling;--consider what a +_preter_natural significance such a scene has now got for me! It +is within eight miles of my aged Mother's dwelling-place; within +riding distance, in fact, of almost all the Kindred I have in the +world.--The house, which is built since my time, and was never +yet seen by me, is said to be a reasonable kind of house. We get +it for a small sum in proportion to its value (thanks to kind +accident); the three hundred miles of travel, very hateful to +me, will at least entirely obliterate all traces of _this_ Dust- +Babel; the place too being naturally almost ugly, as far as a +green leafy place in sight of sea and mountains can be so +nicknamed, the whole gang of picturesque Tourists, Cockney +friends of Nature, &c., &c., who penetrate now by steam, in +shoals every autumn, into the very centre of the Scotch Highlands, +will be safe over the horizon! In short, we are all bound +thitherward in few days; must cobble up some kind of gypsy +establishment; and bless Heaven for solitude, for the sight of +green fields, heathy moors; for a silent sky over one's head, +and air to breathe which does not consist of coal-smoke, finely +powdered flint, and other beautiful _etceteras_ of that kind +among others! God knows I have need enough to be left altogether +alone for some considerable while (_forever,_ as it at present +seems to me), to get my inner world, and my poor bodily nerves, +both all torn to pieces, set in order a little again! After much +vain reluctance therefore; disregarding many considerations,-- +disregarding _finance_ in the front of these,--I am off; and +calculate on staying till I am heartily _sated_ with country, +till at least the last gleam of summer weather has departed. My +way of life has all along hitherto been a resolute _staying at +home:_ I find now, however, that I must alter my habits, cost +what it may; that I cannot live all the year round in London, +under pain of dying or going rabid;--that I must, in fact, learn +to travel, as others do, and be hanged to me! Wherefore, in +brief, my Friend, our address for the next two or three months is +"Newington Lodge, Annan, Scotland,"--where a letter from Emerson +will be a right pleasant visitor! _Faustum sit._ + +My second piece of news, not less interesting I hope, is that +_Emerson's Essays,_ the Book so called, is to be reprinted here; +nay, I think, is even now at press,--in the hands of that +invaluable Printer, Robson, who did the _Miscellanies._ Fraser +undertakes it, "on _half-profits_";--T. Carlyle writing a +Preface,*--which accordingly he did (in rather sullen humor,--not +with you!) last night and the foregoing days. Robson will stand +by the text to the very utmost; and I also am to read the Proof +sheets. The edition is of Seven Hundred and Fifty; which Fraser +thinks he will sell. With what joy shall I then sack up the +small Ten Pounds Sterling perhaps of "Half-Profits," and remit +them to the man Emerson; saying: There, Man! Tit for tat, the +reciprocity _not_ all on one side!--I ought to say, moreover, +that this was a volunteer scheme of Fraser's; the risk is all +his, the origin of it was with him: I advised him to have it +reviewed, as being a really noteworthy Book; "Write you a +Preface," said he, "and I will reprint it";--to which, after due +delay and meditation; I consented. Let me add only, on this +subject, the story of a certain Rio,** a French Breton, with +long, distracted, black hair. He found your Book at Richard +Milnes's, a borrowed copy, and could not borrow it; whereupon he +appeals passionately to me; carries off my Wife's copy, this +distracted Rio; and is to "read it _four_ times" during this +current autumn, at Quimperle, in his native Celtdom! The man +withal is a _Catholic,_ eats fish on Friday;--a great lion here +when he visits us; one of the _naivest_ men in the world: +concerning whom nevertheless, among fashionables, there is a +controversy, "Whether he is an Angel, or partially a Windbag and +_Humbug?_" Such is the lot of loveliness in the World! A truer +man I never saw; how _wind_less, how windy, I will not compute +at present. Me he likes greatly (in spite of my unspeakable +contempt for his fish on Friday); likes,--but withal is apt +to bore. + +---------- +* The greater part of this interesting Preface is reprinted in +Mr. George Willis Cooke's excellent book on the _Life, Writings, +and Philosophy of Emerson,_ Boston, 1881, p. 109. + +** The author of a book once much admired, _De 'l'Art Chretien._ +In a later work entitled _Epilogue a l'Art Chretien,_ but +actually a sort of autobiography, written in the naivest spirit +of personal conceit and pious sentimentalism, M. Rio gives an +exceedingly entertaining account of his intercourse with Carlyle. +---------- + +Enough, dear Emerson; and more than enough for a day so hurried. +Our Island is all in a ferment electioneering: Tories to come +in;--perhaps not to come in; at all events not to stay long, +without altering their figure much! I sometimes ask myself +rather earnestly, What is the duty of a citizen? To be as I have +been hitherto, a pacific _Alien?_ That is the _easiest,_ with my +humor!--Our brave Dame here, just rallying for the _remove,_ +sends loving salutations. Good be with you all always. Adieu, +dear Emerson. + + --T. Carlyle + +Appleton's Book of _Hero-Worship_ has come; for which pray thank +Mr. Munroe for me: it is smart on the surface; but printed +altogether scandalously! + + + + +LXVII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 July, 1841 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Eight days ago--when I had gone to Nantasket +Beach, to sit by the sea and inhale its air and refresh this puny +body of mine--came to me your letter, all bounteous as all your +letters are, generous to a fault, generous to the shaming of me, +cold, fastidious, ebbing person that I am. Already in a former +letter you had said too much good of my poor little arid book,-- +which is as sand to my eyes,--and now in this you tell me it +shall be printed in London, and graced with a preface from the +man of men. I can only say that I heartily wish the book were +better, and I must try and deserve so much favor from the kind +gods by a bolder and truer living in the months to come; such as +may perchance one day relax and invigorate this cramp hand of +mine, and teach it to draw some grand and adequate strokes, which +other men may find their own account and not their good-nature in +repeating. Yet I think I shall never be killed by my ambition. +I behold my failures and shortcomings there in writing, wherein +it would give me much joy to thrive, with an equanimity which my +worst enemy might be glad to see. And yet it is not that I am +occupied with better things. One could well leave to others the +record, who was absorbed in the life. But I have done nothing. +I think the branch of the "tree of life" which headed to a bud in +me, curtailed me somehow of a drop or two of sap, and so dwarfed +all my florets and drupes. Yet as I tell you I am very easy in +my mind, and never dream of suicide. My whole philosophy--which +is very real--teaches acquiescence and optimism. Only when I see +how much work is to be done, what room for a poet--for any +spiritualist--in this great, intelligent, sensual, and avaricious +America, I lament my fumbling fingers and stammering tongue. I +have sometimes fancied I was to catch sympathetic activity from +contact with noble persons; that you would come and see me; +that I should form stricter habits of love and conversation with +some men and women here who are already dear to me,--and at some +rate get off the numb palsy, and feel the new blood sting and +tingle in my fingers' ends. Well, sure I am that the right word +will be spoken though I cut out my tongue. Thanks, too, to your +munificent Fraser for his liberal intention to divide the profits +of the _Essays._ I wish, for the encouragement of such a +bookseller, there were to be profits to divide. But I have no +faith in your public for their heed to a mere book like mine. +There are things I should like to say to them, in a lecture-room +or in a "steeple house," if I were there. Seven hundred and +fifty copies! Ah no! + +And so my dear brother has quitted the roaring city, and gone +back in peace to his own land,--not the man he left it, but +richer every way, chiefly in the sense of having done something +valiantly and well, which the land, and the lands, and all that +wide elastic English race in all their dispersion, will know and +thank him for. The holy gifts of nature and solitude be showered +upon you! Do you not believe that the fields and woods have +their proper virtue, and that there are good and great things +which will not be spoken in the city? I give you joy in your new +and rightful home, and the same greetings to Jane Carlyle! with +thanks and hopes and loves to you both. + + --R.W. Emerson + +As usual at this season of the year, I, incorrigible spouting +Yankee, am writing an oration to deliver to the boys in one of +our little country colleges, nine days hence.* You will say I do +not deserve the aid of any Muse. O but if you knew how natural +it is to me to run to these places! Besides, I always am lured +on by the hope of saying something which shall stick by the good +boys. I hope Brown did not fail to find you, with thirty-eight +sovereigns (I believe) which he should carry you. + +---------- +* "The Method of Nature. An Address to the Society of the +Adelphi, in Waterville College, Maine, August 11, 1841." +---------- + + + + +LXVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Newby, Annan, Scotland, 18 August, 1841 + +My Dear Emerson,--Two days ago your Letter, direct from +Liverpool, reached me here; only fifteen days after date on the +other side of the Ocean: one of the swiftest messengers that +have yet come from you. Steamers have been known to come, they +say, in nine days. By and by we shall visibly be, what I always +say we virtually are, members of neighboring Parishes; paying +continual visits to one another. What is to hinder huge London +from being to universal Saxondom what small Mycale was to the +Tribes of Greece,--a place to hold your [Greek] in? A meeting of +_All the English_ ought to be as good as one of All the Ionians; +--and as Homeric "equal ships" are to Bristol steamers, so, or +somewhat so, may New York and New Holland be to Ephesus and +Crete, with their distances, relations, and etceteras!--Few +things on this Earth look to me greater than the Future of that +Family of Men. + +It is some two months since I got into this region; my Wife +followed me with her maid and equipments some five weeks ago. +Newington Lodge, when I came to inspect it with eyes, proved to +be too rough an undertaking: upholsterers, expense and +confusion,--the Cynic snarled, "Give me a whole Tub rather! I +want nothing but shelter from the elements, and to be let alone +of all men." After a little groping, this little furnished +cottage, close by the beach of the Solway Frith, was got hold of: +here we have been, in absolute seclusion, for a month,--no +company but the corn-fields and the everlasting sands and brine; +mountains, and thousand-voiced memories on all hands, sending +their regards to one, from the distance. Daily (sometimes even +nightly!) I have swashed about in the sea; I have been perfectly +idle, at least inarticulate; I fancy I feel myself considerably +sounder of body and of mind. Deeply do I agree with you in the +great unfathomable meaning of a colloquy with the dumb Ocean, +with the dumb Earth, and their eloquence! A Legislator would +prescribe some weeks of that annually as a religious duty for all +mortals, if he could. A Legislator will prescribe it for +himself, since he can! You too have been at Nantasket; my +Friend, this great rough purple sea-flood that roars under my +little garret-window here, this too comes from Nantasket and +farther,--swung hitherward by the Moon and the Sun. + +It cannot be said that I feel "happy" here, which means joyful;-- +as far as possible from that. The Cave of Trophonius could not +be grimmer for one than this old Land of Graves. But it is a +sadness worth any hundred "happinesses." _N'en parlons plus._ +By the way, have you ever clearly remarked withal what a +despicable function "view-hunting" is. Analogous to +"philanthropy," "pleasures of virtue," &c., &c. I for my part, +in these singular circumstances, often find an honestly ugly +country the preferable one. Black eternal peat-bog, or these +waste-howling sands with mews and seagulls: you meet at least no +Cockney to exclaim, "How charming it is!" + +One of the last things I did in London was to pocket Bookseller +Brown's L38: a very honest-looking man, that Brown; whom I was +sorry I could not manage to welcome better. You asked in that +Letter about some other item of business,--Munroe's or Brown's +account to acknowledge?--something or other that I was to _do:_ +I only remember vaguely that it seemed to me I had as good as +done it. Your Letter is not here now, but at Chelsea. + +Three sheets of the _Essays_ lay waiting me at my Mother's, for +correction; needing as good as none. The type and shape is the +same as that of late _Lectures on Heroes._ Robson the Printer, +who is a very punctual intelligent man, a scholar withal, +undertook to be himself the corrector of the other sheets. I +hope you will find them "exactly conformable to the text, _minus_ +mere Typographical blunders and the more salient American +spellings (labor for labour, &c.)." The Book is perhaps just +getting itself subscribed in these very days. It should have +been out before now: but poor Fraser is in the country, +dangerously ill, which perhaps retards it a little; and the +season, at any rate, is at the very dullest. By the first +conveyance I will send a certain Lady two copies of it. Little +danger but the Edition will sell; Fraser knows his own Trade +well enough, and is as much a "desperado" as poor Attila +Schmelzle was! Poor James, I wish he were well again; but +really at times I am very anxious about him.--The Book will sell; +will be liked and disliked. Harriet Martineau, whom I saw in +passing hitherward, writes with her accustomed enthusiasm about +it. Richard Milnes too is very warm. John Sterling scolds and +kisses it (as the manner of the man is), and concludes by +inquiring, whether there is any procurable Likeness of Emerson? +Emerson himself can answer. There ought to be. + +--Good Heavens! Here came my Wife, all in tears, pointing out to +me a poor ship, just tumbled over on a sand-bank on the +Cumberland coast; men still said to be alive on it,--a Belfast +steamer doing all it can to get in contact with it! Moments are +precious (say the people on the beach), the flood runs ten miles +an hour. Thank God, the steamer's boat is out: "eleven men," +says a person with a glass, "are saved: it is an American +timber-ship, coming up without a Pilot." And now--in ten minutes +more--there lies the melancholy mass alone among the waters, +wreck-boats all hastening towards it, like birds of prey; the +poor Canadians all up and away towards Annan. What an end for my +Letter, which nevertheless must end! Adieu, dear Emerson. +Address to Chelsea next time. I can say no more. + +Yours ever, + T.C. + + + +LXIX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 October, 1841 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I was in Boston yesterday, and found at +Munroe's your promised packet of the two London Books. They are +very handsome,--that for my wife is beautiful,--and I am not so +old or so cold but that I can feel the hope and the pleasure that +lie in this gift. It seems I am to speak in England--great +England--fortified by the good word of one whose word is fame. +Well, it is a lasting joy to be indebted to the wise and +generous; and I am well contented that my little boat should +swim, whilst it can, beside your great galleys, nor will I allow +my discontent with the great faults of the book, which the rich +English dress cannot hide, to spoil my joy in this fine little +romance of friendship and hope. I am determined--so help me all +Muses--to send you something better another day. + +But no more printing for me at present. I have just decided to +go to Boston once more, with a course of lectures, which I will +perhaps baptize "On the Times," by way of making once again the +experiment whether I cannot, not only speak the truth, but speak +it truly, or in proportion. I fancy I need more than another to +speak, with such a formidable tendency to the lapidary style. I +build my house of boulders; somebody asked me "if I built of +medals." Besides, I am always haunted with brave dreams of what +might be accomplished in the lecture-room,--so free and so +unpretending a platform,--a Delos not yet made fast. I imagine +an eloquence of infinite variety,--rich as conversation can be, +with anecdote, joke, tragedy, epics and pindarics, argument and +confession. I should love myself wonderfully better if I could +arm myself to go, as you go, with the word in the heart and not +in a paper. + +When I was in Boston I saw the booksellers, the children of +Tantalus,--no, but they who trust in them are. This time, Little +and Brown render us their credit account to T.C. $366 (I think it +was), payable in three months from 1 October. They had sold all +the London _French Revolutions_ but fifteen copies. May we all +live until 1 January. J. Munroe & Co. acknowledge about $180 due +and now rightfully payable to T.C., but, unhappily, not yet paid. +By the help of brokers, I will send that sum more or less in some +English Currency, by the next steamship, which sails in about a +fortnight, and will address it, as you last bade me, to Chelsea. + +What news, my dear friend, from your study? what designs ripened +or executed? what thoughts? what hopes? you can say nothing of +yourself that will not greatly interest us all. Harriet +Martineau, whose sicknesses may it please God to heal! wrote me a +kind, cheerful letter, and the most agreeable notice of your +health and spirit on a visit at her house. My little boy is five +years old today, and almost old enough to send you his love. + +With kindest greetings to Jane Carlyle, I am her and your friend, + + --R.W.E. + + + + +LXX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 14 November, 1841 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Above, you have a bill of exchange for forty +pounds sterling, with which sum you must credit the Munroe +account. The bill, I must not fail to notice, is drawn by a +lover of yours who expresses great satisfaction in doing us this +courtesy; and courtesy I must think it when he gives me a bill +at sight, whilst of all other merchants I have got only one +payable at some remote day. ---- is a beautiful and noble youth, +of a most subtle and magnetic nature, made for an artist, a +painter, and in his art has made admirable sketches, but his +criticism, I fancy, was too keen for his poetry (shall I say?); +he sacrificed to Despair, and threw away his pencil. For the +present, he buys and sells. I wrote you some sort of letter a +fortnight ago, promising to send a paper like this. The hour +when this should be despatched finds me by chance very busy with +little affairs. I sent you by an Italian, Signor Gambardella,*-- +who took a letter to you with good intent to persuade you to sit +to him for your portrait,--a _Dial,_ and some copies of an +oration I printed lately. If you should have any opportunity to +send one of them to Harriet Martineau, my debts to her are great, +and I wish to acknowledge her abounding kindness by a letter, as +I must. I am now in the rage of preparation for my Lectures "On +the Times;" which begin in a fortnight. There shall be eight, +but I cannot yet accurately divide the topics. If it were +eighty, I could better. In fear lest this sheet should not +safely and timely reach its man, I must now write some duplicate. + +Farewell, dear friend. + R.W. Emerson + +-------- +* Spiridione Gambardella was born at Naples. He was a refugee +from Italy, having escaped, the story was, on board an American +man-of-war. He had been educated as a public singer, but he had +a facile genius, and turned readily to painting as a means of +livelihood. He painted some excellent portraits in Boston, +between 1835 and 1840, among them one of Dr. Channing, and one of +Dr. Follen; both of these were engraved. He had some success +for a time as a portrait-painter in London. +---------- + + + + +LXXI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 19 November, 1841 + +Dear Emerson,--Since that going down of the American Timber-ship +on one of the Banks of the Solway under my window, I do not +remember that you have heard a word of me. I only added that the +men were all saved, and the beach all in agitation, certain women +not far from hysterics;--and there ended. I did design to send +you some announcement of our return hither; but fear there is no +chance that I did it! About ten days ago the Signor Gambardella +arrived, with a Note and Books from you: and here now is your +Letter of October 30th; which, arriving at a moment when I have +a little leisure, draws forth an answer almost instantly. + +The Signor Gambardella, whom we are to see a second time tonight +or tomorrow, amuses and interests us not a little. His face is +the very image of the Classic God Pan's; with horns, and cloven +feet, we feel that he would make a perfect wood-god;--really, +some of Poussin's Satyrs are almost portraits of this brave +Gambardella. I will warrant him a right glowing mass of +Southern-Italian vitality,--full of laughter, wild insight, +caricature, and every sort of energy and joyous savagery: a most +profitable element to get introduced (in moderate quantity), I +should say, into the general current of your Puritan blood over +in New England there! Gambardella has behaved with magnanimity +in that matter of the Portrait: I have already sat, to men in +the like case, some four times, and Gambardella knows it is a +dreadful weariness; I directed him, accordingly, to my last +painter, one Laurence, a man of real parts, whom I wished +Gambardella to know,--and whom I wished to know Gambardella +withal, that he might tell me whether there was any probability +of a _good_ picture by him in case one did decide on encountering +the weariness. Well: Gambardella returns with a magnanimous +report that Laurence's picture far transcends any capability of +his; that whoever in America or elsewhere will have a likeness +of the said individual must apply to Laurence, not to +Gambardella,--which latter artist heroically throws down his +brush, and says, Be it far from me! The brave Gambardella! if I +can get him this night to dilate a little farther on his Visit to +the _Community of Shakers,_ and the things he saw and felt there, +it will be a most true benefit to me. Inextinguishable laughter +seemed to me to lie in Gambardella's vision of that Phenomenon,-- +the sight and the seer, but we broke out too loud all at once, +and he was afraid to continue.--Alas! there is almost no laughter +going in the world at present. True laughter is as rare as any +other truth,--the sham of it frequent and detestable, like all +other shams. I know nothing wholesomer; but it is rarer even +than Christmas, which comes but once a year, and does always +come once. + +Your satisfactions and reflections at sight of your English Book +are such as I too am very thankful for. I understand them well. +May worse guest never visit the Drawing-room at Concord than that +bound Book. Tell the good Wife to rejoice in it: she has all +the pleasure;--to her poor Husband it will be increase of pain +withal: nay, let us call it increase of valiant labor and +endeavor; no evil for a man, if he be fit for it! A man must +learn to digest praise too, and not be poisoned with it: some of +it _is_ wholesome to the system under certain circumstances; the +most of it a healthy system will learn by and by to throw into +the slop-basin, harmlessly, without any _trial_ to digest it. A +thinker, I take it, in the long run finds that essentially he +must ever be and continue _alone;--alone:_ "silent, rest over +him the stars, and under him the graves"! The clatter of the +world, be it a friendly, be it a hostile world, shall not +intermeddle with him much. The Book of _Essays,_ however, does +decidedly "speak to England," in its way, in these months; and +even makes what one may call a kind of appropriate "sensation" +here. Reviews of it are many, in all notes of the gamut;--of +small value mostly; as you might see by the two Newspaper +specimens I sent you. (Did you get those two Newspapers?) The +worst enemy admits that there are piercing radiances of perverse +insight in it; the highest friends, some few, go to a very high +point indeed. Newspapers are busy with extracts;--much +complaining that it is "abstruse," neological, hard to get the +meaning of. All which is very proper. Still better,--though +poor Fraser, alas, is dead, (poor Fraser!), and no help could +come from industries of the Bookshop, and Books indeed it seems +were never selling worse than of late months,--I learn that the +"sale of the Essays goes very steadily forward," and will wind +itself handsomely up in due time, we may believe! So Emerson +henceforth has a real Public in Old England as well as New. And +finally, my Friend, do _not_ disturb yourself about turning +better, &c., &c.; write as it is given you, and not till it be +given you, and never mind it a whit. + +The new _Adelphi_ piece seems to me, as a piece of Composition, +the best _written_ of them all. People cry over it: "Whitherward? +What, What?" In fact, I do again desiderate some _concretion_ of +these beautiful _abstracta._ It seems to me they will never be +_right_ otherwise; that otherwise they are but as prophecies yet, +not fulfilments. + +The Dial too, it is all spirit-like, aeriform, aurora-borealis +like. Will no _Angel_ body himself out of that; no stalwart +Yankee _man,_ with color in the cheeks of him, and a coat on his +back! These things I _say:_ and yet, very true, you alone can +decide what practical meaning is in them. Write you always _as_ +it is given you,_ be it in the solid, in the aeriform, or +whatsoever way. There is no other rule given among men.--I have +sent the criticism on Landor* to an Editorial Friend of L.'s, by +whom I expect it will be put into the Newspapers here, for the +benefit of Walter Savage; he is not often so well praised among +us, and deserves a little good praise. + +-------- +* From the Dial for October, 1841. +-------- + +You propose again to send me Moneys,--surprising man! I am glad +also to hear that that beggarly misprinted _French Revolution_ is +nearly out among you. I only hope farther your Booksellers will +have an eye on that rascal Appleton, and not let _him_ reprint +and deface, if more copies of the Book turn out to be wanted. +Adieu, dear Emerson! Good speed to you at Boston, and in all +true things. I hope to write soon again. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXXII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 6 December, 1841 + +Dear Emerson,--Though I wrote to you very lately, and am in great +haste today, I must lose no time in announcing that the Letter +with the L40 draught came to hand some mornings ago; and now, +this same morning, a second Letter round by Dumfriesshire, which +had been sent as a duplicate, or substitute in case of accident, +for the former. It is all right, my friend ----'s paper has got +itself changed into forty gold sovereigns, and lies here waiting +use; thanks, many thanks! Sums of that kind come always upon me +like manna out of the sky; surely they, more emphatically than +any others, are the gift of Heaven. Let us receive, use, and be +thankful. I am not so poor now at all; Heaven be praised: +indeed, I do not know, now and then when I reflect on it, whether +being rich were not a considerably harder problem. With the +wealth of Rothschild what farther good thing could one get,--if +not perhaps some but to live in, under free skies, in the +country, with a horse to ride and have a little less pain on? +_Angulus ille ridet!_--I will add, for practical purposes in the +future, that it is in general of little or no moment whether an +American Bill be at sight or after a great many days; that the +paper can wait as conveniently here as the cash can,--if your New +England House and Baring of Old England will forbear bankruptcy +in the mean while. By the bye, will you tell me some time or +other in _what_ American funds it is that your funded money, you +once gave me note of, now lies? I too am creditor to America,-- +State of Illinois or some such State: one thousand dollars of +mine, which some years ago I had no use for, now lies there, +paying I suppose for canals, in a very obstructed condition! My +Brother here is continually telling me that I shall lose it all, +--which is not so bad; but lose it all by my own unreason,--which +is very bad. It struck me I would ask where Emerson's money +lies, and lay mine there too, let it live or perish as it likes! + +Your _Adelphi_ went straightway off to Miss Martineau with a +message. Richard Milnes has another; John Sterling is to have a +third,--had certain other parties seen it first. For the man +Emerson is become a person to be _seen_ in these times. I also +gave a _Morning-Chronicle_ Editor your brave eulogy on Landor, +with instructions that it were well worth publishing there, for +Landor's and others' sake. Landor deserves more praise than he +gets at present; the world too, what is far more, should hear of +him oftener than it does. A brave man after his kind,--though +considerably "flamed on from the Hell beneath." He speaks +notable things; and at lowest and worst has the faculty too of +holding his peace. + +The "Lectures on the Times" are even now in progress? Good speed +to the Speaker, to the Speech. Your Country is luckier than most +at this time; it has still real Preaching; the tongue of man is +not, whensoever it begins wagging, entirely sure to emit +babblement, twaddlement, sincere--cant, and other noises which +awaken the passionate wish for silence! That must alter +everywhere the human tongue is no wooden watchman's-rattle or +other _obsolete_ implement; it continues forever new and useful, +nay indispensable. + +As for me and my doings--_Ay de mi!_* + +------- +* The signature has been cut off. +------- + + + + +LXXIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +New York, 28 February, 1842 + +My Dear Friend,--I enclose a bill of exchange for forty-eight +pounds sterling, payable by Baring Brothers & Co. after sixty +days from the 25th of February. + +This Sum is part of a payment from Little and Brown on account of +sales of your London _French Revolution and of Chartism._ As +another part of their payment they asked me if they might not +draw on the estate of James Fraser for a balance due from his +house to them, and pay you so. I, perhaps unwisely, consented to +make the proffer to you, with the distinct stipulation, however, +that if it should not prove perfectly agreeable to you, and +exactly as available as another form of money, you should +instantly return it to me, and they shall pay me the amount, +$41.57, or L8 12s. 5d. in cash. My mercantile friend, Abel +Adams, did not admire my wisdom in accepting this bill of Little +and Brown; so I told them I should probably bring it back to +them, and if there is a shadow of inconvenience in it you will +send it back to me by the next steamer. For they have no claims +on us. I decide not to enclose the Little and Brown bill in this +sheet,--but to let it accompany this letter in the same packet. + +I grieve to hear that you have bought any of our wretched +Southern Stocks. In New England all Southern and Southwestern +debt is usually regarded as hopeless, unless the debtor is +personally known. Massachusetts stock is in the best credit of +any public stock. Ward told me that it would be safest for you +to keep your Illinois stock, although he could say nothing very +good of it. + +Our city banks in Boston are in better credit than the banks in +any other city here, yet one in which a large part of my own +property is invested has failed, for the two last half-years, to +pay any dividend, and I am a poor man until next April, when, I +hope, it will not fail me again. If you wish to invest money +here, my friend Abel Adams, who is the principal partner in one +of our best houses, Barnard, Adams, & Co., will know how to give +you the best assistance and action the case admits. + + +My dear friend, you should have had this letter and these +messages by the last steamer; but when it sailed, my son, a +perfect little boy of five years and three months, had ended his +earthly life.* You can never sympathize with me; you can never +know how much of me such a young child can take away. A few +weeks ago I accounted myself a very rich man, and now the poorest +of all. What would it avail to tell you anecdotes of a sweet and +wonderful boy, such as we solace and sadden ourselves with at +home every morning and evening? From a perfect health and as +happy a life and as happy influences as ever child enjoyed, he +was hurried out of my arms in three short days by Scarlatina.--We +have two babes yet,--one girl of three years, and one girl of +three months and a week, but a promise like that Boy's I shall +never see. How often I have pleased myself that one day I should +send to you this Morning Star of mine, and stay at home so gladly +behind such a representative. I dare not fathom the Invisible +and Untold to inquire what relations to my Departed ones I yet +sustain. Lidian, the poor Lidian, moans at home by day and by +night. You too will grieve for us, afar. I believe I have two +letters from you since I wrote last. I shall write again soon, +for Bronson Alcott will probably go to London in about a month, +and him I shall surely send to you, hoping to atone by his great +nature for many smaller one, that have craved to see you. Give +me early advice of receiving these Bills of Exchange. + +--------- +* The memory of this Boy, "born for the future, to the future +lost;" is enshrined in the heart of every lover of childhood and +of poetry by his father's impassioned _Threnody._ +----------- + +Tell Jane Carlyle our sorrowing story with much love, and with +all good hope for her health and happiness. Tell us when you +write, with as much particularity as you can, how it stands with +you, and all your household; with the Doctor, and the friends; +what you do, and propose to do, and whether you will yet come to +America, one good day? + +Yours with love, + R. Waldo Emerson + + + + +LXXIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Templand, Thornhill, Dumfries, Scotland +28 March, 1842 + +My Dear Friend,--This is heavy news that you send me; the +heaviest outward bereavement that can befall a man has overtaken +you. Your calm tone of deep, quiet sorrow, coming in on the rear +of poor trivial worldly businesses, all punctually despatched and +recorded too, as if the Higher and Highest had not been busy with +you, tells me a sad tale. What can we say in these cases? There +is nothing to be said,--nothing but what the wild son of Ishmael, +and every thinking heart, from of old have learned to say: God +is great! He is terrible and stern; but we know also He is +good. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." Your bright +little Boy, chief of your possessions here below, is rapt away +from you; but of very truth he is with God, even as we that yet +live are,--and surely in the way that was best for him, and for +you, and for all of us.--Poor Lidian Emerson, poor Mother! To +her I have no word. Such poignant unspeakable grief, I believe, +visits no creature as that of a Mother bereft of her child. The +poor sparrow in the bush affects one with pity, mourning for its +young; how much more the human soul of one's Friend! I cannot +bid her be of comfort; for there is as yet no comfort. May good +Influences watch over her, bring her some assuagement. As the +Hebrew David said, "We shall go to him, he will not return +to us." + +I also am here in a house rendered vacant and sacred by Death. A +sore calamity has fallen on us, or rather has fallen on my poor +Wife (for what am I but like a spectator in comparison?): she +has lost unexpectedly her good Mother, her sole surviving Parent, +and almost only relative of much value that was left to her. The +manner too was almost tragic. We had heard of illness here, but +only of commonplace illness, and had no alarm. The Doctor +himself, specially applied to, made answer as if there was no +danger: his poor Patient, in whose character the like of that +intimately lay, had rigorously charged him to do so: her poor +Daughter was far off, confined to her room by illness of her own; +why alarm her, make her wretched? The danger itself did seem +over; the Doctor accordingly obeyed. Our first intimation of +alarm was despatched on the very day which proved the final one. +My poor Wife, casting sickness behind her, got instantly ready, +set off by the first railway train: traveling all night, on the +morrow morning at her Uncle's door in Liverpool she is met by +tidings that all is already ended. She broke down there; she +is now home again at Chelsea, a cheery, amiable younger Jane +Welsh to nurse her: the tone of her Letters is still full of +disconsolateness. I had to proceed hither, and have to stay here +till this establishment can be abolished, and all the sad wrecks +of it in some seemly manner swept away. It is above three weeks +that I have been here; not till eight days ago could I so much +as manage to command solitude, to be left altogether alone. I +lead a strange life; full of sadness, of solemnity, not without +a kind of blessedness. I say it is right and fitting that one be +left entirely alone now and then, alone with one's own griefs and +sins, with the mysterious ancient Earth round one, the +everlasting Heaven over one, and what one can make of these. +Poor rustic businesses, subletting of Farms, disposal of houses, +household goods: these strangely intervene, like matter upon +spirit, every day;--wholesome this too perhaps. It is many years +since I have stood so in close contact face to face with the +reality of Earth, with its haggard ugliness, its divine beauty, +its depths of Death and of Life. Yesterday, one of, the stillest +Sundays, I sat long by the side of the swift river Nith; sauntered +among woods all vocal only with rooks and pairing birds.* The +hills are often white with snow-powder, black brief spring-tempests +rush fiercely down from them, and then again the sky looks forth +with a pale pure brightness,--like Eternity from behind Time. +The _Sky,_ when one thinks of it, is _always_ blue, pure changeless +azure; rains and tempests are only for the little dwellings where +men abide. Let us think of this too. Think of this, thou +sorrowing Mother! Thy Boy has escaped many showers. + +--------- +* "Templand has a very fine situation; old Walter's walk, at the +south end of the house, was one of the most picturesque and +pretty to be found in the world. Nith valley (river half a mile +off, winding through green holms, now in its border of clean +shingle, now lost in pleasant woods and rushes) lay patent to the +South. "Carlyle's Reminiscences," Vol. II. p. 137. +--------- + +In some three weeks I shall probably be back at Chelsea. Write +thitherward so soon as you have opportunity; I will write again +before long, even if I do not hear from you. The moneys, &c. are +all safe here as you describe: if Fraser's' Executors make any +demur, your Bookseller shall soon hear of it. + +I had begun to write some Book on Cromwell: I have often begun, +but know not how to set about it; the most unutterable of all +subjects I ever felt much meaning to lie in. There is risk yet +that, with the loss of still farther labor, I may have to abandon +it;--and then the great dumb Oliver may lie unspoken forever; +gathered to the mighty _Silent_ of the Earth; for, I think, +there will hardly ever live another man that will believe in him +and his Puritanism as I do. To _him_ small matter. + +Adieu, my good kind Friend, ever dear to me, dearer now in +sorrow. My Wife when she hears of your affliction will send a +true thought over to you also. The poor Lidian!--John Sterling +is driven off again, setting out I think this very day for +Gibraltar, Malta, and Naples. Farewell, and better days to us. + +Your affectionate + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 81 March, 1842 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I wrote you a letter from my brother's office +in New York nearly a month ago to tell you how hardly it had +fared with me here at home, that the eye of my home was plucked +out when that little innocent boy departed in his beauty and +perfection from my sight. Well, I have come back hither to my +work and my play, but he comes not back, and I must simply suffer +it. Doubtless the day will come which will resolve this, as +everything gets resolved, into light, but not yet. + +I write now to tell you of a piece of life. I wish you to know +that there is shortly coming to you a man by the name of Bronson +Alcott. If you have heard his name before, forget what you have +heard. Especially if you have ever read anything to which this +name was attached, be sure to forget that; and, inasmuch as in +you lies, permit this stranger when he arrives at your gate to +make a new and primary impression. I do not wish to bespeak any +courtesies or good or bad opinion concerning him. You may love +him, or hate him, or apathetically pass by him, as your genius +shall dictate; only I entreat this, that you do not let him go +quite out of your reach until you are sure you have seen him +and know for certain the nature of the man. And so I leave +contentedly my pilgrim to his fate. + +I should tell you that my friend Margaret Fuller, who has edited +our little _Dial_ with such dubious approbation on the part of +you and other men, has suddenly decided a few days ago that she +will edit it no more. The second volume was just closing; shall +it live for a third year? You should know that, if its interior +and spiritual life has been ill fed, its outward and bibliopolic +existence has been worse managed. Its publishers failed, its +short list of subscribers became shorter, and it has never paid +its laborious editor, who has been very generous of her time and +labor, the smallest remuneration. Unhappily, to me alone could +the question be put whether the little aspiring starveling should +be reprieved for another year. I had not the cruelty to kill it, +and so must answer with my own proper care and nursing for its +new life. Perhaps it is a great folly in me who have little +adroitness in turning off work to assume this sure vexation, but +the _Dial_ has certain charms to me as an opportunity, which I +grudge to destroy. Lately at New York I found it to be to a +certain class of men and women, though few, an object of +tenderness and religion. You cannot believe it? + +Mr. Lee,* who brings you this letter, is the son of one of the +best men in Massachusetts, a man whose name is a proverb among +merchants for his probity, for his sense and his information. +The son, who bears his father's name, is a favorite among all the +young people for his sense and spirit, and has lived always with +good people. + +--------- +* Mr. Henry Lee. +-------- + +I have read at New York six out of eight lectures on the Times +which I read this winter in Boston. I found a very intelligent +and friendly audience. The penny papers reported my lectures, +somewhat to my chagrin when I tried to read them; many persons +came and talked with me, and I felt when I came away that New +York is open to me henceforward whenever my Boston parish is not +large enough. This summer, I must try to set in order a few more +chapters from these rambling lectures, one on "The Poet" and one +on "Character" at least. And now will you not tell me what you +read and write? Is it Cromwell still? For I supposed from the +_Westminster_ piece that the laborer must be in that quarter. + +I send herewith a new _Dial,_ No. 8, and the last of this +dispensation. I hope you have received every number. They have +been sent in order. I have written no line in this Number. I +send a letter for Sterling, as I do not know whether his address +is still at Falmouth. Is he now a preacher? By the "Acadia" you +should have received a letter of exchange on the Barings, and +another on James Fraser's estate. + +With constant good hope for yourself and for your wife, I am +your friend, + + --R.W. Emerson + + +End of Vol. I. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle +and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol. I, +by Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CARLYLE AND EMERSON, VOL. I *** + +***** This file should be named 13583.txt or 13583.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/5/8/13583/ + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. 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